History of Mystery - UfO part 7

Whatever Happened to Dr Kala Turner? part 1

Dr. Karla Turner addressing a group on her abduction experiences

Who was Dr Karla Turner?

Karla Turner was widely respected in the UFO community for her research on alien abduction. 

she was a lecturer with a Ph.D. in Old English studies and taught at the university level in Texas for more than ten years.

1988 - Karla Turner's blissfully successful American lifestyle life was about to undergo a dramatic change.

She experienced, with her family a series of events that were so bizarre and so terrifying that she came to a decision to quit her professional career and begin researching, writing and discussing these events in an effort to understand them and also to help others. 

Her first book, Into the Fringe (Berkley Books, 1992), 

told of her own experiences and those of her family.

Her second book, Taken

Inside the Alien-Human Abduction Agenda (Kelt Works, 1994), profiled the abduction stories of eight women whose experiences included both "alien" and human intrusions, and both benign and negative elements, illustrating the profoundly complex nature of the abduction mystery.

Her most recent book, Masquerade of Angels (Kelt Works, 1994), 

Was co-written with psychic Ted Rice and recounts Ted's lifelong encounters with strange entities whose identity hovered in a shadowland between angelic and demonic.

Another reference to the "demonic" and "angels" As we will see Dr. Turner and her husband's involvement in this phenomena is as extensive as any other person who has ever studied these things.

Whilst other abduction researchers such as Bud Hopkins and Dr. John Mack did not apparently have an abduction experience (Hopkins was a UfO witness) Karla turner and her family experienced the phenomena first hand and tried to examine the experience from as logical and scientific standpoint possible.

A Psychic?

But, again, the question arises - what is the necessity for including a psychic in an objective Scientific study? 

The reference to the demonic and use of occult practitioners is once again, the underlying thread. . .

In masquerade of angels Ted Rice reportedly mentions

  “You know, the aliens, or spirits or whatever they were, kept telling me to write a book, to call it ‘The Light Worker,’ and I think that’s what I should do. Only I can’t call it by that title and play into their hands promoting their goodness and kindness. I’ve got to call it something else, something that will be closer to the truth as I see it.”

According to Karla these beings were anything but good, more like deceptive, constantly contradicting themselves and outright liars.

The Veil

This gives us a clue as to where all the derision comes from in the so called "scientific community". Anything that sounds "religious"(in its broadest possible defination) is outside the realm of the materialist view of reality.
This is the "veil" that we will see, separates our present world and the world of the unseen.
We all are born in this materialistic reality which is our "official" view in education and the media and are thoroughly indoctrinated in this throughout our lives.
The obvious problem with this viewpoint is any phenomena or happening that occurs outside of this accepted paradigm that cannot be tagged and placed in a "materialistic scientific box" is either written off as delusional or given a materialistic explanation which bears no resemblance to what was originally reported. 

Another Awakening !

Back to Dr. Karla Turner, in her book "Into the Fringe" she describes a very interesting beginning to her story. It aroused my interest since it was a similar experience that sparked my own little quest.

She explains that she and her family were not given to fanciful delusions but were also not close-minded about the topic of aliens. Anyway it was not a subject she considered as particularly important. So just what was it that got her onto this "fringe" path?

So one fine day that was much like any other day . . .

"quite inexplicably while teaching a freshman course in argument and logic I did something I'd never done before in my eight years as a university instructor: I brought up the subject of UFOs in class, as part of an assignment.

UFOs were one of three topics, actually, including the Loch Ness monster and Bigfoot, and my students were asked to make an objective evaluation of the evidence pertaining to one of these phenomena. I chose these three because I assumed the evidence would be weak and inconclusive when examined from a clear-thinking, insightful, educated point of view. In truth, however, I had never really looked at the evidence with more than a passing curiosity. . ."

The assignment began to arouse her interest until one day, she continues . . .

"I suddenly decided to buy a paperback I'd seen for months at the mall bookstore, one which had never interested me before: Communion, by Whitley Strieber.

UfO sightings is one thing but . . . Abduction . . . maybe going a bit too far?

Now this book is a very pivotal book in the whole UfO phenomena and apparently in Dr Karla Turner's Life and to some extent. . .

