I’ve had a mysterious event happen in my life that I just don’t understand. It happened almost a half century ago (around 1977) and even though I’ve thought about it often, I have yet to comprehend its meaning or accurately understand how it could have happened.
Although my story is true, it really isn’t any deep dark secret, it just never occurred to me to start a discussion about something that I had little knowledge about. You know, the kind of thing that doesn’t answer any thing, but seems only to raise many more unanswerable questions. Since I could not argue or debate or discuss something I didn’t know, I just kept it to myself.
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Anyway, I’d never told anyone of this account until just recently when I brought up the event to Mary. I guess I just wanted to share the event with my wife, because at the age of 82, my ‘use-by date’ has almost expired.
Never have I ever desired or contemplated using this unique situation for publicity or profit. But since I’ve almost run out of time, I guess I just wanted to share this mystery with my wife before I died, and now I’m going to share it with you too. But first, I need to present some background details.
A Little Background First
The following all happened before meeting Mary and getting married. I was about 33 years of age and lived in a suburban area of New Orleans, Louisiana, across Lake Pontchartrain in a small town called Slidell. My secular occupation at the time was driving a refrigerated truck to deliver wholesale dairy products to grocery stores, restaurants, and schools. I had no worker-helper like many delivery drivers had; I always worked alone. My daily sales route began at 5:00 a.m. in Pearl River, about fifteen miles north from Slidell, and proceeded weaving through various streets, highways, and towns on my way to the city of Covington.
Covington is where the seat of government is located in the west-central area of St. Tammany Parish. By the time I arrived there in mid-afternoon, my truck was almost empty and I then unloaded my empty crates and reloaded with fresh products at a dairy connection depot, so I would be fully stocked-up for my route the next day.
After leaving Covington I always headed straight back to Pearl River. The fastest and shortest way to return to Pearl River was using ‘LA Hwy 36′, a little-used portion of an old state highway that passes through the community of Abita Springs on the way to Pearl River. The driving distance between those cities is about 24 miles by taking that road.
And after leaving Abita Springs, it was an isolated drive — two lanes, one in each direction — which transversed through dense forested land with no houses or businesses, and had only two minor cross roads along the way. It was a lonely trip since there wasn’t much traffic, and for 30 minutes or more, you might not even see another vehicle on the road. I have no idea of what that area looks like today, but when I drove the truck a half century ago, that is what it was like. In Pearl River I would park the truck and plug-in the refrigeration unit to recharge overnight. I would then return home to Slidell until the next morning when everything started all over again. I generally had an eleven or twelve-hour work day.
The Odd Circumstance
My mysterious event occurred one day on my drive back to Pearl River from Covington along LA Hwy 36. On that particular day, I left Covington about 4:00 p.m. It was in late June or early July, when sunlight lasted well into the evening. During that time of year, I always arrived back to park the truck during daylight hours. Even on days when I had been delayed somewhere on the route, I was always able to park the truck and drive my car back home in the daylight.
So imagine, if you will, that I am driving down the highway on a sunny afternoon, having made it only halfway to my final destination in Pearl River, when all of a sudden — like with just a snap of the fingers — the day turned into night time. One minute I’m driving down the lonely road in full daylight and the next moment, I’m driving at night as I approached the first business along the highway in Pearl River. The bright electric lights of a gas station-convenience store seemed overly bright against the pitch-black night sky surrounding the building. A check of the time on my wrist watch indicated I had somehow lost – or jumped ahead — about two hours in time.
There was immediate confusion! I was much further along the road than I should have been, and the time was much later than possible for this normal half-hour drive. It made no sense. Somewhere within that lost time I had unknowingly turned on my headlights, because I never drove with them on in the daylight. I could not fathom how all this would be possible.
But I just continued on, as per habit, and parked, plugged-in the truck, and then drove home in my car. I never brought this situation up to friends or neighbors, for I had no explanation and knew they wouldn’t have any either. But that alarming mental image of ‘instant nighttime’ has never left me. Over the years, this experience did pique my interest in news stories and books of other people reporting missing time sensations.
My Thoughts
I’m open to considering various reasons for the missing time, like maybe some internal psychological event, but I couldn’t have just been unconscious for a couple of hours, because I was driving a vehicle immediately before and after the missing time. I think the time missed would have had to be related to some time-connecting activity.
