Book: Where the Footprints End

My copy of Where the Footprints End; High Strangeness and the Bigfoot Phenomenon Volume 1 (Joshua Cutchin, Timothy Renner) arrived yesterday.

As you can see, I already very into it!

I am loving this book and am excited for Volume 2.

Among other things, the book is very well written, which I appreciate.

A bit of synchronicity: the introduction contains a report from 1973 about an orange orb and Bigfoot type encounter.  Interesting for many reasons one being, the orange orb is described as being very large and close to the witnesses, and, it occurred in 1973! It's unusual to find reports of large sized orange orbs from that time. My sighting in Oregon of a large orange orb was in the early 1980s.

Haven't finished the book yet but just had to give this book a plug. I really think that anyone serious about Bigfoot research -- honest research -- should read this book, as well as others, like Them Powell's books.

Thom Powell's Edges of Science

My copy of Thom Powell's Edges of Science arrived yesterday. I started reading right away and reluctantly put it down only because I had to get to sleep in order to be fresh and bright eyed for students the next day. So far, I 'm loving the book. Powell writes about interesting examples of dreams concerning Sasquatch from witnesses. More on that later.

The point is, Powell is of the "paranormal" school regarding Sasquatch, citing other researchers who also fall into this camp. The division is a strong one, bordering on down right vicious at times, but there are those who have experienced the "stranger side of Sasquatch" and aren't shy about sharing their theories.

Missing 411, The See-through Rock People, and Sasquatch. . .

(posted at my Orange Orb ufo blog)

I’m deeply intrigued with David Paulides work in his Missing 411 series. While I’ve read one of his books (so far, plan on reading them all) and follow his work on-line, I haven’t recently been giving any particular attention to any of the missing 411 cases, or the phenomena. So I am curious about this very vivid and slightly disturbing dream I had last night:

I live in a semi-rural area, on the edges of the suburbs. The location has a southern California feel to it, or southwest. Desert like, but not completely. Surrounding the dozen or so houses out here are soft, rolling hills, probably sandstone. Layers and layers among the hills, and large gray boulders.

manipulated sepia version

My friends and I go out for a small hike. We can see our house from where we are. We aren’t far, less than a half mile from the house.  I’m climbing up the side of a hill, my friends are maybe fifty feet away. 

Out of nowhere, I am grabbed by invisible hands. I sense their presence, I know that they are here, but I can’t see who -- or what -- they are. I get a glimpse of these things. They shimmer in and out, sort of like the Predator. These things look human like in some ways. They have two arms and legs like humans, etc. But they are about seven feet tall and muscle bound, like The Hulk. They grab me by the arms and feet and drag me up the hill. My friends are completely unaware of what’s going on. I scream with everything I have but they can’t hear me. 

I know, without a doubt, that this has something to do with what Paulides researches. I beg these beings, plead, cry, to let me go. I tell them I don’t want to end up dead and found in the middle of a lake or the top of a mountain.  I get the feeling that the more I beg and talk to them instead of giving up they might agree to keep me alive.  They tell me that they’ll me go when they’re ready.
A few days later, I find myself near the same spot where I was taken. Two men have brought me down here. They are also very tall, around seven or eight feet, but stocky. The men have long shiny black hair, like a Native person, but their features are not Native Amercian at all. They have flattened, pushed in faces. They are human, but more than that -- or, less than that. They are not quite all human, in other words. At the same time, I don’t get the sense they are ETs. I do get the sense some of this is related to Sasquatch, but how, I don’t know. It’s all very confusing and muddled. While I feel there is a Sasquatch aspect to this, the Sasquatch have nothing to do with any of this, not directly anyway, if at all. 

Another Southwest, Regan Lee
manipulated sepia version

 They communicate with me telepathically; that I am never to tell anyone anything about any of this. While I have no memory of what happened while I was missing, I do remember being taken by the weird near invisible beings, and these guys. They tell me over and over that they are now in my head, at all times, and will know if I’m even thinking of telling someone. If I say anything, they tell me, not only will I be killed, but many in my family.

I go back to the house, naturally everyone is happy to see me and are full of questions. I just keep saying over and over that I don’t remember anything. I tell everyone I must have fallen and that caused amnesia of some kind. 

