Passport to the CosmosHuman Transformation and Alien EncountersFor more than 10 years, John Mack explored alien encounter experiences deeply, revealing a world of meaning and power that can revolutionize our understanding of who we are and our place in the cosmos. This is not, primarily, a book about aliens or abductions. But Dr. Mack asserts that these experiences reveal to us a universe which, far from being simply an empty place of dead matter and seething energy, is filled with intelligence and life, though this may not always take the densely embodied form with which we are most familar. This book brings us to the edge of material reality and beyond, shattering the boundary that has separated matter and spirit and scientific or spiritual ways of knowing. Dr. Mack asks us to move beyond the largely useless debate about whether UFOs or abductions are real in a purely material sense. He shows us the limited way that we have used ourselves in learning about the cosmos, and challenges the limitations of traditional science as a way to learn about the multi-dimensional world in which we reside. Insights about the relationship between spiritual and physical energy; trauma’s role in transformation; information about the ecological crisis facing the planet and the urgency that we do something about it; the possibility that human beings are participating in the creation of some sort of interdimensional hybrid race; the expansion of human consciousness and our spiritual reawakening; and the apparent evolution of extraordinary relationships that some human beings may be developing beyond the earth plane — these are the matters this book includes. Dr. Mack demonstrates that the investigations of a skilled clinician, exploring human consciousness through in-depth conversations, can reveal to us a multidimensional, apparently intelligent, cosmos whose nature is fundamentally consistent with the discoveries of leading scientists who have been gaining knowledge primarily through exploring the physical world. Read Dr. Mack’s remarks from a book release event in Cambridge MA: Commemorative Edition with new illustrations, photographs, and foreword.
Publisher: White Crow Books Published January 2011 368 pages
Original Publisher: Crown Reviews of Passport to the Cosmos“John Mack and I became close friends when, in 1990, I first introduced him to the complexities of UFO abductions. By the time of his death, he had moved to a more spiritualistic view of these traumatic experiences, and Passport to the Cosmos remains an eloquent, insightful statement of his approach to an extraordinary phenomenon.” “…because of its conspicuous attempts to be even handed and the introduction of cross-cultural material, Passport to the Cosmos breaks new ground. …A credible work on an incredible topic and worth reading.” “Dr. Mack is one of the more credible writers and researchers in the UFO scene and a man who has earned the right to be accorded some consideration.”
—Tom Elliott, Mensa Bulletin: The Magazine of American Mensa “In my opinion, Passport to the Cosmos is a monumental – I almost want to say, definitive – contribution to our understanding of the meaning of extraordinary experiences. It is also a very brave book, passionately written and deeply engaging. And more than that – its provocative thesis strikes me as being absolutely on target.” “Passport to the Cosmos provides the most sophisticated and insightful analysis to date about alien abduction phenomenon. [Mack deserves] thanks for holding his ground in the face of critics.” “Dr. Mack is, in my opinion, now the world’s leading authority on alien abductions. Do not assume that [Passport to the Cosmos] is a sequel to Abduction. It is far beyond that. The close encounter experience as it really is. Dr. Mack is probably as close to the truth about this as anyone ever has been.” “…a stunning breakthrough in our understanding of ourselves and our place in the larger cosmos. With a rare combination of empiricism, reason, and empathy, he skillfully guides us to reconsider our attachment to the bankrupt materialist worldview and open our minds to the possibilities of a universe of awesome diversity.”
—Ralph Metzner, Ph.D., psychologist and author “What do people really want when they think about UFOs? According to John Mack’s newest book Passport to the Cosmos, the first thing they want is for their experiences to stop. Only after they realize they have no power to stop the experience do they begin to to accept a process that is informative and transformative – a process that propels them out of their narcissistic concerns and towards active involvement with environmental values, the survival of humanity and an exploration of spiritually-based consciousness. …Perhaps Wilber, the philosopher, might discover he has more in common with Mack than he realizes.” |
AbductionHuman Encounters with AliensPerspective by John E. Mack, M.D. I am not a ufologist per se. I am a psychiatrist and a consciousness explorer, a clinician and a co-investigator in this grand mystery called “alien abduction.” This book is my perspective as experienced by my work with thirteen individuals, given my background and interest in political and transpersonal psychologies. I am not attempting to explain the entire UFO field, nor should this book be read as such. There are many others who have been studying the field far longer than I. I am presenting the piece I have experienced with all my senses and intuition. It is one piece of the puzzle offered to shed light on a much larger whole. I was asked recently at a conference, “What do the aliens think?” I don’t know what they think. This is not an attempt to tell you that. I am telling the story of thirteen individuals with whom I have worked closely. This book is as much or more about the human psyche and its potential for extraordinary experience as it is about alien beings. Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Originally Published April 1994 Revised 1995 464 pages Note: Two versions of the Abduction text exist. The original text was presented in the 1994 hardcover. After reaction from colleagues at Harvard who felt that Dr. Mack’s reporting seemed unduly credulous, Dr. Mack revisited the text (with input from his friends and peers) and added phrases (such as “it seems” or “he says”) to make it more clear that he does not presume the reality of these experiences before he offers his interpretation / analysis. Additionally, a new foreword answering the first wave of critics, and a new appendix, were added, and the beginning of the book was restructured. This revised text of Abduction is the author’s preferred text. It premiered with the 1995 paperback and has been the edition released in all subsequent iterations, with one exception: The new Kindle edition and print-on-demand edition from Simon and Schuster accidentally reused the original 1994 text. We have requested that the revised text replace these, which may happen in 2013. Translated editions were created in 1994 using the original text. Efforts were made to present the revised text in a recent French edition, but the publisher was unwilling to pay for a new translation.
