Customer Reviews

Abduction: Human Encounters with Aliens

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Dr. John Mack is a serious, careful and courageous research. Consider. If you were a Harvard Medical School professor with a Pulitzer prize and a sterling reputation would you endanger it for the sensationalism of "alien" abduction? Even if you were confronted with evidence of strange events, why put up with all the headaches? That Mack did proves him to be a true man of science, one who investigates phenomena instead of prejudging it as valid or not valid.

Mack is not saying outright that alien abductions are "real." He is saying that something is happening that leaves a real and lasting effect on people. These events have certain characteristics in common. Mack is mapping the terrain features of a new psychological continent using the case histories of individuals who have come forward. These individuals are also taking serious risks.

In truth the issue is not alien abduction per se, but what Mack calls the politics of ontology.

Personally I have had more than my share of "interesting" events. Mack's book, though not overtly written for this purpose, is a guide by which those who quietly keep to themselves may evaluate how their experience compares with others.

If you are interested in a serious exploration of this topic, this is the best book on the subject.

You do not need to be convinced by Mack in order to admire his courage: as a Harvard Professor, to take a topic straight from the tabloids and treat it seriously deserves a four-star rating by itself. I am generally open to new ways of perceiving reality, and am willing to ponder the idea that "aliens" (or fellow -earth dwellers, differently dimensioned) are playing tricks with us. My main difficulty lies with using hypnosis as a tool to uncover hidden memories, which lies at the heart of Mack's approach. Hypnosis is just too easy to abuse. It may be the only tool we can think of, currently, to use in this quest, but it just has too many drawbacks to be taken as the sole tool for alien-style research. I think Mack, too, would agree with that.

The 1990s, when this book came out, were a heady time for alien research. Many books on the subject were published, and TVs shows produced. Maybe it was the upcoming millennium, or just an increase in alien visits in the late 80s, but the field was hot. Now, it has cooled off a bit. One wonders when the next alien wave, or `flap,' will hit. But hit it will, and when it does, many will go back to Mack's book for insight. This is recommended, along with Jaques Valle's books.

As a contactee myself, I found the nature of the information assimilated by the abductees in Dr. Mack's book to be consistent with my own personal experience. Though each individual filters information through their own sphere of reference, Dr. Mack concludes that the experience of the abductees ultimately changes their world view, expands their environmental consciousness, and adjusts, positively, our basic egocentric view that we humans are the only species important enough to remain on our planet. I personally have found this expansion of consciousness into an empathy for all forms of life to be true and consider it to be the primary reason for contact. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and recommend it to anyone interested in contact, abduction or shamanic experience. The stories told by the abductees are as fascinating as they are unique to each individual. I felt a sense of anticipation with each page I turned, not wanting to stop reading until I had read the experiences of each abductee and wishing there were many more such accounts included before this exciting read ended.

The author has his feet on the solid ground on what he wrote. Facts are exposed. Conclusions remain open. He has the caution not to believe literally on every aspect obtained by the investigation, subjective but very significant nevertheless alternative explanations are suggested, remaining to the reader the final opinion. The author is a professional senior psychiatrist teacher. The main method of revealing facts here in this book is back-regression by hypnosis, to the time of the events, with the professional know-how not to induce, but to open individuals forgotten experiences. What for me states the quality of this work, and book, is it was done always with the goal of making the life of the persons studied a better one, not just to extract them material for a book or project. The quest to reveal and to solve the inner live problems of the people involved, and then to inform there is something REAL in the alien abduction subject. The book may deep influence some people lives, if the reader get confronted with similarities with one self or close people cases; 5 star indeed.

This book is worthy of our consideration because of its psychological approach. He is not a paranormal investigator a la Hopkins or Vallee, but is presenting case studies of individuals who, irregardless of our opinions of the circumstances which underly their views, have definite symptoms of emotional distress relating to the perception of communication with mysterious entities. This book documents the claims and experiences of the "abductees" and allows for the reader to interpret the information for himself. I definitely believe that the abduction experiences are completely authentic, but I definitely do NOT believe that Dr. Mack's conclusion concerning interplanetary contact with highly advanced alien civilizations is the cause of these experiences. Interesting book.

