Cosmic Consciousness

Louis Whitley Strieber (born June 13, 1945) is known as an American writer. He is best known for his horror novels The Wolfen and The Hunger and for Communion, a non-fiction account of his experiences with non-human entities.

I’ve read a few of Whitley’s books and what I’ve found most compelling is the information he divulges about his inner life and experiences.

Wikipedia tells us he was born in San Antonio, Texas and that his father, Karl Strieber was a lawyer, that he attended Central Catholic High School in San Antonio, Texas. He was educated at the University of Texas at Austin and the London School of Film Technique, graduating from each in 1968. He then worked for several advertising firms in New York City, rising to the level of vice president before leaving in 1977 to pursue a writing career.

However Whitley tells us, in his book A New World (kindle pages 41-44) that his uncle was involved in the 1947 Roswell UFO Incident and he believes his father was in the intelligence community.

He also writes that between August and October 1952, he was involved in a special education project at Randolph Air Force base that utilised something called a Skinner box in enhanced learning experiments.

As a result he became terrified of his teacher at regular school, became sick and was eventually isolated at Brooke General Hospital and given injections of gamma globulin whilst being kept home until January 1953.

Communion, A True Story – 1985

The book, Communion, A True Story is based on Whitley’s experiences of “lost time” and terrifying flashbacks which lead to his seeking professional hypnosis, this links to his encounters with non-human entities or aliens. He calls them “The Visitors”.

1985 was the year Whitley had his first experience with the visitors. It frightened and confused him and although he was physically injured by it, he had difficulty believing that it had been a physical experience.

He remained very curious and began going out into the woods at night (from his upstate New York cabin) to try to somehow re-engage. 

The book cover painting of an alien was rendered by Ted Seth Jacobs and is considered one of the most widely recognised images of alleged “grey” aliens. Jacobs recounts: Whitley sat with me first for a drawing of the Alien. As I sketched, he would indicate how to change the portrait so that it would more match what he saw. Every last detail was corrected according to his instructions. At one point, he said the image corresponded exactly to what he had seen. 

I vividly remember the first time I saw that image. It was 1987 and I was living in central London. I didn’t see it in a book store on a book cover, I first saw the image on a poster as I walked towards Camden Town Underground Station. It was pasted in practically every single bus stop shelter in London. Other than the face, there was no information other than the teaser tag-line, “coming soon”.

What was coming soon? This was the first “viral” advertising campaign I had seen. People were talking about it and I thought it was, oh so clever!

The book, Communion was a nonfiction best seller for six months in 1987. As previously mentioned, Whitley has worked in the adverting business and he definitely knows how to sell!

Another fact about Whitley I found very interesting is that since 1969, he has been continuously involved with the Gurdjieff foundation.

George Ivanovich Gurdjieff

GI Gurdjieff (13 January 1866 – 29 October 1949), was a Greek-Armenian guru and writer. He was an influential spiritual teacher during the first half of the 20th century. He was influenced by Sufi, Zen and Yoga mystics he met on his travels.

Gurdjieff taught that most people live their entire lives in a state of hypnotic “waking sleep”, the idea being that man is not fully conscious, but this can be changed.

He developed a method for working towards a higher state of consciousness and achieving full human potential. He called this “The Work” or “The Method”.

Gurdjieff’s method for awakening one’s consciousness is different from that of the fakir, monk or yogi, so his discipline was called originally the “Fourth Way”.

To follow the way he proposed nothing is to be believed until verified by direct experience. It is a way in life where gradually, everything has to be questioned; one’s beliefs, assumptions, attitudes, one’s whole outlook on the life.

Meditation (work with attention in quiet conditions) is one of the central forms of practice in the Gurdjieff tradition.

The Work provides a method for individuals to prepare a place for higher influences to appear in their lives.  A path based on direct experience rather than belief, capable of leading a serious student toward a more intelligent, compassionate, and vibrant existence rooted in consciousness.

Whitely describes using meditation throughout his books, becoming deeply engaged with the entities he calls “the visitors”. He says:

“when the visitors entered my life in 1985, they used the same teaching techniques that I was familiar with from my Gurdjieff Work. So I work with them, also. I have been active in my Foundation work now for more than 50 years, 30 of which I have also worked with the visitors.”

Whitely Strieber

Whitley was married to Anne Mattocks Strieber (August 25, 1946 – August 11, 2015) for 42 years. She was a writer and a producer, known for The Life After Death Project 2: Personal Encounters (2013), The Life After Death Project (2013) and Tales of the Twilight Typist (1994).

She was the managing editor of her husband’s Web site, unknowncountry.com and was a host of the Dreamland radio show podcast presented from the website.

After a near fatal brain haemorrhage in 2004, Anne had a near death experience. She became an expert in afterlife studies and later, when diagnosed with a brain tumour, created a plan of after life contact. To Whitley’s amazement, she proceeded to carry thee plan out, starting just an hour and a half after she died.

The book The Afterlife Revolution, written by Whitley and Anne Strieber is the story of this communication.

Whitely and Anne had a son, Andrew, who was born in 1982 and works in the film and tv industry.

Whiteley Strieber is undoubtedly a brilliant, professional story teller. He started his writing career in 1979 and has written over 40 books.

The Wolfen, the Hunger, Communion and Superstorm have all been made into films (Superstorm as the Day After Tomorrow). His series Alien Hunter was a TV series called Hunters on the SyFy Channel.

Whatever Whitely writes, it is always a disturbing, intriguing, shocking and an incredible experience, it stays in your thoughts long after you finish reading the book. Whether it’s UFOs, orbs, non-human entities or abductions, he is unflinchingly honest, constantly questioning and detailed in his thoughts and experiences.

He has been willing to hold himself up to intense worldwide scrutiny – including suffering the most aggressive and destructive media attacks.

Regardless of whether or not you believe Whitley’s experiences or agree with some of his theories, he is an incredible writer.

And personally, I do believe many things he writes – especially his experiences of the communion of consciousness.