Yabba Dabble Doo: How Aleister Crowley Introduced the Iconic Gray Alien

It is common within UFO and abduction narratives to find references to Whitley Strieber's groundbreaking and now classic book, Communion. Although there were several abduction oriented books before its publication, and many varying depictions of the gray alien, for whatever reason, that particular book and its cover image seemed to finally cement the UFO/abduction phenomenon and the image of the alien into our consciousness.

The image was powerful not only on this mass scale, but individually also; there are accounts of people noticing the cover's rather menacing bug-eyed alien and subsequently uncovering their own abduction encounters. In short, the image is and was undeniably powerful. But why?

There are many so called "nuts and bolts theorists"-those believing in the literal, tangible, straightforward reality of UFOs and aliens--who would argue (maybe rather exasperatedly) that the answer is obvious: that Strieber, being an "experiencer" himself, with full memory, and full writerly abilities, conveyed the abduction experience and attendant aliens in narrative and visual form, exactly. While it's possible, it's merely a logical deduction, and the alien story is an assumption.

Many might be surprised to learn that Strieber himself doesn't (or didn't) necessarily adhere to the nuts and bolts theory, or even that the entities are necessarily aliens. In a Barnes and Noble Author's chat transcript, dated April 12, 1997, he makes these following curious statements: "Is there such a thing as 'grays?' I don't know." " I don't know what the 'visitors' are." And, "I assume aliens are the answer when we don't know what's going on."

On the left, Crowley's sketch of LAM. In the middle, the alien on Strieber's 'Communion.' To the right, the images match up almost perfectly, including the bug eyes.

Credit: Stephen Wagner

Copyright: fair use