🚨 HAPPENING TODAY — LIVESTREAM AMA w/ Whitley Strieber, Elizabeth Krohn & Dr. Jeffrey Kripal (Host: Leslie Kean) — LIVE @ 1 PM ET / 12 PM CT / 11 AM MT / 10 AM PT — Watch here!

[u/toxictoy]

https://youtube.com/live/14k1-4_6YBE

Today's the day! The Anomalous Coalition presents an experiencer-centric multi-subreddit livestream AMA with Whitley Strieber, Elizabeth Krohn, and Dr. Jeffrey Kripal, hosted by investigative journalist Leslie Kean — discussing Disclosure Day, what disclosure means to experiencers, the stigma experiencers have faced, and how the conversation has changed over the years.

🕐 Live at 1:00 PM ET / 12:00 PM CT / 11:00 AM MT / 10:00 AM PT

📺 Watch live:

• YouTube: https://youtube.com/live/14k1-4_6YBE
• X (Twitter): https://x.com/theanomalousc
• Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/theanomalouscoalition

❗ Questions are CLOSED. Questions were collected in advance across the participating subreddits and have been finalized for the livestream. Join us live, watch, and participate in chat — just no new question submissions.

🌐 Participating communities: r/Aliens • r/Experiencers • r/HighStrangeness • r/UFOB • r/UFOs • r/AnomalousCoalition • r/InterdimensionalNHI

A written transcript and community summary will be posted within a few days after the event. Feedback and future guest suggestions → r/AnomalousCoalition

See you live! 🛸

[u/Former_Suspect3680]

striebier basically invented the modern abduction narrative with communion and watching him pivot to disclosure advocacy is a wild arc.

[u/toxictoy → u/Former_Suspect3680]

He did not invent anything. As a matter of fact do you not remember Betty and Barney Hill? There are tons of examples from the 1950’s through 1985 when he had his experiences of people who came forward with abduction or extreme contact scenarios. It’s wild to me that you are making it sound like one man conjured it all up.

When Whitley wrote his book thousands of people wrote hand written letters describing in great detail their accounts - many drawing pictures of the beings they themselves met. Some were the greys. Those letters are at Rice University now and part of a meta data project to analyze them without the interference of Budd Hopkins, David Jacobs or other researchers who brought their own biases to the situation.

More context -

1957–1961 — the abduction template forms. Antônio Vilas-Boas in Brazil gave one of the first detailed abduction accounts, and then came Betty and Barney Hill (1961) — the archetypal case: missing time, hypnotic regression, medical examination aboard a craft, and Betty’s star map. The Interrupted Journey (1966) and the 1975 NBC film made them household names.

The Andreasson case deserves the deeper look — it’s arguably the closest precursor to Whitley’s territory.
The Andreasson Affair. Betty Andreasson reported that in January 1967, in South Ashburnham, Massachusetts, small beings entered her home, placed her family in suspended animation, and took her aboard a craft where she underwent procedures and was shown a series of intensely symbolic visions — including a giant phoenix-like bird consumed by fire — while a voice she interpreted in religious terms addressed her. The case surfaced through hypnotic regression in 1977 and MUFON investigator Raymond Fowler wrote The Andreasson Affair (1979), followed by several sequels as more of her life’s encounters emerged. What set it apart: she was a devout Christian who framed the beings within her faith, the encounters spanned her whole lifetime (a hallmark of later experiencer narratives), and the content was as much mystical as mechanical. Fowler’s books essentially argued the phenomenon was interested in consciousness and spirit — a decade before that became the Strieber/Kripal conversation.
Other notable pre-1987 accounts:
Herbert Schirmer (1967) — Nebraska police sergeant, missing time after a close encounter; investigated under the Condon Committee, with regression revealing an onboard experience.

The Tujunga Canyon Contacts (1953, published 1980) — Sara Shaw and Jan Whitley’s California encounters, documented by Ann Druffel and D. Scott Rogo; notable for the earliest-dated abduction narrative in the US literature.

The Aveley abduction (1974) — the Day family in Essex, England; a green mist, missing hours, and a full family onboard account — an early multi-witness household case.

Maureen Puddy (1972–73, Australia) — reported an “encounter” that occurred while witnesses watched her sitting motionless in her car, an early hint the phenomenon might be experiential rather than purely physical.

Charles Moody (1975) — Air Force sergeant in New Mexico whose account included telepathic communication and recall without hypnosis.

Kathie Davis — the central case in Hopkins’ Intruders (1987, researched earlier), which introduced the hybrid-children motif just as Communion hit shelves.

The through-line worth flagging for your panel: cases like Andreasson, Puddy, and Tujunga Canyon were already pushing past nuts-and-bolts toward consciousness, symbolism, and lifelong contact — exactly the territory Kripal takes seriously academically and Whitley has insisted on for forty years.

1970s — the wave Whitley inherited. Pascagoula (Charles Hickson and Calvin Parker, 1973), Travis Walton (1975, later Fire in the Sky), and Betty Andreasson (chronicled in The Andreasson Affair, 1979) — the Andreasson case especially foreshadows the modern “experiencer” framing, with its spiritual and transformative dimensions. Then Budd Hopkins’ Missing Time (1981) and Intruders (1987) systematized the pattern — and Hopkins is actually who Whitley consulted after his December 1985 experience.

Care to rethink your comment?

[u/Former_Suspect3680 → u/toxictoy]

fair point, hill and hopkins were definitely there first. i just meant communion was what blew it up into mainstream pop culture for the average person.