OK, I also want to support the nomination of Whitley Strieber (one of Vaeni's idols). I wrote an article about Strieber (which I admit is a bit dated) but posted to another website. I'll just stick it here. This is merely my opinion, of course.
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I've been following Whitley Strieber's career since the late 80's. I'd like to offer my opinion on 2 subjects:
WHEN DID WHITLEY JUMP THE SHARK?
COMMUNION and TRANSFORMATION were shocking and disturbing books for me in the late 1980's. These were soon followed by BREATHTHROUGH and THE SECRET SCHOOL, all purporting to be the factual experiences (emotional, mystical and physical) of Whiley Strieber. My first annoying sense that something was wrong came with my reading of THE SECRET SCHOOL.
This book revealed a "camp follower" trend in Whitley's thinking that has continued to this day. By "camp follower" I refer to his tendency to take whatever is the passing fancy of the paranormal, metaphysical or eschatological pop culture, and entwine this into his personal life story.
For example, in THE SECRET SCHOOL, Whitley professes to have been secretly instructed by a bug-like being as a child in San Antonio. In one scene, Whitley is looking through a telescope and views the "Face on Mars", therefore inferring that HE was the first human to view this monument of intelligent design on the surface of Mars. To put this into context, the Face of Mars had been a fringe culture conspiracy topic for some time, crusaded by Richard Hoagland, frequest guest on the Coast to Coast radio program in the 90's. Since then, the Face on Mars has been soundly scientifically debunked and is no longer popular, even in the paranormal conspiracy theorist realm of speculation. Yet, Whitley incorporated this passing "late night paranormal talk radio" fad into his life story.
Whitley, in the same book, claims to have had many visions of the future, all with the intent of confirming that global warming will turn Earth into a desert within 20 or more years. For example, he saw himself as an elderly man with his wife, gathering nuts in a rather decrepid neighborhood of San Antonio. [NOTE: Whitley is now 64 years old, so the clock is ticking on this prediction]. Whitley shifted scenes without much prelude (a constant in his early books) to a vision of huge sand dunes making landings difficult at LA International airport. Once again, Whitley was incorporating a popular vision of the future into his personal life story, via a part of the story not yet manifested!
Yet, only a few years later, Whitley would join forces with talk show host Art Bell to author a book called THE GLOBAL SUPERSTORM which claims that we would not experience a global warming meltdown, but would instead shift rather suddenly into an ice age. Subsequently, the popular movie DAY AFTER TOMORROW was based on this book.
Another disturbing event relating to THE SECRET SCHOOL was that prior to the book's publication, the concept of a secret school of alien instruction was being bandied about on a popular UFO forum. In particular, one woman reported that this had been her conscious experience in childhood. Whitley was reportedly lurking on this forum. After the publication of THE SECRET SCHOOL, the woman who claimed these experiences as her own prior to the book's publication said she felt physically sick to her stomach, with a sense of betrayal. Her perception was that HER LIFE had been incorporated into Whitley's public life story based on her forum entries. Of course, I cannot substantiate if any of this is true, but at the time it was a disturbing possibility.
For an example of a recent example of Whitley jumping on the bandwagon of popular ufology myth, we have the 2007 drone fad. Unlike US military drones, these drones were extremely complicated devices with no conceivable means of aerial suspension. Pictures of such complicated devices became common. With the publication of 2012, Whitley appeared on Coast to Coast radio, claiming 2 events had occurred to him:
1. He had seen one of the photographed drones outside his bedroom window.
2. He had gained the ability to shift into other dimensions.
Regarding number 1: Extensive evaluation by photo experts and MUFON has determined that the entire UFO drone scenario had been faked via Photoshop and Youtube videos. No witnesses ever came forward to defend these pictures. Therefore, Whitley claimed to see a UFO that only exists in Photoshop!!
Regarding number 2: The UFO field has become obsessed with the view that "aliens" now come from alternative dimensions rather than another planet in our dimension. "Coincidently," with the sudden arrival of Whitley's uncanny ability to make dimensional jumps was the release of 2012, which dealt in detail with the activities of at least 3 Earth centered dimensions. Hmmmmmm.
