Brief
Communion
The claims the writer was given for Communion, in the order they were given.
1
Kary Mullis had told no one of his own 1985 encounter until his daughter Louise Mullis called to tell him of her own strange experience, after which she advised him to buy Whitley Strieber's book Communion.
“Mullis had told no one of his own experience until his daughter called to tell her father about her strange experience and advised him to buy a book, Whitley Strieber's Communion.”
Hair of the Alien: DNA and Other Forensic Evidence for Alien Abductions 2005-11-14 ch13:3580-3749 testimony first hand
2
Communion, Whitley Strieber's 1987 account of his claimed encounters with aliens, sold millions of copies.
“Communion, Whitley Strieber's 1987 account of his claimed encounters with aliens, sold millions of copies and solidified in public consciousness the perception of the alien as bald with large dark eyes.”
Hair of the Alien: DNA and Other Forensic Evidence for Alien Abductions 2005-11-14 ch7:2462-2659 administrative
3
Communion solidified in public consciousness the perception of the alien as bald with large dark eyes, prompting thousands of accounts describing aliens worldwide.
“Thousands of accounts describing aliens emerged worldwide in response to this extraordinary public profiling of the alien image.”
Hair of the Alien: DNA and Other Forensic Evidence for Alien Abductions 2005-11-14 ch7:2665-2787 administrative
4
Whitley Strieber states that all the transcripts of his hypnosis sessions with Dr. Donald Klein are verbatim, allowing readers to confirm Dr. Klein did not ask leading questions.
“This can easily be confirmed by the reader, as all the transcripts of my hypnosis sessions are verbatim.”
Communion 2013-06-16 ch10:3291-3386 administrative first hand
5
What follows in the text are two transcripts of hypnotic regressions covering Whitley Strieber's buried memories of the October 4 and December 26, 1985 abduction experiences.
“What follows here are two transcripts of hypnotic regressions, covering my buried memories of October 4 and December 26, 1985.”
Communion 2013-06-16 ch10:7224-7345 administrative first hand
6
Whitley Strieber considers Communion to be a chronicle both of his discovery of a visitor's presence in the world and of how he has learned to fear the visitors less.
“this book then becomes a chronicle not only of my discovery of a visitor's presence in the world but also one of how I have learned to fear them less.”
Communion 2013-06-16 ch12:102058-102203 opinion first hand
7
Ted Jacobs's cover portrait of the being for Communion is a bit more human-looking than Whitley Strieber's actual mental image of it.
“although the final result, on the cover of this book, is a bit more human than was actually the case.”
Communion 2013-06-16 ch12:108339-108435 observation first hand
8
Whitley Strieber states that the being's mouth was actually nothing more than a complex line with no lips at all, and its cranium was larger than depicted on the cover portrait of Communion.
“Specifically, the mouth was nothing more than a line, albeit a complex one. There were no lips at all. And the cranium was a good bit larger than the cover portrait would suggest.”
Communion 2013-06-16 ch12:108441-108612 observation first hand
9
In a footnote to the hypnosis transcript, Whitley Strieber noted that neither Jacques Sandulescu nor Annie Gottlieb testified that they got up that night, and both were awake enough to remember their own movements and each other's.
“(No. Neither of them testified that they got up, and both of them were awake enough to remember their own movements and that of the other.)”
Communion 2013-06-16 ch13:25101-25232 administrative first hand
10
In a footnote to the hypnosis transcript, Whitley Strieber noted that Annie Gottlieb did not leave her room and did not speak to their son that night.
“(Annie Gottlieb did not leave her room, and did not speak to our son.)”
Communion 2013-06-16 ch13:25512-25576 administrative first hand
11
In a footnote, Whitley Strieber noted that Anne Strieber's description of the "little feet" of the white thing at the LaGuardia Place apartment in 1982 reminded him of Annie Gottlieb's memory of "scampering" in their country house in 1985, and that Anne Strieber was unaware of Annie Gottlieb's account at the time of her own hypnosis.
