THE CONVERSATIONS WITH BIGFOOT DIALOGUES:
The Anatomy of a Debunking and the Obstinacy of Paranormalist Belief.HERE'S A SAMPLE DIALOGUE HAD WITH ONE OF THE BIGFOOTERS:March 1 TH: Conversation I am very interested when you talked to the author and why he say's it is fictional??? There are some things that are written in that article only someone with knowledge of them would say anything like this. I investigated this article and determined somethings about the author. This article has also been show to some people that know about the "foots' very well and ....well were amazed that people are calling it a hoax. Interested to hear what you found out. All respect intended.March 2 Steven Streufert I've posted the links. I'd be very curious to hear what you found out about the author and this booklet. I have gotten to the bottom of it, I believe, unless they are now trying to hoax me by claiming it is fake. I'd be very interested in hearing REAL stories like this!SteveMarch 2 TH: First how open and how much do you believe about what goe's on in this world. What do you believe in that are possible beyond your mind. Second do you think if someone say's they know something about Bigfoot, say "like they work with the bigfoot or the tribal elders are very knowledgeable of the Bigfoots". Reason I asked that is that I am not the only one that knows about this article. There have been several key people that are considered very very respected in the tribal community and would have nothing to gain by saying anything about this. There are things in that article that are only known to someone that has either held a conversation with a (member of one of the medicine clans)bigfoot or took a stab in the dark to make a clever hoax and "puff" got it right. Steven I respect you very much, not trying to pull the wool over anyone's eyes. When I was given this article back last December, I immediately sent it to Arla Williams and Pete Buffalohead (which are members in this group) thy inturn shared it with senior members of their respected tribe (Arla and I come from the same community) and it was immediately asked where I obtained this article. They had to know, because no one should have released this to the public, it had details that should have been kept seceret about the "foots" So I started an investigation into the author. I am a 21 year veteran of civilian and federal law enforcement and used some of my contacts to track down the author and the original individual the "bird doctor"' as we like to call them. I found that there was no one at that university that claims to know the author and the department of education in the State of California doe's have one that spells the name the same way. So I put feelers out in that community, I was contacted in late March of last year and this lady "she used the name, "Mary Hoffman said that she is the daughter of this Ives best friend. We talked about 40 mins. She was very open and very straight forward. It seems that the name was changed to protect his professional reputation and his job. She was very reluctant to give up his real name. But the people that were close to him said that some found out about what happened and labled him a mentally unstable and was a "shame" to the university communtiy. I guess all heck broke lose and lots of finger pointing happened. So I assume he and others close to him started to "claim it was a hoax, out of fear and just out of options of trying to stay out of the jokes and unstoppable rampage of threats of loosing his job. No I agree, talking to this lady on the phone doe'snt give much credit. Just letting you know what I learned. Biggest part of this is that there is way way way way to much information in this article to be made up, if so, then someone hit it on the head as to what or who they really are. In another fashion, Steven I could tell you stories of what I have seen, heard, and felt while out in the woods. There is way more to this than people could possibly comprehend. If you like chat with Arla and Pete, they would be open to talk about it as well. Thank you sir for listening.March 2 Steven Streufert Did you read my blog entries about this? From the author:Dear Steven,I'm stunned, flabbergasted, and incredulous that anyone--in any world, much less the "Bigfoot world"--would claim this piece I wrote on Bigfoot years ago (originally for a free street-sheet I was doing at the time, along with Jerry Martien, Mort McDonald, and other co-conspirators, called UNJUSTIFIED MARGINS) could take it as a "real and true" account. They are, at best, poor scholars, as even rudimentary research into the various claims made by the purported author couldn't survive minimal fact-checking; at worst, they are guilty of a willfully deliberate ignorance, as dangerous to good faith as it is damaging to those, like me, who enjoy using the imagination to illuminate reality."Conversations with Bigfoot," as you accurately discerned, was a literary lark, a bit of an elegy for nature, and a little tweak directed at media and American culture. As to your passed-along question: In my 50 years of roaming the Northern California back country I have never seen a Bigfoot creature, no sign of one (scat, footprints, hair), nor met anyone who has--granted you don't meet many folks out in the wilds. That doesn't mean I dismiss the possibility that a Bigfoot might exist, but just that I'm one of those flinty old-school realists who only believes half of what I see and nothing of what I hear without reliable verification from a few trusted informants. I hope this unequivocally clears up all questions of fact regarding "Conversations with Bigfoot" for your readers. Again, my apologies for the tardy response.Truly, Jim DodgeMarch 2 TH: That is well, I will keep my thoughts to myself. You need to talk to Arla and Pete. I will not be disrespectfull. But Information in that article is more than 110%. These are always were people are torn about this subject, people first just turn their heads and just 1st off blast that that encounter is impossible and that the information that the Bigfoot is giving can not absolutley not be possible. Well I will leave you with this, kinda hard to tell someone that its false and impossible if that person has had 1st hand encounters with similar particulars, makes it kinda hard to convience that person it is fals or fake, when or she has seen it in real life.I was told by Mary that this is their response to people that ask about the article and it's nature. But hey that is only 3rd hand info. Thank you SirMarch 2 Steven Streufert I hold no judgment toward anyone claiming these kinds of encounters with and things about the Bigfoot. Rather, I am only saying that this particular case is fiction, and was meant to be so. I am VERY curious about the experiences people have with these beings, and am VERY open-minded about them. I do not think of Sasquatch as a "monster" as in the movies, or just a "mere ape" as in so many common views today. If they are a form of human that would mean they are the most important thing going on for us now currently on the planet. So, that is very interesting, indeed. I'd love to talk to you, Arla, Pete or anyone about all of this. It would be great if this page could be a forum for discussing what all of our experiences are and have been. So many are so private about this stuff that it is often kind of frustrating to not be able to hear the full stories. Hence, knowledge and understanding can thereby suffer.I am all about seeing the world AS IT IS, and to me that means a world alive, mysterious, strange, beyond our current conceptions.Best to you, SteveTH: Very good to hear Steve, most are not open, I have to tell you, I see your point, but if it is a hoax or fiction. This person is right on the money about what a Bigfoot would say if someone came across. the thing about the moons, the ability to speak where no words are visible, being on his "final walk" the whole things is actually "right on the money" Like I said this has been shared with some people that are way more intune with them and said, that this should have never been shared with the public, because it speaks of things that the elders would never or speak of to anyone that is not open or have had the similar experience. A dilemma for sure. There is so much about them that people would never comprehend. But I work with Arla, Pete, Darrell (choctaw pastor-not on FB) and others. I grew up in Oklahoma in Creek Nation, I come from Choctaw and Cherokee blood. I have seen things that are not the common. People probably would freek if they knew what really goe's on in this world. Most we never speak of in open forum. Save is doing a great thing here bringing people together to share.10 hours ago TH: Steven after we spoke about this at the begining of the month, I sent a printed copy to Darrell Williams he is a pastor and tribal elder of the indian church in SE Oklahoma. He works with the "Foots" and with 4 other elders. He doesn't own a computer and that is why I had to send him a hard copy. Here is what he said "Troy why would someone post this on the internet" "I bet the owner of this story is not the person that had the encounter with the Bigfoot" "I would assume to that he is or has been getting lots of phone calls about this" "It is interesting to see that the Bigfoots in that part of the world have a medicine clan too" "You know like I told you 4 years ago that ours here come from the moon clan too" " I will pass this own to Jacob Lightfoot" I received Jacob's letter yesterday, "Troy been long time to chat, I read this article and find several interesting things. I would hope that the author or owner of this changed his name, I would never release my encounters. I have been laughed at and made fun of. This as I assume you know is to much information about the Bigfoot to the public to know" "I talked to James Ludlow's son he is a professor at OSU and he laughed and said that he would think the author would probably start to tell people it was all a joke so people would leave him alone" James also wrote, "I find it interesting about what the Bigfoot say's about their abilities, I have told you this Troy before. They can do things that will amaze you and leave you thinking about creation of man and this world, but trust me I know you know things, there will be some people that will challenge you on this, they will not believe Bigfoot's abilities. I say so what let them not believe, all the safer for the Bigfoot"Steven thought you should hear their replies. I find some of their thoughts kinda interesting.2 hours ago Steven Streufert T., that is fascinating. However, I know of the author well enough, as he lives here in Humboldt, and as I know a lot of folks who know of him better than I do, and as I know his other writings to a certain extent... and he is definitely telling the truth. He wrote the book as fiction, made it up completely. Unless, of course, you think he received it via psychic channeling, and wrote it totally unknowing that he was getting it from a Bigfoot. It is fiction, but if it strikes you powerfully that is nothing more than a good book or movie will do. If it is accurate it is only through the imaginative process thinking what a sentient, intelligent Bigfoot MIGHT be like.about an hour ago TH: Maybe, I don't know much about other people's perception of the psych stuff. All I know is that everything in that article about what the BF says and what he doe's is right on, 100%, to the nail head, of what I have been told about them for many years. Every tribal leader, every spiritual native american leader that has a relationship with the BF and others say that the article should have never seen the light of day that information in it is too valuable. To many want to see that the article be taken down becuase it puts too much about the BF out for the wrong person to use for wrong purposes. I respect your thoughts in this and everything you provide in your writings. Too many experts within the Native American community has said that it holds to much information about what the BF says the to human. I am sure if he said it was a hoax, then he had something come to him about it and put it right on the money. Thank you sirabout an hour ago Steven Streufert What do you mean, "something come to him about it and put it right on the money"? No, I say, he simply made it up, and told me the truth about it when talking to me about it. I do not doubt him for a second when he says he has NEVER had ANY contact with a BF. Not only him, but everyone else involved from that long-ago time when it was first published has said that the thing was fictional, published in a literary journal. It was simply a made up story. Like Dances with Wolves, the film, as an example: It is NOT a true story, but it contains some true stuff about Native American culture. The thing is, the film makers and novelist who wrote the movie could do RESEARCH on the subject. However, Jim Dodge did not do any BF research. He just imagined it, pure and simple.57 minutes ago TH: Well, I don't know what to say, but he said everything about the BF as they do to the elders and some that work with them. You know the BF can speak english and have in the past worked with tribal leaders and some. I have seen something myself that doesn't make sense and wonder how people would preceive what I have seen and heard. But what I was saying is as you put it is did it come to him in a psychic channeling. I have no clue, but he wrote of things only someone that would have had a conversation with a BF, specially a medicine clan member would say. Too many people , very very respected trbal leaders have said that this article should be kept from the public it holds to many secerets about the BF that some people should not know. I am just trying to say "the author claims its a hoax and done for humor" He has no clue what he stumbled onto. True as I am sitting here righting this, I will stake my reputation and my blood on this, there are so many things about the BF that science will never be able to prove, there is so much about them that modern thinking can not comprehend. We are so bent on science and evidence it closes the mind. I have been in the research of BF formally for 7 years....and I hear the same thing from witnesses that refuse to talk about what they see, I have seen several great 100% head shot video from witnesses that will die and fight to keep it out of public view. WHY? becuase some of what people witness and some of the video has paranormal appearance to them and they are afraid of people saying they are making it up and fabricated the video...I have more than 25 reports that I took in 3 years (total all reports were about 125) but in those 25 they were first hand accounts of encounters with more than paranormal events taking place. There is just too much to hide and ignore about the abilities of the BF.48 minutes ago TH: I appreciate your forwardness and 'common sense" approach, but after being a cop for almost 21 years and bee involved in crime scene preservation and applying it to BF investigation and then after the past 1 1/2 years seeing somethings that completely make logical thinking go right out the window, define every thing I would think of physical abiltites of something that not supposed to exist but doe's Something that physically disappear into thin air, but can......just too much, and there are too many people that have seen them do this. Are we ALL crazy, but it is real, can't hide your face or turn our backs. There is just to much about them that makes no sense about modern thinking. Just chatting here Steven. Thanks for listening Sir*******AND HERE IS THE (LONG, BUT) FASCINATING FACEBOOK "BIGFOOT AND BEYOND" GROUP DISCUSSION ON THE TOPIC:Steven Streufert I would suggest you first go to my blog and drop the book title into the search box: http://bigfootbooksblog.blogspot.com/. The book/story is fictional, a literary hoax if you like. I talked with the author and publisher. March 1 at 11:14pm · Unlike · 1 personSteven Streufert http://bigfootbooksblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/conversations-with-bigfoot-hoax-plus.html March 1 at 11:25pm · LikeTH: Steve I am going to send you an message. March 1 at 11:53pm · LikeTH: I would not disrespect anyone's words. There is way too much knowledge that is written in this article. Sava created this FB so we can disscuss openly about Bigfoot and Beyond. There are things that are in this article that are only known to someone that knows a great deal about them. Hoax or