As a true "Child of the Sixties" (I'm 46) I enjoyed the best of both worlds when it came to such things. Prime time TV offered The Twilight Zone, Star Trek, The Outer Limits, and Rod Serling's Night Gallery; and local TV stations dished up 1950s film classics like Earth Vs The Flying Saucers, Invaders From Mars, and House on Haunted Hill every Saturday night. On top of all that, I spent almost every spare moment reading masters of imaginative fiction like H.P. Lovecraft, Robert Silverberg, and A.E. Van Vogt.

The "chicken-or-the-egg" relationship between Science Fiction and Ufology is a question I'm not prepared to address. However, it always struck me as rather odd that Science Fiction writers -- individuals whose creative imaginations often lead to literary explorations of outer space and alien life -- have remained mute when it comes to the beliefs of Ufologists concerning such things.

I discussed this subject with veteran UFO researcher Stanton Friedman a few years ago. Mr. Friedman holds a Master's Degree in Nuclear Engineering from the University of Chicago, and first came to prominence as a critic of the U.S. government-sponsored "Condon UFO Report" of 1968. Since then he has investigated and written about such things as "Roswell," and the so-called "Majestic-12" documents. I asked him why Science Fiction writers never made common-cause with UFO researchers; after all, both groups seem to have so much in common.

Not so, Stan suggested. To make a long story short, Mr. Friedman believes that modern Sci-Fi's Founding Fathers: Dr. Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, and Arthur C. Clarke, were all university grads who were determined to make Science Fiction a "legitimate" literary genre in the eyes of the academic establishment. Since mainstream scientists routinely rejected the claims of Ufologists as lacking in hard proof, Asimov, Bradbury, and Clarke decided to remain silent so as not to jeopardize their own position.

A Roper Survey conducted in 1997 conluded that fifty-percent of Americans believe UFO's actually exist, and that the U.S. government has proof. Nevertheless, even 45-years after Kenneth Arnold's legendary "Flying Saucer" sighting near Mt. Rainier in Washington State, a seeming code of silence regarding the possible reality UFO's and extra-terrestrial life continues within the community of Science Fiction writers.