-
NEW! LOWEST RATES EVER -- SUPPORT THE SHOW AND ENJOY THE VERY BEST PREMIUM PARACAST EXPERIENCE! Welcome to The Paracast+, eight years young! For a low subscription fee, you can download the ad-free version of The Paracast and the exclusive, member-only, After The Paracast bonus podcast, featuring color commentary, exclusive interviews, the continuation of interviews that began on the main episode of The Paracast. We also offer lifetime memberships! Flash! Take advantage of our lowest rates ever! Act now! It's easier than ever to susbcribe! You can sign up right here!
At What Age Did You Become Interested in UFOs?
- Thread starter Rick Deckard
- Start date
Free episodes:
Jose Collado
Skilled Investigator
I was attracted to UFO's and all things paranormal at an early age for no reason at all. I used to read my brother's books about UFO's/Ghosts/Mysteries when he wasn't home....otherwise he'd beat me senseless if he caught me going through his stuff.
JayR
Paranormal Novice
In 5th grade I was trying to convince my science teacher to let me do EVP experiments for the science fair - I ended up doing optical illusions instead. I think around that time I was wandering the public library with my friend and found a whole bunch of books on UFOs. I remember carrying all these books home about the subject. It was like something switched on and I've always been interested in UFOs since that day we went to the library.
PhantomAce
Skilled Investigator
15 or so after reading Chariots of the Gods.
Gojira2006
Skilled Investigator
Five, or so, when I saw The Mysterians & Earth vs. the Flying Saucers on a local affiliate . . . 
Hopa
Paranormal Novice
Hey everyone! First post, though I've been trolling these forums for awhile and have listened to The Paracast for several years. I've toyed with posting to several threads but this seemed like a good place to start.
I became interested in this phenomenon very early in my life. I was about 10 years old when I learned of a sighting my aunt experienced several years prior. THe details of the sighting became more and more clear as I grew older and my parents felt more comfortable sharing it. The very fact that it took place within blocks of my own house made it so real to my young mind. Many of the reports and stories were from far-away places, not suburban Chicago.
The facts of the sighting as related to me by my parents are this: On an overcast, drizzly evening in October of 1967, my aunt took their dog for a walk around the block. While on this walk she noted how odd it was that our town had put up the christmas lights around the water-tower so early. A second look revealed that indeed, this was not the water tower she had seen. The water-tower was east of their home, along the rail-road tracks there and was not normally visible from the western side of the block. Looking closely, my aunt realized the lights were actually a craft that was following her as she walked up the sidewalk. The craft was a "huge flying saucer" according to my parents, which then caused my aunt to panic and run for home. SHe ran in the house and screaming for my uncle, began pulling all the shades on the indows in the house. After relating to him why she was upset, they looked out the window to see the craft floating above the houses across the street, only to then simply whiz away at an incredible speed. THere was no sound made by the craft, or heard by my aunt, throughout the event.
Through the years that followed I learned that indeed my aunt had contacted the Air Force to make a report and was visited by several individuals in uniform. THey took her report and shared with her that two others had also witnessed the craft in the area. When asked what it was, they would only tell her "We can't tell you."
(I've made several attempts at FOIA requests for more information on this, as well as half-hearted newspaper searches but have found nothing so far. Someday I should really dig a little deeper!)
As a result of this event, my aunt was then forever frightened to walk at night, especially on over-cast evenings. SHe was plagued by nightmares and phobias for years. My parents cautioned me to never bring up the subject around her as my aunt would become visibly disturbed by the subject. Indeed, in the late-seventies we were having a family get-together to celebrate my birthday and I was told to change the channel on the TV as my aunt and uncle were arriving, due to the fact I was watching the old british ITV show, "UFO" on the local PBS channel. My parents were visibly upset that my aunt would find out what I was watching.
My years following were filled with a personal fascination for the subject that remains to this day. It wasn't until I was in my 40's that I was able to ask my aunt about her experience. My family and hers were having dinner near their home in northern Wisconsin. Now in her 80's, I felt it was now or never. I asked her "Auntie, do you ever talk about your UFO sighting?" She answered "No, not really. It scares me still. There were two sightings, you know. Not just the one."
This was new to me. I asked "Will you tell me about them?" She said she would and proceeded to tell the story above almost word for word as my parents and related it to me. With one exception which, at the time, gave me goosebumps. Telling me about the lights above the house across the street she says "It wasn't a flying saucer you know. It was a long dark-colored triangle, with lights underneath." It was at this moment I knew my aunt had truly witnessed something peculiar, and had not mistaken something ordinary. Here was a woman that was frightened to even hear the term UFO for nearly 40 years, had avoided the subject altogether, and was describing an all to familiar element of the phenomenon that has only come to light in the last several decades.
