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John E. Mack Institute

Exploring the Frontiers of Human Experience

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The Believer: A conversation with Whitley Strieber & Ralph Blumenthal

Admin · March 2, 2021 ·

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.”

News Archives

May 12, 2023 Rice University Karin Austin is the new executive director of the John E Mack Institute (JEMI). 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. I’d like to begin today with my deepest and my most sincere […]

February 2023 — JEMI 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 […]

January 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 […]

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 […]

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Our History

JEMI is named in recognition of John E. Mack, M.D. (1929-2004), Pulitzer Prize-winning author and Professor of Psychiatry at the Harvard Medical School, to honor his courageous examination of human experience and the ways in which perceptions and beliefs about reality shape the global condition.

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