Demons and Deer

Thanks to Lesley Gunter at The Debris Field for the following links, both of which are very interesting for their perspectives on UFOs.

"The UFO manifestations seem to be, by and large, merely minor variations of the age-old demonological phenomenon. " (John A. Keel, The Trojan Horse)

Aliens are Demons We start with the following story link at UFO Disclosure blog: Experiences Changes Mind - Aliens Are Demons. Immediately the mind rebels: "demons?" That superstitious Christian fear based crap? But if we think of "demon" as an entity -- akin to Djinn, say -- and strip the label of its religious trappings, we might get somewhere. However, UFO Disclosure does not take any of these ideas seriously, commenting that he and Nick Redfern recently debated the idea of "demonic" forces at work within a UFO context. And the story itself, from "Messina" -- while described in somewhat sexist terms by UFO D. who paraphrases Messina's theory: "...including combining the missed periods of women in the 40's going thru the change of life - into being aborted by the aliens in their spaceship." (I've never interpreted my hot flashes as being alien induced probings, though they sure as hell feel damn supernatural sometimes.) Messina's story, about abductee Camille James Harman and linked to by UFO Disclosure, reports that Harman prayed for clarity regarding her alien encounters as she worked on her book about those encounters:

 "I started to pray, 'God, give me an answer to this whole mystery. I want to have a useful conclusion.' I was then guided to read a couple of books that I hadn't come across in my research. (Later on), a profound feeling of grace came over me. I felt the divine, protected and guided." Harman considers herself a born-again Catholic."

Not just a born again Christian, but a born again Catholic. I find this distinction intriguing for its connection to Marian apparitions and UFOs. I find myself in a betwixt and between place with all this. Fear and religious constraints vs. non-human but not ET alien alien. Meaning, some non-human, intelligent force that's been with us for eons. John Keel is just one of many UFO researchers who long ago came to this conclusion. Really nothing new, yet still a shadowy kind of theory that hangs out on the fringes of UFOlogy. This is not to say other entities also exist, including literal ETs.

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Deer Men and UFOs
I've been thinking on deer imagery in relation to UFOs for awhile now, as I wrote about not long ago. Besides the deer connection, the account of other animals and their behavior as signals something is definitely not at all right is a subject I've been following for some years. So I found this link at The Debris Field interesting: UFOs and Deer Men in Oklahoma, at Mysterious Universe. Very cool encounters, and scary as hell. Definite high strangeness!

A Favorite UFO/Fortean Event: The Kentucky Goblins

A favorite anomalous event, one that remains a mystery more than fifty-five years later. That is the Kentucky, or Hopkinsville "goblins." Small, alien looking creatures terrified the Sutton family in Hopkinsville, Kentucky in 1955. Shots were fired, the sheriff notified. No one has resolved the mystery, though of course there are dozens of theories. And of course, the skepti-bunkies will tell you they've solved it long ago. (See debunker Joe Nickell's --"Mr. Owl" -- theory here.)

Were the Kentucky goblins aliens from outer space? Owls? Drunken, paranoid hallucinations? Elves? Inner earth entities? Two recent articles discuss this classic case.


Greg Newkirk at Who Forted? wonders if these beings haven't returned:Have the Kentucky Goblins Returned? Exclusive Photos! | Who Forted? Magazine Newkirk shares an email he received about strange creatures in the Kentucky/West Virginia area. Strange creatures that, the writer comments, seem to be coming from an "abandoned mine located on the edge of my property." Another email, more details, and... the strange path leading to the origin of a name. And, there are photos!

Newkirk asks the right questions. I empathize with his curiosity combined with skepticism. (I too have been contacted at times with tales of strange sightings and weird beings, but you always wonder if the person is honest, on crack, or what. The anomalous explorer wants it so much to be something to explore, and yet. . .) I think the first photo of the alleged being is outright fakery but really that's beside the point. In the true Fortean mileau, it doesn't matter.