She then said her and my uncle saw it once again, several years later. They were in a parking lot a t a local mall and looking up they saw what they thought was a leaf floating down. There was something odd about the leaf though, as it was much too large to be an actual leaf from a tree. It was a large triangle swaying back and forth as it came towards them, and then disappeared. THis time, however, she said she wasn't afraid, though my uncle was very intent on leaving the area and going home.
Anyway, there you have it.
Hopa
I became interested in this phenomenon very early in my life. I was about 10 years old when I learned of a sighting my aunt experienced several years prior. THe details of the sighting became more and more clear as I grew older and my parents felt more comfortable sharing it. The very fact that it took place within blocks of my own house made it so real to my young mind. Many of the reports and stories were from far-away places, not suburban Chicago.
The facts of the sighting as related to me by my parents are this: On an overcast, drizzly evening in October of 1967, my aunt took their dog for a walk around the block. While on this walk she noted how odd it was that our town had put up the christmas lights around the water-tower so early. A second look revealed that indeed, this was not the water tower she had seen. The water-tower was east of their home, along the rail-road tracks there and was not normally visible from the western side of the block. Looking closely, my aunt realized the lights were actually a craft that was following her as she walked up the sidewalk. The craft was a "huge flying saucer" according to my parents, which then caused my aunt to panic and run for home. SHe ran in the house and screaming for my uncle, began pulling all the shades on the indows in the house. After relating to him why she was upset, they looked out the window to see the craft floating above the houses across the street, only to then simply whiz away at an incredible speed. THere was no sound made by the craft, or heard by my aunt, throughout the event.
Through the years that followed I learned that indeed my aunt had contacted the Air Force to make a report and was visited by several individuals in uniform. THey took her report and shared with her that two others had also witnessed the craft in the area. When asked what it was, they would only tell her "We can't tell you."
(I've made several attempts at FOIA requests for more information on this, as well as half-hearted newspaper searches but have found nothing so far. Someday I should really dig a little deeper!)
As a result of this event, my aunt was then forever frightened to walk at night, especially on over-cast evenings. SHe was plagued by nightmares and phobias for years. My parents cautioned me to never bring up the subject around her as my aunt would become visibly disturbed by the subject. Indeed, in the late-seventies we were having a family get-together to celebrate my birthday and I was told to change the channel on the TV as my aunt and uncle were arriving, due to the fact I was watching the old british ITV show, "UFO" on the local PBS channel. My parents were visibly upset that my aunt would find out what I was watching.
My years following were filled with a personal fascination for the subject that remains to this day. It wasn't until I was in my 40's that I was able to ask my aunt about her experience. My family and hers were having dinner near their home in northern Wisconsin. Now in her 80's, I felt it was now or never. I asked her "Auntie, do you ever talk about your UFO sighting?" She answered "No, not really. It scares me still. There were two sightings, you know. Not just the one."
This was new to me. I asked "Will you tell me about them?" She said she would and proceeded to tell the story above almost word for word as my parents and related it to me. With one exception which, at the time, gave me goosebumps. Telling me about the lights above the house across the street she says "It wasn't a flying saucer you know. It was a long dark-colored triangle, with lights underneath." It was at this moment I knew my aunt had truly witnessed something peculiar, and had not mistaken something ordinary. Here was a woman that was frightened to even hear the term UFO for nearly 40 years, had avoided the subject altogether, and was describing an all to familiar element of the phenomenon that has only come to light in the last several decades.
She then said her and my uncle saw it once again, several years later. They were in a parking lot a t a local mall and looking up they saw what they thought was a leaf floating down. There was something odd about the leaf though, as it was much too large to be an actual leaf from a tree. It was a large triangle swaying back and forth as it came towards them, and then disappeared. THis time, however, she said she wasn't afraid, though my uncle was very intent on leaving the area and going home.
Anyway, there you have it.
Hopa
jkoci
Watcher of the Skies
Same here. Early teens or preteens. At that time I read the book Incident at Exeter too.
kcfraser
Skilled Investigator
The first time I remember taking an interest was when I was about 11 or 12 years of age. There was a nuclear power plant about 5 miles away and it was in it's early stages of construction. The year would have been mid 1960's. at around 10 in the evening a light in the sky was seen stationary over the building site. The length of time it was there varies but it would be safe to say it was in the fifteen minute range before quickly moving away over the lake and out of sight.
