The 'Communion' Movie And Its Would-be Mystic Communion (the movie) Ronald D. Story

hen I wrote UFOs and the mystics, are delusions that spring Limits of Science (Morrow, from the unconscious mind. Strieber W 1981), I went as far as I could suspected as much; but what would to honestly support the UFO pheno- you rather believe if you were in his menon as a genuine mystery. Actu- shoes: that your mind was playing ally, I still believe it is, but a mystery tricks or that you were a "chosen one" of the mind, not a physical anomaly. intermittently beamed up to a higher I now have zero faith in the premise realm of being? that UFOs represent anything special It is also possible, following the in external reality other than misper- incredible success of Communion (the ceptions colored by cultural book), that Strieber has nurtured a influences. natural fantasy-prone personality Whitley Strieber's books Commun- (as a tool of his craft) through a form ion (Morrow, 1987) and Transformation of meditation that produces striking (Morrow, 1988) serve as testimony to hallucinations. Perhaps through at- what Maya Pines stated in The Brain tempting to expand his conscious- Changers: Scientists and the New Mind ness into the mystic realm, he has Control (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, rattled a cage or two, deep within his 1973): "As a nation, we are turning unconscious, letting some of his own inward. Through drugs, meditation, demons out to roam loose in the alpha training, and other means, more night. people than ever before are trying to An admirably honest view of the change their mental functions." Communion film, in Movies USA Whitley Strieber, like Shirley magazine (vol. 3, no. 1, 1989), states: MacLaine, appeals to this inner escap- "Academy award winner Christopher ism. It has been said that our era of Walken stars as Whitley Strieber, the high technology has spawned a new author who may or may not have been search for the spiritual. Unfortu- kidnapped by aliens. Based on Strieb- nately, in doublespeak, the word er's novel, Communion [the movie] spiritual covers a lot of nonsense that examines the self-doubts and fear of is difficult to define, but you know it madness that come with an extreme when you hear it. experience. As the plot unravels, the Strieber, in my view, represents a audience must figure out which is new twist to an old theme, recast in furthest out there—the author or the terms of modern space-age (or New aliens." Another typical review called Age) symbols. Jung would have loved the movie "self-indulgent" and "pond- the symbolism; and it is a pity that erous and agonizingly slow"; it quickly Freud is not around to interpret disappeared from theaters. Strieber's dreams. I have no doubt that By his own admission, Strieber has these dreams, called "visions" by had trouble distinguishing fantasy

308 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 14 from reality; so what good would a so-called lie-detector (polygraph) test be? Likewise, his time-regression hypnosis, which is portrayed in the movie as confirming Strieber's other- worldly visions. Hypnosis is a state of concentrated attention and height- ened suggestibility in which the imagination can literally run wild. That is why, as Newsweek reported, March 22, 1982, the "California Supreme Court barred from giving evidence in court virtually all wit- nesses who had been hypnotized. The problem, the judges said, is that hypnotized persons are especially susceptible to suggestion; once in a IN STEREO - 4,45 7:35-9,45 I li trance they often produce 'pseudo- memories or fantasies' that they later swear are true." Recent articles in the some kind of nut! I was especially SKEPTICAL INQUIRER have made the surprised because Strieber himself same point, e.g., Baker, Winter 1987- wrote the screenplay, which was not 88; Spanos, Winter 1987-88.) true to the book. The author of many horror-fiction UFO-abductionist Budd Hopkins novels, can Strieber still be selling (author of Intruders, Random House, fiction but at the same time be 1987), to whom Strieber first convinced it is fact? I do believe that reported his experiences, was con- he is giving an honest account of his spicuously absent from the movie. hallucinations and delusions, which (This was not surprising in light of he calls his experiences, but that they their later feud over who should be are figments of an overactive imag- America's leading guru in the UFO- ination—not real physical beings that abduction field.) Instead, a woman (a follow him back and forth between psychiatrist/psychologist, who also his cabin in upstate New York and his seemed to be a believer in literal UFO- Greenwich Village apartment. abduction tales) conducted the hyp- Dreams of goblins become "encoun- notic sessions with Strieber and ters" with "visitors." One reason referred him to the UFO-abductee Communion, the book, was so success- support group. ful is that it fits neatly into the genre After the initial success of Com- of the so-called New Age, which munion (topping the New York Times usually includes a distrust of science bestseller list for months in 1987), in and complete openness to "spiritual which Strieber admits his inability to awareness." distinguish between what is objec- What surprised me most about tively real and what may be mental Communion, the movie, was that illness, he writes in the sequel, instead of convincing the audience Transformation (1988): "My expe- that the visitors were real (which may rience has come to include too many or may not have been the intention), witnesses for me to consider that it what came shining through to me was is internal to my mind." But witnesses a portrayal of the main character as to what? Nowhere in Strieber's