I wake up, feeling very strange. Then I hear a loud clattering, scrambling sound that goes on for about five seconds. Things falling, like dishes or pots, among other things. My first thought is the cat tried to climb on the bookshelves beneath the window where I have some plants. The cats start meowing and running around, wanting to go out. At five-thirty in the morning! Unusual for them.  I get up to check, I don’t see anything out of place. I check the whole house -- nothing. I look out the window in our bedroom, thinking maybe an animal knocked over plants and rocks by the little garden pond, but nothing is out of place. All very strange.

As I’m in bed, thinking about all this strangeness, I get a sense this dream, the clattering, the cat’s odd behavior, has something to with my visit yesterday with friends who have had several UFO experiences, as well as paranormal experiences in general. Lately we’ve been involved in doing exercises to activate psychic skills. Energy play, “sending and receiving” imagery, oracle and tarot work, etc. And, of course, intense discussions about our experiences, including questions about those experiences. One more thing: I mention large gray rocks in the dream. A week or so ago, I was "receiving" from one of the people in our discussion group. One of the images that came to me was a gray boulder, about twelve feet tall, in a desert like spot. The rest of the area was semi-rural with green and trees, but the rock was off by itself in barren land.

I think it's one thing to talk about these experiences, but the questioning, as well as the agreement to participate in actively finding out, seems to have triggered something.

Note: Here the originals of the images shown above:

Another Southwest, Regan Lee

(cross posted, with minor alterations at UFOMystic.)

After listening to another intriguing and spooky interview with David Paulides (Coast to Coast, George Knapp host) last night, I found myself rethinking not only Dr. Ketchum, but Bigfoot as well.

For awhile I was excited about what Dr. Melba Ketchum would find. So was last night's C2C host George Knapp, who interviewed Dr. Melba Ketchum some time ago. Lots of games, it seemed, lots of attacks, lots of the to be expected nonsense in the world of Bigfoot.  (UFO World doesn't fare any better in this context.) Then I was disappointed and jaded. Then I just didn't care. 

But if David Paulides's explanation on the entire Ketchum journey was accurate -- no journal would review her findings, etc. -- and if the evidence is truly what it says it is, then there's still hope. And bafflement, for it seems everyone just walked away from this. Of course, I haven't read the report, and Paulides pointed out that many who criticized Ketchum and the findings haven't actually read the thing. I can't comment much more than these idle musings of mine because I am not a scientist, and I haven't read the report; just the reports of reports. It is also too bad Ketchum seems to have behaved badly at times. Maybe this was due to simply being overwhelmed by her lone seeker status out there in Bigfoot Land. Lots of naivety, at best, and silly sloppy missteps seemed to have happened, adding to a carnival-like,  here we go again feeling in Bigfoot Land.  But all that can be ignored if the evidence is what it's supposed to be: Bigfoot is not a giant ape, but something completely different. That's huge of course and huger still: Bigfoot is both its own mysterious self, as well as part of us. Yet after a few people acknowledged this finding, people went missing. Some were offended, some laughed, but we haven't seen any paradigm shifting news stories break on CNN. 

Meanwhile, David Paulides continues his research into the strange stories of missing humans in parks and forests. Many of these missing are children. He alludes to the possibility;  Bigfoot, or a Bigfoot like creature, as being responsible for these disappearances. The few children who have been found alive after going missing for a few days have strange tales to tell of "ape men" and other high strangeness. In last night's interview on C2C, Paulides referred to Native Americans and their tales of Bigfoot -- as being human -- and their on-going relationships with this being. Yet, with some exceptions, most, including BF researchers, ignore this fact.

What's strange about the missing humans is that they disappear abruptly, often in daylight, often while in the near proximity of others. While logic says these missing people would be found downhill, or near water, they are often found (if found at all) quite a distance aways, and uphill, over extremely rough terrain difficult to cover. Very weird for adults, and much stranger still in the case of little children. Stories of "ape men," and other inexpiable events add to this mystery. Adding fuel to conspiratorial speculation (which doesn't mean it's invalid) is the presence of military in some of these cases, who act covertly and separate from parks authorities and local law enforcement agencies while ostensibly searching for the missing.

