Whitley Strieber: Is he for real?

[dankaholic]

Unsure how appropriate this post will be, or if there is a better place for it.
But after listening to paranormal themed podcasts and radio programs for a few years now, I have occasionally ran across interviews with Whitley Strieber.

Personally I do not care for him, as it seems he is Mr. Jonny On The Spot of the paranormal.
It seems no matter the topic he has been there seen that.
Black eyed kids? met them
Ufos or ghosts? saw many
Abducted? multiple times
Alien implants? hes got one
Big foot run you down in an '88 Bronco? Whitley had that happen 10 years ago just didnt tell you about it until you brought it up.

It seems many are called out for concocting unreal fantastic stories the likes of Greer and many others but Strieber seems to be bullet proof.

I apologize if this rant is not welcomed here but I was wondering what others here thought about him or if there is something to his history I am unaware of that makes him credible enough to be taken at his word about his "experiences".

 

[Muadib]

Yeah I'm not sure about Whitley, I like his writing style and his books are interesting, he has some decent ideas and theories but when it comes to whether his experiences are real or not? I'm not sure. He seems to believe it though. When it comes to abductions, I'm skeptical, period. I like how you framed your argument though, you're right on the money when you say that Whitley does seem to have had every paranormal experience known to man at one time or another, at least according to him. Funny how there are never any real witnesses though, well, besides his wife I guess.

 

[dankaholic]

Thank you for your response, nice to hear from someone who reads his books,, as I havent read any of them. Im sure hes a wonderful writer so that isnt done intentionally, I am not much of a reader of any sort.
You raise an interesting point that I neglected to mention, his wife and business partner does seem to be the sole witness to most if not all of his experiences.
I have heard interviews with him a few times where he tells a story of how he and his wife brought friends to a cabin where they all witness a ufo yet I have not heard any corroborating testimony or statements from those he supposedly brought with him.

 

[Muadib]

Thank you for your response, nice to hear from someone who reads his books,, as I havent read any of them. Im sure hes a wonderful writer so that isnt done intentionally, I am not much of a reader of any sort.
You raise an interesting point that I neglected to mention, his wife and business partner does seem to be the sole witness to most if not all of his experiences.
I have heard interviews with him a few times where he tells a story of how he and his wife brought friends to a cabin where they all witness a ufo yet I have not heard any corroborating testimony or statements from those he supposedly brought with him.

Yeah I've heard the same story but I don't think any of those people have actually come forward, though he does name them by name. If you want to hear his original story, just read Communion, especially the part where his wife gets hypnotized and just can't seem to corroborate Whitley's stories, so they badger her with questions for about two hours. The only time she says anything that you could even remotely call corroboration, is when Budd Hopkins tells her to, and I quote, "have a little fantasy" about what happens to Whitley at night when she wakes up and he's not in bed. Though, in my opinion, that tells you more about Budd's investigative techniques than it does Whitley's experiences. Not to speak ill of the dead but it's something that always bothered me about Whitley's stories and Budd's work.

 

[Goggs Mackay]

I think he is full of shit. Reason being is that I have a friend and I always know when he is lying on the spot - he stutters.

If you listen to interviews with Whitley and he is talking about anything other than his own experiences, his speech is fine. As soon as someone asks him something about his own paranormal experiences he goes into severe stutter-mode.

It's not like he is uncomfortable speaking in public, or does not have a good vocabulary or cannot form good sentences (he is a successful published author). No, to me it's like he is either making new shit up, or giving himself time to make sure he is not contradicting something he has stated as fact in the past.

It only happens when he talks about his own paranormal experiences.

Also, he is the type to only go on shows where the guest is thrown softball questions. I may be mistaken but I am sure he has been asked to appear on the Paracast and has refused. I may be wrong on that point but I don't think so.

When you consider all the great guests this show has had on, no-one could accuse the Paracast of being some small-time two-bit show that doesn't get the good guests. Quite the opposite. Jaime Mussan has also made excuses about appearing. Go figure..

 

[ALPHA ROMEO UNIFORM]

Found his book interesting and agree too much coolie.

 

[Randall]

I tend to emulate Maudib's sentiments. It's hard to accept everything Whitley writes about at face value, but his writing style makes it easy to read because he is also a storyteller. If you consider it as part fact and part fiction and can suspend your disbelief enough to take it in on an entertainment level, then mull it around a bit, some interesting stuff tends to shake itself out. My favorite book of his is Secret School. I also picked up Solving The Communion Enigma not long ago.