Micah Hanks considers the Hopkinsville goblins as being of inner earth, and gives us more background on the original event:The Goblin's Grimoirie: Hopkinsville Reprised, or the Hollow Earth? Hanks references Newkirk's article and wonders if the beings weren't from innter earth after all.

Abandoned mines as homes for strange beings -- including Sasquatch -- a theory that has been discussed before. Wm. Micheal Mott wrote about beings living inside the earth in his classic Caverns, Cauldrons, and Concealed Creatures.

 

(Photo: Ivan T. Sanderson with goblin replica. Soure: http://www.johnkeel.com/?m=201204)

The Kentucky Hopkinsville goblins are often associated with UFOs; thought of to be aliens. There are similarities to the "greys" after all. (Assuming the greys are aliens as well.) But then we have other enticing ideas about what these "goblins" might be. Not from outer space, but inner earth. There's an idea these beings are aliens from space but also of the earth; entities of both realms. The Hopi tradition speaks of the ant people, who now live underground, but came from the skies originally. Descriptions of the ant people parallel the grays, and, the Kentucky goblins.

Here's an interesting explanation of the origin of the word "goblin" which contains a reference to mines:

Standard scholarship holds that English took goblin from the French gobelin. The problem with Goblin this is that, while Middle English had the word goblin as early as 1320, there is no record of the French word gobelin until the 16th century. Interestingly, a 12th century cleric called Ordericus Vitalis mentions Gobelinus as the name of a spirit which haunted the neighbourhood of Évreux. It is possible that gobelin evolved from the ancient Greek kobalos "rogue, knave", via the Medieval Latin cobalus. If so, it is related to the German kobold, and hence to the name of the metal cobalt.

German silver miners (that's German miners of silver, not miners of "German silver") named cobalt after the kobold, a "goblin or demon of the mines" as it was not only worthless but caused sickness. Nickel (a German name for "the devil") has a similar origin.
~ Source: Take Our Word for It.

Whether or not Greg Newkirk's contact was telling the truth or playing trickster, the idea itself is a valid one. Many traditions tell of entities that live inside the earth. It is possible the goblins seen that August night in 1955 in Kentucky were indeed inner earth dwellers.

owl haiku

the owls

owls are plentiful
these days, appearing where you'd
least expect them to

Stalking the Trickster on Hidden Experience

Mike Clelland of Hidden Experience blog brings us an interview with researcher Chris O'Brien on his new book Stalking the Trickster about the trickster in a paranormal/UFO context.

I've been a fan of O'Brien's for years, having read his three books on the strange happenings in Colordao's San Luis Valley. I haven't read Trickster yet but it's at the top of my list. (I hear that O'Brien in his book refers to an article I wrote but he cited the wrong source, not me; heh... trickster!)

From what I've heard O'Brien say about trickster here and other places, I like where he's going with sort of reframing the idea of Trickster in a Fortean context. Without having read the book I can't make any comments really... just have to wait.

Anyway, take a listen!

Podcast: Richard Dolan on John Keel

Karyn Dolan interviews Richard Dolan on John A. Keel. Haven't listened to it yet, but it promises to be a good one! Thanks to Alien UFO and Paranormal Casebook for the link.

Book: "UFOs, Time Slips, Other Realms and the Science of Fairies"

A nice review of the bookBlows Against The Empire-The ET Hypothesis Comes Under Attack In...
UFOs, Time Slips, Other Realms and the Science of Fairies, by Edwin Sidney Hartland; additional material by Tim Beckley, Sean Casteel, Brent Raynes and Tim R. Swartz, on UFO Digest by Sean Casteel. The book sounds intriguing and I'm ordering it right away. The book deals with the issue of ET vs. "fairy" or rather, terrestrial entities we assume or interpret as ET. As Casteel writes:

... there is another interpretation, one which, while it is taken quite seriously by premiere UFO researchers like Jacques Vallee, remains a definite minority point of view: What if what we are witnessing and experiencing actually originates on Earth and has been here throughout mankind's struggle to understand the strange environment he finds himself thrust into? Are the diminutive gray aliens so frequently claimed to have visited hapless mortals as they lay abed really just a variation on millennia of old folklore about fairies, changelings, elves and other forms of wee people?

