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Great points. I agree with this wholeheartedly as a possibility. Its just that barring some unforeseen leap, evolution progresses so slowly that for now and the next hundreds of thousands of years we are very likely to remain in the dark about many things. There are also many physical limitations that wont allow us to fully understand the universe. We just cant see far enough or small enough to investigate a lot. As a fan of Star Treck I have high hopes for much more, but understanding everything? I dont think that will happen for us. I do hold out great hope for humanity to, at some point, discover ways to investigate what is now called paranormal and also the spiritual. It would be a dream come true for scientific investigation to detect and identify many subtle energies that I and many others already know exist. But for now these dimensions are firmly out of our grasp.

@trapper I think you are assuming that Humans will never themselves progress to a cognitive level that would allow for more understanding of the workings of things like our Universe. I mean, I can somewhat agree with your statement regarding "limitations of our present scientific level of advancement and its possible permanence". Somewhat. And what I'm going to say needs to be couched in more or less evolution: Genes mutate. It's what they do. It was gene mutation that separated hominids from Chimpanzees by creating copies of the NOTCH2NL gene which gave hominids increasing brain size and cognitive powers. It is those very genes that have gotten us scientifically to where we are today, which I think is fairly significant considering what we have accomplished technologically. But that isn't the whole story. Again, gees mutate, which means Nature isn't finished with us yet. Sometimes genes mutate through environmental forcing and I think science is part of that forcing dynamic. So. We're not done. This isn't the end of the line for Human brain power. Because the NOTCH2NL brain gene variations that we have may go on to create a situation where we create progenitor cells faster and in more abundance that we do now during fetal development. The ability to create more progenitor cells is what allowed Humans, in turn, to create more neurons. This increased progenitor cell process that Humans have is how we left the Great Apes way behind in the area of bigger brains and higher cognitive thinking. Having said that, I see no reason for Humans to not get even higher up the ladder in those things where we develop a deeper understanding of the natural world's physics and beyond. Humans have produced geniuses: Archimedes, Galileo, Newton, Einstein, Tesla, Nash, and many others. It may happen that geniuses become the norm. I think we have many more now but most of them get chewed up in the machine and never get an opportunity to reach their potential. Who is to say how far we'll go (or not go) as a species.

What a great thread!

I think either science has missed the BF line of ancestors altogether or Gigantopithecus was misidentified at the onset. That very thing has happened very often, and gets more likely when all we have that defines that species is jaw and teeth fragments. Whatever their lineage, BF has a line of ancestors likely going back to someplace in common with man since both are presently bipedal. Speaking of that I had a thought this morning that made me laugh. . It would seem that modern humans have devolved. We went from a farming agrarian society with supermarkets shelves filled with plenty in a matter of two months to a hunter gatherer society searching our environment for simple things like meat, flour, sugar, and paper to wipe our ass. That sure was quick.

Actually, a werewolf might be a sasquatch colored with uneducated theories to explain the phenomenon. A mermaid might be a sea creature colored by the stories of even less educated, rough, tough, sex-starved, 18th Century sailors. Vampires? It's a matter of history that Vlad Dracula was much more bloodthirsty, murderous, and efficient than any story the completely uneducated people of the region and era could ever describe or Hollywood can even depict. Imagine a forest of 20,000 impaled humans rotting in the sun and feeding the birds. It was so utterly horrifying, it accomplished the desired effect; the Ottomans turned around and went home. A monstrous legend, created by reality, survived and evolved for centuries. Paranormal? Nope. Evolving stories/theories to describe an incredible reality? You bet......

Pot. I don't think there is equal evidence for all of those things you mentioned nor is the sheer volume of accounts equal among those subjects. However if you are going to bring up gnomes and pixies (fairies) then yes there is a ton of that kind of phenomenon and I think there is something to it. I like to read old folk tails from that part of the world. The accounts from another age and a different culture are often astoundingly similar to what we experience over on this continent in nature and description. If anything reading those kinds of accounts from the past and comparing them to today's paranormal phenomenon only further confirms for me the reality of the phenomenon rather than suggesting its non existence. But you are really failing to understand or respond to my point for bringing up different forms for a phenomenon I am suggesting could all be related and really the same thing. If Jung is correct, and I think he is to some extent for sure, it does not matter if it is a fairy, a bigfoot, an orb or a UFO. They would all be manifestations of the one numinous force drawing from the collective unconscious of humanity. From this perspective you make the mistake of thinking of these phenomenon as separate rather than related or even the same. It is really humorous though to have you try to mock this idea when this is exactly the kind of mocking the close minded and ignorant use on people who think bigfoot is real..... Pot meet kettle......

How do those form castable tracks? .. minus that, there are times I'd like to agree with you, even about my own experiences ... just make it all go away. But those damned tracks ... plaster doesn't have an imagination for the tracks to be a figment of, y' know? So unless you know something I don't know about our subconscious' ability to make tracks, I think there has to be a physical entity involved. MIB

More hiking and pics to share:) Bigfoot's pool - nice deep pool all hidden away A Coral Snake Nice BF print with toes And the last 3 - more Sotol leaves as found discarded on the trails

Our present level of scientific development is quite primitive and may remain so forever.. There are an increasing number of scientists who are saying that we will most likely never be able to thoroughly investigate the vast universe we live in. We are simply not intelligent enough to do so. The universe will always hold mystery. It is interesting to me that the sciences who seemed to so nearly take all mystery out of the world, are now the ones offering mystery back to us on a higher order. Faced with these facts of our existence in an incredibly complex universe, and the profound limits of our intelligence, and our ability to develop scientific tools for investigation, I feel that it is foolish and ignorant to only think about or believe what can be repeated under controled conditions. Much of any peoples direct experience would have to be denied under these conditions. Life doesnt fit this mold unfortunately and it is an arrogance and a bias of this age to try to make it so. We miss much under the false limits that we set in this way. However, limitations of our present scientific level of advancement and its possible permanence aside, we do allready have the capacity to experience and know things that scientific investigation cannot yet reveal. Our own senses have access to whole dimensions that our sciences do not and cannot access. It is wrong to think otherwise in my experience and a it is a present bias and over correction to more superstitious times. The pengulum must swing back towards the center. Anyway those are my thoughts on the subject in a nutshell with lots of caveats obviously.

You would have to check in with Young but the manifestations of mythologies throughout history all fulfill some kind of need deep in the subconscious mind. In this case it has been suggested that bigfoot could be a call within us asking us to return to a better relationship with nature. UFO's have been suggested to be a current manifestation of what used to appear to us as angels and demons. Nothing about our understanding of physics makes the existence of spiritual forces impossible and saying so is unscientific in itself. I am not saying i know that I am right any more than you can know that you are right. I am just saying that it is a possibility that fits the data. Yes its a bit out there but then again you and I are on a bigfoot forum....... discussing bigfoot so no one gets to pull the straight shooter card without earning the nickname of Pot, as in Pot calling the Kettle black.

You can go on about crackpot theories all you want but you have done nothing at all to establish the necessity of your position. You are just being rude over and over again without saying anything important. I don't think denigrating others positions does anything to further discourse and in fact stands in the way of it.

Calling peoples ideas crackpot theories and then strawamaning them is absolutely rude. It is also dishonest as it mis-states positions. The fact is that paranormal activity is being increasingly associated with and experienced in the vicinity of Bigfoot and further reportedly bigfoot itself has been witnessed to posses paranormal abilities as a species. Not taking that into account is the definition of closed mindedness and is contrary to the scientific method.