“(On reading this description of "little feet" in our apartment m 1982. I was reminded of Annie Gottlieb's memory of "scampering" in our country house in 1985. At the time of her hypnosis my wife was unaware of Annie's testimony.)”
Communion 2013-06-16 ch13:34213-34430 administrative first hand
12
Whitley Strieber noted that before Anne Strieber's second hypnosis session, he inadvertently let slip to her that he thought he had been screaming on the night of October 4, 1985, which may have tainted her subsequent recollection.
“Unfortunately, during discussions about her first session I inadvertently let slip that I thought I had been screaming on the night of October 4. Even though her memory may thus have been tainted, her recollection of this is so vivid in the transcript that it may also be that it really happened.”
Communion 2013-06-16 ch13:38121-38408 administrative first hand
13
Whitley Strieber had considered calling his book Body Terror because of the extreme physical sensation of fear he had felt on December 26, 1985.
“I had thought to call this book *Body Terror* because of the extreme physical sensation of fear I had felt on December 26.”
Communion 2013-06-16 ch13:65185-65304 testimony first hand
14
One night in April, Anne Strieber talked in her sleep and, in a strange basso profundo voice, said the book must not frighten people and should be called Communion.
“Suddenly she said in a strange basso profundo voice: "The book must not frighten people. You should call it *Communion*, because that's what it's about."”
Communion 2013-06-16 ch13:65308-65454 observation first hand
15
Whitley Strieber underwent the polygraph examination to reassure readers that he sincerely believes he perceived the events reported in Communion, and states that the book is not fiction and contains no fictional content.
“The reason I carried out the polygraph was to reassure readers that I honestly think that I perceived the things reported in this book. It is not fiction, and does not contain a word of fiction.”
Communion 2013-06-16 ch17:1064-1250 opinion first hand
16
Whitley Strieber states that Communion is a true story as far as he knows how to describe it.
“It is a true story, as true as I know how to describe it.”
Communion 2013-06-16 ch8:179-233 testimony first hand
17
Whitley Strieber describes Communion as the story of one man's attempt to deal with a shattering assault from the unknown.
“This is the story of one man's attempt to deal with a shattering assault from the unknown.”
Communion 2013-06-16 ch8:87-169 administrative first hand
18
Jeffrey Kripal recounted that Whitley Strieber told an audience he was fully aware that his visionary experience of the visitors described in his novel Communion was deeply informed by the bad science-fiction B movies he had seen as a child in the cold-war 1950s in southern Texas.
“Reflecting on a talk by “alien abductee” Whitley Strieber about the experiences that informed his best-selling novel, Communion, Jeffrey Kripal notes the role played by popular culture: “One evening he [Whitley] explained to us that he was perfectly aware that his visionary experience of the visitors was deeply informed by the bad sci-fi B movies that he had seen in such numbers as a kid in the cold war 1950s in southern Texas.””
American Cosmic 2019 ch4:33641-34068 testimony second hand
19
Whitley Strieber has come to understand that the Communion cover portrait was intended to cause people who had been contacted to realise that what they thought was a strange dream that lingered in their minds was in fact in some way real.
“I have come to understand that the portrait was intended to cause the people they had contacted to realize that what they had thought was a strange dream that lingered in their minds was, in fact, in some way real.”
The Fourth Mind 2025-01-15 ch11:15861-16070 opinion first hand
20
During his December 1985 abduction experience, Whitley Strieber saw a more complex mouth on the being that peered at him intently, as depicted on the cover of Communion.
“As the cover of Communion reveals, I saw a somewhat more complex mouth on the one that peered at me so intently during the abduction experience”
The Fourth Mind 2025-01-15 ch11:20739-20872 testimony first hand
21
General Arthur Exon told Whitley Strieber, after Strieber published Communion in 1987, that everybody from Harry Truman on down knew within twenty-four hours of finding it that what had been found was not of this world.
“General Exon told me after I published Communion in 1987 that “everybody from Truman on down knew that what we had found was not of this world within twenty-four hours of our finding it.””
