Customer Reviews

Love in an Alien Purgatory: The Life and Fantastic Art of David Huggins

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The 80s is when the alien abduction phenomena really burst into the limelight to stay. While its true that for a short while the Betty and Barney Hill case fascinated the world (and with recent books such as Encounters at Indian Head: The Betty and Barney Hill UFO Abduction Revisited and Captured! The Betty and Barney Hill UFO Experience: The True Story of the World's First Documented Alien Abduction still fascinates many), it was thought that if true,the Hill case was a one time affair of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. But in February of 1987 when Communion: A True Story was released, it described not one encounter but a series of hidden encounters. This revelation of a secret life full of being taken and experimented on was new to the public and it didn't take long for Communion to reach #1 on the NY Times Bestseller List. Communion and other books such as Intruders: The Incredible Visitations at Copley Woods that brought to light a second hidden life stuck a cord in many people across the world who felt they may be also victims of alien abduction. Many started to question certain events in their life, a tell tale sign of abduction being "missing time" or a weird unexplainable scar. It was during this time that David Huggins became aware of his hidden memories of alien encounters that had been happening during most of his life going all the way back to when he was a boy in rural Georgia in 1951. And it is against this backdrop that David, a trained artist, started painting his newly remembered encounters, a sampling of which make up this very interesting and unique picture book.

What makes this book unique is that you have an abductee who is an artist who has filled a gallery with his experiences. To put it into perspective, the one image of the now iconic alien "Grey" who is depicted on the cover of Communion took a great deal of effort between author Whitley Strieber and artist Ted Seth Jacobs (see [...]). The result of David's body of work, while intriguing to those interested in the phenomena, is a direct vision of abductee experiences with no outsider having interpreted what is being described. And even if an abductee had commissioned an artist to depict their experiences, the time, effort, and money involved would be astronomical. So what we have here comes directly from the experiencer, with what he saw being accurately depicted. And who knows, this body of work may even hold clues for solving the abduction enigma. When I look at these paintings I have to continue to tell myself that for David, these experiences are real. And that is mind blowing indeed. And I have to warn you, that some images are R rated. One of the main reasons David was chosen for these encounters seems to be for producing hybrid offspring the old fashioned way and is depicted in this book in a couple of paintings. Other paintings include nudity.

According to the author, and UFO investigator, Farah Yurdozu, David's encounters have some unique aspects not reported by most other abductees. Key is that the aliens have not shown him images of the future of Earth dying or being destroyed, a commonly reported encounter event. The aliens have not said they are here to save mankind or the planet, another commonly reported theme. David's encounters seem to all be geared toward his fathering hybrid children. And along the way, as you can imagine, David has experienced every emotion known as he tries to make sense of these incredible encounters. This explains the title of the book.

Alien abduction is so off the chart of normality that it is reasonable to wonder what kind of person would report this kind of encounter. From all accounts David is a normal person who is not here to try and convince non-believers. He is here for those that care to listen and want to see his extraordinary encounters with the unknown. And I for one, am glad he did.

The remarkable paintings (the `fantastic' in the book's title is certainly warranted) of New-Jersey artist David Huggins have finally been brought to a wider public audience thanks to the efforts of Farah Yurdozu, who has published this most unusual illustrated book. In the introduction, Yurdozu writes:

"When I saw David's paintings I immediately recognised the familiar abduction-contact pattern that is typical of UFO lore. David's paintings show someone who was being visited by the grays and hybrids all his life, with contact continuing to the present day. They are works which inspire awe in some, scepticism in others...whether or not the viewer believes his paintings are based on concrete, physical reality, they do represent David's personal reality...what is certain is that David Huggins is sincere. He doesn't need people to believe, and he understands that many simply don't. `When you know something you know it, and these paintings are the result, and whatever you think is what you think.'"

So, there you have it. Huggins' paintings depict his interaction with non-human entities from his childhood in rural Georgia in the early 1950s, right up to the present day. They deviate somewhat from the standard abductee narrative where sperm is harvested mechanically to be used in the creation of hybrid children, in that Huggins depicts constant sexual interaction with hybrid females- one in particular, whom he refers to as `Crescent' - in order to produce offspring. Warning: some of the images are what we might call `X-Rated' (`R'-rated in the USA)!

Huggins is a competent artist, and most of the 66 pages of this large-format soft-cover book are used as a gallery to display his paintings. Like a significant minority of abductees, Huggins has good conscious recall. He has never had hypnosis to aid memory recovery; his case has never been investigated by any researcher and he is unfamiliar with UFO/abduction literature, living a quiet and `normal' life working in a local deli in NJ and painting from his memories in his spare time. That these memories date back to the early 1950s and pre-date the `modern era' of abduction research ought to tell us something about their veracity: to quote the late Dr. John Mack of Harvard University Medical School, "If what these people say is happening to them isn't happening, then what is?"

Note: this artist is NOT the novelist David Huggins - he's a different David Huggins.

David Huggins the artist/abductee is clearly honest and sincere, and this book at the very least a most interesting and unusual addition to the literature. Make of it what you will.