With a lake on one side and lots of vacant land on the other, the population around the construction site was limited to a few small cottage type homes. While the lack of on the spot viewing was next, if not completely nill, it did afford a clear view for the suburban home a little further away. Radio stations were called and the papers had some small articles about the following day.
Keef
(I don't know who Justin Bieber is and I'm happy about it.)
With a lake on one side and lots of vacant land on the other, the population around the construction site was limited to a few small cottage type homes. While the lack of on the spot viewing was next, if not completely nill, it did afford a clear view for the suburban home a little further away. Radio stations were called and the papers had some small articles about the following day.
Keef
(I don't know who Justin Bieber is and I'm happy about it.)
Sean Elifritz
Administrator
Sometime in my early twenties. It got going when I attended a Robert Hastings lecture at Kent State University. My early years with this were hilarious because I believed all sorts of nonsense. At one time I thought Lazar might be the real deal, entertained the notion that some of the secret base stories, like Dulce, might be true, and was completely convinced that there was a vast government conspiracy like so many people continue to tell me. Interestingly I was pretty skeptical about abduction stories back in those days but I've become quite a bit more open to that. I've discovered that critical thinking is something that is learned, it was that way with me anyway, and early on I just didn't posses that mindset to the degree I needed to. I now dismiss a lot of things I thought were true back then. But there are still a handful of cases that I find compelling.
LF-Reality
Skilled Investigator
when i was like 5 and i think it was when hailys comet passed the earth , me and my brother were in the front garden of our house and i just bought a cheap ass £25 telescope from the toystore , thats when i first thought , i wonder whats out there , ufo's didn't come into existence till later for me when i was about 12 
, kind of funny when i think back , i probable was the only person in my school that was aware of area 51 before the independance day film released haha think i was about 9
, kind of funny when i think back , i probable was the only person in my school that was aware of area 51 before the independance day film released haha think i was about 9ALPHA ROMEO UNIFORM
Whittingham
When 2-3 years when I was taken to a bloody object which was in a field next to our house which I only found out last year it was a RAF maintenannce air field and it came knocking.
In Oz Large ball craft or orb or something?
In Oz Large ball craft or orb or something?
For me it was at age 10 when, at a backyard barbeque with family members, a rectangular shaped hazy greenish object suddenly materialized over our backyard. Then it disappeared and reappeared over the neighbor's property. During this incident we experienced tingling sensations of our skin and some of us had sore, red, runny eyes the next day.
Simonemendez
Skilled Investigator
Not until I was 19. ---Even though--- There was a long history of strange Ufo phenomenon buzzing around nearby. In the fall of 1978, I began to witness Ufos, due to a flap wave. I witnessed Ufos a few times until 1980. In 1981 I was in the service, and saw very strange lights in the sky where I was stationed.
King Cheetah
Paranormal Novice
In 1973, my mom bought me a copy of Keel's "Our Haunted Planet" from a used bookstore. UFO's were very much in the news back then and I was hooked.
Thanks mom... ^___^
Thanks mom... ^___^
Vampireliketendencies
Paranormal Novice
I was into them before I was born because where I came from had plenty of them.
dccruibay66
Paranormal Novice
when i was in middle school i started have interest in UFO.because this thing is full of mystery that's why i am curious about it
PararealitySaint
An Open Minded Skeptic
Thanks for the question.
I first became interested in the UFO Phenomenon when I was about Fifteen years old. A friend of mine and I lived in the suburbs of New York during the late 70’s to early 80’s. One night we both snuck out of our houses and met up at a place called “Playland Market”, a grocery store in Rye New York. We actually met next to the market at an old gas station, as this was about 11:30 pm at night and the store was long closed. Packing up on Mountain Dew and Cokes from the machine they had outside the station, we headed for our favorite haunt, down the street, over a hill and onto the shoreline of Rye Beach near to the “fire pits”; which at the time were inset in the cement wall along the edge of the park itself.
Placing down an old transistor radio on the ledge and turning on our favorite radio show some of you might remember out there called the, “The Joel Martin Show” on WBAB FM, a Long Island station we picked up nicely from across Long Island Sound, we listened as “Psychic Medium George” (George Anderson) began to spend another evening accepting phone calls and telling people all sorts of strange things about themselves, through a supposed ability he had to relate with those whom died and came back to help the callers.
It was just after Tim (my friend) gathered a ton of dried sea brush which always seemed to be in plenty from the seagulls in the area, and was about to light one of the grill/ovens we called a pit, when all of a sudden I noticed something bright float over the Long Island side of the shore line and begin to dip up and then down as if searching for something.
I pointed it out to Tim, and we both sat there, dumbfounded as to what it could possibly be.
