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Alien Thinking
by Angela Hind, Pier Productions
Not many scientists are prepared to take tales of alien abduction seriously, but John Mack, a Harvard professor who was killed in a road accident in north London last year, did. Ten years on from a row which nearly lost him his job, hundreds of people who claim they were abducted still revere him. (An article based upon a BBC Radio 4 radio program, Abduction, Alienation and Reason, originally broadcast June 8, 2005).
John Mack's Transpersonal Journey Continues
by Bill Chalker
When John Mack was in Australia I supported his research into indigenous aboriginal abduction & UFO experiences - an area we both had a strong interest in, particularly its shamanic dimensions. I recently went through the final editing of my forthcoming book, from which some discussions about John’s legacy had been deleted. This forum and this time seems like a good place to post that material.
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Space Station: A Breakfast with John E. Mack, M.D.
by Susan Downs, MD, MPH
Susan Downs, M.D., reports on John Mack's presentation to the Northern California Psychiatric Association in 1996.
Alien Concepts: An Interview with Dr. John Mack
by Andrew Lawler
John Mack's research into alien abductions has thrust him far out of the academic mainstream, yet the Harvard psychiatrist and his Program for Extraordinary Experience Research soldier on, constructing a “science of the sacred.”
Alien Contact Experience and Ancient Traditions
by Veronica Goodchild, Ph.D.
One of the difficulties of the alien encounter experience is trying to convey to others the kind of "place" or "landscape" of these anomalous visitations. Some encounters seem to be taking place in a realm that is not clearly recognizable as either outside of ordinary reality or within one's interior world.
Alien Territory
by Sara Terry
John Mack, a Harvard psychiatrist at the front lines of UFO abduction research, is convinced that abductees are not making up their stories: “I encountered something here that did not fit anything I had ever come across in 40 years of psychiatry.”
Aliens Among Us: An Interview with Dr. John Mack
by Joe Eich-Bonni, Managing Editor, Boston's Weekly Dig
Doctor John Mack is a pulitzer prize-winning Harvard professor and psychiatrist. He thought you might like to know, there very well may be aliens among us.
Being Open to a New Story: Story 1 and Story 2
by Richmond Mayo Smith
I am fasting for two weeks to ask you to become fully aware of the story by which you are living your life. Such exploring is crucial and practical In these challenging times. By story I mean the knowledge, from whatever source, you use to understand the universe and your human role in it...
Blowing the Western Mind
by John E. Mack, M.D.
We hear the expression "consensus reality" used to distinguish the conventional Western/Newtonian/Cartesian world view from other possible philosophies or frameworks of thought. The frequent bracketing of these words in writing and conversation implies that there is one accepted version of reality that includes a social agreement about what the mind may or may not legitimately countenance.
Defining Academic Freedom
by Alan M. Dershowitz
If Dr. Mack had taught at the Divinity School, it is unlikely that any investigation [into his work] would be tolerated...The paradigm of the scientific method is not the only criteria for evaluating academic undertakings. This is certainly true in the formative, exploratory phases in the development of an idea. If Sigmund Freud, Karl Marx or Martin Buber had been required to satisfy a committee before they could continue their research, the world might have been deprived of significant insights.
Dr John Mack at the Seven Stars Book Store, March 2000
by John E. Mack, M.D. (edited by Will Bueche and Karen Wesolowski)
Highlights from a presentation at a favorite Cambridge book store, after the release of Passport to the Cosmos, in which Dr. Mack explains his reasons for writing a second book on the alien encounter experience. Trivia: This bookstore appearance is seen briefly in the documentary film Touched.
Dreamland: Whitley Strieber Interviews John Mack
This is Whitley Strieber, it's Dreamland. Tonight we have a great show. We are privileged to have Dr. John Mack, Pulitzer Prize winning author of Abduction and the new book Passport to the Cosmos...
Epilogue: Aggression and Its Alternatives in the Conduct of International Relations
by John E. Mack, M.D.
Long before the nuclear superpowers began to extend their competition into space Bertrand Russell (1959) wrote, “When I read of plans to defile the heavens...I cannot but feel that the men who make these plans are guilty of a kind of impiety”.
Exploring African and Other Alien Encounters
by Dominique Callimanopulos
The Ariel School sighting is one of the most significant in recent UFO history. Even in their state of fear, many of the children reported also being curious and fascinated by the strange beings they saw, whose eyes in particular commanded an intense attention
From the Edge of Experience: A Pearl
by Christopher Lydon, John E. Mack, M.D., and Guests
I was sitting down between two friends my own age, we were sitting at a sea wall. I looked up in the sky and saw a plane. I heard a loud beep and I blacked out. My friends later told me that my eyes were open the whole time...
