Hi Steve, list

Actually the Adamski/Adamski connection is less frivolous than it may  
seem.

Our best known living UFO/alien contactee, Whitley Strieber, has  
written a number of books based on his experiences with what he calls  
"The Visitors", most famously Communion (1986). Over the course of  
these books, which are now quite numerous, the visitors shifted from  
being extraterrestrials as we know them, to interdimensional beings,  
to faeries, to... something else (as I say I lost track ten years  
ago, though the books have continued).

In one of the later follow ups to Communion, perhaps Transformation,  
or Breakthrough - I forget which - Strieber begins to see dead  
relatives appearing with Them, and makes a very strong connection  
between the dead and these beings from outside space and time.

What exactly was going on with Strieber during these experiences  
(which began 20 years ago this month!) is anyone's guess, and will  
probably come down to your own interpretation of such otherworld  
encounters. He did do a lot of reading into faerie lore after his  
initial experiences, and as he drifted away from the ET paradigm his  
experiences changed too, becoming more nebulous, fleeting and strange.

For the record, Strieber now believes that as a child he was part of  
a CIA/secret government experiment to develop children who would be  
able to communicate with the Others on their behalf – I'm not sure why.

Whether he really believes this I don't know, but the ongoing  
development of his curious mix of fact, fiction and fantasy is  
certainly fascinating.

Those I've spoken to about Strieber, who had dealings with him both  
before and after his Communion experiences, portray him as a keen  
practical joker with a tendency towards fantasy - the perfect  
Trickster character as portrayed in George Hansen's thought provoking  
book The Trickster and the Paranormal.

Here's an e-interview I did with Hansen a few years back -- http:// 
www.forteantimes.com/articles/175_trickster1.shtml

Perhaps the joke got out of hand and swallowed him whole?  
Unfortunately we'll probably never know.

I approached Strieber earlier this year to do a 20th anniversary  
interview for Fortean Times, but he seemed convinced that I was only  
interested in a "hatchet job", which couldn't have been further from  
the truth.  The substance and tone of his  email replies did,  
however, leave me a little concerned for his mental health.


OK, back to work!
mark

> With tongue partly in cheek, I might also want to
> refer to the appearance of a 'Ufonaut' called
> 'Adamski' shortly after the death of contactee George
> Adamski.
>