Media Coverage of UAPs Intensifies

May 17, 2021 – Media coverage of UFOs in the lead-up to the release of the Department of Defense’s report on what they are now calling UAPs (Unidentified Aerial Phenomena), is intensifying.

Links to newscasts are being regularly posted to the John E. Mack Facebook page. Another Facebook page that is updated (often within hours of a newscast being released) is that of Leslie Kean, the co-author (with Ralph Blumenthal) of the 2017 and 2020 New York Times articles (link, link, link) at the start of this entire process.

A couple highlights: 60 Minutes (May 16)  |  Anderson Cooper 360° (May 18)

Subscribers to The Washington Post and The New York Times have also been afforded a good selection of articles and editorials on the subject in the past couple months; see for example “We Need To Talk About UFOs Again” by Dan Drezner, in which he notes that if UAPs are “extraterrestrials actively observing us…they seem to be doing so in a way that is not destructive,” and questions whether these aliens would be as eradicative as humans:

“The assumption is that powerful, technologically advanced civilizations will act in a destructive manner. That is possible, but perhaps civilizations that reward destructive entrepreneurship are less likely to generate the technological wherewithal for interstellar travel. And if those UAPs are ETs, maybe there is more hope for interstellar relations than either scientists or science fiction envision.”
— Dan Drezner, “We Need To Talk About UFOs Again”, Washington Post, April 1, 2021

Sample of CNN Newsroom coverage from May 17, 2021:

Alisyn Camerota (CNN): …from all of your reporting, how do we explain that Navy pilots keep seeing things without wings, without propulsion, that can defy all of the laws [of physics] … is it plausible that this could be from Russia or China, that they would have technology that is that many light-years ahead of the United States?

Ralph Blumenthal (guest): Extremely unlikely. Sources that we talked to at The New York Times say they cannot imagine that an Earthly adversary has this advanced technology. And as for our own technology showing up there, it’s even more unlikely that we would risk accidents or disclosure of our secrets – if they are our secrets – in our own airspace. So everything points to an extraterrestrial explanation, but of course no one wants to say that because it’s so outlandish and so unprovable that they’re sticking with what they know, which is that these things are unidentified and they’re real. But beyond that, no one knows. …


Sample of Russell Brand commentary from May 19, 2021:

Russell Brand

RUSSELL BRAND: With the pandemic and the complications that have come from it, people are saying “well, how can we ever go back to normal again? What is normal now?”.

As a father of young children and a person that’s always been suspicious of power and authority, I am reflecting on how the world could be organized differently – more fairly. My sense is that in certain areas like comfort and consuming we need to be ready to compromise and change. But we might be able to re-engage once more with [a] sense of community.

We might be able to live together tribally, communally, connected to nature and one another with the new knowledge that what’s happening on Earth is special and magnificent but not unique – there is life elsewhere, there are different layers to reality, there are different technological solutions outside of the limitations of what human beings previously thought of as possible.

And [what of] our new kings, the tech billionaires and their financial heft and might, which is being transposed into ideological might? I.e., “Well, we’ve built this company and that company, so we should be in charge of the future”.

Well no, not necessarily! Not if there are extraterrestrial intelligences that we’re interacting with which are inconceivably advanced. They’re at a point that we’re not going to see in 5, 10, 20, 30 lifetimes, [in which] people are manipulating gravity, and potentially manipulating time, and operating not only in this dimension in ways that we can’t conceive of but potentially outside of this dimension. … The philosophical connotations of an advanced technological species interacting with the Earth is by its nature paradigm shifting. It opens up new potentials of reality. It means we can look at established authority and established order with new eyes, with the possibility of real change.


Sample of commentary by comedian, actress, and syndicated columnist Pam Stone:

“Unless each pilot is wrong, and the Pentagon is wrong and these things have all simply been bugs in the system or actual bugs on the camera lens, the only other possibility appears to be visitors from ‘a galaxy far, far away.’  It’s not that hard to believe. Think how technologically advanced we’ve come in 100 years. My parents lived from the very beginning of aviation to man on the moon and the Space Shuttle. Imagine what we’ll be capable of in the next 100 years — if we don’t kill ourselves, first. And maybe that’s why we’re being visited, to prevent just that. If they mean to do us harm, with their technology, they could have easily neutralized us by now. And really, if you think about it, they’ve already brought us a bit of hope.”
— Pam Stone, “Is intelligent life visiting our planet?”, Index-Journal, May 30, 2021


Commentary in GQ magazine, UK edition, by editor Charlie Burton, May 18, 2021:
“The Pentagon says UFOs are real. So why do we still dismiss them as a joke?”


