Apparently MAMP is not compiled with IMAP SSL security support. This can be quickly checked via PHPINFO().
The problem is you need to compile your own version of PHP to enable the support.
You can find more information here ==> http://www.vargatron.com/2009/03/imap-ssl-with-mamp/
So instead, I just went ahead and put the PHP files on my server to test IMAP functionality instead.