The Intuitive Book Review: Whitley Strieber's "The Key" (1)

 Marcus T Anthony's new web site and blog can be found at: www.mind-futures.com.

A few week’s ago Trish MacGregor wrote an excellent book review of Whitley Strieber’s book The Key on Trish and Rob MacGregor’s Synchrosecret’s blog. The book sounded fascinating, so I went straight to Amazon and downloaded a copy to my Kindle.

This post and the following one will comprise the first of my intuitive book reviews (see here for an overview of the process I employ). This review is quite long, so I am posting it in several posts. Part 1 is an overview of the book and an intuitive reading of the author and book. Parts 2 and 3 will address specific truth claims of the book. Part 4 addresses some limitations of the text as welling as drawing final conclusions.

In these reviews I am going to go beyond standard book reviews, which outline a book’s contents, analyse contents and evaluate its worth. With these intuitive reviews, I will add my intuitive insight into the book and writer’s psyche.

Although this is my first official intuitive review, I have previously done many intuitive readings of people’s Soul Issues and karma, mostly face to face, but many have also been long distance. It’s part of the work I do as an intuitive. Readers might be interested to know that I have previously posted a similar intuitive reading on Julien Assange of wikileaks fame, who came out looking slightly less rosy than Whitley Strieber does!

Almost any creative work will have implicit information contained within its “energy”, and part of this review will involve tapping into that energy. Many years ago I learned how to channel the human psyche and consciousness fields in general when I worked with a group of like-minded spiritual adventurers in New Zealand.

General overview

The Key is a fascinating and eminently readable book written in lively and personable style. Strieber is not afraid to share some of his own fears, weaknesses and confusions. He develops an intimate relationship with the reader, and it almost seems as if we are eavesdropping in on his very strange experience with the man he calls The Master of the Key.

The Key details the story of how, at two-thirty in the morning of June 6, 1998, Strieber was awakened by somebody knocking on his hotel room door. An unknown old man enters the room. At first Strieber thinks he might be a slightly deranged fan, and tries to get rid of him. But eventually, as the old fellow begins to talk, Strieber realises that the stranger has some very important things to say. The author then begins to transcribe notes onto a pad. The stranger stays for a period of half an hour (but perhaps as long as two hours – the time is uncertain to Strieber). Somewhere in between the stranger says his name is Michael, and that he is Canadian, but Strieber eventually comes to consider that, although human, he is not human in the ordinary sense, but some kind of spiritual messenger.

The bulk of the relatively short book comprises the narrative of what happened that night. The Master has a clear agenda in revealing the information to Strieber. This is to help free mankind from its delusions. The stranger forecasts a grim future for mankind and the Earth if it cannot do this. The essence of the message is that the Earth is dying, and that humankind will soon be extinct if it does not acknowledge what is happening and rediscover its spiritual roots.

All this probably sounds just as “loony” as Strieber’s other books, such as Communion, where the author recounts alien abduction experiences. However, as an intuitive myself, quite a lot of the information in the book resonates with what I have seen and experienced intuitively. For this reason I believe that the book is well worth reading. However it should be read in the context of the overall consciousness field which is part of Strieber’s psyche.        

Before I detail specific truth claims within the book, let me address this.

My intuitive reading of the book and author

Any channeled or prophetic work will inevitably contain elements of the beliefs and energies of the channeller or prophet. What aspects of Whitley Strieber influence this work? Before I proceed with this, let me emphasise that I have never met Whitley Strieber, and this is the first book of his I have read in full. I skimmed through his book Communion many years ago, but did not actually read it in depth. I have visited his web site one time a few days ago, and left before reading anything. So, I actually know very little about him.

Using complete transparent enlightenment as a 100% gauge mark, what level of consciousness does The Key resonate at? What follows are my intuitive readings, and I am not asking you to accept them without question. They are not infallible by any means. Consider them to be reflections put to you. Energy readings are a crude and simple measure, but useful in getting a general overall sense of where a work or creator is coming from.

You can use your own intuitive system to sense whether you think my readings are correct. If you are interested in the intuitive process I use to come up with these figures, you can find them in my book Discover Your Soul Template.