I read the whole book and it really grabbed my attention. It made me worry that I would be abducted by aliens. I remember being scared after reading it late one night, thinking at any moment, an alien creature would walk through the window and abduct me. I do not frighten easily, but this book made me keep a night light on for a couple of weeks. It is a great piece of work on a world wide phenomenon. Read it with an open mind. Can hundreds of thousands of people around the world all be crazy? I think personally that we have been visited by EBE's throughout all of Earth's history and that we are a product of their creation. They are abducting so many of us to create human-alien hybrids that will colonize the Earth after a lot of us die off from an upcoming global disaster of some kind. Get this book now and be afraid, be very afraid.

Resuming that the Alien abduction (that has always been with us since biblical times and prior, stretching across all cultures in all continents ) is a gift, a kind of catalyst for the evolution of the human consciousness, Dr Mack puts everything on the line; How else could a prestigious Harvard Professor in Psychiatry and a "Pulitzer prize-winner", risk career suicide by taking on the abduction phenomenal and fight against such mighty institution holding to his guns, when a committee was formed in the Harvard Medical School to investigated Dr John E Mack`s work with abductees. It was the first time in Harvard's history that a tenured professor was subjected to such an investigation, although with no specific complaint but with concerns about his Alien/UFOs investigations, where Dr Mack suggest that his findings might required a change in our world view of reality, rather than saying that he found a new psychiatric syndrome, needless to stress, the committee 14 months later was dismissed failing to stop Dr Mack in his research. Concluding the investigation, Harvard then issued a statement stating that the Dean had "reaffirmed Dr. Mack's academic freedom to study what he wishes and to state his opinions without impediment," concluding "Dr. Mack remains a member in good standing of the Harvard Faculty of Medicine."..BRAVO for Dr Mack, whom we missed dearly for his accidental death in 2004, he is one of the most serious if not the best researcher in the subject, breaking away from academia world view was his sin, a great understanding of the UFO/abduction phenomena was his and our triumph.
I found Dr Mack makes a very objective presentation. I do not see any new age philosophy, I read/heard from the voices of the abductees and the experiencers themselves; Jim Parks, Credo Mutwa, Bernard Peixoto, Sequoyah Trueblood, Karin, Andrea, Isabel, Carlos Diaz, Nona and Abby, etc a clear messages of a collected Cosmo tic intelligence, ours and of those entities. But Dr Macks goes beyond Kenneth Ring and Michael Grosso, associating this phenomena to Near-Death-Experiences(NDEs) and a planetary Super-mind that reflects our collected concerns and feeds them back to us symbolically in dreams(since both NDEs and abductions happens during medical procedures on Hospital for NDEs and onboard UFOs for abductees), or hallucinations to provoke evolutionary change in our human species as needed, cause by the own "Earth Electromagnetic fields" affecting those with a higher sensitivity and encounter-prone personalities which interpreted them such as ancient Angels, demons, fairies or whatever the culture conditioning dictates, in this case Aliens. Dr Mack has shown in this book, that this experiences are more than dreams, or mass hallucinations, or hoaxes(that do happen, see Donna bassets, Stan Romanek, Linda Cortile/Napolitano), stopping short of capturing the quantum physics smoking gun to solve this puzzled once an d for all.
Noting that Dr Mack is not establishing the physical proved of alien abduction, but instead focusing in the validity of it through the experiencers, and its meaning that altered the view of the cosmos full with intelligence, humane kind and our purpose in this journey through life and our responsibility to our environment and society. The book points out that no knowledge of psychiatry fit into this phenomena to explain how a force or entities were entering the lives of the abductees, making Dr Mack face the dilemma to try to fit, this reports into his world view and regard them such as fantasies, delusions, and strange dreams mostly know as Hypnagogic and hypnopompic experiences (HHEs), that are believed is caused by sleep paralysis where the hallucination of aliens has been generated by 20th and 21st century...by culture contamination through Science Fiction...Or perhaps a more unorthodox explanation will do and Dr Mack included the possibility that entities, beings from another realm are and had been reaching into our realm, ...could this be the real reason behind the Abduction phenomena, having many points in its favor, such as;
A-The high degree of consistency of the details of the abductees from all walks of life, ages from 2 to late 50`s, with great intense emotions, in many cases having Traumatic stress syndrome, a direct result from a real experience that cannot be explain such as sleep paralysis or hallucinations...
B-Body marks and scars, semen's extraction, and a sense that a medical procedure had been performed on them and constantly had been reported by abductees with no explanation of how a sleep disorder could account for it. Dr Mack clearly and professionally testified that there`s no proved scientifically yet to validate missing pregnancies or immaculate pregnancies, or pregnancies test or oval recollection and implants on abductees, that they indeed exist in a material world, and by Dr Mack judgment is beyond the point of the true meaning of the abduction phenomena, setting himself apart from any false claims to the contrary, typical of fanatics ufologist.