IF Bigfoot is responsible for these disappearances, that's cause for a shift in beliefs about we think Bigfoot is. Many of these stories contain really weird "high strangeness" elements that have always annoyed many a Bigfoot researcher. UFOs? Aliens? Underground beings -- reptilians? Of the latter, Paulides said he's received a few detailed emails about that subject, but he is unfamiliar with that realm and doesn't want to go there. He referenced John Mack and his work concerning abductions -- will we hear of a Bigfoot/UFO theory from Paulides in the future?

There's enough strangeness, and enough references to a Bigfoot creature, in Paulides missing persons work, to consider that Bigfoot is more than "just" a big ape, or strictly a flesh and blood creature. It's possible this BF being is a variation of Bigfoot, another type, related or something else altogether; something that looks like an "ape man" but clearly has abilities transcending ours at the moment.

Monster of Boggy Creak Tarot/Oracle Card

My brother-in-law, now deceased, designed his own Tarot/oracle deck in 1979. He called it The White Goddess deck. He was an astrologer, and as you can see, incorporated astrology into his deck. He didn't do the drawings himself -- those were done by an artist he knew at that time, Ida Foreman.

White Goddess oracle deck, Michael Bear, creator, artist Ida Foreman

I hadn't looked at this deck for several years. I had forgotten that Michael used a number of cryptid, creature type images in his deck. I don't remember Michael Bear being particularly interested or knowledgeable about the topic, especially Bigfoot stories. Here's The Monster of Boggy Creak, and yes, he spelt it creak, not creek. I don't know if the misspelling was intentional, but he was a notoriously awful speller, so who knows.

I noticed in the booklet that came with the deck that there is a Bigfoot card listed, but it isn't in the deck. Maybe it got lost, or it could be it just never made it. I don't remember seeing the card, but again, I don't remember much about the deck overall. Here's how the card is described:

Conscious awareness of, not only, your own beliefs, but those of others.
Reversed: Having to be aware, consciously, of the universal subconscious.

The card is given the number 9, "relating to Neptune, the subconscious, daydreams and nightmares, drugs, alochol, habitations of all kinds." (The missing Bigfoot card is also given the number 9) and placed in the suite of spades. He has astrologically assigned "moon square retrograde Neptune" to the card.

 An interesting piece of family history. As to the aesthetics of the deck or its usefulness -- I've never used it and doubt very much I ever will. I'm too involved in family history, including some of what went on in creating the deck.

"Psychic Sasquatch" ; Inter-Dimensional Vortex League, with Andy Colvin

I really like this. Music and video by Inter-Dimensional Vortex League, with Mothman Photographer's author and researcher Andy Colvin.

Pools and Bigfoot

I had another Bigfoot dream this morning. I just realized that I've had several dreams about Bigfoot and water. (I searched for one "dream" I could have sworn I had posted here some time ago, but I can't find it. That dream involved an OOBE and an unexpected run in with a Sasquatch on the beach.) I also realized, after writing this, that once again, concrete is involved. What the symbolism means I have no idea yet.

