Whitley Strieber
From the UAP Encyclopedia, the open encyclopedia of UFO and UAP history · 👤 Person
Contents 5
_Whitley_Strieber.jpg)
| Type | Person |
|---|---|
| Also known as | Strieber |
| On the Timeline | 1 event, 1952 |
Louis Whitley Strieber (born 13 June 1945) is an American author of horror and thriller novels who became world-famous for Communion (1987), a non-fiction account of what he believed were encounters with non-human "visitors". The book's cover image of a grey-skinned being with large black eyes became one of the defining images of the alien abduction phenomenon.[1][2]
Early life and fiction
Strieber was born in San Antonio, Texas. He studied at the University of Texas at Austin and the London School of Film Technique, graduating in 1968, and worked in New York advertising, becoming a vice president, before leaving in 1977 to write full time. His werewolf novel The Wolfen (1978) and vampire novel The Hunger (1981) were both made into films, and Warday (1984), co-written with James Kunetka, imagined the aftermath of a limited nuclear war.[1]
Communion
In Communion: A True Story (1987), Strieber described waking in his cabin in upstate New York on 26 December 1985 to find small beings in his room, being taken to a craft and subjected to procedures, and recovering further memories through hypnosis. The book reached number one on The New York Times non-fiction list in hardcover and paperback, and sold more than two million copies. A 1989 film adaptation starred Christopher Walken as Strieber, who said he was dissatisfied with it.[1][2]
He followed it with Transformation (1988) and later books including The Key (2001), about a mysterious hotel-room visitor. With radio host Art Bell he wrote The Coming Global Superstorm (1999), about abrupt climate change. Since 1998 he has hosted the podcast Dreamland through his website Unknown Country. With Rice University religious studies scholar Jeffrey Kripal he wrote The Super Natural (2016), examining his experiences as part of a wider history of unexplained phenomena.[1][3]
Criticism
Skeptic Philip Klass argued that Strieber had too readily dismissed temporal lobe epilepsy as an explanation, and neurologist Steven Novella has linked his descriptions of waking paralysed with frightening visitors to sleep paralysis and hypnagogic hallucinations. Critics also pointed to inconsistencies in his autobiography, such as conflicting statements about whether he witnessed the 1966 University of Texas tower shooting. Strieber has said he does not know what the visitors are and has resisted simple labels such as "aliens".[1][4]
On the UAP Timeline
- Whitley Strieber's childhood memories (October 1952) — Author Whitley Strieber says he may have been tested at a Texas air base during childhood encounters.
References
- Whitley Strieber — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- "Strangers in the Night", Chicago Tribune (1997) · web.archive.org · archived copy
- Unknown Country (Strieber's website) · unknowncountry.com · archived copy
- Philip J. Klass, UFO Abductions: A Dangerous Game — Internet Archive · archive.org · 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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