31 replies to this topic

[HerryGrail]

Hi everyone...I'm new to this forum, and I very much appreciate its honest blend of skepticism and hope. I found it when I was looking around the internet and somehow came across the newest Loch Ness Monster theory. It led me here, and I've enjoyed reading through many of the threads...like most of you, I spent my share of youthful hours in the public library looking through cryptozoology books. I've not thought much about it lately, though, until one thing led to another, as it always does when you spend a little free time on the internet, and now I'm intrigued all over again.

But I'm also sad. The combination of internet accessibility and cheap videotaping equipment seems to have created a huge subculture focused on that most celebrated cryptid of them all...Bigfoot. It's Bigfoot camp, and not the outdoorsy, overnight kind of camp....the goofy, so-uncool-it's-cool kind of camp. It includes dumb fake videos and the warring lunatics who make them, as well as the hangers-on who really do appear to wonder if Bigfoot wanders into viewfinders wearing a Planet of the Apes mask. It's such a shame, but I guess Bigfoot is perfect for it; everybody has access to costumes and trees, but faking a water or sky monster is another thing altogether.

The reason I'm sad is that this hoaxing subculture, driven I guess by cults of personality and YouTube ad schemes, makes everything I've ever read or heard about any mythical creature seem like a joke, from every blurry Loch Ness Monster photo to every shaky Bigfoot movie. It makes me feel like I was always just hoping something shocking would shake up my life, like I used to feel when I was younger and stared at the skyline hoping Godzilla would rise up from behind the buildings.

Are our lives so hollow that we find ourselves hoping that there really IS a dead Bigfoot being stored today by a notorious hoaxer until it can be revealed...as part of an independent documentary's premiere at this year's Tribeca Film Festival? He is even selling a painting that shows him shooting the crudely-rendered Bigfoot in his underwear. (No, Bigfoot isn't the one in his underwear...did you know Bigfoot was circumcised?) Just yesterday he described as "amazing" a video that shows a gorilla mask emerging in profile from behind a tree. If you were sitting on a Bigfoot body, would you be linking to trashy hoaxes on your blog?

The internet and technology seem to have ruined cryptozoology, not elevated it...is that truly the fate of a once-fascinating and entertaining field of study? Either way, they've definitely made it incredibly difficult to navigate.

[notoverrated]

HerryGrail, on 27 January 2013 - 09:35 PM, said:

Hi everyone...I'm new to this forum, and I very much appreciate its honest blend of skepticism and hope. I found it when I was looking around the internet and somehow came across the newest Loch Ness Monster theory. It led me here, and I've enjoyed reading through many of the threads...like most of you, I spent my share of youthful hours in the public library looking through cryptozoology books. I've not thought much about it lately, though, until one thing led to another, as it always does when you spend a little free time on the internet, and now I'm intrigued all over again.

But I'm also sad. The combination of internet accessibility and cheap videotaping equipment seems to have created a huge subculture focused on that most celebrated cryptid of them all...Bigfoot. It's Bigfoot camp, and not the outdoorsy, overnight kind of camp....the goofy, so-uncool-it's-cool kind of camp. It includes dumb fake videos and the warring lunatics who make them, as well as the hangers-on who really do appear to wonder if Bigfoot wanders into viewfinders wearing a Planet of the Apes mask. It's such a shame, but I guess Bigfoot is perfect for it; everybody has access to costumes and trees, but faking a water or sky monster is another thing altogether.

The reason I'm sad is that this hoaxing subculture, driven I guess by cults of personality and YouTube ad schemes, makes everything I've ever read or heard about any mythical creature seem like a joke, from every blurry Loch Ness Monster photo to every shaky Bigfoot movie. It makes me feel like I was always just hoping something shocking would shake up my life, like I used to feel when I was younger and stared at the skyline hoping Godzilla would rise up from behind the buildings.

Are our lives so hollow that we find ourselves hoping that there really IS a dead Bigfoot being stored today by a notorious hoaxer until it can be revealed...as part of an independent documentary's premiere at this year's Tribeca Film Festival? He is even selling a painting that shows him shooting the crudely-rendered Bigfoot in his underwear. (No, Bigfoot isn't the one in his underwear...did you know Bigfoot was circumcised?) Just yesterday he described as "amazing" a video that shows a gorilla mask emerging in profile from behind a tree. If you were sitting on a Bigfoot body, would you be linking to trashy hoaxes on your blog?

The internet and technology seem to have ruined cryptozoology, not elevated it...is that truly the fate of a once-fascinating and entertaining field of study? Either way, they've definitely made it incredibly difficult to navigate.

didnt need to....

[keninsc]

Personally, I don't know which is worse, the people perpetrating the fakery or the ones who gobble it up like it's manna from Heaven?

[HerryGrail]

Order66, on 27 January 2013 - 10:23 PM, said:

- post removed -

I didn't mean it to be insulting...everyone I've encountered in this forum has been sincere. I want to believe, but there's so much junk out there now...doesn't it make it harder for you too?

[keninsc]

I don't think he meant it that way. At some point in time we've all been fooled by some faked evidence, which is why most of us are skeptically now about anything new that comes along.

[shaddow134]

HerryGrail, on 27 January 2013 - 09:35 PM, said:

Hi everyone...I'm new to this forum, and I very much appreciate its honest blend of skepticism and hope. I found it when I was looking around the internet and somehow came across the newest Loch Ness Monster theory. It led me here, and I've enjoyed reading through many of the threads...like most of you, I spent my share of youthful hours in the public library looking through cryptozoology books. I've not thought much about it lately, though, until one thing led to another, as it always does when you spend a little free time on the internet, and now I'm intrigued all over again.