That is the primary thrust of this 2008 release from Global Communications, called "UFOs, Time Slips, Other Realms and the Science of Fairies." The bulk of the book is a reprint of a much older book by Edwin Sidney Hartland, in which he offers a wonderful overview of the folklore of fairies and other mysterious creatures that frequently cross over from their shadowy dimension to enter ours.

This is Vallee territory (among others) as well of course, and I don't disagree. But I acknowledge I have a bias for the reality of ET as well, and I don't see why the explanation needs to be an either/or one. Isn't it possible there are at least two concurrent reasons for phenomena like this, one being literal extraterrestrials from outer space (whether from our own solar system or beyond)? It's also possible one manipulates the other for our benefit -- in order to deceive, which is one characteristic of the phenomena. There's also a symbiotic relationship between us and "them," -- all of "them" -- whoever "they" are, of course.

Looking forward to reading this book.

Promoting Mary

I'm shamelessly self-promoting my blog UFO-Mary. Visit it, leave comments, get the widget.

In The Green Room: Yes, Yes, Yes! But . . .

I have a new blog entry on the UFO Magazine blog, The Green Room: Yes, Yes, Yes! But . . .

Around The Orb

New template, and new name, on my skeptic’s blog. It’s now Snarly Skepticism, and has some neat things, like the Bigfoot Threads on JREF and Still Counting on the menu on your right. (At last count I think it was thirteen.)

I’ve been having too much fun at Vintage U.F.O. -- lots of clips and things up right now. Nothing terribly insightful but fun. You might have noticed I made a slight change to that blog too; from Vintage UFO to Vintage U.F.O.

As always, I’ll plug Women Of Esoterica and Frame 352: The Stranger Side of Sasquatch.

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Still reading Andrew Colvin’s Mothman Photographer’s II, which I’m enjoying very much. This isn’t to say I always agree with Colvin on some things; he has some very firm opinions. I won’t mention names but he doesn’t like a couple of people in the field I do find interesting, and likes someone I had a very nasty private exchange with, who frequents a well known UFO list. But his experiences and take on things is worth looking at; and the book has a lot of stuff by John Keel, which is great. I still think, after all this time, much of what Keel has to say about things makes sense. (So there’s an example of an “old” researcher whose contributions may be “old” but they’re hardly without value.) If nothing else, the book is fascinating for its mind boggling world of synchronicities and complicated connections from one seemingly mundane thing to a paranormal, UFO, global Illuminati thing. You can see how this stuff could drive someone mad . . .

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The Contactees continue to fascinate me, and I’m just beginning to explore the idea of the time of their contacts. We think of the Contactee era has happening mainly in the 1950s and 1960s. But eras don’t exist in vacuums; any period in history overlaps with what went before, and what follows. Some of the Contactees experienced visitations earlier than what we typically think of as the ‘Contactee era.” What that could mean, I don’t know.

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I’m so busy with my own blogging and writing, and “real” life, that I don’t acknowledge all the others who do great work -- and for free, which shows I’m not the only one obsessed. All the individual bloggers, listed on my links list, but also forums and places like Book of Thoth, or Binnall of America, or UFO Digest, or Stuart Miller's Alien Worlds. And Greenwald’s Blackvault. The Anomalist as well, even though they’re a publisher, and do make some money; but it’s not as if they’re all buying villas in Italy. All those places give the rest of us daily news and links to the realm of the weird, which is pretty neat.

And of course all those individual bloggers; that’s why it annoys me so much when people start writing about how others are wasting time, or should shut up because they’re not saying the “right things” about UFOs. Or worse, when they get downright insulting. No, you shut up. Neener neener. So there. Feh!

