n.

1. The act or an instance of sharing, as of thoughts or feelings.
2. Religious or spiritual fellowship.
3. A body of Christians with a common religious faith who practice the same rites; a denomination.
4. Communion Ecclesiastical.
   1. The sacrament of the Eucharist received by a congregation.
   2. The consecrated elements of the Eucharist.
   3. The part of the Mass or a liturgy in which the Eucharist is received.

[Middle English communioun, Christian fellowship, Eucharist, from Old French communion, from Late Latin commūniō, commūniōn-, from Latin, mutual participation, from commūnis, common. See common.]

noun

1. The exchange of ideas by writing, speech, or signals: communication, intercommunication, intercourse. Obsolete converse. See knowledge/ignorance.
2. Those who accept and practice a particular religious belief: church, denomination, faith, persuasion, sect. See religion.

n

Definition: affinity, agreement
Antonyms: antagonism, contention, disagreement, discord, disunity, division, hostility, variance

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In the Western Christian church, the final item of the Proper of the Mass, sung during Communion. It originated, by the 4th century, as a complete psalm sung antiphonally, but by the 12th only the Communion antiphon remained, except in the Requiem Mass. It comprises an antiphon, verse and Gloria Patri; as in the Introit, the verse and Gloria Patri are sung to the same psalm tone. The Communion ranges in style from short, syllabic pieces to longer ones melismatically ornamented. Texts are from the psalms or the Gospels; some are also Office Reponsories.

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Title of a bestselling book by Whitley Strieber, author of such fantasy/horror stories as The Wolfen (1978) and The Hunger(1981). In Communion (1987) Strieber describes what are claimed to be his real personal experiences of abduction and painful examination by strange creatures. These experiences date from age 12 when Strieber claims that one evening, near his backyard, he was attacked by a huge insect resembling a praying mantis, which hit his head with a silver nail.

Strieber also recalls being abducted momentarily from a train during a journey with his family from San Antonio to Wisconsin. Soon afterward, "visiting spacemen" gave him instructions for constructing an antigravity machine. When he connected it to the electrical supply there were showers of sparks and a pulsation of lights in the house. The machine exploded, burning out house lights, and the following night the roof of the house was destroyed by fire. Other nightmare experiences concerned giant insect figures and a headless figure touching him with a silver-tipped wand.

The substance of the book, however, concerns events in 1985 in an upstate New York cabin, where he claims that a number of creatures came and transported him to an alien spacecraft. There, he says, a needle was put into his brain and a triangular object inserted into his rectum. The triangular theme recurs in a later experience; while reading in bed, he had an unexplained time-lapse of four hours, and later discovered two triangles incised on his left forearm.

In 1986 Strieber met and compared notes with Budd Hopkins, who has specialized in the subject of claimed UFO abductions. Hopkins it the author of Missing Time (1981) and Intruders: The Incredible Visitations at Copley Woods (1987). These books discuss other claimed "missing time" abductions.

Following publication of his book, Strieber received more than 500 letters in six weeks, many of them claiming similar mysterious visitations or abductions. He followed the book with a sequel, Transformation: The Breakthrough (1988), and eventually Communion was made into a movie. In 1989 he created the Communion Foundation to focus further debate on his experiences and research on abduction claims. By this time Strieber had developed a more positive view of the abduction experience, a perspective that soon led to his break with the ufological community. The foundation lasted only a few years; it was dis-continued as Strieber withdrew from intense debates on the abduction phenomenon.

Sources:

Clark, Jerome. Encyclopedia of Strange and Unexplained Phenomena. Detroit: Gale Research, 1993.

Conroy, Ed. Report on "Communion": An Independent Investigation of and Commentary on Whitley Strieber's "Communion." New York: William Morrow, 1989.

Taves, Ernest H. "Communion with the Imagination." The Skeptical Inquirer 12, 1 (Fall 1987).

Dansk (Danish)
n. - nadver, kommunion, menighed, alter-

Français (French)
n. - (Relig) communion, communication (littér)

Deutsch (German)
n. - Gemeinschaft, Kommunion, Abendmahl

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - ταυτότητα αντιλήψεων, (θρησκ.) θεία μετάληψη, θρησκευτική κοινότητα

Italiano (Italian)
comunione, comunanza, società, familiarità, intimità

Português (Portuguese)
n. - comunhão (f)

Русский (Russian)
причастие, участие

Español (Spanish)
n. - comunión

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - nattvardsgång

中文（简体） (Chinese (Simplified))
圣餐, 圣餐仪式

中文（繁體） (Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 聖餐, 聖餐儀式

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 친교, 종교단체, 성찬식

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 共有, 聖餐式, 交わり, 宗派, 宗教団体, 親交

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮קשר, כת דתית, דו-שיח, שיתוף, אכילת לחם קודש‬

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Communion	First Communion
Communion Invitation	Cinderella Communion