synonym?

word play

Thank you Suzanne Gyseman.

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Whitley Strieber praises The Messengers

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It’s a wonderful book… because its a book that advances us in consciousness—it advances us—it takes us from where we were before we started reading it to a new place in terms of understanding the close encounter experience. I can name, just on the fingers of one hand, the number of books that actually do that.

—Whitley Strieber, January 2016

Author Whitley Strieber

This quote above is from Whitley Strieber on his latest Dreamland interview. We had an hour long conversation about my book The Messengers. I was shocked at the strength of his compliments. I was a bit nervous leading up to this interview. He seemed to perceive the deeper ideas in my book, perhaps with more clarity than myself.

  direct LINK to the interview on DREAMLAND  

This is a full hour interview. The first half hour is free, but you need to be a paying member to hear the second half.

I transcribed some of what he said during the interview. These quotes are powerful stuff (another one below) and he said things that left me humbled.

Coming up in just a few weeks is the release of The Super Natural: A New Vision of the Unexplained, by Whitley Strieber and Jeffery Kripal. This book (like my own) features a bright yellow owl eye. And, it uses the of owl as a potent symbol in framing inexplicable events. I cannot put into words the excitement I have for this upcoming book! (interesting article HERE)

Listen to my audio interview with Whitley HERE.

And Jeff Kripal HERE.

Or listen on the players below.

His book, The Messengers... it’s a terrific book, filled with information. And I think of it, in effect, as a communication from the visitors because they are speaking in a natural language by giving us experiences that are connected with owls. And you can lean a lot about what they think of us, and what they want us to think of them, by reading this compilation. It is the only one in the world like it, there is nothing else like this. It’s never been done before. I think it’s very important and I think there is a lot to learn from it.

—Whitley Strieber, January 2016

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Owl book reviewed on Mysterious Universe

tidy art direction from Austrailia

Ben and Aaron at Mysterious Universe spent over 40 minutes of their podcast excitedly talking about The Messengers. It is funny as an author to hear other folks re-telling accounts from the book. The did a very good job, but they got a few minor points wrong. Beyond that, it was fun to hear them enthusiastically applaud the book—especially with their thick Australian accents!

  direct link to audio review  

They talk a bit about the book in the opening, but it isn't until the 28:30 time count that they focus on it completely. Their commentary on the book then runs to end of the show.

Also, my 2013 interview with Ben and Aaron linked HERE.

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Rolling Synchronicity

Just got an email from someone who had SO many sychronicities while reading The Messengers, he had to write a blog post about it! (linked HERE) He even numbered the events. Here is number eight:

On 1-2-2016 I was driving and it was dark out, around 8PM. There were tall trees on both sides of the road. At the top of some trees I see something really strange that gets my attention. There was this lucid transparent image kind of floating. My first reaction was the movie Predator because it looked exactly like this.

I was watching it in disbelief when I notice an owl fly in front of a tall lamp post. It's wings were wide open as it landed on top of the lamp post.

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audio reading from The Messengers

This is my voice (the author) reading from the book The Messengers. I read the foreword, as well as two short sub-chapters. It runs about 17 minutes. I took it upon myself to read aloud and record it as a short audio file because of my voice. I've had a chest cold over the last week or so, and my normally squeaky voice is much lower. Add to that, I played with the garageband sound equalizer and sort of went overboard. 

 17 minute audio excerpt from The Messengers linked HERE 

Just so folks know, there is an audio book in the works, but there's no foreseeable date for it's availability. What you are hearing on this MP3 might sound okay, but I spent hours editing my own mumbling. My plan is to eventually get around to recording this book myself, then make it available as an audio book.

Stories from The Messengers — a companion book

cover art in progress

The Messengers has been available for over a month. I wanted to let readers know that there is a follow up in the works, a companion book to be titled Stories from The Messengers. 

I have been collecting these strange owl stories for the last few years, and some of them were just too long to put in the initial volume. It would be unfair to the people who’ve experienced these baffling life events to edit down their stories. These longer accounts have a complexity that require that they be told completely. The Messengers is just shy of 400 pages, and it would have been irresponsible to cram a bunch of long complex stories into an already long book. 

Anne Strieber, the late wife of author Whitley Strieber, had a simple way of evaluating the truth of a UFO report. She said, if it’s not weird, I don’t trust it. This was her BS detector, and I think its valid.

Within these longer stories is a confusing collision of overlapping experiences. A mess of twists and turns, and all of them weird. Things feel mixed up with threads running off everywhere in a tangled knot of implausibility. Synchronicity spills over the edges like an unattended sink. For me, this kind of chaos is a sign to trust the event as legitimate. The more complicated the interwoven details, the more valid it seems. This all becomes a shaky form of proof that something truly paranormal is unfolding. 