CNN interview with Luis Elizondo, former Director of AATIP (Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program), May 23, 2021: CNN The Lead (6 min excerpt)

Historical perspective from The Debrief, April 15, 2001:

“Strange balls of light, impervious to machine-gun fire” were seen by pilots throughout the second world war. “No one ever managed to put forward an explanation that stood the test of time. The Foo Fighters are as much a mystery to today’s researchers as they were to the intelligence officials of 1944.”
“Today’s Pilots Encounters with UAP are Nothing New” by Graeme Rendal

Early draft of Omni magazine article discovered

May 4, 2021 — Mention of “a dual human/alien identity” was evidently a step too far for the editors of Omni magazine to take back in 1994. The deleted references to this remarkable element of some alien encounters appear in an unpublished early draft, presented here for the first time. (The published version is followed by the unpublished version; scroll down to see the differences).

Japanese edition of Dr. John Mack’s Passport to the Cosmos now available

May 8, 2021 – A Japanese edition of Dr. John Mack’s book, Passport to the Cosmos, is now available.

ピューリッツァー賞受賞者/ハーバード大学医学部教授、ジョン・E・マックの遺作

エイリアン・
アブダクションの
深層

意識の変容と霊性の
進化に向けて

 
10年にわたった「エイリアン・アブダクション」研究の集大成!



 
「アブダクション体験が、少なくとも最初はどれほどトラウマ的なものであっても、私が共に研究した体験者たちの全員が実質的に、その中に霊的な力、または人格的な変容をもたらす潜在的な力を見出している。」
(本文より)

If you are a publisher interested in releasing Passport to the Cosmos in your country, please contact us.

Newly restored audio of classic Mack/Hopkins debate now available

March 30, 2021 – A classic 1997 debate between two researchers of alien encounters – Harvard psychiatrist John Mack and New York-based artist / author Budd Hopkins – is now available as a free download on John Mack’s website.

The audio edition of this event has been expanded to an hour and 52 minutes in length – more than 50 minutes longer than a previously-released video version.

Click here for: Budd Hopkins & John Mack: A Dialogue on the Alien Abduction Experience (Expanded Audio Edition)

Read More

The Believer: A conversation with Whitley Strieber & Ralph Blumenthal

Best-selling author of Communion, Whitley Strieber, interviewed Ralph Blumenthal, author of the new biography about John Mack, The Believer.

Whitley says, “I’ll never forget the moment that John called me to tell me that both his tenure and his license to practice psychiatry were on the line. I said to him that he had to get legal help immediately, that he could not advocate for himself against such opposition. He did, and the story that Ralph Blumenthal tells about his life, his battles and his tremendous courage will stir your soul and open your mind to a great mystery in a whole new way.”

The first hour of Strieber’s interview with Blumenthal is available for free on Strieber’s website: unknowncountry.com/dreamland

Members of Strieber’s website can watch an expanded version of the recording that includes discussion about Mack’s visit to the Ariel School in Zimbabwe.

And here is the photo from Mack’s archives that Whitley refers to in the interview, taken in May 1997 at Medway. Pictured left to right are Whitley Strieber, Trish Pfeiffer, John Mack, and Laurance Rockefeller.

Also from the archives: Dr Mack wrote an endorsement of Communion in late 2000 when he was asked to name some books that are essential introductions to the subject of alien encounters.

Communion, by Whitley Strieber, is easy to read and compelling in its content. It is a ‘rapid-entry’ book into the awesome power of the alien-encounter phenomenon and makes a persuasive case for the reality Strieber was forced to confront – its power, and the fearfulness with which he initially responded to it. Though I had spoken with Budd Hopkins and even met some experiencers, this was the first book I read on this phenomenon – it’s so vivid and clear that it rapidly drew me more deeply into the subject.”

German translations of articles are on the glidepath!

March 11, 2021 – We are pleased to announce that German translations of several articles on this website will be provided over the next few months by Patrik Hübner. A native German-speaker with an interest in this subject matter, Hübner is perfectly suited to providing these translations as his time allows. The translations will also be appearing on his blog. We are grateful for his volunteer service.

In advance of the first article, Hübner kindly provided a primer on how some common alien encounter terms appear in German.

Read More

The Believer by Ralph Blumenthal: Virtual Book Launch with Leslie Kean

Join the Virtual Book Launch of the biography about Dr. John Mack live on Mon, Mar 15, 2021 at 6:30pm EST via Zoom.

Update: A replay of this event is now available at youtu.be/BMOBoaSqegc


Related: Ralph Blumenthal discusses his book about Dr John Mack, The Believer, with Dan Aykroyd. Recorded Wed, March 17, 2021. A replay is available; click to sign in and stream the recording. Presented by Skylight Books. (Be aware there were extensive technical glitches during the livestream.)
 