Or maybe it was some external event. Besides possibly being an ultra-rare ‘glitch in the matrix’, it could have been some type of outside interference in my activity which someone or something felt was a necessity to control me, and that would have been a violation of my free-will. I was confused, although not frightened, despite the fact that I have always thought it was a disruptive experience — a violation of sorts — but not a painful one. I guess what makes this phenomenon exceptionally compelling is the disconnect from reality. It’s one thing to feel like time slipped away, but quite another when it is realized that it actually did.1
There weren’t very many published reports about such things fifty years ago. The world wide web was a technology still in the future and newspapers, magazines, and a few books were mostly the only references available for this kind of research. But I soon learned that missing time was usually key to most supernatural abduction phenomenons.
Probably the first such widely reported event was that of Betty and Barney Hill, who claimed they were abducted by extraterrestrial beings in late 1961. This New Hampshire couple stated they experienced missing time and were unable to account for a two-hour period when driving on a secluded highway. It was only by a technique called regressive therapy2 that their memories were unlocked.3
Another well-known abduction event, a bit closer to the time of my experience, was that of Calvin Parker and Charles Hickson on a fishing trip in October of 1973.4 That case happened four years earlier than mine during a cluster of UFO reports in the southern U.S., particularly the states of Louisiana and Mississippi. And by coincidence, it took place in Pascagoula, Mississippi, which is about 70 miles directly east of Pearl River, Louisiana. Their accounts indicate they experienced a missing span of about 30 minutes when abducted by three humanoid beings. Many details were brought out by using hypnosis.
I would imagine most people would ask me, “Why don’t you try regressive therapy or hypnosis for answers?” Well, my answer would be that if someone was a Christian, they would think no benevolent entity associated with God’s spirit would do anything to them without first receiving their agreement. I know that if someone took my-free will away to control me along a lonely highway, I’m not going to let someone else do the same to get me some answers that may not even be the truth. I don’t want to willingly give control of my mind over to anyone or anything unless I knew they were on God’s side. To me that would be like playing with a Ouija Board. And also, I have specific Christian reasons to deny psychotherapy if at all possible; I believe demonic forces are at work against God’s spirit and will take any opportunity to remove someone’s self-control.
For many people, if I don’t have more information to share, this story is of no use or interest to them. I’m fine with that. Am I crazy? If you answer, “yes,” than you are probably in good company, as I’ve been told that by others in the past, concerning many subjects. But, for me? No, I don’t think I’m crazy. After fifty years, I have the same opinion as when the event first happened; I’ve neither added nor subtracted any information from this story.
But I have been noticing an increase in such reports from many places around the world, accounts of people wanting to share their experiences of missing time, and encounters with non-human creatures, and even repeated abductions.
I think the truth of such things as intelligent non-human visitors or residents, the true history of our species, and previous deceptions and secrets concerning this planet are on the increase. Jesus said, “For nothing is hidden that will not be disclosed, nor is anything secret that will not become known and come to light,” (Luke 8:17).5 Jesus will not establish a new earth (or heaven) while evil and dishonesty still influence our global citizens. So, perhaps, the truth of all such things is close at hand.
PS: Photos were chosen as representative only and are not accurate to facts. At this late date, it is not possible for me to obtain actual photographs of my event some 50 years ago, or from another part of the United States where I then lived. I searched “public domain” and “fair use” sources to find photos either close to my recollection, or characteristic of my descriptions.
Dr. Ray Hermann
OutlawBibleStudent.org
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References & Notes
- “UFO Abduction: Missing Time”, (Unsolved Mysteries, retrieved 15 August 2025), https://unsolved.com/gallery/ufo-abduction-missing-time/
- Regression therapy: an intervention, usually through hyponosis, that focuses on uncovering subconscious memories, or traumas, from your past.
Matejko, Sonya, “What Is Regression Therapy?” (PsychCentral, 25 January 2022), https://psychcentral.com/health/regression-therapy - Gardner, Wayne J., “Alien Encounters: Investigating the Phenomenon of Missing Time”, (Medium, 30 March 2023), https://medium.com/@gardner.wayne/alien-encounters-investigating-the-phenomenon-of-missing-time-3a4a619f5e6
- Ibid.
- The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version, (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1989).
