It's really amazing how many of us keep things from our childhood a "secret". Some things are, of course, too painful to tell anyone. But others are just plain weird. So we never discuss them with adults because we know we will be ridiculed, or told, "It's in your imagination." After many years we tend to believe that they are not real and maybe we really did just imagine that they happened.

For John Velez such childhood memories were about glowing orbs, "spheres of light" and radiant shafts that he remembers seeing in his bedroom as young boy. These memories might have remained insignificant -- but something quite traumatic happened to him in 1987. Then he knew they were real.

We usually think that alien abductions only take place in remote areas, hidden from view and far from densely populated areas. But what happened to Velez on an August night took place on 62nd Street in the heart of Brooklyn, New York!

Velez had dinner with some friends and was walking home alone. He was about 8 city blocks from his residence. It was about 1:30 in the morning and Velez was naturally apprehensive about getting mugged and walking quite briskly.

As he rounded a corner where an old factory was located, he noticed a light "about the size of a small moving van" hovering in the air about 30 feet above the factory roof. Suddenly, Velez fell into an unusual state of panic. His heart started racing and he ran "like a schoolgirl." He had the distinct feeling that he about to be hurt, even though there were no logical reasons to explain this.

Velez remembers running until he got near his home. He doesn't remember anything else until he found himself sitting upright in his bed. It was now daylight outside. He looked around his bed and saw blood on his pillow. He found blood on his T-shirt also and for some reason his eyes really hurt.

When Velez looked in the mirror, he saw that one of his eyes was completely red. He had obviously had some kind of trauma to his eye and there were many ruptured blood vessels. He tried to recall what had happened but had no memory of being attacked or of falling... It was weird. Also, he could find no obvious source of the blood. Eventually his wife, shocked at what had happened, took him to the Emergency Room of nearby Lutheran Memorial Hospital to be checked over.

Although his eye appeared to be severely bruised, there were no other signs of trauma such as from a punch or fall. The surrounding soft tissue was normal. But the attending doctor seemed interested in Velez's nose, and kept asking him if he had any recent nasal surgery, which of course he didn't.

Six years later, in 1993, Velez happened to read Bud Hopkins's UFO book, Missing Time, and reluctantly contacted the author and eventually sgreed to have regressive hypnosis therapy. It was then that all of Velez'z childhood memories began to make sense.

It appears that Velez was abducted at a very early age and that the abductions were continuing through his adult life. But that night in August 1987 was the most terrifying event to recall:

"I was about 20ft from my house, and three of these f****g gray things with big black eyes came out -- they didn't walk out, they floated out -- from behind the hedge around my house. I was gasping to breathe. What's buzzing in my head... what is that? What is that? I thought they were skinned cats. I'm trying to make sense in my head of what my eyes are showing me. I can't move. All I want to do is run, and I can't.

Then, the next sensation... All that fear, all that terror, just washes away. And I'm thinking: 'Oh, I know you. Everything's okay.' I look off to my right, and above my neighbor's house there's a UFO with this red light on top, going 'round like on an ice cream truck. Then two of the little guys come floating over toward me, and each one gently takes an arm, and they turn me. We get hit with, like, a theater spotlight. I take two steps forward and -- airborne!

There are no doors in this thing up above. We're moving very slowly, but my instinct is to put my hands up because my head's gonna hit this thing. We're about four... five feet away. A black line appears. Then it opens. There'a a black square in front of me. We go through this. I can't see anything in there, but my clothes are being pulled off me. That switches very rapidly -- I'm on a table now. There's about six or eight of these f*****g things in the room. The one behind me puts his hand on my forehead and talks to me the way I used to talk to my kids when they were upset. 'It's okay. We have to do it. You'll be fine. Nobody's going to hurt you'."

Velez couldn't (or didn't want to) remember the procedure where his eye was inured. He believes an implant was placed in his brain through either his eye socket or his nose -- possible both. He has since recalled a "crunch sound" as some kind of long probe punctured his skull and inserted an implant.

But as frightening as this sounds, and considering Velez's injuries and trauma, he does not consider the aliens to be malevolent! On Saturday, 2nd August 1997, John gave an interview with British news media:

Interviewer: Have the abductions been going on since you were a child, and are there others in your family who have similar experiences?

Velez: Yes, a lifetime of unexplained experiences and phenomena. Yes, this is a multi-generational business (abductions) my whole family has been affected.

Interviewer: Did the aliens exhibit any emotion at all?

Velez: Yes! Affection of all things, but only on one occasion that I can recall.

Interviewer: At what age did you realise that something was occuring and when did you attribute it to alien abduction?

Velez: My earliest recollection is at about age 4 or 5. I didn't realize what was going on until 5 years ago... I was 43 years old at the time.

Interviewer: How many types of aliens he has witnessed?

Velez: Three different types, none of them 'human looking' such as 'Nordics'.

Interviewer: I read your NOVA interview. You said that you have been implanted. Where is the implant in your body and did you remove it that it could be examined?

Velez: The "implant" is buried deep in the center of my head and is most likely inoperable. I offered NOVA the opportunity to perform CAT scans or x-rays, but they refused.

Interviewer: Have you got any idea why they have chosen to abduct you or do you think it is purely random?

Velez: I think it has to do with my blood line. they appear to be following certain family trees.

Interviewer: How did the Aliens treat you? Do you see your abduction as a tragic event?

Velez: No, not at all. I see it as something that they feel they have to do. They are 'doing a job' I don't think there is any 'intentional' harm or torture in it. It is our own xenophobia that causes us to be traumatized.