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Please take a moment to read what I have to say. I finished this book carefully. I knew this book was serious when I saw the names on the forward. I must say that I hold certain researchers in extremely high regard for not just their knowledge, but their dedication to gathering data. I am often frustrated by the subject and question of Sasquatch because of the pools of not so good data that have to be gone through to find sincere and credible data. I know that my journey to gain more knowledge in this field will be long and arduous as to be viewed as a credible researcher the work must certainly be put in. I sincerely hope to be included into this network of awesome researchers in time. One of the points Russ makes is that I should have knowledgeable friends and I do hope to gain them.
The problem i continually run into is one that was created because of the massive uptick in the interest in this subject which is a natural result of the explosion of TV shows and content creators on YouTube, Facebook and X. This creates access to more data but hinders the development of better proxy data. This has led me to not want visibility on these platforms other than to network with other researchers in the field because as one of the future Bigfoot stepchildren (if I may be so bold), I would not like to ruin my chances at being viewed as a serious researcher by being a clickbait/content machine. I feel that most “researchers” on these platforms have made social media content their full time job. While entertaining, this does nothing to add to the data.
One of the most important things I took away from this is that in order to get the data you have to put in the time and this is very hard for citizen scientists sort of like myself due to the constraints of life, job, wife, kids, bills etc. This will always be omnipresent and will limit the time and amount of good data that can come with it. I could spend the rest of my life in the woods and would never have spent as much time in the woods as Russ.
I took a load of notes while reading this book and came away with a completely different outlook on how to get better data. I felt a deep sense of relief in knowing that this hard research is being done and not by banging sticks on trees and howling into the night but by gamecam and TIME. Overall personally I wish only to add to the data this way.
Another thing I was hesitant to talk and debate about is the WOO factor. This book provides a good perspective on this. I always thought that if there is something that can be viewed as paranormal about Sasquatch then there simply must be some hard science behind this. For instance the purported ability to disappear I feel has to be explained by the type of hair they have coupled with its color and more specifically our eyes and what deficiency they lack in being able to track color and light in different densities. Russ’ sighting makes me think this also.
Then here’s this. Woo is truly lazy (sorry y’all). Being creeped out in the woods is not data. By all means gather as much “data” that supports it but I feel that in gathering that “data” will inevitably lead to a scientific explanation that will disprove it.
I walked away from this feeling more confident in my ability to study this subject. There is a massive amount of information in this book I feel that one could use this as a code of conduct and practice for research. I have an extremely bright outlook on this subject and my confidence as a researcher and hope to make some serious friends.
Russ, I want to thank you for sending me this book. You really could have overlooked me and I’m glad you didn’t. I can’t get the time of day from pretty much anyone. This has changed my outlook completely and I feel very fortunate to live where I live. @bigfoot_doc @CliffBarackman @MattMoneymaker1
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