Massachusetts MUFON: "Experiencer" Survey Results (July 1992)

An "Experiencer" Survey Results Report
(July, 1992)

by Joe Nyman

Over the years of working with people to help them relive their encounter images, I have noticed that the majority of incidents are reported to start in the bedroom. Although I don't, at this time, have an exact number, the percentage of cases that start this way in my investigations is certainly over fifty percent.

Given this, it seemed logical to suppose that the bedroom starting point might leave enough traces of incongruity, anxiety and incompleteness to form a solid conscious memory in the minds of those with unconscious encounter images, and that simply asking someone whether he or she had ever had this kind of memory might provide an indication of possible additional encounter imagery.

In January 1990, I reported briefly an informal survey I had made of thirty-six friends, relations and co-workers. Asking the question "Have you ever had the experience of waking at night and feeling that someone is in the bedroom?" (the bedroom question), produced seven "yes" answers. I then asked for more details and found memories of mysterious lights, unusual scars, robots and more that went along with these bedroom memories (reference 1).

I have completed a similar, more detailed survey in my current working group. After the Roper Poll Survey results were reported (note 2), I decided to include the other four questions asked in the Roper Survey with the results shown in Table 1.

Table 1 - Overall Survey Results

Subject Number	Gender Male	Gender Female	Roper#1 Bedroom	Roper#2 M.T.	Roper#3 Flying	Roper#4 Lights	Roper#5 Scars	SEI
1	X
2	X
3		X	X
4		X
5	X
6	X		X		X
7	X		X		X			X
8	X		X	X			X	X
9	X
10		X	X
11	X
12	X
13	X		X				X
14	X						X
15	X
16	X
17	X		X
18	X
19		X	X		X
20	X		X		X		X
21		X
22		X
23	X		X		X	X
24	X
25	X
26	X
27	X						X
28	X
29		X					X
30	X
31		X
32		X
33	X		X			X	X	X
34	X
35		X
36		X	X			X	X
Totals	25	11	12	1	5	3	8	3
Males/Females			8/4	1/0	4/1	2/1	6/2	3/0

The headings in Table 1 represent the following:

Survey Subject Number
Subject Gender
Roper Poll Survey Question #1 (Note 1)
Roper Poll Survey Question #2 (Note 1)
Roper Poll Survey Question #3 (Note 1)
Roper Poll Survey Question #4 (Note 1)
Roper Poll Survey Question #5 (Note 1)
Subjects who reported Subsequent Encounter Imagery

There are again thirty-six people in the survey, thirty-three engineers, one mathematician, and two secretaries. Twenty-five are males, eleven are females - all seem to be normal and productive.

The survey was started informally with three or four people about two years ago when I first joined the group and fully completed for this presentation.

Twelve people answered "Yes" to the bedroom question, eight males and four females, about the same proportion as in the group as a whole.

Of these twelve, three have subsequently expressed imagery characteristic of a so-called abduction, one person has provide more details in regression.

Subject 6 reported waking at night to see an orange light at the bedroom door interstices. The door then opened to a group of small non-human individuals and a human-appearing woman who engaged him in conversation. Before they left, the woman changed form to a small entity with some human characteristics and told this individual to "tell Joe and Mike."

Subject 8 reported seeing the full moon on two consecutive nights of the new moon. He associated images of a line of non-human entities with the first full moon. He was taken outside and "taught" something. On his return, one of the accompanying entities scattered a brownish liquid over his floor. A single entity in a hood was associated with the second night's "full moon."

Subject 33 reported anxiously looking out his bedroom window for three consecutive nights. On the third night, he saw a golden globe after which he felt he was outside with friends. He felt a sense of urgency when outside.

I have broken Table 1's results into Table 2 and Table 3 for greater clarity. Table 2 is the Results for those who answered "Yes" to the bedroom question, and Table 3 is the Results for those who answered "No" to the bedroom question.

Table 2 - Bedroom Question Positives
All those who answered "Yes" to the "Bedroom Question"
(Roper #1)

Subject Number	Gender Male	Gender Female	Roper#2 M.T.	Roper#3 Flying	Roper#4 Lights	Roper#5 Scars	SEI	Roper Total
3		X						1
6	X			X				2
7	X			X			X	2
8	X		X			X	X	3
10		X						1
13	X					X		2
17	X							1
19		X		X				2
20	X			X		X		3
23	X			X	X			3
33	X				X	X	X	3
36		X			X	X		3
Totals	8	4	1	5	3	5	3

Table 3 - Bedroom Question Negatives
All those who answered "No" to the "Bedroom Question"
(Roper #1)

Subject Number	Gender Male	Gender Female	Roper#2 M.T.	Roper#3 Flying	Roper#4 Lights	Roper#5 Scars	SEI	Roper Total
1	X		a
2	X
4		X
5	X
9	X
11	X			a	a
12	X
14	X					X		1
15	X
16	X
18	X
21		X
22		X
24	X
25	X
26	X
27	X					X		1
28	X
29		X		b	c	X		1
30	X
31		X
32		X
34	X
35		X
Totals	17	7				3

a = in dreams
b = in a fever
c = don't know

The highest Roper total (sum of all "Yes" answers to the Roper Poll questions) we have for any of these people is three. None would have been included in the Roper "abductee" percentage but three have already expressed imagery characteristic of the so-called abduction experience.

Fourteen out of forty-eight possible "Yes" answers were given (29.2%).

Since 3 people with either two or three "Yes" answers had also given subsequent encounter imagery, I felt justified in doing a probability calculation for those in my survey with two or three "Yes" answers, a total of 9 people. I used 0.025 as my individual probability as suggested by the Roper Poll results (note 2).

The probability of 9 out of any thirty-six people being so-called abductees is then a rather small number, 1.8x10^-7 (note 1).

For those who answered "No" to the bedroom question, only 3 gave firm "Yes" answers out of ninety-six possible responses. This is 3.1%, or about 1/10th the percentage of yeses recorded among those who had answered the bedroom question positively.

What Do These Results Immediately Suggest

The bedroom question is most important in identifying so-called abductees.
The Roper Poll percentage represents only those people who have conscious memory of four out of five of the questions asked and, thus, significantly underestimates the actual number of so-called abductees.
A better estimate would be the sum of all those who answered "Yes" to the bedroom question combined with all sequences of the other four Roper Poll questions.
The bedroom question alone may provide an upper limit estimate for the percentage of so-called abductees.
Most of the people in my survey are engineers. Is there a bias by profession?
Most of the people in the survey are under age forty. Is there an age bias?

Reference

(1) "Collection and Current Status of EAT Reports
       Involving UFOs",   Joe Nyman.
      unpublished paper presented at the TREAT II
      Conference, Blacksburg, VA.,   January, 1990.

Notes

(1) ( _nC_r ) ( p^r ) ( 1-p )^n-r

where:
n = 36   number of people in survey
_nC_r       is the number of combinations
            on n things taken at r at a time
r = 9     number of people answering
          bedroom question with
            "Yes" and at least one
            other question with "Yes"
p = 0.025    the Roper Poll probability

(2) Boston Globe, Monday, May 18, 1992.