not, way too much information in this article for someone to make it up. Maybe I am overstepping my bounds but education about them is what we are trying to go forward with. I trust Steven's words in sifting through the BS and finding the truth about this article. But again if we are here to talk about Bigfoot and Beyond. Here it is, I hesitated in posting this link, but if you want to get into the deep and most controversal part about this topic. This is one to work with. What is written about this is to valid to have been made up. March 2 at 12:27am · LikeSteven Streufert Here is the author's full letter to me... http://bigfootbooksblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/oregon-sasquatch-symposium-2010-day-one.html down a bit in this blog post. Read and you will see he has never seen Bigfoot nor heard reports of them. Also, I found zero, zilch, no evidence that Gordon Langley Ives ever existing. The author, Jim Dodge, lives around here, and I have met him personally. March 2 at 3:11am · Like · 1 personSteven Streufert However, having proved this a literary hoax with no basis in reality as far as its story, I DO NOT claim that these things are impossible. I have not experienced a Bigfoot speaking to me in English, but I've heard very convincing accounts of "habituation" and had odd experiences myself which incline me to say we should keep very open minds on this subject. March 2 at 4:08am · Like · 1 personAW: Because of my culture and my teachings I accept the Physical and the Spiritual side of Bigfoot.My teachings that came to me long before I ever read this validated things that were said in this.Whether it is a hoax or not there is turth in this story. March 2 at 5:22am · LikeTH: I have heard them speak english, on two accounts. There are three levels of tlhis that some of us use. (1) things we would say to friends, other researchers and general public. (2) things we would say to close friends that would laugh at you and other researchers that had same experience. (3) things you would ONLY share with if these other people could help you understand what is going on and has experience the same and these things would be uncomprehensible to the public human mind. There are things in thsi world that people laugh, make fun of, and say "that is complete BS and folklore and bunch of monkey doo doo" WELL LET ME VOICE my words here, there is more to Sasquatch than people could ever imagine, I am not talking running fast, superior strength, super night vision. I am talking abilities and life spans that go beyond current human thinking. If people claim it is not possible and not obtainable. Then great, some people have this knowledge of what goe's on. Less people know then that's for the best. Everyone has their freedom of speech and feelings. I posted this because this is where people need to stop and think for a second. "what if" "what if" ..........there are answers in that article....hoax or not, there are truth in those words. March 2 at 11:53am · LikeTH: Forgive me if I sounded little harsh in my words. But this article is a "key in learning" There is truth in it and this is where we have the tittle Bigfoot and Beyond. March 2 at 11:58am · LikeSteven Streufert Yes, and those who scoff at it simply do not know what they are talking about. They have not experienced it, or faced a Bigfoot anywhere other than on TV, so who are they to speak? March 2 at 12:22pm · LikeSteven Streufert T., I am a former college Literature major. I do believe that literary works have value, and bear upon "real life" quite strongly, however fictional they are. They're based upon life, so they reflect it and are part of it. Jim Dodge, the author, has never met Bigfoot, and denies ever hearing reports of it. He has lived in rural Northern California for decades, and loves the outdoors, so I find it a little strange that he says he has never even heard of a Bigfoot report from a friend. I hear them ALL the time here in my shop in Willow Creek. The work is, however, wholly fictional, according to him. It may just be that he imagined Bigfoot correctly by figuring what it MIGHT be like were he to meet one. March 2 at 12:25pm · Like · 1 personSteven Streufert Why would you feel anything "harsh," T.? I am not scoffing at the possibilities, but only pointing out what I know absolutely to be the facts about this story. March 2 at 12:29pm · LikeTC: In my first, "Ghosts of Ruby Ridge", a novel, I called on what I knew at the time to be true about Sas... I wrote of many things that came to me in the middle of the night, as I believe all writers do. Some of these things I had no previous knowledge of and included them in my description of my Sas family simply because it came to me to do so... Today, some 2 yrs after the release of the book, I have learned a LOT more of the nature, the capabilities and the behaviors of this gentle giant and have found, almost miraculously, it seems, that ALL of those things I included without proof but merely because it was good writing, exciting copy and plausible have been proved to be true... they DO bury their dead... They have help people for a time and released them unharmed... they DO live in family groups... Therefore to say that an author cannot portray quality scenaria without personal experience is simply not true... However, that said, one must be very careful to assess and evaluate these statements in light of "truth" as it becomes known. March 2 at 12:59pm · Like · 1 personTC: meant to say... 2 yrs after release, and 10 years after the writing ... March 2 at 1:00pm · LikeAW: This knowing is in all of us.My Ancestor Grandmothers told me we have all the answers we are just waiting for the questions to ask. People talk about Bigfoot carting people off and I seem to remember a report of someone in Russia or somehwere that was a child of a human and a Bigfoot. Our story of Tsul Kalu has him taking a young Cherokee Woman as his wife. Is there truth to that story? March 2 at 1:01pm · LikeSteven Streufert The author says this: Dear Steven, I'm stunned, flabbergasted, and incredulous that anyone--in any world, much less the "Bigfoot world"--would claim this piece I wrote on Bigfoot years ago (originally for a free street-sheet I was doing at the time, along with Jerry Martien, Mort McDonald, and other co-conspirators, called UNJUSTIFIED MARGINS) could take it as a "real and true" account. They are, at best, poor scholars, as even rudimentary research into the various claims made by the purported author couldn't survive minimal fact-checking; at worst, they are guilty of a willfully deliberate ignorance, as dangerous to good faith as it is damaging to those, like me, who enjoy using the imagination to illuminate reality."Conversations with Bigfoot," as you accurately discerned, was a literary lark, a bit of an elegy for nature, and a little tweak directed at media and American culture. As to your passed-along question: In my 50 years of roaming the Northern California back country I have never seen a Bigfoot creature, no sign of one (scat, footprints, hair), nor met anyone who has--granted you don't meet many folks out in the wilds. That doesn't mean I dismiss the possibility that a Bigfoot might exist, but just that I'm one of those flinty old-school realists who only believes half of what I see and nothing of what I hear without reliable verification from a few trusted informants. I hope this unequivocally clears up all questions of fact regarding "Conversations with Bigfoot" for your readers. Again, my apologies for the tardy response.Truly, Jim Dodge March 2 at 1:15pm · Like · 1 personAW: It really doesn't matter why he said he wrote it or how he came about what he wrote when looking at it from the perspective of knowing that there is truth there.How he knew,who knows? This is my perception however. March 2 at 1:19pm · LikeTC: Just as a point of note... There are books that Louis L'Amour denied writing until the day that he died that were published under a pseudonym that his son and wife found the original manuscripts to in his hand in his files... March 2 at 1:26pm · LikeSteven Streufert Well, he clearly declares that he is a Bigfoot skeptic, has never seen one or heard reports of them, and that he wrote the book out of his imagination. His imagination of Bigfoot may have been correct, or not; but the book is fictional, made up, a story. That is all there is to it, though of course, just like with poetry, one may take meaning and inspiration from it nonetheless. Literature is an expression of the human response to reality, and so embodies both us and It. March 2 at 1:52pm · Like · 1 personAW: We live in an awesome world where things seen by most were black or white. This awesome world is now showing many things are not just black and white.The Bigfoot World definitely does fit with this view. March 2 at 1:55pm · LikeSteven Streufert Yes, there is more to reality and the universe than is known or dreamt of in our philosophies. March 2 at 2:03pm · Like · 2 peopleTC: The key word there, Steven is "OUR".. they really are our philosophies.. not necessarily universal... March 2 at 2:08pm · LikeTH: Well either way, the comments from the Foot...need to be looked at maybe Arla can help me explain, the comments are that it teaches about the way Foots think and what they say about things. Just food for thought. If I was asked, people need to take it for what it means, and that is to tell the story, fake or real. The message is there, people need to wake up and smell the coffee. March 2 at 2:09pm · LikeTH: No Steven, wasn't think harsh, just things in that article are more than people realize, maybe never know the truth, no matter what someone that is the author. But people that know things about the foots, would be first to jump up and ask how did you come across this info when its "very real" March 2 at 2:10pm · LikeTH: I think if I wrote about my encounters with them, over the past 7 years, I bet some would be trying to cart me off to the VA or the psych ward. They wouldn't even try to believe what I would write. March 2 at 2:12pm · Like · 1 personTC:l that was my worry in starting this book, TH... but, as in all things in my life now... the devil can take the hindmost... I will say what I know to be... March 2 at 2:14pm · LikeSteven Streufert I hold no judgment toward anyone claiming these kinds of encounters with and things about the Bigfoot. Rather, I am only saying that this particular case is fiction, and was meant to be so. I am VERY curious about the experiences people hav...See More March 2 at 2:22pm · Like · 2 peopleTC: Steven... indeed they are a wondrous creature! and, yes, they are not an ape nor a monster... I was reading the data yesterday about the upcoming "Report" on Sas.. and especially Dr. Ketchum's DNA analysis... my thought was simply, I could tell her now what her DNA analysis is going to show, before she releases it... if she'd listen... but, no, they are in this to make a buck... should intro them to bfr whatever it is.... same motivation, it seems... March 2 at 2:27pm · LikeTH: You are right T., I have been with those people. I spent time around them and know their motivation to make a buck of BF. Seen it and know it very well. You know just like I do, the BF will only help some that have the respect and open mind to want the knowledge to learn. No where are they close to a animal and for that close to humand as we are. There are things that put them similar, two hands two feet and emotions and thoughts. But they have more ability than we understand. Why some call them "big brother" they are here to help us understand and learn. Our ancestors wlaked among them, and it's time for some that have the motiviation and emotional mindset to learn what the message is. March 2 at 3:39pm · LikeTC: T. you're going to love my next book, "They Call Me Sasquatch" you're talking about my storyline... verbaiim March 2 at 4:03pm · Like · 1 personSM: I think there is so much that is unknown yet. We are all just learning and discovering the truths about bf. I think its important that we all continue to keep an open mind. Its hard to put forth new ideas about bf since so much is yet undiscovered adn still be leaned by many folks. March 2 at 4:09pm · LikeTC: it's much easier when they are telling you what to report March 2 at 4:10pm · Like · 1 personSM: Thom- how do you mean? March 2 at 4:11pm · LikeTH: TC, weird, but I could write your book in private send it too you and it would be verbatim. LOL March 2 at 4:11pm · LikeTC: T., I totally believe it.. because they are teaching me that which they have BEEN teaching you for 7 yrs March 2 at 4:12pm · LikeTC. S.M..... i mean it literally... when I asked, "Why me" ... if you remember the movie "Field of Dreams" the scene where Terrance Mann is invited into the Corn Field with the ballplayers... That is what I was shown... that is the "why me" in this case... for over 50 years I have been pursuing knowledge of these wonderful, gentle, intelligent beings and for all of that time, up until this past Saturday, I was under the impression that I was "gaining their confidence..." March 2 at 4:16pm · Like · 1 personSM: what happened last saturday? I must have missed that part? But yes, now I get the reference. For me, the whole bf experience has been once of constant learning. Just when I think I am figuring them out. a curve ball is throw and I realize how much I have to learn. March 2 at 4:18pm · LikeTH: T., I bet if we all sat down one day and said things about what we learn, un-related group of people would say we just traded stories with each other before hand. Uncanny with what is going on. Bet I could finish your book before it is written. LOL...but I wont LOL... March 2 at 4:20pm · LikeTC: On Saturday as I was writing the account of my history with them since 1958, I was told that this experience was not so that they could feel comfortable with me... it was to TEACH ME what I needed to know to do what I am now doing... the result will be "They Call Me Sasquatch" their story... and I am no more than the messenger as Terrence Mann was to be the messenger for those ballplayers... March 2 at 4:21pm · Like · 1 personTC: T... perhaps in October? March 2 at 4:21pm · LikeTC: I'm on a 1 Apr deadline so it can be completed and published by Sept March 2 at 4:22pm · LikeSM: T.- your probably right on that one. We need to be less afraid of what others think and continue to share what we know and have learned from bf. March 2 at 4:22pm · LikeTH: I rememeber things, they come to me as when I was growing up, in the same place Arla did (weird). That I have heard them as a child, just thought it was coyotes, owls and other stuff. But it comes back to me time and time again. March 2 at 4:22pm · LikeTC. interesting how that works, isn't it? March 2 at 4:23pm · Like · 1 personSM: yep, I was remembering when I was about 16 and coming from a friends home with another friend, when we saw something and heard something. all these years it had been in the back drawer of mind until recently March 2 at 4:24pm · LikeTH: That is why SM created this FB page, he probabaly doesn't know it, he was told too. But did it out of reflex. March 2 at 4:24pm · Like · 1 personTC: I agree, T... .it's the best place for this kind of communication that exists March 2 at 4:25pm · LikeSM: Arla has a cool video I am hopng she will post. She doesnt know how to bring it to this page to discuss it. She has it loaded on her personal page. Anyone know how to do it?? March 2 at 4:25pm · LikeTH: I had my first encounter when I was 9 yrs old at a boy scout camp, in SE Oklahoma. Since then....uummm well, you know. March 2 at 4:25pm · Like · 1 personTC: SM.. my advice to you... Talk to them... just sit and converse... March 2 at 4:25pm · LikeTH: They give information when you least expect it, when your driving, your on the phone, your in the shower (why they do that I dont know), your sleeping, walking, etc. March 2 at 4:27pm · LikeTC: they have been waking me up at first light.. because,he says, I have your full attention then... March 2 at 4:28pm · LikeSM: T.- i think your right about this page. I just continued to have the feeling that a place needed to be createdd that was an open and honest forum where we could talk and discuss with out judgement. I wanted a place where creativity and knowledge are welcome and not frowned upon. March 2 at 4:28pm · LikeTH: Yes between 4am and day break, I work nights and that is the time, I am somewhat overwhlemed. 