Whitley Strieber's childhood memories
From the UAP Encyclopedia, the open encyclopedia of UFO and UAP history · 🗓️ Event
Contents 7
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| Date | October 1952 |
|---|---|
| Topics | Beings & bodies (topic) |
| People | Whitley Strieber, Jeffrey Kripal |
| Testimony | Shellenberger testimony, p. 46 |
| Year | 1952 in UFO history |
| Timeline | 1952 on the UAP Timeline |
| Sources | 5 |
Whitley Strieber (born 13 June 1945 in San Antonio, Texas), the author of the best-selling 1987 book Communion, has described strange memories from his childhood in San Antonio in the 1950s, which he has suggested might reflect testing by military or intelligence agencies. The claim rests entirely on his own recollections.[1][2]
*Communion*
Strieber, a former advertising executive turned novelist (The Wolfen, The Hunger), wrote in Communion that non-human beings, whom he called "the visitors", took him from his cabin in upstate New York on the night of 26 December 1985. The book reached number one on the New York Times non-fiction list and sold more than two million copies, helping make the large-eyed "grey" a cultural icon.[1]
*The Secret School*
In The Secret School (1996) Strieber examined memories of his San Antonio childhood, including recollections of being taken to a "school" where unusual lessons took place. He has suggested that some of these memories could reflect early interference by intelligence or military agencies, and that he and other children might have been tested at or near a Texas air base; he presents them as recollections whose meaning he is still trying to understand.[1][2]
Archives and scholarship
In 2016 Strieber co-wrote The Super Natural with religious studies scholar Jeffrey Kripal of Rice University, who in 2014 founded the Archives of the Impossible there. Strieber's papers, including thousands of letters from members of the public describing encounters, were transferred to the archive in 2023, and Rice has recorded oral history interviews with him.[1][3]
Criticism
There are no documents confirming any childhood testing, and critics note that memories recovered decades later can be unreliable. Skeptics have questioned other details of Strieber's accounts: he long described witnessing the 1966 University of Texas tower shooting, though he was not on campus that day. Philip Klass faulted him for dismissing temporal lobe epilepsy as an explanation, though Strieber said tests found no abnormality, and neurologist Steven Novella has linked his reported paralysis to hypnagogic experiences.[1]
People and topics
- Whitley Strieber — Author of Communion (1987) who has written about abduction experiences and childhood memories.
- Alien abduction — The claimed taking of people by non-human beings.
- U.S. Air Force — The U.S. military service that ran the official UFO projects from 1947 to 1969.
- Jeffrey Kripal — Rice University religious studies professor behind the Archives of the Impossible.
On the Timeline
- Garrison, Utah crash and burial claim (1953) (20 May 1953) — An anonymous Air Force official claims a craft crashed and was buried near Garrison, Utah.
- CIA–MIT talks on UFO study (1952) (2 December 1952) — A CIA science chief meets MIT leaders about studying UAP through Project Lincoln.
See every 1952 event on the UAP Timeline →
References
- Whitley Strieber — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- "The Secret School", Publishers Weekly · publishersweekly.com · archived copy
- "Rice University Archives of the Impossible", UFO Scans · ufoscans.com · archived copy
- scholarship.rice.edu · scholarship.rice.edu · archived copy
- texasmonthly.com · texasmonthly.com · archived copy
This page was last edited on 29 October 2026. Articles are written in our own words from the sources listed under References; disputed claims are attributed to the people who made them.
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