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off the past? Despite all the movie and soap opera plots that have revolved around amnesia, a simple blow on the head rarely induces the condition. The traditional medical explanation is that an overwhelming emotional trauma is the cause of most amnesia. A man murders his wife in a fit of rage, and then his mind wipes out his entire memory. A child sees his dog run over by a car and erases the painful memory by blotting out that entire period of his childhood. Skilled psy- chiatrists can Spot this form of amnesia and cope with it. But most o£ the amnesia cases induced by paranormal happenings, such as encounters with fairies or flying saucers, are not so easily diagnosed and dealt with. The nature of the trauma is never fully determined. Every July there is a sudden rash of new amnesia cases in the national press, coincidence with the traditional July peak of UFO sightings. Thousands of people who have been exposed to psychic phenomena and UFO manifestations have suffered lacunar amnesia; that is, they find they are unable to remember a short period of time before, during, or after their experiences. Others appear suddenly in different parts of the world, sometimes knowing who they are but baffled that they are suddenly so far from home. A Londoner suddenly finds himself in South Africa. A girl from Cleveland awakes to discover she is in Australia. An unemployed Swedish milkman suddenly finds himself on a golf course on a remote island resort for the very rich. A woman in Allentown, Pennsylvania, soberly related this strange story; she said she and her husband maintained a small summer cottage in the Pocono mountains, a mere thirty-minute drive from their home. One Saturday morning in July 1966, the young couple got into their car and started out for the cottage. As they drove along the Pennsylvania Turnpike, which seemed strangely devoid of traffic that day, they saw a large circular object in the sky ahead of them. It looked as if it was going to land directly on the turnpike, she said. Her husband, mildly alarmed, pulled over to the edge of the road and stopped. They watched as the object, a shiny metallic thing with large black spots or windows, flew very low over their car. Then it was suddenly gone. Her husband started the car again, and they drove on to their cottage. It was not until after,they arrived at their destination that they looked at their watches. It was 1.30 pjn. They had started out at 9.30 ajn. For some reason which neither of them could understand, it took them four hours to make a drive that normally took thirty minutes! On a warm night early in August 1966, a Philadelphia policeman named Chester Archey, Jr., set out on a routine patrol in North Philadelphia. He drove instead through that door into the unknown. Archey, a veteran of fifteen years on the force, suddenly found himself in Pennsauken, New Jersey, where he became involved in a minor accident as he drove around in confusion. 'T don't have an idea how I got there," Archey protested at a police hearing later. "I don't even know 1 n 1 coun In occult and UFO lore there are hundreds of reports of this phenomenon. It also seems to work in reverse. Witnesses claim that they drove or even walked incredible distances - sometimes hun- dreds of miles - in incredibly short periods of time. It is as if they crossed over into another dimension where time and space have a different relationship. Who 01 what had met him on that Massachusetts highway that night and caused Ms mind to shut where Pennsauken is!"