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eNewsletter
Dec / Jan Events in CA and NY
Dear Friends,
The John E Mack Institute was created in honor of John's courageous examination of human experience and his explorations of the ways in which perceptions and beliefs about reality shape the human condition.
John’s work was tirelessly and profoundly inspiring: helping us to understand that social transformation begins with the transformation of consciousness at its deepest level.
We would like to continue this mission.
With your support, the John Mack Institute can continue the themes and spirit of John’s exploration, examining the role of consciousness and transformation in psychological, spiritual and physical healing and applying this knowledge to pressing contemporary societal and cultural issues.
But we cannot do this without your support. If you care about the issues that were of profound concern to John, please consider sending us a contribution so that we may continue. Our need is immediate and urgent.
Thank you.
Online donations may be made securely at:
johnemackinstitute.org/gift
LOS ANGELES: Dec 9 Fundraiser
You are invited to the home of Andrew Beath for a commemoration of John Mack's life and a fundraiser for the John Mack Institute.
Join friends of John Mack for shared remembrances of John, video clips, and discussion of the Institute.
WHERE: 20178 Rockport Way, Malibu (7 miles north of Santa Monica on PCH; see website johnemackinstitute.org for driving instructions).
WHEN: Thursday, Dec 9 at 6 PM
NEW YORK: Dec 11 Screening of TOUCHED documentary
When John Mack approached Emmy nominated filmmaker Laurel Chiten with the suggestion that she make a documentary about the way alien contact affects people's lives, he could not have foreseen that her film would go on to win Best Documentary at two film festivals and become part of the curriculum at over a dozen universities across the country from Harvard to Stanford. But such is the quality of TOUCHED, which takes an unflinching look at the struggles of some of the people written about in Mack's book Passport to the Cosmos.
The evening will include the screening of the 65 minute film, and a tribute to Dr Mack's life and research hosted by Alan Steinfeld of the New Realities cable tv series, with guest speakers Trish Corbett and Michael Mannion, co-founders of the Mindshift Institute, Harold Eglen, director of S.P.A.C.E., and Alex Grey, visionary artist and creator of the Chapel of Sacred Mirrors.
This screening is sponsored by: Alan Steinfeld of New Realties newrealitiestv.com; Healing Gifts healinggifts.net; The Concordia Foundation, concordiafoundation.org; Spirit New York, spiritnewyork.com;
and FIONS (Friends of the Institute of Noetic Sciences), fions.org, as part of the FIONS film series.
WHERE: Healthy Yoga, 4th floor, 540 West 27th street (between 10th & 11th Ave)
WHEN: Saturday December 11th, 7pm
ADMISSION: $15
Info (for this event only): 212 473-63888 or 212.253.9547; newrealities@earthlink.net
SAN FRANCISCO: January 16 Remembrance Event
With speakers Joe Firmage, Stan Grof, James O'Dea, and many more.
An alliance of Bay Area organizations are presenting a large-scale event in memory of Dr John Mack. This event is sponsored by Joe Firmage and co-sponsored by the the following organizations:
- John E. Mack Institute (www.johnemackinstitute.org)
- Institute of Noetic Sciences - IONS (www.ions.org)
- International Contact Support Network - ICSM
- Organization for Paranormal Understanding & Support - OPUS (www.opus-net.org)
- Friendly Favors (www.favors.org/ff)
- Mutual UFO Network - MUFON (www.norcalmufon.org)
- Bay Area UFO Expo (www.thebayareaufoexpo.com)
- Bay Area Consciousness Network - BACN (www.bacn.org)
Confirmed speakers for this event- Joe Firmage
- Stan Grof
- James Gilliland
- James O'Dea
- Kathy Vaquilar
- June Steiner, and
- Daniel Sheehan .
Live music provided by Breandain & Chris Langlois of "Demons Defeated" and others.
A short film with clips from various films of John Mack will be presented at the beginning of the program.
Oakland Asian Cultural Center, 388 9th Street, Oakland, CA
Sunday January 16th at 2:00 PM
Admission: FREE. Suggested donation $10. Proceeds will help cover the expenses for this event and benefit the John E. Mack Institute.
Parking: Parking is available underground in the Pacific Renaissance Plaza for $1.00 per hour.