Therefore, in my humble opinion, Whitley has jumped the shark by carelessly incorporating rather dodgy elements of paranormal gossip into his life story, and continues to do so. I just sigh with relief that Ninja Turtles and Telletubbies have not turned up in Whitley's personal accounts.
WHY IS WHITLEY NOW ALIGNING HIMSELF WITH DOOM & GLOOM BIBLE THUMPERS LIKE STEVE QUAYLE?
I was shocked when Whitley had Steve Quayle as a guest recently on Dreamland. Steve Quayle is a right wing fundamentalist who hosts a daily shortwave broadcast called the Q Files. Every day, Steve Quayle literally rants and raves about how massive death and destruction are always about 2 weeks from happening. He implores his audience to repent of their sins and buy gold and other precious metals (Steve sells them) and stock up on ammo and food (a sponsor sells freeze dried food and seeds). Steve Quayle is a frequent guest on Coast to Coast, imploring the audience to beware the return of the Nephelim "longwalkers" (giants from the days of Noah who bred with Earth women and created monstrosities that invoked God's wrath and the Great Flood). In Steve's world view, aliens are just Biblical demons in disguise, part of Satan's End Times gambit to fool humanity. In another recent Q Files show, Steve warned listeners to not send their children to college, or liberal professors would return them to their wholesome families as homo's. You get the picture?
What is happening to Whitley now? Yes, both Steve and Whitley are now both big doom & gloomers (although Whitley has come to this marketing strategy relatively lately in terms of the planet's future). Ironically, Whitley sees our doom in ecological terms, and seems a big adherent to global warming plunging us literally overnight into an ice age. In contrast, I don't think Steve believes in global warming at all, like all good conservative right winger religious spokesmen.
Whitley also has never publically been a Bible thumping rabid right winger, like Steve. Whitley comes from a much more cosmopolitan intellectual New York vantage point, whereas Steve has spent most of his life in rustic Montana, fighting off the Luciferian New World Order from his survivalist store.
However, each has his hatred to join with the other! Whitley Strieber said he has a particular hatred for the producers and writers of a SOUTHPARK episode that lampooned his "anal probe" remarks. Whitley also harbors great hate for other media personalities who satirized him over the decades. So, both men while professing to be Christian, nurture their deep abiding hatred of others. Whitley said on the Q Files that this was his moral right. Hmmm....not what I was taught in Catachism classes where forgiveness was the way to freedom, not vengeance and decade's old hatred. Nonetheless, it does tie the two men together.
So what is Whitley up to with his interest in Steve? Of course, Steve can make a great talk show guest since he talks very fast and can handle the entire interview with one long monologue. I am sure Steve loves the opportunity for more exposure with a long term "big name" in the ufo field. I also found it bizarre that Whitley (on the Q Files) allowed Steve to interpret Whitley's experiences in a Bible thumper conspiracy manner. I suspect Whitley is intentionally allowing Steve to do this although Whitley has never indicated that he adheres to Steve's paranoid world view (aliens are all demons here as part of the End Times delusion, aka Lynn Marzulli's bread and butter).
Anyway, this will be interesting to watch. Will the 2 last as a couple? Will they perhaps write a book together? Will both become regulars on each other's show?
Let's all watch this strange joining of 2 masters of the ufo and conspiracy fields, and see if it lasts and what it produces.
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2-28-10 Postscript: I confess that Whitley seems to have dropped Steve Quayle like a cat that throws up on your new shirt. Intsead, Whitley has decided to go whole-hog into the la la land of the New Age, with such co-hosts as William Henry (who seems to whip up a new book every few weeks about Star Gates and enlightenment via the standard new age mantra of increasing your frequency level as the Photon Belt approaches...and don't forget those ancient Egyptians and Atlanteans!) and some psychic (Marla? name escapes me) who gives us the standard "spirit guides" schtick and tells Whitley how psychic he is. Oh, I forgot! Yes, for awhile Whitley was promoting the idea (on Coast to Coast and Dreamland) that he was a closeted psychic. Of course, who isn't? Finally, Whitley seems to be edging bit by bit closer to the Exopolitics gang. He has had several of their notable spokesmen on Dreamland and seems sympathetic to their dogma. What next? Dogs sleeping with cats?