4 am is a spiritual number, the number 4 like other numbers has a special meaning. The number 4 in music is a vital number that connects things that bring them together. That time of the morning is when things start to getting ready for the new day. The time to learn what to do for the day. March 2 at 4:30pm · LikeTH: That is also why we do they conference in Honobia, Okla for people can come to learn in person. March 2 at 4:31pm · LikeTH: There is a saying that the Bigfoot used to tell the guy in this article I posted, He asked something like "where do you live or something" The bigfoot said "over your shoulder". I read that and it was like an explosion. Over your shoulder is, that they walk with us, they are always there to help understand. We just have to listen and pay attention. March 2 at 4:34pm · LikeSteven Streufert Folks, HOW do the BF talk to you? Do you mean internally, or in person, or some other way? I'm not sure what is meant. March 2 at 4:57pm · LikeTC. Steven.. with me, with I hear them talk to one another of otherwise, discourse I should say, because I don't know who they are speaking too or what they are saying.. they sound very much like Ron's Sierra Sounds communications.. but when my teacher talks to me it comes into my mind very clearly like a spoken word... and very definitely in English... evidently he can receive from me the same way March 2 at 5:05pm · LikeTH: Same here Steven, or when I about to do something I get immediate words like, you better think, or kinda like your little voice inside you. But this is more profound. Kinda like something drives you with out thought or cognitive reason. YES wierd I know. But that is the world we live in. I also get words in native language. Year ago, while asleep I saw the word "No Nome" written not spoken. I asked around, close friend that is choctaw researched the words. Week later he called me and said it is very old Choctaw....means "To believe in something".....I get alot of native words March 2 at 5:11pm · LikeTC: Autumn commented that when she researched the native words in the FL area where Enoch lives, the word for man is Noch E... say that three times and see how it comes out... March 2 at 5:13pm · LikeTH: TC, to helpo here, I have a notebook, I write everything down in. I have words that are later translated from either very old choctaw, chickasaw or possible creek. They all have meaning. When you say them very fast they sound like.....guess???? March 2 at 5:14pm · LikeTC: it's so wonderful just to listen to them March 2 at 5:15pm · LikeTC: one of the things that shocked me was that I didn't need to be in his presence to have him talk to me March 2 at 5:16pm · LikeTH: That is correct, why the phrase "over your shoulder" means so much, they walk with you everywhere you go. March 2 at 5:17pm · LikeAW: My Elders taught me that we humans have shut off our hearing.We no longer hear who we are or how to care for ourselves,let alone to hear the Earth Speak.We are so afraind of hearing a voice inside other than our own we have stopped conversations that used to exist.We talked to the deer when we were hunting.We called to them and thanked them for giving themselves to us.My grandmother knew when things were going to happen with the weather.She called it reading the signs. March 2 at 5:17pm · Like · 1 personTH: Why science only say's we use only so much of our other part of our brain......if they only knew... March 2 at 5:18pm · LikeAW: When I saw my first Bigfoot at age 7 and I asked my grandmother what it was,she said to me "What do,you,think it was" She allowed me to talk about it without fear of her making fun of me.I knew it existed and it was a good thing. March 2 at 5:19pm · LikeTC: can I share just a bit of the foreword of my book with you here without seeming commercial? March 2 at 5:21pm · LikeTH: Please no commercials, i see one more Aflac episode I am going to quack. March 2 at 5:25pm · LikeTC: No ducks for sure... but just dogs..... : These are knowledge and abilities that we too once possessed, I am sure, but over the millennia it has been bred out of us, civilized out of us and, perhaps, even beaten out of us. Perhaps it as a factor of all these, but as surely as the Pomeranian and the Pug were once wolves, the powers inherent in these great beings that was part of our being is as gone from us as the ability to bring down the great bison of the plains is gone from the Poodle and the Pekinese. March 2 at 5:26pm · Like · 1 personTH: Europeans discouraged the practice of things that they do. Fear and missunderstanding on the true power. They were scared of it's ability, much like modern man is today to accept that he is not the alpha male of the woods. It's fear and missunderstanding that people fall victim too. March 2 at 5:28pm · LikeMJ: I have a group of Bigfoot that mimic my snore and samurai chatter around me. They try to talk to me when I sleep, so I have been told by others as they listen in fright. I mimic their sounds and they get excited. I wish I could bridge that gap, but it seems so elusive at this time. I do sense that they know I will not hurt them and that I revere the woods they live in. We have a connection the others in my group do not seem to have, but I cannot put my finger on it yet. These sasquatchs are in a very remote place. There are not that many folks that foray here at all and I can tell they scare everyone else away by the stuff that gets left behind, such as equipment and gun shells and half burned fires. They tolerate me, but have little patience for others. March 2 at 5:54pm · Like · 1 personAW They see your heart MJ.They know, March 2 at 5:55pm · LikeTC: M., just TALK to them March 2 at 5:56pm · LikeAW: In the physical they read your movements,how you look,things you do. March 2 at 5:56pm · LikeTC: one of the things they do is TRY to intimidate people... if one can be intimidated, they do not want to communicate with them... you are being taught now, as I told you the other day... just as I was taught... keep speaking with them and one day they will answer you so YOU can understand it March 2 at 5:58pm · LikeAW: Trust what you hear. March 2 at 5:59pm · LikeAW: Trust what you feel. March 2 at 6:00pm · LikeMJ: Thanks, good advice. I will do just those things this year. She showed herself to me last year at the end of the year. I am expecting big things in 2011. March 2 at 6:02pm · LikeAW: I know you are. March 2 at 6:03pm · LikeTC: It will be March 2 at 6:04pm · LikeMJ: Thanks A.and T. You are wise and all knowing this evening and I am listening and I am smiling inside...:) March 2 at 6:06pm · LikeAW: I was smiling myself in reading what you said MJ. March 2 at 6:07pm · Like · 1 personTC: It's not often when we meet one of the "cadre" March 2 at 6:08pm · Like****************************HERE IS THE FINAL CONVERSATION HAD WITH THE AUTHOR, JIM DODGE, PROVING THAT THIS BOOKLET IS *FICTIONAL*.BIGFOOT BOOKS: Hello Mr. Dodge, Remember me?Anyway, I thought you'd be interested in the kind of things people are saying about your little piece about Bigfoot. Now they are implying that you are covering up the true origins of the story, that you MUST have had a Bigfoot contact, as the "information" in the story is "too accurate" to be fiction.Also, if you care to comment further, I'd really appreciate hearing that perspective from you, however briefly or long-windedly, perhaps for publication on my blog.Best, Steve Bigfoot BooksDodge, back in the "FUP" days.***JIM DODGE: Dear Steven, As usual, pardon the tardy reply, but this was one of those instances where I had to do some heavy consideration about whether I even wanted to make the attempt to set the record straight given that approach had already failed. When the truth is taken as some sort of cunning dissembling or strategic cover, in my experience you've entered that realm where accuracy has no privilege, integrity seems to subvert honor, and honesty can be easily perceived as mockery, so it really doesn't matter what you say: people will hear what they're disposed to hear and believe what they want or need. However, I feel impelled to reiterate, no doubt as some romantic gesture to those days of yore when truth was an honorable defense, that my booklet "Conversations with Bigfoot" is entirely and wholly and without exception a work of fiction, a pure product of imagination, and that I have never sensed or seen, much less actually conversed with, a Bigfoot/Sasquatch, nor did anyone or anything in any way contribute to the creation of "Conversations with Bigfoot."However, because it annoys me that more than a few commentators whose remarks you forwarded indicated (to quote one) "that no one should have released this to the public [because] it had details that should have been kept secret about the 'foots'" I would like to know whose permission is required before I can publish what I know is a work of fiction? Is there some enlightened council of supreme moralists that decides what should be released to those obviously inferior beings who comprise the public, for whom accurate information is dangerous? I'd also be obliged to know how they justify the imposition of such "prior restraint" as something other than the crudest form of censorship, and who gave them the authority to exercise such powers? Also, I'd love to know if those powers are self-assumed/self-appointed, or if they are awarded by some governing body. I trust they appreciate my difficulty in seeking their approval, or even some guidance, before publishing "Conversations with Bigfoot", when I had no idea such a group existed, much less an address or phone number where I might secure it's permission or at least argue my worthiness to publish.For the many commentators who found it inconceivable that an old cracker-ass white writer, no doubt severely dain-bramaged from decades of drug-abuse back in his wildly misspent youth, could possibly make-up a conversation with an allegedly mythic creature that contained ". . .way too much accurate information to be made up" or "the information in this article is more than 110%" (of what exactly isn't clear), allow me, who has made up enough stuff to fill four books and a couple of filing cabinets, to offer an explanation. Kenneth Rexroth, one of the more astute literary commentators of the 20th Century, called the imagination "the organ of communion." According to the psychologist Carl Jung, the human psyche is composed of four elements, all in dynamic interaction and constant change: the sensational (the body and all its sensory information); the intellectual (knowledge and learning); the heart (the realm of emotion); and the soul, or personal spirit, which, like the other three, is embodied energy. At the nexus of these four elements, or "centers," as Jung also designated them, when they are properly balanced/focused/directed, a fifth element, the imagination, assumes enough power to become effective. The particular power of the imagination is to empathize and understand, to enfold and become the other, to voluntarily incarnate that which isn't you, and the more you can relinquish of the self, of ego-demands and attachments, the more you can make yourself available to the other, and to the world. It helps immensely if you can draw energy from what Jung called the "collective unconscious," which are psychic energy forms that humans have in common (and some other creatures), since they are based on "the ceremonies of existence," events--whatever our cultures--that we all share, and all pay considerable attention: like birth, rearing the young, coming of age, courtship, sex, marriage, securing food and shelter, making journeys, gathering and passing along knowledge, and eventually aging and death. Why would it be so far-fetch that a well trained imagination could conjure a Bigfoot and capture a bit of his or her social concerns, particularly when they're likely not that different from other bi-pedal mammals. The reverse is also likely: a Bigfoot imagining a human being. Once contact is made, communion can flow in either direction. And given communion, is conversation so farfetched?Truly, Jim***JUST TO BE CLEAR, Here Is the First Exchange, with Our First Questions, and Jim Dodge's First Email to Bigfoot Books on the Subject:BIGFOOT BOOKS: Hello Mr. Dodge, I hope you are receiving email at this address.I am Steven Streufert, former HSU student and current owner of BigfootBooks in Willow Creek. I'm also a blogger on Bigfoot topics.What I really would like to ask you is: Are you the author of thebooklet, "Conversations with Bigfoot"? I would sincerely like to know,not only as a Bigfooter, but also as someone who has appreciated yourwritings in the past, and who still plans to finally get around toreading "Stone Junction."I spoke with a bookseller who knows Michael Sykes, Floating Islandpublisher, and he has said that you in fact wrote this book.There are some in the Bigfoot world who are claiming this is a real andtrue account of an actual meeting with "Bigfoot." They are using this toadvance their theories that these creatures are not only human-like (orin fact human), but also capable of language use and higher forms ofcivilization. My impression of the work is that it is a literary work,part lark, part philosophical allegory, part elegy to Nature, and part asatire of the whole "hoax" idiom concerning Bigfoot in the media andpopular culture.Could you clear this issue up, both for my readers and your own?Also, there is someone who wants me to ask, Have you ever witnessedthese Bigfoot creatures, or does this story come from an actual accountyou may have heard from someone you knew in the area?Your attention to this ASAP would be greatly appreciated! I'm working ona blog entry on this publication right now.I'd love to ask you, too, some questions about Thomas Pynchon; but Iunderstand you're probably keeping mum on that issue. I've been thinkingof writing a blog entry on Pynchon as "Cryptid Author." That would befun, not only because of his elusiveness, but also due to his currentBigfoot Bjornsen character and other Yeti/Sasquatch references in hisworks (not to mention the Humboldt County connection!).Thanks! Best regards to you,Steve, Bigfoot Books***JIM DODGE: Dear Steven,Pardon my hideously tardy response but two things conspired against my usual alacrity: your message came to my HSU machine after the semester ended, and at a time when I was having some odd medical issues. . .odd enough, anyway, that they commanded my attention.I'm stunned, flabbergasted, and incredulous that anyone--in any world, much less the "Bigfoot world"--would claim this piece I wrote on Bigfoot years ago (originally for a free street-sheet I was doing at the time, along with Jerry Martien, Mort McDonald, and other co-conspirators, called UNJUSTIFIED MARGINS) could take it as a "real and true" account. They are, at best, poor scholars, as even rudimentary research into the various claims made by the purported author couldn't survive minimal fact-checking; at worst, they are guilty of a willfully deliberate ignorance, as dangerous to good faith as it is damaging to those, like me, who enjoy using the imagination to illuminate reality."Conversations with Bigfoot," as you accurately discerned, was a literary lark, a bit of an elegy for nature, and a little tweak directed atmedia and American culture. As to your passed-along question: In my 50 years of roaming the Northern California back country I have never seen a Bigfoot creature, no sign of one (scat, footprints, hair), nor met anyone who has--granted you don't meet many folks out in the wilds.That doesn't mean I dismiss the possibility that a Bigfoot might exist, but just that I'm one of those flinty old-school realists who only believes half of what I see and nothing of what I hear without reliable verification from a few trusted informants.I hope this unequivocally clears up all questions of fact regarding "Conversations with Bigfoot" for your readers. Again, my apologies for the tardy response.Truly,Jim Dodge***
Showing posts sorted by relevance for query bigfoot encounters. Sort by date Show all posts
Showing posts sorted by relevance for query bigfoot encounters. Sort by date Show all posts
Wednesday, July 24, 2013
THE CONVERSATIONS WITH BIGFOOT DIALOGUES: The Anatomy of a Debunking and the Obstinacy of Paranormalist Belief
Monday, June 14, 2010
CONVERSATIONS WITH BIGFOOT: A Hoax? Plus BIGFOOT MEGA-MISCELLANY, Including a Discussion with ONIL DAS GUPTA, News, Links and... Bigfoot POOP
BIGFOOT'S BLOG, EARLY-MID JUNE EDITION
"We do have some unique powers and abilities--but what living lacks its own uniqueness? ...We do not pull rabbits from a hat. But we can become rabbits."
