Is Whitley Strieber Advocating Implants?

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Re: Is Whitley Strieber Advocating Implants?

Postby peartreed » Sun Jan 22, 2012 3:24 pm

Quite so.

I specified publicized Ufologists as an effort to distinguish them from most experiencers who tend to internalize the aftermath of contact and instigate a more personal and protectively private quest for understanding. When a contactee goes public, especially with articles, books and lectures on the saucer circuit, there is likely an ego-driven desire to become the Oracle of the Other. Often that ambition becomes the crusade and, in a competitive and acrimonious field of wannabe wunderkind, creative sensationalism is added for recruitment and commercial profit positioning. That also tends to leave the true cosmic learning in the lurch.

What results is what we have had for years in the seven decades of modern UFO reporting, the publicized and pilloried pile of profit-seeking, in-fighting prophets that simply add to the phenomenon's incredulity, and the more silent of our species who have been touched but are not talking. My experience in private forums with the latter has been more revelatory than the open reading of the tabloid accounts. The experience itself is far more upsettingly alien and ambiguous than self-promoted interpreters portray. The dramatic deviations and distortions designed to draw attention actually disparage and dilute the direct experience detail. The real deal leaves its target more dumbstruck than developed and deigned for divinity.
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Re: Is Whitley Strieber Advocating Implants?

Postby guruilla » Mon Jan 23, 2012 8:05 pm

peartreed wrote:The experience itself is far more upsettingly alien and ambiguous than self-promoted interpreters portray.

WS would probably agree with you here, and seems at pains to stress the same thing, ironically.

peartreed wrote:The dramatic deviations and distortions designed to draw attention actually disparage and dilute the direct experience detail. The real deal leaves its target more dumbstruck than developed and deigned for divinity.

If there's a corresponding pressure to find the words and will to testify, that could create quite a bind for an "experiencer." I noticed listening to a very old interview with WS (here), that he seemed more grounded, centered and calm about the whole thing back then, while in the thick of it, than he does these days, 25 years later.

Perhaps this suggests that he has been unhinged more by the (sought-after) pressures of assuming the role of "Oracle for the Other" than by the actual interfaces with "It"?
It is a lot easier to fool people than show them how they have been fooled.
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Re: Is Whitley Strieber Advocating Implants?

Postby peartreed » Mon Jan 23, 2012 8:50 pm

I agree that WS has become more unhinged and overreactive to self-imposed pressures and criticism. When I worked with him on CompuServe's UFO Forum in the late eighties and nineties he was emotionally unpredictable at the best of times, but recently his paranoia about internecine warfare in the ufology community aimed his way, as well as his financial plight from what he claims to be misdirected proceeds from his films and books, have compounded his radio and online ranting about being underappreciated.

He feels he deserves to be the go to guy to lead mankind into the next phase of extraterrestrial research, contact and communion.
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Re: Is Whitley Strieber Advocating Implants?

Postby Hammer of Los » Mon Jan 23, 2012 9:28 pm

...

guruilla wrote:
peartreed wrote:The experience itself is far more upsettingly alien and ambiguous than self-promoted interpreters portray.

WS would probably agree with you here, and seems at pains to stress the same thing, ironically.

peartreed wrote:The dramatic deviations and distortions designed to draw attention actually disparage and dilute the direct experience detail. The real deal leaves its target more dumbstruck than developed and deigned for divinity.

If there's a corresponding pressure to find the words and will to testify, that could create quite a bind for an "experiencer." I noticed listening to a very old interview with WS (here), that he seemed more grounded, centered and calm about the whole thing back then, while in the thick of it, than he does these days, 25 years later.

Perhaps this suggests that he has been unhinged more by the (sought-after) pressures of assuming the role of "Oracle for the Other" than by the actual interfaces with "It"?


It's a shame it has to be Whitley that brings out Peartreed and AKA the guruilla.

I always love to read your contributions, you two dear ones. The guruilla might recall I find him of more interest than Whitley.

But I guess Whitley is stuck deep in Chapel Perilous. Like the Manatee.

Perhaps he thought he had unlocked all the doors?

The gates.

Ahem.

Where was I?

The paragnosis is a long and wearisome course, my friends.

I sometimes think I've had enough with the onion peeling.

But I find if I hold it at arm's length, I cry not.

Besides, I know what lies beyond the last layer.