I’ve been referring to this frenetic pattern as the paradox syndrome. A paradox is an attempt at sound reasoning, but the conclusion appears unacceptable. A syndrome is a group of related or coinciding things, events, and actions. I don’t understand why it works this way, but all the messy threads must tie into some core event, and the challenge is not to get lost in the mayhem. And when there is an owl tied to one of these threads, I pay very close attention.

This next book will read like a collection of short stories with this paradox syndrome as its central theme. A lot of it is already written (although unpolished) so it is a matter of cleaning it up for publication. There is no set date on the companion book, but it’s on my desk now, my mission for the short term.

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short review for The Messengers

Absolutely fascinating. New insights, ideas, I cannot put this book down. Just when I think its covered everything, the next page will delve into another insight that shakes me to the core. A must read for anyone interested in the contact experience.

This is an anonymous review from Amazon. Reading these glowing words left me humbled. The other reviews posted are equally supportive, and this means so much to me.  I am so grateful people are enjoying this book.

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David Bowie, owls and Labyrinth

Owl enters during a bedroom abduction

The barn owl looks very much like a gray alien

There is a curious set of events that play out in the 1986 film Labyrinth. Early on in the story a child is taken from his crib by small beings. There is a white barn owl watching through a window during this "bedroom abduction" scene. That owl later transforms to David Bowie.

Labyrinth was a fantasy directed by Muppet creator Jim Henson, with George Lucas as executive director. Teenager Jennifer Connelly confronts Jareth the Goblin King (Bowie) in a puppet filled dream realm. Bowie certainly resonates an alien after Ziggy and The Man Who Fell to Earth, and he does so again as an owl "watcher" in the bedroom abduction scene.

Enter Bowie

1986 was also the year that Whitley Strieber wrote the book Communion. This book is the first popular reference to owls out a window at the moment of alien abduction, that is is if you don't count Labyrinth. And Bowie also stared in the film adaptation of Strieber's book The Hunger (1983). Strieber has speculated that the vampires in The Hunger were his own subconscious metaphors for gray aliens.

Both Connelly and her little brother could be seen as UFO abductees. Both transported to another realm against their will. There is ample evidence that these experiences run in families.

The movie, including its title, is awash in mythic imagery and names—and this was obviously intentional by the filmmakers. In the tradition of the quintessential myth, the heroes journey, Connelly is tested by Bowie in a puppet filled giant maze. Like Jennifer Connelly, there is another J.C. who gets tested in a mythic book, this time by the Devil while alone in the desert.

What seems unintentional was the association of the owl and UFO abduction. I feel strongly that this arose out of the script unconsciously.

movie poster with owl and Bowie

image from a satirical site

The final scene shows Jennifer Connelly back home in her Muppet filled bedroom, with the David Bowie owl looking into her window. This is a somewhat creepy way to end a children's movie. The image above comes from a site that urges the viewers to turn Labyrinth into an audience participation event like The Rocky Horror Picture Show (another movie, according to Bruce Rux, with a metaphoric theme of UFO Abduction).

More about Labyrinth and its (rather accurate) depiction of the Fae Folk from author Joshua Cutchin, HERE.

Also of note: David Bowie has an album titled LOW.

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interview with Richard Dolan on the owl book

audio interview from Dec 7, 2015

Richard Dolan is perhaps the one person on earth (besides myself) who has been immersed in my book. He is both the editor and publisher, and this means he has read and scrutinized each sentence. This sets him up to do a really penetrating interview. Nothing fluffy here, we dig deep.

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Nick Redfern reviews The Messengers

Nick Redfern posted a review of my book The Messengers at the Mysterious Universe site. Nick read the book twice while doing the initial editing for me last summer.

This is a wildy positive review. It's the kind of appraisal that any author might only dream of getting. That Nick has said these things leaves me deeply humbled. I am grateful and his glowing words will keep me pressing forward in times of uncertainty.

  Link to the review HERE  

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Nick writes:

As Mike Clelland skilfully demonstrates, the UFO-owl issue is a real one. It’s not, however, an issue that can be explained in simple terms. The entire situation is multifaceted, requires an open mind to appreciate it, and is fascinating, uplifting, and disturbing in equal measures. This is a very important book on an enigma-filled topic that – finally – has the extensive treatment it deserves. And it may very well radically change your thoughts on the real nature of the UFO enigma. And also on what passes for reality itself.

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