More on Bigfoot is not Paranormal

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.