--- alias: - Program for Extraordinary Experience Research - PEER - Program for Exceptional Experience Research - PEER Perspectives category: UFO & Anomalous Phenomena created: 2026-10-02 location: Cambridge, Massachusetts relations: - fn: 1 reverse: true start: 1993 type: founded with: '[[John E. Mack]]' - fn: 3 reverse: true role: grant, per the Center's newsletter of September 1993 start: 1993 type: funded with: '[[Human Potential Foundation]]' - end: 2002 fn: 1 role: project of the Center start: 1993 type: member_of with: '[[Center for Psychology and Social Change]]' summary: Abduction research and support program founded in 1993 by John E. Mack under the Center for Psychology and Social Change, begun on a Human Potential Foundation grant and, per the Mack Institute, Laurance Rockefeller funding. tags: - Program - UFO - Abduction - Psychiatry - Harvard - Rockefeller - Cambridge updated: 2026-10-02 --- The Program for Extraordinary Experience Research (PEER) was a project of the Center for Psychology and Social Change of Cambridge, Massachusetts, founded in 1993 by [John E. Mack](/people/john-e-mack/) to investigate reports of encounters with non-human beings and to support the people reporting them.[^1] The Center's later name is the John E. Mack Institute, whose history states that "the next year [after the 1992 renaming], with funding from Laurence Rockefeller, the Center formed" PEER, and that the program concluded in 2002.[^2] ### Funding The Center's newsletter *CenterPiece* of September 1993 announced "PEER Research on UFO Abductions": Mack, a founder and board member, was "completing a book detailing more than a dozen case studies," and the project, "Funded by a grant from the Human Potential Foundation," would be under the Center's auspices, with Karen Wesolowski as executive director, Pam Kasey coordinating support, and Caroline McLeod and Barbara Corbisier heading research.[^3] The [Human Potential Foundation](/organizations/human-potential-foundation/) was run by C. B. Scott Jones; a handwritten note of John Gibbons signed JHG and dated 3/29/94 says the Foundation "is funded in part, I believe, by L.R.," that is, by [Laurance Rockefeller](/people/laurance-rockefeller/).[^4] Rockefeller invited Mack to his JY Ranch roundtable of September 1993, and a photograph published by Paradigm Research Group with its own caption names Mack among those present.[^5] In a letter to Gibbons of April 26, 1994 Rockefeller wrote that "the publication of John Mack's book has brought renewed attention to the abduction phenomenon."[^6] The Center's newsletter of February 1994 announced Mack's book *Abduction*, due for release in the spring of 1994, a PEER support program and a PEER academic conference planned for the spring of 1995.[^7] *PEER Perspectives* no. 2 (Winter 1998/99) states that PEER was "founded in 1993 by [Harvard](/organizations/harvard-university/) professor of psychiatry John E. Mack," is "funded primarily through private donations and also through research grants" from the Fetzer Institute, the Lifebridge Foundation and the [National Institute for Discovery Science](/organizations/national-institute-for-discovery-science/), and reports that a panel of nine physical scientists chaired by Peter Sturrock and "funded by the Laurance S. Rockefeller Fund" had concluded in a report of June 1998 that UFOs are worthy of serious scientific study; it adds that in five and a half years PEER had received letters from individuals in some fifty countries.[^8] Separately, Ben MacIntyre of the London *Times* wrote in May 1995 that Mack's Center for Psychology and Social Change "is supported by an annual grant of $250,000 from Laurance S. Rockefeller," and the Valley News of May 20, 1995 reported that Rockefeller "reportedly donates a quarter million dollars a year" to the Center while a Rockefeller spokesman declined comment on Mack's projects; neither article names the program or a source for the figure.[^9][^10] ### Harvard Inquiry In the summer of 1994 Dean Daniel C. Tosteson of Harvard Medical School convened a faculty committee chaired by Arnold Relman that reviewed Mack's work with abduction subjects. In August 1995 the university counsel Anne Taylor said that the review had ended with "no adverse action taken," and Relman said that tenure was never considered. The committee's preliminary report, drafted earlier in 1995, "chastised Dr. Mack for 'affirming the delusions' of his many patients," according to the Baltimore Sun of August 4, 1995.[^11] [Alan Dershowitz](/people/alan-dershowitz/) criticized the inquiry in the Harvard Crimson on June 30, 1995, and Relman replied on September 13, 1995.[^12] [^1]: John E. Mack Institute, "History," https://johnemackinstitute.org/history/ and "Program for Extraordinary Experience Research (PEER)," http://johnemackinstitute.org/2003/01/program-for-extraordinary-experience-research-peer/. [^2]: John E. Mack Institute, "History," https://johnemackinstitute.org/history/. The statement is the Institute's own; no grant record was located. [^3]: Center for Psychology and Social Change, *CenterPiece*, September 1993, p. 2, "Center Welcomes PEER Research on UFO Abductions," https://johnemackinstitute.org/CenterPiece_1993_0900.pdf. [^4]: Jones to Gibbons, February 17, 1994, with note signed JHG and dated 3/29/94, http://www.paradigmresearchgroup.org/Rockefeller%20Documents/RID-2-17-94.htm. [^5]: Rockefeller to Gibbons, August 4, 1993, http://www.paradigmresearchgroup.org/Rockefeller%20Documents/RID-8-4-93.htm; Paradigm Research Group, "September 14-15, 1993 Meeting at Rockefeller's JY Ranch," http://www.paradigmresearchgroup.org/Rockefeller%20Documents/9-14-93_Meeting.htm. [^6]: Rockefeller to Gibbons, April 26, 1994, http://www.paradigmresearchgroup.org/Rockefeller%20Documents/2-26-94%20LR%20Letter%20to%20JG/Letter.jpg. [^7]: *CenterPiece*, February 1994, https://johnemackinstitute.org/CenterPiece_1994_0200.pdf. [^8]: *PEER Perspectives* no. 2 (Winter 1998/99), pp. 1 and 12, https://johnemackinstitute.org/PEER_Perspectives_2.pdf. [^9]: Ben MacIntyre, "Harvard professor's stories of close encounters, other-world sex, embarrass university," *The San Francisco Examiner* (London *Times* credit), May 5, 1995, p. 16, https://www.newspapers.com/image/461595501/. [^10]: "Harvard's Mack: The Subject Is Aliens," *Valley News* (West Lebanon, N.H.), May 20, 1995, p. 23, https://www.newspapers.com/image/833962083/. Byline not read. [^11]: "'Kooky' or not, Harvard won't censure its 'UFO professor'," Baltimore Sun, August 4, 1995, https://www.baltimoresun.com/1995/08/04/kooky-or-not-harvard-wont-censure-its-ufo-professor/. [^12]: Arnold S. Relman, "The Motivation for the Mack Inquiry," Harvard Crimson, September 13, 1995, https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1995/9/13/the-motivation-for-the-mack-inquiry/; Crimson, April 19, 1995, https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1995/4/19/mack-scientist-or-tale-spinner-pat-first/.