More interviews with Ralph Blumenthal about The Believer are on YouTube.

What do Alien Abduction and Psychedelic Experiences have in Common? Let Dr. John E. Mack’s Work Explain

January 4, 2021 – “What do Alien Abduction and Psychedelic Experiences have in Common? Let Dr. John E. Mack’s Work Explain” is available online at Psychedelics Today.

Michelle Janikian’s article is “The story of the Harvard psychiatrist who wanted to believe – and ended up introducing the entire culture to the possibility of transpersonal experiences”.

Includes a new interview with his former research associate and girlfriend, Dominique Callimanopulos.

The Believer: Alien Encounters, Hard Science, and the Passion of John Mack

A biography of Dr. John Mack has been written by Ralph Blumenthal, the award-winning reporter who broke the news of a secret Pentagon UFO unit.

The Believer will be published in March 2021.



The Believer is the weird and chilling true story of Dr. John Mack. This eminent Harvard psychiatrist and Pulitzer Prize–winning biographer risked his career to investigate the phenomenon of human encounters with aliens and to give credibility to the stupefying tales shared by people who were utterly convinced they had happened.

Nothing in Mack’s four decades of psychiatry had prepared him for the otherworldly accounts of a cross-section of humanity including young children who reported being taken against their wills by alien beings. Over the course of his career his interest in alien abduction grew from curiosity to wonder, ultimately developing into a limitless, unwavering passion.

Based on exclusive access to Mack’s archives, journals, and psychiatric notes and interviews with his family and closest associates, The Believer reveals the life and work of a man who explored the deepest of scientific conundrums and further leads us to the hidden dimensions and alternate realities that captivated Mack until the end of his life.

Ralph Blumenthal was an award-winning reporter for the New York Times. He coauthored the Times article in 2017 that broke the news of a secret Pentagon unit investigating UFOs, and he is the author of four nonfiction books including Miracle at Sing Sing: How One Man Transformed the Lives of America’s Most Dangerous Prisoners. A distinguished lecturer at Baruch College, he lives in New York City.

The Believer was independently written; the book is not endorsed by, affiliated with, authorized, or sponsored by the John Mack Institute.

“This extraordinary biography reads like a fast-paced thriller. It deftly weaves the detailed richness of John Mack’s genius and complex life through the historical backdrop of the alien-abduction phenomena. Ralph Blumenthal has so beautifully captured the essence of Mack’s soul and his relentless curiosity that by the end of the book I mourned that Mack is no longer with us.”
— Trish MacGregor, coauthor of Aliens in the Backyard: UFO Encounters, Abductions, and Synchronicity

“As a person sane enough to hold a driver’s license, I say, what are we to make of Mack’s findings? Read this gripping, factual account of a mental-health pioneer and truth-seeker by a soundly accredited successful author, veteran New York Times foreign correspondent, and reporter. Decide for yourselves and then tell me!”
— Dan Aykroyd

“Anyone who is intrigued by the involvement of John Mack, a psychiatrist on the faculty of Harvard, or by the interest of psychiatrists in the anomalous in general and UFOs in particular, should not miss reading this book! It is filled with details on the topic, both pro and con, that are not publicly available in any other place that I know.”
— David J. Hufford, author of The Terror that Comes in the Night: An Experience-Centered Study of Supernatural Assault Traditions

“John Mack was one of the few prominent American intellectuals who saw and said what was, and still is, really at stake in the UFO phenomenon—reality itself. And Ralph Blumenthal is the perfect biographer to take up Mack and bring him to life, in all his humanity and complexity, on the page. A major achievement.”
— Jeffrey J. Kripal, author of The Flip: Epiphanies of Mind and the Future of Knowledge


US hardcover: Amazon.com

For more information: Please visit the publisher’s website, UNMPress

Remembering Dr. John Mack

Remembering the late Dr. John Mack, and his courageous defense of “experiencers” of alien contact, on this anniversary of his birth (Oct 4, 1929).

The Joe Rogan Experience touches on the Ariel School event and Dr. John Mack

July 17, 2020 – Jeremy Corbell brings up the Ariel School event in this interview by Joe Rogan. That leads Rogan to mention that his friend Maura Tierney (with whom he was staring on the acclaimed sitcom NewsRadio) suggested that he read John Mack’s book Abduction. “This is right up your alley,” she told him, “it’s so crazy.”

Earlier in the program, Rogan explains that when asked if he believes in alien encounters, he has said, “I don’t. I don’t believe in them – but I don’t not believe in them either. I just keep a blank slate with this.”

Good advice from one of the most influential voices in podcasting.

Watch the podcast: The Joe Rogan Experience, episode 1510 with George Knapp & Jeremy Corbell (should start playing at time index 7442)