Is Striebers new book worth a read?

[Goggs Mackay]

While I can't say I believe Strieber's stuff literally happened, I have a hard time thinking he is a deliberate charlatan. I guess he is still in my grey basket also.

Yeah Steve, it certainly is no small thing to accuse someone of being an outright liar, especially when there is no proof. Innocent until proven guilty is the right way to be but I suppose I could accept Whitley is not setting out to deceive - possibly if he had suffered sleep paralysis and his brain's interpretation is greys, then he could be honest without telling the objective truth.

An interesting aside, that is very relevant, is that other people have reported weird events around Strieber's place in New York - it is more of a thing to accuse several people of conspiring to lie than it is for one person.

I am reading a book right now called 'Alien Investigator' - written by an ex-UK cop with a spotless record. According to him, he had taken a number of skeptical people with him to where he was routinely seeing UFOs and those people also saw them.

That classic argument about the testimony of UFO witnesses being good enough to convict someone of a serious crime but being worthless if it's about UFOs springs to mind.

 

[trainedobserver]

Strieber seems to be going with a modified ascended masters hypothesis now. The visitors, or some of them, are "evolved" humans who can change from physical to "radiant" states who use trauma and something like the principle behind Zen koans to change human DNA and evolve the human race. Strieber also spends an inordinate amount of time in the book attempting to dispel the notion of humans being behind crop circle creation with uninformed and inaccurate arguments. I think his genetic pseudo-science and spiritualism is of a similar caliber.

 

[Goggs Mackay]

Greer is definitely full of shit though! No mistake there.

 

[icculus]

It's pretty amusing how critical Paratopia is of paranormal claims ( for very good reason ) but lobs cushy, nerf-softballs at Whitley. Why can't any body corner this guy and ask him so real questions? You name it, Whitley has experienced it.™

 

[Gene Steinberg]

Para-who?

In any case, we have invited Strieber on The Paracast. He's accepted twice and cancelled twice. I talked to him at the recent UFO convention in the Scottsdale, AZ area and he said maybe when his next book is out. He hasn't shown an indication of wanting to answer the hard questions.

 

[Goggs Mackay]

Surprised?

 

[jpw.in.wi]

Just out of curiosity, I tried to read The Key: A True Encounter, which was the only Strieber book I could check out from Overdrive to read on my NookColor. What a LOAD!!!! I could only stomach about 20 pages, and I returned it. After that experience, I wouldn't waste the time reading anything else by that guy.

 

[trainedobserver]

Just out of curiosity, I tried to read The Key: A True Encounter, which was the only Strieber book I could check out from Overdrive to read on my NookColor. What a LOAD!!!! I could only stomach about 20 pages, and I returned it. After that experience, I wouldn't waste the time reading anything else by that guy.

If I am not mistaken, Strieber says the Master of the Key told him crop circles are 2D portraits or self-portraits (I can't remember which) of these multidimensional beings. That pretty much shoots anything resembling credibility in the foot for The Key in my book.

 

[Kieran]

It's pretty amusing how critical Paratopia is of paranormal claims ( for very good reason ) but lobs cushy, nerf-softballs at Whitley. Why can't any body corner this guy and ask him so real questions? You name it, Whitley has experienced it.™

Ritzman, is convinced he was visited at night, at his home by a man, who wore a dark shroud, and this man according to Ritzman told him to write down the secrets of the universe on a piece of paper. He supposedly was a ghost or a man not of this earth. This was all claimed on a show a couple of months back that i listened to. Give me strength, it truly amazes me how Jeff gets up in the morning, and feels comfortable, in the knowledge hes full of shit. So is any wonder here Whitley gets a free pass! What was also astounding about this was how his listeners reacted they showed their gullibility. After hearing him blurt out this nonsense, if you had any commonsense at all you would laugh, and know this guy was a fool. But no his audience actually supported him and believed what he was saying!!! There really is some dumb people walking around today honestly.

Do i believe Whitley. Well the more i hear from this guy the less convinced i am becoming he is a true experiencer of the strange. I think there is good reason to believe this guy makes up stories, to sell books. Obviously with the success he had with communion, hes knows theres money to be made from this subject and has kept writing stuff that has a similar vein to it ever since. Before communion, he could have had a genuine experience happen to him and his family. But the bullshit that has came from his mouth since then is not believable least to me.

Been suddenly in the future, and not knowing how he got there, and claiming this all happened to him while he was behind the wheel of his trunk.This is alone tells me Whitley is prone to fantasy. He also claims he saw aliens walking around airports and he not only traveled to the future, but to the past (early 19 century i think) The latest fantasy is he was staying at a hotel or something and a mystery man he met or something told him strange stuff. There's just too much going on here, on a regular basis to believe him. If the stuff he was saying was remotely possible, more people would experience it, and we would be talking about it more often then we do now.

There is two things i know are true when one talks about the paranormal and esoteric subjects. UFO's exist, and people throughout time have been seeing them including myself. Other than that anything else i have heard, and read about the paranormal, is fantasy until proven otherwise.

 

[Goggs Mackay]

I've never understood Jeff Ritzmann. He often seems to be putting down the claims of many in the paranormal field, which would be absolutely fine if his own claims were not so out-there too!

Pot calling kettle, radio check, over..