I'm on the Oregon coast, I think we just moved there. My husband is with me. It's very  hot. There's only one public outdoor swimming pool in the whole area. It's huge, the size of four or five regular sized pools. So many people want to use the pool when it's hot that there's a lottery. Thousands of people are here, waiting to use the pool. The pool is outdoors, lots of concrete and in fact, the pool is surrounded by parking structures (not something you'd see on the Oregon coast) that are three, four stories high. I'm excited to hear I'm one of the winners. I have to quickly change into my bathing suit and jump in. But the bathrooms are a ways away and I don't want to waste all this precious time going all the way to the bathroom to change. But I can't change out in the open either. I notice a couple of people who are used to this duck under one of the parking structure pillars or posts to change. I call up to my husband, who's standing in one of the parking structure levels that surround the pool (lots of people hanging out on  the levels) to toss my suit down to me. He does, and I run into the parking structure closet to me, and change behind a pole. I'm a little nervous about this -- I certainly don't want to be seen! But it seems to be all right. I worry a little bit about my clothes but oh well. I jump in, oh, feels so good! 
We all have a good time. Later, it occurs to us and some friends, as we're talking about the day, the coast, the future of the area, etc. that what this town needs is an indoor, year round pool. Why hasn't anyone thought of this?! A few days later, my husband and I are walking around the town, and notice a huge sign that reads "Newport Pool" or something like that. We go inside, and find a man has just opened up the first indoor year round pool in the area. Fantastic! He's really done it right too: a small pool just for kids, a lap pool, an exercise pool, and three pools for recreational swims. I notice this man -- who seems to be in his sixties, gray haired, glasses, nice enough looking man and pleasant -- is wearing a black fleece vest with an emblem on it that has the initials of a Bigfoot research group -- an Oregon one, that investigates Sasquatch on the coast. I feel a thrill but don't say anything. The man says to us, sort of randomly, after explaining the pool hours and rules, "Bigfoot is around here, he's here in the woods." And I say "Oh, I know!" He says "My dog smells them all the time, and they know we know they're here." He asks us if we want to see his film of Bigfoot. Of course we do! We follow him upstairs to his room. It's very dim in there and he starts the camera rolling. An old camera with reels and film, and a screen he pulls down hanging on his wall. He tells us he hasn't seen Bigfoot but has "felt, heard, and smelled him," many times, and is sure he's caught fleeting images of movement on the film that can only be Bigfoot. He describes the chuffing kind of sound he's heard many times, so close, that can be no other kind of animal. Only Bigfoot. He's in telepathic communication with Sasquatch, this is clear and yet, he doesn't really come out and say this. We all know this but it's unsaid. It's too "crazy" to come out and say so, but it's understood.


We watch the film, it's in murky color but the images are clear, and sure enough, we see movement behind the trees. It can only be Bigfoot. Of that we're sure.

Then, damnit, the alarm went off!

Related posts:
Bigfoot Dream
Bigfoot in Australia -- Kind of
Weird Little Dream About Aliens and Bigfoot
Jovial Guy in a Bigfoot Suit

---

Bigfoot: Valley of the Skookum, a Review by Ray Crowe 2011...

Ray Crowe reviews Sali Sheppard-Wolford's Bigfoot: Valley of the Skookum. Nice review!

Bigfoot Rag

You can read a bit of Bigfoot fun at my Bigfoot newsletter on Scribd.

Updated: Phantoms and Monsters: Paranormal, UFOs, Cryptids and Unexplained Phenomena

I've updated this: below is what I posted yesterday, just throwing up a link, and not commenting, mainly because I was tired and also, I am fed up with the anti-Autumn Williams cabal:

Updates on rants against Autumn William's book Enoch on the BFRO:

Phantoms and Monsters: Paranormal, UFOs, Cryptids and Unexplained Phenomena

Update:
Here's the link to what Autumn has to say, along with several comments left by others at her blog Oregon Bigfoot.com: Apology to all the Mikes.
 
Why is this pack at the BFRO going at it once more at this time, almost a year after Autumn's book Enoch was published? I wonder if some of this doesn't have to do with the 2nd OSS (Oregon Sasquatch Symposium) coming up in June -- are they fanning embers?

Autumn can take care of herself, and she does so in her post. Still, this latest round from those at the BFRO is another example of the ugly nonsense that goes on in Bigfoot research. (The parallels to UFO research and other esoteric and Fortean realms applies.)

Someone calling him/her self "navigator" -- and the fact this person uses a screen name and not their real name is noted --  posted on the BFRO:

The fellow who told Autumn Williams (by phone) the stories that she eventually published in a book titled “Enoch,” is actually a yarn-spinning homeless person in central Florida who our investigators had encountered in 2006 in Polk County, FL.

2006. Autumn's book came out in 2010. And, as Williams points out, it's probably a correct assumption to say there is more than one person named Mike in Florida. And where is "navigator's"  documentation on his allegations?

