Who is John Shepherd? The true story of the man who dedicated his life to contacting aliens

Charlie Duffield20 August 2020

Netflix is releasing a new documentary on August 20, which charts the rise and fall of a man named John Shepherd, who has spent more than 30 years trying to contact aliens.

The synopsis states: "A rural electronic whizz broadcasts radio signals into space and monitors for signs of aliens, but makes a more important connection here on Earth."

'John Was Trying To Contact Aliens' premiered at the Sundance Film Festival 2020, and was named the winner of the 'Short Film Jury Award: Non Fiction', as well as picking up a nomination in the 'Short Film Grand Jury Prize - Best Short Film' category.

Here's what you need to know about the man who has been nicknamed by some as "the modern-day Thomas Edison".

Netflix: John Was Trying to Contact Aliens

1/13

Who is John Shepherd?

Mr Shepherd grew up in rural Michigan, and as a child was a fan of classic science fiction shows like 'The Outer Limits' and 'Twilight Zone'.

From the age of 21, he felt inspired to build huge pieces of electronic equipment to enable him to launch his own search for extraterrestrial intelligence.

In an excerpt of the documentary, Mr Shepherd discussed his unique mission, stating: "I started by myself. My grandfather helped me.

Netflix

"I live with my grandparents in a small cottage in Northern Michigan. I started building the electronic equipment to make contact with whatever might be out there.

"It grew to encompass an entire bedroom. That equipment continued to grow, and in the next two years it was migrating into the living room. It became more and more massive."

He added: "I was always seeking to explore, to look beyond what we have here."

The self-taught electronics engineer founded Project STRAT (Special Telemetry Research and Tracking) and converted the house into a something akin to a radio station and high-voltage laboratory.

Mr Shepherd was driven by his desire to find hard scientific evidence of the existence of alien lifeforms, and even built a two-storey high deep space transmitter, which allowed him to reach deeper and further out into space.

Netflix

For 25 years he broadcast daily low-frequency radio shows into space, which spanned jazz and world music, to electronic beats.

However, sadly his calls remained unanswered, and a lack of funding forced him to eventually give up his passion.

Ultimately, the documentary reveals how he spent 30 years trying to contact extraterrestrials by broadcasting music millions of miles into space, and after giving up the search, made an altogether different connection here on Earth.

John Was Trying To Contact Aliens will be available to watch on Netflix from Thursday, 18 August.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in