by John E. Mack, M.D. Developed from a talk first given at Interface, Cambridge, Massachusetts, April 23, 1993 (and given again at the 24th Annual MUFON Symposium). Dr. Mack had not yet finished writing his book about alien encounters, but the prior year he had co-chaired the Abduction Study Conference held at MIT, for which […]
Continue ReadingThe Outer Limits of the Soul
By Mark Gauvreau Judge Increasing numbers of UFO abductees, as well as the experts who treat them, say their experiences have as much to do with inner as outer space. The first time Catherine was hypnotized, she wept. She remembered the night several weeks before when they had come for her again and had taken […]
Continue ReadingDark Side of the Unknown
by Patrick Huyghe A few unusual therapists buck the system and specialize in treating people who’ve had encounters with the unexplainable. Tell us about it. Terrorized by little gray creatures with large black eyes who whisk you away from your bedroom at night? Plagued by poltergeists rattling the bookshelf and hurling pictures from the wall? […]
Continue ReadingMy Favorite Martians
by Kathryn Robinson The other night I was reading along in Abduction: Human Encounters with Aliens, the much-discussed new book by the Pulitzer Prize-winning Harvard psychiatrist John E. Mack. I was right at the part where Mack explains that right before people are abducted by aliens mysterious electrical malfunctions often occur. It being nightfall, I […]
Continue ReadingA Harvard psychiatrist says alien encounters, while traumatic, may be our gateway to God
by Anita Baskin A single-page Omni magazine article about alien encounters, presented both as the version published in July 1994 and also as an earlier draft. For the past three decades, students of UFO abduction have hailed from outside the scientific community. Their ranks include an historian, a social worker, and an artist. Despite the […]
Continue ReadingMore On John Mack’s Abduction
by Andrea Pritchard “DO ALIENS EXIST?” This is a standard question for abduction books, but it is not the question addressed by John Mack in his book Abduction. He considers a question with more far-reaching consequences: “WHAT IF ALIENS EXIST?” The answers he gets from speaking with a number of experiencers is a positive, energetic […]
Continue ReadingExploring African and Other Alien Encounters
by Dominique Callimanopulos John Mack and I were at the Ariel School, a small elementary school outside Harare, the capital of Zimbabwe, listening to Elsa (not her real name) describe her encounter last September 16 [1994] with an “alien” being. In all, sixty children, ages six through twelve, reported seeing one large and several smaller […]
Continue ReadingAre Aliens Trying to Save Planet Earth?
By A. Robert Smith A half dozen years ago, Harvard psychiatrist John Mack thought anyone who worked with people who claimed they’d been abducted by aliens from outer space must be crazy. A year later his whole frame of reference changed when he met Budd Hopkins, a pioneer in alien research who had worked with […]
Continue ReadingStudying Intrusions from the Subtle Realm: How Can We Deepen Our Knowledge?
by John E. Mack, M.D. Developed from a talk given at the International Association for New Science Conference, Fort Collins, Colorado, September 16, 1995 I want to talk with you about what I have been finding over the past now nearly six years in studying the alien abduction phenomenon. In the context of this meeting […]
Continue ReadingBudd Hopkins & John Mack: A Dialogue on the Alien Abduction Experience
Moderated by Christopher Lydon John Hancock Hall, Boston MA 7 March 1997 Trauma or transformation? Physical or spiritual? Intruders or agents of change? John Mack and Budd Hopkins discuss their common and contrasting views of alien encounters at this debate moderated by Christopher Lydon. The expanded audio edition of this event is an hour and […]
Continue ReadingA Science of Not Knowing
by John E. Mack, M.D. Despite official skepticism and even cynicism in media, government, and scientific circles, it must be evident to many Americans that something extraordinary – at least from the standpoint of the Western worldview – is going on. No conventional explanation for the thousands of reported cases of encounters with alien beings […]
Continue ReadingThe Alien Abduction Phenomenon: Trauma or Transformation?
by John E. Mack, M.D. The majority of “abductees” report some degree of trauma in connection with their experiences. The intrusive events themselves may be terrifying. Experiencers feel afraid to talk about what they have undergone lest they be ridiculed and further isolated. The experiences shock their ideas of reality. Finally, they feel helpless to […]
Continue ReadingThe Moral Truth is Out There
by Theodore Roszak By definition, folklore is that which cannot be destroyed by mere facts. So it is unlikely that the Air Force’s latest effort to convince UFO enthusiasts that aliens did not crash at Roswell, NM, in 1947 will have any effect beyond feeding the voracious paranoia that now surrounds the story. As the […]
Continue ReadingFaces of the Visitors: Stranger Than Fiction
by Michael Lindemann Given the incredible diversity of reported human experiences with alleged [alien] visitors, is it possible to say who or what we are dealing with? Perhaps the closest we can get to the truth is an idea that confounds and infuriates literalists everywhere: the nature of the visitors is in the eye of […]
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