At What Age Did You Become Interested in UFOs?

[Rick Deckard]

Why is it that teenagers no longer seem to get involved in looking for UFOs, as we did when we were young? Your ideas are welcomed, and we'd like to also hear from those under 21, if they're listening.

Perhaps it would be useful to examine the environment that we grew up in and the reasons behind our own interest in the subject matter.

I'll try and outline a few of the things that influenced my UFO interests as I grew up and then perhaps see where we are today:

• I was a child of the 1970's and 1980's and grew up in England
• I saw Star Wars episode 4 in 1977 - I was 6 years old and the idea that this whole 'space adventure' happened "A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away..." had a profound effect on me
• Although I wasn't really old enough to appreciate the significance of the 'recent' moon landings, after seeing Star Wars, I became fascinated by the idea of space travel, technology, robots and aliens
• My earliest recollections of 'serious' UFO discussion in the media were tackled in the 1980's TV series "Arthur C Clark's Mysterious World" - there was plenty of UFO and alien sightings discussed on that program (as well as 'Bigfoot' and other such subjects)
• Around the same time (early 1980's) a weekly magazine, "The Unexplained", was on the newsagent shelves in the UK - my best friend and I were avid readers
• The movie "E.T." came out - I think I was 11 years old when I saw that
• The internet didn't take off until the late 1990's, so when I was growing up, the local library was the greatest source of information and looking back, I think a well illustrated book has a greater impact on the reader than the 'fleeting' activity we call 'web browsing'
• From the mid-1980's onwards, my interest moved away from UFO's and into Science Fiction - of course many 'alien' scenarios are explored in those sort of stories
• My Sci-Fi interest lead me to such great films as "2001: A Space Odyssey" - I have a lot of sympathy with the ideas expressed in that movie
• I didn't see "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" until the late 1980's - I still find some scenes in that film to be 'unsettling', but am convinced that there is a grain of truth in the 'landings' scenario
• It wasn't until the mid-1990's that I read Whitley Strieber's books "Roswell" and "Communion" that my interest in the UFO subject was sparked again - incidentally, I haven't slept properly since reading the book "Communion" in the 1990's. Some find the follow-up movie laughable - I can happily watch the goriest/scariest horror movies, but I find Communion just too terrifying to watch (BTW, I'm not suggesting that I'm an abductee)
• Throughout the 1990's I read quite a few books of varying quality on the subject, but I was basically isolated in my interest - the internet hadn't yet 'arrived' in the UK and the various UFO groups scattered around the country seemed to be solely focused on investigating 'sightings'
• Some time later, I found out that a colleague at my (then) place of work had a similar interest in the subject - we attended a few conferences around 2000 - Dr. Stephen Greer was speaking at one of the conferences and his promise of 'Disclosure' renewed my determination to get 'some answers'

I think in today's world, kids are growing up suffering from 'information overload' - when I was a kid, the cinema was 'treat' for the whole family to enjoy. We probably went to the cinema 2 or 3 times a year. The cinemas around at that time were basically converted music hall theatres - multiplexes didn't take off over here until the 1990's.

Satellite TV didn't arrive until 1990's either - growing up, the whole UK had 3 TV channels and 2 of those were run by the BBC.

Nowadays, kids have access to the internet, watch hundreds of TV channels, go to the cinema twice a month, play online games - they have so much to occupy their minds, they don't have time to think about the fundamental questions about 'life on earth' and 'who we are'.

Also, my recollection of UFO discussions in the media in the 1970's and 1980's is that they were generally 'open-minded' in their approach to subject - whereas today's 'UFO documentaries' are primarily either 'debunking' or 'sensationalising' the subject. There is no sensible debate in the mainstream media.

[generalization]
Perhaps it's worst than that. Perhaps todays kids are so used to having their opinions 'handed to them on a plate' that they are no longer capable of independent thought...
[/generalization]

[pixelsmith]

I have always known they are real. My awareness of them is in the earliest recollections of my life. (3-4 yrs old, i am 51 now). For me UFOs or more importantly, other life forms has never been an alien thought. (no pun intended..ok, ok, pun intended)

I am a skepic as well. I have seen too many fakes and heard too many fakers. There is strong evidence I may have even had/or having experiences of unknown nature. I remain skeptic. I have scars, had rashes and skin irritations that produce scars without bleeding or open wounds, constant ringing in ears, all of which Mayo Clinic cannot explain. I remain skeptic. I have seen objects in the sky that i do not understand, I have seen things up close that i cannot understand. I remain skeptic. I even had a missing 20 minutes while driving home after work and ended up on a road several miles away! I am still skeptic. You have to be or you will fall prey to these fakers. I am deeply saddened to realize Dr Steve may now be at very least stretching the truth as far as possible.

