PEER (Program for Extraordinary Experience Research)

PEER was founded by John Mack in 1993 and sponsored the March 1997 Harvard "Dialogue on the Alien Abduction Experience" with Budd Hopkins's Intruders Foundation [S1]. It matters to the skeptical literature because McNally's Harvard study of self-identified abductees recruited in part through PEER staff, alongside newspaper ads and earlier participants [S2]. The study therefore overlapped Mack's population by recruitment source, but it is not a test of his own clinical sample, and no published test of that sample was found [S2].

Full research report

Sources

[S1] "Aliens Subject of Mack Talk" | The Harvard Crimson, 8 Mar 1997 URL: https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1997/3/8/aliens-subject-of-mack-talk-ppulitzer-prize Accessed: 2026-10-16 Claim: PEER founded 1993; sponsored the 1997 dialogue

[S2] McNally et al., "Psychophysiological Responding During Script-Driven Imagery in People Reporting Abduction by Space Aliens" | Psychological Science 15(7), 2004 URL: https://sage.cnpereading.com/storage/sage/journal/article/PSS/2004/PSS_2004_15_7/unzip/10.1111_j.0956-7976.2004.00707.x.pdf Accessed: 2026-10-16 Claim: recruitment through newspaper ads, PEER staff and previous participants