Merchandise: The hard-to-find hardcover edition of Dr. Mack's Passport to the Cosmos will be available for purchase, as will the DVD of Touched.
PLEASE RSVP FOR THIS EVENT
Click to read more
CLICK LINK ABOVE TO GO TO THE RSVP PAGE FOR THIS EVENT.
RSVP IS HIGHLY RECOMMENDED FOR BOTH YOU AND YOUR GUESTS AS SPACE IS LIMITED. If you are unable to register online, please contact Karhy Vaquilar at internationalcsn@yahoo.com or (510) 482-3484 or June Steiner of OPUS at (408) 378-5661. Please leave your name, name(s) of guest(s), e-mail addresses and telephone numbers.
New to Our Website
New to johnemackinstitute.org:
Michael Blumenthal's eulogy for John Mack
We present one of the eulogies spoken at John Mack's memorial service by John's family and friends.
Click to read more
Suggested Reading
John Perkins' Confessions of An Economic Hitman
#27 on the New York Times hardcover non-fiction bestseller list (12/12/04)
Endorsement from John Mack:
"John Perkins' Confessions of an Economic Hit Man may be one of the most important stories of our time. It should come as a bombshell, one of those rare instances in which someone deeply entrenched in our governmental/corporate imperialist structure has come forward to reveal in unequivocal terms its inner workings. This is a work of great insight, moral courage and transformational depth. It is one of those unusual books that it is a page turner and at the same time essential reading for those of us who need to know about the ruthlessness with which the United States uses economic manipulation and political coercion to extend our power and control over other nations without regard to their true needs."--John E. Mack, M.D.
Excerpt from the Prologue: Ground Zero, New York, 2001
I glanced up from the paper. The New York Stock Exchange. I thought about the billions of dollars that would be spent on re-building New York, the fortunes to be made in the wake of this disaster. I thought about the city around me. I did not have the statistics in my pocket, but recalled that the city was populated by about 8 million people. Every year, the equivalent of nearly four New Yorks died excruciating deaths. Each one of those deaths could be prevented -- for the mere cost of 6 weeks' worth of spending by the US military on its defense budget! This fact, along with the tragedies of September 11, begged us to reconsider the nature of defense.
Then I saw him.
He shuffled along the street, staring down at his feet. He had a scrawny gray beard and wore a grimy overcoat that looked especially out of place on this warm afternoon in Wall Street. My heart skipped a beat. I knew he was Afghan.
He glanced at me. Then, with only a second's hesitation, started up the steps. He nodded politely and sat down beside me, leaving a yard or two between us.
From the way he looked straight ahead, I realized it would be up to me to begin the conversation.
"Nice afternoon."
"Beautiful." His accent was thick. "Times like these we want sunshine."
"You mean because of the World Trade Center?"
He nodded. "Yes. So many things."
"You're from Afghanistan?"
He stared at me. "Is it so obvious?"
"I lived in the Middle East and spent a lot of time around your country."
"You lived in Afghanistan?"
"No. I lived in Iran and Egypt and I ran a project that I visited in Saudi Arabia. Recently I traveled around the Himalayas, in the Kashmir."
"Kashmir." He pulled at his thin beard. "During fighting?"
"Yes, between India and Pakistan." In my mind I saw the two Indian fighter jets flying low over the field where thousands of Tibetans listened to the Dalai Lama. Minutes later they were shot down by Pakistani missiles.
"Hindus and Muslims." He paused. "Now it's Christians and Muslims."
"Makes you wonder about religion, doesn't it?"
His eyes met mine. They were deep brown, nearly black. They struck me as wise and sad. He turned back toward the New York Stock Exchange. With a long gnarled finger, he pointed at the building.
"Or maybe," I suggested, "it's about economics, oil, not religion."
"You were a soldier?"
I couldn't help but chuckle. "No. An economic consultant. I worked for the Shah of Iran, General Torrijos in Panama, the United Nations, the Royal Family of Saudi Arabia, the highest bidder. At one time I had a staff of 50 stationed all over the world." I held up the sheet of paper. "These were my weapons."
He reached over and took them. "Numbers."
"World statistics."
