Something About the Blood; A Dream About Chupacabra

I had a great dream the other night, where all kinds of UFO, esoteric and cryptid researchers were gathered at a massive, world wide round table mega media event. Mainstream media had picked this up; CNN, etc. The marathon interview was organized by Nancy and Bill Birnes of UFO Magazine, and Amy from Paranormal Women's League. It took a long time to get this thing organized, but finally, the moment arrived. People like Greg Bishop, Nick Redfern Lesley Gunter (The Debris Field) , Alfred Lehmberg and dozens of others. In the dream I am so happy to finally meet these people in person; we had a great time being together.

So we get down to the interview/discussion. All ears in America, lol, and beyond, have tuned in. Prime time. Coast to Coast has nothing on us! This is huge. The interviewer is someone not particularly knowledgeable about this stuff, which is both good and bad; but it works out all right.

The interviewer asks me about my thoughts on the two versions of chupacabra, as I commented recently in this post. As I'm talking, in the dream, it turns out I've been to Puerto Rico and did some research. (I wish that were true! However, in real life, strictly an "arm chair" commentator at this point.)

Then, as I'm describing the deep puncture wounds the creature has been known to leave behind, and the complete lack of blood within, and around, the victim, I have the distinct and powerful awareness that the clue to this mystery is in the blood. Something about the way the blood is drained, and the blood itself; the need for the blood, and what is done with the blood, -- the reasons why the creature needs the blood -- the answer is there. And I'm given the answer, or at least solid clues leading to the solution.

This revelation is so important in the dream that I have a lucid moment: I tell myself I have to remember this when I wake up and make sure I write it down.

Then of course, I wake up, and forget what the answer was!

A Ghost Ape-Man in an Irish Castle

 A very cool article on the Phantom Ape-Man at Cryptozoology Online.

". . . one of my favourite ghoulish tales comes via Rev. Archdeacon St. John D. Seymour, and concerns a bizarre entity once said to have haunted an Irish castle. Certainly, a handful of reports of phantom ape-men and spectral monkeys litter world folklore, and in the UK a scant few exist."

This ghost/monster apparition was described as having a human head, yet "rest of the form belonged to a huge ape." !

Thanks to Nick Redfern at Man Beast UK for the link.

Visit my blog Regan Lee Oregon

Nick Redfern Responds: Burn, Nick, Burn!

Recently Nick Redfern shared his thoughts about paranormal Bigfoot; specifically, about a case from 1985 involving a Ouija board and the subsequent apparition of a Bigfoot like creature in his article A Paranormal Bigfoot. In Bigfoot Fundamentalists: Burn Nick Burn! Redfern writes on the Mania.com site about the comments he received about that article. Redfern received more e-mails than usual in response to that article, some o which bordered, as he writes, on the psychotic:

But what angers me more than anything else, are those who champion the “Bigfoot is just a giant ape” scenario with a definitively rabid (and, at time, vaguely threatening) zeal of a type that would make any, and all, religious fundamentalists (whether from the Deep South or the Middle East) glowingly proud.

But, what interests me most of all is the rabid (and, indeed, almost psychotic) approach that such commentators occasionally display in their e-mails.

It’s not that one may disagree about the nature of Bigfoot; debate is a given, disagreement on what BF is, or is not, is to be expected. But it’s the shrill, over the top, fanatical and downright hateful reaction to the idea that some consider Bigfoot a paranormal creature.

As Nick asks:

So what if I proclaim that Bigfoot may be paranormal? So what if I don’t accept the notion that Bigfoot is just an ape of unknown origins and/or type?

Should that result in vitriolic e-mails to me from a variety of Bigfoot researchers displaying a self-righteous zeal that any stance beyond that of “Bigfoot is an ape,” is somehow dangerous and wrong?

The same can be said of many UFO researchers who have similar reactions when it comes to different theories. And these often nasty responses come from within; we expect them from the uber-skeptic fundie-debunker faux-skeptic crowd, but from fellow explorers of the Fortean realms?

I’ll end with what Nick says about BF being paranormal, or, not:

And here’s the thing I find most baffling of all: why should it even matter if Bigfoot is flesh-and-blood or paranormal? The answer is: it shouldn’t. Only the facts and a determination to get to the truth – whatever that may be - should ultimately matter. But, it does apparently matter – to some, at least.

Exactly. IF the truth is the goal, then we go where the data takes us. And a lot of that data, like it or not, includes encounters that clearly go beyond the “flesh and blood big ape” idea.

Navajo Skinwalkers and Legends

Nick Redfern comments on Navajo Skinwalkers and Legends about the high strangeness in the four corners area: Arizona, Colorado, Utah, and New Mexico. This sounds like a fascinating documentary and I can't wait to get my copy.