--Shadarue, Bigfoot, Priorian, Ladantian, or whatever, from "Conversations with Bigfoot"
Sometimes Bigfoot just gets to be too much, or else life conspires against one's plans for other things. It didn't help these last few weeks to have to be trying to plan a friend's bachelor party, complete with an abduction by Sasquatch from his workplace. Try as we might to sit down and write what we would have liked to write, other things seemed to prevail. It doesn't help when a brief call to plan a trip to the Oregon Sasquatch Symposium turns into a six and a half hour talk about just about anything one can imagine being related to Bigfoot.
Look down below for our recent discovery that the book, "Conversations with Bigfoot," is basically most assuredly a hoax. An email to Matt Moneymaker about the aforementioned "Conversations" has led to an interesting discussion with someone on the BFRO mailing list concerning the mysterious intelligence of the Bigfoot, and its possible "human" or supra-human characteristics. We also include a bunch of interesting links and news topics. For now, in lieu of our "What Constitutes a Bigfoot/Sasquatch Encounter" project, we'll give you instead a couple of interesting quotes from two prominent Bigfoot researchers.
--GROVER KRANTZ
"It’s one of the origins for why we have some folklore. It’s a psychological process in which a person takes a noise in the dark or a misidentified bear and elaborates on this or that and makes up stories in their mind. It’s a form of rationalization. ... It’s a psychological process to make everything explainable, and to have Bigfoot as one of the explanations is a way for humans to be comfortable ... On one end of the continuum, Bigfoot exists. On the other end of the continuum, Bigfoot exists because humans need to explain things. ... If we’re talking about statistics, 80% of Bigfoot sightings and reports are misidentifications of known animals, 1% are hoaxes, and then 19% to 20% are the unknown--quality stories that are worth looking into."--LOREN COLEMAN
Read the cool TrueSlant interview with Loren, from whence this quote comes, here:
PART ONE ... and... PART TWO
***********************************************
A little bit of Sherlocking has led us to the discovery that the booklet CONVERSATIONS WITH BIGFOOT
is actually almost certainly nothing more than a literary lark. Beyond that, is was apparently written by noted poet and novelist, JIM DODGE. What is in this booklet? Supposedly, in 1975, a scientist out doing field research in Northern California finds a wounded Bigfoot named Shadarue who is near death due to a fall and being covered by a rockslide. He speaks with this being, and it is eloquent and refined in perfect English. It claims to be of the "Priorian" (as in "prior," or "before," we assume) race of beings. It also claims to be of the "moon families." The being then goes on to explain a fairly complex philosophy and culture centered upon balance and the interconnection with nature. Far from being all about survival, a scrappy relic of a bygone epoch, this creature is a full blown, natural born Thoreau, a John Muir without hiking boots, a wise man without the need of civilization, temples or schools.
Some in the Bigfoot world have been talking about this book as if it were a true story, and as if it supported the idea that Sasquatch is not only intelligent, but capable of learning and fluently speaking English whilst discoursing upon abstruse Philosophy. Now, we will grant that Bigfoot does indeed have capabilities which elude our understanding (like the rabbit and the hat quote, above), but this one just seemed to be WAY too big a stretch. The tale seems really far-flung: too human, too similar to us, with too many human cultural devices to come from another species. But who knows? The world is full of Mystery! We wanted to find out where this book came from, and how it came into existence, and so we dug a bit more deeply.
The booklet appeared recently in its full text on a site called BIGFOOT HUB. You can read it there, or at the very bottom of this very blog (the work is copyright-free, so we are posting it here). Judge for yourself. Some have told us that the book gets a lot of things about Bigfoot "right," and that it conforms to their experience or certain witnesses' reports of non-apelike Bigfoot behaviors. It very well might; but that might be due to the poetic imagination of its creator.
David Paulides' NABS site started selling the booklet for twice what we acquired our copy for, and about four times what we later found out the publisher is still suggesting as the retail price for the thing. Despite the opinion of some, there are still new copies available from the publisher (see below for more information). The booklet isn't truly rare, just obscure; but it is a nice "fine press" production, hand sewn and everything. What is truly rare is the ostensible tape recording it was supposedly transcribed from, which features the dialogue between a human ornithologist out in the field and the dying Bigfoot he encounters. In its last words, this Bigfoot demonstrates an eloquent use of human language with no apparent trans-species glitches, and also shows that the Bigfoot are--yes, despite its humility in saying they are "not a superior people"--smarter than we are, more spiritual, more earnest, and more ethical. Not to diminish the possibilities, we find this situation rather unconvincing. Bigfoot may have an awareness that exceeds our own, whether in the area of perception or the epistemological, but it surely would not have the same culture as we. That is, unless it is in fact "human." It is clear that this latter point is why the NABS crowd would jump all over this thing.
Images: The cover of the booklet, as published by Floating Island Press. Below, Jim Dodge.Here's what old NABS Dave has to say about this book:
"This is a very difficult and expensive book to find. One of our researchers found and read it, he recommended that our team review it. An ornithologist happened to find a bigfoot that was seriously injured. The story is about a conversation he had with the biped. The conversation was tape recorded and that tape was submitted to experts who stated that a human could not have stated the words. It's an interesting book. 16 Pages Floating Island Publications Cedarville, CA 1998 Author- Gordon Langley **Nabs recently was able to find a group of these books for sale and purchased the lot. They are new and can be immediately shipped." The NABS product page is HERE.
We find this presentation quite ingenuous. After all, who is the author? Shouldn't we be able to find out some information about a professional, Ph. D.-holding orinithologist? If he is an academic or scholar shouldn't he have published something, somewhere, other than this dubiously-substantiated tall tale? Well, we looked into it, and were not surprised at what we found: there IS NO such author. Dr. Gordon Langley Ives just did not turn up in any other way on Google, book searches, the Amazon book catalog, nor any other place were one would expect him to. We can only conclude the the guy never did exist, and was the product of an author's imagination. Beyond this, the booklet mentions that he taught at "Portland University." There is no such school. There is University of Oregon, which has an extension in Portland, or Portland State University. One would not expect a professor to get the name of his own employer wrongly. Even further, the authorial voice states that he is studying the Pileated Woodpecker because they are "near extinction." In fact, according to the IUCN, the"Pileated Woodpecker populations declined greatly with the clearing of the eastern forests. The species rebounded in the middle 20th century, and has been increasing slowly but steadily in most of its range. Only in Arkansas do numbers seem to be going down." Even more damning, he MIS-SPELLS "Pileated" as "piliated"! No "Professor of Zoology" specializing in the study of birds would make such an error. It is obvious, even this far in our examination, that this "author" was NOT what is claimed. Adding the questionable nature of the supposed maker of the tape of a Bigfoot, the cryptic nature of the supposed "author" himself, to the somewhat dubious contents of the book itself, we knew we would have to get to the bottom of this thing.
Looking for the book and the author online, we found a copy listed from a bookseller on ABE. She, interestingly, identified a different author than this fellow, Ives. Instead, she listed the book under a "Jim Dodge." This hit us like a stone, as we know of Jim Dodge from our days at HSU--he is a professor there. In fact, we have met him a couple of times, and know plenty of people who know the fellow pretty well. He is deeply sincere, but also a playful, humorous, jokester of a guy. He writes novels of an essentially comic nature, naturalistic poetry, and essays on ecological themes such as "Bioregionalism." (Use this LINK to view the listing of the book under Dodge's name on Amazon.) Whammo. Yes, that made sense to us right away. There are all of the elements of the booklet, "Conversations," in his other works. He is a kind of post-beatnik, zen-ish postmodernist. Writing a tongue-in-cheek Bigfoot-Wisdom story would be right up his alley. Here is a guy who personally knows Thomas Pynchon, one of the most cryptic authors in the history of American Literature, and here it seems he is writing a literary forgery of an encounter with a cryptid hominoid! We were intrigued, and the game was afoot. Here is the description as listed on the bookselling site, from Sara Armstrong - Books:
"Author: Jim Dodge, Title: Conversations with Bigfoot.Book Description: 1st edition. 16pp, illustrated. Fine in self-wraps (soft cover). Small hand sewn booklet. A dying Bigfoot discusses life and death (his and ours) with the narrator. The most recent publication from this small California press. According to the publisher, Michael Sykes, this book was actually written by Jim Dodge (of "Fup" fame), though you won't find the famous author's name anywhere in the slim volume."
We quote, for your information, from Wikipedia: "Jim Dodge (born 1945) is an American novelist and poet whose works combine themes of folklore and fantasy, set in a timeless present." Considering the style, range and themes of his works as a whole, he becomes an even more likely candidate for the authorship of this somewhat spiritual and environmental tale about a talking and philosophizing Bigfoot. But we wanted to be sure. We contacted the bookseller, publisher, and even sent email to Mr. Dodge himself. Only the last hasn't responded yet. School is out for the summer, so he's probably off in the woods somewhere. We have our agents down in Northtown Books in Arcata, a store Dodge still frequents, on the case. We hope to have a final answer soon.
Here is some of the dialogue between us and the bookseller and publisher. We have edited out a few bits of irrelevant data.
BIGFOOT BOOKS: Could you tell me please what your source is for saying this was written by Jim Dodge? A publication? The introduction? Thanks! Steve, Bigfoot Books.
BOOKSELLER: Hello, You asked about the author of the book, since it is not listed on the book itself. The book is published by Floating Island Press. The publisher, Michael Sykes, lives here in Cedarville. He is the source of my copy, and the one who told me who the author is. He started the press in Point Reyes back in the day, published a number of interesting authors from the Bay Area and elsewhere, and still maintains friendships with many of them. Very interesting man, a writer and photographer as well. Sara, Sara Armstrong - Bookseller
BIGFOOT BOOKS: Hi, My interest is both literary and Bigfoot-related. I have met Dodge. He lives here in Humboldt County now. But also, I write a blog on Bigfoot. There are a number of people in the BF world who think this book is non-fiction. Knowing of Dodge and his work, I think it must be a fictional lark, a parody containing interesting ideas. Before your listing no one has been able to find anything on the ostensible "author" behind this work, no reference to this scientist, "Ives." Hence, your bibliographic information has come in very handy for me, especially if it is verifiable.
Can you confirm it, or provide any contact info on the publisher? It seems he ran a literary press, right? I'd like to know if this was intended to be a "hoax," or a joke, or if it was clearly a literary piece. Were there people who believed it to be "real" at the time? Now, there are some who do, and will not accept that it is fictional, or humorous. Any further info would be greatly appreciated. Thanks so much for your help, and for the helpful attention you paid in doing the bibliography for this listing. Please let me know if you can find out more on this! Best regards, Steve, Bigfoot Books
BOOKSELLER: Hi Steve, This little book is clearly a literary piece. I have read it and it's very touching, does not feel humorous to me. The dying Bigfoot shares his thoughts about life and death, environmental changes, etc. Almost feels like a poem, but you leave it feeling as though you have been listening to a real person. As I assume you are, since I suppose the voice and opinions are the author's. What I took away from it is that he is a dying breed (a stand-in maybe for all the creatures who are dying out in this difficult world) and wants to connect with someone before he is gone.