Spring 1990 309 books—or in the movie—is he ever eat chocolate" or "Just hang in there, accompanied by anyone while in the and everything will be okay." presence of the "visitors." Witnesses Is Strieber's modus operandi to mix to lights and sounds, perhaps, but not delusions with reality. Author Erich the visitors themselves, with the von Daniken did this back in 1968 exception of his young son, whom I when he created a furor over alleged believe was influenced by the father ancient astronauts. The story didn't or vice versa. Actually, there is one do very well as fiction, but it received other exception, which is published in considerable attention when it was Transformation and in the publicity repackaged and sold as "nonfiction." release that is sent to reviewers by However, von Daniken never claimed the publisher. Believe it or not, the special status as a New Age mystic able claim is that Morrow senior editor to make direct contact with aliens or Bruce Lee saw two of the visitors, other ethereal beings. wearing sunglasses, leafing through However, an interesting parallel the book Communion in a Manhattan was contained in von Daniken's bookstore! Miracles of the Gods (Delacorte, Strieber also claims that the vis- 1975)—the notion that visions and itors "are already having a staggering religious miracles were somehow but largely hidden impact on our beamed down to us by extraterres- society." But where is the impact? One trials. The jacket copy of Miracles says of the major points always raised by that "overripe intelligences are send- skeptics is that the supposed visitors ing energetic thought impulses to us, have not contributed anything to our their brothers and sisters of the same society in the 40 years of their alleged heritage. These impulses are intended existence. If they're really here, then to stimulate and enlarge our con- why don't they help us out? Are they sciousness." Von Daniken quoted a waiting for us to go broke, starve to West German opinion poll that found death, or kill each other off, so they that "53 percent of the people ques- can inherit a dead and polluted planet? tioned believed in miracles and What Strieber suggests is the old visions." parallel-universe routine, in which the Perhaps an even more fitting prece- visitors kind of fade in and out of dent was that set by George Adamski another dimension. But, again, why? (1891-1965) in the early 1950s. To test our patience? It doesn't make Adamski also began as a fiction writer, sense. but nothing much happened until he The most Strieber tells us is that claimed actual contact with Venusians the visitors are having communion in his bestseller Flying Saucers Have with one soul at a time. A Mississippi Landed (British Book Centre, 1953). fisherman one night and an Arizona Adamski's aliens were not of the bug- woodcutter the next; but all must wait eyed fetus type that are in vogue their turn. (Remember that 99 percent today. The first one was described as of all UFO abductions occur while the a beardless, suntanned version of chosen one is home in bed at night, Jesus (with long blond hair), wearing and usually in the middle of a dream.) a ski suit and sandals. The primary And, as has always been the case with purpose of the Venusians' visit to spiritualism, the most profound mes- Earth was to warn us of potential sages we ever get during these con- nuclear disaster. This seemed to be tacts with superior intelligences or one of Strieber's concerns as well, but mystical beings are things like, "Don't nowadays his aliens are more inter-

310 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 14 nowadays his aliens are more inter- are made of. Anyone who reads ested in the environment—particu- Freud's Interpretation of Dreams (1900) larly the ozone layer. and Joseph Campbell's Hero with a To repeat what Jung said about Thousand Faces (1949) should have another contactee, about 30 years ago, little difficulty recognizing the Strieber "comes like a gift to the obvious parallels and telltale signs that psychologist." Like Orfeo Angelucci, reveal the mythical nature of the Strieber "reveals . . . clearly the UFO-abduction stories. But if we are unconscious background of the UFO not willing or able to face the obvious, phenomenon." Unlike such people as then maybe we should forget the Betty and Barney Hill and Travis ozone layer and start worrying about Walton, Strieber tells a more complete the depletion of common sense. story. A careful reading of his books Ronald Story is a technical writer, editor suggests that the "visitor experience" of The Encyclopedia of UFOs, and is a purely mental activity, composed author of Space Gods Revealed. He lives of exactly the same stuff that dreams in Tucson.

Battling Scams, Swindles, a n d Schemes Don't Get Taken! by Robert A. Steiner. Wide-Awake Books, Box 659, El Cerrito, CA 94530, 1989. 206 pp. Paper $14.95.

Kent Harker

ike a country song, the title tells tricks of the trade from books and the whole story. Don't Get Taken! legitimate sleight-of-hand artists and L is fun to read. Regardless of your soon was performing on stage. Don't familiarity with the skeptical litera- Get Taken! is essentially the accum- ture, you are not immune to the well- ulation of Steiner's 20 years of hands- calculated designs of the con artist. "Al on experience in the trenches tracking Capone . . . gave $50,000 to a con" psychic scams and other swindles. (p. 7). Steiner, who was a founder and The book begins where many of first chair of Bay Area Skeptics and us got our first painful childhood the 1988-1989 national president of introduction to a scam: from the the Society of American Magicians, grifters (those who operate gambling chose a meaningful title for his book, devices at carnivals). The experience and his chapter titles are no less so. young Bob Steiner had at his first "Astrology Is Bigotry," Chapter 6, carnival launched him on something doesn't leave one in the dark about of a crusade. He then learned the where Steiner stands. Think about

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