Communion: A True Story
by Whitley Strieber
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Book Summary Information
Author: Whitley StrieberEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2008-01-02
ISBN: 0061474185
Number of pages: 336
Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks
Book Reviews of Communion: A True Story
Book Review: The best book written by a self-identifying abductee of the unknown
Summary: 5 Stars
Whitley Strieber's relationship with the Visitors lasted eleven years, from 1985-1996, beginning when the author was about forty years of age.
Communion (1987), the man's introductory memoirs, is the predecessor to three spin-offs: Transformation, Breakthrough, and Confirmation.
This well-structured book delves specifically into two encounters the author had with the Visitors (a long-used euphemistic term to describe aliens, that can also be found in an MJ-12 document dated from the Fifties): one on October 4 of 1985 and the other on December 26, 1985.
The author was not the first of his kind to experience a close encounter with alleged aliens. Prior to Mr. Strieber, such men and women as Antonio Villas Boas, Betty and Barney Hill, Betty Andreasson, and Travis Walton were either supposedly abducted or at least visited. And these are just the known, published accounts.
I have just finished reading Communion for the third time in my life. It remains fresh and as enjoyable as the day it was originally published. Though I cannot say whether the re-print has been altered in any way from the original publication, as republishings have been sometimes known to do, so as to inconspicuously make necessary revisions, if not periodically even re-write history in a sense.
Mr. Strieber writes intimately and fluently and is a pleasure to read. The lucid prose is crisp and terse which keeps you turning the pages. The penman is also an experienced and masterful storyteller. From 1977 to 1983 Mr. Strieber was a best-selling fiction writer specializing in horror, and regardless of the veracity of this particular narrative, one thing it most certainly isn't is boring. In fact, it's anything but; I found it quite enthralling, to say the least.
Where else will you read of a man who claims that he, his sister, and father were possibly abducted by aliens or something or other aboard a train in 1956?, of experiencing "missing time" while eating a TV dinner in 1967?, of experiencing four to six weeks of more missing time while traveling across Europe in 1968?, of flying around the room during a possible 1985 abduction?, and of even holding a brief conversation with a mysterious voice that came through the radio back in 1977? It's all here and more, including the author's amusing revelation that as a child he was frightened of Mr. Peanut.
You may understandably ask: Is the man nutty? Even the author himself entertained the idea that he might be psychotic, and submitted himself to numerous psychological, psychiatric and neurological tests, all showing nothing unusual. Plus, as is mentioned in the book, numerous eye-witnesses had run-ins with the Visitors at or near the Striebers' cabin, proving that this is not a psychological situation. Still, Mr. Strieber, despite the consensual validation of others, chose to undergo these aforementioned tests, as well as hypnosis. Indeed, it makes one wonder why Mr. Strieber opted to go to so much trouble to find out whether or not he had a mental illness when there were all these reliable witnesses as evidence that he was not delusional. Eye-witnesses, by the way, who would make for some rather interesting interviews! (It's not mentioned who, if any, of these has ever publically come forward with their collaborative reports.)
So, then, what brought about the Visitors? Was it Mr. Strieber's involvement in the Tarot? This is my own conjecturing. Based on the fact that for fifteen years Mr. Strieber studied the cards, and that many educated in the paranormal would place the deck, as well as the man's mentor, Gurdjieff, in the realm of the occult. (Never-mind that the eclectically minded Mr. Strieber, according to a few comments made in Communion, is a Catholic, who also appears to believe in evolution.) Still, this doesn't explain the fact that Mr. Strieber's encounters seem to extend back to youth, at least to the age of twelve.
Communion (2008 edition; 306 pages) is a delightful read but one has to wonder why Mr. Strieber chose to publish it in the first place. As the introduction to the re-print mentions, Mr. Strieber went on to become the object of both derision (by mostly Liberal skeptics and the media) and even death threats (by certain members of the Christian Right). Even a number of UFO researchers are said to have deplored the book, which is a bit perplexing to me.
Some have labeled the author a phony, a perpetrator of an elaborate hoax. These ones are entitled to their opinion, but they obviously haven't contemplated the material. What was the author after in penning this book? Money? He himself says his book sales dropped dramatically following the release of Communion. Fame? He was already known in the literary world. What then? Was it just to howl like a coyote?