Another poster: "JRawk12" comments on both Autumn's book and her mother's -- Sali Sheppard Wolford -- book Valley of the Skookum, which came out in 2006:

Is this really a big surprise in the first place? Usually the math doesn't add up for a reason...Good story, but it was painfully obvious that it was a fictional story from jump street. Same thing with her moms book. They're both good storytellers though! (Weird how defensive everyone was when people called B.S on her story back when it came out)

Personal opinion is personal opinion; we're all entitled and you think what you think. It's opinion Valley of the Skookum is "fictional," not fact. (Yes, the same can be said of my opinion . . .)

What irks me however is that, instead of looking at Valley of the Skookum, as well as Autumn's book, from a Fortean, open minded perspective, there seems to be a deliberate campaign against Williams (and Woolford) as well as debunking a particular aspect of Bigfoot research. That is, anything that presents itself outside of the flesh and blood box is considered suspect.

The former is ugly pettiness, sad but typical in Bigfoot, UFO, etc. circles. The latter is harmful for what it says about Bigfoot research. As with UFO research, the number of narratives in Bigfoot encounters that include high strangeness elements is huge. Yet many researchers continue to ignore these events and dismiss them with a virulence that is pathological at times.

What is ignored are the common threads of experience in high strangeness Bigfoot encounters. Whatever the causes for the similarities, they are... what about them? How to explain them? A glib response that witnesses are "whacked," or "lairs" simply isn't honest research.

I'm not suggesting Enoch and Valley of the Skookum are along the same lines -- they're not. Enoch is not "high strangess," (although, not doubt there are some out there who might say the relationship Mike describes is just that) and Williams writes about the roles of witness and researcher; an extremely important point that is too often missed by some.

For more, see my post for Oregon L.O.W.F.I.: Thoughts on Autumn Williams' Enoch.

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.

On UFOs, et al: Stan Johnson Encounters a Sasquatch

From the UFOs, et al blog: Stan Johnson Encounters A Sasquatch.

I've been following Stan's story for many years, --he is deceased, but his story lives on. Johnson was a Sutherlin, Oregon resident who many experiences with Sasquatch of the high strangeness kind.

I met Stan once at a UFO conference in Eugene. Very charismatic man. I also had my own odd moment of high strangeness involving Stan regarding Sasquatch which I've discussed on-line many times. You can hear my description of this here; where Mike Clelland at thehidden experienceblog, interviewed me for his podcast.

Also a bit of synchronicity; just last night I was working on my manuscript of a similar case in Oregon, frustrated, once again, that I can't seem to get it done. Then I realized: it's because I haven't committed to what I think about "paranormal Bigfoot," -- I haven't gotten off the fence, and just say it. So I did, in the introduction, which caused everything else to fall into place. My next project concerns Johnson, and here I wake up to find this item on Johnson on UFOs, et al blog. Small synchronicitous Sasquatch world!

conversation with Regan Lee

Mike Clelland of hidden experience posted the audio interview from awhile back, thanks mike!  Edited to add: in that interview, I talk about a strange experience I had involving a cone of light while discussing Bigfoot and Stan Johnson. Johnson was a so-called "Bigfoot contactee" though I dislike that term, who lived in Sutherlin, Oregon. Johnson had many encounters with a Sasquatch family and UFOs.
conversation with Regan Lee

Lisa Shiel: The Bigfoot-UFO Connection: A Hypothesis

Researcher, author Lisa Shiel on the Bigfoot-UFO issue on her site Backyard Phenomena. There is also Parts II and III.

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

Following Bigfoot Ballyhoo

Linda Newton Perry's Bigfoot Ballyhoo is a blog I've posted about here recently; I also had turned on the "follow" feature to her blog. I say "followed" because she's removed me from the follow option.

Newton-Perry is a Christian and has said her religious views don't allow her to condone the paranormal. Because I have a Bigfoot blog that focuses on the high strangeness aspects of Bigfoot research, linking to my blog or supporting it, even by mentioning it I guess, conflicts with her personal beliefs.

A few days ago, Newton-Perry responded to the e-mail I had sent her by reposting it her blog:

Thank you for the good words....Regan, I , however, can not list paranormal sites. My Christian beliefs prevent me from delving into that subject. I do not believe Bigfoot is in anyway paranormal. I believe he is flesh and blood and placed in the animal kingdom for a purpose. I respect your right to believe as you wish and I ask that you respect mine. Thank you for participating on this blog and I look forward to hearing more from you.