The Fourth Mind 2025-01-15 ch11:795-978 testimony second hand
22
In Whitley Strieber's experience, one of the nonhuman beings' fingers functions as a thumb, though there is no way to tell which one just by looking, which is why he described it that way in Communion.
“one of these fingers does work as a thumb, in my experience, but there is no way to tell which one just by looking at them... This is why I described it as I did in Communion.”
The Fourth Mind 2025-01-15 ch13:18151-18322 opinion first hand
23
Whitley Strieber recalled asking the woman depicted on the cover of Communion whether she was old, and she replied "I am old."
“I recall asking the woman on the cover of Communion if she was old and getting the reply, "I am old."”
The Fourth Mind 2025-01-15 ch14:25064-25160 testimony first hand
24
A person who contacted Peter Khoury a few days prior, when discussing the Communion book cover, asked him whether it was a black poster with white writing, matching a detail from that person's own experience.
“I just had a couple of days ago, someone described and he said to me, when you talked about the communion poster, he actually asked, I should pull it up. He actually said to me, uh, Peter, was it a black poster with white writing?”
UFO Witness Reveals CHILLING Daytime Alien Encounter - Peter Khoury - DEBRIEFED ep. 58 2025-10-17 01:26:46.4-01:27:02.6 hearsay second hand
25
Two weeks after the "They're here" poster, Peter Khoury and Vivian saw a large advertising poster for the book Communion at a bus shelter.
“And as they move, there's this massive poster and it's the poster for communion. Cover of the book Communion.”
UFO Witness Reveals CHILLING Daytime Alien Encounter - Peter Khoury - DEBRIEFED ep. 58 2025-10-17 01:40:59.6-01:41:07.3 testimony first hand
26
Vivian reacted with shock upon seeing the Communion book cover poster, saying it depicted what Peter Khoury had described to her.
“She looked at it before. Like she was like blown away. It's like, oh my God, that's what you described.”
UFO Witness Reveals CHILLING Daytime Alien Encounter - Peter Khoury - DEBRIEFED ep. 58 2025-10-17 01:41:15.4-01:41:19.3 testimony first hand
27
The book Communion was written by Whitley Strieber.
“the movie, the book communion by Whitley Strieber, you know?”
UFO Witness Reveals CHILLING Daytime Alien Encounter - Peter Khoury - DEBRIEFED ep. 58 2025-10-17 01:41:27.4-01:41:30.3 administrative
28
After hearing the Whitley Strieber interview, Peter Khoury ordered and obtained a copy of the book Communion.
“So I ordered the book, got the book.”
UFO Witness Reveals CHILLING Daytime Alien Encounter - Peter Khoury - DEBRIEFED ep. 58 2025-10-17 01:43:42.5-01:43:44.3 testimony first hand
29
Vivian told Peter Khoury that someone had written a book, Communion, about his story, after seeing him photograph her holding the book at his parents' house.
“as she walked in, she said, Peter, you've told your story to someone else and they've gone and written a book about it... She goes, this is your story. This is what you told me.”
UFO Witness Reveals CHILLING Daytime Alien Encounter - Peter Khoury - DEBRIEFED ep. 58 2025-10-17 01:44:09.0-01:44:19.2 testimony first hand
30
The book Communion was a New York Times bestseller for six months.
“That was partially the reason for this book being the New York Times bestseller for six months was millions of people resonated with something in that book”
UFO Witness Reveals CHILLING Daytime Alien Encounter - Peter Khoury - DEBRIEFED ep. 58 2025-10-17 01:44:25.3-01:44:38.3 opinion first hand
31
Whitley Strieber felt compelled to make a particular commissioned artwork the cover of the book Communion so that people could recognise the depicted being.
“Whitley's story about the, um, having that commissioned by the artist, uh, is a big story as well... he was, he felt compelled to make that the cover. Like he had to make that the cover... so people could recognize it.”
