Patterson-Gimlin Posted July 7 Share Posted July 7 If you did not believe in the creatures and a honest close family member swore/affirmed that they had seen one reasonably close. Would you believe them? After the many outdoor camping trips and finding suspected footprints this was presented to me. Six people were in the vicinity. Three saw the creature or so they claim. One is closely related. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
norseman Posted July 7 Share Posted July 7 9 minutes ago, Patterson-Gimlin said: If you did not believe in the creatures and a honest close family member swore/affirmed that they had seen one reasonably close. Would you believe them? After the many outdoor camping trips and finding suspected footprints this was presented to me. Six people were in the vicinity. Three saw the creature or so they claim. One is closely related. This is the one your daughter saw? Back when? Or is this something new? For me it isn’t about belief or disbelief. I’ve never seen one. I’ve seen compelling tracks one time. We need a body for proof. But, with that said? Is the hominid family growing every year? Yes. We now have dozens of archaic Homo and non Homo species to choose from. Every year brings new discoveries. And new understanding. I.e. Homo Erectus built boats. And could the American continent harbor an intelligent sentient creature unknown to science? I say most definitely yes. I realize that there is a stigma attached to this subject. But look at UFO’s and the Congressional hearings. That stigma is now in the ditch. We have scientists openly discussing UFO evidence. And Dr. Nolan said that he is 100 percent sure UFO’s exist in our airspace now and probably have been here for thousands of years. Aliens or time travelers or whatever here on Earth is a much larger leap than a archaic hominid still eeking out a living in a small corner of the planet today IMHO. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iacozizzle Posted July 7 Share Posted July 7 I'd be open minded and leaning towards believing it from a close family member and two other witnesses. Hope we can get the details some time. This sighting sounds interesting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doug Posted July 8 Share Posted July 8 I would believe that they believe they saw one. I have had enough class "B" encounters and my brother has seen one behind my parent's house and 3 in a field in the High Cascades of Oregon. So, I am fairly confident they do exist, however, until I see one in the wild long enough to identify it, I cannot say with 100% confidence they exist. There are people on here that have said they have seen one and I have no reason to doubt it. So, I am 98.99% sure it may exist. I still have to see one for it to be 100%. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doodler Posted July 8 Share Posted July 8 I believe that my buddy saw one at the very top of the Appalachian chain in the southern tier of NY about 10 years ago. Why do I believe him? Because he was 100% a skeptic. Had been in the woods for, not exaggerating, 65 years hunting and hiking and swore he had never seen anything that wasn't totally expected, he used to tease me when I would talk about my interest in them, scoff at the very idea. Then one day, he flipped 180 degrees. Describing his encounter, he was clearly impressed with the experience and not capable of fabricating the story this detailed and yet so fleeting, with such certainty that the thing he saw walk away was not a human in a suit. Unfortunately he only lived a few more years, but those last years his eyes and ears were wide open in the woods. So yeah, I was a hopeful skeptic before, but his sighting sealed the deal. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doug Posted July 8 Share Posted July 8 (edited) My brother was a skeptic also. More than a skeptic, I should say. Even today, he says that there has to be a logical explanation of what he saw that doesn't involve sasquatches, but has found that logical explanation yet. I would have a hard time coming up with a logical explanation for seeing a man in a bear suit floating through the bush as if he was riding a bicycle on pavement. It was upper torso to top of head above 5 foot plus brush. The other encounter he said was in the bright moonlight and the shadows might have been playing tricks on him as three"boulders" suddenly stood up at 50 yards I seem to remember him saying and began advancing toward him in a herding manor. He finally got over the shock and started running when they were closer, like less than 30 yards away. He was an adult at these times. Edited July 8 by Doug Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Huntster Posted July 8 Share Posted July 8 I have yet to meet a real, live person who claims to have seen one. Yes, I've read thousands of reports, and I've read of sightings on this forum, and I believe many of these are likely sasquatches. I have never seen one, but found a very credible trackway once, and we had a campsite visitor that very night. I could not confirm what it was. I find no reason whatsoever to even doubt that they exist in extremely low population numbers and densities and in habitats that help them remain low key. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Backdoc Posted July 8 Share Posted July 8 7 hours ago, Patterson-Gimlin said: If you did not believe in the creatures and a honest close family member swore/affirmed that they had seen one reasonably close. Would you believe them? After the many outdoor camping trips and finding suspected footprints this was presented to me. Six people were in the vicinity. Three saw the creature or so they claim. One is closely related. I would believe they saw something they believe was Bigfoot. Doesn’t mean it was. Makes it more likely it was but they or others could still be mistaken. The level of encounter has a bearing on it. Say my brother and 3 girls were all skinny dipping during the day. Thus, they did not have their phones (or cloths for that matter.) Then, while in the lake all 4 report they watched for 10 minutes as Bigfoot creature eating crayfish on the shore a short distance away. After they got dressed - when bigfoot has reportedly left- they took pics and video of the tracks left by the bigfoot. Yes, that would come close to totally convincing me. say the encounter was 20 boy scouts who - for 6 seconds- saw bigfoot on a path and then disappeared into the woods. This makes it less certain even if I trusted many the 20 people involved. The issue isn’t me trusting the people, it’s weighing the situations variables for evidence and plausibility. THEN, I weigh the credibility of the person in addition to that. Some stories are not as plausible. