by Caroline McLeod, Ph.D. Findings from an analysis of the first 200 Extraordinary Experience Surveys returned to PEER by mail from a self-selected group who had contacted Dr. John Mack or his organization. The survey (conducted in late 1994 and 1995) reported demographics, categories of experiences, impact of experiences, gaps in memory, and the use […]
Continue ReadingA Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Space Station: A Breakfast with John Mack, M.D.
by Susan Downs, M.D., MPH Imagine your patient tells you he was abducted by alien creatures with large eyes and teleported into a spacecraft for breeding and other scientific procedures. Imagine further that your patient tells you he/she has several alien offspring. Do you reach for your prescription pad or telephone to arrange a hospitalization? […]
Continue ReadingJohn Mack, Alien Abductions, and Harvard
by Keith Thompson Occasionally a story in the news stirs me to reach for the phone to call someone whose Fifteen Minutes of Fame has captured my imagination. Usually I change my mind, but now and then I follow through. Like the day three years ago this month, when I came across a newspaper story […]
Continue ReadingEmerging Renaissance: UFO Encounters, Power and Implications
Roméo Di Benedetto, M.Div. and John E. Mack, M.D. In this excerpt from the Emerging Renaissance television program, Dr. John Mack candidly discusses the investigation into his work that was launched by Harvard Medical School in 1994 and ended without censure in 1995. Listen (mp3) Roméo Di Benedetto: Welcome to another presentation of The Emerging […]
Continue ReadingDSM-IV Religious and Spiritual Problems
A coursebook by David Lukoff, Ph.D. A new diagnostic category called “Religious or Spiritual Problem” was introduced in the DSM-IV (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of the American Psychiatric Association) in 1994. For the first time, there is acknowledgment of distressing religious and spiritual experiences as nonpathological problems.
Continue ReadingMessengers from the Unseen
by John E. Mack, M.D., Class of ’51 Oberlin Alumni Magazine, Fall 2002 Vol. 98, No. 2 If someone out there is trying to warn us, shouldn’t we make an attempt to listen?
Continue ReadingBeing Open to a New Story (2): How Do You Know What You Believe You Know?
by Richmond Mayo-Smith How do you know what you believe you know? Does your knowing come from what you read? From what your parents told you? From what you were taught in schools? From experiences in sports and physical activity? From experiences in art? From experiences with a spirit world? What are the possibilities for […]
Continue ReadingRoy Leonard interviews John E. Mack, M.D., and an experiencer
May 5, 1994, in the studios of WGN Chicago This interview is presented primarily because Dr. Mack’s relaxation technique is discussed in some depth, both by Mack himself and by an experiencer – Peter from the chapter “Peter’s Journey”. The entire interview is very good but to skip ahead to when Peter joins the conversation, […]
Continue ReadingFrom the Edge of Experience: A Pearl
by Christopher Lydon, John E. Mack, M.D., and Guests This conversation is excerpted from The Connection, a radio program hosted by Christopher Lydon that aired on WBUR 90.9 FM, Boston, Feb 29, 1996. The caller was an unexpected highlight of the program and we are grateful for the opportunity to present her story here. CHRIS […]
Continue ReadingFrom the Edge of Experience: Suspended in the Mist
In addition to conducting long-term interviews with approximately 200 “experiencers” of so-called alien contact, Dr. John Mack’s Program for Extraordinary Experience (PEER) also received more than ten thousand letters from the public, many of whom wrote to share their anomalous experiences. In this From the Edge of Experience entry, we present a letter from a […]
Continue ReadingFrom the Edge of Experience: The Concept of Marriage
PEER’s (Dr. John Mack’s Program for Extraordinary Experience Research) mission to enhance the voices of experiencers of alien encounters whose insights may otherwise remain unheard, or heard by only their closest loved ones, takes several shapes. We have presented the emergent themes from experiencers from around the world in various papers and books, and when […]
Continue ReadingBlowing the Western Mind
by John E. Mack, M.D. We hear the expression “consensus reality” used more and more often to distinguish the conventional Western/Newtonian/Cartesian world view from other possible philosophies or frameworks of thought. The frequent bracketing of these words in writing and conversation implies that there is one accepted version of reality that includes a social agreement […]
Continue ReadingWhy the Abduction Phenomenon Cannot Be Explained Psychiatrically
This paper appears in Alien Discussions: Proceedings of the Abduction Study Conference (North Cambridge Press, 1992). Alien Discussions is the proceedings of what may be the best scientific conference ever convened on abductions, held at MIT, Cambridge, MA, June 13-17, 1992. This volume serves as a multidisciplinary introduction and a research reference to the abduction […]
Continue ReadingThe UFO Abduction Phenomenon: What Does it Mean for the Transformation of Human Consciousness?
by John E. Mack, M.D. Editor’s Note: This article was originally presented at the International Transpersonal Association Conference on “Science, Spirituality, and the Global Crisis: Toward a World with a Future,” which was held in Prague, Czechoslovakia. It was delivered on 25 June 1992. It was subsequently published in Primal Renaissance: The Journal of Primal […]
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