Another author that writes about one of the four corners is Chris O'Brien, who writes the "Mysterious Valley" series, about the UFO, high strangeness, cattle mutilations and other Fortean events in Colorado. And for something about Utah, there's Hunt for the Skinwalker, of course, but also The Utah UFO display: A biologist's report by Frank Salisbury.

Crypto Squad USA

Nick Redfern has a new blog; this one is called Crypto Squad USA and is pretty neat; with bloggers and crypto researchers from all over sharing their thoughts and research.

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Read about the McMinnville UFO gossip and more!

Nick Redfern Interviewed on Blogsquatcher

A very good interview on "paranormal bigfoot" with Nick Redfern on the Blogsquatcher blog. This is part 1, look out for part 2!

Nick Redfern and C2C

I managed to stay awake for last night's Coast To Coast, with Nick Redfern. Very entertaining all around. One thing that was a surprise to me was the werewolf topic; that was highly interesting! And for some reason, really gave spooked me; something about his tale of the shape shifting type being (human?) and wolf type carved skulls. . . not pleasant. As Redfern said, most crypto stuff isn't creepy, scary and downright threatening, but his is. Anyway, good episode!

The Daily Grail Interviews Nick Redfern

New interview with Nick Redfern at The Daily Grail.

Not only does he have a new book out; There's Something in the Woods, but this is what he says about his new book on UFOs, due out next year:

I’m doing at least one more UFO book – a very controversial one due to be published next year that may actually unsettle a lot of people –

What, Body Snatchers wasn't controversial enough? Looking forward to that one!

Footage of The Michigan Dogman?: The Gable Film

Playing blog-link tag, I found the following site very interesting. First saw it mentioned on Lesley’s Debris Field, who pointed the way to Nick Redfern’s
There’s Something in The Woods, where Nick talks briefly about the Gable film (not Clark Gable, something else entirely) which leads us here, the Michigan Dogman Encounters.

Redfern on Shrinking Sherwood and Spectral Sasquatch

Nick Redfern has an item on his “There’s Something in the Woods. . .” on the sad news of the shrinking Sherwood Forest -- and the “Spectral Sasquatch." Appears that people have been seeing large, hairy man like creatures for a long time over there . . .

http://monsterusa.blogspot.com/2007/11/shrinking-sherwood-and-spectral.html

Review of Redfern's Man-Monkey!

Monster! The A-Zooform Phenomena blog (title of blog author’s book)

reviews Nick Redfern’s Man-Monkey. This is a book I have to get for two reasons: one, it’s by Redfern, so that’s the only reason I need, and two, it’s about Man Monkey! A strange “bigfoot” like creature with glowing eyes that haunts the UK. It’s one of those regional crypto tales that I find so intriguing and delicious.

"Another Synchronicity for Bigfoot and UFOs"

Lisa Shiel's Bigfoot Quest blog has:"http://bigfootquest.blogspot.com/2007/08/another-synchronicity-for-bigfoot-and.html">Another Synchronicity for Bigfoot and UFOs

Stick to Basics

Brian Gaugler has an article on UFO Digest: Bigfoot Research Shoiuld Stick to Basics.

Gaugler begins by agreeing with UFO and Fortean writer Nick Redfern that we shouldn't toss out data that seem at odds with our comfort zones. All those “cross over cases” are part of the data. He also says that a paranormal explanation isn’t the answer either; that we can’t give up on the idea that Bigfoot is a flesh and blood creature. And, of course, cryptozoology is a science. No room for orbs, UFOs and telepathy there.

While ultimately I disagree with Gaugler on his views regarding "paranormal" Bigfoot, he does make good points. For example, he writes that:

the number of cases in Bigfoot appears to be nothing more than a flesh and blood species completely outweigh the ones with a more paranormal bent. All of the major Bigfoot cases that are commonly cited in the literature, such as the Albert Ostman case and the Ape Canyon siege, both from 1924, contain no traces of any paranormal elements, but instead portray the Bigfoot as behaving more like regular animals. In addition, many of the paranormal Bigfoot cases don't hold up well to scrutiny, failing to provide any empirical evidence and appearing to be more likely hoaxes or just simple coincidences or misidentifications.

In cases where Bigfoot behaves more “animal” than supernatural, this is a good point. It’s also possible what we know of Bigfoot are two or more different types of creatures. And, or, that Bigfoot shifts between two worlds; flesh and blood, "paranormal."

I do question his assertion that the paranormal cases “don’t hold up to scrutiny” -- really, what paranormal event does? And I wouldn’t go so far as to say that those cases are hoaxes, “simple coincidences or misidentifications.”

There's just too much of that weird data out there concerning Bigfoot to warrant including it in our approach.