Not only did the object fly around from one side of the horizon to the other effortlessly as if moving at that rate of speed was commonplace, but it began to blink on and off and then started heading directly for our side of the shore.
At this point Tim and I were beginning to become somewhat scared. We had no idea what the heck this thing was, and I moved to turn off the radio as Tim doused out the little flame which was beginning to catch in the grill.
As if that wasn’t enough, just as the object seemed to be moving directly toward us and what we thought was intent on perhaps aggressing against us in some manner, the object shot straight up into the sky and vanished in the darkness of the night.
Between first seeing the U.F.O. and it’s leaving our line of site must have been close to an hour in total. We were not completely able to catch a glimpse of its shape, but both of us agreed that it was no satellite and definitely nothing we knew of which had the scientific capacity to do the maneuvers like this object performed. At the time both of us were heavily into World War Two Military History and knew pretty well what the world had in terms of flying vehicles up to the present day, and there was no way on God’s green earth this was something we thought man had made. That doesn’t mean it wasn’t man made, just that it was nothing we were privy to knowing.
There you have it, my initial entrance into studying this and many other paranormal phenomena.
I first became interested in the UFO Phenomenon when I was about Fifteen years old. A friend of mine and I lived in the suburbs of New York during the late 70’s to early 80’s. One night we both snuck out of our houses and met up at a place called “Playland Market”, a grocery store in Rye New York. We actually met next to the market at an old gas station, as this was about 11:30 pm at night and the store was long closed. Packing up on Mountain Dew and Cokes from the machine they had outside the station, we headed for our favorite haunt, down the street, over a hill and onto the shoreline of Rye Beach near to the “fire pits”; which at the time were inset in the cement wall along the edge of the park itself.
Placing down an old transistor radio on the ledge and turning on our favorite radio show some of you might remember out there called the, “The Joel Martin Show” on WBAB FM, a Long Island station we picked up nicely from across Long Island Sound, we listened as “Psychic Medium George” (George Anderson) began to spend another evening accepting phone calls and telling people all sorts of strange things about themselves, through a supposed ability he had to relate with those whom died and came back to help the callers.
It was just after Tim (my friend) gathered a ton of dried sea brush which always seemed to be in plenty from the seagulls in the area, and was about to light one of the grill/ovens we called a pit, when all of a sudden I noticed something bright float over the Long Island side of the shore line and begin to dip up and then down as if searching for something.
I pointed it out to Tim, and we both sat there, dumbfounded as to what it could possibly be.
Not only did the object fly around from one side of the horizon to the other effortlessly as if moving at that rate of speed was commonplace, but it began to blink on and off and then started heading directly for our side of the shore.
At this point Tim and I were beginning to become somewhat scared. We had no idea what the heck this thing was, and I moved to turn off the radio as Tim doused out the little flame which was beginning to catch in the grill.
As if that wasn’t enough, just as the object seemed to be moving directly toward us and what we thought was intent on perhaps aggressing against us in some manner, the object shot straight up into the sky and vanished in the darkness of the night.
Between first seeing the U.F.O. and it’s leaving our line of site must have been close to an hour in total. We were not completely able to catch a glimpse of its shape, but both of us agreed that it was no satellite and definitely nothing we knew of which had the scientific capacity to do the maneuvers like this object performed. At the time both of us were heavily into World War Two Military History and knew pretty well what the world had in terms of flying vehicles up to the present day, and there was no way on God’s green earth this was something we thought man had made. That doesn’t mean it wasn’t man made, just that it was nothing we were privy to knowing.
There you have it, my initial entrance into studying this and many other paranormal phenomena.
Terjarv
Skilled Investigator
9 years old getting UFO, ancient astronaut, ghost, and bigfoot books from my elementary school library. This FRACKEN library also had the Betty and Barney hill story, which I read when I was 9 and couldn't sleep for weeks, I thought I was going to get abducted. Why are these books in elementary school libraries anyway?
iinfluence
Paranormal Novice
The original age of my curiosity for UFOs and the paranormal is unknown; being born in a strict, southern, Christian household ( South Carolina ), I had always known something was off. The idea that a bearded man, in the sky, on a cloud, didn't sit right with me, in fact, I thought as a child that the astronauts that went up would've confirmed that God was real. Now, knowing God wasn't in the clouds looking down on us, I began a pursuit into the unknown; reading Goosebumps, mythological stories, etc. and with that in mind, I began a slow incline in exploring my curiosity. Right around Y2K, another tick went off, what was going on? Was I going to die? I haven't even lived yet; a barrage of questions hit me, only deepening my curiosity.