The Bigfoot Mystery

What is the truth behind the huge hairy creature known as Bigfoot? Does it exist and walk in the forests of the western United States, when only a few are lucky enough to see it? Is he an evolutionary remnant of a semi-human race that evolved at the same time as man? Or is it nothing but a legend?

Marius Cohen, Galileo

Folk tales about mysterious human-like creatures, living far from humanity, have become an integral part of the local culture in many parts of the world: the Tibetan Yeti, the Mongolian Holma, the Chinese Hieron, the Japanese Hibagon, the Australian Yuvi, and the American Bigfoot. Reports of a huge, hairy humanoid walking in the forests of the western United States and Canada appear to have been recorded as early as the 19s, but interest in the subject increased greatly in the mid-20th century, following publications about the discovery of mysterious footprints in Bluff Creek, California.

These footprints (which were later discovered to be a hoax) were attributed to this mysterious human figure, who was therefore nicknamed Bigfoot. Since then, curious and adventurers of all kinds continue to search for the creature, as well as organized expeditions, and the interest in it is renewed every time a story is published of a person who supposedly encountered Bigfoot himself or in his wake. As an addition to the story, photographs of large footprints embedded in the ground, or even of the creature itself, are sometimes presented as evidence.

Such and other reports come from various places in North America, mainly from the states of Washington, Oregon and California in the western United States, and for that reason some believe that this region is the home of an unknown race, perhaps a remnant of an ancient human species, which developed at the same time as man. But Bigfoot has never been observed or documented by scientists, and the reliability of the reports about it, as well as the reliability of the evidence presented to date (the vast majority of which have been proven to be fake), is disputed. Most researchers tend to believe that Bigfoot is nothing more than a combination of hoaxes, false beliefs and misinterpretation of findings.

Evidence?
The so-called evidence for the existence of Bigfoot is of several types: First, there are many testimonies of people who claim to have seen, under one circumstance or another, a creature that might have been a Bigfoot. But testimonies, especially testimonies of people who are not experts in the subject, are not very reliable. People may notice one thing (a person or some large animal) from a distance, and in sub-optimal visibility conditions, and believe they are seeing something else (a bigfoot). Another problem associated with relying on evidence is that people tend to lie for various reasons, and like to plan and carry out hoaxes, sometimes so sophisticated that they may mislead even experts. Because of this, it is difficult to treat anecdotes as evidence, especially when it is a controversial phenomenon. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof.

The second type of so-called evidence is footprint photos, and there are plenty of them. The big question is, of course, how do you know that these footprints are indeed Bigfoot's? It turns out that the shape of the footprints brought to this day as proof of the existence of the legendary creature is not uniform: sometimes the footprints are of close and straight toes, and sometimes they show large spaces between the toes, when these are facing in different directions. Also, the number of fingers in the different pictures ranges from two to six. In the end, even if some of these images are indeed of authentic footprints, there is no doubt that one creature did not drown them all. It is even possible that some of them are fake footprints, created by imprinting an artificial footprint in the shape of a foot.

The third type of evidence includes photographs and tapes allegedly documenting Bigfoot himself. Of these, the most famous is that of Roger Patterson (Patterson) and Bob Gimlin (Gimlin), who in 1967 shot a film in Bluff Creek, California, in which a large, hairy human-like creature is seen crossing a clearing with its arms swinging at its sides, and for a moment it turns its His gaze at the camera. For many years, believers rejected the claim of scientists that there is a high probability that the film is fabricated, and justified this by saying that although the height of the creature does not exceed the human height range, its width is unusual, and the way it walks does not correspond to a human walk (this is without a doubt the least in the human ability to disguise and play).

There are several reasons why the film is suspected to be a fake, among them the fact that the person who directed the camera crew to the place where they supposedly filmed Bigfoot was none other than Ray Wallace, a man who is known to be responsible for many hoaxes on this subject in the past (including the famous footprints from 1958, that sparked the great interest in Bigfoot). Another reason to doubt the credibility of the film is the fact that Patterson made a lot of money both from its distribution and from writing a book on the subject. In addition to these facts, there are some suspicious details in the photographed figure itself: the figure's face appears to be wearing a mask, on its waist we see a kind of accessory that may have been intended to fasten the parts of the costume, and the size of the steps as well as the size of the creature's feet do not match the footprints photographed by the team separately. In general, too many details concerning the figure's size and manner of walking correspond to human body dimensions and movement.

