Mythical Painting

 Been working in the studio lately and it feels good. Three of the latest:

Dragon Smoke, acrylic on canvas, 18" by "24

Dracula's Hall, acrylic on canvas

Mermaid's Sky, acrylic on board

No One is Safe!: When Animals (and aliens) Invade

Items in recent news from the animal realm:

A rat unnerves a driver in New York.

Armadillos
The old legend about armadillos carrying the leprosy virus has resurfaced. As armadillos make their way in Florida, agencies are watching for signs of a leprosy outbreak.

Among the theories on how armadillos got into Florida in the first place, the old escaped from a circus/zoo explanation was offered.  (Adrianna Rodriguez,USA Today)

Bedbugs
Bedbugs “are everywhere” in France. (Nathan Diller, USA Today)

Glowing Animals
A cool item about glowing animals. They’re more prevalent that one would think:

Fluorescence was most common and most intense among nocturnal species, the researchers found, but it was also present in diurnal animals, which are active during the daytime, including the mountain zebra and the polar bear.
“We didn’t know that so many mammals had glowing skin or glowing fur,” said Dr Kenny Travouillon, curator of mammalogy at the Western Australian Museum and the study’s lead author.

Weird Rabbit Aliens
I’ll leave you with this report from Lon Strickler on his Phantoms and Monsters blog about a witness who had a very weird experience involving a rabbit that wasn’t a rabbit. The witness also describes hearing from others with their own bizarre rabbit/alien/cryptid/ufo encounters. A subject I am very much interested in. Something about weird rabbits and the supernatural --can’t resist.

Everything Here All At Once

 I'm just going to throw it all out here. I have many blogs, some which I can't access due to massive Google/Blogger fuck ups. And after fifteen years or more of blogging I have no idea what passwords were when where... 

So the Orange Orb is all about UFOs. The things themselves, cases old and new, my own experiences, my friends, my armchair research, my rants,UFO Land,  ghosts, aliens, crytpids, and all manner of Fortean weirdness. Always.

But also art and poetry and writing and who the hell knows. Stay tuned. Please. Thanks.

The CIA and Wooly Mammoths

They do keep trying. What is it with the desire of Mad Science to bring back the wooly mammoth? This item from BoingBoing:

The CIA's venture capital firm just backed Woolly Mammoth cloning | Boing Boing.

So many questions. So many. Why is the CIA, of all institutions, involved? What do they care? Why do they care? Winklevoss Capital is investing in this project. The Winklevoss twins, who invented, or partially invented, depending on one's opinion, Facebook. 

The octopoid tendrils reach far indeed in Forteana. 

Lon Strickler's The Meme Humanoids: Modern Myth or Real Monsters

 

Lon Strickler’s recent book The Meme Humanoids: Modern Myths or Real Monsters is a good contribution to the cryptid data pile. The topic is somewhat fresh: Rakes, Slender Man, Tall Whites  and similar beings. . . while those stories have been around for awhile I don’t think anyone has devoted efforts to create a collection of narratives about these encounters. In Strickler’s book you have a great collection of very weird experiences involving, among other things, “creepy pasta” cryptids.  That was a new term for me. Creepy pasta, pasta cryptids, etc. are those creatures that started out as fictional but somehow, sometimes,  became real. (Example: Slender Man was the creation of Eric Knudsen and not a real being.)

Some find the fact that Strickler doesn’t offer us solutions to these encounters frustrating. I find it refreshing. There’s of course, which is all any of us have, but the fact there are so many similar experiences of a highly weird kind reported by people all over the world is enough for me. I still don’t know what these creatures are, or why they are, but it’s not Strickler’s job to decide that for us, and he doesn’t. He simply presents us with a good collection of personal stories.

A question that Strickler poses: are humans capable of projecting, or creating,  thought forms, turning them into actual beings? (Think Tulpas, for example.) Is that what is happening here, at least in some cases? The title of the book forces us to think about this; are these creatures, once myth, now real? If you consider myth to mean real, but in another sense, you're on to something, I think. 

The last story in the book is an odd one. It is written almost like a horror fiction novel, which Strickler acknowledges. Something about this last encounter in the book seemed off; too much creative writing, not to mention one hell of an unbelievable story. And that’s saying something; some readers might think “All of it is unbelievable!”