The author, formerly of the advertising industry, has nevertheless always struck me as sincere, not as someone who enjoys tricking people and playing them as marks. I'm quite familiar with his non-fiction work and admire the man greatly.
Secondly, I find it quite presumptuous of people who quickly write-off seemingly bizarre stories and their tellers as fakes and charlatans based strictly on their own irreconcilable belief systems or cynical naysaying rather than on solid evidence proving such.
Yes, Mr. Strieber passed a polygraph test, but it's known that this is no guarantee assuring truthfulness. Mr. Strieber describes himself in the book as being an honest man, one that doesn't lie, but then ponders whether he has not lied in the past once or twice in business dealings. He also nowadays is displeased with those who deride or dismiss the subject, but also notes that at one time he himself was a disbeliever, if not a belittler, of the phenomenon as well. It's an easy thing to do, for those not familiar with the field and the immense amount of literature readily available for studying.
Just what causes the alien abduction? Is it a strictly hypnagogic happening? No. As the author notes, people are often taken in broad daylight, or while in moving vehicles. It is not a product of the mind.
The book does contain the odd curiosity. For example, it astonished me that Mr. Strieber, one who sought out hypnosis because of an apparent mental block (amnesia), was not only able to remember all the strange memories that he does throughout the book, reaching as far back as 1957, but even their dates as well.
The author also does a tremendous amount of speculating throughout Communion, on the various theories as to just who the Visitors may be (my favorite portion of the book), where they are from, and what their agenda is. I have personally wondered whether the Visitors are after our souls, our DNA, or are covetous of our free will? And whether the Visitors and spiritism is interrelated? Might they be slaves or robots instead of organic beings? Mr. Strieber hypothesizes on whether the Grays/Visitors are what we as humans turn into after we die or if they are perhaps technologically advanced fairies? And whether we humans are really the top of Earth's life-forms, which would not make them (whatever they are) "Visitors" after all.
One thing I wished Mr. Strieber would have done was take photographs of the Visitors who later, as recounted in Transformation, are said to have sat in with him during his meditations. Almost conveniently, however, we are told that they were camera-shy and did not allow themselves to be photographed. Meanwhile, an abundance of alleged photos of these very same beings can be found on the Internet.
Another thing that I picked up on while reading Communion is how one's memory isn't always accurate. Mr. Strieber relates how for years he told people that he was present at the infamous 1966 University of Texas sniper massacre, but these memories turned out to faulty. What does that then say about his Visitor memories and experiences? Can any of them be trusted?
In the end, the UFO and alien abduction phenomenon remains a paradox, and perhaps that is its primary purpose. Those who profess to have had intimate contact with these mysterious beings ought always to keep that humbly in mind. As Sally, an abductee, alludes to in Communion, and what I've always emphasized is that abductees aren't "special" people. Indeed, some view experiencers as an elite group to be put on a pedestal and looked up to for esoteric knowledge. Yet as Sally herself comments, thus keeping things in their proper perspective, abductees are not qualified enough to be experts - and thus, by extention, do not contain any "special" knowledge - a conclusion drawn primarily from the fact that alien abductees are victims of ethical abuse first and foremost. (Sincerely, Sally remarks how she was frightened during her kidnapping, not made to be enlightened.)
Communion is a fascinating book, whose title is derived from a mysterious voice that allegedly spoke through Mrs. Strieber one night as she lay in bed next to her husband. Mr. Strieber originally was going to call the book Body Terror but the voice said it ought to be Communion.
A few quibbles: Sometimes the interjections, digressions and retrospection become a little too boggy in their perpetual wondering, observing, and remarking; Mrs. Strieber's hypnosis transcript becomes a bit tedious after a while; and the concluding portion veers ever ephemerally into New Agey Positivist psychobabble - musing on abstractions such as whether the Visitors and abductees ultimately go on to form a symbolic triad - but, overall, Communion will go down as a classic and *the* book to read for anyone interested in the alien abduction phenomenon.
Summary of Communion: A True Story
Thus begins the most astonishing true-life odyssey ever recorded?one man's riveting account of his extraordinary experiences with visitors from “elsewhere” . . . how they found him, where they took him, what they did to him, and why.
Believe it. Or don't believe it. But read it?for this gripping story will move you like no other. It will fascinate you, terrify you, and alter the way you experience your world.
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