You can write to Michael Sykes to ask him more questions.... He is a friendly chatty guy. You could probably call him too, but I think I'll let you follow up on that if you are interested. Thanks for the information about your interest in the book and the subject. I have sold several Bigfoot items, including a big fold out chart with a silhouette and some text/copy - and odd item. Seems always to be an interest. ... Quote me if you want to, but he really is THE source, the horse's mouth. I hope you get to talk to him about it. I told him you were going to contact him and he seemed pleased. Probably just busy at the moment. You might prefer to give Michael's information to potential buyers. Since he is the one who printed them and who sews them together, he can give you a better price than I can. ...You should definitely discuss it with him. Sara Armstrong - Bookseller
BIGFOOT BOOKS: Hello, Is this Michael Sykes' email? I hope so. I am Steven Streufert, bookseller at Bigfoot Books in Willow Creek, CA. I have just been speaking with Sara Armstrong, a bookseller in your area. She is selling me a copy of a book, "Conversations with Bigfoot," that you published. She says that you have told her that the author of this book is in fact Jim Dodge. Can you confirm this? I am interested in Literature, and I know of Dodge from HSU, where I got my MA degree. It is fascinating to me that he may have written this. Also, I am a blogger on Bigfoot topics. Many in the "Bigfoot Community" believe this book to be a factual accounting. I suspected that it was a satire, or literary lark, and that there was in fact no Dr. Ives. Can you confirm this, too? I will be trying to contact Jim about this. It would be great to have some word from you as to the status of this interesting narrative. I hope you will come forth and speak about this.
Was it a "hoax"?
Was it meant as a literary work?
Was it meant to be serious philosophy, or more a joke or satire?
What is Dodge's background in regard to Bigfoot--did he ever claim a Bigfoot encounter that you know of?
Thanks for your attention. A few memorable quotes from you would be very helpful in my doing a feature on this book, and I'd be happy to provide links to your web site and book publications, if you are still doing it. Best to you! Steve, Bigfoot Books
PUBLISHER: Dear Steve, I believe Jim Dodge is the author of "Conversations With Bigfoot." When I was publishing my first book, Floating Island I, in 1976, I was looking for one more piece to round out the first anthology (there are 4). A friend of mine gave me a copy of "Unjustified Margins," a free street sheet that was handed out in Arcata by Northtown Books, when it was in its old location further up the hill. The entire issue consisted of the Bigfoot piece, and it was perfect for what I needed. So that was its second publication, in 1976, and then, when I finished my 22 years of publishing in 1998, I decided that my last book, my 53rd title under the Floating Island imprint, should be a hand-sewn, hand-gathered chapbook that reprinted "Conversations With Bigfoot" and was published here in Cedarville 4 years after I began what was then called Great Basin Books and is now called Floating Island Books.
I have no idea whether the "Conversations" was based on a real or imagined experience, and never wanted to ask Jim that question (we've never met, but have talked a couple of times on the phone). When I published it, I didn't use Jim's name, of course, as that would negate the feeling of authenticity, again real or imagined, of the piece, which made no difference to me. I liked it for what it was, what it said about man and the environment, and the overall message that it conveyed, a message that directed our attention to the perils facing our species if we continued on the path we were on then, and even more so now. As a true being of the forest, the bigfoot, or priorian, as he referred to himself, conveyed a message of the utmost urgency, a message, if understood and acted upon, would be of great benefit to us. As you can plainly see, just with the recent oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, we are proceeding as a species completely ignorant of our impact on the earth, a living being that can only take so much but will endure far beyond our presence as a species here.
Thanks for your interest. Sincerely, Michael Sykes.
Floating Island Books
P.O. Box 276
Cedarville, CA 96104
(530) 279-2790
BIGFOOT BOOKS: Hello, and thanks for your reply! I'm really wondering, how do you know, or what makes you suspect, that Dodge is the author? From what I know of him, his sense of humor but also his leanings toward Nature, it is plausible. But do you have any statements or evidence of his authorship? I've never seen this work acknowledged in his bibliography, nor heard that he had claimed it as his own. As you spoke with him about things on the phone, was this particular work ever mentioned? Did Dodge ever acknowledge his involvement with it in any way, or was he perhaps paid any royalties for it?
I know he had some connections back in the day to Arcata and the Northtown Books folks. [Humboldt State University is his alma mater for some degree or other.] Unfortunately, Jack Hitt [Founder/Owner of Northtown Books, a counter-cultural tradition up here] is no longer with us, and Jim does not seem to be answering his HSU faculty email.
Were there not any issues of acquiring the permission to reprint this from the street sheet original? Of note here, you might want to know, is that there is an internet site that has put the entire text and cover of the book up on the WWW. Did you give them permission to do so?
I'm assuming the introductory part of this booklet was also part of the original publication, right? It makes claims to the existence of this Ives fellow, but I could not find any reference to him anywhere. Therefore, I assume it is not only a pseudonym, but tend to assume as well that there never was such a taped recording of an actual animal, nor any scientific analysis of its speech by a professional (this so-called Dr.Spenser Grissom fellow). The last line seems to indicate that you had a hand in the story: "From the editors of Unjustified Margins and Floating Island Publications." The history of the thing in the introduction implies that you had a hand in having the ostensible tape tested. Was there ever a tape? Was it really tested? Also, is this line a total confabulation?: "Publication of this book was made possible, in part, through a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts in Washington, D.C., a federal agency."
In any case, I think it is an interesting literary creation, and a good environmental statement. I hope you understand my motives: there are people out there believing this to be a true account. If it isn't, it is kind of counterproductive to allow it to remain an ostensible real story. Don't you think? Of course, it is amusing as a literary lark, if that is what it is. And it is a fine and poetic statement, regardless. Any further information you could provide would be very helpful. Thanks for your attention and time! Best, Steven Streufert, Bookseller, Bigfoot Books.
PUBLISHER: Hi Steve, I have no statements or evidence of Jim Dodge being the author of "Coversations With Bigfoot," but that was my understanding at the time I first published it, in 1976, in my first publication, Floating Island I, and anthology of poetry, fiction, photography, and graphic arts. I don't recall asking him over the phone if he really wrote the "Conversations" or not. That was many years ago.
It stated in the issue of "Unjustified Margins," of which I have the original copy somewhere, that the piece could be reprinted anywhere, anytime, without permission, so the bigfoothub.com site you mention can do whatever they like with it. The introductory part was also part of the original. I reprinted it word for word. I never saw or heard a tape recording, only the original issue of "Unjustified Margins." The notation about the National Endowment for the Arts is not related directly to this specific work. I received 3 grants from the National Endowment in the late 1970s and early 1980s for my publishing work, of which this was eventually a part.
As far I'm concerned, this is a literary work, just as the tales of Don Juan by Carlos Casteneda are literary works, and have no way of verifying the authenticity. If it's a total fabrication, it just makes for an enjoyable read; if it's real account, so much the better. I personally think it's a fabrication based on various accounts over the years, but to me it doesn't matter, just as the aforementioned work by Casteneda is enjoyable to read, whether it's true or not. All of this can be attributed to literary license. I understand how important it may be for some people to want to know if it's true or not; I can also understand that for others, it makes no difference. I can't find any statement in the 1976 or 1998 publications that says, "From the editors of Unjustified Margins and Floating Island Publications," so I don't know where that comes from. Hope this helps. Michael Sykes
BIGFOOT BOOKS: Thanks so much for your helpful reply. One thing remains unclear to me: HOW did you come to the understanding that Dodge was the author? Who told you, or where did you get the idea? To what extent are you aware of Dodge being part of the Arcata printing/poetry/publishing scene and "Unjustified Margins"? That was all before my time here in Humboldt; but having worked in antiquarian and used books here since 1992, I've sure seen a lot of examples of fine press, broadsheet, chapbook and street sheet publishing floating around the community. It seems to have died out now, though, sadly.
We haven't heard back from Mr. Sykes yet. We are assuming that he wants to leave certain things slightly mysterious. This could help sell copies of his booklet, surely; but we think he is doing it out of respect for the author, and to retain the mystery of the text as a literary work. We think the above discussions, combined with our own points about errors in the text and the "author's" non-existence, prove right up to a shadow of a doubt that this work is a literary tall tale, a folk legend for the modern day, something quite in like with the kind of work you can read in "FUP," by Jim Dodge. We'll keep you posted when we know the final and utterly conclusive word on the subject.
Here are some links for information on Floating Island Press and their bookshop in Cedarville, CA:
BOOKS BY JIM DODGE, above and below, to left (buy them here and support Bigfoot's bLog with a very welcome pittance of pennies from our Amazonian friends!).
Here is the letter we wrote to Mr. Jim Dodge. He's on summer break. We hope we get a reply!
BIGFOOT BOOKS: Hello Mr. Dodge, I hope you are receiving email at this address. I am Steven Streufert, former HSU student and current owner of Bigfoot Books in Willow Creek. I'm also a blogger on Bigfoot topics. I met you once long ago at a wedding, and remember seeing you around campus when I was getting my Literature MA. I am friends with Jay Herzog, Mark Shikuma, Bob Doran, and others you may know around Humboldt.
Anyway, that's a brief introduction. What I really would like to ask you is: Are you the author of the booklet, "Conversations with Bigfoot"? I would sincerely like to know, not only as a Bigfooter, but also as someone who has appreciated your writings in the past, and who still plans to finally get around to reading "Stone Junction."
I spoke with a bookseller who knows Michael Sykes, Floating Island publisher, and he has said that you in fact wrote this book. There are some in the Bigfoot world who are claiming this is a real and true account of an actual meeting with "Bigfoot." They are using this to advance their theories that these creatures are not only human-like (or in fact human), but also capable of language use and higher forms of civilization.
My impression of the work is that it is a literary work, part lark, part philosophical allegory, part elegy to Nature, and part a satire of the whole "hoax" idiom concerning Bigfoot in the media and popular culture.
Could you clear this issue up, both for my readers and your own? Also, there is someone who wants me to ask, Have you ever witnessed these Bigfoot creatures, or does this story come from an actual account you may have heard from someone you knew in the area? Your attention to this ASAP would be greatly appreciated! I'm working on a blog entry on this publication right now.
I'd love to ask you, too, some questions about Thomas Pynchon; but I understand you're probably keeping mum on that issue. I've been thinking of writing a blog entry on Pynchon as "Cryptid Author." That would be fun, not only because of his elusiveness, but also due to his current Bigfoot Bjornsen character and other Yeti/Sasquatch references in his works (not to mention the Humboldt County connection!).
Thanks! Best regards to you, Steve, Bigfoot Books
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Going Hunting for Bigfoot, Finding TROLLS Instead!
God (or Devil) bless 'em. The old BIGFOOT FORUMS has got to be the best all-around site for Bigfoot-related topics and discussion. BUT, it can be maddening at times, as we recently found, to get involved. Many years ago we were warned of this, and have therefore normally kept to ourselves, not wanting to get involved in the many bizarre flame wars on the site. We've been posting links to our blog post on there of late, however, and things have caught up with us.
Just wanting to share the information and ideas we are obsessed with, instead we found ourselves being accused of trying to profit from Bigfoot. Accused of hiding from the glorious truth of Bob Hieronimus. Accused of bad-mouthing administrators when we were only trying logically to address issues raised by others. Off topic issues were raised, and for no reason aside from apparent malice, aimed at us. We tried reason, but for some, apparently, logic and rational explanations are not enough. They would rather attack straw men and prove their own incapacity in the literacy department. There is no winning with those who would rather seize even the most remote chance for a snarky remark and stupid mocking joke picture, rather than enter into sincere discussion. What fun! Oh well. Read the utterly ridiculous and superfun topic thread here:
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A New Jack Link's MESSIN' WITH SASQUATCH Commercial,
"Camp Fire," has recently appeared. This is one of the best--or worst--yet!
View it HERE ON YOUTUBE...
and see Bigfoot prove that methane gas is indeed flammable. Don't try this at home!
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Autumn Williams of the Oregon Bigfoot Blog posted this interesting account of a man working on logging projects in the Bluff Creek and Blue Creek basins. It gives a very interesting description of the area at the time, not to mention... BIGFOOT.
Eyewitness Encounter – Northern California, 1978.
Did you know that the G-O Road was commonly used as a way to get to the Bluff Creek area from the coast, even before legislation closed down in its middle section, leaving a big gap near sacred Native American cultural spots past Elk Valley? See that, and much more of interest in this great account.