But I'm also sad. The combination of internet accessibility and cheap videotaping equipment seems to have created a huge subculture focused on that most celebrated cryptid of them all...Bigfoot. It's Bigfoot camp, and not the outdoorsy, overnight kind of camp....the goofy, so-uncool-it's-cool kind of camp. It includes dumb fake videos and the warring lunatics who make them, as well as the hangers-on who really do appear to wonder if Bigfoot wanders into viewfinders wearing a Planet of the Apes mask. It's such a shame, but I guess Bigfoot is perfect for it; everybody has access to costumes and trees, but faking a water or sky monster is another thing altogether.

The reason I'm sad is that this hoaxing subculture, driven I guess by cults of personality and YouTube ad schemes, makes everything I've ever read or heard about any mythical creature seem like a joke, from every blurry Loch Ness Monster photo to every shaky Bigfoot movie. It makes me feel like I was always just hoping something shocking would shake up my life, like I used to feel when I was younger and stared at the skyline hoping Godzilla would rise up from behind the buildings.

Are our lives so hollow that we find ourselves hoping that there really IS a dead Bigfoot being stored today by a notorious hoaxer until it can be revealed...as part of an independent documentary's premiere at this year's Tribeca Film Festival? He is even selling a painting that shows him shooting the crudely-rendered Bigfoot in his underwear. (No, Bigfoot isn't the one in his underwear...did you know Bigfoot was circumcised?) Just yesterday he described as "amazing" a video that shows a gorilla mask emerging in profile from behind a tree. If you were sitting on a Bigfoot body, would you be linking to trashy hoaxes on your blog?

The internet and technology seem to have ruined cryptozoology, not elevated it...is that truly the fate of a once-fascinating and entertaining field of study? Either way, they've definitely made it incredibly difficult to navigate.

Good post,a small part of me use to think that there was room for a big furry Hominid to live in this world,but the fakery you rightly point out has turned me into an old Skeptic.

[Night Walker]

HerryGrail, on 27 January 2013 - 09:35 PM, said:

The internet and technology seem to have ruined cryptozoology, not elevated it...is that truly the fate of a once-fascinating and entertaining field of study? Either way, they've definitely made it incredibly difficult to navigate.

G'day Herry and welcome aboard,

I understand your frustration but perhaps the internet and technology has revealed Bigfoot and sensationalist cryptozoology for what it really is (and always was) - a people-phenomenon rather than a mysterious biological one. It is still a "fascinating and entertaining field of study" just for different reasons. Try not to be disenchanted by the tangled web of nonsense that it now appears to be but rather step back and observe the phenomenon from a historical perspective or step in and immerse yourself by grappling with the mysteries of your own local area.

Just as anyone can claim anything any-ol'-how, developments in techology and the internet have provided the means to become your own investigator and to share your thoughts and findings with the rest on the world instantaneously!

Enjoy the Bigfoot phenomenon for what it is rather than what it could be. All the indicators seem to suggest things will only get whackier. Long Live Bigfoot!

[QuiteContrary]

Great post!

Though I do not take cryptozoology seriously nor any cryptids or paranormal phenomena,
I did wonder about Bigfoot some years ago, until I discovered it too was a cryptid that survived and bred and grew only in crypto circles.

Imo, cryptozoology is more easily exposed for what it is and what it isn't due to the Internet, TV and etc.

[danbell06]

There'll always be hoaxers, they were here before you and I, and they'll be around long after we are deceased.
I honestly can't say until after the Tribecca Film Festival whether Rick Dyer has a dead bigfoot or not. I highly doubt it due to the fact he's a compulsive liar, has clearly got mental issues, and what he says and does. He is just an attention seeker and that leads me to believe he hasn't got diddly.

I'm actually starting to think that bigfoot doesnt actually exist and a few month ago I was positive of its existence.
It would still be interesting if anyone, anywhere killed, or captured one which is again, highly unlikely.

[Sakari]

Good post.

Glad to see someone else knows about the circumsized Bigfoot. ( I am assuming you know your stuff, and are talking about the cell phone footage, awesome story )....

Anyway, I like these things for one reason....I am curious as to the Psych. of this...The people that believe, why?....Why do people not seem to see the obvious?.....And, the people that continue to search....

That is what interests me.....

[QuiteContrary]

And welcome! HerryGrail

[Hilander]

I believe if anyone had a Bigfoot corpse they would be charging people to see it not hiding it.  That's the only way I'll believe they exist.  Videos and pictures are too easily faked.  I've seen a ghost but I still don't believe every ghost picture or video is real.  People lie and some are very good at it.

[Night Walker]

I have come across "researchers" who claim that they would bury any body they found in order to protect the species by keeping it quiet. Makes you wonder why they claim on international internet forums that the creature is real in the first place. Wheels within wheels. Truth is stranger than fiction and all that...

[Sakari]

Night Walker, on 28 January 2013 - 12:46 AM, said:

I have come across "researchers" who claim that they would bury any body they found in order to protect the species by keeping it quiet. Makes you wonder why they claim on international internet forums that the creature is real in the first place. Wheels within wheels. Truth is stranger than fiction and all that...

Dead on right there...

And, why does a creature need protecting, that people trying to protect it, can not even catch evidence of it existing at all?

And there are still people whom think it is protected in Washington State, and Canada. I got tired of giving facts on this being false every time it is posted.

Edited by Sakari, 28 January 2013 - 12:51 AM.

[HerryGrail]

Thanks everyone for the warm welcome and kind thoughts. I worried at first when someone took offense (in a post now deleted) that my thoughts would be misinterpreted, but it's instructive to hear that others have had their interest or even faith in the paranormal diminished by the hucksters, which was my point. Thank you so much for constructive ideas for dealing with those who act with such contempt for a serious and honest approach to these subjects.