In this green place, Betty could see cities in the distance, "big cities with all these different bridges all around" (p. 90), with many domes. Betty and the humanoids passed through crystalline structures, moving closer towards a source of "dazzling" light.
As they approached the light source, Betty observed a large bird. The temperature near the bird was unbearably hot:
According to Betty, both the bird and the light were living:Betty: I'm standing before that large bird. It's very warm... And that bird looks like an eagle to me. And it's living! It has a white head and there is light in back of it—real white light. ... And it's very, very, hot here. ... The bird is just standing there, and it looks like it is holding back the light somehow (p. 102).
The heat continued to increase in intensity, with "gold specks" flying around the bird. Betty felt a tremendous amount of pain. Suddenly the heat began to subside, and the bird was gone:Betty: The bird was alive. It was living. ... You could see it breathing, and it was more living than anything I've ever seen living. I mean, we're living, right? But this was really [italics Fowler's] living. The light in back of it was so living and alive (p. 106).
A sweet-smelling fragrance was (maybe) emitted from the ashes:Slowly she squinted her eyes open. The huge bird was nowhere to be seen. In its stead was a small fire. She watched it gradually dim to a reddish glow and then to a pile of gray ashes flecked with red embers (p. 103).
The ashes then transformed into a worm:Betty: I might have smelled something when that was burning. ... Sort of like a sweet incense smell when those ashes were burning—or whatever that thing was that was burning (p. 111).
Then, from her right, opposite the humanoids, she heard "what sounded like many voices blended into one booming voice:"Betty: The coal is dying down to a reddish color. ... It's getting gray, gray with red mixed with it. ... Now it looks like a worm [italics Fowler's], a big fat worm [italics Fowler's]. It just looks like a big fat worm—a big fat gray worm just lying there (p. 103).
Betty continued to converse with the voice:Betty: "You have seen, and you have heard. Do you understand?" They called my name, and repeated it again in a louder voice. I said, "No, I don't understand what this is all about, why I'm even here." And they—whatever it was—said that "I have chosen you" (p. 104).
According to Fowler, as Betty recalled this under hypnosis, she experienced a "profound" religious experience:Betty: "For what have you chosen me?"
"I have chosen you to show the world."
Betty: "Are you God?" ... "Are you the Lord God?"
"I shall show you as your time goes by"
Betty: "Are you my Lord Jesus? I would recognize my Lord Jesus." Oh, it says—"I love you. God is love, and I love you," they said or whatever it was. I say they [italics Fowler's] but it seemed like one.
Betty: "Why was I brought here?"
"Because I have chosen you."
Betty: "Why won't you tell me why and what for?"
"The time is not yet. It shall come. That which you have faith in, in which you trust."
Betty: "It is true. I have faith in God, and I have faith in Jesus Christ. Praise God ..."
"We know, child. We know, child, that you do. That is why you have been chosen. I am sending you back now. Fear not. ... Be of comfort. Your own fear makes you feel these things. I would never harm you. It is your fear that you draw to your body, that causes you to feel these things. I can release you, but you must release yourself of that fear through my son [italics Fowler's] (pp. 104–105).
In a later discussion between Betty and Fowler, she associated the bird with Incan symbology:Betty: Oh, praise God, praise God, praise God! [Crying] Thank you, Lord! [Crying, sobbing] I know, I know I am not worthy. Thank you for your Son. [Uncontrollable sobbing] Thank you for your Son (p. 105).
Another possibility was that the bird was a phoenix:Betty: Well, my sister and I were talking. ... She had thought that she had seen that symbol someplace before, with the wings down. Some kind of Inca thing, Indian.
Ray: The symbol for the United States is a bald eagle.
