A recent press release issued by a company called DNA Diagnostics, reported the results of a study by Texas Veterinarian named Melba S. Ketchum, claiming that genetic testing confirmed that the legendary Bigfoot is a relative of human beings that arose 15,000 years ago.
While Ketchum’s suggestion that Bigfoot is a human-ape hybrid species doesn’t make any genetic sense, and is most likely just a hoax, there may actually be something to this mysterious phenomena.
I recently attended a gathering of cryptozoology enthusiasts, unconventional scientists, and curious students of unexplained phenomena, who were interested in learning about the large, furry primate that supposedly roams the secluded forests of California and the Pacific Northwest, commonly known as “Bigfoot” or “Sasquatch.”
Although fascinated by stories of Bigfoot as a child, somewhere during my development, the mysterious giant ape got relegated to the part of my brain that deals with Elvis sightings, the Loch Ness monster, and the Face on Mars.
I was aware that most scientists discount the existence of Bigfoot, and consider the mysterious ape to be either a hoax, or a combination of folklore and misidentification.
I was therefore utterly delighted to meet Idaho State University primate anatomist Jeff Meldrum at the gathering, who convinced me otherwise, and resurrected my childhood fascination with Bigfoot.
I learned from Meldrum that there really may be something to these sightings, and that it’s more than likely that this creature actually exists.
In Meldrum’s fascinating book Sasquatch: Legend Meets Science--which was praised by primate expert Jane Goodall--Meldrum carefully explores the evidence for this large mysterious primate that has been sighted in West coast forests long before European settlers arrived on the scene.
Native Americans have a long history of Sasquatch sightings, and contemporary reports are consistent with the sightings that have been reported for hundreds of years.
Additionally, the consistency of the many footprints that have been discovered, along with their minute details, like dermal ridges and bone fractures, would be extremely difficult to fake.
However, some of the most compelling evidence comes from carefully viewing the famous Patterson-Gimlin film footage, that was shot in 1967 on the Klamath River outside of Orleans, California.
Almost everyone has seen this famous film footage of a large, black-haired, bipedal primate walking upright, and looking over her shoulder into the camera.
The creature walks like a human, with her arms swinging by her sides, and, from her large jiggling breasts, appears quite female.
If you haven’t seen this classic footage, you can watch it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7DFQwKlfnk
Contrary to the uninformed claims of vocal skeptics, the large hairy creature in this short film has never been properly identified, and fakery has largely been ruled out by special effects experts, as well as by experts in primate locomotion.
Whatever the creature in this film is, it is most definitely not a human being wearing an ape suit, as there are far too many well-established inconsistencies with this notion.
Primate location experts point how the flexing muscles in the legs are clearly visible, the length of the strides couldn’t be done by a human being, and special effects experts agree that this could not be faked in a 1967 film.
However, I have to admit that, despite all the compelling evidence, I do find it extremely odd that, after all these years, no indisputable proof has ever emerged that would completely convince a committed skeptic.
Strangely, and even more puzzling, are the substantial number of reports that combine Bigfoot sightings with weird paranormal phenomena, such as telepathic communications, geographic teleportations, and UFOs.
Primatologists who are open-minded to the possibility of Bigfoot being an unidentified, temperate forest primate often try to distance themselves from the more fringe group that reports psychic contact experiences with wise shamanic sasaquatches.
However, these “Sasquatch contactees” represent a significant portion of the population that reports Bigfoot sightings.
What’s even more intriguing, is that there’s a fair amount of mysterious phenomena that also falls into this strangely ambiguous category of unexplainable oddities, such as crop circles, cattle mutilations, and alien abductions.
If one reviews the documented evidence for these phenomena with an open mind, one is likely to become convinced that something really weird is going on--yet, despite extensive investigations, for some odd reason, definitive proof of what is really happening never seems to arrive.
I read an interesting book by Patrick Harper called Daimonic Reality, which gave me a unique perspective on these type of unexplained phenomena.
Harper pools together a number of commonly-known, unexplained phenomena, that have strongly compelling evidence to support their claims, yet never quite the definitive proof to convince a hard-nosed skeptic.
When presented together, in such detail, it almost seems like some kind of advanced alien intelligence is toying with us, as these strange phenomena that defy conventional scientific explanations are consistently reported by reliable witnesses.
Harper suggests that all of these phenomena are caused by mischievous beings that he calls “daimons,” who supposedly have the ability to travel between our world and another world--and have been interacting with humanity throughout our history in various archetypal guises, as angels, elves, fairies, aliens, and sasquatches.
Harper presents the intriguing view that the reason that extraterrestrials appear to us in the so-called “alien abduction phenomenon” as super-technologically-advanced, sterile, cold, scientific beings, merely interested in our medical nature are, in effect, parodying us.
According to Harper, these are daimons mocking us, by coming in a form that we would imagine our future to be like, and how our species treats other animals in our laboratories. They’re making fun of us, Harper suggests, in order to teach us an important lesson about where we’re headed.
I like this idea, and whether it’s true or not, I find it to be a satisfying explanation for understanding intriguing phenomena that I’m at a loss to explain.
So it may be possible that all these strange and unexplained phenomena are indeed hoaxes after all, but perhaps they’re pranks being initiated by something other than human beings.
I currently live in the Santa Cruz mountains of California, which is a hotbed for paranormal activity, and where there have been many reported Sasquatch sightings.
Not far down the road from where I live, in Felton, is the Bigfoot Discovery Museum, where the gathering that I attended took place.
This wonderful museum archives the sightings, photographs, recordings, and plaster-cast footprints from people who have seemingly encountered the mysterious bipedal creature.
To learn more about the Bigfoot Discovery Museum see: http://www.bigfootdiscoveryproject.com/
If you’re interested in reading about the psychic connections that people have reported with sasquatches, see Kewaunee Lapsertis’ book The Sasquatch People and Their Interdimensional Connection. Available from: www.sasquatchpeople.com
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