Communion

Title of a bestselling book by Whitley Strieber, author of such fantasy/horror stories as The Wolfen (1978) and The Hunger (1981). In Communion (1987) Strieber describes what are claimed to be his real personal experiences of abduction and painful examination by strange creatures. These experiences date from age 12 when Strieber claims that one evening, near his backyard, he was attacked by a huge insect resembling a praying mantis, which hit his head with a silver nail.

Strieber also recalls being abducted momentarily from a train during a journey with his family from San Antonio to Wisconsin. Soon afterward, "visiting spacemen" gave him instructions for constructing an antigravity machine. When he connected it to the electrical supply there were showers of sparks and a pulsation of lights in the house. The machine exploded, burning out house lights, and the following night the roof of the house was destroyed by fire. Other nightmare experiences concerned giant insect figures and a headless figure touching him with a silver-tipped wand.

The substance of the book, however, concerns events in 1985 in an upstate New York cabin, where he claims that a number of creatures came and transported him to an alien spacecraft. There, he says, a needle was put into his brain and a triangular object inserted into his rectum. The triangular theme recurs in a later experience; while reading in bed, he had an unexplained time-lapse of four hours, and later discovered two triangles incised on his left forearm.

In 1986 Strieber met and compared notes with Budd Hopkins, who has specialized in the subject of claimed UFO abductions. Hopkins it the author of Missing Time (1981) and Intruders: The Incredible Visitations at Copley Woods (1987). These books discuss other claimed "missing time" abductions.

Following publication of his book, Strieber received more than 500 letters in six weeks, many of them claiming similar mysterious visitations or abductions. He followed the book with a sequel, Transformation: The Breakthrough (1988), and eventually Communion was made into a movie. In 1989 he created the Communion Foundation to focus further debate on his experiences and research on abduction claims. By this time Strieber had developed a more positive view of the abduction experience, a perspective that soon led to his break with the ufological community. The foundation lasted only a few years; it was dis-continued as Strieber withdrew from intense debates on the abduction phenomenon.

Sources:

Clark, Jerome. Encyclopedia of Strange and Unexplained Phenomena. Detroit: Gale Research, 1993.

Conroy, Ed. Report on "Communion": An Independent Investigation of and Commentary on Whitley Strieber's "Communion." New York: William Morrow, 1989.

Taves, Ernest H. "Communion with the Imagination." The Skeptical Inquirer 12, 1 (Fall 1987).

com·mun·ion / kəˈmyoōnyən/ • n. 1. the sharing or exchanging of intimate thoughts and feelings, esp. when the exchange is on a mental or spiritual level. ∎  common participation in a mental or emotional experience: festivals where all take part in joyous communion. 2. (often Communion or Holy Communion) the service of Christian worship at which bread and wine are consecrated and shared.See Eucharist. ∎  the consecrated bread and wine so administered and received: the priests gave him Holy Communion. ∎  reception of the consecrated bread and wine at such a service. 3. a relationship of recognition and acceptance between Christian churches or denominations, or between individual Christians or Christian communities and a church (signified by a willingness to give or receive the Eucharist): the Eastern Churches are not in communion with Rome. ∎  a group of Christian communities or churches that recognize one another's ministries or that of a central authority: the Anglican communion. PHRASES: make one's communion receive bread and wine that has been consecrated at a Eucharist.

communion The Greek word koinonia may be translated ‘fellowship’ as well as ‘communion’ and as such speaks of Christian relationships. But there is also the relationship between believer and Christ through ‘holy communion’—corporate Christian sharing in the body and blood of Christ (1 Cor. 10: 16) and in the Holy Spirit (2 Cor. 13: 13).

communion sharing, participation; spiritual fellowship XIV; sacrament of the Lord's Supper, participation in this XV (in religious uses earlier †communing). — (O)F. communion or L. commūniō, -ōn-, f. commūnis COMMON; see -ION.

Communion. The partaking of the consecrated elements at the Christian eucharist. Along with Lord's Supper it is also (as in the Book of Common Prayer) another name for the whole service of the eucharist.

Communion

a body of Christians with a common faith and ritual. See also fellowship, sect.

Examples: the Anglican Communion; Communion of holy men, 1573; of Saints, 1394.

communion the service of Christian worship at which bread and wine are consecrated and shared; the Eucharist.

communion see Eucharist ; Lord's Supper .

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