Transcript for 6/18/24: A CLOSE SHAVE WITH BIGFOOT W/ TONY MERKEL

I am having a very busy summer, as I am involved with many events that have something to do with paranormal History. I will be in Roswell during the Fourth of July weekend hosting their annual alien parade -- and I will also be in Oaks Park Amusement Park in Oregon hosting a Bigfoot festival-- where topics will be not only be about Bigfoot, but other paranormal things that people are hard to press to explain.

The questions are very alluring --the answers however continue to be elusive --and maybe people like it better that way. 

Robert Anton Wilson once said that we have created this safety net we call reality and every once in a while we are reminded that a very real existential world exists and that the spooky actions we see are all part of some quantum theory that is not easily explained.

There have been many occasions where we have been told the universe we live in is a construct, a safe haven that we have developed to hide away from the various demons and bogeymen that plague our nightmares.

In my business, I have learned many things lurk in the shadows. For most people, shadowy figures appear just in the corner of the eye, which leaves you with the idea that you must be seeing things. 

We have all had some sort of fleeting encounter with shadowy figures hiding just outside the normal field of vision; familiar shapes typically are seen lurking in the dead of night in the corner of a room, peering from behind a tree or around a corner.

On the supernatural side of the argument, we can assume that these shadowy figures are spirits, miasmas, or even shadow people. However, there is yet another area of study where the shadowy figures are not always wispy entities playing hide and go seek with your mind.

The study of monsters and crypto creatures has always been downplayed as a field where investigators are out to find a creature that might exist. Some experts also investigate the possibility that some of these creatures are supernatural in nature or are the product of some rogue manifestation.

Over the weekend, my curiosity peaked and I rented the film Sasquatch Sunset. it is a film about a family of Bigfoot as they take a journey through the seasons and we see them in their habitat. 

Remember those old Disney True Life wildlife TV shows, where they claimed that they put a camera on a wild animal or a group of wild animals and did not interfere with its routine?

That was until the Lemmings scandal of 1958 when Walt Disney produced "White Wilderness," part of the studio's "True Life Adventure" series. "White Wilderness" featured a segment on lemmings, detailing their strange compulsion to commit mass suicide.

According to a 1983 investigation by Canadian Broadcasting Corporation producer Brian Vallee, the lemming scenes were faked. The lemmings supposedly committing mass suicide by leaping into the ocean were actually thrown off a cliff by the Disney filmmakers. The epic "lemming migration" was staged using careful editing, tight camera angles, and a few dozen lemmings running on a snow-covered lazy-Susan-style turntable.

While The family of Bigfoot in Sasquatch Sunset doesn't do anything like that -- they do a lot of things that border on Sasquatch Porn -- a whole new category of filmmaking.

But hey, they think like animals, eat like animals and yes have sex like animals. 

The film was recommended by a colleague of mine, Dave Paull, who himself made a mockumentary about Bigfoot that won a few awards in Europe in the film festival circuit.

He said that the new film about a family of Sasquatch was delightful. So I took his word for it. I wanted to see it in the theaters as a crew get-together. Sometimes Wes, Ron, and I attend a film together because we know it will be a "ground zero" film.

Films that deal in Ground Zero Topics. 

With all of the travel and appearances we have been having so far we just could not find the time to see it together.

After watching it -- I have now become obsessed with it -- it is certainly the most unique film I have ever seen -- I don't know whether to love or hate it -- so I have determined that it just is and it was an escape --without a woke message or some political Hollywood agenda. 

There have been times when movies have piqued my interest simply because of the absurdity of the premise. Sometimes I think to myself that these films are made to appeal to people who want to see something unusual or they are made as a kind of endurance test.

I remember a horror film I saw with Wes called Skinamarink, which was to this day one of the more bizarre horror movies I have seen. That night we were in a packed theater and the film was so engrossing that there was no sound from the audience. The whole time you could hear every sound and creak from the film's soundtrack -- and I believe that the movie had people in a trance-- the film had no real dialogue to speak of --only whispers, and an annoyingly creepy soundtrack of an old-time kiddie Cartoon.

it is a film you can't explain --and I don't think that it is meant for everyone to see.

You have your own unique perspective on it --and that is okay. 

It is similar to how people have different perspectives of Bigfoot as well. 

Bigfoot research is often the domain of amateur enthusiasts. However, some highly educated scientists in relevant fields, such as primatology and anthropology, have expressed beliefs that Bigfoot exists or at least that he may exist and that this possibility should be taken seriously.

One of those Primatologists is Jane Goodall. 

Goodall, famous for her research into the social structures of wild chimpanzees, says she’s open to the possibility that Bigfoot exists.

Goodall said she’s heard many stories from people who have no reason to lie about a Sasquatch sighting. And that makes her believe.

“It’s bizarre that we’ve never found any remains,” Goodall said. “Maybe it’s a spiritual creature. The closest I come when I think about ‘what could it be’ is like the remnant of Neanderthals.”

On a visit to rural Ecuador, Goodall asked her translator to ask local hunters a question.

“All I said was, ‘Ask if he’s seen a monkey without a tail.’ I didn’t say anything more than that … four of those hunters said, ‘Oh yes, we’ve seen a monkey without a tail. It’s about six foot tall and it walks upright.’”

Goodall said the prospect of discovering something new is exciting.

But many skeptics of course wonder how long the creature can remain elusive.

We can speculate that there aren't that many to begin with, they may be dying out, or they are evolving. The more we move into their territory, the more they become less passive and more violent.