UFO Witness Reveals CHILLING Daytime Alien Encounter - Peter Khoury - DEBRIEFED ep. 58 2025-10-17 01:44:53.7-01:45:07.8 hearsay second hand
32
Peter Khoury considers the depiction of the hooded beings on the cover and in the film of Communion to be an extremely accurate match to what he saw during his encounter, better than he believes he could have described to an artist himself.
“I could not have done it as well as it was done in the book Communion... the beings, the way they looked, couldn't, couldn't fault it. The, sorry, the hooded ones... perfection the way they depicted in that store in that book yeah and in the movie is exactly what they look like”
UFO Witness Reveals CHILLING Daytime Alien Encounter - Peter Khoury - DEBRIEFED ep. 58 2025-10-17 01:45:19.9-01:45:43.0 opinion first hand
33
Vivian, who did not have the encounter experience herself, still reacted strongly to seeing the Communion book cover.
“Even Vivian reacted to it and she hadn't had the experience.”
UFO Witness Reveals CHILLING Daytime Alien Encounter - Peter Khoury - DEBRIEFED ep. 58 2025-10-17 01:46:13.0-01:46:15.4 observation first hand
34
Vivian read the book Communion every day on the train to work and repeatedly told Peter Khoury that details in the book matched exactly what he had told her.
“every day without fail every day she'd read it on the train on the way to work then she'd call me when she got to work and she'd be like Peter... everything you've said to me it's in this book. Someone has written your story, I'm telling you.”
UFO Witness Reveals CHILLING Daytime Alien Encounter - Peter Khoury - DEBRIEFED ep. 58 2025-10-17 01:46:29.5-01:46:45.1 testimony second hand
35
Communion and Breakthrough are bestselling books by Whitley Strieber.
“including the bestsellers Communion and Breakthrough”
Whitley Strieber Reveals What 40 Years of Encounters Taught Him | Reality Check Rewind 2026-08-14 00:00:32.6-00:00:35.1 administrative first hand
36
Whitley Strieber's book Communion, about being taken by non-human sentient beings, was a New York Times bestseller.
“his book, Communion, where he wrote about being taken by non-human sentient beings was a huge New York Times bestseller”
Whitley Strieber Reveals What 40 Years of Encounters Taught Him | Reality Check Rewind 2026-08-14 00:00:58.2-00:01:07.6 administrative first hand
37
Ross Coulthart has met many people who describe encounter experiences that were triggered by the image of the grey alien on the cover of the original edition of Whitley Strieber's Communion.
“I've lost count of the number of people I've met who describe experiences and how they were triggered by the image of the grey alien on the front cover of the original copy of Communion”
Whitley Strieber Reveals What 40 Years of Encounters Taught Him | Reality Check Rewind 2026-08-14 00:01:09.8-00:01:21.3 testimony first hand
38
Whitley Strieber's book Transformation was the sequel to Communion.
“which was the sequel to Communion”
Whitley Strieber Reveals What 40 Years of Encounters Taught Him | Reality Check Rewind 2026-08-14 00:01:34.6-00:01:36.1 administrative first hand
39
While Whitley Strieber was writing Communion, people suggested to him that what happened to him may have been an out-of-body experience.
“Because everyone was saying to me, well, maybe what happened to you was an out-of-body experience.”
Whitley Strieber Reveals What 40 Years of Encounters Taught Him | Reality Check Rewind 2026-08-14 00:25:14.0-00:25:17.8 testimony first hand
40
Whitley Strieber had not heard of an out-of-body experience until people suggested one as an explanation for what happened to him while he was writing Communion.
“I hadn't even heard of an out-of-body experience until then.”
Whitley Strieber Reveals What 40 Years of Encounters Taught Him | Reality Check Rewind 2026-08-14 00:25:18.2-00:25:20.6 testimony first hand
41
After Whitley Strieber published Communion, his uncle telephoned him saying he had asked for and received permission to talk to him about matters he thought Strieber should know.
“called me one day after I had published Communion and said he had received permission, had asked for and received permission, to talk to me about some things that he thought I should know about this stuff.”