C-Second and third witnesses to a UFO sighting, but not yet, a direct witness of a abduction phenomena (except the Budd Hopkins, Linda Cortile case which is falling apart, shamelessly), once again reinforcing his professionalism on the subject, with only the notion that "missing time" has occurred and the testimony of being missing for some time physically, a occurrence that does not go unnoticed by family members and friends...
D-A direct proved that "culture pollution" does not played a role solely in the Alien Abduction, since children as young as 2 have describe having had a alien abduction experience and point reinforced by the testimony of many ancient cultures such as those of native Americans, Brazilian indigenous and African and Asian aborigines that indeed this phenomena had been recorded for millennia and is taken by what it is, a truth phenomena. To which, Dr Mack presence in his book, if I may add the testimony of these 3 native medicine men/Shamans: Bernard Peixoto, Sequoyah Trueblood and Credo Mutwa. Covering the shamanic experience, including ancestral guides and potential risk from imposters in the dimensional planes, and as Dr Mack explain in this book, are the most important lesson for all of us..."These man corroborate the reality of the abduction phenomena, making clear that this is not simply the product of the Western imagination", 20 and 21st centuries, nor is the Man-made aerospace technology in its entirely but has been part of our civilization since the beginning of time to now...as Jacques Vallee as proved in his book(Wonders in the Sky: Unexplained Aerial Objects from Antiquity to Modern Times)
To summarize it in the words of Jim Parks; "he said, until I came to realized that is man who puts a limit of what God did not create, and what he does outside of this planet. so who`s to say what God has done in the rest of the cosmos, that does not mean that goes against god, it just means that God has created MORE than you have knowledge of, UNTILL NOW.
Dr Mack drives the point, that abductees are saying that they have received a message that we humans have loss our relationship to the nature of the creator, and we had turned to forms of addictions to fill the void, shamelessly, those addictions now are causing an irreparable damage to our planet and societies, arresting our spiritual growth, our true mission in this life of ours. The stimulation of our material hunger and needs, are a step further to the destruction of our environment by human toxic pollution of our Earth, and the abductees had been shown scenes and images, by these entities, that are forecasting an ecological disaster for our planet, if us humans keep on negating alternative fuel energies alternatives to improve our lives and move on to our rightful place in the cosmos alongside other intelligence life forms that populate it.
Abductees had been shown on direct mind-to-mind with the entities a glance of what our future could be, an apocalyptic scenario full with images of nuclear and environmental disasters( much greater than those we had witnessed after Japans powerful earthquake in 2011, and oil spills such as the Deepwater Horizon in 2010 in the Gulf of Mexico, the Alaska Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1989), with toxic spills over our skies and waters with total disregard for our environment, inevitably resulting in our planet inability to sustain human life and that will soon collapse unless there is no fundamental chance in a collective consciousness from the bottom-up, because it has not worked so far, from the top(government and multi-national corporations) to the bottom(us), our leaders won`t do it, because it affect their bottom line, and they have to be, want to be re-elected for office again and again, and who pays for their electoral-campaign?, the mayor corporation, do. But as Dr Mack said; We cannot not turn back the clock to a time before industrialization, materialism, consumerism, and modern technology, they are not the enemy, but could be made into a partner to achieve greatness.
These abductees tell us, said Dr Mack, that their consciousnesses have been affected by these beings, they have been awaken by these vibrations, from a higher intelligence, by entities that vibrate in a different frequency than us but that are as real as you and me, call it God and its agents if you will, and a deep care for our planets environment and society has been created in them, many had give up higher paying jobs often for less paying jobs in the healing or other human service professions, and become active in Earth-preserving projects, this change continue to evolve and the abductees feel compelled to share what they have learned, a decision that many times comes with a heavy price, ridicule, attacks and criticism from colleagues, and society en general, also are seen as nuts by family and friends from whom they many times break apart from, when they go public with this shift in consciousness, but the abductees have no choice but to fulfill their mission, and spread the word transmitted to them by the entities, as a new Gospel, not in the subjective religious way but in a more spiritual and human way, so our technological advancement is partner with a spiritual growth that care for our planet and Earthling as a whole. As Dr Mack puts it, the abductees feel we are connected beyond Earth in a cosmic level and that no common enemy will unite us but a common source will, no religion or Bully God nor a messiah-savior will lead humans to the next level. We have to do that ourselves, aided by the light within the source of all creation, that we learned from abductees, that the source and its agents are more of a partner than anything else, working through and with us to guides us, rather than taking us to the light and knowledge that will make us survive and thrive as a species in our planet and beyond.