Eyewitness Encounter – Northern California, 1978.
Did you know that the G-O Road was commonly used as a way to get to the Bluff Creek area from the coast, even before legislation closed down in its middle section, leaving a big gap near sacred Native American cultural spots past Elk Valley? See that, and much more of interest in this great account.
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"OREGON SASQUATCH SYMPOSIUM UPDATE!!!!!!!!!
If you are staying at the Red Lion on Coburg Rd. in Eugene, Oregon, you may already know that there will be a relaxed get together and meet and greet around 7pm on the 18th of June. If you don't know, well now I suppose you do!! Bob Gimlin, Jeff Meldrum, Autumn Williams and many many more will be on the 2nd floor in a reception room. Just follow the spiral staircase and signs posted. This would be a great time to bring all your opening questions, cast, books and more to be autographed, buy a terrific OSS t-shirt or additional ticket, get OSS questions taken care of and share a beer and song downstairs.***********************************************
BigfootBustersRadio, Special Guest Bill Munns Click the linked text above to listen on your computer to archived streaming audio of a great show with Patterson-Gimlin Film expert, Mr. Munns. We somehow forgot to include this in our last blog entry. He casually slaughters the "Massacre Theory" and announces new data that will be used in a revision of his groundbreaking MUNNS REPORT. Dig it! One of the best BlogTalk shows we've heard in a while.
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BLACK MOUNTAIN LION UPDATE Recently Cryptomundo published some information we provided regarding black mountain lions reportedly seen at our own kid's school, Trinity Valley Elementary, in Willow Creek. Read it here, if you haven't: School Fears Black Panther Attacks. Here is an update we got from our local source, Dave Short, on the history of these sightings in the eastern Humboldt-Trinity County area:
"JJ’s is in the panther road area. the first settlements as one drives into Willow Creek after topping the hill. On the left. I can’t remember who I spoke to at the time, but she stated that she’d seen a small one. big cub sized I took it, on a number of occasions and that it had been reported to the Fish and Game. (those would be the folks to talk to, not the FS). Also a good and trusted friend of mine. Native/Injun told me he was climbing a bluff one day near Tish Tang and came face to face with a full grown black panther and almost fell down the bluff. In addition ANOTHER friend of mine… big hunter back in the day said he’d seen one out in the woods, up near Board Camp I think it was… this is going back quite a ways and my memory doesn’t serve me well on it. But that’s three independent sightings. All 3 were convinced of what they saw, and one saw the cub on a number of occasions and reported it as a hazard. I assume it’s a cougar, just a black one, and there may be more than one. Panther and Cougar get used together. I also remember my kids seeing cougar on the bottom of Enchanted Springs road, where we used to live, and near Panther Road.
There is a possibility that the 'Cub' is actually a fisher, which look a lot like a big cat/otter and are blackish. Those are also prevalent. I saw one last year and thought it was a black panther at first as it ran away from me. I’ve skinned one, so I’m well acquainted with their looks. Even so, it ran and moved like a cougar, except the tail was held lower and legs shorter.”
Adults and kids have seen these creatures at the school. These are people who live in the mountains and woods, who would not be likely to mis-identify animals. Mountain lions are seen all of the time. What is so unusual about a black one, and why are they considered to be within the realms of Cryptozoology?
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THE BIGFOOT TIMES, MAY 2010 ISSUE. This single issue is now available free online in PGF format on Daniel Perez' posting on the BIGFOOT FORUMS. Get it HERE. Subscribe if you want to really be in the know and on the cutting edge of Bigfooting Journalism.
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National Geographic has an interesting little photo gallery of these bizarre Australian-area fish, recently declared a new species, that use their pectoral and pelvic fins as "hands" to "walk" along the sea floor. Could these be the kind of adaptation that enabled our early ancestors to climb up onto the land? Check it out HERE. We just had to find a way to post this!
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"Beliefs are not an excuse for critical thinking..."
We humbly ask: Just WHAT in the world does this MEAN, anyway??? Grammatically, this troubled us. We asked our college English teacher friend about it, and she said, in a brief email:
"I'm trying to figure this one out....
'Huh' is my general response, too...
'Band aids are not an excuse for bleeding.'"--Christa Harrison, MA-TW, HSU and CR Lecturer in English
Think it through. The statement does not make sense AT ALL. What are NABS trying to say? That critical thinking is somehow bad, and that having beliefs is no excuse for doing it? A true puzzle piece, that does indeed fit the larger NABS picture. We're assuming NABS means to say, "Having beliefs does not excuse one from having to think critically." Or, um, something like that.
Also: we're glad to see that Paulides is now bending over backwards trying to give credit to JOHN GREEN. It's about time! Check the NABS BIGFOOT BLOG, #95.
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Well, the beer is long gone. We drank it. It was good. (Thanks, "V"!) Kind of tasted like a high-alcohol (7%) ice-fermented lager. It is brewed in Sikkim, India, the northern part of the country, so the Yeti moniker is apt.
Though it did not exactly make us howl like a Yeti for its flavor, we are quite happy to have the bottle on display in our shop. See our previous blog entry, "Beer and Bigfoot." Apparently this beverage is available at Beverages and More, so keep an eye out for this cryptid.
Here's a good tip. Try the beers from Dogfish Head Brewery, of Delaware. Now their IPA was a truly fabulous creation!***********************************************
Find out how properly to prounounce the word, "CRYPTOZOOLOGY."
Click the audio example (speaker icon) here, on this site:
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EDITORIAL NOTE: WHY DOES BIGFOOT'S BLOG USE "WE" ALL OF THE TIME?
From the above Dictionary site, we quote:
we /wi/ [wee] –plural pronoun ...
5. Also called the royal we. (used by a sovereign, or by other high officials and dignitaries, in place of I in formal speech): We do not wear this crown without humility.
6. Also called the editorial we. (used by editors, writers, etc., to avoid the too personal or specific I or to represent a collective viewpoint): As for this column, we will have nothing to do with shady politicians.
Yes, OK, we admit it: We DID start using this tone and voice as a tacit parody of NABS' David Paulides and his constant use of "we" to describe his supposedly large Bigfoot group, his supposed "experts" team, and his mega-rich Silicon Valley financial backers. We are of the opinion that NABS is really just Paulides and Harvey Pratt, with a few hangers-on, and is essentially just a marketing device designed to compete with the vastly superior groups like the BFRO. IMHO, as they say.
We hope it is obvious that this blog is just "me," Steven Streufert, speaking, unless a guest blogger is noted. Not to imply royalty, we shall default to definition #6, above. Sorry, but we took Journalism class in junior high.
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A NEW CRYPTID DISCOVERED?
Check out this funny and very stupid video.
EDITORIAL NOTE: WHY DOES BIGFOOT'S BLOG USE "WE" ALL OF THE TIME?
From the above Dictionary site, we quote:
we /wi/ [wee] –plural pronoun ...
5. Also called the royal we. (used by a sovereign, or by other high officials and dignitaries, in place of I in formal speech): We do not wear this crown without humility.
6. Also called the editorial we. (used by editors, writers, etc., to avoid the too personal or specific I or to represent a collective viewpoint): As for this column, we will have nothing to do with shady politicians.
Yes, OK, we admit it: We DID start using this tone and voice as a tacit parody of NABS' David Paulides and his constant use of "we" to describe his supposedly large Bigfoot group, his supposed "experts" team, and his mega-rich Silicon Valley financial backers. We are of the opinion that NABS is really just Paulides and Harvey Pratt, with a few hangers-on, and is essentially just a marketing device designed to compete with the vastly superior groups like the BFRO. IMHO, as they say.
We hope it is obvious that this blog is just "me," Steven Streufert, speaking, unless a guest blogger is noted. Not to imply royalty, we shall default to definition #6, above. Sorry, but we took Journalism class in junior high.
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Check out this funny and very stupid video.
Warning: this is not only really moronic, but also not quite appropriate for the kids to view. You can guess the topic from the last word in the above link. It is a great parody of MonsterQuest, however low-brow.
From a guy named Andrew Cash, on the Funny or Die web site.
From a guy named Andrew Cash, on the Funny or Die web site.
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A FUNNY REPORT, EVEN IF IT IS REAL: BIGFOOT POOP?
Here's the kind of nutty report we have to deal with on a regular basis. Is it TRUE? Was it BIGFOOT? You decide. We quote, from a comment left on one of this blog's earlier postings:
"I live in prospect or. I was out mushroom hunting 2 days ago and I found something really strange. a large pile of pooh I mean a really large pile a foot in a half long by about 8 inhes high it was a the foot of a large pipe tree it looked human and it was a well use potty spot months of potty. and a very strong odor but noty from the poop. I would like to know what I found. is there anyone out there that could test it or something, sandy at xxx@yahoo.xxx (email excised) I am going to take some pic's."
OK, folks, we just don't know what to say. This is one of the reasons we shy away from the title, Professional Bigfoot Investigator.
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A Discussion with ONIL DAS GUPTA, of the BFRO, in Canada(Expressing HIS OWN VIEWS, not necessarily those of the BFRO or its other members or founders--but quite intriguing nonetheless!)
ONIL DAS GUPTA: Steven, You wrote: "I think this book only feeds into the nuttier side of those who think BF is "human." It seems absurd that these creatures would speak in English and propound upon Philosophy. Go figure."
Fact remains Steven, you don't know what they are and I don't either. The only conclusion I have come to is that Sasquatches are unlike anything we currently know about in the animal kingdom. It makes you wonder.... Regards, Onil Das Gupta, BFRO Investigator - Ontario, Canada
[Ed. NOTE. We are asked to add this by Mr. Das Gupta: "In NO WAY, SHAPE OR FORM do my opinions or views speak for or represent the BFRO."]BIGFOOT BOOKS: Hello, And yes, a very good point that is! Far be it for me to differ. In fact, I am writing a blog entry on this now.
My own views of Sasquatch/Bigfoot are along the Mysterian line of things. However, I do think it is a flesh and blood animal. We, too, are animals. We are apes. That is what I would say; but that is NOT to exclude mystery and the unknown. The majority of the world is not perceived by our senses nor known by our minds. Our Science goes a long way, though, toward getting it. So, I do recommend starting from parsimony: that the thing is an animal, and it can be found in the woods, and it is not exactly "human," though obviously a lot like us.
What I meant in that quote you included was that the book in question appeals to or presents what I would call the nuttier side of the "BF is human" belief; that is, not to say it is nutty to think of BF as "human" or human-like, but to say that this is the extreme form of that view. I don't believe that BF would be a Philosopher who could converse with Schopenhauer, or enter Harvard. They must be radically different from us in that regard, however intelligent they are.
Look at human variation. I mean on the cultural level. The world of the Eskimo is radically different from that of the Amazonian tribesman. The Sasquatch has all the signs of being a different species, so I would assume their reality and their minds would be radical degrees away from ours.
Have you read "Conversations with Bigfoot"? If not, try it out. I think you will agree with me.
http://www.bigfoothub.com/conversations_home.
SAY, may I quote your email in my blog? I can do it anonymously if you'd like. But I feel it would make a good presentation of your viewpoint within the discussion of the issue I am endeavoring upon in my current writing. I'd really appreciate it. Check out my blog here: http://bigfootbooksblog.blogspot.com/.
ONIL DAS GUPTA: Hi Steven, Well said. It's nice to get into a discussion without people becoming offended because of different points of views. Very refreshing.
Steven, I wrote that to you because I too started out with your view of what exactly the "Sasquatch" are. I started out thinking they are just a huge, intelligent ape-like creature living in remote wooded areas. However, after attending my first expedition in Ohio I was shocked how the Sasquatches "operated". They seemed to have a "language", they crept and belly crawled to avoid detection, their eyes glowed at night, they foot stomped to intimidate, they had sentry's on duty, they caused distractions when another was spotted, they threw objects around and at us without causing injury, they travelled single file when walking on a path as a group, they had and used wood knock stations for signaling and communication, they could walk without making a sound when they wanted to, they pretend to be stumps and logs when in plain view to avoid detection, they appear to omit some sort of vibration or "infra sound" to immobilize or disable prey or adversaries, and much more.
