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Jorge Rigoboulos doesn't care if you don't believe him; he knows when he was a 10-year-old boy he saw a circular-shaped object with lights on it that flew across the sky.
"It was impressive because it was so close," the now-48-year-old said Saturday. "It is true what I saw."
It may have been the first time the Miami man saw an unidentified flying object in the sky, but he said it wasn't the last. Just four years, ago he says he saw another set of lights darting around the Florida sky, only reinvigorating his interest in the unknown.
"It's something that attracts me," Rigoboulos said.
He's not alone in his quest for information about what else—or who else—could live in this solar system or another dimension. Rigoboulos was one of nearly 500 people expected to attend the annual MUFON Symposium.
MUFON, short for the Mutual UFO Network, is a science-based organization that investigates and researches the phenomenon of the existence of aliens and their connection or contact with Earth.
This year's event, "UFOs: From our Oceans to Outer Space,"ends Sunday at the Hilton Lake Buena Vista Hotel near Walt Disney World.
Symposium attendees range from true believers and UFO enthusiasts to skeptics and those determined to debunk any finding of extraterrestrial life.
"Hollywood has always painted this as an X-Filey, sensationalized subject matter," said Morgan Beall, Florida's MUFON state director.
Beall said the importance of the event is to show attendees, including the skeptics, that the work being done isn't about the stereotypical big-eyed, green-skinned alien.
"There is that ridicule factor, that giggle factor that's still out there that shouldn't be because it's actually a very, very serious subject matter," he said. "And, if real, think of the implications."
Shari Gackstatter, owner of Tempe, Ariz.- based Star Woman Crystals, said the event is important to bring together like-minded people, giving them a safe space to discuss their beliefs without fear of judgment.
"I assume every single person has seen something in the sky that didn't make sense," she said. "To me, an intelligent person is going to assume there's more to everything that what we see."
Beall hasn't had any personal experience with extraterrestrials, either having an up-close encounter or seeing an object in the sky, but he knows scientists every day are learning more about the possibilities that humans aren't the only existing life form.
"And I think just putting it into perspective, we're a grain of sand in an ocean," he said. "And we're young compared to the rest of the universe."
Robert Powell, MUFON's director of research, said he's interviewed more than 200 people who've had some kind of experience with other-worldly beings, enough to believe there's something out there even if he hasn't seen it for himself.
Powell said he would love to have his own experience one day.
"In a way, it's really like winning the lottery because there's lots of UFO reports," said Powell. "But there's very few real UFO incidents for witnesses, right? Because people misinterpret what they see."
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