I ain't even readin' Whitley no more.

He scared me enough all those years ago.

Owls are not to be frightened of. The Owl is the familiar of Athena, Goddess of Wisdom. Sweet Sophia! How I do love thee!

Oh Athena, ever my first love. Wisdom!

Yet Terpsichore also is my muse.



:lovehearts: :angelwings: :lovehearts:

...
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Re: Is Whitley Strieber Advocating Implants?

Postby LilyPatToo » Tue Jan 24, 2012 1:21 am

slimmouse wrote:Any thoughts on the Travis Walton case ?


I know at least one UFO researcher who privately feels that it was Dr. James Harder who forever muddied the waters of the Travis Walton case. Whether that was his intention or whether he was simply incredibly incompetent and unprofessional probably won't ever be known. I Googled and found an article about the case that goes into some background info that I've not seen anywhere else here--while I'm not familiar with the site or its reputation, my eye was caught by the mention of "Australian newspaperman Jeff Wells was a member of the National Enquirer team that “packaged” the Travis Walton abduction story for publication." :shock: Any relation, Jeff?

Harder used to hold court in his Berkeley Hills home and friends talked me into going to one of his meetings years ago, then inexplicably left early without telling me, leaving me with a choice between an expensive taxi or a ride with one of Harder's close friends. Who turned out to be a would-be rapist. After fighting him off, I never went near the group again. There was something truly creepy about the professor and some of his crew, which I realize is very subjective, but I think it bears mentioning. Whatever did or didn't happen to Travis Walton, I feel sympathy for him. I wouldn't EVER want to be in a vulnerable position with Dr. Harder in charge.

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Re: Is Whitley Strieber Advocating Implants?

Postby guruilla » Mon Apr 02, 2012 1:38 pm

I somehow missed HoL's post from January. Sorry about that. Funny you mention layers of an onion, HoL, as that's the same metaphor I use in Part Two of the updated WS piece, which is currently running at Reality Sandwich. Part One is a rewrite of the original piece which first appeared here; and part two was largely inspired by the exchange I had at this particular thread. So RI has played a quite central role in this whole process, for me.

Argh and now I'm about to pick up my bags and fly across the ocean, so this will be very rushed. I just wanted to thank Jeff and everyone for making this space such a useful testing ground for a writer to thrash out ideas, and to share the "finished' (as if - is it eve?) product, over at Pinchbeck's site, here.

By for now.

guruilla.

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Re: Is Whitley Strieber Advocating Implants?

Postby peartreed » Tue Apr 17, 2012 9:31 pm

I just returned from reading your Part 2 of your essay, "Through a Glass, Darkly" - "Whitley's Onion" as mentioned above at:

http://www.realitysandwich.com/part_two_whitleys_onion

Your ongoing, detailed analysis of our anomalous author and abductee is amazingly fair and balanced, quite in contrast to the man himself, and the revelation of your empathy for him, your understanding and identification with the evolving stages of his strangely curious, contradicted and conflicted cosmology is truly commendable. I wish I had your level of sympathetic and compassionate caring for a megalomaniacal metaphysical messiah's moaning martyrdom and his petulant pique at the public's under-appreciation of his Ambassadorship for The Other. He can be one helluva writer but, for me, falls well short of divine or alien-inspired insight.

I guess if Whitley Strieber is the gatekeeper I'll remain banned from entering his enlightened realms. However, I really appreciate your onion peeling penetration and prying the odious gourd open enough for an interesting and informative peek at his occult obsessions.

I suspect his next primer might be something along the lines of, "Paranormal Paradise Lost".

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Re: Is Whitley Strieber Advocating Implants?

Postby guruilla » Wed Apr 18, 2012 4:31 am

Thanks peartreed. It's astonishing the array of different responses this piece has generated from scathingly hostile to glowingly warm (as in your case), with everything in-between. Nor are the hostile ones from Strieber supporters (few if any of whom have I heard from, besides Clelland), so it's not to do with party-leanings, either.

I noted that the RS tags for the piece included "cult," "child abuse," and "trauma" - a pigeon-hole no Messiah will be too happy about winding up in. Sorry Whitley.

Anyway, for me the Strieber case is now closed, cautiously and candidly, with the critical caveat that cases as complex as these, like consciousness itself, can never be categorically concluded.

your alliterative ever-aspergerian author

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