At Cryptomundo Loren Coleman looks at "Bigfoot Magnets" - people who claim to have had multiple Big Hairy Hominoid encounters over the years. This is fascinating in it's own right (and I was surprised to hear that Charles Starkweather and Cary Anthony Stayner slot into this group - although they are more famous for their mass murdering. See Loren Coleman's 2003 book for more info) but I want to look at the more fantastic accounts some of these contactees have produced as they add extra (admittedly fairly bonkers) angles to The Paranormal Aspects of Cryptozoology.

The main character is the late Stan Johnson:

Stan has had the unique experience of befriending a family of Bigfoot, large apelike creatures from another start system, who despite their sometimes animal appearance, are actually a loving, gentle and intelligent species. Stan has had continued conscious contact with these Sasquatch people for over a decade.

In his book, "Bigfoot Memoirs": My Life with the Sasquatch, he relates his heartwarming experiences meeting these gentle people, as well as with extraterrestrials, or "Star People," who work with the Bigfoot race. He also relates his journeys into different planets and other dimensions, and his travels far below Earth's surface, where an entire civilization has existed and thrived for thousands of years!

In another visit with Allone, he explained some of the history of his peo[p]le. Allone is the leader here on Earth of the Rrowe family. He said his people were put on Earth millions of years ago, before the Ice Age. Their home planet was ruled by a very good leader who had put members of the Rrowe family and other families here. When they first arrived, many were killed by monstrously big animals (dinosaurs). A primitive type of caveman was already on Earth when the Sasquatch people arrived.

A new ruler came into power who wanted to rule everyone. He did not want to gentle Sasquatch people on Earth, so he sent his followers down to try to destroy them. These followers were a type of Sasquatch people that had been scientifically tampered with, so that they would do as the ruler wished. Many of these Sasquatch are the ones now known to have heads which are shaped like a dome, or pyramid. The followers of the evil ruler and the gentle Sasquatch fought, and a lot of them on both sides were killed. The gentle Sasquatch people started to scatter out and hide from the bad people.

My Star friends came for me last night. I was teleported to Mt. Shasta. I was taken to a big rock. Behind that big rock was a door. There was an arch over the door that was rainbow-colored. The door was an etheric door, opening the way into the inside of the mountain to those of higher consciousness. I believe the star people close that door after they enter, and to our third dimensional [e]yes, it becomes just another side of a cliff of the mountain.

I was teleported up to a spaceship above our house. I was gone seven days, which was seven hours in the Third Dimensional time, but seven days up there. I went from here to planet Sitka, and from there we went to planet Alto. Alto is within our galaxy, and we spent a night there.

We were in the spaceship, and we were taken over to a war zone. Negative space beings, aliens, were trying to get through to harm another planet out there. Their ultimate plan was to get through, so they could come down here to planet Earth, and take over. They were trying to destroy everything in their way. They were just that kind of beings, cold, destructive.

Jack Lapseritis has also had many unusual encounters and he interviewed other people who reported things beyond the more 'typical' Bigfoot reports - all of which he has summarised in his book:

And some who pursue Bigfoot believe there may be a link between the creature and UFOs. Jack Lapseritis, a Bigfoot researcher from Tucson, Ariz., has written a soon-to-be-published book entitled, "The Psychic Sasquatch, a UFO Connection." Lapseritis said he and others have communicated with Bigfoot telepathically and have watched the creatures "dematerialize." Lapseritis said conventional Bigfoot investigators have not found the creature because they are limited in their belief that Bigfoot is "simply a relic hominid that never became extinct." "That really may be true," Lapseritis said in a telephone interview. "But in addition to that, (Bigfoot) may literally be, as I've discovered, a paraphysical, interdimensional native people that have told me and other people telepathically that they were brought here millions of years ago by their friends, the star people." Mower definitely believes there's a supernatural aspect to Bigfoot, and that this mysterious being is more than some gorilla-like animal running loose in the wilderness. He also believes Bigfoot to be very intelligent.

They are reported to be psychic and can potentially make themselves invisible, communicate with people telepathically, move between dimensions, levitate, teleport, make themselves invisible, produce a "paralysing odor" and their appearances are often linked with UFOs and strange noises which include a sound like a generator and stranger things: "While I was investigating in the Mount Hood Wilderness, 'something' or 'someone' with technological ability was operating a subterranean machine"

All of Mower's sightings, he says, have taken place in two basic areas — the High Uintas (south of Kings Peak) and the Manti-LaSal Mountains (about 25 miles from his Orangeville home).

The High Uintas are the mountain range that forms the northerly limit of the Uintah Basin and Duchenses snuggles in it's foothills i.e. right on the doorstep of Skinwalker Ranch.

Stephen Pulaski and at least fifteen other witnesses saw a bright red ball hovering over a field near them.

Stephen grabbed a 30.06 rifle, and he and two ten-year old neighbor boys went to investigate it. Stephen's auto headlights dimmed as he neared the object, and as the object descended towards the field, Stephen's German Shepherd, back at the house, became very disturbed. The object was now bright white, and appeared to be about 100 feet in diameter. It was buzzing much like a lawnmower would.

They stood watching the object on the ground, and then the neighbor boys saw something walking along by the fence. Stephen thought it looked like two bears, and he fired a tracer bullet over the "bears" heads. The creatures were very tall, one 7 feet, the other over 8 feet tall. These measurements were easier than usual to get because the entities were silhouetted against the fence and so could be accurately judged.

They were hairy and long-armed, with greenish-yellow eyes. They made a noise like a baby whining. A smell like "burning rubber" was present. Stephen, realizing that these creatures were not bears and that they were coming nearer to him, fired over the entities' heads once more and, when they kept on coming, fired directly at the larger creature.

When the creature was hit, the glowing 150 ft. diameter object disappeared from the field, instantaneously, and the motor noise stopped. The two creatures turned around and walked back towards the woods.

What all this means is anyone’s guess and this is wild and strange stuff. If I have any aim at this stage (other than simply the data) it is to show how weird things get in the extremes of reports that involve Bigfoot but when viewed with other cases in mind (which sit at different points on this spectrum) I want to highlight the difficulty in drawing a line between 'normal' Bigfoot sightings and reports that are too odd to be 'real'.

Links:

• Stan Johnson Home Page
• Sasquatch & Star People
• Excerpts from the book by Jack Kewaunee Lapseritis The Psychic Sasquatch and their UFO Connection
• W-File: bflapseritis1979.html
• Utah man says he's seen Bigfoot 9 times
• State by State Sightings List: The High Uintas and Manti-LaSal Mountains, Utah (trimmed version of the above)
• Sasquatch Summer