But Lon Strickler includes this story and he gives his reasons why. The inclusion of the story is a good way to end the book.

If you are interested in cryptids or the paranormal UFO world in general, you will want to read this book.

Coast to Coast This is More Like It, and, How I Don't Make Friends...

Tonight on Coast to Coast Shows: Linda Moultan Howe, and Rich Newman who will talk about his research on "creepy bridges."

I have been listening to Coast to Coast since the Art Bell days. Give me all the good solid old fashioned Fortean, anomalous stuff: ghosts, hauntings, UFOs, aliens, reptilians, lizard men, Sasquatch, monsters of all kinds, cryptids of all kinds, conspiracies (mainly paranormal/supernatural related), religions of a paranormal kind… all that stuff.

Politics, economics, and health, loosely tied to conspiracy and even less so to paranormal themes, not interested. Yet those subjects are the subject of Coast to Coast frequently. I'm bored! I am not interested. Give me contactees, abductees and orbs. More of the latter, much less, in fact none, of the former.

I'll accept spirits of the dead, life after death, and topics covering that realm, like dreams, but politics? How our money is worthless, Big Pharma is ruining both our health as well as our very lives? While true -- I have no argument against that -- I don't want to hear it on Coast to Coast. It's the only program on old fashioned, old school radio, of its kind. Stick to the weird, the unexplainable, the mysterious.

Oh, and don't get met started on skeptics and silly shills, like Seth-from-SETI.

While I'm at it, let's talk about George Noory. I realize I am risking some ire and if I ever am fortunate enough to see my works in print in a bona fide book form (Bigfoot from Outer Space stuff, Orange Orbs, etc.) I will not be asked to be a guest. But Noory drives me insane. I cannot stand his constant interrupting - just when a guest is into delivering a great bit of information, making an interesting point, raising a good question, along comes Noory with some inane, stupid, insipid question or comment. SERIOUSLY?! (And see what I've just done? He's made me regress to middle school speak.) He restates the guest's point in the lamest terms. Noory asks questions that the guest just addressed, as if the guest hadn't even brought the point up in the first place. My poor little transistor radio is duct taped in places; it's been thrown across the room so many times in sheer and agonizing frustration.

Many guest hosts on Coast to Coast are excellent. I realize they have a great gig and I have no idea how they truly feel about Noory. And, they might (assuming they read my blog which I realize of course, they don't, let alone know who I am) find Noory an intelligent guy and deep thinker.  But I find it intriguing I can admire and respect the likes of George Knapp, or Connie Willis, or Jimmy Church, who step in for Noory, while they make strange bed fellows indeed. I don't blame them at all, hell, if I were in their shoes, I'd do the same.

This is just my personal rant; against the non-paranormal, non-supernatural, non-weird slant Coast to Coast gives us too often. I understand the argument is something like "we try to give a broad array of subjects" and "we're not going to please everyone all the time" but I'd love to access a mainstream show that devotes itself to the weird all the time. (What I'd give to have a twenty-four hour television station devoted to UFO and paranormal topics.) (Not streaming on-line, but your every day serviceable television-on-the-TV show.)

MORE Missing 411 High Strangeness: "Predator Saran-Wrap" Synchronicity

I had a strange dream the other night, which I posted here and on my Frame 352 Sasquatch blog. That dream had to do with David Paulides Missing 411 books and what I called a "predator" type being:

Out of nowhere, I am grabbed by invisible hands. I sense their presence, I know that they are here, but I can’t see who -- or what -- they are. I get a glimpse of these things. They shimmer in and out, sort of like the Predator. These things look human like in some ways. They have two arms and legs like humans, etc. But they are about seven feet tall and muscle bound, like The Hulk. They grab me by the arms and feet and drag me up the hill. My friends are completely unaware of what’s going on. I scream with everything I have but they can’t hear me. (Regan Lee, Orange Orb)

A few odd coincidences followed that post, which I also wrote about here.

