Michelle Janikian
The story of the Harvard psychiatrist who wanted to believe – and ended up introducing the entire culture to the possibility of transpersonal experiences.
Alien Encounters and Human Transformation
Articles by Dr. John Mack and colleagues
Alien Thinking
by Angela Hind, Pier Productions
BBC News, June 8, 2005
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.
Review of David Grinspoon’s Lonely Planets: The Natural Philosophy of Alien Life
by John E. Mack (review), David Grinspoon (excerpt)
Review follows a publisher-authorized excerpt.
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
John Mack’s Transpersonal Journey Continues
by Bill Chalker
Like all of us I found the news of John Mack’s untimely passing very saddening.
While some of us might not have agreed with some of the directions John was taking the subject in, I think the field has been enriched by his involvement. When he 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. On the hurdles he often encountered, particularly from mainstream academia, he once told me what he felt. Maybe his response was coloured by spending too much time in Australia, but clearly he enjoyed his time down down under. His response: “Fuck ‘em”. I smiled and wished him well. He was always a courageous and wonderful researcher. Full speed John on the rest of your transpersonal journey.
Dr. Mack Responds to Psychology Today Article
by John E. Mack, M.D.
Dear Friends/List,
I cannot comment directly on what was said in the Psychology Today article, for, like many people in this and related fields, the distortions of positions and outright misquoting is so rampant in most mainstream articles on these subjects that it is impossible to “set the record straight.” It may be unwise to give interviews at all, but there is always the hope that something useful may get across — the reporters always assure you of their openness (they may be sometimes; editors and executives is another matter). There is also the damned-if-you-do damned-if-you-don’t problem: if you give an interview you’re likely to get distorted or boxed by a twisting context; if you don’t they sometimes get downright nasty.
Dismissing Extraordinary Experiences
A rebuttal to a commentary by skeptic Joe Nickell
by John E. Mack, M.D.
with Will Bueché
Nickell’s critique dismisses extraordinary experiences a priori. Having codified experiences that transcend our material reality (from “psychic abilities” to “religious visions”) as examples of fantasy, it is thereafter a simple matter of defining anyone who has such experiences as “fantasy prone.” This is circular reasoning.
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.
ABSTRACT — 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.
Pre-publication comments for The Spirit Molecule
John E. Mack, M.D.
These comments were prepared by John E. Mack, M.D. in October 2000 for possible use by Rick J. Strassman, M.D. in support of his book, DMT: The Spirit Molecule (2001).
The Environmental Message of the Aliens
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.
Thinking Like a Cancer
by Robert J. Begiebing
This is the long-form version of the essay, The Environmental Message of the Aliens
On Human Identity
by John E. Mack, M.D.
The most important change that is needed by humanity now is to move beyond the boundaries of a limited group identity to a larger sense of being human.
Dr. John Mack at the Seven Stars Bookstore
Harvard psychiatrist and Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer John E. Mack, M.D., spoke at the Seven Stars book store in his hometown of Cambridge, Massachusetts, earlier this spring (March 2000). Dr. Mack talked about his new book, Passport to the Cosmos, and shared where his journey has taken him in his understanding of the relationship between alien encounters and human transformation.