"So-called UFOlogists are probably the cruellest, nastiest and
craziest people I have ever encountered. Their interpretation of the
visitor experience is rubbish from beginning to end. The 'abduction
reports' that they generate are not real. They are artifacts of
hypnosis and cultural conditioning.
"What we are experiencing is a perceptual anomaly that is
sufficiently ambiguous and intense that it demands explanation. It
is something that human beings have been experiencing for a long
time. It is the cause of religion, of mythology, of folklore.
Presently it is the cause of the 'alien abduction' belief."
-Whitley Strieber's closing words of the cover letter to last issue
of "The Communion Letter", spring Issue, 1991; Volume 3, No. 1.
"The voice became a hiss. 'You will get to the telescope! You must,
do you understand! Must!' Her hissing reminded me of the giant
lizard at the zoo, the way he hissed when you got him with a
mesquite bean.
"The hand was weird. It was bony and thin, and it was digging hard
into my shoulder. This sure didn't seem much like any dream I ever
had before.
"Writhing from the pain, I looked up, trying to see this person. But
she pushed my head back down and I found myself looking into a huge
book made of dark blue leather and crusted with rubies so enormous
that I could see my own face reflected in them. I could see the
Sister of Mercy, too, a black shadow in the depths of each jewel.
"Her long, thin hands caressed the cover of the book with the care
due a fragile, overripe fruit. And yet it did not seem worn. On the
contrary, the sense of antiquity was combined with a quality of the
fresh, as if it was both ancient and freshly minted.
"She lifted the cover, revealing supple, curiously floppy endpapers
that reminded me in a creepy way of skin. Instead of pages in the
book, there was a strange darkness. I did not want to look; I didn't
even want to be near it. Hands grasped my head and pushed it
downward. I was aware of sucking, as if the book were a well and
there was a creature down there that was going to devour me. I could
not prevent it..."
-Whitley Strieber, "The Secret School"
"The 'medical examination' to which abductees are said to be
subjected, often accompanied by sadistic sexual manipulation, is
reminiscient of the medieval tales of encounters with demons. It
makes no sense in a sophisticated or technical framework: any
intelligent being equipped with the scientific marvels that UFOs
possess would be in a position to achieve any of these alleged
scientific objectives in a shorter time and with fewer risks."
-Dr. Jacques Vallee, "Confrontations"
"These entities are clever enough to make Strieber think they care
about him. Yet his torment by them never ceases. Whatever his
relationship to the entities, and he increasingly concludes that
their involvement with him is something 'good,' he also remains
terrified of them and uncertain as to what they are."
-John Ankerberg, "The Facts on UFOs and Other Supernatural
Phenomena"
"I became entirely given over to extreme dread. The fear was so
powerful that it seemed to make my personality completely
evaporate... 'Whitley' ceased to exist. What was left was a body and
a state of raw fear so great that it swept about me like a thick,
suffocating curtain, turning paralysis into a condition that seemed
close to death...I died and a wild animal appeared in my place."
-Whitley Strieber, "Communion"
"Increasingly I felt as if I were entering a struggle that might
even be more than life and death. It might be a struggle for my
soul, my essence, or whatever part of me might have reference to the
eternal. There are worse things than death, I suspected... so far
the word demon had never been spoken among the scientists and
doctors who were working with me...Alone at night I worried about
the legendary cunning of demons...At the very least I was going
stark, raving mad."
-Whitley Strieber, "Transformation"
"I wondered if I might not be in the grip of demons, if they were
not making me suffer for their own purposes, or simply for their
enjoyment."
-Whitley Strieber, "Transformation"
"I felt an absolutely indescribable sense of menace. It was hell on
earth to be there [in the presence of the entities], and yet I
couldn't move, couldn't cry out, couldn't get away. I'd lay as still
as death, suffering inner agonies. Whatever was there seemed so
monstrously ugly, so filthy and dark and sinister. Of course they
were demons. They had to be. And they were here and I couldn't get
away."
-Whitley Strieber, "Transformation"
"Why were my visitors so secretive, hiding themselves behind my
consciousness. I could only conclude that they were using me and did
not want me to know why...What if they were dangerous? Then I was
terribly dangerous because I was playing a role in acclimatizing
people to them."
-Whitley Strieber, "Transformation"