UPS Man Brought Me . . .

The Life and Times of a Legend: Bigfoot, by Joshua Blu Buhs. I'm looking forward to reading this one, I've only just skimmed it but looks good, and seems to be from a folklore-sociological perspective than either "belief" or outright debunkery, but we'll see.

1993 Pizza Hut Commercial

"The Beast . . . " : Cheap Thrills on Monster Quest

I enjoy watching Monster Quest, but two things disturb me about the show: the exploitative nature of the program, and the caviler attitude towards animals by producers and many of the guests. Sometimes watching the program I get the feeling I'm at a cheesy carnival or a scene from Freaks, being urged to come inside and see the gruesome chicken woman.

I'm surprised at the lack of compassion and respect towards animals often shown by Monster Quest producers, and by extension, many of the "researchers" who appear on the program.This was very clear in the Hogzilla episode, also the feral dog episode. The other night Monster Quest aired "Killer Chimps" -- another episode that seemed more focused on delighting in horrific attacks on humans by chimps kept as "pets," rather than the insanity and utter idiocy of keeping chimpas as pets in the first place. I realize it's clearly stated that keeping chimps as pets - or any wild, "exotic" animal -- is ridiculously stupid by MQ showing the effects of these attacks, nonetheless, the emphasis seemed to be on the garish and exploitative.

Chimps, who obviously should never be kept as pets, become extremely dangerous when they reach sexual maturity when kept in captivity and not bred with other chimps . One chimp easily has the strength of five men; their attacks are horrific and often fatal. I have nothing but sympathy for the human victims of such violent attacks.

But the chimps who attacked were not "beasts" as referred to in the episode, or even the lurid "Killer Chimps" -- though the program presented cases where, sadly, humans were killed by chimps. However,the anthropomorphization of the chimpanzee as some sort of science-fiction/horror monster, practically giving it supernatural powers of evil intent, is lazy and dishonest and simple cheap exploitation.

Another episode that bothered me was the fish episode wtih the two yee-haws gratuitously handling fish and laughing at their discomfort for no other reason than they could.

I realize it's all entertainment, whether it's Paranormal State, Ghostbusters, UFO Hunters or any show at all. If it airs on television, the bottom line is money. Within that context however Monster Quest has an opportunity to go in a certain direction; they've decided that putting the emphasis on the gross, vulgar and titillating is easier and more appealing than at least a semi-serious quest for so-called monsters. Instead of focusing on the lurid, and putting a "when animals go mad" veneer on things, the program could focus more on the quest and less on the competitive "man vs. beast" angle.It's too bad Monster Quest sometimes chooses to go down this road of sensationalizing animals and making them objects for garish entertainment.

"Hogzilla" Monster Quest clip



Clip from Todd Browning's 1932 film Freaks, with alternate endings. . .




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A Flying Bigfoot in the Blue Mountains

(Thanks to Lesley at The Debris Fieldfor the link.) On the Bigfoot Sightings blog, Linda has a great post about "Flying Bigfoot" in the beautiful Blue Mountain range in the Pacific Northwest. (the Blue Mountain range is in the north east part of Oregon, extending into the south eastern part of Washington state.) Linda reports that witness "David N." saw a Bigfoot -- flying! Visit Linda's site for more, including a link to the Blue Mountain Trackers Bigfoot Research Update site.

image source here.

Cool Beans: Links to Moi on the JREF

A Trickster's Realm column I wrote awhile back on the JREF threads on Bigfoot, as well as this blog, got the notice of one of the more snarly skeptics over there.

On Blogsquatcher: "Bigfoot Intelligence in a report from Alabama"

Very interesting report from Blogsquatcher, who discusses information he's received on an encounter with Bigfoot in Alabama. I liked this description of the startled reaction when the witness saw the BF:

I had looked in every dang tree around the place. It spooked the heck out of me when he seemed to appear from nowhere. It was like he had been let down from the sky on a rope.

I don't think he was suggesting BF did come from space, just that it seemed so. . .(although, if not from outer space, another dimension, as some speculate? But I'm digressing...)

It does get a bit weirder however. If you want to know more, visit Blogsquatcher to find out!

"She Speaks Yeti??!!"

Watched The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor on cable tonight; I wasn't disappointed, because I expected it to be what it was. Just a fun silly escapist movie, not as good as the first one, though Michelle Yeoh was, as always, just wonderful to watch. When the characters trekked to the Himalayas I joked that they'd soon run into a Yeti. After our heroes find themselves in a lot of trouble in the Himalayas, the Yeti -- a few of them - come to their aid, having been summoned by the daughter of the Michele Yeoh character. Amazed at the arrival of the super sized, warrior Yeti, one character says of the daughter: "She speaks Yeti???!!!!" In this movie, the Yeti were on the side of good, helping to defeat evil. Yeah for the Yeti!



image source

Lisa Shiel, bigfoot researcher and author of Backyard Bigfoot, has a good post at the UFO Magazine blog: Water Gods: UFOs, Bigfoot, Fairies.