 . . .in my life as well.

Remembering back to 1987

• It's a fascinating Story in itself, I remember when it came out in 1987 at this stage of my life I was not particularly interested in the story and had a healthy dose of skepticism towards the idea. But it was on TV being discussed on various shows and became quite a worldwide sensation.
• I had not really heard much about "Alien Abduction" stories and the small amount of information I had heard presumed that some cookie people had been affected by sleep paralysis or hallucinations and needed either psychiatric care or were desperately looking for attention. 
• I have a vague memory of the book being discussed on TV and of course the element that I clearly remember is the book was released as non-fiction. Whitley Strieber was insisting that it was a genuine   experience. Notice the book cover "A true Story".

This was being ridiculed as preposterous and would have remained that way if not for the enormous response the book received. But firstly lets just have a quick look at Whitley Strieber. . .

Whitely Strieber: More to him than meets the eye

He worked for several advertising firms in New York City, rising to the level of vice president before leaving in 1977 to pursue a writing career.
Became a successful horror story writer. The Wolfen (1981) and The Hunger (1983), for which he earned renown as one of the best of the "new wave" of horror writers. Both of these novels were made into films.

Right: Strieber promoting his new book, Solving the Communion Enigma, which takes a radical new look both at his own close encounter experiences as well as the nature of the alien experience and human life itself.

It is quite an interesting point of interest - Streiber's fascination for the "Dark side"

• 1986 - Strieber's fantasy novel Catmagic was published with co-authorship credited to Jonathan Barry, who was billed as an aerospace industry consultant and a practicing witch.

• (This is an interesting connection we have to return to later)

• In the 1987 paperback edition, Strieber states that Jonathan Barry is fictitious and that he is the sole author of Catmagic (?!)Well this is all related to his penchant for the horror story genre . . .I guess.

• He has been, understandably, accused of using his flights of imagination in his communion book, and it is really just another horror story that exists mostly in his own imagination a kind of pseudo reality kind of "blair witch project" type of idea . . .perhaps.

• The crossing over from horror story writer to Alien Abductee Victim can understandably only give Whitley some credibility problems. He has countered these by saying that some of the characters from books like "CatMagic" may very well be pulled from subconscious memories of Alien abductors. He insists that these accounts are true and real events that actually happened and he has no explanation for them but is trying to understand and study them.

• I have say that sales from his book "communion" made Strieber a rich man when prior to these events he wrote in communion how he was struggling financially, perhaps hitting on a rich vein he has milked ever since.

BUT. . . His response to this would most certainly be something like . . . he would trade all his wealth for a normal life and he certainly did not invite these things to come and ruin his life in the way they have done and he has suffered much hostility and derision which no amount of wealth can soften, and it's only a mixture of courage overcoming fear and curiosity that have motivated him to pursue the story for so long. . . .

This determination to overcome the prevailing paradigm of materialistic prejudice does take an enormous step of courage and we shall see that most people would rather hide these stories than risk all by speaking out  knowing full well the persecution and derision that will no doubt come. . .

I for one am not convinced that Strieber would so steadfastly stick to a fictitious story in order just to make money

 Strieber claimed he had been abducted by non-human beings in 1985

http://www.joblo.com/horror-movies/news/whitley-striebers-the-nye-incidents-to-be-made-into-a-tv-series-101

1987 - He wrote about this experience and related experiences in Communion (1987) an autobiographical account of his experiences with strange alien "visitors" who he says came to his cabin in the New York countryside.

This Number 1 New York Times Non-Fiction Bestseller (on the list for 15 weeks) was also turned into a film.

The book rapidly became a best seller but at the same time was subjected to much skepticism as well as ridicule.

The Important Question

The most amazing thing is, despite all the criticism and derision, the book was a best seller.

Why was this so?

Suddenly - it seemed, it blew the lid off a phenomenon that had been hidden in a dark underworld of people's experience, remaining untold and unacknowledged.
People had experienced something quite inexplicable and fear of mockery and derision had kept them quiet.
The book seemed to ignite a powder keg, giving people the courage to speak out mostly for the first time. So many people reported similar experiences it thrust Strieber into a spotlight he scarcely could have predicted.