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Have a good week!

Wild Women and Shape Shifters

Lisa Shiel, author of the Bigfoot Quest Blog and Backyard Bigfoot: The True Story of Stick Signs, UFOs, & the Sasquatch encourages woman to get involved in Bigfoot research. As Shiel points out, there are very few women in Bigfoot research. There’s herself, and Autumn Williams, and that’s about it.

Both women are active researchers: they’re field researchers, actually going out there and doing all the physical “nuts and bolts” research things one does in search of Bigfoot.

But, there’s a difference as well. Both of these women have had no problem at all with making public their views that Bigfoot is more than just a flesh and blood creature.

Shiel believes that Bigfoot is much more than just basically a “giant ape” or some other animal. There’s much more to Bigfoot than the simple idea it’s another animal. It’s a shape shifter, it’s paranormal, it’s no mere big dumb missing link.

Williams has a different take on this, but both agree that it’s vital to include all the data when investigating reports, and that includes the stories of UFOs, floating lights, telepathy, dematerialization, and all the other weirdness often associated with Bigfoot encounters.

I’ve found that the few women who are involved in Bigfoot research in some way very naturally include the high strangeness data. They are more open to the possibilities, more open with their own experiences that many consider far too weird to discuss seriously.

(With all due respect, take a look at what Loren Coleman has said about Mary Green. Not pretty. Mary Green is a Bigfoot experiencer/researcher of the “high strangeness” kind.)

Shiel says that being a woman in a predominantly male field has its share of expected nonsense:

Now I like men. But as a woman—even worse, a single woman—engaged in a testosterone-ridden field of research, I can testify to the fact that most male Bigfoot researchers haven't heard about equal rights or women in the workplace. One man told me women don't want to get involved in Bigfoot research because they're afraid of the woods. Come on!

I remember watching a program on the Sci-Fi channel with Bigfoot researcher Autumn Williams. There were others on the team; I forget who, but she was the leader of the field research team and the only female. She was the bigfoot expert, not them. None of the men were in any way overtly asses, but one guy just had to up and mock her, and do stupid things like make ape calls as loud as he could. and this from an adult, who seemed to be in his fifties. I had to laugh at the way Williams really ripped him a new one.

This is the elephant in the room; I’ve spoken to a lot of female UFO and bigfoot writers, experiencers and researchers, and the things said -- and done -- to them at times is frustratingly astounding. We don’t talk about it for a lot of reasons. Females in any male dominated field experience this, this is not news. It’s so typical, it’s boring to even comment on. Still, it does get to one at times. It’s just a matter of fact aspect of being in this field. I’ve been sent ugly e-mails, and ugly things have been written about me openly on-line, by men. I’ve been called a lesbian (not that’s there anything wrong with that) (but I’m not,) a Jew-bitch, a man-hater. I’ve been “accused” of “wanting to write like a man” and, that I “write like a man.” (that’s either a backhanded compliment or so surreal it’s not worth trying to figure out.) I’ve been told I have a “castration problem” and my husband has been called names (he doesn’t even go on line!) simply because he’s married to me; the implication being he’s a wimp. (Listen, the man’s a double Scorpio, believe me, he’s not afraid of nuttin’, see?!) I’ve maintained for decades that the real last threat to some men from females exists on an intellectual level. (I experienced this in philosophy classes in college.) Men are no exception, we’re all called names and insulted. Take a look around and you’ll find insult fests going on between various male writers and researchers that make you wonder how we’re supposed to take anyone seriously, if they behave so badly? Anyway, this somewhat beside the point; I don’t intend to go off an a tangent here. It's a given, and you move on.


Shiel encourages women who are researching Bigfoot to contact her. Please do:

If you are a women involved in Bigfoot research, please e-mail me at lisa@upbigfoot.com. If you have a blog or website, we can exchange links. Women researches need to help and support each other as much as possible—start our own groups, exchange knowledge and wisdom, provide moral support.