Betty: But this had its wings down like this and my sister said, "That looks like a symbol that the Incans used, or Indians in times past" (p. 110)
Fowler cuts off Betty's quotation here to give his own identification of the bird:Betty: Well, another thing—as I said, my sister Shirley looked up about the Phoenix bird. ... (p. 110)
Indeed, upon investigation, we found that Betty seems to have witnessed the death and rebirth of the legendary Phoenix. Collier’s Encyclopedia describes a bird almost identical to what Betty reported:
Phoenix, a legendary bird that builds its own funeral pyre and is reborn from its own ashes. Sacred in ancient Egypt, the Phoenix, which was always male and had a beautiful red and gold plumage, was fabled to live for 500 years or longer. At the end of that time, it built a nest from twigs of spice trees, to which it set fire. Both the bird and its nest were consumed in the flames. Out of the ashes, a worm emerged, from which the new Phoenix grew (p. 111).
(Note: Fowler does not say when the discussion between himself and Betty, where the phoenix was brought up, took place. Nor does he make clear when Betty discussed the bird with her sister. Betty's conversation with her sister presumably took place after her first time recalling the bird during the June 19, 1975 session, as most of Betty's encounter was not consciously remembered (p. 143), but it could have taken place before her session on June 23, in which she recalled the bird transforming into ashes and then into a worm. If Betty had discussed the bird with her sister before the June 23 session, there is a good chance this discussion with her sister influenced her recollections, considering how closely the phoenix legend from Collier's Encyclopedia maps onto Betty's experience.)
A parallel to Betty’s ‘phoenix’ experience comes from abductee David Huggins (from the article “Solar Birds and Abductees” by Ario Barzan):
Our knowledge of the phoenix comes from Greek and Roman sources; it is unclear whether the phoenix was actually ‘sacred’ to the ancient Egyptians—as Collier’s Encyclopedia said—or whether it really came from the Egyptians, as Herodotus (and others) said. Regardless, the earliest account we have of the esoteric ‘worm’ motif comes from Pliny’s Natural History:He once had a vision of floating through a tunnel, only to encounter a very large bird that burst into flames, then collapsed into a pile of ash “And out of that ash came a long, dark caterpillar or worm,” he said. A friend later connected his vision to the phoenix, though Huggins hadn’t been familiar with the mythical bird.
This motif is subsequently interpreted through a Christian framework first by Clement, in his Letter to the Corinthians:The first and the most detailed Roman account of [the phoenix] was given by Manilius, the eminent senator famed for his extreme and varied learning acquired without a teacher: he stated that nobody has ever existed that has seen one feeding, that in Arabia it is sacred to the Sun-god, that it lives 540 years, that when it is growing old it constructs a nest with sprigs of wild cinnamon and frankincense, fills it with scents and lies on it till it dies; that subsequently from its bones and marrow is born first a sort of maggot, and this grows into a chicken, and that this begins by paying due funeral rites to the former bird and carrying the whole nest down to the City of the Sun near Panchaia and depositing it upon an altar there (10.2.4).
I find it improbable that Betty Andreasson—who had no higher education, did not understand what was being shown to her ("No, I don't understand what this is all about, why I'm even here"), and did not recognize the bird as a phoenix ("that bird looks like an eagle to me")—was familiar with the classical literature on the phoenix. David Huggins' (who was also unfamiliar with the phoenix) parallel account of encountering a phoenix turned to ashes, and then to a worm, also leads one to wonder whether this is an authentic symbolic display from the UFOnauts.Let us consider that wonderful sign [of the resurrection] which takes place in eastern lands, that is, in Arabia and the countries round about. There is a certain bird which is called a phoenix. This is the only one of its kind, and lives five hundred years. And when the time of its dissolution draws near that it must die, it builds itself a nest of frankincense, and myrrh, and other spices, into which, when the time is fulfilled, it enters and dies. But as the flesh decays a certain kind of worm is produced, which, being nourished by the juices of the dead bird, brings forth feathers. Then, when it has acquired strength, it takes up that nest in which are the bones of its parent, and bearing these it passes from the land of Arabia into Egypt, to the city called Heliopolis. And, in open day, flying in the sight of all men, it places them on the altar of the sun, and having done this, hastens back to its former abode. The priests then inspect the registers of the dates, and find that it has returned exactly as the five hundredth year was completed (Chapter 25).