"Journalism is the best career any young person can have"

“The Believer”, by Ralph Blumenthal

"The Believer" is the new book of Ralph Blumenthal that tells the story of Dr. John Mack, a renowned Harvard psychiatrist and Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer of Lawrence of Arabia, who risked his career to research the phenomenon of human encounters with aliens. Blumenthal, a veteran journalist who worked for the New York Times for 45 years, was interviewed by Foreign Press about the development of his book, the research process, and his motivation for writing it.

Your new book, "The believer," tells the story of the Harvard psychiatrist John Mack, who believed in alien abductions and paid the price for it both personally and professionally. What would you want readers to take from that story? 

The complexity of the abduction mystery and Mack’s courage in addressing it. He didn’t solve it but showed what it was not: mental illness, fabrication, publicity-seeking, nightmares, sleep paralysis (many encounters occur in waking hours), or anything else remotely explainable. 

How did you come up with the idea of writing a book about the Harvard psychiatrist, John Mack, and recount his story to your readers?

I was The New York Times correspondent in Texas in 2004 when I came across a used copy of Mack’s second book, “Passport to the Cosmos,” published in 1997. I was amazed that a Harvard psychiatrist would have researched alien encounters and thought I might interview him, not realizing how famous he already was. A few days later, I picked up the paper to find he had been run over and killed by a drunk driver in London. I called his grieving family and eventually got access to his private archives. 

Is it difficult to write a biography of a third person, especially if their story has been highly controversial, as in this case with John Mack?

All writing is difficult. But I had the advantage of exclusive access to his journals, emails, personal therapy sessions, notes, and unpublished manuscripts.

What is the background of this book creation? What was your research process, and how did you collect the information and put everything together? 

I not only read all his materials but also interviewed his family, friends, and colleagues. I wrote and re-wrote the book over 16 years. 

What was the most challenging part of this research process?

Tracing the process by which an esteemed Harvard professor who had won a Pulitzer Prize for his biography of Lawrence of Arabia and was long devoted to earthly causes like social justice, world peace, and nuclear disarmament became captivated by the mysteries of hidden dimensions in the universe. 

How do you personally view the stories about aliens? Are there taboos associated with speaking out openly about believing in aliens? 

I think the very vivid accounts of experiencers are stupefying and unexplained. Yes, the subject of aliens still draws derision, but the existence of unidentified aerial phenomena is now more widely acknowledged, thanks in part to Times exclusives on the Pentagon’s long-secret UFO program that I was privileged to have co-written starting in 2017.

Is there any advice you can give journalists who are writing biographies or telling the story of somebody and they are hoping to turn it into a book?

Writing is hard, as I said, but highly satisfying to the psyche, if not always that financially rewarding. There’s nothing like seeing your words between covers. 

As a reporter for the NYT for more than forty years, you served as a foreign correspondent in West Germany, South Vietnam, and Cambodia. During your years as a foreign correspondent, what has been your most memorable moment?

Probably some close calls during the fighting in Vietnam and Cambodia. I saw the ugliness of war up close and more dead bodies than I ever want to see again. But I also saw great humanity and heroism, people who were risking their lives to help war victims. 

Your previous books covered organized crime and cultural history. How does your interest in writing about organized crime blend with cultural history? 

I started off covering the Pizza Connection trial of underworld bosses charged with running a billion-dollar international heroin pipeline, often out of the cover of pizza parlors. The landmark case in Manhattan federal court from 1985 to 1987 exposed a secret franchise of the Sicilian Mafia in America operating alongside the better-known Cosa Nostra. It became my first book, “Last Days of the Sicilians,” in 1988 and heightened my interest in covering crime, corruption, and law enforcement – themes of my following books on an undercover narcotics cop, the warden of Sing Sing prison, and the sometimes shady world of the​ ​New York nightspot, the Stork Club. 

What would you have done differently if you started your career today? What would you tell our young journalists and foreign correspondents as a lesson for the future? 

Journalism is the best career any young person can have! You’re never bored, find out secrets before anyone else, help right wrongs, and enjoy tremendous ego gratification. The day I walked into the City College student newspaper office, The Campus, changed my life forever. I wouldn’t do anything differently.