Roper Organization abduction survey (1991)
From the UAP Encyclopedia, the open encyclopedia of UFO and UAP history · 🗓️ Event
Contents 8
| Date | 22 May 1991 |
|---|---|
| Topics | Beings & bodies (topic) |
| People | Jacques Vallée, Robert Bigelow, Budd Hopkins, David Jacobs, John Mack, Hans-Adam II |
| Testimony | Shellenberger testimony, p. 110 |
| Year | 1991 in UFO history |
| Timeline | 1991 on the UAP Timeline |
| Sources | 10 |
In 1991 businessman Robert Bigelow and an anonymous co-sponsor paid the Roper Organization to add questions to a national survey of nearly 6,000 American adults about unusual experiences often reported by people who believe they have been abducted by aliens. Abduction researchers interpreted the results as suggesting that about 2 per cent of Americans might be abductees, a reading critics rejected.[1][2]
The survey
Between July and September 1991 Roper interviewed 5,947 adults, using its regular in-home survey service. Rather than asking directly about abductions, the survey asked about experiences such as seeing a ghost, feeling one had left one's body, seeing a UFO, waking up paralysed with a sense of a presence in the room, feeling one was flying through the air, missing time, unexplained scars and a childhood encounter with a terrifying figure. Responses from people who claimed a nonsense word, "TRONDANT", had secret meaning for them were discarded to screen out positive-response bias.[1]
The report
In 1992 Bigelow Holding Corporation published a 59-page analysis by abduction researchers Budd Hopkins and David Jacobs, with sociologist Ron Westrum, and mailed it to nearly 100,000 psychiatrists, psychologists and other mental health professionals. It said that about 2 per cent of respondents reported a combination of experiences consistent with abduction, which the authors extrapolated to roughly one in fifty American adults. Harvard psychiatrist John Mack wrote that the results suggested hundreds of thousands, possibly millions, of Americans might have had abduction experiences.[1]
Criticism
Critics said that the experiences asked about have many ordinary explanations, such as sleep paralysis, and that the survey measured feelings respondents might interpret in many ways. Skeptic Philip Klass noted that younger respondents reported more indicator experiences than older ones, and suggested exposure to UFO books, films and television explained this better than abductions.[1]
The co-sponsor
According to Jacques Vallée's journals, the anonymous co-sponsor was Prince Hans-Adam II of Liechtenstein, who has a documented interest in UFOs and worked with Bigelow; Swiss media reported that the two had commissioned an abduction study costing about $200,000 in the early 1990s. The prince has not publicly confirmed funding the survey. The episode marked the beginning of Bigelow's large-scale private funding of UFO research.[3][4]
People and topics
- Jacques Vallée — Computer scientist and astronomer, author of the Forbidden Science journals and a central figure in UFO research.
- Alien abduction — The claimed taking of people by non-human beings.
- Robert Bigelow — Businessman who founded NIDS and Bigelow Aerospace and ran the AAWSAP contract.
- Bigelow Aerospace — Robert Bigelow's space habitat company.
- Budd Hopkins — Artist and abduction researcher.
- David Jacobs — Historian and abduction researcher.
- John Mack — Harvard psychiatrist who studied abduction experiences.
- Hans-Adam II — Prince of Liechtenstein said to have co-funded the 1991 Roper survey.
- Unidentified flying object — An object in the sky that can't be identified; the older term for UAP.
- NIDS — Robert Bigelow's research institute (1995–2004) that studied UFOs and other anomalies.
- AAWSAP — The Defense Intelligence Agency's UAP research program of 2008–2010, carried out by Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies.
On the Timeline
- Uncle's 1946–47 project claim (12 April 1991) — A woman says her uncle worked on a 1946–47 government project linked to a crash.
- White Sands tracking-camera saucer claim (July 1991) — A retired sergeant says tracking cameras recorded a saucer resting on the White Sands range.
See every 1991 event on the UAP Timeline →
References
- "The 1991 Roper 'Unusual Personal Experiences' survey", G. P. Posner · gpposner.com · archived copy
- "Hans-Adam II of Liechtenstein — why was he...", UFOs Scientific Research · ufos-scientificresearch.blogspot.com · archived copy
- Hans-Adam II, Prince of Liechtenstein — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- "Liechtenstein: el príncipe y el ovni desaparecido en Suiza", Swissinfo · swissinfo.ch · archived copy
- Hans-Adam II, Prince of Liechtenstein — Wikipedia · wikiwand.com · archived copy
- Forbidden Science — journals of Jacques Vallée (Anomaly Archives) · anomalyarchives.org · archived copy
- Review of Forbidden Science 6 — SFCrowsnest · sfcrowsnest.info · archived copy
- Forbidden Science Dispatches — Tanner Boyle (journal summaries) · tannerfboyle.substack.com · archived copy
- ufos-scientificresearch.blogspot.com · ufos-scientificresearch.blogspot.com · archived copy
- swissinfo.ch · swissinfo.ch · archived copy
Further reading
- AATIP / AAWSAP — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- Robert Bigelow — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- Jacques Vallée — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
This page was last edited on 29 October 2026. Articles are written in our own words from the sources listed under References; disputed claims are attributed to the people who made them.
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