Bigfoot is not Paranormal
Posted by: Craig Woolheater on July 16th, 2015
From Bigfoot Crossroads:
Bigfoot is not paranormal.
But how do you know? Nobody knows anything about bigfoot. It’s all theory and speculation!
I repeat, bigfoot is not paranormal.
Unfortunately, as with many aspects of life, the field of bigfoot research is not regulated. There are no tests, screenings, or applications to become a researcher. It is the same as being a cryptozoologist, one just merely has to claim being such and they are. To make matters even more convoluted, one does not even have to consider them self, or be considered by others, to be a bigfoot researcher before they are allowed to publicly throw out their own beliefs and ideas about the subject as though they are truths that are based on many, many years of tried and true research and investigation into the subject.
This would be the ugly truth about “everyone has the right to their opinion.”
The problem with having a field of study where there are no experts, is that it also creates a field where everyone is an expert. There is so much ridiculousness going on with our current system that people can make whatever claim they want, and defend it by using the “nobody is an expert” card against anyone that challenges their claim or disagrees with them. Do they not realize this applies to their claims as well?
So if everyone is entitled to an opinion regardless of how worthless those opinions are, no standards are in place to filter who can and can’t be a part of the “research community”, and everyone/no one is an expert, what does that leave us with?
Experience and education.
Those two things allow me to make definite claims such as bigfoot are not paranormal with confidence.
Oh, there’s also things like common sense and logical reasoning that allows one to reach similar conclusions. Sadly, those items are also severely lacking from this field. But I digress.
There is nothing about bigfoot in its appearance or behavior that would lead anyone with any of the aforementioned tributes to reach the conclusion that bigfoot is paranormal in nature. In fact, that conclusion could only be reached by lacking all of the previously mentioned qualities. Experience, education, common sense, logical reasoning.
I’m sure you’ve heard the term “ignorance of the law is no excuse”. Well that little quote applies to a lot more than the actual law. Just because you are ignorant of something, such as facts, does not make your claim or opinion true. Just as illogical reasoning does not make your conclusions correct.
Read the rest of the article here.
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.
Excellent article and I agree completely.
I have a tendency to agree with this article. I take any claims and opinions with a grain of salt.
However, a few years ago before we knew that game cameras didn’t work we used to put them up. We put one up and something came over it in the middle of the night shining a light beam from above at different angles for over twenty two minutes. It appeared to be looking at the camera and our box of KFC that we had placed in the tree. We don’t talk about it to others very often because it was so weird. It wasn’t a helicopter, because there would have been a down wash on the tree that was young and just about ten feet from the game camera. The game camera was snapping pictures because there was a wind from the south that was moving the tree and triggering the camera. It was easy to see the limbs move horizontally and not vertically.
I don’t claim anything about the light, because I don’t know what it was. I just know it was unusual. I have a pilot license and have seen two UFO’s, one at night and one during the day. In my opinion they weren’t of this earth. I got a real good close look at one of those silent machines for about a minute and so I am willing to venture an opinion. Delta shaped, no prop, no exhaust ports, quiet as an owl in flight and going into a stiff wind like it was gliding on ice. I’m thinking, not from Earth. But I can admit, I could be wrong.
The thing is most make claims with their gut reaction. I know things can be weird out there, but don’t fly off the handle.
oh man, here we go…
I’ve been following this movement for some time–following as in: keeping track of it, not as in following along in belief (just to make sure everyone’s clear :)). I remember a discussion here started by Nick Redfern on this exact topic and in that thread I was pretty staunch on the BF as a flesh n blood critter of our world as opposed to the dimension walking critter camp.
I’ve read the few reports where people saw UFO’s or intense lights followed by Bigfoots appearing. I am always willing to keep an open mind on a subject, not dismissing a theory out of hand, no matter how off the wall it is.
However, as a skeptic, you have to weigh the evidence (just sit back down scoftics) based on what you’ve got in front of you, and the tools at your disposal. For me, a few reports of dimension hopping creatures resembling the big guy doesn’t pull me over into the sway of the paranormal camp. The witnesses may be credible, and have just as much “weight” with their accounts as other Bigfoot witnesses, but I make my best judgment on the body of evidence we have at our disposal.
That includes eye witness accounts, limited video footage (there’s a few legitimate examples, but mostly crap), foot castings, hair samples (though this is a messy subject too), and other incidentals. I also take into account environment and habitat.
I just got back from a trip to St. Louis and driving home, I was struck by all of the vast forest ground and tree cover available. Driving endless highway, to me, it’s very possible there could be Bigfoots standing right at the edge of a tree line, and countless motorists racing along couldn’t see one unless it chose to step out into plain sight. Even given that, how many motorists pay enough attention to the landscape around them to pick something like that out against the background shooting by at seventy miles an hour? And Missouri aside, take into account all of the thousands of acres of forest land across the U.S. and what you find is that there is plenty of habitat for a large bipedal, and very intelligent creature to live and keep itself hidden.