 

[Jeff Davis]

Regarding Whitely Strieber: IMO he's a professional author that may, or may not have had, a genuine abduction/encounter experience initially. I tend to view his initial story as being something he truly believes took place, rather than a preconceived con, or a self known fictional effort intentionally labeled and declared as being nonfiction to better market his book/s. As a professional author Strieber hit real pay dirt with communion. His immediately subsequent Communion books also sold very well. Frankly, I think he's been milking the whole thing since his first initial book or two for all it's worth. As a professional pre-Communion horror/fantasy fiction writer, he assuredly knows how to do that in spades. But bear in mind that mine is only a suspicion.

As best I can tell, the whole of the Abduction Phenomenon seems to be completely immersed in, and isolated to, a level of personal consciousness experience. Something very real is happening to the experiencer. What that something is I do not pretend to know or understand. Albeit like most everyone I have my suspicions.

 

[chikane]

Very interesting posts. I must first admit I haven't read any books of Strieber. Now I don't know why exactly but since I've heard about him I've felt doudtful about his stories. Maybe his (too) wealthy commercial success set me on some kind of suspicious mode...

but with

Personally I do not care for him, as it seems he is Mr. Jonny On The Spot of the paranormal. It seems no matter the topic he has been there seen that. Black eyed kids? met them Ufos or ghosts? saw many Abducted? multiple times Alien implants? hes got one Big foot run you down in an '88 Bronco? Whitley had that happen 10 years ago just didnt tell you about it until you brought it up. It seems many are called out for concocting unreal fantastic stories the likes of Greer and many others but Strieber seems to be bullet proof.

and

Funny how there are never any real witnesses though, well, besides his wife I guess

I just feel I can't buy it ... (reminds me of Stan Romanek by the way). And yes, I remember Gene trying to bring Whitley Strieber on the show, which he refused. You have to wonder why?

 

[Muadib]

I tend to emulate Maudib's sentiments. It's hard to accept everything Whitley writes about at face value, but his writing style makes it easy to read because he is also a storyteller. If you consider it as part fact and part fiction and can suspend your disbelief enough to take it in on an entertainment level, then mull it around a bit, some interesting stuff tends to shake itself out. My favorite book of his is Secret School. I also picked up Solving The Communion Enigma not long ago.

I found Secret School hard to believe, though I did find it very interesting. Solving The Communion Enigma is probably my favorite book of his, next to Communion itself. It's full of interesting theories, but it also has quite a few mistakes and he even repeats some stories in it that were proven to be hoaxes a long time ago. That's another one of my problems with Streiber, he's extremely stubborn. I remember hearing him talk about photographic orbs and complaining that "everyone just writes them off as dust, they're not dust, they're orbs!" Erm, sorry Whitley, but they're really usually just dust. There's also a lot of material about his childhood in the book that he claims he just suddenly remembered over the years, but I have a hard time believing that. Still, if you're able to suspend your disbelief and just go with the flow, he's an extremely entertaining writer. Whether his experiences are real or not doesn't matter to me as much. I look at it as a peak into the mind of a brilliant man who is either undergoing some seriously strange experiences or is somewhat mentally ill, either way it's fascinating.

 

[Randall]

I found Secret School hard to believe, though I did find it very interesting. Solving The Communion Enigma is probably my favorite book of his, next to Communion itself. It's full of interesting theories, but it also has quite a few mistakes and he even repeats some stories in it that were proven to be hoaxes a long time ago. That's another one of my problems with Streiber, he's extremely stubborn. I remember hearing him talk about photographic orbs and complaining that "everyone just writes them off as dust, they're not dust, they're orbs!" Erm, sorry Whitley, but they're really usually just dust. There's also a lot of material about his childhood in the book that he claims he just suddenly remembered over the years, but I have a hard time believing that. Still, if you're able to suspend your disbelief and just go with the flow, he's an extremely entertaining writer. Whether his experiences are real or not doesn't matter to me as much. I look at it as a peak into the mind of a brilliant man who is either undergoing some seriously strange experiences or is somewhat mentally ill, either way it's fascinating.

I agree. The photographic orbs we see aren't like the nocturnal lights, foo fighters, or other glowing balls of light we associate with spherical UFOs. They seem to have been adequately explained as a photographic artifacts. I liked Secret School because it engaged me as a story, probably because I had some weird experiences when I was a child too. I'm one of those people who believes that children sometimes really do experience some pretty weird stuff and that those experiences are routinely written of as completely imaginary.

 

[mike]

I've been in contact with one lady who was at the cabin and does corroborate his story.

