Jim Garrison on John Mack

May 20, 2025 — Jim Garrison reminisces about his friendship with John Mack in this newly-posted video. Jim co-founded the State of the World Forum with Mikhail Gorbachev (see full bio here); the 1999 forum was one of John’s favorite events. The second part of this presentation was June 10th, and it included some wonderful comments from people taking the Great Books course at Ubiquity University.


https://youtu.be/Y_PWZx8d-U8?si=l0kdZGZhBTvgk4FD


https://youtu.be/-OkjlUo0aq4?si=BenUM6X0KzdIF7Da

Some minor errata from Part 1:

[1] As far as we are aware, Mack was never “approached by the Pentagon to examine various personnel who reported direct experience with UFOs”.

[2] At Harvard Medical School, Mack was not a “dean”; he is often referred to as having been the “head” of the department of psychiatry because he was (deep breath) “chairman of the executive committee of the consolidated departments of psychiatry” (1980-1986); he’d also founded and was for many years (in the 1970s) the head of the department of psychiatry at the Cambridge Hospital, one of Harvard’s teaching hospitals.

[3] His earliest report on alien encounters (1991) was submitted to two psychiatry journals but we do not believe he submitted it to the New England Journal of Medicine. Garrison likely heard a story recounted by attorney Daniel Sheehan in which it is asserted that editor Arnold Relman directed his staff to reject any submissions from Mack. (Relman was later made the head of the ad hoc committee that investigated Mack at Harvard from 1994-1995.) Although the anecdote that Mack’s report was “returned unread” may be apocryphal, Mack said something about this in a letter to his lead attorney, Eric MacLeish, during that investigation:

“My situation is typified, I think, by a conversation I had with Marcia Angell, now Editor of the New England Journal of Medicine, when she was a senior associate editor under Relman. I consulted her soon after I started doing this work about what I should do, wondering if I might submit a paper to the New England Journal. She cautioned me that no matter how good a paper I might write, there was a very good chance that it would not be accepted because the findings would so violate the reviewers’ view of reality. I did not find this encouraging as far as the peer review route was concerned, but if I can emerge from this period of affliction I would still like to pursue that route.” (letter from Mack to MacLeish, Nov 3, 1994)

Mack had a better reception at the journal Psychiatry, of the Washington School of Psychiatry. Editor David Reiss wrote these kind words to Mack:

“Your [report] on abduction phenomena poses the same dilemma for me that your patients suffering from this syndrome pose to you. Can I believe any of this? You will note we gave the manuscript an extra dose of reviewers and all of them urge me to publish your piece, in some form or other. This does not make my task any easier since I am acutely aware that a publicly identified editor will catch a great deal of heat while anonymous reviewers can be boldly open to radical ideas while fully protected by the shadows of their anonymity. Despite the covey of reviewers, I am on my own on this – as you have been. What attracts me about your submission, frankly, is not its extraterrestiality but its empathy. The core of your piece is not so much that you find these stories credible but that you have recognized that these people are not exhibitionists or actors but, in many if not most cases, genuinely terrified. I also absorbed this material by trying to hear your dilemma: if these people are really terrified and we can’t find reasons to feel this is all self-generated and we have ruled out more common sources of terror, what is going on here?”

Reiss would have published the report, if Mack worked on it some more. But by the time of Reiss’ reply (March 26, 1993), Mack was already expanding it into a book – a decision which Arnold Relman later described as negligent, writing, “We do not fault him for writing a popular book about his work … but we do criticize him for neglecting to report his results fully to his professional peers in academic psychiatry.” (Relman, Brandt, Shore, 1994. Draft Report of the Ad Hoc Committee)

Searching for Dr John Mack’s lost media interviews

March 25, 2025 — We are searching for some missing TV and radio interviews with Dr John Mack.

If you have any of these please let us know at info@johnemackinstitute.org.

Some dates may be air dates, some might be recording dates (we are not sure). Thanks!

Television

TV: 1983-11-15 Nickelodeon Livewire, episode 304 “Bombs” (airdate 1984-02-03)
TV: 1994-04-18 NECN Newton MA, New England Cable News
TV: 1994-04-19 WBZ Boston, Eyewitness News at Noon
TV: 1994-04-22 KCNC Colorado, First News
TV: 1994-04-22 KKTV Colorado Springs CO, Noon News
TV: 1994-04-22 KUSA Good Afternoon Colorado
TV: 1994-04-24 WTTG Washington DC, Fox Morning News
TV: 1994-04-24 WUSA Washington DC, Broadcast House Live
TV: 1994-04-25 KING Seattle WA, Evening Magazine (recording date)
TV: 1994-04-25 KIRO Seattle WA, News at Noon
TV: 1994-04-26 WJBK Southfield MI, The Morning Show
TV: 1994-04-27 Lifetime, Clapprood Live with host Marjorie Clapprood
TV: 1994-04-29 KSTP St Paul MN, Eyewitness News Midday
TV: 1994-05-16 Inside Edition (not sure if this happened)
TV: 1994-06-17 CBC Calgrary, Canada, Petrie in Prime
TV: 1994-06-20 CBC Canada, The Fifth Estate (recording date)
TV: 1994-11-28 BBC Horizon
TV: 1994-11-29 ZBC The Jill Darke Show
TV: 1995-10-26 SAT1 Germany, Schreinemakers Live
TV: 1999-11-12 CTV Canada AM, Interview by Dan Matheson (live via satellite)
TV: 1996-11-29 Today Show TCN Australia

