For many, the notion that non-human intelligences, whether extraterrestrial, interdimensional, or ultraterrestrial, may be operating advanced vehicles in the skies above our heads is a stretch, but one they can wrap their heads around. It only makes sense – to most people, anyway, that an advanced species would have technology that might very well out-class our own. And if a non-terrestrial species wanted to visit our planet, most can imagine them buzzing around our atmosphere, before moving on to other points of interest.

What is a more difficult notion for people to really track with is that the intelligences behind these vehicles may be interacting with us in a more direct and personal way. When you advance evidence suggesting these intelligences may be entering people’s homes, and are often taking them back to their craft in order to perform a variety of actions – some of a medical variety – and many people will balk.

One has to ask: is this knee-jerk rejection of this notion based on a rational consideration of the evidence, or is it fueled more by a subconscious fear of loss of power and agency. We are so accustomed to being the apex intelligence around these parts, that when we’re confronted with compelling evidence suggesting we may very well not be, many people respond out of deep-seated fear. We suddenly remember all of the less than humane actions we’ve performed on animals over the centuries, continuing even to today, and we wonder what it would be like to be treated in the same manner by a superior species.

When you add into the mix the apparent ability of these non-human intelligences to alter human perception, and to even control behavior, and you’ve now entered territory that makes most people turn around and walk the other way – not interested in engaging in such a conversation. And yet, that’s exactly what the literature behind the UFO Phenomenon suggests. All of the above. Craft of an advanced nature, operating in our skies. Entities entering our homes, passing through solid walls with no more difficulty than passing through a fine mist on a morning walk. And seemingly near total control of human consciousness – to the point where people look back with confusion and bewilderment at the nature of their own actions during such experiences.

Yet another piece of the puzzle that is simply too much to consider for many people in the general public, is the sheer number of life forms apparently involved and interacting with us. Yes, you have the greys, with their large, inky-black wraparound eyes – that has become the quintessential face of the alien for millions, but you also have entities that appear almost totally human, as well as hybrid species that look very much like a cross between a human being and something else. And of course you have 7 foot tall praying mantis type beings, equally tall reptilian types, and the list goes on.

For those who’ve had such experiences of what is often coined “high strangeness”, discombobulation is the inevitable result. These kinds of experiences are simply not of the sort that can be easily assimilated into most people’s working notions of “the real world”. Indeed, without support and the ability to process such experiences with others, these kinds of encounters can lead many to question their very grip on “reality”.

But this issue is not with most people’s grip on reality. These experiences are in every way real events. These kinds of encounters are happening — all around the world, and have been for a very long time. On this week’s podcast I’d like to offer some of my own family’s personal experiences with high strangeness. These are events that shattered former notions of what is and what’s possible, leading to a long, complicated journey in understanding the broader, richer, more colorful totality of all that exists. A reflection on the personal, generational encounters that have impacted me and my family are the topic of this, the 29th episode of the Point of Convergence podcast.

Dr. John Mack was a one-of-a-kind individual, who’s pursuits and interests were as varied as the kinds of responses he garnered from various elements of both the public and institutional academia. His “day jobs” included that of a psychiatrist, a writer, and a professor. Most famously Mack was the head of the department of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School.

As destiny would have it, Mack stumbled across one of the greatest secrets of our time – if not of the entire history of humanity: namely: the UFO Phenomenon, and specifically, the apparent “abduction” of thousands, if not millions, of people across the world, evidently by a clandestine alien intelligence. Mack, never one to turn down the pursuit of an intriguing mystery, soon began investigating this phenomenon first hand, counseling clients who claimed to have had these very experiences, doing his very best to help them feel heard and understood in the process.

It was these endeavors, chronicled in his 1994 book “Abduction: Human Encounters with Aliens” that would eventually run him a-fowl him of his overseers at Harvard, culminating in a near Inquisition-style proceeding that sought to undermine his academic freedoms because he had dared to commit the heresy of questioning the dominant, reductionistic paradigm of scientific materialism.

John Mack’s investigatory efforts into what he initially termed the “Abduction Syndrome” eventually branched out into what he came to see as undeniably related categories, including life after death, reincarnation, soul identity, and the very nature of ultimate reality. This man’s fascinating journey is chronicled in Ralph Blumenthal’s compelling new biography, titled: “The Believer: Alien Encounters, Hard Science, and the Passion of John Mack”.

Those of us deeply investigated in this, the greatest mystery of our time — and, it could be argued, of all human history —  owe a great debt of gratitude to the trailblazer John Mack, who, at great risk to himself, sought to bring the topic of ufology & contact with non-human intelligence into the mainstream, as a verifiably legitimate arena of study, even as the academic establishment around him did its damnedest to crucify him for the effort.

The life and legacy of Dr. John E. Mack, chronicled in Ralph Blumenthal’s excellent new biography, is the topic of this, the 11th episode of the Point of Convergence podcast.