The Secret School: Preparation for Contact (Mass Market Paperback)

by Whitley Strieber (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
With this new volume of recovered memories and apocalyptic predictions, Strieber continues the journey he began with Communion, his extraordinarily successful account of alien abduction. While that book was largely about his experiences with "the visitors," the follow-up books, Transformation and Breakthrough, were more concerned with the spiritual implications of alien contact. Strieber now takes this process even further, into prophecy and New Age rumination. He contends that, as a child in San Antonio in the 1950s, he and other children were taken in the middle of the night to a secret school run by aliens in the middle of San Antonio's wild Olmos Basin. The book is structured as a series of "lessons," mostly specific memories of his ninth summer, followed by "commentaries," a series of vague and increasingly wild speculations and predictions. Most of the spiritual content here is a farrago of nearly every New Age preoccupation imaginable?aliens, reincarnation, time travel, millennial disaster, Atlantis, etc.?"proved" by highly credulous readings of popular science articles. As the author of entertaining and elegantly composed narratives about personal contact with mysterious entities that are unsupported by proof and that purvey a maddeningly vague message of spiritual release, Strieber has become the Carlos Castaneda of the 1990s. Even those who don't believe a word of what he's saying will enjoy his writing?about his Texas boyhood in particular?and his ability to conjure a sense of terror, awe and wonderment.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal
A prequel to Streiber's tales of alien abduction.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 268 pages
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers; Reprint edition (December 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0061096180
• ISBN-13: 978-0061096181
• Product Dimensions: 6.6 x 4.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #507,715 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The true nature of time and reality...., April 30, 2001

By	OAKSHAMAN "oakshaman" (Algoma, WI United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)

This review is from: The Secret School: Preparation for Contact (Hardcover)

This is the second time that I have felt compelled to read this book. It is an important, virtually unique, work. The nearest works to it that I can think of would be Phillip K. Dick's Exegesis and Harpur's Daimonic Reality. However, The Secret School is definately the best discussion of the true nature of time and reality that I have found. Streiber is correct about the nature and importance of Joy, opposed to happyness. True joy is a transcendent quality that places us in contact with the realm of the Divine. As for the prophecies contained in the book, after four years they seem more accurate than ever. Finally, even though this is a nonfiction work, the prose style is excellent- I kept being reminded of the magical atmosphere of Ray Bradbury's Dandelion Wine and Martian Chronicles.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Preparing To Find Consolation, October 5, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: The Secret School: Preparation for Contact (Hardcover)

This book was probably written more for Whitley Strieber than for his readers. The Secret School provides none of the horror of Communion, the contemplation of Transformation, or the awe of Breakthough. Instead, the Secret School focusses on Whitley Strieber putting his whole life into perspective. It is interesting to follow the chronicles of a man possessed by something, and tormented inside and out by the things that have been brought into his life. If you have read Strieber's previous alien-type books, The Secret School is a must just to complete the cycle. If you are looking for a place to start, start at the begining with Communion. Perhaps this book will bring closure to Whitley's public struggle with demons inside and out.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A wonderful description of Whitley's incredible experiences!, January 12, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The Secret School: Preparation for Contact (Hardcover)

Mr. Strieber has provided us with yet another excellent work describing some of his experiences with aliens. I was enthralled with his descriptions of events of the past, and a bit of a look to the future. From what I "know" about the events surrounding the Biblical Deluge (the Noah flood, also described in the Gilgamesh Epic and the Atrahasis Epic, in addition to other cultures and religions that in some instances describe a freezing instead of a flood -- for reasons I won't explain here), his description of the interaction with a huge "comet" (that I contend is now our moon) are very much what I would expect from a competent scientist or astronomer explaining what would have happened if a planet the size of the Moon came within 30,000 miles or less from the Earth. Those pages alone made the book go beyond my wildest expectations. And fortunately, for other readers, they are surrounded by equally intriguing pages.