Anomalist Feature: Anomlalsts Are No Longer an Anomaly: Survey Results Part 2

ANOMALISTS ARE NO LONGER AN ANOMALY
Part Two
By Bernie O'Connor, CFGD
Director of Research and Founder*
www.armchairresearch.com

In this installment we address very specific phenomena and reveal the number of experiences reported by our respondents with regard to UFOs, Bigfoot, and Ghosts. We will also investigate the overall belief patterns of the respondents in an attempt to construct a total universe of accepted beliefs and to establish an accepted hierarchy of the unknown.

ANOMALISTS AS PERCIPIENTS
Our respondents are no strangers to experiencing anomalous phenomena first hand. And mind you, as we revealed in Part One, 92.2% of this audience is skeptical in nature. A total of 97.3% respondents agreed that skeptics should be given a fair chance to refute anomalous reports.
So Anomalists are open to conventional explanations of their and other people's brushes with the unknown.

But first, let's briefly revisit the question we began our survey with: “How did you first become interested in anomalous phenomenon?” 35.7% reported a first hand experience with something unusual. Now, let us proceed out into the field and see what type of experiences they were.

LOOK! UP IN THE SKY!
46% reported UFO experiences, slightly outnumbering Ghost sightings that came in at 42%. Of those having a UFO experience, 32% said it was a light in sky, either at night or during the day. 64% thought that what they saw was a solid object of some sort. 5% claim a close encounter, 3% reported occupants, and 4% felt they were the victim of abduction. 12.4% reported unusual dreams after the sighting, 9.5% claimed a variety of other affects such as an altered sense of time, fear, awe, radiation poisoning (one case), and the death of an animal. 5.6% experienced a heighten sense of psychic ability and 2.6% felt they received an important message that they need to share with people. 50.3% reported no noticeable effects whatsoever. 54% responding to this question has never having seen what they believe to be a UFO.

When asked if they would like to see another UFO, 59.2% voted yes. Under the heading of second-hand sightings, 53.9% answered that either someone in their family or someone they are close to saw a UFO as well. In the general survey, which would include these UFO experiencers, 66.1% feel that the UFO mystery will someday be solved.

THINGS THAT GO BUMP IN THE NIGHT
42.2% reported a Ghostly encounter. 16.1% felt it was an unknown deceased person and an equal 16.1% had no idea what they saw. 7.7% felt it was a deceased family member, and 3.3% felt it was an unknown life form. 57.8% report never seeing a ghost. As for after effects, 29.1% reported no noticeable after effect at all, 10.1% felt physical discomfort, 7.4% reported unusual dreams. 6.2% reported a variety of other effects, including fear and terror, surprise, awe, comfort (one case), and in a few other cases, continued contact with what are believed to be spirits. Several animal ghosts such as cats and dogs were also reported. 3.6% felt they received an important message to share. 0.6% would welcome a return visit and 51.9% would try to communicate with it. In the general survey, 61.7% have a family member or know someone who has seen a ghost.

“THE SMELL WAS OVERPOWERING!”
We now arrive at the smallest reported category, Bigfoot sightings. Apparently, these encounters are extremely rare. Only 3% reported a Bigfoot sighting. Of those, 1.7% felt it was more human than animal, 1.1% thought it was an unknown species of animal with animal instincts, and 1.1% didn't know what they saw. 0.3% felt that whatever it was, it had intelligence equal to a human. No one felt it had intelligence greater than a human. (The slight discrepancy is due to the fact that several people did not answer the question.) The reported after effects were almost negligible. 0.3% claimed heighten psychic abilities and the identical number, 0.3% claimed unusual dreams. 2% of those who did have a Bigfoot sighting had no noticeable after effect whatsoever.

As for seeing another Bigfoot, 6.9% of the respondents stated yes, they would like to see it again. Oddly enough this sentiment is over double of the reported 3% who said they had a Bigfoot sighting. Perhaps the wide variable here is that some folks were too shy to report seeing one in the first place. Additionally 6.2% claim they know someone who has seen a Bigfoot. In the general survey, 59.3% believe that a Bigfoot will never be captured.

THE ANOMALIST BELIEF MATIX
(See accompanying Chart)
Presented here for the first time are the results of two simple questions: What do you, or don't you, believe in with regards to anomalous phenomena? Our topic listing attempted to cover almost all of the Fortean categories that are reviewed on Anomalist.com. As I stated earlier, this study will help identify the overall belief patterns of our respondents. You can say we conducted a belief census, if you will, of the citizens of the unknown, the damned, the inhabitants of this Disneyland of the Gods.

These results helped us to construct the belief matrix that illustrates almost a total universe of what Anomalists perceive as reality - and what they don't. It's interesting that more people wanted to share their opinion of what they believed to be real as opposed to telling us what they didn't believe in. One reason for this might be the fact that the respondents are so open-minded and may feel that the “jury is still out” regarding the existence or not of a particular category. One respondent wanted to know why we didn't have an “I don't know” option. We purposely left that out as we felt that a forced choice was a better indication of a respondent's belief characteristics.

WHAT DO ANOMALISTS DO WHEN THEY ARE NOT BEING ANOMALISTS?
A little over three quarters of our audience is male, with the remainder female. The majority of Anomalists live in the U.S.A. They are college educated, some with degrees. Age-wise they skew to middle-age or later. The majority hold executive positions are self-employed or retired. They do not belong to any major organized religions or political parties. They did however vote in both the past mid-term and Presidential elections.

TOPICS OF INTEREST ON ANOMALIST.COM
Cryptozoology news and UFOs tied at 23.8%. Science items followed with a 16.4% share of audience. Maverick archeology got 12.3%, parapsychology news garnered 10.8%, and 13% choose “other.”

WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE ON ANOMALIST.COM?
This question received 200 replies. 35% felt the site was “Excellent.” Complaints ranged from not enough information about specific areas of interest, or not enough follow-up to stories and featured news items. Our respondents have a love-hate relationship with material from “Pravda.” As it turns out quite a few more people hate it than love it. There were a few humorous requests for naked pictures of women, one request was for “Anomalous Porn,” whatever that is, and one request for “Naked chicks watching UFOs.” Such replies no doubt reflect our primarily male audience and the small percentage of our readers being young teens. The strangest request for additional subjects to be covered on the site was “Clint Eastward.” Yes, Eastward.

SUMMARY
We found this voluntary survey of a cross section of people who share a common interest in unexplained phenomenon quite revealing. The results serve to dispel certain assumptions the media tends to hold about people with an interest in these topics. The results clearly show that Anomalists are open-minded, stable, professionally accomplished, intelligent and educated. If these are the type of people who feel that something important is going on, then scientists and government officials had better pay attention to their concerns.

Thank you all, again, for this unique opportunity to learn about you.

Return to Part 1

*Bernie O'Connor has a career that spans over 30 years working in Advertising, Marketing and Promotion Agencies in both New York and Pennsylvania as a Creative/Marketing Director. He is also a Certified Focus Group Director and brings his research, analytical, and marketing skills to his new company, www.armchairresearch.com, an online survey company that specializes in creating targeted marketing programs via online surveys, polls, and quizzes.