A flash emerged from the corner of his peripheral vision, contrasting from the evening sky. He dropped the trash bag he was holding, totally immersed in the floating object.

Senior Abraham Ramirez said he saw a UFO in eighth grade, while he was taking out the trash at his house. According to Ramirez, the UFO looked like the typical depiction of a stereotypical UFO. In the moment, he did not think to take a picture and in addition, decided against immediately telling his parents, due to the risk that the UFO might disappear before they came.

“It was this really weird, bright light in the sky,” Ramirez said. “I heard this weird humming, and obviously it wasn’t the sky. It was just this black, silver-looking thing. I was just there looking at it. For a second, my heart stopped. I was just in awe. When I saw that, it encouraged me to keep believing.”

Ramirez has been invested in conspiracy theories since the start of middle school. The main category he focuses on is the existence of extraterrestrials.

“I started thinking about how there’s no way we could be the only people here, the only things on our level,” Ramirez said. “And then, the Bible mentions aliens. I’m agnostic, but I still kinda lean toward Christianity, so I’ll read these scriptures and [think], ‘What were they saying?’ Even then, the guy that saw what he saw didn’t write it. Someone heard about it, and people butcher stories.”

Ramirez cites aliens for the existence of wonders of the world, including Machu Picchu and the pyramids of Egypt.

“There’s like 3,200,000 blocks in the pyramids,” Ramirez said. “Each [block] weighs like two tons. Even then, the population was low. How did they even stack them up? They’re so smooth, it’s ridiculous. The pyramids themselves, we can’t even do that today, and we got cranes and whatnot.”

Ramirez still attends church and has questioned his pastor on the existence of aliens. He said these questions are not forbidden, but are not met with a positive response. His parents are also hesitant toward his beliefs.

“My parents don’t like the fact that I’m into this kinda stuff,” Ramirez said. “They kinda just want me to brush it off and focus on priorities, I guess. School, believing in God, stuff like that. They don’t want me to steer away from God.”

Ramirez said there are some conspiracies that he does not believe in, such as one proposed by theorist David Icke, claiming that reptilian humanoids shape-shift into people in order to take power through politics. Some proposed reptilians include President George W. Bush and Queen Elizabeth II. The “reptilian” conspiracy is also related to the “moon matrix” conspiracy, which claims that the moon was made artificially in order to send waves to Earth in an attempt to control humans. However, Ramirez does believe in the “New World Order” conspiracy, the belief that a totalitarian world government will emerge in the future.

“Supposedly, there’s this government called the New World Order,” Ramirez said. “It sounds good, but what’s gonna happen is not good. A bunch of laws are gonna pass that leads to this crazy flip in society that’s all trash.”

Ramirez said that at times, he gets mocked for his interest in conspiracies and has received a picture of a spaceship collecting cows. Throughout middle school and high school, he  collected his ideas primarily from books written by theorists, including Anthony Ralph Epperson and George Orwell.

“Everyone thinks that when you believe in one, you believe it all, but it’s ridiculous,” Ramirez said. “I think you should be allowed to question things.”