After learning the above....I must say I was confused. I knew then that we were dealing with something that was entirely different. This was a species unlike anything else we know. Was this a hairy aboriginal type people with highly specialized skills much like the "ultimate commando" that was so specialized that they have avoided humans all this time? Or were they a "spirit" being like the natives believe they are? Or are they not of this earth or dimension? I would never have believed the last two, as a matter of fact I laughed at people who brought that up. But now I just don't know. I simply know that they are a very intelligent beings with highly specialized traits/skills that makes them masters of their domain. They know us far, far better than we know them. They cannot be "bought" like us and they have the uncanny ability to avoid traps. They are either the ultimate, ultimate survivors or from a place that is of a higher intelligence than ours. They may not be able to attend our "Harvard" or "Yale", but they seem to have it all figured out and I think they know our weakness of power, greed and vanity. I think the Sasquatch is MORE intelligent than us. We are on a course to destroy ourselves with war, disease and crime and they are not. Their only demise is us finally proving their existence. Once proved and accepted worldwide then they too will be doomed. Perhaps they know this too. I could go on Steven, but that kind of it in a nutshell. I just may be one of the "nuttier" BF people. I don't know. I am just amazed and in awe of them. Absolutely. Use my last e-mail for your blog. Keep my name and title. I have nothing to hide. That book sounds interesting, I'm going to read it. Thanks. Feel free to contact me anytime. Onil
BIGFOOT BOOKS: Good! You are saving me, in a way--I WAS just going to slaughter the booklet as a hoax, nut now I can present both sides and the Bigger Picture. I'll reply later--I somehow fell asleep early last night, and missed a whole night of writing for the blog.
ONIL DAS GUPTA: Steven, I read your blog website. I enjoyed reading it. You seem to touch on areas that very few researchers and authors talk about: the psychology of the witnesses and researchers and the psychology of Sasquatches themselves. I think this is an area that is more important than we even realize. It's not "National Geographic" or "Wild Kingdom". We are not dealing with rhinos or lions, as spectacular as they are. The psychological connection between us and Sasquatches will the most amazing and earth shattering revelation, in my opinion. Ask me why, I don't know, but I am being pulled in that direction more and more. As I get older I seem to rely on my instinct more than just intellect because the brain is "prejudiced" as a result of our upbringing and what our schools and the media has taught (brainwashed) us, while our instinct is pure, uncluttered and unmolested. Our instinct seems to be our very own "crystal ball" if we all learn to tap into it properly.
I also read "Conversation with Bigfoot". What is your take on the authenticity? I would love to hear the tapes. Any chance of that? Once again I must say that right off the bat I was surprised, but not shocked other than the fact that the Sasquatch spoke "English". This seems strange, but I can accept this. I think this is indeed what we are dealing with. I think we are afraid to admit and face it. You have to listen to what is being said. The Sasquatch speaks of "balance" constantly. Balance is something universal and is understood more by Eastern cultures than Western cultures. I am half East Indian and half German and lived in Canada my whole life so I can compare cultures and attitudes. My Indian counterparts are much more in tune with nature and spirits that my Western (Germany and Canada) counterparts. It was always my belief that these beings must be extremely in tune with nature and the spirit world and reading the story of the conversation it seems to support that theory. I cannot say if that story is true or not because all I have been given is a written copy. An intelligent person can possibly make this up, but my instincts tell me that this "may be true" based on the content of the dialogue. This may not convince anyone else, but it's myself that I have to convince and deal with. This is how I see the Sasquatches and so this story merely backs up something that I seem to be leaning towards more and more as times goes on. I would like to know more about this printed conversation and tapes. Very interesting so say the least. Best regards, Onil
I may be wrong. I can't yet rule out the possibilities; and I wouldn't want to. A few Bigfooters have suggested to me that the booklet gets much "right" about Bigfoot, in their view. So, it was suggested, maybe this booklet was based upon an actual encounter, or the tale of one who had one. Maybe! But I doubt it. The way the creature speaks is just too human, in tone and cultural reference. It sounds like a cross between Kahlil Gibran's "Prophet" and a wise Native American. I just don't think that these creatures, however intelligent, would have the SAME kind of intelligence as we do, nor the same basic cultural referents. Perhaps they have a language, but it is THEIR language. If they have a culture beyond survival it would be THEIR culture, radically different from our own.
The behaviors you mention, as well as their general ability to avoid human detection and contact, ARE quite stunning; but does that mean they are "supernatural"? I would argue that the universe itself, and the creatures and things in it, are MUCH more mysterious than we currently know. Human knowledge is limited, and through Science progresses by increments rather than grand leaps. There are, too, many things we just do not "get" as they are so different from us. Do we really understand the consciousness of whales, for instance, or gorillas? There are cases where chimpanzees have been observed hunting and acting in social groups, cooperatively, for common and intelligent ends. That the Sasquatch, so much more like us apparently, does so is then not so surprising. That intelligence that has been observed is not, though, necessarily like our own. Our kind of intelligence is our kind, particular to our species and its civilization and evolution, but not necessarily one "superior" to that of all creatures. As we cannot really know what a whale thinks and knows, our limitations are revealed. We may understand its behavior and biology, but we cannot fully and necessarily know the thing itself. It is arrogance of us to think of ourselves as "above" the other creatures; and especially so if the Sasquatch or some kind of alien race were to prove itself as having capacities quite beyond our own. Also, our current capacity and knowledge will not necessarily be the end of it--we are still an evolving species, and we may come to some kind of epiphany of something quite larger than our current world.
I am a lifelong aficionado of the so-called paranormal or supernatural and occult things. I have more or less practiced Hindu-Buddhist philosophy for decades. However, when it comes to the "unknown" I believe we need to proceed cautiously, given the self-deluding nature of the human mind. We tend to fool ourselves that we know something, but really, we only know our biases, culture, and preconceptions, save in the cases of true revelation. The Sasquatch presents a deep and intriguing enigma--what is it? where is it? or even, IS it? But there are so many encounters and sightings that it is quite difficult to disbelieve once one really looks into the phenomenon.All of the things you mention are possible for a flesh-and-blood creature, so I would tend to rule out the "spirit being" theory. But then, are WE not, too, such beings? Our deeper nature is as much a mystery to ourselves as the nature of the Bigfoot is. Native Americans held those spiritual types of beliefs about the Bigfoot, but then, they held every animal in the same regard, as beings with spirit, living in mysterious ways, having powers different from humans, and often quite strange and unusual ones at that. A Sasquatch may not be able to operate in Harvard or NASA, but it is clear that they are much more highly adapted to the natural world, their particular habitat, than we are. This intelligence is different from human forms of intelligence. Perhaps human civilization is inherently and deeply flawed, as you have indicated, and we are doomed to destroy ourselves. This would prove our intelligence to be inferior to even the mouse. It may be that, like whales, Sasquatch are so perfectly adapted that they do not need our tools and toys and silly culture. Perhaps their intelligence, free of stupid distractions, is able to encompass more of the universe than ours is? It is perfectly likely. The sooner we recognize these other forms of intelligence, the better for us. Perhaps Sasquatch is the messenger for this goal? Clearly, we still have much to learn.
ONIL DAS GUPTA: Hello Steven, Thanks for your reply. When I wrote you the first time I had no knowledge that there was a discrepancy with regards to the author. I didn't know that Jim Dodge, poet/author, might have written this book.
However, it makes no difference. What this book, real or not, signifies for me is that there is much more to Sasquatches than we think or know about. The fact that this Sasquatch spoke in English and knew much about our culture will immediately affect the credibility of the validity of this encounter with many people, investigators and general public alike. But, this is what I am talking about. Something tells me that we totally underestimate these beings and as a result we are having a difficult time of coming in contact with them. It appears simple enough: they are large, hairy, bipedal apes that live in our forests for thousands of years. Then why have we had almost no contact with them outside of chance encounters? We don't have this kind of trouble with any outer creatures?
My point is this, I think they are as intelligent as the book "Conversation with Bigfoot" suggests. Whether this is book is true or not, I believe that it is this kind of self-awareness and intellect that has kept the Sasquatch in the shadows. They are a "balanced" being that is at one with nature. I like the references to the fact that we are obsessed with metal, oil and sex. There is also reference to the fact that they focus on being "centred" while we live on the "edge" with precision on extremes. That is exactly right. This is the down fall of our race and species. You said you have practised Hinduism and Buddhism for many years. Hindus and Buddhists have no problem grasping the concept of and believing spirits or unearthly beings. It is Western people who have the hang ups. We feel we are the centre of the universe for some unknown reason. We are not nor have we ever been. Once we figure that out then and only then will we have some sort of peace.
You said:"Now, we will grant that Bigfoot does indeed have capabilities which elude our understanding (like the rabbit and the hat quote, above), but this one just seemed to be WAY too big a stretch. The tale seems really far-flung: too human, too similar to us, with too many human cultural devices to come from another species."
Perhaps that is our problem. We repel evidence such as this because it doesn't fit in the "box" that we made for Sasquatches. In other words, we think we have figured out what they are even though we don't have a clue what they are. Does this make sense??? So, since we have our "Wikipedia "description of the Sasquatch we are now incapable of accepting any other profile. How absurd is this? We have known the whale and dolphin for how long now?, and still we do not understand or accept just how intelligent and "self aware" they really are!! Scientists are just now in 2010 realizing that they just might be the first creatures on earth, next to us, that are self aware. What does mean? They are a "conscious being". This is more important than just saying they are "intelligent". A rat is intelligent. But our race is petrified in admitting that anything in the world or universe is as smart or smarter than ourselves. We "tread lightly" when admitting this about whales, dolphins or Sasquatches for that matter because we are frightened at that possibility and frightened about being ridiculed by others of our species if we do admit it.
My position is this Steven, if anything, this booklet brings to surface the fact that we are perhaps dealing with a being that is as intelligent or more intelligent than us. We are dealing with a being that is one with nature, has their own language, culture and beliefs, and lack the phobias and obsessions of our race. Yes, they are "primitive" in the sense that they live in the woods and are hair covered, but when one is in harmony with nature and balanced with the universe.....what else would you look and act like?
Well, what do you think so far? I think you will find my view very different from others in the BFRO. But, that is ok because at least we all agree that they exist. It just comes down to what we each of us think the Sasquatch exactly are. Hope our discussion helps your blog site. Onil
[Ed. NOTE. This discussion may continue on into our next blog post.]
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CONVERSATIONS WITH BIGFOOT
[Ed. note: the numbers at some parts of the text are footnotes, so see below for their explication. The breaks where the numbered footnotes appear indicate page breaks. We make no personal claims as to the veracity of the following text, but rather present it as a literary curiosity. As per the above about it, we think it is a poetic hoax and modern-day folk tale.]
STATEMENT: My name is Gordon Langley Ives. I was born in Portsmouth, England, in 1936 and came to America in 1959 to study for a Doctorate in Ornithology at the University of California, Davis. I obtained my Ph.D. in 1965, specializing in bird communication (movement, plumage, song, etc.). From 1966 through 1973, I was a Professor of Zoology at Portland University. In 1973, I received a four-year grant from the Ford Foundation to do further research on bird communications. I chose to center my research on the Piliated Woodpecker because they are near extinction and I hoped aside from my central research to gather ancillary data on their existence towards a program of preservation.
In March of 1975 I came to Northern California (I refuse to be more specific) to do field work. After locating an adequate study population, I set up a base camp and began daily field excursions. For the purpose of my work, I was equipped with a 16mm movie camera and a portable tape recorder. On May 1st, at approximately 7:30 a.m., in the field and equipped with only the tape recorder, I encountered a human-like creature who identified himself, using the English language, as a Priorian a species known to us as Bigfoot. He had, by visual evidence, been standing on a rock out-cropping above a stream when it gave way; he had fallen approximately 45 feet and, except for his head and left arm, was buried under stone and debris from the resultant slide. I surmised the accident had occurred sometime in the night, although this was not confirmed. Consequent direct observation revealed that the creature-persons ribcage, pelvis, and both legs were severely injured. I attempted to render what aid I could under the conditions (refer to transcription and notes), and to abide by the creature-persons instructions for the disposition of his body and the accompanying rites. Throughout the verbal encounter with the creature-person, I left my tape recorder running without his stated permission but I believe, not without his knowledge.
I hereby attest to the veracity of this statement, the tape recording, the transcription of the recording, and those notes of mine appended to the transcription.
The tape starts with a long whistling scream. 1
1 This sound had a rather strange property of both attracting and repelling the listener.
IVES: What is it?
BF: Approach. (long pause)
IVES: What happened? Who are you? 2
BF: Please move the stones from me. (sound of stones being moved; labored breathing)
IVES: I can't budge this one...it's huge.
BF: Think of the stone.
IVES: (panting) What?
BF: Think of the stone. (labored breathing)
IVES: Got it, got it...there! (panting) Heavy. (long pause) 3
BF: I recognize my death. Would you bring me water?
IVES: Yes, yes...but I have nothing to hold it in. 4
BF: Bring it to me in your cupped hands. (footsteps, sounds of running water, footsteps again)
IVES: Here. (sound of drinking)
BF: Thank you. Your kindness is the pride of bone.
IVES: What happened? Who are you?
BF: My name is Shadarue. It indicates that I am of the moon families and it signifies the pale green color in the moon's ring.
IVES: What happened? 5
BF: We cannot speak where vision is sufficient. I'm sorry.
IVES: I'll go for help. My car is back on the skid road, I'll get a doctor, it won't...
BF: No.
IVES: It won't take long. Doctors can do amazing things.
BF: Death is more amazing.
IVES: You don't understand-they can save you. It is serious but they can save you. But I must go now.