Bigfoot is paranormal, like it or not. So are fairies, UFOs, and the Loch Ness Monster. Does this mean they don't exist, or that they have no physical form? Of course not.

Something connects all these paranormal phenomena. Today I'd like to talk about one particular commonality between those phenomena—an affinity to water.

Read on for more at the UFO Magazine site. Also be sure to read Bruce Duensing's comments. Really, it makes sense!

Blog Find: Oregon Bigfoot, Gable Film Update

I don't think I knew there was an Oregon Bigfoot blog, how could I have missed that? Quickly realizing after checking out her site that, duh, it's Autumn Williams, Oregon bigfoot researcher... who runs Bigfoot.com. But here it is, with an update on the Gable film. Hat tip to Blogsquatcher for the link.

Revisit with the Lake Worth Monster

Link on the Professor Hex blog: Couple Say They Saw Lake Worth Monster Forty Years ago.

Link on Professor Hex takes you to the article, with the famous photograph of a ridiculously bulky white Bigfoot like type being.

Like other BHMs (Big Hairy Monsters) stories, it appeared from nowhere, did its thing, then left.

The Lake Worth Monster — aka Goat-Man — hasn’t been seen regularly at the Fort Worth Nature Center since a very memorable summer 40 years ago when all of Texas seemed to buzz with the news that a hairy, scaly 7-foot man-goat-beast was terrorizing the good citizens of Tarrant County.

"Every so often, it will come up in conversation," said Suzanne Tuttle, manager of the Nature Center. "Somebody will say, 'I remember when that happened.’ "

Here's a very interesting comment about Sallie Ann Clarke, who wrote a self-published book about the monster titled The Lake Worth Monster of Greer Island. The book was a "quick-draw and slightly tongue-in-cheek book" about the creature. Clarke has had many strokes and can't speak, her memory isn't good, but her husband says this, of her book:
C

Clarke has always regretted the way she wrote her book, he said, because after she published it, she saw the monster on three occasions.

Twenty years ago Salli Clarke said this:

"If I’d seen it before I wrote the book, the book would have been quite a lot different," she told the Star-Telegram in 1989. "It wouldn’t have been semi-fiction. It would have been like a history."

The article goes on to say that many have come forward with stories of their being involved in hoaxing, or playing pranks on people at the time. I get the feeling these happened after the fact; in other words, something anomalous was going on, and others had their fun at its expense.







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Redfern on Radio Tonight

Nick Redfern will be a guest Acceleration Radio, with Bruce Collins, discussig his book There's Something in the Woods and British Bigfoot.5PM to 7PM Pacific Time.


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The "Eel Siren" of Maine

Fascinating entry on Bigfoot researcher Linda Martin's Bigfoot Sightings blog:
Maine: Report of a humanoid that may be reptilian. A woman that Linda has been in contact with shares her life long encounters with a reptilian she also refers to as an "eel siren." This isn't, as Linda comments, a Bigfoot report, but I agree with her response to this story: sometimes some stories are so intriguing that aren't Bigfoot reports you have to share.

As I commented at her blog, as weird as this story of the "eel siren" is, there are plenty of stories of encounters with reptilians. I know of a couple in Washington state who are obviously living in some kind of anomalous portal zone, where they have heavy UFO activity (and fighter jets following), along with both Bigfoot sightings and reptilian sightings. There's a lot more to that whole situation that I'll probably report on eventually.

Anyway, fascinating story, visit Linda's blog to read all about it.

Book Find: Exploring the Himalaya

Neat find: Exploring the Himalaya by William O. Douglas. I found this book in the discard pile at work. 1958, Landmark, hardcover. Pretty good shape; has the typical school stamps all over it.

Naturally, the first thing I did was to look up Yeti in the index. There isn't a listing for Yeti, but there is for Abominable Snowman.

...the people of Sikkim believe there is such an animal. When I was in Sikkim, I visited with the Maharaja - ...a devout Buddhist. He told me that he believes the abominable snow man exists - that one night at Gangtok he looked out the window and saw one racing across his lawn.

Here's a reference to Yeti, with descriptions:

Many hillmen believe that any abominable snow man will kill them. the hillmen call it the yeti. It is supposed to be of either the bear or ape family - grayish with a pointed head and about four or five feet tall. Tenzing, the famous Sherpa, told me that he believes the yeti exists and that it is an ape.