I believe she is sincere and honest both in her relating the incident at the cabin, and her own experiences.

I was on the fence about this case for a long time, but ive had direct communication with Mr Streiber and this lady, and i am satisfied they would not perpetrate a hoax.

 

[Muadib]

I've been in contact with one lady who was at the cabin and does corroborate his story.

I believe she is sincere and honest both in her relating the incident at the cabin, and her own experiences.

I was on the fence about this case for a long time, but ive had direct communication with Mr Streiber and this lady, and i am satisfied they would not perpetrate a hoax.

There's no question in my mind that Streiber believes that his experiences are real. The cabin story is an interesting one, do you mind sharing which of the women that were at the cabin is the one you've spoken to? If I remember correctly, there were 2 or 3 other females there plus Whitley's wife, and one of them supposedly talked to and touched a Grey and had an allergic reaction as a result of this contact. Still, even if this story is completely, 100% true, that doesn't mean that some of Whitley's experiences aren't the result of some form of mental illness, lucid dreaming, artifacts of hypnosis etc. Some of his stuff is just so far out there that I have a hard time taking it all at face value.

 

[mike]

Lorie Barnes is the lady i refer to.

When Whitley Strieber had his cabin in upstate New York, he often had groups of friends up to see if it would be possible for them to encounter the visitors. On many occassions, extraordinary events took place.

One such event occurred in the Autumn of 1988. The Striebers' friends Raven Dana and Lorie Barnes had been staying at the cabin, and were awakened in the middle of the night, confronted by the physical presence of the visitors. The events are described in Strieber's book Breakthrough

Read the original source: [URL='http://www.unknowncountry.com/whitleys-space/tour-strieber-cabin#ixzz29PKaFOB5[/QUOTE']http://www.unknowncountry.com/whitleys-space/tour-strieber-cabin#ixzz29PKaFOB5[/URL]

Raven Dana is the lady who had the allergic reaction

 

[Muadib]

Lorie Barnes is the lady i refer to.



Raven Dana is the lady who had the allergic reaction

Thanks.

 

[Clifford Smith]

I read Communion long before I knew anything else about Streiber and was really dismayed that the impression I got of him in the book seemed to be completely off the mark... mind you, as his first book on the subject it may have been the most firmly rooted in actual experiences and thus I may have gotten to know a "pre-down the rabbit hole" Streiber in that work. I guess this touches on an issue that's been raised on the Paracast before and by Redfern in relation to the contactee phenomena, that these people may indeed be telling the truth about their initial experiences, but henceforth become "professional experiencees" churning out material to keep themselves in pay. If Streiber was BSing from the start that means he was making up stories about his own son's experiences as a child, which would be particularly distasteful (would be interesting to see if his son corroborates this stuff).

 

[nameless]

i liked communion. liked the film too. apparently the second book is cool and in the context of all the ETH stuff floating around at the time Streiber has made some attempt at addressing other possibilities.


i dont know anything about the other weird stuff that he says hes been into but we cant rule out a conduit hypothesis for paranormal activity nor can we compartmentalise experienced phenomena as just clear seperate events that have no connection. i think cases like skinwalker go to show that different phenomena can be experienced.

 

[nameless]

he should be a guest on the Big P.

 

[dankaholic]

Some very interesting points raised here again. It seems that the general consensus is that he may have had a genuine experience of something but has long since left the realm of reality. I can understand he is a good author and story teller but wouldnt that lead into his ability to lie convincingly?
I find the comment about his wifes hypnosis very interesting, considering she most likely knew what was expected of her before undergoing the session yet could not follow through with what she knew she was supposed to say.
His communion experience aside, it seems as if he suffers the "must stay relevant" syndrome where someone witnesses something extraordinary and suddenly finds them self a celebrity of sorts, then when the hype dies down has to add to or change the original account to keep the public interest. He is similar to John Lear in that respect where what went from seeing discs in the desert transformed into soul harvesting satellites on the moon.

 

[Muadib]

he should be a guest on the Big P.

I'd love to see him on the show, it would be an instant classic. Unfortunately, he doesn't seem willing to go on any show that isn't going to serve him up softball questions and kiss his arse. If I'm totally honest, him refusing to go on a show that's known for asking tough questions makes me question the reality of his experiences even more, though as I stated before the reality of his experiences doesn't concern me that much. The only thing that would put me off is learning that he hoaxed the whole thing, but that seems extremely unlikely to me. Whatever the reality truly is, he seems to wholeheartedly believe that his experiences are real.