Living with Bigfoot
Posted by: Craig Woolheater on April 2nd, 2015
KIRO Radio’s Kim Shepard talks to Dr. Matthew Johnson (Dr. J) of Puyallup, Washington about Bigfoot Habituation near Mount Rainier National Park.
A revolution in Bigfoot research is happening in our backyard.
Dr. Matthew Johnson, or Dr. J as he is known in the Bigfoot community, has searched for a Bigfoot for the past 15 years. It started when he and his wife had a close encounter with one in Southern Oregon during a hike.
“Everyone has a hobby. People like to quilt and like to golf,” Johnson said. “Mine is getting out in the mountains with the fresh air and looking for the Big Hairy Guy.”
During the hike, Johnson and his wife were both overcome by a pungent and terrible odor. He went off the trail to investigate and says he caught a glimpse of a Sasquatch just as it was running off.
Washington has more reported sightings of Bigfoot than any other state in the country, and Pierce County has more than any other county in our state.
But, Johnson isn’t your typical Bigfoot hunter. He has practiced as a psychologist for more than 30 years. He works at Western State Hospital in Lakewood.
“I work with two different client populations. One is to help restore individuals to competency so they can stand trial, and the other one is to work with the ‘not guilty by reason of insanity,'” he said.
Johnson doesn’t hide his interest in Bigfoot. During his first interview at Western State he said the topic came up as they were chatting about hobbies. His employer had no issue with what he chooses to do in his free time.
Johnson’s home in Puyallup backs to a huge swath of forest he calls the “Washington Habituation Area.” He uses parabolic microphones to record what he believes is a family of Relic Hominids that lives there year round. He also leaves bowls of food for the playful, nocturnal creatures in a bid to gain their trust.
Read the rest of the story at MYNorthwest.com.
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.
While I find Dr. Johnson’s approach to “connect” interesting, I am still alarmed by his (or anyone else, for that matter) wanting to “accelerate the discovery of the species” by the habituation process. He claims his approach is respectful in gaining the trust of the forest people, but what does he honestly anticipate happening after that? No matter his good intentions, I think it could surely jeopardize not only their trust, but put their very lives at risk (and maybe some human’s safety, in the long run).
Ironically, he brings up the Native American’s understanding of what Bigfoot is, and we already know the sad history of the Native Americans themselves, when we pioneers/settlers “gained” their trust– we proceeded to try to annihilate them almost to the point of extinction, because we wanted their land and their resources for ourselves. And we also have a reasonable understanding of much land and resources that Bigfoot is loosing now, due to logging, population expansion, oil & gas exploration, etc. So, if Dr. J’s theory works, I just foresee the inevitable risk put on these creatures by man.
If, say, Bigfoot were to become a legal protected species in every state, there will be a lot of greedy corporations who will not take kindly to their business operations being curtailed or shut down to accommodate a species of what, many already claim to be just wood apes or “neanderthals”, and won’t even consider their possible shared genome to us humans. No matter what laws we enact, legal trusts, reserves, preserves, etc, Bigfoot will just become another “nuisance” to be dealt with by the greedy, corrupt and ignorant bureaucrats who want it all for themselves.
Just like we did to the Native Americans.
IMHO, Bigfoot will most certainly be betrayed by the very people he came to trust. I weep at the thought.