Radio

RADIO: 1994-04-20 ABC Network News, News Call (John Mack and experiencers) (recording date)
RADIO: 1994-04-20 CBS Radio, Gill Gross Show (John Mack and experiencers)
RADIO: 1994-04-21 WABC AM New York with host Bob Grant (John Mack and experiencers)
RADIO: 1994-04-22 KTLK Denver CO, Peter Boyles
RADIO: 1994-04-22 WOR AM Manhattan, Rambling With Gambling with host John Gambling
RADIO: 1994-04-24 WWRC Silver Spring MD, hosts Mike and Pat
RADIO: 1994-04-25 KIRO Seattle WA, Middday with Jim French
RADIO: 1994-04-26 WJR Radio Detroit MI, Focus
RADIO: 1994-04-26 WXYT Radio The Denny McLain Show
RADIO: 1994-04-29 KSTP AM Maplewood MN with host Barbara Carlson (John Mack and Julie)
RADIO: 1994-04-29 WMAL Washington DC, morning show
RADIO: 1994-05-17 ITV Liverpool, This Morning with hosts Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan
RADIO: 1994-05-18 BBC Radio Kent (Canterbury, England)
RADIO: 1994-05-19 BBC Radio 2, The Jamesons
RADIO: 1994-05-19 BBC Radio 4, Science Now with Tim Colman (recording date)
RADIO: 1994-05-19 BBC The Steve Wright Show
RADIO: 1994-05-19 GLR London, Diana Luke Programme
RADIO: 1994-05-20 LBC Radio London with host Simon Bates
RADIO: 1994-06-20 CFRB Radio, Toronto, Canada with host Jane Hawtin
RADIO: 1994-06-20 CHED Edmonton, Canada with host Ron Collister
RADIO: 1994-06-21 BBC Radio with host Pete Brown
RADIO: 1995-04-27 Interview by K60 Radio San Francisco
RADIO: 1996-01-30 ABC Radio Australia, interview by Jenny Brockie (9am)
RADIO: 1996-01-30 ABC Radio Brisbane, Australia, Andrew Lofthouse Show (9:45am)

Latest hearing on Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena

November 2024 — Below are summaries of the most recent hearing on “Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena” held by the House Oversight Committee on November 13th. This was the latest in the multi-year, ping-pong-like competition between former officials who say they are aware of significant classified recordings of UAPs – recordings that could elevate the debate about an alien presence if they were released to the public – and those who are opposed to the release of such information for reasons that are not clear.

USA Today: “Congress heard more testimony about UFOs: Here are the biggest revelations”

The Holderness Family (Penn & Kim) provides a succinct summary:

Alternately, watch the entire recording of the hearing at the US House of Representatives website:
“Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena: Exposing the Truth.”

2 items from the archives in honor of John Mack’s birthday – an essay and a video

October 4, 2024 — In recognition of what would have been John Mack’s 95th birthday, we’ve republished two items from the archives – an essay and a video.

The video is “Entering the Heart of the Alien Mystery”, John Mack’s presentation of November 16, 1999. In this half-hour lecture, Dr Mack suggests that the alien abduction phenomenon calls for a new way of examining the nature of reality, and argues that by broadening our definition of “what is real” we can begin to explore a phenomenon that has deep and lasting implications for humanity. (Subscribers to our YouTube channel may already be aware of this video, since we uploaded it last month without fanfare and it has already received more than 6,000 views.)

The essay is “Trying to Make a Difference”, a lengthy autobiographical chapter with an emphasis on his medical career, written in 1994. It was originally contributed to Ellen L. Bassuk’s 1996 book, The Doctor-Patient Activist: Physicians Fighting for Social Change. Several quotes from this essay appeared in Ralph Blumenthal’s 2022 biography of John Mack, The Believer. (The photo accompanying this news item is from that essay; the image is of the Mack family and Koto Fujimoto, photographed when Mack was stationed west of Tokyo in 1960).