He studied the list. Then he gave a little laugh. "I can't read." He handed it back to me. "I had little pomegranate farm near Kandahar. Russians arrived and mujahadin hid behind my trees and in water ditches." He raised his hands and pointed them like a rifle. "Ambushing." He lowered his hands. "Russians destroyed all my trees and ditches."
"What did you do?"
He nodded at the list I held. "Does it show beggars?"
I scanned it and was surprised to find it did. "Eighty million in the world."
"I was one." He shook his head. "One of eighty million." He seemed lost in thought. "That's more, I think, than all the Afghanis."
"Nearly four times as many."
"Think of that." We sat in silence for a few minutes before he spoke again. "I do not like beggaring. My child dies. So I go back to the farm and raise poppies."
"Opium?"
He shrugged. "It was all I could do. No trees, no water ditches. We all grow poppies. The only way to feed families."
I felt a lump in my throat, a depressing sense of sadness combined with guilt. "We call raising opium poppies evil, yet our economy could not survive without the drug trade."
His eyes met mine and seemed to penetrate my soul. "You were a soldier," he stated, nodding his head to confirm a simple fact. "What do you do now?"
"Write books."
The look he gave me sent chills down my spine. It was as if he saw beyond the façade I had so carefully erected all my life. "Why not the true book, the one you were born to write?"
He rose slowly to his feet and hobbled down the steps. I wanted him to stay yet felt powerless to do anything. Of course he had been right. I was a soldier. It had started long ago, in 1967 when I was recruited by the nation's largest intelligence agency, and I had since assumed many disguises. Although I had written five books, published in a dozen languages, and been accepted as a sort of guru by the New Age groupies, I had never written the one book that might have healed the pain in by soul, the one book that might help expose the small circle of ruthless despots who pull the strings of the 6 billion puppet humans on our planet. I had been their soldier and whore. And had lived a secret life for a third of a century, the life of a spy. No, worse than a spy, a conspirator, an economic terrorist. I had been an Economic Hit Man.
I managed to get to my feet and start after him. But at the bottom of the steps, I was stopped by a sign. It included a picture of the building where I had been seated. At the top, it notified the passerby that the sign had been erected by Heritage Trails of New York. It said:
"The Mausoleum of Halicarnassus piled on top of the bell-tower of St. Mark's in Venice, at the corner of Wall and Broad -- that's the design concept behind 14 Wall Street. In its day the world's tallest building, the 539-foot high skyscraper originally housed the headquarters of Bankers Trust, one of the country's wealthiest financial institutions."
I stood there in awe and looked up at this building. Shortly after the turn of the last century 14 Wall Street had played the role the World Trade Center would later assume; it had been the very symbol of power and economic domination. It had also housed Bankers Trust, the firm I had employed to finance my energy company.
I continued walking. I scanned the heads of the crowds, but could find no sign of him. At the next building, there was an immense statue shrouded in blue plastic. Engraved into the building's stone face was the fact that this was Federal Hall, 26 Wall Street, where on April 30, 1789 George Washington had taken the oath of office as first president of the United States.
I continued around the block to Pine Street. There I came face-to-face with the world headquarters of Chase, the bank David Rockefeller built. I knew that the foundations for this skyscraper were laid in oil, drugs, and murder. I had been one of Rockefeller's goons. I knew too that the WTC was a project started by David in 1960 and that it had been considered an albatross, a financial misfit unsuited to modern fiber optic and Internet technologies and burdened with an inefficient and costly elevator system. The owners had made no bones about their desire to get rid of those two towers that once had been nicknamed "David" and "Nelson."
Their wish had been granted, as usual.
And in that moment I was struck by the knowing that I had to obey that old Afghan man. I had to write that book.
Confessions of An Economic Hitman
by John Perkins
Available at Amazon.com:
Click to read more
The John E Mack Institute in Cambridge, MA, researches how
extraordinary experiences affect personal, societal and global
transformation. Contributions are sought so that we may fulfill
Dr Mack's vision of developing areas of inquiry that profoundly
contribute to our understanding of human experience, and provide
the basis for a more inclusive framework of mental health
practice for generations of caregivers to come. Tax deductible contributions may be made to the John E. Mack Institute, PO Box 398080, Cambridge MA 02139, or online at www.johnemackinstitute.org/gift
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