The Key resonates at a consciousness level of between 30-40%. The Master’s level of consciousness is about 60%, which is very high, considering that humanity’s average level is around 2-3%. These figures in themselves suggest the work presents information capable of moving humanity forward.

Of course Whitley’s Strieber’s level of consciousness, and the Soul Issues which he possesses, influence the knowledge contained within the book. I am not going to give a specific reading of Strieber’s consciousness level here. I do not feel this is quite the right thing to do. All I will say is that it is considerably higher than average.

Let me turn in more detail to Strieber. What follows might appear negative, but this is the same for any reading of Soul Issues. If I were to detail my Soul Issues here it would also appear "negative". Do not make the mistake of judging these as bad or wrong. We all have Soul Issues, or we wouldn't be on this planet. They represent the delusions that stand between us and God.

Whitley Strieber is essentially doing his best to serve humanity. I do not sense any great drive for power and control, which are the egoic drives which are a magnet for dark energy. In short, he’s one of the good guys. At the end of my last post, Simon Buckland posted a link to a New Age author, Arthur Ray, who allowed his energy to be possessed by darker motives. I wrote about the unfortunate case of Ray on on my old blog. The contamination of a spiritual teacher’s energy field by dark energy is not at all uncommon. Much of the New Age movement is affected by such energy, as are many religious teachers and religious leaders across the world.

The Soul Issues of Whitley Strieber that have affected the writing of The Key include a strong sense of personal guilt, mistrust of humanity, a certain personal pessimism, and strong Christian influences. Whitley Strieber, like many people, has not quite fully accepted himself, and at a certain level sees himself as “bad” and inadequate. There is the strong idea of “sin” and needing to atone for wrongdoings. There is the essential view that humanity is bad, fallen from Grace.

These are very common human psycho-spiritual motifs, especially in the Judeo-Christian world. Streieber carries within himself a strong judgment, frustration and anger at humanity. He is angry at God for allowing the world to become the way it is. This shows itself as a kind of spiritual frustration at the Creator and ‘his’ universe: “Why can’t it all just be simpler?” He wants to know the answers to the big questions at the level of mind (as do we all), but is not quite sure how to bridge the gap between his mind and the mind of God. This reflects a widespread human dilemma. There is a sense of despair and depression at the hopelessness of it all.

Strieber is also questioning why he has been ‘chosen’ to do this kind of work. Part of his soul purpose is to be a medium for this kind of spiritual information, and he has been chosen because it is a good fit for his karmic issues. The idea of rejection - and being made the pariah or outcast - are strong themes in his karma. His task at a spiritual level is to perceive the current delusions of humanity without judgment and anger. In short, to forgive humanity.

One strong karmic idea for Strieber is that of “chains”: being strongly constrained and not allowed freedom. Again, this is an archetypal human soul issue (and one of the strong narratives that runs through my own karma). Interestingly, one fascinating insight provided by the Master of the Key is that “The new man will live in ecstasy, even though he lives in chains.” (at the 25% mark of the kindle edition – I have no page numbers). This suggests that it is not necessary to resolve all Soul Issues in order for a person reach full spiritual realisation. I am not quite sure what to make if this, but it is well worth reflecting on.

All these unresolved Soul Issues of Strieber influence the book and give it a slightly pessimistic feel. In a sense Strieber’s worldview contaminates the message of the Master, rendering his message in imperfect form for the reader. What this means for you as the reader, is that you need to allow yourself a space to sense when these energies are coming through the text, influencing what is written, and perhaps influencing you – for the act of reading a book opens one to the consciousness field of that book and its author.

As one prime example, a common theme in the Key is that the world is dying, and that the human race is in strong danger of becoming extinct.  How much of this is a projection of Strieber’s own fear and pessimism?

Having said this, unfortunately many of my own recent intuitions suggest that Strieber may be on the right track. Strieber says that humanity is being placed under pressure by spiritual forces in order to accelerate its spiritual evolution. There is the suggestion that the dark forces at work in the world are actually helpful in the greater picture. This is an understanding that I share. Yet those same dark forces could also destroy us.

In Part 2 of this review  (click here), I will address some of the specific truth claims contained within The Key, in particular the question of whether the aliens are really here. Click here for Part 3. And you can read the fourth and final part here.