Seems she’s changed her mind about looking “forward” to “hearing more from” me.

This is a sensitive subject for researchers. If you put yourself out there as a researcher, you have an obligation to be honest to the data. As I asked in my previous post: if your religious views conflict with data, where does your responsibility end? If you reject, hide, or ignore data you don't like because it conflicts with your views, are you an honest researcher? I don't know, I'm asking. I asked that question in a spirit of discussion. I had asked in my previous post, what would Linda Newton-Perry do with, say, the recent BF report from the Oregon teacher who had a recent Bigfoot sighting on the Oregon coast if that teacher had included some weird detail like, BF dematerializing in front of her? Or a UFO appeared next to it? Or any other of the high strangeness things that have been reported by some Bigfoot witnesses?


Newton-Perry didn't answer, either directly to me, or on her blog. She preferred to ignore the question and remove me from the follow feature. Certainly her right to do so; but I wonder where that leaves the Bigfoot reports that are coming her way? What if, as I asked previously, one of those reports she’s posted on her blog contained "weird" data? Would Newton-Perry lie about it? Hide it? I think these are legitimate questions.

Since Newton-Perry writes for two newspapers about Bigfoot, has a Bigfoot blog, and has published books about Bigfoot, these questions are valid and assuming her participation in this discussion is sensible.

Newton-Perry said her beliefs don't allow for paranormal Bigfoot beliefs but as I pointed out, not all Christians share that opinion. For example Stan Johnson (deceased) was a Christian who had many so-called paranormal encounters with Bigfoot including telepathic communications and rides on space ships.

Like the UFO subject (sans Bigfoot) religious beliefs come into things, and there’s a variety of beliefs and opinions within any particular religion. I know Christians who believe UFOs and related entities are demonic, and don’t want to have anything to do with the topic. I also know Christians who don’t believe that at all. And everything in between.

On the one hand, if Newton-Perry believes, as she says, Bigfoot is strictly flesh and blood, and not paranormal, that’s fine. Many BF researchers, as we know, believe that, regardless of their religious beliefs. But again, the question is, what would a researcher do -- Christian or not -- with a ‘weird” BF report that came their way?


This post of mine isn't to pick a fight or become one of those self appointed gurus of UFO or Bigfoot research. Not me! This field, like the UFO field, has its share of the pompous, arrogant, and self-important. This field is also full of just plain mean people who have no problem openly insulting others. This isn’t about insulting anyone, making fun of anyone’s religion, or picking fights. It’s about sincerely asking questions concerning research. If you can’t participate in that then should your work be taken seriously?

To be fair, we all have our buffers and lines we won't cross. Concerning Bigfoot, I haven't found mine yet. (UFOs and related subjects, maybe, but that's another blog and another post entirely.)

I wish all researchers the best, except, those that promote a kill policy. I just can’t get past that, and well, that’s the way it is.

But as always, the question that’s been asked many times by many a Bigfoot researcher, what to do with those high strangeness reports? Not a new question, but one that won’t go away.

Was Flix a Hoax?

A visitor to my Oregon blog on the L.O.W.F.I. site left the following comment concerning my post on Flix, the creature in Conser Lake, Oregon:

Just browsing that bit from the book and noticed a number of errors, among them “Devers-Conner, about 30 miles south of Millersburg”. The name of the area is Dever-Conner and Conser Lake is only about 5 miles NW down the Willamette River from Millersburg.

…I don’t want to kill the buzz, but I can say I’m an Albany native and my family’s been here for a few generations now. My great aunt and uncle have both told me that the Westby boys were “trouble makers” and recalls them bragging about having fooled a number of people who provided original accounts of Flix. This is non-existant. Nobody in the area knows or cares about the legend. Reports of the creature fall within a relatively short period and have not occurred since, which could relate to the relocating of locals, their involvement, and their word of mouth in the hostel-size community.

Flix was cool to believe in when we were kids and growing up a few miles as a crow flies from Conser Lake (and a few blocks from the Conser family), but the legend is truly garbage. I wouldn’t promote it any further or set any store in what you read concerning it. Fooled!