What is real? How do we know? I guess if there is no money, donation or personal gain for the person, I may start believing again.

[meciar]

I became interested a few years ago when my piano teacher who was a professional model builder made me one of those typical saucer shaped UFO's. I also helped him make a 10ft remote control F-16 model which was awesome, but that's another story. Anyways, he showed me some documents he apparentely got from our city's newspaper that I shouldn't even be mentioning now, so I won't mention the newspaper or anything (just in case ) anyways, I didn't really read these documents because I didn't really believe in it much, but it piqued my interest. I was about 16 then, I am now 23.

[comix]

I grew up on a ranch in southeastern Arizona in the sixties, my parents got my brother and I a telescope one year. The roof of the house was flat (so we could sleep on the roof in the summer when it was too hot to sleep indoors LOL) and we took the telescope up to the roof to look at the stars, while we were getting everything ready my Dad pointed toward the mountains and asked if we could see the strange lights. There was no moon and the sky was very clear. We could see several cigar shaped crafts above the mountain, They had lights around the edges and did not seem to be moving. We sat and watched them for over an hour before they began to slowly move toward the south They moved slowly away then abruptly zoomed away very fast, they did not make a sound. The next day my dad asked the other ranch hands and farmers in the area but noone else saw anything. After that I read everything that I could find. The best reading was to be found at the barber shop when I went with my dad because the barber always had Argosy magazine for men and another magazine that I think was called Fate or something. These magazines always had an article or two about UFO's. I think that I was about 8 or 9 years old.

[keesie15]

I became interested when I was about 13, i'm now 15 and i'm form the Netherlands by the way.
I have personally haven't seen a UFO, but i do know people that have seen them, and I had a experience whit a light-entity, and I still don't know if it was a ghost, a alien or sort of a demon, but i do know it scared the hell out of me.

[mjw]

My interest didn't begin until I was 27 after I experienced my own sighting 3 years ago on 11/08/2003. Prior to that I was not only a skeptic but quite the debunker. A very immature debunker and skeptic at that. In 1989 when my brother was 12 years old he claimed to have seen a large silver disk-like object sitting quietly in a field just outside of town. I made fun of him for several years about that. He had always been a little eccentric to me but after he told me about this I officially elevated him to fully fledged lunatic status. Also when I was in high-school a friend that I would occasionally smoke marijuana with had a UFO sighting and when he told me about it I thought he was insane - and obviously smoking more than just pot. Ironically enough, after having my own encounter these two people are the only ones who take me seriously about the UFO subject. Now to all of my friends who haven't had a sighting or ever taken a serious interest in this subject I am the nut case. They no longer take anything I say seriously and many of them facetiously call me Mulder. It's strange being on the other side of this now. But really has it opened my eyes or just clouded my vision? It's probably going to take meeting an actual alien to answer that and all of the other questions I have.

I got involved in ufos once I learned that it was an actual subject matter and not purely fiction. I was around 9 or 10 I think. In school they made us check out books, and I hate reading "fiction". So, I would look for things dealing with space, planets, ghosts etc. I came across a book dealing with ufos and kept checking that out the rest of the years Til the librarian yelled at me to check something else out. I took a week off of the one or two books they had that interested me My interest in cryptozoology came about around that time I think.

Unfortunately, there's a lot of fiction in my non-fiction interest.

[CapnG]

I saw Star Wars at the drive in when I was three. Interest in all things space-related was pretty much guaranteed from that point onward.

[Aaron LeClair]

You must be around my age Cap. I saw it at the drive in at 3 too.

[MaryRachel]

My dad is an illustrator, He and my uncle (The Brothers Hildebrandt) were asked by George Lucas to paint the movie poster when Star Wars came out and they did. I grew up in the realm of fantasy/ art and my dad and uncle used to draw aliens. When I was 5 my dad said I corrected him on an alien drawing he did for me. He asked what I meant and I recreated the alien. He asked how I knew and I told him I saw it in my dream. I still have alien dreams, scary thin brownish dude, big eyes and pock marked skin. My dad said he and my uncle have had alien dreams... since childhood.