Reviving Philosophical Discussion of Close Encounters through the Strieber Letters: Understanding Close Encounters as Subversive and Transformative Experiences

Engels, Kimberly S.

doi:10.5840/philtheol2024911172

Philosophy and Theology

Volume 35, Issue 1/2, 2023

Kimberly S. Engels

Pages 229-253

https://doi.org/10.5840/philtheol2024911172

Reviving Philosophical Discussion of Close Encounters through the Strieber Letters
Understanding Close Encounters as Subversive and Transformative Experiences

This paper revisits close encounters with perceived non-human intelligences through the Strieber letters that are available in the Rice University Woodson Archives. In 1997, Michael E. Zimmerman first published on the ‘alien abduction’ phenomenon in hopes of generating philosophical conversation regarding these extraordinary and unexplained experiences. I begin by comparing the contents of the Strieber letters to other research that has been done on abduction and close encounters. I then explain how the experiences violate the existing social ontology, that is to say, the boundaries for defining ‘truth’ and ‘reality’ in mainstream society, drawing on existing work by Zimmerman. I proceed to show that the phenomenology of close encounters reveals them as subversive experiences that initiate a process of transformation in the individual experiencer. I show that the experience is meant to leave the experiencer questioning their current understanding of reality, thus opening them up to the possibility of a new metaphysical and ethical paradigm. Many who have extraordinary encounters report profound shifts in worldviews following their close encounter experiences. Last, I draw parallels between the close encounter experience and the clown or trickster figure in the Native American worldview.

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