Audiobooks by John Mack


We would like to take this opportunity to welcome people who are new to John Mack. This website contains many essays by Dr Mack and his friends and colleagues. And in the footer you will find links to his pair of books about alien encounters, including the newly-recorded audiobook editions. Mack felt that Passport to the Cosmos was the better of the two books, but Abduction may be an essential introduction.

Experiencers of Color Collective dialogues begin

May 2, 2024 — A series of free dialogues will be held for Experiencers of Color (via Zoom) to share their encounters with seemingly non-human intelligences and other anomalous phenomena. The first dialogue will be held on May 2, 2024. Subsequent dialogues will be held on May 4, 2024, and May 7, 2024. Sponsored by John Mack Institute.

Read More

NPR’s The Pulse asks “What does not being believed do to a person? Why is it so painful?”

October 20, 2023 — National Public Radio’s The Pulse podcast asks “What does not being believed do to a person? Why is it so painful?”.

Join award-winning host Maiken Scott and reporter Liz Tung as they explore “alienation and alien encounters” with filmmaker Randall Nickerson (Ariel Phenomenon) and Daniel Mack (son of Dr John Mack).

The episode details how the rediscovery John Mack’s video footage of the Ariel School students (filmed by South African filmmaker Nicky Carter) led to the re-emergence of the story about the Ariel School incident – and with it, the re-emergence of painful memories for some of the students.

Also covered are recent developments in the US government’s slow disclosure of the UAP phenomenon.



Listen to The Pulse, produced by WHYY for the NPR Network

Also available everywhere you find your podcasts

Intelligence officials say US has retrieved non-human craft

June 5, 2023 — Leslie Kean and Ralph Blumenthal’s latest update has been published by The Debrief: “A former intelligence official turned whistleblower has given Congress and the Intelligence Community Inspector General extensive classified information about … intact and partially intact craft of non-human origin.”

Karin Austin’s remarks at Archives of the Impossible

May 12, 2023
Rice University

Karin Austin is the new executive director of the John Mack Institute (JMI). In this presentation she details the donation of John Mack’s archives to Rice University’s Archives of the Impossible, curated by Jeffrey J. Kripal, Ph.D.

Read More

Shamanic Initiations, Alien Abduction Phenomena, and the Return of the Archetypal Feminine: An Experiential Distillation

February 2023 — JMI is proud to premiere a new paper by Tiffany Vance-Huffman of Naropa University: “Shamanic Initiations, Alien Abduction Phenomena, and the Return of the Archetypal Feminine: An Experiential Distillation“.

“The purpose of this paper,” Vance-Huffman writes, “is to change the way people think about anomalous experiences and illnesses of the body-mind by examining initiations. Spiritual initiations are archetypal experiences that can happen to anyone at any time. Rather than taking a literal perspective, this paper uses an ecopsychological, big-picture approach to explore the spiritual dimensions of shamanic initiations and alien abduction phenomena, demonstrating how they mirror each other almost identically and are both highly transformative.”

Her paper will also be added to the Library section of this website.

Ariel Phenomenon press continues

Ariel Phenomenon posterJanuary 19, 2023 — Dave Schrader of The Darkness Radio interviews Ariel Phenomenon producer Randall Nickerson. If you haven’t yet seen the documentary, play the first 2 minutes of this podcast to hear a sensational collage of excerpts. Listen to Darkness Radio interview with Randall Nickerson (30m, mp3)

Ariel Phenomenon is available from many digital retailers. Buying from ArielPhenomenon.com benefits the film most: ArielPhenomenon.com · Amazon · iTunes · GooglePlay

Government UFO report…seems to downplay spooky sightings

November 1, 2022 — Rizwan Virk, founder of Play Labs @ MIT, writes “It wouldn’t be the first time officials put the issue to rest without a full, open-minded investigation” in this essential editorial on NBC News’ THINK website. Christopher Mellon calls it “One of the most balanced and thoughtful recent articles regarding the UAP issue”. Click here to read: Government UFO report timed for Halloween seems to downplay spooky sightings

Update: The report was ultimately released on January 12, 2023. The 2022 Annual Report on Unidentified Aerial Phenomena is a summary that contains nothing of particular interest: www.dni.gov/files/ODNI/documents/assessments/Unclassified-2022-Annual-Report-UAP.pdf


Also in the News:

Mile Higher logoThe Mile Higher Podcast hosted by Josh Thomas & Kendall Rae explores the Ariel School event. (This podcast is not a review of the Ariel Phenomenon documentary.) Listen on Spotify or Audioboom or wherever you source your podcasts.

New book by Stéphane Allix

September 28, 2022 — Stéphane Allix’s interview with John Mack appears in this new book, which is in French. Available from Amazon.fr.

The interview can also be viewed in English at youtu.be/CuYV62uzd_0. It was recorded in Sept 2003 at Mack’s home in Cambridge, Massachusetts, while Allix was producing a documentary film.

book cover