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

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 is the author of several books, including Miracle at Sing Sing: How One Man Transformed the Lives of America's Most Dangerous Prisoners and The Believer: Alien Encounters, Hard Science, and the Passion of John Mack (UNM Press). A distinguished lecturer at Baruch College, he lives in New York City.