Whitley Strieber Reveals What 40 Years of Encounters Taught Him | Reality Check Rewind 2026-08-14 00:38:56.5-00:39:08.3 testimony first hand
42
Ross Coulthart considers that a decision must have been made somewhere in the leadership, perhaps in the United States Air Force or the legacy programme, that Whitley Strieber needed a briefing after he published Communion in the 1980s.
“One assumes that a decision was made somewhere in the leadership, perhaps in the US Air Force or the legacy program, that you needed a briefing after you published communion in the 80s.”
Whitley Strieber Reveals What 40 Years of Encounters Taught Him | Reality Check Rewind 2026-08-14 00:45:17.7-00:45:27.2 opinion first hand
43
Whitley Strieber considers that Communion opened a door in many minds because readers who saw the face on the cover recognised it and recalled the same thing happening to them.
“Communion opened that door in a lot of minds, that door that I was just talking about into this other world, because when people saw that face, they thought, oh, my God, I remember that. That happened to me.”
Whitley Strieber Reveals What 40 Years of Encounters Taught Him | Reality Check Rewind 2026-08-14 00:45:37.5-00:45:53.3 opinion first hand
44
Whitley Strieber considers that people in the United States Air Force were shocked by the effect of Communion and did not expect it to happen.
“i think there were people in the air force were shocked by this and didn't expect it to happen”
Whitley Strieber Reveals What 40 Years of Encounters Taught Him | Reality Check Rewind 2026-08-14 00:46:01.3-00:46:07.0 opinion first hand
45
Instead of selling Communion in to bookshops in the normal way, the publisher shipped boxes of the book without warning to every bookstore in the United States.
“like the publisher instead of selling the book in which they would normally do with a book they just shipped the books without any warning to every bookstore in the United States in boxes and people open the boxes and there they were”
Whitley Strieber Reveals What 40 Years of Encounters Taught Him | Reality Check Rewind 2026-08-14 00:46:10.6-00:46:26.4 testimony first hand
46
Whitley Strieber considers that someone in the publishing company knew there would be resistance to Communion and that the book would be suppressed if they tried to sell it in normally.
“Because someone in the publishing company knew, apparently, that there would be resistance from somewhere if they try to sell in, the book would be suppressed. And how they knew that or who knew it, I don't know”
Whitley Strieber Reveals What 40 Years of Encounters Taught Him | Reality Check Rewind 2026-08-14 00:46:29.7-00:46:44.3 opinion first hand
47
At the time of publishing Communion, Whitley Strieber regarded the book as a fascinating one-off and was preparing to return to writing fiction.
“I, at that point, was looking at the book as a sort of a fascinating one-off. I was getting ready to go back to writing fiction.”
Whitley Strieber Reveals What 40 Years of Encounters Taught Him | Reality Check Rewind 2026-08-14 00:46:52.8-00:46:59.7 testimony first hand
48
Whitley Strieber received thousands of letters after publishing Communion, 4,000 of which are archived at Rice University thanks to Anne Strieber's foresight.
“And then we get these thousands upon thousands of letters, 4,000 of which are now, thank God, archived at Rice University, thanks to Anne's foresight.”
Whitley Strieber Reveals What 40 Years of Encounters Taught Him | Reality Check Rewind 2026-08-14 00:47:09.5-00:47:19.2 testimony first hand
49
Whitley Strieber considers that in publishing Communion he inadvertently opened a door a crack, and that this frightened people on the inside.
“And I perhaps inadvertently opened that door a crack. And I think that scared people on the inside.”
Whitley Strieber Reveals What 40 Years of Encounters Taught Him | Reality Check Rewind 2026-08-14 00:47:32.4-00:47:39.1 opinion first hand
50
Neither Arthur Ernest Exon nor Whitley Strieber's uncle made any value judgement about Strieber having written Communion; they were totally neutral about it.
“No, they were totally neutral about it. I don't remember either of them making any kind of a value judgment about it at all.”
Whitley Strieber Reveals What 40 Years of Encounters Taught Him | Reality Check Rewind 2026-08-14 00:47:51.2-00:47:58.8 testimony first hand