From the Edge of Experience: Suspended in the Mist
by Program for Extraordinary Experience Research (PEER)
In this From the Edge of Experience entry, we present a letter from a woman whose description of certain sounds and other perceptions during an anomolous experience is remarkably similar to a report shared in another Edge entry.
From the Edge of Experience: The Concept of Marriage
by Program for Extraordinary Experience Research (PEER)
"They want to coexist with us, but the question is how do we do that?" In late 2000, PEER invited three experiencers to a small gathering in Cambridge to share what they have learned from their alien encounters.
From the Edge of Experience: Who Are We, Why We Are Here
by Lisette Larkins
In this excerpt from Talking to Extraterrestrials, Lisette Larkins describes interactions with strange beings who appeared at once "alien" and "oddly familiar." "They spoke to me," she reports, "and I spoke to them ... Through many communications, I have come to understand that my encounters—and the encounters of other people worldwide—are part of a magnificent, universal plan." Her account joins a long tradition of wisdom and insights whose sources are described as unearthly messengers.
Harvard vs. the Space Aliens
by James Smart
A prominent Harvard kidney specialist is leading the writing of a report about Dr. Mack's counseling and studying of people who claim they were whisked off into the cosmos and subjected to odd medical tests. The medical school dean will then decide whether Dr. Mack's work meets Harvard's standards for scholarship.
If Lawrence of Arabia Were Viewing the War
by John E. Mack, M.D.
"Lawrence would have loathed Saddam Hussein. But I doubt he would have recommended our heavy-handed methods."
Ig Nobel Psychology Prize Statement in Memory of John E. Mack, M.D.
by David Jacobs
Integrating Extraordinary Experiences
by Roberta L. Colasanti, LICSW
PEER's former clinical director, Roberta Colasanti, LICSW, describes stages of integration that are often seen in people who seek clinical assistance in dealing with life-long alien encounter experiences. Excerpted from remarks made at a mutidisciplinary meeting of academicians convened by PEER at the Harvard Divinity School in April 1999.
John E. Mack, MD: A Tribute
by Michael H. Cohen, Esq.
A tribute to John E. Mack, MD, who has transitioned from his physical body to the next plane of consciousness. He was a colleague and explorer of the human experience who modeled insight, humor, and courage.
Living In/With Mother Earth
by Richmond Mayo-Smith
The “story” we have been living in the West has encouraged us to see all entities as separate and discrete, to restrict the ways of knowing that we acknowledge as legitimate, and to limit what we accept as real. There is a growing realization that these beliefs must change.
Memorial Service for John E. Mack (article about)
by Elaine A. Steblecki
What I remember most about the service was all of its description, as speakers tried to capture, in mere words, the quicksilver that was John Mack. What follows is not a transcription but a sampling of their remarks, with occasional reflections of my own.
Messengers from the Unseen: Oberlin Alumni Magazine Fall 2002
by John E. Mack, M.D.
Oberlin graduate John Mack ('51) spoke at Oberlin College in 2001 on the event of his 50th class reunion. This article expands upon his presentation. Dr. Mack was surprised by the storm of criticism that came with the 1994 publication of Abduction. He has since come to understand his own naivite at the time as well as the “misty territory” his research and writing explores. He credits Oberlin for emphasizing open-mindedness and encouraging exploration in his education.
More On John Mack's Abduction
by Andrea Pritchard
John has been much faulted for not being more scientific in his book [Abduction] but the topic of abductions does not neatly fit into what is “scientific,” but strays into philosophy and realms of the spirit... John can hardly be faulted for following this subject wherever it leads, and where it is appropriate to speak as a philosopher rather than a psychiatrist.
My Day in Manchester
by John E. Mack, M.D.
A few days before his death, John Mack was in Manchester New Hampshire in advance of the US Presidential election. In this letter, originally composed to his sons, he shares his experience as a volunteer in “getting out the vote.”
My Favorite Martians
by Kathryn Robinson
I don't know if those of us who have never had our deepest-held beliefs dismissed as sick and ridiculous can begin to understand the overwhelming therapeutic value of simple respect. It's hard, indeed, to find a downside in Mack's trust: with nobody being sued or impugned (as in “repressed memories” of childhood abuse), his patients reportedly function better after their purgative sessions with him. If this is bad science, it may nonetheless be good medicine. ...Yet, is it bad science?
Non-Ordinary States of Consciousness and the Accessing of Feelings
by John E. Mack, M.D.