Last night, David Paulides was the guest on Coast to Coast. George Knapp was the host. Great interview. Paulides was on to discuss his new book Missing 411: Hunters. During that interview, Knapp and Paulides discussed the strange experience of Jan Maccabee. She is married to UFO researcher Dr. Bruce Macabee. In that interview, Paulides describes a shimmering, predator like being Ms. Macabee saw -- and photographed -- while out in the woods in his article, complete with images, “Predator in the Forest” or Jan's Weird Experience. The following is from Maccabee's article:

Suddenly the woods went quiet.  Noise stopped. The silence was “weird.”  It so surprised and unnerved her that she wrote a text message to her friend (thereby documenting this event): Something is wrong.  The woods just went to a dead silence. No squirrels, no birds, no crickets.  Is odd!  (6:23 PM EDT) She thought a coyote or maybe a black panther or some predator animal caused the quiet as she knows (as hunters know) that when a predator such as a bear, for example, enters an area the other animals tend to become quiet.  Then she became aware that a weird visual “effect” was moving rightward across her field of view at an apparent distance of maybe fifteen to twenty feet.  She described it as if looking through "saran wrap."  Perhaps a more apt comparison would be like looking at a mirage above a hot road.  She compared this distortion of the scene as being somewhat like the effect of the invisible creature in the PREDATOR movie!  This distortion was at a higher altitude than her 15 ft above the ground, perhaps about 25 ft above the ground..  She took her glasses off and rubbed her right eye thinking at first she had a floater (a mote in the eye).  But after rubbing it was still there and not a floater. (Bruce Maccabee) 

When I heard Paulides describe the predator, sara-wrap type image, I almost fell out of the chair! While there are differences between the dream and the shimmering, predator like effect Jan Macabee saw, (desert/woods, dream/reality) the specific similarity of the predator image is certainly startling.

Chupacabra Found in Eugene, Oregon!

A Chupacabra has been found in Eugene, Oregon; my home town.  All right, not really. What was found roaming the streets of Eugene recently was a Patagonian mara, a large rodent native to Argentina. Obviously the animal was an "exotic pet" of someone's. How it got loose, I don't know, though the Register Guard article does say the owner was found. Whoever found the animal brought it to the local animal shelter.

Image: Public Domain

The rodent is now at the Oregon Zoo, where it is now an ambassador for the zoo. It's new name: Chupacabra.

The Patagonian mara looks like a cross between a capybara and a giant jackrabbit, Paul said. It is a rodent, and while it’s an herbivore, the quarantine period at the zoo’s veterinary medical center will require Chupacabra to be housed in the carnivore ward to prevent him from chewing through the enclosure. 

The enclosure has natural light and a retractable roof, so he can have some fresh air and sun when the weather is good, Paul said. After 30 days, he is expected to become one of the zoo’s ambassadors, meaning he will not be in an exhibit but will be used in the zoo’s educational demonstrations, most likely because of his familiarity with human contact. (Register Guard, June 18, 2016)

The article noted that maras are easy to get in Oregon -- it is not illegal to own one in this state. Personally I don't think anyone should own "exotic" animals as pets. Glad to know "Chupacabra" will have a good home.

It's Not That I'm Jaded . . .

Because I'm not. Some have given it up altogether, others are close to walking away from UFO and all that relates, but not me. I've shifted.

UFOs, Sasquatch, ghosts and other paranormal, anomalous topics are related in many ways. Keeping with the contradictory nature of weird stuff, they're also separate from each other. Connected or not, I've long ago accepted the fact that they are. 

The "hunt" for Sasquatch -- not a literal hunt, not that, ever! -- well, what's the point? If you've seen a Sasquatch, you know they exist. If you haven't, well, maybe one day you will. And it seems to me the surest way to see one is to just be, sans guns, cameras, Paris of plaster, and just meet, (if you're lucky) in mind and spirit, the being in its own realm. I haven't personally seen a Sasquatch, but I know they exist. Some may argue that I prefer to have faith it exists -- philosophical quibbles. I know too many people who have seen one, and I believe them. Either I believe them, or I don't, in which case I am calling them liars. I am pretty sure they aren't lying. I know them -- why would they --in fact, some have only reluctantly told me upon promise of not repeating their encounters. So I accept along with the other evidence that's out there that Sasquatch exists.

Ghosts. I have seen, heard, and felt their presence.  It's difficult to explain to some who haven't experienced this for themselves. For example, the energy, the type of movement and motion involved in objects that do things they shouldn't. Or the voices that debunkers will say are just sounds from the radio, television or kids  other parts of the house. Nope. None of those satisfy, nor do the "explanations" that it's migraine or vision going wonky when seeming white mists forming before your eyes.

