July 4, 2006

Pick Johor Pix Panel

Patience is a virtue. Patience and passion are two important components of cryptozoology research, as I have often mentioned, as per Bernard Heuvelmans.

Johor Hominid Man or Beast

Speculations on the Johor Hominid have reached new lows and highs, from muddled discussions of “reverse evolution” to the creation of a new Peter Loh sketch (above) based on all the information available to a new website.

But the time has come for a challenge to those saying they have more evidence. Based on a recent turn of events in the Johor Hominid or Malaysian Bigfoot situation, there are new reasons for people to feel frustrated and to want to “see the photographs” of the Malaysian hairy bipedal creatures.

Bigfooters Scott Herriott, Chris Kraska, and Craig Woolheater all used the phrase “Show me the monkey suit!” They were pressing Greg Long to produce the evidence behind his hoax claims that Roger Patterson had employed a gorilla costumed person for his 1967 film. We could very soon begin to hear a similar chant, “Show us the Johor pix!” – more and more – on webpages and in emails.

Vincent Chow Bigfoot

Vincent Chow reported a few months ago that he had been shown a group of three of twelve photographs taken by a former Cambodian guerilla. Chow somewhat described them to Peter Loh, me, and a few others. But he said they would not be shown publicly, and would not be shared further until published in a book in a year or more from now.

Mawas sketch by Peter Loh

How Peter Loh first drew (above) the “Malaysian Mawas” based on his initial descriptions from Vincent Chow.

With the establishment of the Johor Hominid website, now an interesting tidbit has slipped out. Sean Ang said on a comment posted on Cryptomundo that he has been shown the photographs. On July 3rd, Sean Ang posted this comment:

I noticed there is alot of interpretation for the little information that we have.

At my personal level, I am still compiling a list of questions to be asked regarding the Johor Hominid.

There [sic] reason I am involved (currently using my own time and resources) is that I have seen some of the photographs. Unless someone can point to me a world class con-men who can produce a photo like that, which is crystal clear (I mean that of National Geographic standard), then we wish to put forward the photos as a tentative “evidence”, so that someone else can falsify them (remember Karl Popper).

I have compared with pictures from Planets of the Apes and winners of the 3D artists, none could come so close.

When something is SO new, we try to come out with as many possible explanations as possible, micro-evolution, mutation, genetic drift and of course reverse evolution. These are meant to provoke dicussions..[sic]

Sean Ang
co-Founder,
johorhominid.org

As Ang himself has clarified, he is not a paleoanthropologist, a museum researcher, but instead a IT (information technology) consultant or worker. He seems to be an important addition to Chow’s team, for the development of the website, although errors in basic factual content and getting online have been a problem, thusfar.

It has been a confusing journey with Chow and Ang. Cryptomundo readers are showing the strain. Jason James Pritchett, a frequent critic of Vincent Chow’s at Cryptomundo, has observed: “Sean Ang says that he has seen some of the now-infamous photos–and he does not appear to be talking about photos of footprints this time.

So it would seem.

Chow has now shown the photographs to a new associate, despite what he said about the owner of the photos leaving the country and the images not being shown until they would be published. What clearly does need to happen, now, is Chow has to diplomatically find a way to show the photographs to an international body of hominologists soon, in a stepped approach to their greater release. The following is my suggestion of a panel of individuals with whom Vincent Chow should share the photographs, with the agreement that they shall not publish them and will send him first, for his use, their honest opinion and analyses, for future publication.

My list is not based, please note, on me personally having a good or bad relationship with those here, but on their knowledge-base of Asian and non-PNW hairy hominoid reports and/or their photo analyses abilities. A gathering of 25 consultants should include the following people:

Johor Hominid Photographs Investigation Panel

Vincent Chow, SPI Johor
Sean Ang, johorhominid.org
Charles Goh, API Johor
Peter Loh, Artist analysis
Debbie Martyr, Indonesian fieldwork
Vern Weitzel, Vietnamese fieldwork
Tran Hong Viet, Vietnamese fieldwork
Anne Mallasseand, Pakistan fieldwork
John MacKinnon, Indonesian/Vietnamese fieldwork
Harold Stephens, Johor expeditions
Bobbie Short, Filipino fieldwork
Frank Poirier, Chinese fieldwork
Paul Cropper, Australian fieldwork
Tony Healy, Australian fieldwork
M. K. Davis, photo analysis
David Bittner, photo analysis
Craig Woolheater, photo analysis
Dmitri Bayanov, Euroasian analysis
Colin Groves, Southeast Asian analysis
Myra Shackley, global analysis
Eric Joye, global analysis
Jeff Meldrum, global analysis
Mark A. Hall, global analysis
Michel Raynal, global analysis
Loren Coleman, global analysis

In an ideal world, Vincent Chow democratically would feel the time has come to have some photographs published for all to ponder, for example, at a site like Cryptomundo or on his new website.

But has Sean Ang’s addition only hardened his position? Ang just commented to me that asking to see the photographs is “like asking for Angelina Jolie’s unpublished baby photos,” and that I now have to “be patient like the rest.”

Yes, patience is a virtue, as is trust in fellow cryptozoologists, hominologists, and Cryptomundo readers.

Vincent Chow

Loren Coleman About Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct). Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015. Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.

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