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wiiawiwb Posted July 8 Share Posted July 8 14 hours ago, Patterson-Gimlin said: If you did not believe in the creatures and a honest close family member swore/affirmed that they had seen one reasonably close. Would you believe them? Depends. If that family member lived in a high-rise condo in Manhattan, and never entered the woods before, I'd proceed with a high degree of caution. Conversely, if a family member, who is very familiar with the forest, claims he or she saw one, I'd give them the benefit of the doubt but would what to know more...in excruciating detail. I've talked to people who've had sightings or encounters. When asked, they provided very precise details about where they were and the circumstances of the events. Moreover, they were all people who either recreated in or made a living from the forest. Never had reason to doubt any of those as nothing they said ever raised a red flag. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gigantor Posted July 10 Admin Share Posted July 10 On 7/7/2024 at 5:30 PM, Patterson-Gimlin said: If you did not believe in the creatures and a honest close family member swore/affirmed that they had seen one reasonably close. Would you believe them? After the many outdoor camping trips and finding suspected footprints this was presented to me. Six people were in the vicinity. Three saw the creature or so they claim. One is closely related. Sone people need to see one personally in order to accept it. and that's ok. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Incorrigible1 Posted July 10 Share Posted July 10 2 hours ago, gigantor said: Sone people need to see one personally in order to accept it. Those people are from Missouri. ::rimshot:: 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrPSH Posted July 10 Share Posted July 10 Forgive me, I am a scientist by nature. If you need to show me the door, go ahead (but be polite, please, that is scientifically appropriate). Sasquatch is just as likely to exist as s/he or they are not likely to exist. What tips my mind in the direction of likely is that people I trust (with my own life and the life of my family members) have had direct sightings. They have no reason to lie about what they saw, they are not attention-seeking. Instead, they whisper, with goosebump-covered arms, periodically cranking their neck in a backwards direction as they talk about what they saw. They are forever impacted. I believe that reaction is real, and believe that it is not sensationalized or manufactured. I've tried (again, I am trained as a scientist) to manufacture goosebumps. My attempts were laughable. Could someone better/smarter/faster than me do that? Sure. I am confident that the people I am speaking of are not capable of that. (For pete's sake they can't make a decent gin and tonic, and all it takes to do that is gin and, well, tonic.) So, I started my own sasquatch journey as a skeptic, intrigued by all sorts of stories I had read (way back to my Scholastic book orders in elementary school). I drift into the believer category based on the experience of individuals I hold in very high regard. @Patterson-Gimlin, you are a scientist as well. I totally understand and respect the consistency of the position you have long taken (and the good humor you demonstrate when people around here kindly poke at you). I appreciate you raising this topic. I also recognize that when a family member has an experience, it is not all that dissimilar to what I have described here. I haven't seen this creature with my own eyes. But I have heard numerous times from trusted friends about what they saw, and the details they repeat to me over years are way more consistent than any lab notebook notes I compiled during my graduate student years. So....in spite of my statement that the scientific likelihood of sasquatch existing is a 50/50 proposition, I can't discount the details I have heard from people I trust. Sometimes that makes me feel like my brain is going to explode because it just doesn't make logical sense. But...it doesn't NOT make logical sense either. 1 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Incorrigible1 Posted July 10 Share Posted July 10 C'mon, we're civilized, here. A little lime juice in my gin and tonic, please. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CelticKevin Posted July 11 Share Posted July 11 If I had that much faith in that family member, then yes. I have several friends who have seen them. They've never given me any reason to doubt their word before so yes. Wholeheartedly, I would accept them at their word. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Backdoc Posted July 11 Share Posted July 11 I see I little streak of hypocrisy here. I would base nearly everything on the claim itself. Then, I would find what ancillary evidence support the claim. Even someone I might uphold as a hero can still get it wrong. All kinds of posters here on the BFF continue to say all the time: The fact Roger Patterson has cheated people, cheated Gimlin, had arrest warrants, and so on should have no bearing on if Bigfoot or the PGF is real. What they are really saying is Roger's character flaws should have no bearing on if the PGF claim is real. Just look at the film. Many of those same people are saying if the person is a hero (Wife, Brother, Sister and so on) then we should trust the claim. That would mean the opposite should be true. If the person of poor character than you should reject the claim. Again, those same people though will look the other way on roger's deficiencies. Base any bigfoot claims based on 1) The claim itself first 2) The ancillary facts supporting the claim then.... 3) The credibility of the person making the claim. It can't be the other way around. 3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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