MEET THE TEAM

Mindy Tautfest is the Dean of MUFON University, Director of Oklahoma MUFON, and a member of the Experiencer Resource Team (ERT). She joined MUFON as a member in 2019, became a Field Investigator that year, and was promoted to SD in 2020. She joined the ERT in 2022 as a way to further help experiencers process their encounters. An Oklahoma native, she got her start investigating hauntings in the Sooner State in search of answers to her own mystifying experiences. Mindy has worked as an ICU Nurse with ACLS certification on assignments across the nation and has volunteered her time to Disaster Relief efforts including the Colorado Black Forest Fires, Hurricane Katrina, and the devastating May 3,1999 Moore Tornado. 

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In 2016, Mindy suffered a brain aneurysm which resulted in a Near Death Experience where she found herself in a place known as the Void. Although traditionally thought of as a separate phenomenon, in a recent study of submitted Experiencer Questionnaires, MUFON’s ERT has discovered that a staggering 55% of UFO Experiencers also reported having a Near Death Experience. This is a little understood statistic, but Mindy’s personal encounter with the Near Death phenomenon combined with years of investigations into UFO encounters, places her in a unique position to understand the underlying connections and after effects seen as a result of these enigmatic events. 

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Mindy has appeared as a guest on numerous podcasts across the United States speaking about UFO sightings, breaking news in Ufology, Near Death Experiences, and High Strangeness in Oklahoma. She has had articles published in the MUFON Journal as well as internationally in Outer Limits Magazine. Her investigation of the 1975 Miracle Mountains Schoolyard Encounter was designated as MUFON’s Top Case of Interest in 2021.This major U.S. schoolyard encounter mimics so many others from around the world including those taking place at the 1966 Australian Westall High School and the 1994 Zimbabwe Ariel School sightings. Mindy presented the incredible findings of her investigation into these unique encounters at the 2022 International MUFON Symposium in Denver, CO.