What angers Whitley Strieber most
10-Aug-87 19:47 MST
Sb: AP 08/07 0818 Abductions
------ By STEFAN FATSIS Associated Press Writer
NEW YORK (AP) -- What angers Whitley Strieber most is the attitude of UFO
debunkers who outright reject his claims in the best-selling book "Communion"
that he was abducted by short, stocky, big-eyed humanoids.
Strieber, the 42-year-old author of pop thrillers-turned-movies "The Wolfen"
and "The Hunger," resolutely denies inventing his 299-page account of bright
lights and midnight visits by alien beings to his remote cabin in upstate New
York.
"I believe I am telling the truth," Strieber said in a telephone interview.
"`Communion' never demands that you believe in UFOs or that you believe that the
visitors are physically real.
"All it asks you to do is place into question some of the paradigms about
reality and the nature of the mind," he said. "I'm not asking more than that."
"Communion," which has sold more than 250,000 copies and was No. 1 on the New
York Times non-fiction best-seller list for three weeks, details Strieber's
reported contacts with alien visitors in 1985-86.
In the book, Strieber says on one occasion humanoids wearing gray body-suits
carried him to a small depression in the woods and later to a messy chamber. The
visitors, he says, physically assaulted him, inserting a "shiny, hair-thin
needle" in his head and a long, scaly object in his rectum.
"It wasn't dreamlike in any way -- you don't get a needle mark in your head
from a dream," Strieber said. "I felt like I was being raped. ... It just didn't
strike me as being hallucinatory or dreamlike in nature."
Co-author of two books about nuclear war and the environment, "Warday" and
"Nature's End," Strieber said he has received more than 2,000 letters from
readers, over half of whom claim some kind of alien contact.
He is forming a referral service network of doctors and counselors -- not UFO
investigators -- for people who have written to him claiming paranormal
experiences.
"People know that something is going on and it's not understood by science,"
Strieber said. "The result of this is they're just simply not going to buy the
debunkers. They shouldn't believe them. The real problem we have now is that the
debunkers are frightening the scientific community into not taking a
clear-headed look at this.
"`Communion' has been done with a lot of care and a lot of attention to
candor," he added. "There's no reason that someone with a good reputation can't
take it seriously and study it seriously."
Many details of Strieber's alleged encounters emerged during hypnosis
sessions with a New York City psychiatrist, transcripts of which are included in
the book.
Strieber says he underwent a battery of physical and psychological tests that
showed him to be normal, and also passed two polygraphs. The bottom of each page
of "Communion" asserts that Strieber's is "A True Story."
"I believe it so completely that I can take a lie detector test and pass," he
said. "I cannot be convinced -- not by myself, not by a psychiatrist, not by
anybody -- that there is the slightest doubt this is real."
Strieber, who includes his wife and 8-year-old son among witnesses to the
paranormal happenings, is writing a sequel entitled "Transformation" about
subsequent visits.
The author received a $1 million advance from the publisher for "Communion"
but said negotiations haven't been completed for the new book, which details his
struggle to come to terms with being the apparent subject of alien experiments.
"Transformation" includes one "major" encounter and three minor ones with the
same humanoids, Strieber said. The sequel is about his transformation"from a
frightened victim to someone who is going to tell it like it was, damn the
consequences."
He said he no longer fears when he will be "visited" again.
"I just live my life," Strieber said. "When these happen it's always a little
startling. But I don't think in terms of when it will happen again."
The author said he had no interest in UFOs until his first encounters.
"It just didn't seem to matter very much," he said. "My concerns were peace
and the environment."
"When I was 11 or 12 there were (outer space) movies ... but it wasn't
something that we thought was particularly real. It was science fiction, but you
don't expect science fiction to be real."
------
("Communion" is published by William Morrow.)
Copyright 1987 by the Associated Press. All rights reserved.
Sb: AP 08/07 0818 Abductions
------ By STEFAN FATSIS Associated Press Writer
NEW YORK (AP) -- What angers Whitley Strieber most is the attitude of UFO
debunkers who outright reject his claims in the best-selling book "Communion"
that he was abducted by short, stocky, big-eyed humanoids.
Strieber, the 42-year-old author of pop thrillers-turned-movies "The Wolfen"
and "The Hunger," resolutely denies inventing his 299-page account of bright
lights and midnight visits by alien beings to his remote cabin in upstate New
York.
"I believe I am telling the truth," Strieber said in a telephone interview.
"`Communion' never demands that you believe in UFOs or that you believe that the
visitors are physically real.
"All it asks you to do is place into question some of the paradigms about
reality and the nature of the mind," he said. "I'm not asking more than that."
"Communion," which has sold more than 250,000 copies and was No. 1 on the New
York Times non-fiction best-seller list for three weeks, details Strieber's
reported contacts with alien visitors in 1985-86.
In the book, Strieber says on one occasion humanoids wearing gray body-suits
carried him to a small depression in the woods and later to a messy chamber. The
visitors, he says, physically assaulted him, inserting a "shiny, hair-thin
needle" in his head and a long, scaly object in his rectum.
"It wasn't dreamlike in any way -- you don't get a needle mark in your head
from a dream," Strieber said. "I felt like I was being raped. ... It just didn't
strike me as being hallucinatory or dreamlike in nature."
Co-author of two books about nuclear war and the environment, "Warday" and
"Nature's End," Strieber said he has received more than 2,000 letters from
readers, over half of whom claim some kind of alien contact.
He is forming a referral service network of doctors and counselors -- not UFO
investigators -- for people who have written to him claiming paranormal
experiences.
"People know that something is going on and it's not understood by science,"
Strieber said. "The result of this is they're just simply not going to buy the
debunkers. They shouldn't believe them. The real problem we have now is that the
debunkers are frightening the scientific community into not taking a
clear-headed look at this.
"`Communion' has been done with a lot of care and a lot of attention to
candor," he added. "There's no reason that someone with a good reputation can't
take it seriously and study it seriously."
Many details of Strieber's alleged encounters emerged during hypnosis
sessions with a New York City psychiatrist, transcripts of which are included in
the book.
Strieber says he underwent a battery of physical and psychological tests that
showed him to be normal, and also passed two polygraphs. The bottom of each page
of "Communion" asserts that Strieber's is "A True Story."
"I believe it so completely that I can take a lie detector test and pass," he
said. "I cannot be convinced -- not by myself, not by a psychiatrist, not by
anybody -- that there is the slightest doubt this is real."
Strieber, who includes his wife and 8-year-old son among witnesses to the
paranormal happenings, is writing a sequel entitled "Transformation" about
subsequent visits.
The author received a $1 million advance from the publisher for "Communion"
but said negotiations haven't been completed for the new book, which details his
struggle to come to terms with being the apparent subject of alien experiments.
"Transformation" includes one "major" encounter and three minor ones with the
same humanoids, Strieber said. The sequel is about his transformation"from a
frightened victim to someone who is going to tell it like it was, damn the
consequences."
He said he no longer fears when he will be "visited" again.
"I just live my life," Strieber said. "When these happen it's always a little
startling. But I don't think in terms of when it will happen again."
The author said he had no interest in UFOs until his first encounters.
"It just didn't seem to matter very much," he said. "My concerns were peace
and the environment."
"When I was 11 or 12 there were (outer space) movies ... but it wasn't
something that we thought was particularly real. It was science fiction, but you
don't expect science fiction to be real."
------
("Communion" is published by William Morrow.)
Copyright 1987 by the Associated Press. All rights reserved.
Comments
Post a Comment