BF: No. Stay to ease my spirit forth.
IVES: There's still hope. Hang on, I'll... 6
2 My confusion under the circumstances is, I believe, understandable.
3 I can't explain my ability to move this rather large stone; it weighed perhaps 400 lbs.
4 In my confusion I neglected the obvious solution.
5 And in this instance I unfortunately belabored the obvious.
6 Although I am not a medical doctor, I have had professional training in vertebrate anatomy and physiology, and in my immediate judgement the injuries appeared fatal. I don't know why I lied.
BF: I am broken inside. I am very old. Consider those things. Consider: I could not go with you anyway.
IVES: No, no. I dont know who or what you are exactly, but you are human, you speak English...something could be done. 7
BF: Nothing in the flesh, nothing in the stone.
IVES: I want to help you. I must get help.
BF: If you wish to help then grace my words with attention. There are no accidents. You answered that you might hear and remember. You know what I am in your world.
IVES: A Bigfoot, I guess...but that doesn't matter. You would be a curiosity, but...
BF: Please hear me. As you shall understand-if my face is too pain conscious to convey it-what I have to speak is of importance to me. 8 Among my people I am a "doctor", only much different than your kind. We Ladantias, as we are known, seek the balance of things, and through the maintenance and restoration of that balance, we keep our integrities and fulfill our obligation to integrities larger than our own being. A Ladantia, therefore, must know deeply of himself and the others. As part of this learning every seventy moons, he makes The Walk. Each Walk leads to a place where life is given. This renews the energy of balance in the pilgrim. I am on The Walk, to be my last. Among Ladantias, the last Walk is considered most powerful, for knowledge has no definition until its edges are revealed. Decisions carry the weight of a life, and strike deeply. I have decided to tell you of the Priorians, as we are known. Many other humans have been told, but joined to secrecy lest there be discord. You understand that our existence is known among you; we have talked to many of your people. Joining is a power we have. It can be used for silence as well as song. And of course our mad ones reveal themselves, and occasionally we are seen. To use a joke popular with us: There is ample predication for our existence. The Priorians are not a superior people. We do not, for instance, have your minds for the beauties of metal and oil. We lack obsession. Nor do our languages have nearly the grace as some of your Indian tongues. We do have some unique powers and abilities-but what living lacks its own uniqueness? Some of our abilities would perhaps astonish you, but not for long. One of them is the ability to join things in marvelous orders and complexities and in that way create new connections to refresh the old. This, if anything constitutes an equivalent to your arts-we do not make the distinction. Because we live through those connections as we are able, our lives are magical-but we have the magicians respect for "reality", as you call it, for reality is a limit of magic, and thus a point of balance. We do not pull rabbits from a hat. But we can become rabbits. I hope my example is not too clumsy- in our languages there are no comparative structures, while in yours they are a necessity of the imagination. Our language, you understand, does not admit of metaphor and is not a metaphor itself. Sometimes it bores me.
IVES: No, I understand, really. Really it is quite astonishing. But why are you telling me this? 9
BF: It is given me to do so; I have decided to comply. Birds sing. Always in my life Ive had a weakness for speech, a foolishness that often afflicts us of the moon families. Foolishness, age, pain-many possibilities. Because my voice rises to your face. Because my voice soon finds its stillness. (pause) But also because things are bad with my people. For too long now we have lived like trout under the frozen crust of a winter lake, sluggish, suspended in ourselves. Despite our powers and small magic there is a sickness amongst us, a sadness, a grief very deep. No one knows the exact origin of this sadness. My own feeling is that it is of astonishing complexity, beyond even dream music. No doubt it breeds in our isolation, no doubt it finds fecund [meaning fertile, or highly imaginative...ed] our enforced disconnection from old springs and spirit grounds that your people now occupy. Nescomela, one of our most gifted, feels your people have maddened the earth beyond anything we might balance. Perhaps. But on this Walk there was feeling in me of a more serious sort, that our sadness is the first tremble of extinction, a blood premonition of species-death. I must explain that it is Ladantia practice to read "emotion" in the blood-I did so by opening a vein in my arm. In the bloom I saw a fish with corroded fins and the trunk of an oak tree split. And I saw most clearly a bird creature feeding on itself, its beak tearing at its own breast. Birds are the densest energy-they are like song. And among us, always, only with singing has sadness dissolved. Long ago, when your people lost respect, we learned to sing silently against our discovery. I now realize, to swallow one's songs, for they grow mad in the heart and the blood. That is what the bird creature told me in its being. There are other signs of discordance; the quality of dreaming-to which we pay careful attention-has deteriorated. And there are more mad ones. They are the ones who leave footprints and cross highways. So great is their torment they wish to flirt their existence. Two have been shot this year.
7. An unpardonable display of chauvinism on my part.
8. His face was very composed, but not relaxed; he was obviously maintaining composure with great effort.
9. My first intelligent question. I am disappointed in myself for not having more presence of mind to ask deeper questions, but I was totally confounded by the situation.
IVES: How many of you are there?
BF: Yes, many questions. But my voice is losing its gather as death comes on. May I appeal to kindness again?
IVES: More water? Yes, of course.
BF: No. I would ask you to care for my corpse. I would ask you to fire my flesh and break and scatter my bones. I ask, simply, that nothing remain that might identify me.
IVES: Yes, I will. I take it I am joined to secrecy.
BF: You may report our conversation.
IVES: Without substantiation I will be laughed at.
BF: Perhaps. But it is our way and I am bound to it.
IVES: Do you want me to be believed?
BF: Balance is always complex. Excess sometimes tips; sometimes it rectifies. I do not know, very simply. Usually I proceed with recklessness but in this instance considerations exist much beyond myself.
IVES: I will care for your corpse.
BF: Also, with us it is customary to place a flower in the mouth of the dead and a feather in each hand.
IVES: I will do that, too. I found some strangely-colored raven feathers this morning. I'm an ornithologist; I study birds.
BF: My other hearts would laugh knowing I rose on raven wings. The ravens and I have not been close since one of them stole my joining stone when I was young and would not return it.
IVES: A joining stone?
BF: Of value only to the individual. We hold them in our hands when we wish to be beyond ourselves-the shapes and volumes are helpful. But I am old and digress. Satisfy your curiosity quickly.
IVES: How many of you are there?
BF: I cannot tell you directly. Enough that it requires much energy to remain unknown.
IVES: Where do you live...your territory, your home?
BF: I can only repeat Nescomales excellent reply: "Just over your shoulder."
IVES: Geographically, I mean.
BF: There are no boundaries.
IVES: How long have your people been here?
BF: Our histories are water.
IVES: Are my questions inappropriate? You don't seem to answer them.
BF: Perhaps my answers baffle themselves. It has been said, "The excellence of the song is limited by the listeners ears in the same way the song limits the ears." No blame. I always found the saying clumsy, though.
IVES: Well, what can you tell me of your lives? Do you have houses, what do you eat, how do you mate-that kind of thing? 10
BF: Those are good questions, questions worthy of a man who follows birds. We do not have houses. Only in the winter do we require shelter, and then we go to caves. For us, winter is a ceremonial season, and much of it is given to foodlessness and towsinga-towsinga is much like your meditation practices, only rather than emptying the mind, the object is to fill it, to pursue images. As for food, we eat other beings-plants, animals, insects...there is no scarcity of things. We dry a few herbs for ceremonial use, and some roots for the snow season, but other than that we preserve nothing. As for mating, we are as you...though we lack your deep fascination with the subject. We mate at all times but we only conceive in early Spring, for our gestation period is exactly a year and Spring is best for birthing. It is part of our power, we think, that the dates of our conception and birth often coincide.
10. It was my feeling that he was dismayed either at my questions or his allowance of them. It is also possible that he could not, or did not wish to, tell me. My change to the direct approach seemed to please him.
IVES: You say you conceive only in the Spring. How do you control conception? Are the females only fertile in the Spring?
BF: We pay attention to balances. Fertility partakes of balance.
IVES: You use that word often. It must have special significance for you.
BF: It is our knowledge, just as the play between the real and imaginary has become yours.
IVES: I must ask you this-how do you know English?
BF: Nescomale was my teacher.
IVES: But how did he learn it?
BF: From his teacher, Fuscus. That's as far as I know, though I think your language has been with us always. And it is very pretty in its own way, though not like the fox's, so roughly eloquent, or like the wild pigs, earnest and preoccupied. 11
IVES: How can...
BF: Excuse me, but may I ask you a question?
IVES: Certainly. Anything.
BF: Do you have any cashew nuts? 12
IVES? Cashew nuts? No...no, I dont.
BF: No matter. The last one of your people I talked with gave me some. I liked them very much. Some would be good now.
IVES: You confound me. I mean, how can you ask me that. You must have twenty broken bones-doesnt it hurt?
BF: The pain is very bad.
IVES: But you don't show it.
BF: I will, later. It is not necessary now.
IVES: You mean you can control it?
BF: I can manipulate the necessity of its time, but not its inevitability. To do so would torture balance.
IVES: Is balance like a religion with you?
BF: No. While we do have many ceremonies celebrating our being, and respect all that lies beyond our knowledge, we have no necessity for religion. I assure you, we know no more of "God" or gods than you. It is one of our powers. (long pause) You see, because our knowledge is involved with balance we live very near the center of things. Your knowledge being the way it is-the precision of extremes-you live on the edge. For us it takes little energy to maintain our existence; for you, the amount is huge. It would deform our being to join you, it would leave the center unmediated-such a journey! Understand, please, you are exhausting us. We cannot mediate you much longer. You must return to the point of balance.
11. I felt a playful mockery here.
12. I still find his asking for cashew nuts astonishing. Perhaps he wished to demonstrate that he had previous contact with humans or that he needed salt.
IVES: Where? How? Tell me how.BF: I don't know. I can offer no instructions or dictums, no methods or messages. We have a word-geneasa-to describe a certain state of transparent receptivity, but it does not fit your language well. Love, that particular condition of love that approaches blessedness, is your closest equivalent, yet it is wholly inadequate. But I have said too much. It is one of my lifelong failings...though it pleases me in a simple way to die true to my character. Could I have more water please? The garrulous are always with thirst.
IVES: Hang on.
BF: (calling) Look closely: Do you see an image in the water other than your own reflection?
IVES: No, I don't. I see nothing.
BF: As it is.
IVES: (returning) Here, quickly, before it all spills. 13
BF: I do have a suggestion.
IVES: Yes?
BF: Break all your mirrors.
IVES: I don't understand. 14BF: You know, when I was very young I used to plague my teachers with questions about death. Why we died, and what it felt like. They all had different answers, some plain, some very beautiful. One day I asked Nescomale-he was very old then. For a long time he said nothing. Then he looked into my face a long time sadly, and handed me his joining stone. "Not in the flesh, not in the stone," he said. He knew I would have difficulty with death. He was right: I am very frightened. (long pause) And now I must ask you to leave me. Please, do not return until the sun has topped that fir tree. I will be dead. As a mouth-flower it would please me to have that blue iris by the stream side. Before you came I was admiring it. And then, by your kindness, burn my flesh and break and scatter the bone.
IVES: You wish me to leave now?
BF: Yes. And one more thing: I think to say this, a teaching from my early years, a lesson: The grass is foolish. It says to the wind: "Look how I dance!" The seaweed is foolish. It says to the wave: "See how I dance!" We are foolish. We say to ourselves: "See how I dance!"
14. Like much of what he said, this injunction is open to the wildest speculation.
[Ed. NOTE: No copyright was claimed for this piece. It was stated as "free to distribute" in its original form, and the current publisher has confirmed this. Hence, we print it here and encourage you to save it to your hard drive.]
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COMING UP NEXT TIME:
Pursuant to our previous "Letter to a Young Squatcher" blog post, the I-Search school project on Bigfoot by one Andrei Galic, 8th grader, Los Angeles. This is a lengthy piece, so we will be giving it "guest blogger status and its own post. This will make up for the time we will be spending in Oregon, away from blogging, but definitely SQUATCHING. We may be able to squeeze in something from the Sasquatch Symposium, but we suspect we will be needing sleep very badly when we return.
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ANGRY BIGFOOT SPEAKS!Me Shadarue. Me Priorian. Me Ladantian. Me Lemurian. Me Big Hairy Dude. Me abide. Hear me roar and scream. How many times I have to tell you hu-mans? What the point of conversations with Bigfoot if you never listen? You destroy tree, you make flat on road my friend squirrel. You hopeless. But read my book, stupid. I hear you hu-man say before, Get a Clue, Man. That right, you big, dumb ape. It been said, "No Man Knows My History."
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This weblog, website, soapbox, or whatever you call it is copyright 2010, Steven Streufert, Bigfoot Books Intergalactic. Sharing and borrowing is allowed (and often practiced by us, too) if you give full credit and citation, and a fair and nice link back to our page. Spread the word! Thanks!
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