A review of Freud's use of hypnosis and Stanislav Grof's use of Holotropic Breathwork.
Passport to the Cosmos: An Interview with John Mack, M.D.
by Vivienne Simon, EarthStar
Vivienne Simon helped set up Dr John Mack's Program for Extraordinary Experience Research (PEER) in the early 90s. She revisited Dr Mack in 2000 to see where his research had led.
Paths Beyond Ego: The Transpersonal Vision
by Frances Vaughn, Roger Walsh et al. (Foreword by John E. Mack, M.D.)
Transpersonal disciplines tend to be exceptionally wide-ranging, interdisciplinary, and integrative. Their investigations include higher developmental possibilities and what Maslow called "the farther reaches of human nature." This investigation builds on and integrates knowledge from fields such as neuroscience, cognitive science, anthropology, philosophy, and comparative religion and incorporates Eastern as well as Western perspectives.
Prisons and the Death Penalty: Possibilities for Transformation
by James Gilligan, M.D., Aaron Kipnis, Ph.D., Robert Jay Lifton, M.D.
What might a tranformational perspective offer in understanding our American prison crisis and our death penalty practices?
Psychoanalysis and the Self: Toward a Spiritual Point of View
by John E. Mack, M.D.
Spiritual or religious experience calls forth the language of the sacred, words like soul, spirit, transcendence, reverence, and faith. Psychoanalysts and other dynamically oriented psychologists have tended to be uncomfortable with this language. In this essay, Dr. John Mack describes how the explicit inclusion of a spiritual point of view has significant implications for the practice of psychoanalysis and psychodynamic psychotherapy.
Reflections on Breathwork and Alien Encounter Experiences: Stan Grof's Recollections
by Stanislav Grof, M.D.
John and I met in 1987 at a meeting in the Big House of the
Esalen Institute, a beautiful mansion perched on a cypress-covered cliff overlooking the Pacific Ocean on the Big Sur Coast...
Reflections on Two Kinds of Power
by John E. Mack, M.D.
The need for a sense of personal power is one of the primary motivating forces in human life. Conversely, the feeling of powerlessness or helplessness is perhaps the most disturbing of human emotions, one to be avoided at all costs. But what is power?
Remembering John E. Mack, MD
by Jane Hughes Gignoux
John and I grew up across the street from one another on the upper Westside of Manhattan...
Remembering the Eternal: Plato's View of "Education" in Anomalous Experiences
by Michael E. Zimmerman, Ph.D.
People over the centuries have reported being taken to strange places by non-human beings, some of whom reveal delightful or disturbing aspects of previously unknown dimensions of reality. How are we to understand the "educational" aspect of the alien encounter experience?
Remembrance of John E. Mack, M.D.
by Budd Hopkins
Budd Hopkins on Coast to Coast AM, interviewed by George Noory on September 28, 2004, on the occasion of John Mack’s passing.
Resisting the Politics of Fear
by John E. Mack, M.D.
“Because the terrorist danger is real, it is especially important that our capacity to assess the risk we face not be distorted for political gain.” Dr Mack's final essay. Sept 2004.
Response to Psychology Today Article 2003
by John E. Mack, M.D.
A brief response to a discussion generated by an article in Psychology Today magazine, 2003. In this response, Mack declares that “The idea...that we can learn about what matters to people simply by objectifying them is wrong.”
Response to Robert Naeye, Oberlin ’85
by John E. Mack, M.D.
A response by Dr. Mack to a Letter to the Editor written to the Oberlin Alumni Magazine by Robert Naeye, a science writer who took issue with Dr. Mack's remarks given on occasion of the 50th class reunion of Oberlin College in 2001.
Review by John E. Mack of David Grinspoon's Lonely Planets: The Natural Philosophy of Alien Life
by John E. Mack (review), David Grinspoon (excerpt)
Grinspoon’s book gives us something which may be of greater value than the assessment of the likelihood of alien life according to the methods of empirical science. Open-minded and open-hearted, punctuated by self-effacing good humor and candor, Grinspoon has framed the growing debate in our society about how we may think about the question of extraterrestrial life and the method or methods by which we might learn of its existence. Grinspoon defines sharply the wide paradigmatic gulf that separates mainstream astrophysics and astrobiology from the world of those who are concerned with the importance and meaning of UFOs and alien contact.
Science is Humbled
by Rev. Jeffrey L. Brown and Janis A. Pryor
Our mission is not to argue for or against the existence of aliens. We are saying, however, that we support John Mack's contention that as a culture, our epistomology, our way of investigating the origin, methods and the limits of human knowledge must be expanded to include that human experience can be a legitimate way of knowing.
