Book Review: Communion (A True Story)

One of my favourite books 'Communion: A True Story' was reviewed inside our inaugural issue of the Oddities e-Club Magazine, enjoy...

Overview

Communion: A True Story is a book by American ufologist and horror author Whitley Strieber that was first published in February 1987. The book is based on Strieber's alleged experiences with non-human, possibly extraterrestrial entities.

Rating

****
AWESOME

Review

Being the librarian for UFO Research Queensland I'm exposed to a large amount of UFO and Alien media. I have to recommend a lot of books, DVDs and websites to both beginners and experienced Ufologists alike. Recently I was asked to write about the book that spawned the interest for me. 

As a boy, around 15, I remember spotting a copy of the book in a Garden City Newsagent (Brisbane, Australia). Being a curious lad the front cover was etched into my brain immediately. I mean here I am writing about it 30 years later! That image of a pale skinned creature with huge eyes and a slit for a mouth. Of course I had to have it! I scurried it home and read it meticulously from cover to cover. For a curious teenage boy it was amazing! Whitely tells his personal account of Alien abduction from his secluded holiday cabin. He describes in great detail his fear and shock of seeing a strange being peeking into his bedroom and then approaching him while lying helpless. He described himself as frozen somehow by some unearthly technology or spell. Later in other glimpses of consciousness he describes how he finds himself on a table in another place (a spacecraft?) undergoing weird medical examinations. At first he could not come to terms with what was happening to him. Local Newspapers reported strange objects in the surrounding areas. His family who were with him in the cabin also described strange phenomena. Finally Whitley succumbed to his tortured mind and contacted famous UFO researcher Budd Hopkins for help. With the help of hypnotic regression Whitely was finally able to piece his puzzle together. Strieber says himself that he can never be sure exactly if his mind created all these experiences or if indeed inter-dimensional beings were actually interacting with him. It would be a difficult thing to live with, considering the fame this book brought him over the years. He never really liked the term Aliens and preferred Visitors instead. 

This is the perfect book for anyone interested in the UFO phenomena. It covers all the basics, UFOs, Alien Home Invasion, Inter-demensional theory and of course Abduction. It also shines light upon Regression hypnosis. Highly Recommended.

Reviewed by Alan Reading, Ufologist, UFO Research Queensland Inc.