The controversy over the credibility of the film may have continued to this day, and perhaps it would never have been decided, had it not been for the full confession of Bob Heironimus, the man who wore the Bigfoot costume in Patterson's film, and who decided to unload upon himself the heavy burden of the act, which he carried Over 30 years. This followed a documentary that aired on the Fox network in December 1998, proving that Patterson and Gimlin's film was fake. Hieronymus described how he received instructions from Patterson about how he should stand and walk, and how he suffered a bout of claustrophobia inside the suffocating costume. Following Hieronymus' confession, Philip and Amy Morris, a couple who specialized in sewing gorilla costumes from synthetic fur and horse skin, and who about two months before the film was made, sold one to Patterson. After the purchase, Patterson consulted with Philip about hiding the zipper on the back of the costume, as well as about other changes needed to make it fit for purpose. With the intention of slightly changing the human dimensions, the top front part of the costume was padded, the sleeves were lengthened, and pads were added to the shoulder straps to create a more massive look. A football helmet mounted on a mask was used as a head covering, and Hieronymus' eye area was made up black to prevent the whiteness of his skin from shining through the narrow opening of the mask.
Other films, less obvious; Various pictures, most of them too blurry for an unequivocal ruling on the matter; And even voice recordings - all these were brought as evidence for the existence of Bigfoot, but zoologists and other professional researchers were not convinced of the reliability of any of them.

Another type of evidence for the supposed existence of Bigfoot, which is sometimes presented to researchers, is biological samples such as hair, blood, saliva, bits of skin or droppings. These samples have never confirmed the assumption of the existence of the mysterious creature. Some were discovered to be fakes, and others to belong to some known animal, usually a human or a wild animal.

The level of sophistication of fake findings related to Bigfoot has increased so much that even expert zoologists have often been fooled, and would have continued to believe that they had indeed come across an authentic find if the forgers had not confessed to their work. Sophisticated forgery (and the sophistication is actually in the simplicity of the idea) manages to mislead researchers in most fields dealing with claims that go beyond existing scientific knowledge, such as mysterious creatures, crop circles or haunted houses. This is, among other things, one of the reasons for the demand for extraordinary evidence when it comes to extraordinary claims. Such evidence would be, in this case, if not a living Bigfoot, then the body of the creature or its remains, or at least a sample of its tissue, so that a simple DNA test would allow one to identify its position on the evolutionary scale.

between two worlds
There is great fascination in the possibility of the existence of mysterious creatures, and despite the doubts of the scientists, many people continue to believe that Bigfoot exists (some even believe in the authenticity of the fabricated evidence). A conference of these believers is held once a year in the United States, where a wide variety of opinions are voiced regarding the essence of the elusive creature.
Most believers believe that Bigfoot is a human-like animal that is still unknown to science, but some also claim that we are facing a paranormal phenomenon or even a "quantum creature", which exists in two parallel planes of reality and is able to move from place to place in the blink of an eye and move through obstacles. According to this group, the great difficulty in photographing Bigfoot stems from its ability to communicate with cameras (!). Some of the speakers at the conference tell about personal encounters with the creature, or stories they heard from other people (like the story about the Bigfoot that was hit by a passing car, and when it recovered it chased it for many miles...).

As usual, accusations are also raised at the conference against scientists, who deny the evidence of the creature's existence out of fear for their reputation. The scientists, for their part, tend to be overly cautious when it comes to claims about the existence of creatures such as the Bigfoot, especially in light of the fact that so many findings have previously been proven to be fake. It is understood that the lack of evidence for the existence of the mysterious creature is not proof of its non-existence, and it is not impossible that some of the anecdotes are indeed based on authentic encounters with this animal. But the fact that to this day, despite the extensive searches for Bigfoot, not a single piece of decisive evidence for its existence has been found, puts the whole story in a very puzzling light.

They knew mysteries and their solutions
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