Bigfoot Ignorance is Bliss
Posted by: Craig Woolheater on October 11th, 2007
Daryl Colyer, one of my colleagues from the Texas Bigfoot Research Conservancy, sent the following to be shared with the readers of Cryptomundo.
The Texas Bigfoot Research Conservancy (TBRC) often gives public presentations to groups regarding the sasquatch mystery. Sometimes as often as twice a month, I find myself giving such presentations in front of small, medium or large groups of people whose interest in the subject may range from sheer apathy to total fascination to outright hostility. While the fascination of some in our audiences with the subject can be exciting, the hostility encountered from time to time is quite puzzling.
I distinctly remember one occasion immediately after giving a presentation to a group of about 200 or so hunters and outdoorsmen. Several of the men approached me afterwards to share their own experiences. Finally, one older gentleman approached me after a few minutes. He seemed visibly disturbed. He quietly and solemnly said to me, “Look,” as he looked around the room as if to make sure no one else could hear him, “I’ve been hunting all my life. If they’re really out there, I just don’t want to know about it!”
I replied, smiling, “You’ve been hunting all these years? What’s changed?”
The gentleman frowned, abruptly turned and walked hastily out the door. I chuckled as I watched him disappear through the doors.
What had changed was the old hunter’s perception of it all. With my presentation, he had become aware. Perhaps he still did not fully subscribe to it, but he had apparently begun to consider the possibility that the sasquatch was real and it obviously troubled him.
I remember another time after a friend of mine, who is a news anchor for a medium-sized market TV station in Texas, had gone out in the field with us and subsequently did a three-part segment on the subject and the TBRC on the evening news, entitled “Secret in the Big Thicket.” The piece was very well done and the response was overwhelmingly positive, according to my friend.
Out of the many positive responses, however, there were a few exceptions.
My friend called me one day after the final part had aired to tell me about a particular email he had received from a university professor. The email, which I never saw, was apparently extremely lengthy and had quite an angry tone to it. The professor apparently went to great lengths to excoriate my friend for taking on such a frivolous and inane subject and demanded to know if he would soon be doing a story on the Loch Ness Monster residing in nearby lakes. Furthermore, she severely insulted my friend by harshly calling into question his talents and skills as a journalist.
My friend was perplexed by the anger displayed by someone who was obviously highly-educated, yet extremely unreasonable. He also seemed a bit saddened by it and discouraged. As we say down south, my friend was quite “down in the mouth.”
I tried to cheer him up and suggested that the old aphorism, “Ignorance is bliss,” could be applied. I told him that, apparently, it can be a bit disconcerting for some people to truly consider the possibility of the existence of such a species as the sasquatch.
I suppose there’s a degree of comfort for some in blissfully making their walk out to their hunting stand at 04:30, while it is still dark, supposing that they are aware of every type of wildlife species in their surrounding area. In this context, perhaps the college professor and mother of two does not feel particularly thrilled at the prospect of staying in southeastern Oklahoma or East Texas campgrounds reputed to be visited from time to time by a smelly hairy large upright myth that just may not be a myth after all.
Co-founder of Cryptomundo in 2005.
I have appeared in or contributed to the following TV programs, documentaries and films:
OLN's Mysterious Encounters: "Caddo Critter", Southern Fried Bigfoot, Travel Channel's Weird Travels: "Bigfoot", History Channel's MonsterQuest: "Swamp Stalker", The Wild Man of the Navidad, Destination America's Monsters and Mysteries in America: Texas Terror - Lake Worth Monster, Animal Planet's Finding Bigfoot: Return to Boggy Creek and Beast of the Bayou.
You are in up in your tree stand every thing is fine,the sun is just coming up and then all of a sudden this smell of rotten eggs hits you square in the face!
Your tree stand starts to shake violently!
As Gomer Pyle would say “Suprise! Surprise! Suprise!”
Unfortunately there is a large segment of our culture who find the idea of another intelligent species to be very uncomfortable.
Good morning Craig…
Thanks for sharing Daryl’s account.
I wonder if squatch moves closer to urban areas during the gun seasons…not many tree stands in my neighborhood or greenbelt floodplain management areas.
Never smelled squatch in the field except perhaps at TG’s place in Talihina…last year.
Looking forward to the Jefferson conference…whom should we contact to attend the evening banquet?
live and let live…
ole bub and the dawgs
Getting angry over something like this is one of our “human nature” traits. Think about all the great scientists from the renaissance where all they did is search, not just for facts, but the truth of how everything works. The schools today are teaching a form of evolution that I believe needs some rethinking. Somethings we are taught in school someone was persecuted just because of the idea, even though it is true (as far as we know). Yes, the smell of rotten eggs at 04:30 would be a little disconcerting.
