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From the High Desert book cover

From the High Desert

A Cultural History of Art Bell

Thumbnail for July 27, 1998: UFO Phenomena - Whitley Strieber

July 27, 1998: UFO Phenomena - Whitley Strieber

Jul 27, 1998
2h 55m
0:00 / 0:00
Art Bell welcomes Whitley Strieber for a wide-ranging conversation that begins with worldwide volcanic unrest from Mount Etna to Popocatepetl and moves into Strieber''s most detailed account of a close encounter. Art debuts a night vision camera pointed toward Area 51 that captures live images of the desert sky every 30 seconds, while Strieber describes a June 6th visit from a small, elderly man who appeared fully human and walked into his Toronto hotel room after a knock on the door.

The visitor spoke with extraordinary clarity and told Strieber that the world as we understand it is breaking apart, that the process is already irreversible, and that humanity stands at a transition as significant as when life first emerged from the oceans. He referenced the shift from the age of Pisces to Aquarius and suggested humans were created to survive this moment by expanding consciousness beyond three dimensions. Strieber notes remarkable parallels between this message and information Art received independently on a prior Dreamland broadcast about time travelers and forbidden archaeology.

The encounter left Strieber temporarily able to perceive the thoughts of people around him, an unsettling ability that faded within hours. He discusses the implant still lodged in his ear that moved away from a surgeon''s scalpel during an attempted removal. Art and Strieber agree that waiting for outside rescue is futile and that humanity must rely on its own capacity to navigate what lies ahead.

Key Moments

  1. Live night-vision camera pointed at Area 51: Bell unveils a first-of-its-kind setup - a video camera coupled to a night-vision scope mounted outside the Pahrump house, refreshing every 30 seconds and aimed northwest toward Area 51 for the duration of the show.

  2. Strieber's surgeon and the moving white-disc implant: Strieber confirms his ear implant is still in place and recounts how, when his surgeon cut down to it, the device moved away from the scalpel twice - the surgeon's video-recorded reaction was simply, 'It's a white disc.'

  3. Volcanoes worldwide are erupting in sync: Strieber rejects the geological consensus that volcanoes can't be linked, noting Etna, Popocatepetl and others going at once and that journalist Jaime Maussan was the last reporter able to enter the Popo crater because of UFO activity around it.

  4. The June 6, 1998 hotel-room encounter: Strieber describes a fully conscious, awake meeting in a hotel room on June 6, 1998 - verbal communication, notes taken, including 'hyperdimensional words of power' he can no longer recall. He warns Bell the answers he received are not comfortable.

  5. Nature's end and the human transformation: From the June 6 encounter, Strieber relays that humanity is moving from the age of Pisces (sustained by Earth) to Aquarius - the river poured out, nature's end coming, and humans physically changing to use all of themselves through a death-and-birth upheaval.