I have several emails and letters from people who lived in the area at the time of Flix's visit. Two people are adamant that it was a hoax, but offer no proof, not even evidence, only their opinion. Others have had their own Bigfoot sightings (of a non-Flix and more mundane nature) or share their memories of the event as an exciting and weird mystery.

However, as I replied to Spencer, the person who left the following comment,on one level, with stories like this it's not important if the story is "true," a statement that might be misunderstood. I'll try to explain myself further at some other time but I'm taking a break from getting ready for work this morning. I couldn't resist posting this for now however. So this is what I replied to Spencer, and if the Flix story was a hoax by the Westby brothers, I sure would love to hear more about that! As I mentioned to Spencer and I've mentioned elsewhere, if Flix was just some teens in a big heavy hairy suit, they were more than stupid for risking their lives since people were coming in from all over to shoot at the "monster."

Spencer: thanks. The quotes are as if from other sources…

As to the story itself: for a Fortean, it’s moot if there literally was a Flix or not in Millersburg. There are so many weird little elements and synchronicities, behaviors, responses and events that echo the story of Flix that’s part of the intrigue of the story.

You’re correct that “Reports of the creature fall within a relatively short period and have not occurred since,” which often happens with stories like this. A strange creature pops up, hangs around for a while, then leaves. It entirely possible Flix was a hoax by the “troublemakers” — although, why they would risk their lives by getting shot at is a question.

I’ve heard from several people who lived in the area at the time and they are still, after all these years, interested, so I wouldn’t say “nobody cares” but no doubt many are convinced it’s all a hoax and have moved on.

Either way, the story, as a story and part of the Bigfoot/Big Hairy Monster lore, remains.

On Blogsquatcher: All in our minds?

The Blogsquatcher has an interesting post: Giving the "It's all in yer mind" theory some ammo You know how uber skeptics like to say, in complete seriousness, that Bigfoot is simply all in our minds? Blogsquatcher thinks it's ridiculous too, but he takes this idea in a different direction, even while acknowledging he isn't exactly in agreement with it. He is however, willing to explore the idea and put it out there, which I appreciate;too many BF as well as UFO writers don't like to stray too far from their comfort zones.

Blogsquatcher discusses Jung, archtypes; quotes from a Daily Grail review of Benny Shannon's The Anitpodes of the Mind and asks some intriguing questions,and asks if we might share a knowing of "half man half animal" even within our minds. The use of consciousness shifting drugs takes explorers, or psychonauts into these realms, but more specifically, shared imagery regardless of culture.

If Bigfoot is a paranormal creature and not just a big hairy ape, maybe a fairy or damion, as Patrick Harpur (Damonic Reality) or Lisa Shiel (Backyard Bigfoot) suggest, it's possible we can access a place where Bigfoot resides; a place where our minds are able to travel to, aided by substances such as ayahuasca.

I'm not sure what to think of this either, but it is very interesting, and, like the subject of UFOs and encounters with that phenomena while having ingested psychotropic drugs, it isn't all just a case of simple hallucinations and general tripping. Work done by Hancock, McKenna, Lily, Lear, Pinchbeck, tell us that it isn't that simplistic.

Related items:

Feeling a Lack of Control? Bigfoot Can Help

Fairies, Bigfoot, and Hauntings

Read about the McMinnville UFO gossip and more!

Kewaunee Lapseritis on UFONAUT Podcast

Kewaunee Lapseritis, B.A., M.S., MH will be the guest on Jesse Randolph's UFONAUT Radio podcast to discuss psychic Bigfoot. Airs Sunday night at 7:00 pm PST.

Nahu's Psychic Bigfoot Experience and Words About Beckjord

Nahu is author of UFOS: GOD FROM INNER SPACE. Here's Nahu's recent comment he left me on Facebook about an experience he had with Bigfoot and researcher Eric Beckjord (deceased.)

