On October 11th, 1973 nineteen year old Calvin Parker and his friend forty two year old Charles Hickson were spending a frustrating evening fishing on the Pascagoula River in Mississippi. Both men loved to fish but tonight’s fishing trip would turn out to be one they would never forget. In the early evening both men were startled when a strange craft descended and hovered a few feet above the ground and just a few yards from their location. Before they had any chance to run an opening appeared in this craft and out ‘floated’ three humanoid creatures. Both men were absolutely terrified when these creatures grabbed them and took them aboard the craft. On the craft both men were subjected to an examination and at one point they were so terrified as they believed they were about to die. Minutes later both Calvin Parker and Charles Hickson were deposited back on the riverbank and the craft departed. Taking off in their car the two terrified witnesses eventually located a public telephone box and phoned the local sheriff. A short time later they were being interviewed at their local sheriff’s office. These two disorientated witnesses told their story of their close encounter and abduction by these strange creatures. The next day all hell was let loose as the press descended on this unsuspecting Mississippi town. Calvin Parker, seriously disturbed by these events, has largely remained in the background without ever detailing the full account of what happened that night, how it affected him and his life, and other close encounters he has experienced down the years. Now, for the first time, Calvin Parker tells his story in full. This book, Pascagoula – The Closest Encounter, tells the story of one of the classic close encounters currently on record. This book features for the first time the full transcript of Calvin Parker’s hypnotic regression session with the late Budd Hopkins, one of the world’s foremost researchers of this phenomena. The manuscript is also packed full of documents, newspaper cuttings and photographs old and new.
I have been fascinated by and curious about the Pascagoula UFO case of 1973 since I first heard about it. For the past 45 years the public has only had half the story... that is until now. Mr Parker has finally felt comfortable with and is willing to share his side of the story. He does a good job of sharing not only his abduction memories, but gives the reader some background information and hindsight to help fully understand his experience. The book does contain some lengthy passages that come directly from other published sources. Readers familiar with the story might find themselves skimming through these sections like I did. That being said, there was more than enough new material to hold my interest. The book also contains an impressive archive of old newspaper reports, photographs, and related material. Parker's book is not only a great companion piece to Hickson's previously published book (also recently re-released by Flying Disk Press) but it is strong enough to stand on it's own. I really enjoyed it!
If you are into UFOs and abductions, this is a case you'll want to know about. The story is compelling but the writing is not very exciting. There is little in terms of a woven story and in the audio version I listened to, it seemed to repeat itself. Presented in a "just the facts" style, it is worth the time to hear this experience directly from the experiencer himself.
It was good to read Calvin’s story in his own words. It is one of the most interesting UFO cases I’ve read. This event turned the lives of these men upside down, to paraphrase Dr. John Mack; if this event did not happen, what did.
This is a fascinating story of what happened to two men many years ago. It's very believable, because of the fact that there were two of them and they reported it right away. There are other people who saw things around that area at the same time. I've been waiting a long time to hear Calvin's side of the story. It reads just like he's talking to you, and he's my kind of person. Very straightforward, no pretentiousness, and he doesn't claim to know or understand it, even though it happened to him. I'm really glad he wrote the book. Very interesting and very easy to read as well. It makes me have more questions about his experiences.
A very interesting and realistic first person account of two friends and workmates went fishing only to experience something that many of us have never thought of or imagined experiencing. Initially when I read this book or listened to it on audible I was skeptical but after listening it is definitely very believable, especially once you hear all the eyewitness reports from the source and many others at that time.
First hand account of an abduction, no hypnosis needed.
Look, this book is simply the story of 2 men who were abducted, simply written by one of the men involved. While not well written, the book is a straightforward account of the ordeal and its aftermath. Mr. Parker shows a great amount of courage and heart telling the story himself. Bravo Mr Parker and thank you for sharing your story.
Half of the book are images of newspapers, magazines and other, reporting the event by the time it happened. But the event itself (the first half) is not deeply explored, much likely because there was not further investigations other than the basics. Yet, the event sounds believable.
While the encounter is very interesting, Mr. Calvin Parker does not have a very good sense of storytelling. He is clearly very adamant and honest on what he saw. But, the story was repetitive and terrible grammar.