Ask Erica Lukes — UAP Researcher, Advocate and Talk Show Host

[Gene Steinberg]

Erica Lukes has been passionate about UFOs, abduction and the paranormal for her entire life. After a series of personal UFO sightings in 2013, Erica felt compelled to find out what was taking place in Utah. She took a more active role and joined MUFON, becoming a MUFON Field Investigator and then State Director for MUFON in Utah. Erica worked as an Associate Producer for the MUFON Communications team and was also part of the MUFON Experiencer Research Team. Her efforts led to being officially recognized as "MUFON Volunteer of the Year" in 2014 and 2015.

She is currently head of the Utah UFO Research Project, an organization dedicated to scientifically researching UAP. She will be working with other organizations on a global level, to not only broaden public awareness of UAP but to develop research protocols that can be utilized by other organizations to streamline the research process. Erica is team lead on a research project called "Project Orange" this project is dedicated to researching sightings clusters of orange/red orbs (fireballs) .

In her spare time, Erica is an artist and an accomplished, recognized professional vocalist. She has been the lead vocalist in many of Utah's top bands. She performed at the 2002 Winter Olympics as well as other major venues. In addition, she has been involved with voice-over productions, radio and television. Her innate ability to put others at ease as well as a powerful stage presence has helped her to positively influence those who come in contact with her or tune into her broadcasts.

New Schedule: We'll be recording this session on Thursday, May 5, from 9:45-11:45 AM Pacific time.

Special Added Addition: Since Chris is a little bit under the weather, Greg Bishop will be this episode's co-host. But please focus your questions towards Ms. Lukes.

 

[DaveM]

Erica, your website mentions the Skinwalker Ranch. Have you personally been on the property? If so, what can you tell us about your trip? Secondly, as a member and a director of MUFON, do you feel that researchers should be paid to investigate rather than just being volunteers?

 

[Spectre73]

Erica , are you aware of any solid UFO cases that originate from India or China ? With so many people in these countries shouldn't there be more sightings.?

Or is it a case of no one to report to, or that their culture view any sightings in a completely different context?

 

[Azz7092]

Erika whats your stance reference some infighting in and amongst MUFON ??
is it enough to separate the organisation or can it get stronger if it was to branch off from a different direction from other the other half ?

 

[Randall]

Looking at the American Airlines 434 case, are you of the opinion that the big orange square that the pilot requested info on was not simply Nephi, Utah ( as indicated in the audio ) and if not, what evidence is there that what the pilot was asking for info on was actually a UFO, or for that matter even any type of UAP ?

 

[EricTheRed]

The evidence base for alien abductions is plagued by methodological problems, including true-believer therapists leading clients into false beliefs, experiencer support groups that reinforce and reward conformity to established narratives, the questionable use of hypnosis, mistaking hypnagogic and hypnopompic hallucinations for abduction, and more. It’s arguable that these and other mistakes undermine, perhaps fatally, the work done by virtually all abduction researchers from Leo Sprinkle to David Jacobs to Budd Hopkins and others. Even worse, alien abduction has become nothing less than a kind of religious cult to therapists and alleged experiencers alike. In light of this reality, what do you propose to do to improve the scientific validity of this research?


If alien abduction is actually occurring—which might be the most important story of the human species in its history—then it’s incredibly odd that the most obvious objective research protocols are not pursued with much seriousness, namely, setting up videotaping and other equipment to acquire objective data. It’s easy to get the impression that this hasn’t been a top research priority because it would demonstrate that alien abduction is nothing more than a popular myth, at least in a great majority of cases. Why haven’t more objective methods been used? Do you feel there’s any appreciation in the field of abduction research for how serious a problem this poses for its validity?

Thank you, Gene and Chris!

 

[Ravensfee]

1) Colm Kelleher's book on Skinwalker describes events that often fell outside traditional UFO reports. Are the stranger aspects of these events repeated in other reports and geographical areas from the Utah area?

2) Is there more to Dugway Proving Ground than unsubstantiated internet rumours?

3) Did Mufon ever receive reports or become aware of events experienced by Native American residents? As Utah seems to have a high degree of activity was there any attempt to see if there were historical/folklore reports to see if the nature/frequency has a long-standing basis?

4) I'm not an expert on LDS or their scriptures but believe Joseph Smith claimed to have translated an Egyptian scroll that stated the throne of god was located near a planet in our solar system called Kolob. Without meaning to be disrespectful this seems to put one in mind of some of the contactee/channelled messages of the mid 20th century. Could having an area full of people that at the very least follow a religion that has this type of cosmology act as a generator for strange events?