MYSTERY WIRE — Around the world, tens of thousands of people have reported having encounters with a non-human intelligence.

A group of academics has initiated a years-long global survey to find out why these experiences are being reported and how people are affected.

Rey Hernandez had an encounter with non-human beings inside his home, and it made him a different person, he says.

After speaking with former astronaut Dr. Edgar Mitchell, the sixth man to walk on the moon, an organization called the Consciousness & Contact Research Institute was created to seek out and question others around the world who’ve reported their own close encounters or out of body experiences, and to find out how their lives were affected.

Most of those who’ve experienced more than one encounter say it changed them for the better.

“It was a total transformation of the personality profile of the individual,” Rey Hernandez, UFO researcher and author of  Beyond UFOs: The Science of Consciousness & Contact with Non Human Intelligence told Mystery Wire. “For example, people like in my case, total atheist, they become spiritual people that were religious, they become very spiritual people that were materialistic. All of a sudden, money is not important. People with the men’s egos, all of a sudden, diminished egos, loving and caring to your fellow human brother.”

Participants in the study are asked hundreds of questions in multiple surveys. The results have been compiled and studied by a team of scientists and academics and the findings published in a massive book.

In April the group will publish a three volume mega-report on the findings. The main conclusion is these experiences are frightening at first, but eventually, those who have multiple experiences end up seeing them as beneficial.