I don’t consider myself a true Bigfoot researcher, since I've never once gone out in the woods to look for Bigfoot. (And it’s not because I’m afraid of the woods.) If anything, I’m an “armchair” scholar on Bigfoot, and that includes all the high strangeness stories concerning Bigfoot, the focus being on the anomalous aspects of encounters.

I don’t know if I personally will ever go out to look for Bigfoot on an expedition, because I’m convinced it’s pretty much pointless. Bigfoot will show itself if and when it wants to, not because you’re out there. Following up on stories would be interesting, however, and clues could be found; but it’s all in the approach. Banging around out there making lots of noise and thinking Bigfoot’s going to appear on cue is ridiculous.

Right now there is a possible Bigfoot case in my area that I’ve been keeping track of. The case includes paranormal activity. If I get involved in this further, I will do physical research as well. This isn’t in hopes of seeing a Bigfoot, but rather to gather any possible evidence of something anomalous.

So if you’re a female researcher of the anomalous, including Bigfoot, know that there are women out there like Lisa Shiel, like myself, and others, who are supportive of your efforts.

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Valley of the Skookum
I received my copy of In the Valley of the Skookum: Four Years of Encounters With Bigfoot, by Sali Sheppard-Wolford. (Sheppard-Wolford is Autumn Williams’ mother.) I stayed up until 3:30 am reading it. I couldn't put it down. I didn’t finish it, not for lack of trying, but I’m about a chapter away from the end. There’s much to say about this book, including the orange lights seen by many of the witnesses and my own orange orb sighting. But that’ll have to wait for another day.

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Linda Martin
By way of Lisa Shiel’s blog, I discovered another female Bigfoot researcher; Linda Martin. I’m not familiar with Martin, and followed the link from Lisa’s blog to Martin’s Bigfoot sightings, where I found she had picked up on my little WTF blurb on Technorati, on accepting anomalous Bigfoot data in Bigfoot research. Martin is open to the possibility of a shape shifting BF, but remains skeptical as well. Can’t ask for more than that.

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Notes
Lisa Shiel: http://bigfootquest.blogspot.com/2007/04/wild-women-of-woods.html
Linda Martin: http://www.bigfootsightings.org/
Regan Lee, WTF Technorati blurb:http://technorati.com/wtf/bigfoot/2007/03/30/bigfoot-a-shapeshifter-1
Sali Sheppard-Wolford: Valley of the Skookum

“Mock Them As Barflies From Venus and Mars”

Alfred Lehmberg, of An Alien View blog, has written another great piece, this one on the perception by chronic skeptics who spend large units of time sneering at abductees. No understanding, just the lowest and easiest form of attack. I also saw this piece as a metaphor for other issues, including non-UFO ones.

“Forget that the saucers still fly in your skies; forget the abducted, and pretend that their cries... are musings of idiots, cretinous loons who scratch at your wallet then howl at your moon. But it's you, not *abductees*, "out to lunch" here today! It is YOU, and not them, sopped in naiveté!”

What is so often missed in all this craziness and high strangeness, is what it does to all of us, and why. I don’t pretend to know the “why,” and often am unaware of it doing anything at all to me. We need these experiences, whether it’s us that’s having them, or someone else. Among other things, these abductees, and encounters with entities, and all the rest of it, are gifts. Not just for the individual experiencer, but everyone. These “gifts” are not often appreciated, wanted, or even good ones -- give it back! But they are gifts, of a kind, reminding us that it’s not just us solid citizens out here doing the hard core reality thing.

These events have been going on for thousands of years, and we’ve been trying to figure them out -- or suppress them -- for just as long. Doesn’t seem we’ve gotten anywhere, and insisting that those that experience the anomalous are money hungry, emotionally needy, lying fruitcakes with mental diseases is getting a bit tired.

Bigfoot: What Do You Want to Prove?