The Mountain Gorilla, a species that was recently found is nearly extinct. Mountain gorillas are one of the world’s most iconic creatures, yet just over 1,000 are left in the wild. The Mountain Gorilla was first discovered in 1902. 

Despite years of tireless work to bring them back from the very brink of extinction, this special species is still hanging on by a thread. 

Unfortunately, this is how I see the Bigfoot or the Sasquatch -- it has been around for a long time but because of relentless habitat destruction , Illegal logging, infrastructure development and oil drilling and seeing many key areas of forest torn down, the Sasquatch may have been forced underground, and the dead are buried by their counterparts. 

We could also see populations die off because of disease , Humans and gorillas share 98% of their DNA, making it incredibly easy to transfer deadly diseases including Ebola and Covid-19 to the species that have no natural resistance. 

Nonetheless, some have had their close shaves with the creature, I have seen one as well -- and it certainly was not as I thought it would be -- as I assumed that what I was looking at was a buff man-- someone that had the physique of a wrestler and the face of a smashed pumpkin with button eyes.

It is a face you never forget -- and those who experience encounters certainly feel that they are in the crosshairs of an apex predator.

Although retreating appears to be the typical response of a Sasquatch to the presence of humans, many credible reports describe after-dark harassment of campers and rural property owners by animals believed to be Sasquatches. The harassment activity is usually limited to screams, crashing and snapping of tree limbs and brush, and occasionally the throwing of rocks.

While the entire body of reports strongly suggests that sasquatches do not make a practice of harming humans, the same body of evidence suggests they do hunt other animals. Among the animals that appear to be prey are deer, elk, raccoons, beavers, ducks, and rodents.

Sasquatches are also known to kill dogs that chase or threaten them. Dogs often flee or cower in their presence, but some dogs are more aggressive and sometimes receive very brutal treatment as a result. Aggressive dogs have been found torn apart, with Sasquatch tracks around the remains.

This raises the question of whether Sasquatch can attack if there is a territorial conflict.

Sasquatches are known to raid chicken coops, rabbit hutches, hog pens, and fruit orchards from time to time. There are few reports of horses or cows being attacked or bothered, but these types of livestock do sometimes get very frightened when sasquatches are nearby, according to witnesses.

While the film Sasquatch Sunset tries to show Bigfoot in a peaceful light there are moments where the head or the leader of the clan becomes aggressive. There are scenes where the creatures also tear up a human encampment -- mostly looking for food.

The aggressive nature of the Bigfoot is now becoming part of the story as well and of course, many people believe the only way to document a Bigfoot is to kill it to put to sleep any questions as to whether or not it exists in the wild.

Serious reports of aggressive Bigfoot are a terrifying thought and there have been recordings and videos of campers and hikers who have unfortunately come to a close, only to be chased out of an area, or forced to hide and produce recordings of their terrifying screams and grunts.

But some end up disappearing.

According to NamUs (National Missing and Unidentified Persons System), more than 600,000 persons go missing in the United States every year. Anywhere between 89 percent to 92 percent of those missing people are recovered every year, either alive or deceased. But how many of those disappear in the wild is unclear. Neither the Department of the Interior, which oversees the National Park Service, nor the Department of Agriculture’s US Forest Service keeps track.

Strangely, the most reliable info on missing people in the wild comes from Bigfoot hunters. In 2011, David Paulides, founder of the North America Bigfoot Search, launched a database of wildland disappearances that occurred under “mysterious circumstances.” From his research, there are at least 1,600 people, give or take, currently missing in the wild somewhere in the United States.

Most people, according to his data, disappear in the late afternoon and during or just before severe weather. Bodies are often found in previously searched areas, and often without clothing or footwear, even when hypothermia has been ruled out. 

Disembodied human feet — many of them still in shoes — wash up on the shores of Washington State and British Columbia with alarming regularity. Some say they may have a connection to bigfoot encounters.

But then there are other stories where Bigfoot makes a great babysitter.

In January 2019, a 3-year-old boy named Casey Hathaway disappeared near his great-grandmother’s home in rural North Carolina. Temperatures dropped below freezing and rain blew sideways. Three days later, the boy was found alive, entangled in briars a quarter of a mile from where he went missing.

The child traveled 4,000 feet in elevation in his bare feet in two days-- he was returned not even dehydrated or malnourished... some believe that he was taken care of by a family of Bigfoot.

One of the search party members called Ground Zero and told us that the opinion seemed to be unanimous amongst the search party --some animal took care of the boy and somehow brought him back to his parents.

If science is not embarrassed to study the so-called Bigfoot, perhaps they will try to determine if some upright-walking species of mountain apes have slipped through the cracks. After all, many of today’s animals got their start as improbable creatures that are believed to be made up in the minds of opportunists and charlatans.

Take a look at some of the animals that exist on this earth and contemplate their looks. An elephant seems so peculiar, and now science believes that they give themselves names and that they intelligently call out to each other.

While dolphins and parrots have been observed addressing each other by mimicking the sound of others from their species, elephants are the first non-human animals known to use names that do not involve imitation.

Elephants speak a language.

For the new study published , a team of international researchers used an artificial intelligence algorithm to analyze the calls of two wild herds of African savanna elephants in Kenya.

The research “not only shows that elephants use specific vocalizations for each individual, but that they recognize and react to a call addressed to them while ignoring those addressed to others.

That is amazing.

The world of animals and even cryptozoology may surprise us in the future -- but we will need to be open to the possibility that what is discovered may not be some supernatural being --but a naturally undiscovered species that had been given so many names -- that maybe once it is discovered will have a different name.

It will be perceived differently by different people.