Even More: Bigfoot is not Paranormal
Posted by: Craig Woolheater on July 22nd, 2015
Cryptomundian DWA adds to the discussion of this Cryptomundo post: Bigfoot is not Paranormal
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.
See also: More on Bigfoot is not Paranormal
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.
Good calls on all, DWA.
Of the few accounts I’ve read where people actually tried to follow a BF after seeing one, the BF takes off and there’s no catching up, let alone keeping pace. They can move and quick when they want to (and being taller on average than humans AND being built for the terrain, we’d have a heck of a time tailing one).
I like your axiom too–paranormal, magic, the gods–they’re all under the purvey of “crap we don’t know what this is, and until we figure it out it can just be one of the above.’ I think it’s the normal human way of categorizing weird stuff and tossing it into a “miscellaneous” folder until we can make heads or tails of it. That’s kind of what I meant too when I said I wasn’t trouncing on the paranormal. There are odd things out there in the world, but I just don’t always toss things in the paranormal pile when I can’t figure out the details.
And I’ve said it before and I’ll keep saying it–from what I’ve seen, humanity is not so far up on the superiority chain that other creatures can’t stay one step ahead of us–especially when we go into their environment. Bottom line is, “We’re not all that.”
LOL… what happened to all the comments?
Need to note here, SHJ and everybody, that SHJ supplied the first paragraph after “these deserve comment” – which I essentially riffed off of – and the fifth, as well.
And thanks, SHJ. Good additions, too.
Guess we’ll just have to generate some more…
DWA–I think it’s about time we started hunting…not with guns, but hunting. It’s time we solved this and if there are any two people capable it’s us 🙂
Dconstruckt–asking questions is always the best way to proceed. Some answer themselves over time, and even when (more often than not) new questions arise, just add them to the list and keep on moving forward! Always dig into any avenue you can and go down any road that presents itself…
DWA: I agree, and another factor that could account for the frequency of sightings might just be that there are a lot more of them than most of us are willing to accept. I count myself in this camp: not only are there lots more, but in many areas, they are a lot closer to civilization than most of us would be comfortable believing.
I remember posting my comment saying AMEN to this.
great post.
hope they’re real but the amount of proof we have tangibly out there is minimal at best.
sightings are usually random… people aren’t looking for them… or they claim they see them… we have no way of really knowing if they’re legit or BS most of the time…
but evidence? lacking.
even the PG film has a whole bunch of doubters… the mun’s video talking about how its not a hoax etc was really awesome…
Doubters are always going to be out there. On the one hand it may seem irritating, but it keeps the skeptics honest. We need the devil’s advocate testing the evidence, saying, “Yeah, but did you consider X?” However, I’ve read enough and seen enough on the PG film to buy into its legitimacy.
I think that while people go looking for BF, again, it’s not like hanging out waiting for a fox or a bear. What I term “regular animals” are not in the same category as our buddy, BF. It appears much more intelligent and aware of its surroundings and environment which make it much harder to sneak up on or catch up to it. Also, given that BF seems to have a large territory for environment, it’s not always going to be in a singular place to look–especially if it migrates for food sources (thought that in and of itself could be a point to track it if we cross reference when certain food sources ripen).
And despite what the majority of what people think, there is still a huge amount of wild land out there where people have not built towns and cities into. I can point to dozens of states where there is dense forest, marshland, or just plain old thousands of acres where something large could easily avoid detection most of the time.
Goodfoot–I think you’re right too. I think in addition to the steady movement, there are probably many of them traipsing the U.S. alone. And while we have our borders, there’s nothing to keep them from staying in the U.S. as opposed to walking up into Canada.
AS for the sightings–yes, I don’t look upon them as proof positive. People are prone to all kinds of issues: misidentification, wanting 15 minutes of fame, crazy and so on. However, despite what scoftics would have you believe, that doesn’t not rule out all sightings, or even most of them. I look at the body of sightings as proof that people are seeing something out there in the wilds of America and there is a commonality to what they are seeing: a larger than man sized, hairy biped that is making its home in places humans don’t live on a regular basis.
That’s the point to me: there’s enough sightings to lead me to believe it’s not just some guy who creeped himself out in the woods. AND, the sightings just keep coming every year, and they are not becoming less as you would expect if it was a passing phase or people getting freaked out because of stories. In fact, there is a steady if not higher amount of sightings as time goes on. There is some sort of cryptid wandering the forests and swamps and wild areas in this country. We just have to figure out what the heck it is (and no I don’t and will not buy into it being paranormal or dimension hopping being at this point–that’s what started this whole thread and for me to make that leap, I’m going to require a whole lot more evidence).
Amen to all!
Good insight and post DWA!
SHJ: All I can say is, you keep working on me, something is gonna happen. Midwest, right? Whereabouts? I know you have said it before but it has been a long time and yep, 35 with a wet noodle, go ‘head.
Goodfoot: oh, discomfort is at the very heart of what bothers society about topics like this (witness the reports from people who found out how close they were). I think that reading the first chapter of Myra Shackley’s book …and connecting the dots makes clear: alone among what Europeans encountered here, they’d be most likely to have been in flat immovable denial about this. Got passed down, generation to generation. We might be gobsmacked were we to know not only how many scientists sotto voce give credence to the evidence…but how many people have actually seen one.
dconstrukt: no one disagrees we should – SHOULD – have proof by now if this is real. But not only do I think there’s general denial about it, but there are records of folks, OK, alleging to have found everything from hair to bones to scat to …you name it, just as we have for the critters we know about. Given the reception they saw others get…our current situation fails to surprise me.
PhotoExpert: we never talk anymore. 🙁 How’s it going? Need you in that witness box, man.
Thanks for the kind words, everybody, and to Craig for letting some of us go on about this.
Bf isn’t paranormal?How about reading this account.http://bigfootordemon.weebly.com/
My line of thinking is in harmony with Nick Redfern. Personally, I believe the creature is a demonic entity.