Not to mention the very location. A home that is over a hundred years old, once an old folks home, prison, hospital, orphanage, sanitarium, buried on top of an old cemetery, once a plantation -- haunted? You can be absolutely certain that place is haunted!

But while cameras do capture interesting images, and EVPS are always intriguing and evidence adding to the proof pile, there is something to be said for the sensitive, the medium, the psychic, that goes into these places. Respect, for one. Like searching for Sasquatch, a quiet and intentional respect for the situation goes a long way to an authentic experience.

So I no longer feel the compulsion to go out and take casts, photos and the like. I'm not out to prove anything to anyone, and certainly not to any infrastructure, so the only thing left is my personal experience in relation to the energy I'm curious about.

In many ways, the same goes for UFOs, USOs, UAPs.   Many have given up, as they have the search for Nessie or Sasquatch, because no Big Answer has appeared to us, revealing its reality or its purpose. I know its real, so I don't need to discover that aspect. I have no idea -- though I play around with tons of theories -- as to their purpose or intent. I'll probably never find out. But I've always been more of a process oriented type than a result type.

Menacing 7 ft. Eagle

Weird little "mind postcard" the other night. That's what I call those vivid, full color -- often with smells and sounds -- images that come into my mind in rapid fire "clicks." They are extremely detailed, and often I feel as if I'm right there, walking among, within, the scene. These are real, but so fast I can barely keep up. And much of the time, these scenes have nothing to do with me; they seem random. Fascinating, that these "mind postcards" are so vivid and detailed, compete with odors and sounds and color, and yet appear with such quickness and are often irrelevant to my everyday experience.

Sometimes these scenes expand. In other words, as I find myself in them, I can slow it down a bit; walk around, try to interact. But sometimes the people in these landscapes, when they do notice me, even though I'm right next to them, seem annoyed that I'm there. It's as if they notice my being out of place (or time) -- do I seem like a ghost to them? Or that I wandered into someone's else's dreamtime.

These moving mind postcards happen when I'm awake, but lying in bed, prior to sleep. I know this is a typical thing for many and there's a name for it. However, it's still pretty damn intense and weird at times!

So, the other night. Abruptly, as usual, I find myself in a scene. I'm outside in a backyard somewhere -- I don't recognize anything. I have the sense that even though I'm me, now, I'm also a child, around four or five. There's family around, people, like a barbecue or something like that. A semi-rural place. I have the feeling this is in California somewhere; southern California, inland. To my left is a white picket fence, a little worn and wobbly. I look up from where I am in the yard, near the porch, and look over to the large tree (an oak?) that is on the edge of the yard. I think it's actually the beginning of the semi-woodsy area. Somewhat leaning against the tree trunk, and staring right at me, is an eagle.

This eagle is very tall, about 7 feet tall.  It's standing like a human would stand, and leaning against the tree. Every detail is exact, vivid; his white head, his height, his eyes. Large eyes! I am very scared; this thing is not of good intent at all! He (and I just know it's a he) is watching me, and it is not a good thing.

Then I remember the "dream" of the large eagle flying through my open ceiling when I was little, around four or five. In that "dream," I felt elation, not fear.

Well, just one of those many strange and creepy moments that comes when we're traveling through the realm of the weird.

Prior to this intense and scary little scene, I was thinking of two things: one, ghosts as aliens/aliens as ghosts, and going over and over my orange orb experience. Did this call up something? Or is it just the subconscious having some fun? Probably a little of both.

owl haiku

the owls

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

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.

Kithra's Krystal Kave

New blog; she has a website, which is where I found her. She had a good piece on the Cornish Owlman that I quoted. Kithra very nicely responded; she's knowledgeable about a lot of things. She's started a blog.

She writes on UFOs but all kinds of things, cryptids to be sure; very interesting.

MoMo: This Day in History

"MoMO" was one of those Out of Place (OOP) Fortean, anomalous creatures that monster lovers love to love. MoMo appeared on this day; a Bigfoot type creature of a paranormal nature. Read more on Cryptomundo.

New Take on the "Owlman"

Another interesting feature today about the Mawnan Owlman. Tulpa? Manifested surrealism? Always a classic Fortean/Crypto story that never gets tiring. At least, not for flying saucer/crypto junkies like myself.