Good post Craig. Some people do get angry over this subject. Never seems to be hunters I know. It always seems to be folks that have probably never been in too many woods. I could be wrong.
I’m from the Mena,Arkansas area (not too far from Talihina) and all this area is prime Bigfoot country. I’m talking Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Texas. Most people keep it to themselves to avoid the angry negative people you describe.
Craig wrote: “My friend was perplexed by the anger displayed by someone who was obviously highly-educated, yet extremely unreasonable. He also seemed a bit saddened by it and discouraged. As we say down south, my friend was quite “down in the mouth.”
When peoples closely held worldviews are challenged, the reaction can indeed be vicious. Even if the worldview in question is not theistic in nature, it functions, for all intents and puposes, as that persons religion, and religious spirits can be quite vicious, beyond all reason. It can hurt to be on the receiving end of such an attack, (as your friend was); best to say, as a most famous Man once said “Forgive them; they know not what they do.”
hey craig , wow definetly i realy like this new bigfoot article indeed. i agree with everyone above replys about as well. thanks bill green 🙂 very interesting
If Bigfoot is proven to be a flesh and blood creature, it’s going to put a huge dent in real estate development in a fast growing area of the country. Having to close off huge areas of the country to development is going anger lots of people. Just look how much controversy the re-introduction of the wolf and grizzly is causing out in the western states. In the case of East Texas, the black bear’s return is causing alot of consternation. Cougar are reported in almost every county now including major urban counties like Travis and Bexar. Many new urbanites to Texas are disturbed by the sight of even coyotes, bobcats and racoons. As one lady I met from Chicago said “But they’re wild animals!”. I’m part Native American and believe that the Hairy Man of the Woods is something more the flesh and blood. The Hairy Folk around the world seem to both attracted to and repelled by humans as much as we are to them. It make me think that we’re dealing with a creature that’s more intelligent than either chimps or gorillas. Those beings we already know can master language and make tools, if the Hairy Folk are smarter then the other large primates, they are truly formidable beings.
Good post. I find it very strange that anyone gets upset over the existence of Bigfoot, one way or the other. I have spoken to a lot of people who seem to be threatened by the idea that Bigfoot does NOT exist, because they have put so much time and effort into the search.
To me, they are the true believers, the closed-minded ones, because they say they “know” for a fact that Bigfoot exist. I don’t know if they do or don’t, but these people have made up their minds, they are not open the idea that Bigfoot don’t exist… so who’s being closed minded? The skeptic who says it’s possible but unlikely, or the believer who says Bigfoot exist and nothing will change his mind?
My worldview is not threatened in the least by the existence of Bigfoot, any more so than the existence of zebras or grasshoppers. To me, the Bigfoot question is a factual matter, one of evidence.
Knowledge is burden. Some people desperately want to remain ignorant, confusing ignorance with innocence. But an adult cannot afford to stay as a child forever.
That’s part of the pain of growing up.
Nice read. Sometimes, folks amaze me still. Usually when they display irrational fears.
Let me see…Bigfoot isn’t proven and one has never attacked me. Bigfoot gets proven…and one still doesn’t attack me. Unless they read the papers and decide that we’re becoming a threat, I think we’re pretty safe. Of course, some people are just idiots, no matter how well educated. I’d bet Bigfoot is smarter and less violent than most human folks nowadays.
I really liked the comments by crgintx, except for one unpleasant thing. Texas has become a haven for land developers, including some of the sleaziest ones (even BEFORE Bush and Perry came along, let alone SINCE). So instead a Bigfoot “putting a dent in real estate development,” it would be likely to be the other way around. Unless they became violent, like the ones in those Bigfoot horror movies. And (at the risk of sounding like an “eco-nazi”) if they did, and somehow zeroed in on the developers themselves (instead of their employees), I don’t know how awful a thing THAT would be.
There are true believers on both ends of the bigfoot spectrum.
Daryl just talked about two of them.
To me, here’s the definition of close-minded: you won’t consider anything as evidence until there’s proof. We wouldn’t have the wheel yet if science worked that way.
Think about it. You’re an atheist. One day you are walking to work and notice that the sunlight is doing very weird things; in fact the very weather has changed. You look up. A figure whose size just shuts down your mind is standing there, astride the earth, flipping the sun up and down in his hand like a baseball. He looks down at you. You know the entire solar system, and beyond, can hear him when he says:
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SO. YOU DON’T BELIEVE, DO YOU?
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You do now. But did you have an open mind? (SURE God could be a She. God could be an It. 😉 ) To say you did would render the phrase “open mind” without meaning, wouldn’t it?
Being “open” to the possibility of something not existing when you know it does might work in a philosophy class. But in day-to-day life, it just makes you a fool.