There is a Yeti in the back of everyone’s mind; only the blessed are not haunted by it. ~ old sherpa saying

Monday, February 28, 2011

Thursday, February 24, 2011

On JREF: 'Bigfoot and Racoons', and the Assumption of Bigfoot's Limited Awareness

New Bigfoot thread on the JREF, bringing the total of Bigfoot threads over there to something like twenty-two million, about the OP's "hunt" for a rabid raccoon. Prefacing his adventure with his limited experience with hunting, tracking, and being a "city boy" even though he lives in a rural area, he asks why Bigfoot can't be found by experienced hunters and woodspeople:
So my question is, how can these people, who by and large are " Trained" in some way shape or form to find animals ( at the very least they have done some research into how to track, i am positive. ) , not be able to find a much, much bigger animal.
And here's the assumption, made of course by skeptoids and anti-Bigfooters, but many a Bigfoot hunter, that Sasquatch/Bigfoot is basically a "big, dumb ape" or some other animal; whatever, Bigfoot is nothing more than an oversized brainless bear, monkey, ape, ... put firmly in the category of less than us. Many humans don't even call themselves animals, and get insulted if you use the term animal inclusively. This is a world view of separation between us humans from other creatures, held by academics, scientists and the hoi polli alike. The arrogance and stubbornness inherent in that view insists we have souls, we have language, we have tools, we build things, we think about non-concrete things. That makes us different, and that makes us better. Of course none of that is true but it's still the assumption being passed off as fact.

Okay so I got off on a bit of a tangent. The point is, Bigfoot has eluded us because Bigfoot is highly intelligent and sensitive to its environment. And very possibly, paranormaly (for lack of a better term) so. That last idea is too fantastic for an uber-skeptic to consider, so I don't expect that. (It's also too wacky for many a flesh and blood Bigfoot researcher to accept.)

I know I make this comparison often, but there are many similarities to Bigfoot research and UFO research. And I don't mean, in this context, the subject of a UFO-Bigfoot connection. I mean the parallels to research methods, assumptions about the phenomena, and the rejection of the ... otherworldly. Paranormal, esoteric, supertnatual, not sure what word fits, but it's obvious in both areas there are those elements that transcend flesh and blood (Bigfoot) theories, and nuts and bolts (UFOs) theories.