The discussion continues over on the Cryptomundo blog about so-called “paranormal” Bigfoot. Call it anomalous or Fortean Bigfoot, whatever you choose, the encounters of Bigfoot with UFO and other non-crypto aspects is the issue here. Lisa Sheil, author of Backyard Bigfoot, has put the core issue very well; what I’ve been trying to say. But she said it better, I think, over on the Cryptomundo blog:

”We all need to ask ourselves, what is the goal of Bigfoot research? To prove Bigfoot are apes? Or to discover the truth about their nature and behavior? If you want to prove they’re apes, you must ignore evidence. If you want the truth, you must examine all data, no matter how disturbing to your sensitive psyche, and determine the reasons to accept or reject it. Rejecting data based on personal bias, fear, or arrogance serves no purpose, scientific or otherwise.”

I’ve had many people say that Bigfoot can’t be “both” flesh and blood and “paranormal.” While I’ve stumbled around trying to say why this is wrong; Lisa again says it more clearly:

"Only someone who misunderstands the concept of paranormal would assert that flesh-and-blood and UFO-related cannot both apply to Bigfoot. According to this idea, a human being who has a psychic experience would no longer be a flesh-and-blood human being."

It simply gets down to this. Are we interested in the truth; the actual answer, or in proving what we think is the truth?

Notes:

Lisa Sheil: Backyard Bigfoot and blog.

Lesley's Debris Field blog. (Image shown here boldly borrowed from her blog)

Craig Woolheater's Cryptomundo blog.

Fortean Bigfoot

The discussion continues over on Cryptomundo about weird, UFO, telepathic, anomalous and Fortean Bigfoot.

One of my points, as well as a truly sincere question, involves this information, or data. These stories exist; they're real. The stories, not the question of the experience itself. So, as I asked, do we accept the BF sighting, but not the UFO sighting? Do we include the BF report, but pretend we never heard anything about the witness also communicating with the creature?

I also made the point that including this anomalous data in the research is not the same as accepting it as real,understanding it, or approving it.

Here's what I commented over on Cryptomundo:

Thanks for the facilitation of this intriguing topic Craig.

Lots of interesting comments, as to be expected!

As I said, I realize that cryptozoology and the search for Bigfoot in a quest for its scientific validity has a hard enough time being taken seriously. I am completely sympathetic to that, and any "nonsense" about telepathic communcations, UFOs, or any other Fortean/high strangeness events associated with Bigfoot is to be rejected. BUT...

Having read several dozens of stories about these types of encounters, and knowing, personally, a few people that have had them, what do you do about them?

Are these people lying? I doubt very much the ones I've spoken with personally are. Always possible of course, as with anything. But I doubt it.

One of the issues here, for me, is: when do you decide, as a researcher, to reject something? A legitimate question.

If you're interviewing a BF witness, and they reveal they saw a UFO at the same time, or that they were in some sort of telepathic communication with BF, or some other "weird" event, what do you do?

Leave it out or ignore it? Accept the BF sighting, but not the other stuff? Reject the whole thing, including the BF sighting, because of the other stuff?

While I understand the fact of science needing physical, solid evidence that can be measured, etc. if these other things are present, they're a part of the experience. It isn't the witnesses or researcher's "fault" that they are a part of the experience.

So now what?

These are valid quesitons. As Nick Redfern pointed out in his recent articles on this topic, these stories are, and you can't just reject them because you feel like it. (on his blog UFO Mystic and in this issue of UFO Magazine.)

Keeping the stories as part of the data isn't the same as believing in them, or accepting them. But it's a start towards including all the evidence you find, as part of the research into the phenomena.

A “Keelian Attitude:” Nick Redfern on “The Crossover Problem”

A lot of good things in the current (February 2007) issue of UFO Magazine. Nick Redfern’s monthly column View From A Brit, discusses the uneasy and often opposed fields of UFOlogy and Cryptozoolgy. As he writes

“UFOlyg and cryptozoology make for strange bedfellows.”

The Crossover Problem, UFO Magazine, February 2007.)

