For almost as long as human beings have been attempting to document and study what is often collectively termed “high strangeness”, it has been assumed that various phenomena should be studied separately, as distinct fields of inquiry. Thus, when researchers wanted to conduct research and/or look for evidence suggesting human consciousness could survive bodily death, they would do so by isolating factors only related to that particular inquiry.

And if, for instance, another group of researchers wanted to investigate the psychic and personality effects brought on by supposed contact with non-human intelligence, they would proceed by only considering factors related to that narrow field of study. It was assumed this was the best way to proceed, so as to tease out data that was already difficult to ascertain – because these kinds of phenomena tend not to be easily reproducible under laboratory conditions.

However, almost by accident, when data was compiled and looked at as a whole, it was discovered that various – presumably unrelated forms of high strangeness – seemed to correlate with each other somehow. That is to say, a person who’d experienced one form of high strangeness was much more likely than, say, a random person from the general population (what one might consider “the control group”) to have experienced other forms of “paranormal” phenomena as well.

Interestingly and tellingly, this curious and surprising result has persisted, even with rigorous controls in place to ensure other artifacts aren’t creeping in to corrupt the data. And, as a result, a new paradigm has emerged – one so new that we’re still really getting acquainted with questions around how one might study this apparent connection, and what the implications might be in terms of our framing of ultimate reality.

Sometimes, even beyond this astonishing correlation point in the data, these various anomalous phenomena manifest in the same single experience. That is to say, not only is person A more likely than a person from the general population to have experienced two or more seemingly distinct forms of high strangeness, but sometimes these paranormal effects are observed/experienced in the very same event!

One such example of this kind of mind-boggling event — reported on numerous occasions – by unrelated individuals, is an experience where contact with non-human, apparently alien intelligence, also involves contact and interaction with deceased individuals from that person’s life. Yes, indeed. People sometimes experience meeting the Others, as they’re often called, as well deceased loved ones, in the very same encounter.

This apparent point of convergence between what were previously assumed to be completely unrelated forms of anomalous phenomenology, is as mind-bendingly confounding as it is utterly fascinating. And of course, the exploration of interrelated modalities such as these is ideal fodder for a podcast just such as this!

An exploration of these kinds of encounters, as well as a consideration of the astonishing implications that arise as a result, are the topic of this, the 16th 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.