Ralph Blumenthal: The Believer: Alien Encounters, Hard Science & the Passion of John Mack

Thoughts on Record: Podcast of the Ottawa Institute of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy

Once considered a fringe topic, aliens and the possibility of alien encounters are now the subject of considerable mainstream media attention. Pulitzer Prize winning journalist & author, Ralph Blumenthal, joins host Dr. Pete Kelly, C.Psych for a discussion of his new book The Believer: Alien Encounters, Hard Science, and the Passion of John Mack. In this discussion they cover:

• how Ralph became interested in the area of UAPs/UFOs, alien abductions & Dr. John Mack’s investigation of these phenomena
• a brief outline of the news coverage Ralph has done in this area including recent groundbreaking articles that he has written for the New York Times
• a brief portrait of Mack and his journey into investigating alien abduction
• consideration of alien abductions from a psychological/psychiatric lens (i.e., possible differential diagnoses such as parasomnia, psychosis, delusional disorder & substance use)
• Mack's investigation into whether experiencers had a psychological/personality profile more predisposed to fantasies, suggestibility & beliefs in the paranormal
• Mack's conceptualization of the abduction phenomenon with respect to a physical vs. psychological experience
• elements common to reported alien abductions, reported prevalence rate, possible culturally bound-features of reported experiences & universal features of reported abduction experiences
• Ralph's impression if whether in isolation or in aggregate Mack had anything in his personal context that dovetails with or explains his interest in these encounters
• Ralph's reflection on whether there were any major mistakes that Mack made that set his investigations back
• the hypothetical link between the UAP/UFO phenomenon and consciousness with a consideration of ongoing psychedelic research
• societal psychological reaction to increased reporting of UAP/UFO phenomenon in the mainstream media

Host note: a big thank you to my very good friend, Michael Leblanc, for his excellent thoughts, suggestions & insights around questions and areas of focus for this episode.
Ralph Blumenthal, a Distinguished Lecturer at Baruch College of the City University of New York, was an award-winning reporter for The New York Times from 1964 to 2009, and has written seven books on organized crime and cultural history. He led the Times metro team that won the Pulitzer Prize for breaking news coverage of the 1993 truck-bombing of the World Trade Center. In 2001, Blumenthal was named a Fellow of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to research the progressive career and penal reforms of Warden Lewis E. Lawes, “the man who made Sing Sing sing.” The book on Warden Lawes, Miracle at Sing Sing, was published by St. Martin’s in June, 2004. During the coronavirus pandemic he has contributed articles to The Times and other publications, worked from home on his Baruch Archives blog, “An Adventure in Democracy”, and given virtual talks on his new book, “The Believer: Alien Encounters, Hard Science, and the Passion of John Mack.” Blumenthal earned a Guggenheim Fellowship (2001), a Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism Alumni Award (2001), and the Nieman Foundation’s Worth Bingham Prize for distinguished investigative reporting on USAir crashes. (1994.) He was inducted into the C.C.N.Y. Communications Alumni Hall of Fame in May 2010. Since 2010 he has taught journalism in the summer program of Phillips Exeter Academy in Exeter, N.H., and in 2010 was named a Distinguished Lecturer at Baruch College where he taught journalism and currently oversees historic collections in the Newman Library Archives.
https://www.ralphblumenthal.com/