Redfern addresses the issue of flesh and blood/nuts and bolts researchers vs. the “Keelian attitude” towards UFOs and Bigfoot, Nessie, etc. This is a topic very dear to my heart. and I’ve commented here and elsewhere (Trickster’s Realm, etc.) on the bigfoot-UFO relationship. I often ask myself why this split is so fierce; I can understand it a bit more from the flesh and blood Bigfoot side more than the UFO side of the Fortean fence, but it still doesn't seem sensible to me. As Nick points out, the investigation of one realm by a researcher of another would mean that

“both camps are in dire need of an overhaul, in terms of what is really going on.”

True. Also, and more alarming, in Redfern’s views is that by ignoring the weirder data, it will be lost. I absolutely agree as I’ve been saying since I’ve had this blog, the stories exist: deal with them!

Nick shares information about Rendlesham Forest, home of the 1980 Rendlesham UFO event. A really juicy bit of Forteana that I didn’t know about is revealed here about the area’s Fortean history, including crypto creatures, that predates the 1980 UFO event.

Nick writes that these “crossover” events (UFOs, Bigfoot, and other cryptids)

“are not going away any time soon!”

The Big Thicket terrain in Eastern Texas (Piney Woods area) has a delightfully rich history of Fortean and crypto stuff, and Redfern shares some of his investigation into this area in his column. H recommends a intriguing sounding book; In the Big Thicket, by Rob Riggs.

As Nick writes, these cases that include both UFOs and cryptos

“make many people within ufology and crypto zoology cringe.”

The majority of the time, this is sadly true. I agree completely with Redfern:

“Both camps need to realize that neither has the answer to their respective mysteries, and both should treat the crossover cases in the same fashion -- and as rigoursly -- as they would any other encounter. If we fail to look at all of the evidence - whether it sits well in our belief systems or not, it’s truly our loss.”

It was refreshing to read Redfern’s words on this topic. One thing both camps also should realize is that this “crossover” aspect doesn’t necessarily negate ET, or nuts and bolts UFOs, or flesh and blood Bigfoot. In this seemingly never-ending realm of Fortean weirdness doesn’t it seem quite sensible there’s room for all of it? That the possibly is pretty strong for layers upon layers, constantly shifting, sometimes mimicking, sometimes standing alone, sometime merging? Why do so many have a problem with this idea?

Threatened credibility is one reason, and understandable. Trying to prove to the world that Bigfoot exists is difficult enough without dragging in UFOs and dematerializing, telepathic Sasquatches. The same for UFOs. But, while I’m sympathetic to that reality, it’s time to move past that.It takes some courage, but losing data due to rejection of what makes one uncomfortable isn’t contributing to research, as Redfern points out.

I think there are ETs (very probably) as I’ve said many times. But for me, that’s certainly not the end of things. One may or may not have anything to do with the other. We'll see, maybe, if we’re lucky. Either way, as Redfern says, the reality of the stories exists, and we just can’t afford to ignore them.

You can read more about this, where the discussion and more info continues, on Nick Redfern's and Greg Bishop's blog UFO Mystic:
http://www.ufomystic.com/the-redfern-files/thicket-encounters/

Notes:
John A. Keel: The Complete Guide to Mysterious Beings (revised version of Strange Creatures from Time and Space),

Regan Lee:
Bigfoot and High Strangeness, Trickster’s Realm/Binnall of America , Novemeber 2006

Fairies, Bigfoot and Hauntings Trickster’s Realm/Binnall of America May 2006

Nick Redfern:
The Crossover Problem, UFO Magazine, February 2007
Lake Monsters, Giant Cats, Ghostly Devil Dogs, and Ape-Men Para View Pocket Books, March 2004.

Rob Riggs, in the Big Thicket: On the Trail of the Wild Man: Exploring Nature’s Mysterious Dimensions, Paraview Press 2001.

(image source:image source: http://www.creepy.tv/season3_e7.html)