My two cents, of this great work of Art, by Dr John E Mack in his book; Passport to the cosmos...I have not read his first book Abduction and promptly will, meanwhile, I recommended on this subject to read these two other great author; David M Jacobs and Budd Hopkins

I think nobody has the absolute truth in this matter, and Budd Hopkins books;
Missing Time, intruders, and sight unseen present another piece of the puzzled, perhaps he is the pioneer that got Dr Mack and Jacobs's involvement in this phenomenal, and that is remarkable on its n merit.

Also David M Jacobs, has a perhaps different view, channeled through the abductees he treated, and reported in his books, with no apologist, present a crude hypothesis in his books ;
The Threat and Secret life. I do not agree with him on his grey view of our future, maybe because I have faith in us humans and in the source "God", like David Jacobs, once said; he wants to be wrong on this subject...

John Mack was a perceptive and courageous thinker who changed his worldview when faced with truths outside of it. This is an important book for anyone, but especially for the many intelligent, highly educated people who are still lost in the religion of science and won't even look at the evidence for this phenomenon. This is a book that can break you out of your shell and allow you to perceive the universe as it actually is.

This was the first book on the superficially improbable 'alien abduction' phenomenon written by the late Professor John Mack, the celebrated and respected psychiatrist from Harvard University Medical School.

Mack had, when he wrote 'Abduction', already been awarded the Purlitzer Prize for 'A Prince of Our Disorder', a best-selling biography of T. E. Lawrence.

On becoming acquainted with the evidence of many thousands of people reporting these extraordinary but similar experiences, Professor Mack initially suspected that they might be suffering from a mental illness. However when, as a professional psychiatrist, he found no pathologies were present he decided to look deeper. Mack decided not to adopt prevailing materialist or conventional pathology-psychosis explanations as they just did not fit these individuals, and began in-depth investigation and interviews.

Each of the 13 chapters in the book takes a separate case and examines the experiences of a different individual. This format does not always lead to an easy read, as the 'abductees' speak for themselves and much of the text is in quotation marks. One common factor he uncovered at an early stage was that those interviewed reported their experiences had produced greater environmental regard for the Earth and a heightened sense of personal spirituality. Mack does focus on this aspect more than most researchers, and his concern seems to be more with the experiencer coming to terms with the whole trauma and going away with a 'positive' and 'transformative' attitude.

When it was suggested that Mack was 'inclined to take these abduction reports at face value' he responded: 'Face value I wouldn't say. I take them seriously and don't have any way to account for them.' In an extensive interview with the BBC (which I listened to in full) Mack cautiously said: 'I would never say "yes, there are aliens taking people." There is a compelling powerful phenomenon here that I can't account for in any other way, that's mysterious. It seems to me that it invites a deeper, further inquiry.'

Professor Mack's follow-up book on the subject, 'Passport to the Cosmos', is in many ways a more enjoyable page-turning read in that it takes the form of a discourse on the abduction subject and argues for a greater and more encompassing world-view than that normally accepted by the academic-materialist mindset. 'Cosmos' is an essay rather than a documented and episodic research paper as is 'Abduction'.

For an informed critique of Professor Mack's approach, see the chapter in Professor David Jacobs's book 'The Threat' focussing on Mack's methodology and conclusions. Jacobs is yet another high-level academic (Professor of History at Temple University) who has made a detailed study of the abduction phenomenon over 30 years, a great personal friend of John Mack whilst not seeing eye-to-eye on all the latter's conclusions.

The depth of content and the academic rigour of 'Abduction' deserves five stars, but I give the book four stars because it's not an easy, flowing read and is rather hard-going at times.

I read this book very early in my research on the UFO issue, then after several more months of research, I went back and read it again to see if my perspective had changed, it had. Rather than focusing on the details of the events, I was able to better understand the impact the events had on the individuals involved. For someone who wants to look more at the psychological impact of being abducted (whether it really happened or not is not the issue in this book), this book is a good starting point. If you are looking for a book that proves or disproves whether alien abductions are real or not, this is not the book for you. It is an excellent general overview of the psychological impacts of what happens when a person tries to make sense of a event that takes place in their life that seems way out of the ordinary.