Dr. Benjamin Simon (ca. 1900‑1990) was a Boston‑based psychiatrist and former chief of neuropsychiatry at Mason General Hospital, renowned for his therapeutic use of hypnosis. He gained prominence in UFO history as the psychiatrist who conducted hypnotic regression sessions with Betty and Barney Hill following their alleged abduction in September 1961.

Simon’s sessions, recorded on audiotape, revealed detailed narratives of an encounter with non‑human entities and became foundational to the modern alien‑abduction phenomenon. Although Simon remained skeptical of an extraterrestrial interpretation, he concluded that the Hills genuinely believed their recollections and were not fabricating the story. His work provided one of the first documented cases of hypnotically retrieved “missing time” and set a precedent for subsequent abduction investigations.