The Experiencers survey team wants to extend a warm welcome and sincere thanks for taking the time to participate in this survey.
We recognize the importance and personal significance of sharing your experiences. Having worked with Experiencers for many years—and being Experiencers ourselves—we are deeply committed to fostering supportive networks within this community. Many individuals feel isolated in their experiences, and discovering that others have encountered similar phenomena has been a source of great comfort to the thousands of Experiencers we’ve supported through our Reddit community and other initiatives.
We hope this survey will further enhance the support available by allowing Experiencers to explore patterns reported by others, reinforcing that they are not alone and that these experiences are part of something meaningful. We know how vulnerable it can be to share, and since the very beginning of planning this survey we’ve focused on making sure it’s done in a way that protects people’s anonymity and allows them opportunity to only share what they’re comfortable with. Trust is a difficult thing to gain and an easy thing to lose, and we believe the way we’ve run our community has demonstrated our commitment to Experiencers’ safety.
If you’re looking for a place to discuss your experiences and connect with others, please visit our subreddit here: https://reddit.com/r/Experiencers. If you’d prefer a more direct conversation, don’t hesitate to reach out through our website here: [Link].
Your contribution is invaluable, and by participating in this survey, you are helping to ensure that Experiencers receive the recognition and validation they deserve.
Best regards,
The Experiencers survey team (Dr. Jim Segala, A.O., C.S., C.H., B.K.)
How your information is being used and protected:
- The collected information is stored in an encrypted database.
- All of your answers will be processed by task-specific AI models that identify and document relevant information, which will then be stored stored separately. The original answers will not be seen by anyone.
- The processed data will be made freely available to researchers and the public to further understanding and acceptance of the phenomenon, and to help experiencers gain acceptance and understanding.
- This survey is entirely and solely the effort of the Experiencers survey team. It has no connection to any other individuals, groups, or institutions. The raw data will never be sold or transferred.
Participant Information Sheet
Thank you for participating in The Experiencer Network survey. We are incredibly grateful that you are taking the time to help us better understand the nature of anomalous experience and what that entails.
Instructions:
Registration Screen
First you will be presented with a registration window which asks for an ID Phrase. It must be at least 7 characters in length. This is a code to allow you to save your unfinished survey and return to it later, as well as giving you the ability to erase your all of your data at a later date should you choose to do so. Important: If you lose your ID Phrase it can not be recovered! Make sure to write it down exactly as it is shown, as it is case sensitive. Note that the phrase is not saved in our system until you agree to the consent form on the next screen.
If you are a returning user and already have an ID Phrase, fill it in on section (1) and click Continue (2). If the option remains grayed out, the code is invalid—check capitalization and other mistakes and try again.
If you are a new user and don’t have an ID Phrase, you can enter your own under section (3), or click Suggest One (4) to have the system create one for you which you can modify if you wish. Then click Register (5) to continue to the survey.
Click Clear (5) to erase the fields and start again.
Consent Form
You are required to agree to a consent form to participate in the survey. There are a few statements which are required for legal reasons, as well as information to make sure that you understand what is being asked of you in the survey. Click each checkbox and then click Continue to Survey. If the checkboxes are not displaying properly on your device or browser for some reason, clicking on the text of each statement will tick the box for you. If the button to Continue is grayed out, make sure you have ticked all the boxes. Clicking Cancel or closing the window will return to the Registration Screen. Note that if you do not fill out the consent, your ID Phrase will not be saved.
Participant Information Sheet
Session Information Panel
This panel on the left side of the screen shows information about your survey status. This shows how much of the survey you have completed for each section, as well as giving you options to control your survey answers.
Session Information (1) shows the ID Phrase associated with the current survey. If more than one person in your household is completing the survey, make sure that this shows the correct ID Phrase for the respondent.
Section (2) shows how many of the available questions you have completed in each section. You are not required to answer all the questions, and are free to only answer questions you are comfortable with.
Save your answers so far (3) allows you to save what you’ve already completed. Save often! It will not take you out of the survey, so you can save whenever you like.
Submit your final answers (4) will save your answers and mark the survey as completed. Once you submit your survey, your answers can no longer be changed. If you wish to submit a new or updated survey, we ask that you first use the "Delete your entire survey" option to remove the old one.
Submit your final answers (4) will save your answers and mark the survey as completed. Once you submit your survey, your answers can no longer be changed. If you wish to submit a new or updated survey, we ask that you first use the "Delete your entire survey" option to remove the old one.
Delete your entire survey (5) will erase all of your information from our server, including your ID Phrase. It can not be undone. You can erase your survey at any time in the future by logging in using your ID Phrase and then choosing this option.
Forgot me (6) will erase your current session without saving. If you want to save what you completed in this session, use Save your answers so far first.This is a good option if you share your device with other people so they can’t see the information you entered. You can also use this option if you don’t like what you’ve entered in the current session and want to erase it. This option will exit back to the Registration Screen
Participant Information Sheet
Session Information Panel (continued)
Want more information? (7) will open a new tab in your web browser and take you to Jim Segala’s website with more information about his research.
Survey Questions
The survey is organized into sections. You can shrink and expand each category as needed by clicking on it (1). You are welcome to use speech to text functionality on your device, but please don't use ChatGPT, Grammarly, or other writing assistants, as these could lead us to discard your survey answers!
Remember, you don't need to answer specific questions if you choose not to; but we encourage you to answer as many as you’re comfortable with, as the more data we have the more confident people can be with the results. Our goal is to help other Experiencers feel more comfortable with their anomalous experiences.
Some questions have checkboxes for Yes or No questions. Most questions will allow you to enter any answer you wish, worded however you prefer. Some questions will open new text boxes asking for additional information if you are willing to provide it. You can be as brief or as long-winded as you like.
