120 lines
5.4 KiB
Plaintext
120 lines
5.4 KiB
Plaintext
SUBJECT: MORE ON ABDUCTIONS BY AP FILE: UFO2684
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10-Aug-87 19:47 MST
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Sb: AP 08/07 0818
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Abductions
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------ By STEFAN FATSIS Associated Press Writer
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NEW YORK (AP) -- What angers Whitley Strieber most is the attitude of
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UFO debunkers who outright reject his claims in the best-selling book
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"Communion" that he was abducted by short, stocky, big-eyed humanoids.
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Strieber, the 42-year-old author of pop thrillers-turned-movies "The
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Wolfen" and "The Hunger," resolutely denies inventing his 299-page
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account of bright lights and midnight visits by alien beings to his
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remote cabin in upstate New York.
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"I believe I am telling the truth," Strieber said in a telephone
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interview. "`Communion' never demands that you believe in UFOs or that
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you believe that the visitors are physically real.
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"All it asks you to do is place into question some of the paradigms
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about reality and the nature of the mind," he said. "I'm not asking
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more than that."
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"Communion," which has sold more than 250,000 copies and was No. 1 on
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the New York Times non-fiction best-seller list for three weeks,
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details Strieber's reported contacts with alien visitors in 1985-86.
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In the book, Strieber says on one occasion humanoids wearing gray
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body-suits carried him to a small depression in the woods and later to
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a messy chamber. The visitors, he says, physically assaulted him,
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inserting a "shiny, hair-thin needle" in his head and a long, scaly
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object in his rectum.
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"It wasn't dreamlike in any way -- you don't get a needle mark in
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your head from a dream," Strieber said. "I felt like I was being raped.
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It just didn't strike me as being hallucinatory or dreamlike in
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nature."
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Co-author of two books about nuclear war and the environment,
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"Warday" and "Nature's End," Strieber said he has received more than
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2,000 letters from readers, over half of whom claim some kind of alien
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contact.
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He is forming a referral service network of doctors and counselors --
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not UFO investigators -- for people who have written to him claiming
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paranormal experiences.
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"People know that something is going on and it's not understood by
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science," Strieber said. "The result of this is they're just simply not
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going to buy the debunkers. They shouldn't believe them. The real
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problem we have now is that the debunkers are frightening the
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scientific community into not taking a clear-headed look at this.
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"`Communion' has been done with a lot of care and a lot of attention
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to candor," he added. "There's no reason that someone with a good
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reputation can't take it seriously and study it seriously."
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Many details of Strieber's alleged encounters emerged during hypnosis
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sessions with a New York City psychiatrist, transcripts of which are
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included in the book.
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Strieber says he underwent a battery of physical and psychological
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tests that showed him to be normal, and also passed two polygraphs. The
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bottom of each page of "Communion" asserts that Strieber's is "A True
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Story."
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"I believe it so completely that I can take a lie detector test and
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pass," he said. "I cannot be convinced -- not by myself, not by a
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psychiatrist, not by anybody -- that there is the slightest doubt this
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is real."
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Strieber, who includes his wife and 8-year-old son among witnesses to
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the paranormal happenings, is writing a sequel entitled
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"Transformation" about subsequent visits.
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The author received a $1 million advance from the publisher for
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"Communion" but said negotiations haven't been completed for the new
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book, which details his struggle to come to terms with being the
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apparent subject of alien experiments.
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"Transformation" includes one "major" encounter and three minor ones
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with the same humanoids, Strieber said. The sequel is about his
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transformation"from a frightened victim to someone who is going to tell
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it like it was, damn the consequences."
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He said he no longer fears when he will be "visited" again.
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"I just live my life," Strieber said. "When these happen it's always
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a little startling. But I don't think in terms of when it will happen
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again."
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The author said he had no interest in UFOs until his first
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encounters.
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"It just didn't seem to matter very much," he said. "My concerns were
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peace and the environment."
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"When I was 11 or 12 there were (outer space) movies ... but it
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wasn't something that we thought was particularly real. It was science
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fiction, but you don't expect science fiction to be real."
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------
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("Communion" is published by William Morrow.)
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Copyright 1987 by the Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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**********************************************
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* THE U.F.O. BBS - http://www.ufobbs.com/ufo *
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********************************************** |