CF: You are widely regarded as one of the leading experts in the field of UFO and “alien-abduction” research. How did you get started in your study of these things?
KT: Our family knew nothing about the phenomenon when we started having UFO sightings and abduction encounters. Being a researcher, I turned to the UFO literature for an explanation. When I absorbed what was available, I found no answers that I felt were trustworthy. I decided that this was a crucial situation for my family (if not globally), and the only way I could get answers was to do the research myself. The only way to do the research, in this case, was to go out into the field and deal with abduction cases.
CF: Was “Into the Fringe” the first result of that? [Karla’s first book]
KT: Actually, “Into the Fringe” was not a result of research to gain answers. It is more of an account of my family’s awakening to, and coping with, these experiences during the first year and a half, when they were very intense. It was not until after that that I started to branch out and work with other people. I worked with Barbara Bartholic on our case and began working with her on other cases. Many times she would come to Texas (where I lived) and we would set up a four- or five-day work session, during which people in that area who wanted to work with her would come to my home. She would interview them and place them under regressive hypnosis there. I began to learn by acting as her assistant. (If Ph.D.’s were available in this field, Barbara should certainly have a zone. Working with her proved to be much more educational than my academic career.) Then Barbara’s caseload got so heavy that she was no longer able to handle it. It was no longer enough for me to assist, and I had to being doing preliminary investigative work myself. And that was how my involvement developed.
CF: We have been finding, in a lot of cases, that experiencers’ parents, sometimes their great-grandparents have had the same types of encounters that they have. Is that what you found in your family?
KT: Yes, it is definitely “transgenerational” in Elton’s family. [Elton, Dr. Turner’s husband, was given the pseudonym “Casey” in ‘Into the Fringe’ and ‘Taken’. They no longer feel it is necessary to protect his identity.] Before Elton’s grandmother died, in 1990 or 1991, the family knew she was near the end of her time here, so they asked her to tell some of the old stories, and videotaped her response for posterity. One of the stories she recounted seems to be a clear account of an abduction that occurred when she was a child. It took place between 1905 and 1908 in East Texas.
It had a lot of the earmarks of the classic abduction–screen memories, missing time, a miraculous return from a place she should not have been and should not have been able to get out of etc. There is no doubt that both his mother and father have had sightings, abduction encounters and other unusual experiences peripherally associated with the phenomenon. Elton is involved, and at least one of his children was involved as a child. I don’t know about my real father because he was killed in Korea when I was four years old, but I believe that his brother, who is 80 now, may have had experiences. My son and I have each have had experiences.
My brother and sister-in-law and their children have had experiences–which we did not know about until “Into The Fringe” was about to be published. They were so upset by those experiences (and by other things going on in their lives) that they removed themselves from the family for about ten years. Only when they heard about my experiences did they et back in contact and say; “Okay, now we can talk.” And a cousin of mine–whom I was closest to, both geographically and emotionally–has obviously had some kind of experiences. She was been compelled to write a fictional account of the alien situation. She is working on it now.
My mother refuses to say anything because it is just too frightening to her. She has not yet even finished reading “Into the Fringe“. Each time she reads a page or two, she becomes so upset that she can’t go any further–which tells me that there is probably a reason for her feelings. I remember that, in 1965, when I was a senior in high school, a big flap was making national news. It was one of the few times that I had ever paid attention to the UFO thing.
One day, Mother and I were listening to the TV while doing something in the kitchen. Walter Cronkite was talking about the UFO flap, and I told Mother that if a UFO landed in the backyard, I probably would go get on it. My mother, who is extremely gentle, and who never raised her voice or hit me, stopped what she was doing, grabbed me by both shoulders and shook me until I felt as if my teeth would fall out. All the while, she was saying, forcefully, “You swear to me, you will not ever, ever, ever get near one! Don’t you dare even say that!” It was the only outburst I have ever known my mother to have in my entire life. I now know–from research–that extreme responses like that to this phenomenon are often indicators that a person has had experiences.
CF: You mentioned the use of hypnosis, which has been the subject of a lot of controversey. Some of the other researchers have said that people under hypnosis can come up with scenarios that did not happen, in order to please the hypnotist. Some have said that the multiple levels of experience–where one can break through screen memories and ferret out buried memories that are different–are artifacts of the process of hypnosis. What are your opinions about these issues?