Reviews of Abduction“Fascinating, suggestive, and even inspiring.” “Only once in a great while does a scientist encounter evidence that challenges our fundamental understanding of the cosmos and humankind’s place in it. Dr. Mack’s extraordinary research with alien abductions represents just such a phenomenon, and he has engaged that challenge with singular courage and integrity. Abduction is a landmark work.” “Controversy. Clarity. Courage. These three qualities permeate every page of Abduction by Dr. Mack. The current psychological and spiritual paradigms that define the nature of being Human and probe the potential of our capacity are under challenge and change. This work is mind-provoking, awakening and a compass point in the search for new directions to understand ourselves and our place in the environment and the Cosmos.” “A transcendent, landmark work. …An extraordinarily rich and strange mind-expanding book.”
–Boston Herald “In the history of science, radical progress has always required individuals of extraordinary foresight and integrity who had the courage to ignore the intellectual taboos of their times and to explore phenomena that challenged current belief systems. John Mack’s research into the phenomenon of UFO abduction is a ground-breaking work that belongs in this category. His book Abduction: Human Encounters with Aliens is a major contribution to modern psychology and psychiatry; however, its importance reaches far beyond that. His study has profound implications for the philosophy of Western science and the power to radically change the worldview of our generation.” “John Mack has written a gripping and fascinating book. As with Frazier’s The Golden Bough and as with William James’ Varieties of Religious Experience, and perhaps as with the Brothers Grimm, Abduction is a book that repeatedly leads the reader to psychologically important sources of wonder about worlds beyond our ken.” “Provocative…This book is a challenge to any reader. It raises questions about how we live on this planet and with each other that the Western mind and culture will not be able to ignore for too much longer. It also raises questions about the nature of reality; of time, space, energy and the true nature of humanness. It opens the door to a very serious redefinition of life as we know it.”
—Los Angeles Times Book Review “Where Mack’s report differs is in its emphasis on the purported spiritual aspects of the abduction experience. Many of his patients reported deep personal growth and heightened awareness of human destructiveness and of Earth’s ecological crisis. Some abductees seemed to relive past lives during therapy sessions; others became open to contact with spirit-entities; still others said they possessed a ‘dual identity’ as both alien and human. Unlike Hopkins and Jacobs, who tend to view such phenomena with skepticism … Mack wishfully embraces them as signs that a higher intelligence is attempting to intervene in humanities destructive course. Whether that intelligence involves extra terrestrial humanoids or multidimensional spirits is a question Mack leaves open. |
A Prince of Our DisorderThe Life of T. E. LawrenceWhen this Pulitzer Prize-winning biography first appeared in 1976, it rescued T. E. Lawrence from the mythologizing that had seemed to be his fate. In it, Harvard professor of psychiatry Dr. John Mack humanely and objectively explores the relationship between Lawrence’s inner life and his historically significant actions. Extensive interviews, far-flung correspondence, access to War Office dispatches and unpublished letters provide the basis for Mack’s sensitive investigation of the psychiatric dimensions of Lawrence’s personality. In addition, Mack examines the pertinent history, politics, and sociology of the time in order to weigh the real forces with which Lawrence contended and which impinged upon him. Publisher:
Harvard University Press 5 x 7 3/4 inches, 27 halftones 608 pages Originally Published 1976 New foreword April 1998 Table of Contents Preface, 1998 Family Background and Childhood Youth The War Years, 1914-1918 The Political Years, 1918-1922 The Years in the Ranks, 1922-1935 Further Dimensions Reviews of A Prince of Our Disorder“We are not likely to get as thorough and judicious a biography of T. E. Lawrence for some time.” “A great book which honors its subject, its form, and its author.” “A hugely admired, and Pulitzer prize-winning, biography which concentrates on the relationship between Lawrence’s inner life and the actions and events which grew out of them. It is easy to warm to a biographer who, while drawing on his training as a psychiatrist, is never deceived into thinking that theory can ‘explain’ his Lawrence. The more Mack discovered about the social contexts of Lawrence’s actions and the demands on a public man, the more he understood Lawrence’s psychology. The result is a resounding confirmation of this approach to his subject.”
— Desmond Christy, The Guardian “Unlike many ‘psycho-biographies’, this was written by a trained psychologist who had also done his biographer’s homework: it remains the best biography of T.E. Lawrence.”
— Contemporary Review “Takes us closer to the core of Lawrence than any previous biography.” |