To me, that’s the always been the crux of this argument: we’re not just dealing with an average animal like a fox or a coyote or even a bear that has limited intelligence comparatively. People always throw out the age-old argument of, “yeah, but we would have found one by now.” And that would be true if it were a fox or a coyote or bear. There are coyotes around where I live. I’ve heard them, heard other people say they’ve heard and seen them, but in my 48 years of existence, I’ve only actually seen one twice. Does that mean they’re paranormal too?
Nope. It means they don’t want to come out into the open to protect themselves. There’s little difference with Bigfoot, other than I believe that the intelligence of a BF is similar to ours and that they are much better at avoiding us than regular animals.
The other argument I hear often is that “if they’re so smart why do they allow themselves to be seen at all?” One, I think they get caught unaware too from time to time, especially at long distance–which a lot of sightings come in from. Two, I think they are curious about us, and often times venture into our world to see what we’re up to. Third, I think there are enough people roaming that they can’t always avoid being seen.
And I still don’t believe humankind is so superior that it can’t be bamboozled by other critters on the planet. And whenever we can’t figure something out, the paranormal always gets dragged into the equation. Paranormal is the go-to “magic” explanation of earlier centuries. And before you start dog-piling me, I’m not turning up my nose at the paranormal–I’ve seen and been party to enough weirdness that I give the paranormal it’s due.
Just not in the case of Bigfoot. As I said, I’m willing to keep an open mind, but for me, you’re going to have to come up with more “evidence” for the paranormal before I buy in. To me, what is out there is not enough. Not nearly enough.
Finally, I wish and would like for people to quit wasting so much time on arguing about what the big guy may or may not be and everyone just team up and go solve the issue. There’s a common goal, let’s get to it. Find Bigfoot and then we can decide what it is or isn’t.
Much the same approach has been used to “disprove” the existence of Bigfoot. It’s not far from arguing from authority, and thus, bunkum.
Hi Jack and Insanity,
Both of you make good points and your opinions should be respected. I’ve had 5 encounters with the species and witnessed a lot of other evidence of their presence or passing thru. I’ve seen very clearly one of the so called silver disk UFOs and I know they exist along with the foots. Matt Johnson is seeing something going on in his SOHA and interprets it as a portal. It might be but we need better evidence to substantiate what he’s seeing but I believe he’s seeing something unusual. We simply can’t rule out the paranormal yet. My best,
SHJ, that, pretty much, but these deserve comment.
“The other argument I hear often is that “if they’re so smart why do they allow themselves to be seen at all?” One, I think they get caught unaware too from time to time, especially at long distance–which a lot of sightings come in from. Two, I think they are curious about us, and often times venture into our world to see what we’re up to. Third, I think there are enough people roaming that they can’t always avoid being seen.
Our handle on “intelligence” as a concept frequently seems to me shaky at best. Most sightings aren’t for long, at all; most witnesses really can’t do anything about what they see (other than report it which count on it, most don’t); the impact on the individual seen is, generally, pretty minimal, from what we can guess from the record. Like most animals, they know what we’re capable of, and tend to avoid us. But they are gonna get caught from time to time; they just are. Making a living in the outdoors is hard work requiring frequent tunnel focus. You are gonna get seen doing it, by most everything in your vicinity with eyes, sooner rather than later.
Their curiosity is one of the best documented things about them; and it aligns well with what we know from other wild animals, primates in particular. Practically everything “venture[s] into our world to see what we’re up to,” sooner or later; in truth, other animals probably don’t get caught at it that much either, comparing the times we catch them to the times we (probably) didn’t. An animal thin on the ground will just be around us less, is all.
And as to the sheer numbers of us: count on it, that is gonna be a factor, because most sightings, really almost all of them – contrary to what the skeptics try to put over on people, but perfectly congruent with what we know from other animals – are gonna be at the places where our habitat and theirs join. In deep backcountry, we don’t belong. Most everything back there has long cleared the vicinity before your prying eyes get there, for the places you aren’t…and generally, no one else is either.
And I still don’t believe humankind is so superior that it can’t be bamboozled by other critters on the planet. And whenever we can’t figure something out, the paranormal always gets dragged into the equation. Paranormal is the go-to “magic” explanation of earlier centuries. And before you start dog-piling me, I’m not turning up my nose at the paranormal–I’ve seen and been party to enough weirdness that I give the paranormal it’s due.
I like to say, ‘today’s paranormal is tomorrow’s normal;’ it is the pocket into which we like to dump the stuff we haven’t figured out yet. No. Sasquatch isn’t paranormal in any way; the evidence says it’s an animal like all the rest, different in some ways, but basically similar.
AMEN DWA.
thats all I gotta say on this post.
A-F**KING-MEN.