In an interview on Biography.com he describes the reaction after the publication of his book 

"the Public reaction to the book was very complex, as soon as the book was published, letters started coming in, we have had well over 200 000, maybe 500 000 letters over the years. After I began to read them I began to realise that something was happening on Planet earth that we do not acknowledge. We don't know what it is, is it Aliens? Is it something to do with us, something to do with the way we are that we don't yet understand? I don't know. . .But it's real!

http://badufos.blogspot.com/2012_03_01_archive.html

This picture of Whitely and Anne Strieber at the UfO conference I found a Blog called "badUfO" badufos.blogspot.com . I was quite intrigued at the negative tone of this blog. I found it fairly typical of the kind of prejudiced mentality of the materialist. (should be called "Bad blog spot") 

By "Tone" I mean this . . . 

• He firstly makes a mocking resemblance of Whitley and his wife to a rather unflattering portrait of two 'salt of the earth, but, simple types' from Grant Woods painting called "American Gothic". Really cheap shot but it doesn't end there.

• He then talks about Whitley's "Strange Behaviour" but doesn't say exactly what he did or said. Ive seen several interviews with Strieber on TV and youtube and he seems pretty sincere erudite and articulate to me. But hey maybe I'm just gullible. . . 

• He then points out how Whitley promotes his website unknown country particularly the 'paid' section. The 'fraud' implication is clear here(Heaven forbid that he should actually make money out of his writing profession.)

• He then tells about taking some photos of the speaker (one seen above) and someone next to him says "see any orbs floating above him?" 

In summary: he is saying, Whitley and Anne Strieber are funny looking ugly people. Whitley behaves really weird and does weird things. He is a greedy Charlatan and wants only to make money out of his outlandish  UfO claims. And makes odd claims about floating orbs which are clearly not there so obviously this means he's totally nuts.

All that before we are told a single thing about the actual conference!

• Being a skeptic is not a bad thing and in fact it is very necessary to help find the truth of these claims, maybe sift the truth from the lies out of the evidence presented. 

• Sure. . .There surely are plenty of unbalanced people out there who should not be taken at face value. 

• So then . . . surely a skeptic is someone who looks at the evidence kind of like an investigator in a murder mystery, a process of elimination?

• It is not very helpful in finding the murderer if a suspect is arrested because our investigator (the skeptic) thinks he is not very good looking!

How about a report   ?

• Write a report, accurate and concise of what was actually said and claimed. 

• Then perhaps an evaluation based on scientific and objective principles. 

• He only very briefly, addresses Whitley's talk about his experiences in which Whitley discusses seeing deceased people, which to be sure is a bit weird . . . but as for me I immediately ask myself who else claims to have dealings with the dead? Psychics and mediums of course - so perhaps there is a connection there. (more of that later) 

• Anyway there is simply not much of a report here at all, just a load of venom and spite which is pretty lame and childish at the end of the day.

• After this he unleashes some more weak humour in further  narrow-minded prejudice against Dr. Steven Grear the 'disclosure project guy'.

• By this stage I've had enough . . . 

Why am I wasting time even mentioning this?

Because: 

• This is a pretty typical example of the materialist mindset, although they claim to deal only with hard facts and evidence, their emotions always seem to get in the way of their objectivity. Their sneering mockery seems disproportionate to the topic at hand . . . "the lady doth protest too much ". 

• It also clear to any observer (this is me by the way . . . I am observing, not making claims or judgements and frankly think this is a superior approach . . . kind of like the Jury listening to both sides of the argument and waiting for as much evidence to be presented before we can come to any objective conclusions)

• Anyway Whitley Strieber and Dr. Greer and Dr. Karla Turner etc. etc. all knew they were going to have to face up to this kind of narrow-minded prejudice before speaking out and part of their accomplishment is to bravely go ahead anyway.

I say well done and respect from me. 