Have you ever heard of Eric Beckjord? He is or was the director of a group who investigated Sasquatch and other anomalous phenomena. I talked with him on the phone once and got into a semi-argument about my contention that I could find a Bigfoot using my psychic abilities. This was back in 1982. He challenged me to meet him at a coffee house in Seattle and sit down, have coffee and talk about it. I was surprised when I saw him--he is a huge Swede, blond bigfoot. Anyway to make a long story short I picked a spot intuitively out in the Weyerhaser forests near Sasquatch Park B.C. We stayed a couple days and decided to give it up due to excessive rain. The upshot of this story is that I got a phone call from Beckjord about a week or so later and a group that monitors Bigfoot activity and reports in Washington reported that someone reported spotting a bigfoot right in the area where I took him to explore . I always felt an empathic aura with this much maligned being.

I told Nahu that Erik and I had corresponded a few times; Eric liked the fact I took the paranormal Bigfoot idea seriously, but he argued with me on the particulars. One time he refused to join a Yahoo group I had going at the time -- I think it was called Maverick Bigfoot Research or something -- because we didn't go far enough!

As most Bigfoot and cryptid/o researchers know, Eric had quite the reputation for being argumentative. But I had no negative interactions with him, even when he'd shoot off an email to me that I was "wrong" -- he never attacked me in public or spread lies. Though I realize he did so in regards to others. Like many other Fortean researchers, whether they're writing about UFOs, Bigfoot, ghosts, . . . Beckjord was a "troublemaker" and his theories, as well as his style, were not presented in the best way. And yet there is a there there. With so much of this stuff it's easy to throw that messy baby out with the bathwater.

Nahu commented further:

He seemed like such a huge bear of a man. Aries, as I recall, like to challenge. We had a number of outright disagreements. But once out in the woods, he seemed like he was in his element. What his problem was with me, he resented the idea that I had the arrogance to think I could attract a bigfoot the first time out when he had been out on expeditions looking for him for five years and hadn't seem more than a glimpse of him. His interest in me was primarily a challenge and only secondarily curiosity, I think. At that time, I presented my theory to him my that Bigfoot was an intrad-dimensional being recurring at certain cyclic points from the collective unconscious, so to speak, in attunement to an individual's vibration. Like the white buffalo story. Native Americans looked upon bigfoot as a medicine--I agree--he definitely had the ability to scare the sickness right out of someone, almost like the bogey man in caucasian mythology.

Checking back on my Facebook page, I find Nahu has added more:
O

h, by the way, I believe the year was 1981 during the winter season. I had a couple distinct times I felt I was quite close to contacting this intra-dimensional being, once while in the woods of Sasquatch Park while camping, and another time in a wooded area near Escondido, California. While living in Oakridge, Oregon when is pretty primitve, heavily wooded and quite near an area as I recall named Blue Springs, where Sasquatch was often seen I felt his presence also. I never felt any negative energy, just calm, as though I was close to a very ancient, spiritual fount. I could sense elements of my own subconscious fears holding a face-to-face off from happening. Although to be honest, I was never really afraid of this being.

On another note,I did feel some extremely strange vibrations while out in the West Virginia hills near where the Silver Bridge collapsed that gave me the willies, though.

On to Nahu. Nahu also lives in Eugene, Oregon (so does Bigfoot researcher Autumn Williams, whose mother, Sali Shepherd-Wolford wrote about her experiences with "paranormal Bigfoot" in Valley of the Skookum) and is a healer, psychic and author.I interviewed him a couple of years ago for UFO Magazine, focusing on his book UFOS: GOD FROM INNER SPACE.

Nahu has a blog NAHU'S HOLOVERSE where you discover how to develop your focused intent using the Holoversal Method. (Now, it is New Age stuff, but so what. . . I've been exploring the idea of, and the use of, what Nahu and others call "focused intent" since this past summer, and it works. Whatever labels we use, whatever context we put this into, I will say this, that intent is powerful.) Much to explore on his blog, including the varied services Nahu offers, including on-line, and contact info.

Here's an example of Nahu at work; he very kindly took a look at an experience/"dream" I had several months ago that I wrote about on-line. You can read about it here.

I'll be posting an article here soon that Nahu wrote about his experiences and thoughts on Bigfoot. (And there's talk of my joining others along with Nahu on a search for Bigfoot in the spring.)