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I recently posed a question on an adjacent thread, and thought it bears greater examination in an independent one. It concerns the definition of goals in this community. Namely: What does your ultimate personal success in this field look like? The underlying utility of this answer always seems obvious to me. If you don't keep your end goal in mind, you're unlikely to either get there in the most direct and pleasing way, or even to recognize it when you get there. Fair is fair though, so I'll go first. As someone who is reasonably convinced of the existence of this animal, my success is defined by me to include at least one of these: 1. Have an encounter of my own someday. 2. Have a close, trusted personal acquaintance have the same. 3. Have objective evidence accepted by the professional scientific community (a "squishy" definition, I'll acknowledge). In a larger sense though, I'm succeeding in my goals each time I view what I consider to be a compelling piece of evidence. Some have already achieved #'s 1 and/or 2 on my list. Some may think #3 has been achieved as well...although I differ on that. Some we know have a success that is defined as "body on slab", and you can't get more concrete than that, I don't think. But, the skeptical community here. How do you define your personal success goals, if you do? Truly, many of you don't entertain the real possibility of existence at all, or so you tell me. I'm doubting very much you could share any of my definitions, but you might. Your personal safety is assured here if you do want to "come out". Your definition is your own, and I don't have standing at all to question your choice, only to try and understand them. I lay no traps or snares here and I'd encourage others to declare the same intent. (BTW, I'm not at all interested in how you define "failure", for either you or me, or for anyone else. The world is full of people who are quick to offer that up, and it frankly doesn't intrigue me at all)

I'm really surprised that anyone is proffering the "Some, therefore all" logic fallacy. Textbook after textbook that I recall usually makes the point in the first chapter that even though something is true some of the time, it is not necessarily true all of the time. I'll refer you back to my Schroedinger's cat analogy. When you examine a certain location and determine how many bigfoot are in it, you've got a snapshot for that time and space. Change the time or change the space and you've got to re-verify. I admire that some folks are adamantly defending their belief systems, but it makes me nervous when they jump up and down claiming that their belief is truth when they can't prove it without attempting to use tortured logic.

The point is, that the thread asked what my goal is. If I can convince one person that they are not mentally disturbed, simply because they hallucinated a gorilla like creature, and don't have to delude themselves into believing that a Giant Hairy Man-Ape lives on the periphery of semi-rural America, in order to rationalize the misconception that a hallucination = mental problems, then I have achieved my goal. There is a point. Some people who have witnessed a tree stump that looks gorilla like, and didn't want to admit they were tricked by their brain, rationalize the sighting by searching for others like them. They are afraid to admit their brain tricked them, and see Bigfoot as a ready made excuse for this human frailty. Why admit you had a hallucination, when you can just go along with the Bigfoot story? Hopefully someone will be able to realize this, and stop their paranoia about the Bigfoot phenomenon.

Moderator Statement: This thread is now unlocked. We are concerned that there have been on-going violations of forum rules on this thread. Here are several examples of topics that will not be discussed here: 1) whether or not Bigfoot exists 2) the habits of other species, unless they relate directly to Area X 3) anything to do with 'proponents' or 'skeptics' 4) the activities (or not) of hoaxers These are all good topics, just not for this thread. I will not be adding other off-topic concepts to this list. Instead, we will be handing out warning points for forum violations. Please be informed ahead of time; here is a link to the forum rules: http://bigfootforums.com/index.php/topic/29306-bff-rules-guidelines/

well cotter, you asked for it ,lol....... http://bigfootforums.com/index.php/topic/7913-does-bigfoot-get-high/

It was like a deja' vu moment, harkening back to my Navy days and the signal lamps with shutters controlled by a handle on the side of the housing for messaging other ships in a formation without breaking radio silence. Wonder if the Sasquatch use Morse or if it's encryptid? Sorry, couldn't help myself, my bad.