Loren Coleman on Sexist Racist Bufoons

That's my word, not his.

His recent piece on his blog Cryptomundo is great; and as always, the comments to the item are interesting to read.

The title of the piece is Homophobus mysognistis xenophobus ignoramus and he writes very eloquently on sexism, racism, and other isms in our society, as well as the Sasquatch research culture.

We can't divorce ourselves from the world. "Out there," meaning the "real" world may not know what we do, or about what we do, but we are a part of all that as well.

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.

---

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.

---

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.

---

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

Acceptability of Faith, Demands for Proof

Many a chronic skeptic will back down from attacking/debating/arguing with a religious person. The accommodation is one they’d never make for a UFO or Bigfoot witness, or anyone who’s encountered the paranormal. But they’re not as quick to practice their irrational rationalism with a person of faith because, they’ll tell us, it’s a matter of faith. (Also, many a skeptic is a person of faith.) If the religious person admits that they belief because they “have faith,” and acknowledge that there isn’t any way to prove such a thing (which is why it’s called faith) everyone’s pleased with such civilized behavior and there is no need for debate.

The degree of acceptably of one’s faith decreases with the type of religion or spiritual system in question. Mainstream religions are usually fine, unless they verge on the cultish. When one strays from the “norm” by claiming to be pagan, or a non-Western religion or system, the marginlization begins.

Faith is what it is, and there’s nothing wrong with having faith. This isn’t about a judgment on the merits of faith. But one can not prove God exists, or Jesus, or the Virgin Mary, or the Holy Spirit, etc. Someone says they believe in these things, they believe because of their experience, and their faith. But what have they offered us? Nothing tangible. Yet we leave them alone.

But in cases of UFOs and anomalous events, as we know, the expectations -- the demands -- for proof are shrill. They’re relentless, and those who make the demands are consumed with the self-righteousness of any zealot who believes -- who knows -- they are right and on a higher moral road.


Meanwhile, people see Bigfoot or other entities, and immediately have their sanity and character questioned if they share their stories. One could argue that in the case of a single witness, all we have is her word. And yet, why would someone want to lie about a thing like that? (True, people have and do -- in all areas. The point isn’t so much about believing another wholeheartedly without any thinking on your part. It’s more of an approach, a mindset, a way of looking at the world that is the issue here.)

In cases of multiple witnesses, we have a lot more than the lone person relating her story of encountering a God. Yet we demand much more from the Bigfoot witness.

The same for UFOs. Hell, we’re still stuck on the inaccurate semantics surrounding UFOs: the inane question “Do you believe in UFOs?,” the “We don’t know what a UFO is, so how will we know one when we see one?” (also used for Bigfoot) and “UFOs really means extraterrestrials” comments.

Even with photographs, video, film, thousands upon thousands of witnesses, anecdotal evidence, the chronic skeptic still swims around the silly language games while demanding proof, proof, and more proof.

It’s not a surprising reality to know, though it is frustrating, that the anomalous -- where something has been encountered, smelled, seen, touched, heard and felt -- is not only dismissed, but violently discarded. Juxtaposed this with the serene acceptance of staid religious “faith” where nothing has been seen, heard or felt, except by the individual. There are no photos , no radar, no plaster casts or interesting DNA results from hair samples, just a person’s “faith” to get them through. And we nod and gladly accept the latter as rational, and the former as irrational.

By accepting some forms of religious belief as valid and rational, those who reject the anomalous in general have set up a buffer for themselves. A little blankie that comforts; yes, faith is a mystery but there you are. No we can move on. The scientist can go to church and go back into the lab, utterly rejecting ghosts, esp, UFOs, Bigfoot and weird creatures that pop into our reality.

And then there's this; the idea that religious experiences and apparitions are paranormal/Fortean, not "religious" though obviously they're framed in that way.

Bigfoot:Patterson-Wallace Synchronicity

It feels like Bigfoot is following me. Lots of Bigfoot items coming my way, recent conversation with Lisa Shiel (Backyard Bigfoot,) and too many threads to follow up on. And last night I posted this item over on the OrangeOrb on My Space (basically it's a billboard and a back-up) on a Wallace/Patterson connection. Of a sorts. Then I see that Loren Coleman on cryptomundo has posted a Wallace/Patterson item as well. Maybe Sasquatch is psychic after all.

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.