Have you been abducted by aliens?
Take this simple test to find out:- Do you ever wake up paralyzed with a sense of a strange person or presence or something else in the room?
- Have you ever experienced a period of lost time -- an hour or more -- for which you could not remember what you were doing or where you had been?
- Have you ever felt that you had been flying through the air although you didn't know why or how?
- Have you ever seen unusual lights or balls of light in a room without knowing what was causing them?
- Have you ever found puzzling scars on your body and neither you nor anyone else could remember how you received them or where you got them?
The test comes from a 1993 survey conducted by sociologist Ted Goertzel, who found that 3.7% of his respondents qualified as "abductees." Goertzel was careful to note that he wasn't saying these people really were abductees. Instead he noted that the survey seemed to be "measuring a consistent phenomenon of some kind, but it tells us nothing about what it is that the scale is measuring."
But this distinction was totally glossed over by the National Enquirer who picked up on the survey and popularized it as an Alien Abduction Test. Extrapolating from the 3.7% response number, they concluded that 8 million Americans were alien abductees.
Comments
Listed in chronological order. Newest comments at the end.
Listed in chronological order. Newest comments at the end.
I got a 0 out of 5, too. I'm not sure if I'm happy or sad (or maybe just disappointed) about that.
Posted by The Rav in Behind the Orange Curtain on 07/11 at 11:04 AM
Is that abducted by aliens, or abducted by your friends for a night of heavy drinking?
Posted by Paradox on 07/11 at 11:14 AM
That would explain a lot of those, too, Paradox. hehe 
Posted by The Rav on 07/11 at 11:34 AM
#1 is standard incubus fare, and people have been reporting it for centuries.
Posted by Ken Lowery in Dallas, TX on 07/11 at 12:32 PM
#1: Check. I have had two episodes of "night terrors" in my life. Bonus: the second one involved a luminous ghostly apparition by my bedside, and an overwhelming sense of personal danger! Night terrors are a well-documented phenomenon, believed to occur when you regain consciousness without fully leaving REM sleep.
#2: Check. I had spinal meningitis as a child, and do not remember very much of the first week. But that may not be what they're looking for.
#3 Outside of dreams, no.
#4 Check, though they always went away as I became more fully awake.
#5 Oh yeah. I'm a klutz, but not very observant.
Three of those are your basic night terror symptoms, especially #1. #3 may occur in dreams which are then confused for reality. #2 can happen in a range of psychological disorders, and also in people who drink too much (of course). #5 is pretty normal too; most people occasionally get injuries which they either fail to notice at the time or fail to transfer into their long-term memory because at the time, they didn't think they were serious.
#2: Check. I had spinal meningitis as a child, and do not remember very much of the first week. But that may not be what they're looking for.
#3 Outside of dreams, no.
#4 Check, though they always went away as I became more fully awake.
#5 Oh yeah. I'm a klutz, but not very observant.
Three of those are your basic night terror symptoms, especially #1. #3 may occur in dreams which are then confused for reality. #2 can happen in a range of psychological disorders, and also in people who drink too much (of course). #5 is pretty normal too; most people occasionally get injuries which they either fail to notice at the time or fail to transfer into their long-term memory because at the time, they didn't think they were serious.
Posted by Calli Arcale on 07/11 at 01:51 PM
I'll have to look up this study to see if it looks at any of the sleep-paralysis folklore from all over the world. There's a good study of the same set of phenomena in:
Hufford, David J. The Terror that Comes in the Night: An Experience-Centered Study of Supernatural Assault Traditions. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. 1982. ISBN ISBN: 081221305X.
Hufford, David J. The Terror that Comes in the Night: An Experience-Centered Study of Supernatural Assault Traditions. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. 1982. ISBN ISBN: 081221305X.
Posted by Chris on 07/11 at 02:01 PM
Are you sure this isn't the 'signs you may be an alcoholic' test?
Posted by bb on 07/11 at 04:47 PM
Definitely two out of five. Possibly three. Maybe even four...does a floating sensation equal flying?
And lost time? Yeah. Constantly at work. I look at the clock and it's barely 8:30am, next time I look it's midday, and I have no idea what I've been doing.
I've never woken up paralysed with the feeling of someone else in the room with me, though.
And lost time? Yeah. Constantly at work. I look at the clock and it's barely 8:30am, next time I look it's midday, and I have no idea what I've been doing.
I've never woken up paralysed with the feeling of someone else in the room with me, though.
Posted by Smerk on 07/11 at 10:31 PM
Anyone who's travelled on a long haul flight has experienced #1, #2 and #3 (especially London-Abu Dhabi-Brunei-Darwin-Sydney-Brisbane, spent two weeks jetlagged, then done the whole thing again in reverse!).
Posted by Suzanne in Brisbane, Australia on 07/13 at 11:01 AM
This kind of thing happens to me almost every weekend. I'm pretty sure it's not aliens.
Posted by Kirk in Seattle on 07/14 at 02:12 AM
I was abducted by Aliens. I was near the Boarder and some buddies of mine from TJ threw me in the trunk of their '57 and drove to TJ for a Show. (and I'll just leave it at that)
Posted by avmayes614 in the F-state on 09/11 at 10:01 AM
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Category: Paranormal, Psychology