Taos News Story (cont.)
Lujan is from Taos Pueblo, a 31-year-old man who went to the University of Southern California and who began his video production company with this as his first project. It is a program that wears its rock bottom low-budget, first-time production status well. Yet, despite its flaws, what appears on the screen is compelling evidence, if not for the existence of extraterrestrial contact, it at least offers a good case for some sort of genuinely profound human experience.
DellaFlora, a reporter for the Albuquerque Journal, was the one who drew his friend into the project. It started out as an idea for a book DellaFlora planned, which grew out of his research on the economic impact of the UFO industry in the state. Yes, given the number of people and organizations benefiting financially from maintaining this mystique, a significant amount of money is being made which pretty much qualifies it as an industry.
Lujan suggested a five-minute documentary to help promote the book. But as the two delved deeper into the subject, they found a wealth of strange tales that would make the “X Files” look tame.
“We went down to Roswell, I think it was Labor Day, 1995, not really expecting what to find and we just ran into this whole colorful assortment of characters,” Lujan said in a telephone interview from Phoenix. “We were, quite frankly, amazed at just the sheer number of people who have had UFO experiences in one way or another. We ended up with over 80 hours of footage in the course of a year. We distilled that down to a two-hour version back in late 1996. Then we revised it to the version we were satisfied with, the version we’re going to be showing at the Taos Talking Picture Festival.”
When asked if he started out as a skeptic, Lujan replied, “Yeah, I can say I’m still skeptical. I haven’t really seen anything that convinces me UFOs exist. Although when I started out I was an atheist and now, I guess, I’m more of a cautious agnostic.”
He said what changed his point of view was the candor and sincerity of most interviewees. There was something there that seemed honest and undisguised. “You talk to them, you look in their eyes and you know they’re not lying to you,” he said. “They honestly believe what they’ve experienced; whether it’s abductions or flying saucers or lights in the sky, you look in their eyes and don’t sense any deception. In fact, many of them have no reason to lie. We had one woman who had refused to talk to the media for years and through a friend of a friend, we actually got her to speak to us about her abduction experiences. She seemed like someone who lived next door, basically, yet she has this incredible story.”
Lujan and DellaFlora started out with the premise that there is something special about New Mexico, something that goes beyond UFOs and aliens, and addresses an historical link to a past that has embraced unusual occurrences. What they discovered was that not only has there been just about every kind of extraterrestrial-type occurrence reported here, except for maybe “crop circles,” but there also is a long tradition of concentrated spiritual activity here. “I don’t think there is another state or place on the planet that can make that claim,” Lujan said.
“Roswell, crashed saucers, government meetings with aliens, a secret underground base controlled by aliens and the military at Dulce (a town on the Jicarilla Apache Indian Reservation northwest of Taos), cattle mutilations in Dulce, and Taos, abductions going on, pretty much everything.”
Lujan said he thinks it has something to do with “not only Native American or Spanish lore, but also just the whole aura of spirituality that seems to permeate the state — whether it’s through the Indian religions or the New Ager religions. Essentially, I think it has a lot to do with the rich cultural and spiritual history that the region has…and as a result of that it’s always been a very strong spiritual place. It’s something that has drawn people from big cities to come here and spiritually renew themselves…When we search for answers or search for meaning we look to the skies, whether it’s for God or flying saucers. We want to find something.”
Spiritual concerns aside, one other eerie aspect they encountered was the specter of “government testing.”
From the early Manhattan project atomic bomb tests during World War II to modern-day particle-beam research, stealth technology and advanced weaponry experiments, New Mexico has played a major role in the government’s scientific and military establishment.
Whether a huge conspiracy exists to keep Americans from finding out about government collaboration with space aliens or whether there is a cover-up regarding extraterrestrial contact remains to be seen. Certainly some of the people Lujan and DellaFlora talked to believe both are true. But the filmmakers didn’t set out to prove or disprove any of that. Just as they didn’t set out to debunk the whole UFO subculture in New Mexico.
They only wanted to talk to some of the people to whom this phenomena has become personal and to show how their sincerity has placed them in a tenuous social position. Many have been publicly ridiculed, laughed at, made fun of and professionally discredited. Yet they persist with their stories. Viewers may wonder why the filmmakers didn’t advocate a position on one side of the fence or the other. But that’s beside the point. It’s the people that are important here. Just as it’s probably been all along.
