And those voices are real!

Even as I read Communion, back when it came out, and was pulled into the compelling narrative, even as I was forming the opinion that -something- happened to Streiber over the years, in the back of my mind, there was the little voice that said, “He’s a novelist. Even if these experiences contain a kernel of truth, it is likely that he is embellishing them, whether consciously or unconsciously.”

As the years have passed, and the stories have grown more complex and mythic in scope surrounding Streiber, that little voice has gotten louder and more insistent.

What bothers me the most is that Streiber himself seems to believe everything he writes, whether it is truth or fiction, which makes me question his mental health.

Whatever the answer, that Streiber is telling the absolute, verifiable truth (unlikely), that he is telling the truth as he sees and experiences it (likely), or that he is telling an embellished truth wrapped in fiction (also likely), or some combination of the above, the fact is that he has made quite a bit of money by selling his abduction stories as truth, and has turned himself into a household name, something that, even when he was a best-selling novelist, he couldn’t do by selling straight up fiction.

I rather miss the novelist, myself. I thought and still think that he is gifted in crafting a complex, interesting narrative, with plot twists and believable characters, but he seems more interested in his own celebrity now , than in writing fiction as such.

I think he is a rather tragic figure.

Marilyn Vos Savant gives hers as 228. Was Dr. Sarbacher’s IQ “really” that high? Who knows? He told his son that it was around 230. He does appear to have been a child prodigy.

However old Robert sounds to you, Robert Jr. is in his early 40s, confirmed before I ever made contact with him via email.

Robert Jr. used both names of his sister without me mentioning them to him, when I asked him about her name change, and those names are not easy to find. Go ahead and try Googling them without knowing what they already are, if you don’t think so. Even then, knowing what they are, you will get hardly anything.

Robert Sr. was married 5 times, the last time in 1984.

He was quite the ladies man, not the stereotypical laboratory nerd. He was sociable and a good dancer.

That he would have a son later on in life than most is perfectly consistent with the rest of his behavior.

I believe the fact that Sarbacher had a yacht was already known and in the record even before Whitley wrote Communion. It either came out through Stanton or Steinman, or someone else, I’m not exactly sure. But the information was already there, and Stanton did confirm to me that he spoke to Whitley. So that doesn’t bolster Whitley’s claims in the least. Particularly if Whitley is coopting other people’s experiences and stories and remembering them as personal events in his own life, to which he then adds a stylistic flourish.

I wondered about those details as well. That’s why I put the caveat about the supposed Sarbacher Jr’s identity at the end of the post.

About the yacht: How did the UPS hear about the accident? Why would they tell a stranger (Steiber) such a detail?

Duncan should be confronted with these questions as he has questioned Strieber.

And we should take as much cautious with Strieber’s claims as with this supposedly son of Sarbacher. For starters, what’s the man age? Reading through his writings you get the impresion that he’s no older than 20 —I assume not a lot of middle-age men refrain from using “LOL” on every other paragraph— Sarbacher was born in 1907, and although a having a son at senior age is not uncommon, it still kind of intriguing.

Also, the man claims his dad had “an IQ of 230″. Say what?? A person with a score of 144 is considered a genius, so that’s almost as saying Sarbacher was an alien himself!!