Studying Intrusions from the Subtle Realm: How Can We Deepen Our Knowledge?
by John E. Mack, M.D.
In the focus on the material realm to the exclusion of the subtle realms, we have virtually rid the cosmos of nature, rid nature of spirit and, in a sense, denied the existence of all life other than that which is physically observable here on Earth.
T. E. Lawrence's Vision for the Middle East: How Does It Look Now?
by John E. Mack, M.D.
Lawrence (unlike the pro-Arab Gertrude Bell or the pro-Zionist Richard Meinertzhagen) was one of the few and one of the last people in his own time and ours to achieve true sympathy for
both national movements. His references to both movements in Seven Pillars are positive. He actually believed that they could be reconciled, and, although subsequent events have
seemed to prove him wrong at least to date, this belief only rebounds to his credit.
The Aliens are Always with Us
by Bryan Appleyard
A Harvard professor killed in London last week had been vilified for his belief in the 'third realm'. His theories may not be as mad as some think says Bryan Appleyard. Oct 2004.
The Enemy System
by John E. Mack, M.D.
The threat of nuclear annihilation has stimulated us to try to understand what it is about mankind that has led to such self-destroying behavior. Central to this inquiry is an exploration of the adversarial relationships between ethnic or national groups.
The Moral Truth is Out There
by Theodore Roszak
As a historian, I have learned to take crazes like this as serious matters that can change society more dramatically than any official political policy. Skeptics find the urge to debunk such delusions overwhelming; that is understandable. But in spite of those who criticize with good sense and straight thinking, delusions change the world.
The Outer Limits of the Soul
by Mark Gauvreau Judge
While UFOs remain mired in fifties-style science fiction imagery, increasing numbers of UFO abductees, as well as the experts who treat them, say their experiences have as much to do with inner as outer space.
The Passions of Nationalism and Beyond: Identity and Power in International Relations
by John E. Mack, M.D.
In this essay written at the time of the original Gulf War, Center founder Dr. John Mack explores ways in which people and nations develop a sense of security, and examines the concept of power. Power, suggests Dr. Mack, is much more than control: "Power is the feeling that our lives can make a difference, that we can create something worthwhile, even influence events. It is also the power of joy, play and music. This form of power is nourished by the experience of being cared for, loved and valued. The other kind of power is the power of domination, coercion and control. It brings resentment and fear and separates children from their parents, leaders from their citizens and people's from one another. It is the psychological source of war."
The Responsible Warrior
by John E. Mack, M.D.
Dr John Mack contrasts the leadership qualities of T.E. Lawrence (“Lawrence of Arabia”) with those of the American president George W Bush. A Boston Globe editorial, June 2004, written during Bush's invasion of Iraq.
The Trickster At Work
by John E. Mack, M.D.
The original draft of a New York Times editorial by Dr. John Mack published in edited form November 30 2000. The editorial considers the “tied” Presidential election of 2000 from the perspective of the trickster archetype.
The UFO Abduction Phenomenon: What Does it Mean for the Transformation of Human Consciousness?
by John E. Mack, M.D.
Presented at the International Transpersonal Association Conference on “Science, Spirituality, and the Global Crisis: Toward a World with a Future,” held in Prague, Czechoslovakia, 25 June 1992.
Thinking Like a Cancer
by Robert J. Begiebing
Are we ready to admit this lesson of the Rio+5 and Kyoto environmental meetings: that we must finally give up hoping for environmental wisdom and political will from political leaders and their conferences? Perhaps we need to look elsewhere, to reconsider those visionary, religious traditions that would transform us. Certainly, by now there is a growing scientific consensus to help us along: if we value life on Earth, we must change our lives.
Transformation in Tragedy
by John E. Mack, M.D.
We have the possibility in our time of tragedy to create a genuine global community which is different from a self-congratulatory globalism that masks economic inequality. This new way of being is sensitive to human suffering and oppression everywhere. It is committed to a politics of healing.
Venturing from Shadows into Light
by Michael P. Lucas
They claim to have been abducted by aliens. A Harvard research psychiatrist backs them. Now 'experiencers' want society's respect.
Witnessing: Abductees as Sacred Truth-Tellers
by John E. Mack, M.D.
The scientific method has been highly successful in giving us reliable ways of knowing about the material world as we know it. But we have yet to develop methodologies that are as reliable with respect to matters that are not clearly in the objective or the subjective realms but seem to partake of both. In this paper I will consider the elements of an expanded epistemology which might help to legitimize experiences that are giving us vital information about the cosmos but which cannot be substantiated by the ways of knowing now considered reliable in Western culture.
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