And of other expeditions:

Britishers have photographed an apelike footrpint with five toes made by some unknown animal in the high snow. ...Japanese expideitons to the Himalya have brought confirmatory evidence that the yeti actually exists.

What that "confimatory evidence" is isn't stated.
There's also a reference to a female being; possibly a yeti or yeti type creature, or something different:

There are also legends about a mysterious snow woman. She is said to have only one leg and she always carries a pipe between her lips. She frequents the high snow fields and whistles at passers-by. Her whistle is thought to entice men ontlt he glaciers, where she devours some and makes love to others.

Still at it: Bigfoot Links on the James Randi Message Board

Well, they're still at it at the JREF message boards; link after link after link after. . . about Bigfoot. I stopped counting long ago, there were so many and a girl has other things to do after all! But I think the count a few months ago, when I stopped keeping track, was close to forty separate threads about Bigfoot. For something they are so damn sure doesn't exist, they sure do go on about it!

So, just finished lurking over there and saw the first three threads in the "general skepticism and paranormal" section are about Bigfoot. The next three aren't, then the seventh one is back to Bigfoot again. Next two aren't, then another BF thread. On the first page alone, with 30 threads, eight are about Bigfoot. I don't think any other subject has generated so many different threads; maybe UFOs and psychics would be the next two categories.

I'll be on Women's Paranormal League Tonight

So try and listen if you can. 5:00 p.m. Pacific time on Blog Talk radio.

Monster Quest on Feral Dogs: Shame on them!

Not about Bigfoot or any other anomalous crypto creature, but dogs. On my animal blog Teme: Irresponsible Monster Quest: Feral Dogs.

Update: Matthew Johnson’s Oregon Cave BF Sighting

In July of 2000, Matthew Johnson saw a Bigfoot in the Oregon Caves National Monument national park. Here's an update, with video interview.




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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

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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.

Silver Suited Aliens vs. Bigfoot

Update: I added a little oil pastel drawing I did a fear years ago of the silver suited being I saw. . .


Watching Monster Quest last night -- a good episode, about Bigfoot -- and Jim says to me that he'd rather see a Bigfoot than an alien. I agreed. Then he said he has "no doubt extraterrestrials exist -- none" -- and that he "doesn't want to know more, since "we've both probably been abducted anyway." That's the second time he's come out and said that in recent months. Hmmmm...

I think it would be a true gift and an incredible experience to see a Bigfoot. My only hesitation would be one of my qualms about losing credibility; after all, both Jim and I have seen several UFOs, have had episodes of missing time, and a life time of paranormal experiences including ghosts, psychic experiences,astral journeys, hell, we're walking, talking Fortean weirdos. I'd be afraid people would think I was just making it up; that I saw Bigfoot. If I were ever to see one. On the other hand, screw 'em. If I were ever fortunate enough to see a Sasquatch, well, lucky me and then I'd know what I know about that.

As to abductions, while I think something really, really extraordinary happened, I still can't get to the place where I think abductions are a literal event. I've never seen an alien in the waking state, unless, my silver suited alien childhood memory is literally exactly as I remember it. For some reason, I remember it as real, and yet, always place it in some disjointed category of "other" -- not asleep, not awake, not not real, but not . . well, maybe it's just plain old denial. By the way, my column in this issue of UFO Magazine is about silver suited aliens. Nice how I got my plug in, eh?


As to the Patterson-Gimlin film, Jim is 99% sure it's authentic footage of a real Bigfoot, and is almost as sure there is a Bigfoot as he is sure there are aliens. He's leans a tad towards being in favor of aliens. For myself, while I have no doubt at all Bigfoot exists -- for one thing, just what is it all these witnesses are seeing, if not a Sasquatch? -- I am minuscially less sure the P-G film is of a real Bigfoot. I want to believe it's so; I just can't see one way or the other. Some days it looks indubitably like a real creature; swaying breasts, arms, the way it's looking back. Other days it's looks phony; the weird white face showing through and mask like appearance of the fur on the face, the bottoms of the feet.

But, as MQ pointed out last night, the analysis done on the original footage shows that blurring has a lot to do with the way the images come across, as well as the film 's translation to video, etc. No human could fit into a suit like that, the technology that would cause things like fur swaying wasn't invented back in the 1960s, when the film was shot, and, it turns out after analysis the creature was taller than thought, 7ft or more tall. And yet I can't be 100% sure, as much as I want to be.

It doesn't matter however. I believe (yes, I said "believe!") Bigfoot exists. What exactly is Bigfoot, who knows, but if nothing else I can't ignore the countless eye witness reports of people who say, in all sincerity, they've seen a Bigfoot.