DellaFlora, a reporter for the Albuquerque Journal, was the one who drew his friend into the project. It started out as an idea for a book DellaFlora planned, which grew out of his research on the economic impact of the UFO industry in the state. Yes, given the number of people and organizations benefiting financially from maintaining this mystique, a significant amount of money is being made which pretty much qualifies it as an industry.
Lujan suggested a five-minute documentary to help promote the book. But as the two delved deeper into the subject, they found a wealth of strange tales that would make the “X Files” look tame.
“We went down to Roswell, I think it was Labor Day, 1995, not really expecting what to find and we just ran into this whole colorful assortment of characters,” Lujan said in a telephone interview from Phoenix. “We were, quite frankly, amazed at just the sheer number of people who have had UFO experiences in one way or another. We ended up with over 80 hours of footage in the course of a year. We distilled that down to a two-hour version back in late 1996. Then we revised it to the version we were satisfied with, the version we’re going to be showing at the Taos Talking Picture Festival.”
When asked if he started out as a skeptic, Lujan replied, “Yeah, I can say I’m still skeptical. I haven’t really seen anything that convinces me UFOs exist. Although when I started out I was an atheist and now, I guess, I’m more of a cautious agnostic.”
He said what changed his point of view was the candor and sincerity of most interviewees. There was something there that seemed honest and undisguised. “You talk to them, you look in their eyes and you know they’re not lying to you,” he said. “They honestly believe what they’ve experienced; whether it’s abductions or flying saucers or lights in the sky, you look in their eyes and don’t sense any deception. In fact, many of them have no reason to lie. We had one woman who had refused to talk to the media for years and through a friend of a friend, we actually got her to speak to us about her abduction experiences. She seemed like someone who lived next door, basically, yet she has this incredible story.”
Lujan and DellaFlora started out with the premise that there is something special about New Mexico, something that goes beyond UFOs and aliens, and addresses an historical link to a past that has embraced unusual occurrences. What they discovered was that not only has there been just about every kind of extraterrestrial-type occurrence reported here, except for maybe “crop circles,” but there also is a long tradition of concentrated spiritual activity here. “I don’t think there is another state or place on the planet that can make that claim,” Lujan said.
“Roswell, crashed saucers, government meetings with aliens, a secret underground base controlled by aliens and the military at Dulce (a town on the Jicarilla Apache Indian Reservation northwest of Taos), cattle mutilations in Dulce, and Taos, abductions going on, pretty much everything.”
Lujan said he thinks it has something to do with “not only Native American or Spanish lore, but also just the whole aura of spirituality that seems to permeate the state — whether it’s through the Indian religions or the New Ager religions. Essentially, I think it has a lot to do with the rich cultural and spiritual history that the region has…and as a result of that it’s always been a very strong spiritual place. It’s something that has drawn people from big cities to come here and spiritually renew themselves…When we search for answers or search for meaning we look to the skies, whether it’s for God or flying saucers. We want to find something.”
Spiritual concerns aside, one other eerie aspect they encountered was the specter of “government testing.”
From the early Manhattan project atomic bomb tests during World War II to modern-day particle-beam research, stealth technology and advanced weaponry experiments, New Mexico has played a major role in the government’s scientific and military establishment.
Whether a huge conspiracy exists to keep Americans from finding out about government collaboration with space aliens or whether there is a cover-up regarding extraterrestrial contact remains to be seen. Certainly some of the people Lujan and DellaFlora talked to believe both are true. But the filmmakers didn’t set out to prove or disprove any of that. Just as they didn’t set out to debunk the whole UFO subculture in New Mexico.
They only wanted to talk to some of the people to whom this phenomena has become personal and to show how their sincerity has placed them in a tenuous social position. Many have been publicly ridiculed, laughed at, made fun of and professionally discredited. Yet they persist with their stories. Viewers may wonder why the filmmakers didn’t advocate a position on one side of the fence or the other. But that’s beside the point. It’s the people that are important here. Just as it’s probably been all along.