What Would William James Have Thought About Alien Encounters?
by Eugene Taylor, Ph.D.
Introduced by John E. Mack, M.D.
This presentation was held by Dr. John Mack's Program for Extraordinary Experience Research (PEER) on March 21, 1995 at the Macht Auditorium, Cambridge Hospital, Cambridge, MA.
William James was a 19th century philosopher and psychologist best known for The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature.
Eugene Irvine Taylor, Ph.D. (1946-2013) was a historian of psychology and an internationally renowned scholar on the life and work of William James. Taylor was the author of, among other works, William James on Exceptional Mental States and William James on Consciousness Beyond the Margins. He was a Lecturer on Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, the official William James Lecturer at Harvard Divinity School, and a 20-year member of the Executive Faculty at Saybrook Graduate School and Research Institute. He was a graduate of Southern Methodist University, Harvard Divinity School, and earned his Ph.D. at Boston University. He also founded the Harvard Aikido Club.
Host John E. Mack, M.D. (1929-2004) was a Pulitzer Prize-winning author and professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. He authored two books about human transformation from alien encounters: Abduction, and Passport to the Cosmos.
[Optionally, skip ahead to 31:34 to pass over the description of William James' background. Soon after, you will hear Dr. Taylor referring to "alternative realities"; Taylor is not referring to parallel universes but rather to alternative worldviews.]