"So we agree then that the figure of 800,000 shouldn't be taken at face value, for whatever reason?"
We can't toss out any of those 800,000 cases until they are studied, examined, vetted one against the other, statistics compiled. Oral historians call this process the "triangulation" of reports.
Hey, it may be that we'll wind up tossing them ALL out.
And:
"Didn't Hopkins claim that something like 5 million (or some ridiculous figure like that) Americans were being abducted by aliens?"
Before describing that figure as "ridiculous" (which it may be) we'd have to know how many of Strieber's correspondents were Americans. If all were, or nearly all, and one-sixth (a remarkably high estimate) of all American experiencers contacted Streiber that "5 million" would be right on the mark.
P. S. As to the numbers of Forteans who have neurological disorders, what I CAN tell you is that those members of
[email protected] and FTMBs who have contacted me with their own stories have been REGULAR, PRODUCTIVE, ACTIVE, CONTINUING members of the lists....NOT lurkers. So the total membership numbers don't apply.
It may be an "obsessive" concentration on dates and details that makes a Fortean researcher effective.