Reactions to the Book

This is an excerpt from Strieber's wife in  "Anne's Diary" blog post from unknown country.com the Strieber's website
What the Bleep
Sunday, March 8, 2009

When Whitley published "Communion" in 1987, he put our New York City mail center address in it, as a sort of last minute whim, and asked people to send him letters about their own experiences. By this time, we had both met with groups of people who were having identical experiences to his, so we knew that Whitley wasn't the only one who this was happening to, but we had no idea how many other people were going through almost identical experiences?sometimes in the same city, sometimes far away in other parts of the world. We met our secretary, who worked for us for many years, when she wrote us a letter about her own experiences. It turned out she lived one street away from us, so we met her and then hired her.

We attended a UFO conference once, where a speaker suggested that this was happening to only a handful of people (and he had most of those people sitting up on the stage with him). But the huge number of letters we received from just one mention in a single book proves that this isn't true.

Shortly after the book was published, we began getting so many letters that the mail center refused to take them any more, and sent the postmen directly to our apartment. They dragged in huge, gray cloth bags, stuffed with mail, and heaped them up in the living room.               Read the original source:

A Movie was made with the same name. . . released in1989

Check out this very fascinating TV program  I found on youtube all about the Strieber case together with the making of the film "Communion" starring Christopher Walken. The film is a bit dated now but probably still worth checking out HERE 

Strieber and his wife Anne began to be contacted by so many people who sent them letters detailing their own experiences. They began to invite some of them to meet with them at their cabin to share and discuss their experiences. Here is Whitley on his radio program "Dreamland" interviewing some of the witnesses. Whitley interviews 

I read this book in the 1990's

I remember being quite interested and intrigued when I began to read it but after the first couple of chapters I began to feel very disturbed. . .

• I was very conscious of the truth of what I was reading but at the same time completely horrified. 
• It had a very disturbing effect on me and at the time I actually could not finish it - I felt I had opened up something very demonic and evil. 
• I still have this feeling today and regard these abduction stories as very real and very terrifying. I do not want to ever go through something like this 
• I had a similar reaction when reading Dr. Turner's book "Into the Fringe"I feel a bit more objective now as a researcher putting together pieces of a vast jigsaw with some vague realisations but not solidified just yet, or ever. . . 

• In Jacque Vallee's Book "dimensions" he attempts to trace the phenomena back in time and draws a parallel to ancient stories in which demonic activity as it was called then, is eerily similar to abduction stories today (more of this later). 
• Vallee talks of an "inner dimensional reality that speaks of parallel dimensions and it is this reality that begins to present itself more consitently than an "outer" dimensional or extra terrestrial reality. This seems to be the albeit not conclusive opinion of Karla Turner.
• What is also a very important question is Are they Good ? Both Vallee and Turner seem to agree that they definitely are not. 

And Finally: and this really is quite Strange . . . 

• My eye fell on this article in the Huffington post   and I am not sure what to make of it but include it in as yet another intriguing chapter in Whitley's story. . .

• In the predawn hours of June 6, 1998, Strieber was allegedly visited in his Toronto hotel room by a mysterious but very ordinary-looking elderly Caucasian man, who delivered an unsolicited lecture covering various subjects from spirituality to the environment. When queried, the man airily suggested that he might be called "Michael," but Whitley has taken to referring to him as the "Master of the Key." Strieber first reported the visit in his online journal in 1998 and later gave a more complete account in his self-published book The Key (2001).

• "I got up to open the door, thinking it was the room service waiter. It was not. It was a man I described as about 5 and a half feet tall, older-looking, like someone in his 70s. He wore dark-colored clothing, a turtleneck and charcoal slacks," Strieber told The Huffington Post.
• Strieber's unannounced visitor stayed nearly an hour and never sat down or walked around -- he stood, motionless, by the window.

• As the stranger spoke, Strieber took notes, eventually privately publishing the first edition of his book, "The Key," two years later, in 2000.
• Strieber claims that the stranger in his room informed him that humans have an electron floating in front of their foreheads, and that that may indeed be their soul. He also claimed the stranger handed him a vial of unknown white liquid, instructed him to drink it, and he did.
• He does indeed advertise the book on the link below and seems be quite happy to make money out of it but I have to ask should he not do that? and if so why not? 
• You tube link here. . .

Next: Whatever Happened to Dr Kala Turner? part 2