lycaeus
01-08-2013, 10:19 PM
(really good writings about Whitley)
Through a Fractured Glass, Darkly (Part One): The Facts in the Strange Case of Whitley Strieber
Aeolus Kephas
What are we to make of the strange case of Whitley Strieber? Already well-known for his horror fiction (Wolfen, The Hunger, both made into Hollywood movies), Strieber underwent some extremely unusual personal experiences back in 1985 and wrote a book called Communion, after which his name became more or less synonymous with alien abduction. Yet Strieber is far more than just a man who claims that aliens did some highly strange things to him. Looking at his work so far, from Communion to The Communion Enigma: What Is To Come (which I have not yet read), a picture emerges of Strieber as the John the Baptist of the alien paradigm -- the "chosen one" of a race of preterhuman, apparently ancient, unimaginably advanced beings. Crying in the wilderness of 21st century civilization, mocked and derided by orthodoxy (in this case science rather than religion), he is nonetheless regarded with awe and fascination by a large number of devoted followers, all eager to partake of his strange baptism. (Between his website and his radio show "Dreamland," Strieber's followers apparently number in the hundreds of thousands.)
While many have dismissed Strieber as a liar, out for a fast buck (Communion was a best-seller), others, more charitable, merely suggest that he is deluded or insane. In Communion, Strieber himself claims he was willing, even eager, to believe his experiences were the result of a brain tumor or some undiscovered form of mental aberration, but eventually he had to accept that what appeared to be happening really was happening. Even back in 1986, Strieber was not alone in his claims of alien abduction. Whether collective hallucination, hard cold fact, or something that is neither one nor the other, reports of the phenomena became widespread throughout the '80s and '90s (especially in the US), to the extent that a Harvard professor, John Mack, even wrote two books about it. Mack (who died in a hit and run accident in 2004) almost lost his chair at Harvard as a result of his research, however, and orthodox science continues to regard the subject as beneath contempt, unworthy even of the time it would take to contest it.
http://www.realitysandwich.com/strange_case_whitley_strieber_1
Through a Fractured Glass, Darkly (Part One): The Facts in the Strange Case of Whitley Strieber
Aeolus Kephas
What are we to make of the strange case of Whitley Strieber? Already well-known for his horror fiction (Wolfen, The Hunger, both made into Hollywood movies), Strieber underwent some extremely unusual personal experiences back in 1985 and wrote a book called Communion, after which his name became more or less synonymous with alien abduction. Yet Strieber is far more than just a man who claims that aliens did some highly strange things to him. Looking at his work so far, from Communion to The Communion Enigma: What Is To Come (which I have not yet read), a picture emerges of Strieber as the John the Baptist of the alien paradigm -- the "chosen one" of a race of preterhuman, apparently ancient, unimaginably advanced beings. Crying in the wilderness of 21st century civilization, mocked and derided by orthodoxy (in this case science rather than religion), he is nonetheless regarded with awe and fascination by a large number of devoted followers, all eager to partake of his strange baptism. (Between his website and his radio show "Dreamland," Strieber's followers apparently number in the hundreds of thousands.)
While many have dismissed Strieber as a liar, out for a fast buck (Communion was a best-seller), others, more charitable, merely suggest that he is deluded or insane. In Communion, Strieber himself claims he was willing, even eager, to believe his experiences were the result of a brain tumor or some undiscovered form of mental aberration, but eventually he had to accept that what appeared to be happening really was happening. Even back in 1986, Strieber was not alone in his claims of alien abduction. Whether collective hallucination, hard cold fact, or something that is neither one nor the other, reports of the phenomena became widespread throughout the '80s and '90s (especially in the US), to the extent that a Harvard professor, John Mack, even wrote two books about it. Mack (who died in a hit and run accident in 2004) almost lost his chair at Harvard as a result of his research, however, and orthodox science continues to regard the subject as beneath contempt, unworthy even of the time it would take to contest it.
http://www.realitysandwich.com/strange_case_whitley_strieber_1