Pearce
Jedi Master
I just finished Strieber's latest book A New World which was published in November 2019. I figured why not and it was only $15.
Well, I'm underwhelmed to say the least. I don't for a minute doubt his experiences, but I do highly doubt his interpretation of them. But as it is his journey and I've no first-hand knowledge of the exact experiences he describes, I cannot fully state that his interpretation is incorrect. I can say that I've had a few experiences similar in ways to some of what he describes, and both my own, and nearly every story he recounts in the book, left me feeling very invaded and was not by any stretch of the imagination a pleasant experience, even if later on it could be said to have been a springboard to events that did have beneficial outcomes.
Essentially though, the first half of the book gives the impression that Strieber possibly has symptoms of Stockholm Syndrome. He repeatedly describes events that send off his alarm bells and for a while does have his defenses up, but at the same time seems to be describing how great they are and that even though there's a lot of terror involved in the interactions, that it's actually a good thing.
He describes in not much detail, (a recurring theme throughout the book) the night he received his implant, and how he fought back and forth with wanting to remove it, but now has come to love it even if he thinks it isn't there any longer because it dissolved or something. He also says he's going to tell more about who the people were that broke into his home to do so, but he never really gets back to them in a meaningful way.
What he does spend a lot of time on is that he thinks his wife Anne, who passed away in 2015, is on the other end of the device communicating with him from the other side. He describes the effects of the implant as "a slit" opening in his right eye that allows words and symbols to race past sometimes giving him insights and sometimes really providing nothing as the words move too fast to read.
The second half of the book takes a different flavor as he seems to begin questioning where all of this leads in a much more serious manner. He still posits that the experiences have been overwhelmingly positive in their effects, if not in their approach, and repeats himself many times saying that he is under pressure from them to finish this book which is supposed to serve as inspiration to others to not be afraid of the methods of their communication or contact.
That was a big theme throughout the whole book actually, the time factor, namely that there wasn't much time left and that he was sensing these visitors were becoming unhappy with his progress or ability to uphold his end of the promise in saying that he could do what he said he could do, which is I assume writing books in their favor. Like I said, I don't doubt that these experiences happened as he said, I guess what stands out to me about the time issue is that if he is being directed, then what we can sense elsewhere in the body politics and other world issues, that of desperation among those in power, well all of this could be like the C's say - an effect of the wave.
However, if his purpose with this book was to lessen the fear of contact, I'm afraid from my perspective the opposite was true, because like I said before all of his descriptions left me with a sense of feeling invaded and those are not the type of contacts that I wish to pursue, especially with entities that I cannot see or understand. I was also put off by the way the stories lacked detail and just ended with no additional commentary in most cases.
Why Whitley, when you awoke to something "other" in your bed, touching your genitals, would you not only leave out any commentary on how that affected your emotional state of mind; why would you advocate that pursuing contact with an entity like that would be sensible? We don't, when healthy, stay in contact with rapists or someone who has violated us as such on Earth, so why would it make sense to cozy up to an interstellar one??
And when another version of you at best, or another interstellar lowlife at worst, follows you across the country and homoerotically violates your mind, what part of that experience is the part I'm supposed to say "yeah I'm down for that." I mean, I like to think I'm open minded but sheesh!
This was my first Strieber book so all of these points could be a recurring theme with his writing style, but I was like "damn dude finish a thought!"
With all that said, he does end on a note I can agree with, which is we need more transparency in our search, more open dialogue among people, and as much information we can gain about them, which gee I just wish everyone would read Laura's work. It's truly the most comprehensive work I've ever encountered about what's going on out there. SpaceFarm101 is the most logical answer in my mind, as above so below, everyone and everything in this physical universe is scared and hungry; scared of being hungry. Don Juan said it best when he said that we have the predator's mind and that our food insecurity is their food insecurity. We build farms so we don't go hungry. So do they.
Well, I'm underwhelmed to say the least. I don't for a minute doubt his experiences, but I do highly doubt his interpretation of them. But as it is his journey and I've no first-hand knowledge of the exact experiences he describes, I cannot fully state that his interpretation is incorrect. I can say that I've had a few experiences similar in ways to some of what he describes, and both my own, and nearly every story he recounts in the book, left me feeling very invaded and was not by any stretch of the imagination a pleasant experience, even if later on it could be said to have been a springboard to events that did have beneficial outcomes.
Essentially though, the first half of the book gives the impression that Strieber possibly has symptoms of Stockholm Syndrome. He repeatedly describes events that send off his alarm bells and for a while does have his defenses up, but at the same time seems to be describing how great they are and that even though there's a lot of terror involved in the interactions, that it's actually a good thing.
He describes in not much detail, (a recurring theme throughout the book) the night he received his implant, and how he fought back and forth with wanting to remove it, but now has come to love it even if he thinks it isn't there any longer because it dissolved or something. He also says he's going to tell more about who the people were that broke into his home to do so, but he never really gets back to them in a meaningful way.
What he does spend a lot of time on is that he thinks his wife Anne, who passed away in 2015, is on the other end of the device communicating with him from the other side. He describes the effects of the implant as "a slit" opening in his right eye that allows words and symbols to race past sometimes giving him insights and sometimes really providing nothing as the words move too fast to read.
The second half of the book takes a different flavor as he seems to begin questioning where all of this leads in a much more serious manner. He still posits that the experiences have been overwhelmingly positive in their effects, if not in their approach, and repeats himself many times saying that he is under pressure from them to finish this book which is supposed to serve as inspiration to others to not be afraid of the methods of their communication or contact.
That was a big theme throughout the whole book actually, the time factor, namely that there wasn't much time left and that he was sensing these visitors were becoming unhappy with his progress or ability to uphold his end of the promise in saying that he could do what he said he could do, which is I assume writing books in their favor. Like I said, I don't doubt that these experiences happened as he said, I guess what stands out to me about the time issue is that if he is being directed, then what we can sense elsewhere in the body politics and other world issues, that of desperation among those in power, well all of this could be like the C's say - an effect of the wave.
However, if his purpose with this book was to lessen the fear of contact, I'm afraid from my perspective the opposite was true, because like I said before all of his descriptions left me with a sense of feeling invaded and those are not the type of contacts that I wish to pursue, especially with entities that I cannot see or understand. I was also put off by the way the stories lacked detail and just ended with no additional commentary in most cases.
Why Whitley, when you awoke to something "other" in your bed, touching your genitals, would you not only leave out any commentary on how that affected your emotional state of mind; why would you advocate that pursuing contact with an entity like that would be sensible? We don't, when healthy, stay in contact with rapists or someone who has violated us as such on Earth, so why would it make sense to cozy up to an interstellar one??
And when another version of you at best, or another interstellar lowlife at worst, follows you across the country and homoerotically violates your mind, what part of that experience is the part I'm supposed to say "yeah I'm down for that." I mean, I like to think I'm open minded but sheesh!
This was my first Strieber book so all of these points could be a recurring theme with his writing style, but I was like "damn dude finish a thought!"
With all that said, he does end on a note I can agree with, which is we need more transparency in our search, more open dialogue among people, and as much information we can gain about them, which gee I just wish everyone would read Laura's work. It's truly the most comprehensive work I've ever encountered about what's going on out there. SpaceFarm101 is the most logical answer in my mind, as above so below, everyone and everything in this physical universe is scared and hungry; scared of being hungry. Don Juan said it best when he said that we have the predator's mind and that our food insecurity is their food insecurity. We build farms so we don't go hungry. So do they.
Don't know if you'll read this thread but thank you!
I jest and apologize for my probably misplaced humor