Sleeping Bigfoot from Erickson Project

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A good friend of Bigfoot Lunch Club, Robert Lindsay, was quick to point out the sleeping Bigfoot from the Erickson Project had similarities to the sleeping Almasty illustration.



As usual, Robert Lindsay does a thorough investigation the photo and the story behind the photo:

We can verify that this photo is of a young female Bigfoot sleeping in the forest in Crittenden, Kentucky in 2005. The video was apparently shot by owners of the property in that year, not by the Erickson Project. Therefore, there is a question of whether or not the residents of the house were hoaxing the videos.

Apparently they were not, because when the EP moved Dr. Leila Hadj Chikh, PhD in Evolutionary Biology, and Dennis Pfohl into the site after purchasing it, both of them continued to see the Bigfoots on many occasions. Pfohl also apparently shot quite a bit of video of the Bigfoots at the site. Dr. John Bindernagel, PhD in Wildlife Biology, also saw the Bigfoots there on one occasion. Since the EP saw the Bigfoots at the site also, it is highly dubious that the owners of the site hoaxed the video.

It is simply not possible that the Hadj-Chikh, Pfohl and Bindernagel hoaxed their sightings and video. Not possible, no way. They’re not hoaxers. It’s also not possible that Drs. Hadj-Chikh and Bindernagel misidentified a known animal as a Bigfoot. These are PhD biologists here. This is reminiscent of the scene in the USSR where Russian PhD biologists saw Almastys and Yetis on a number of occasions in the 20th Century.
Src: Robert Lindsay

We recomend you read the rest of Mr. Lindsay's post where you will get quotes like:

"(David Paulides)is a former cop who was forced to retire for beating up a suspect, among other things."

"David Paulides and Matt Moneymaker of BFRO hate each other’s guts."

"Ketchum’s business not as successful as people think"

"Erickson and Ketchum continuing to feud."

Yes these are sensational quotes, taken out of context. Robert Lindsay doesn't care who (or if) he offends. This is quite apparent if you ever read his non-bigfoot related stuff. Although we don't agree with everything Mr. Lindsay says, we think he's quite refreshing. Please visit Robert Lindsay to get the entire details, including the list of the Erickson habituation sites.

You can read our previous coverage of Robert Lindsay

PhD Biologist, Dr. John Bindernagel's New Bigfoot Book

On his author page at Amazon.com Dr. John Bindernagel's bio is as follows.

John Bindernagel, PhD, is a Canadian biologist with over forty years of experience in wildlife research and conservation in North America and internationally. He was educated at the University of Guelph (Ontario, Canada) and at the University of Wisconsin (USA). After beginning his career in Canada in 1963, he worked internationally with the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations from 1965 until 1991. During this time he worked and taught in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, and Central America. There he was involved in wildlife surveys, the preparation and implementation of wildlife management measures, and conservation education.

Bindernagel's interest in the sasquatch, which began in 1965, influenced a family decision to relocate from central Canada to British Columbia in 1975. He continues to be involved in wildlife research and resides on Vancouver Island with his wife Joan.

John Green one of the original members of Four Horsemen of Sasquatchery says this about Bindernagel's previous book, "John Bindernagel, with a Ph.D. in wildlife biology and extensive field experience in more than one part of the world, has now supplied that need. North America's Great Ape: the Sasquatch could prove to be the most important book yet written on this fascinating subject."

Recently the Canadian newspaper, The Globe and Mail, does a great heart-felt piece of Biologist Dr. John Bindernagel. The article does a great job juxtoposing both his previous and most recent books.

Taking Sasquatch from the Tabloids to the Science Journals
Mark Hume


Wildlife biologist John Bindernagel feels it is only a matter of time before he is proved right, but he is wondering if he will be around for his vindication.

“I’m turning 70 this fall...time is running out. That’s certainly what I think about quite a lot,” said Dr. Bindernagel, who is one of the few scientists in the world who openly believes in Sasquatch.

He thinks hard scientific evidence, in the form of DNA, could be provided by researchers in the United States later this year, or next. But then again, his hopes have been raised before – only to be dashed when material promised by Sasquatch hunters didn’t materialize or turned out to be phony.

Films have been faked. Footprints have been faked. And in one entertaining case, a whole Sasquatch body was faked.

But Dr. Bindernagel says there has also been a lot of strong, compelling evidence for its existence over the years – multiple sightings of an ape-like creature in North American forests, physical signs such as twisted branches, and entirely credible tracks that have been photographed and preserved in casts.

That evidence, however, has been so overshadowed by the high-profile hoaxes that Sasquatch have been written off by the scientific community.

In 1998, after years of field research, Dr. Bindernagel published a book that treated the Sasquatch, for the sake of argument, not as a mythical creature, but as a species that just needed to be confirmed.

He thought his treatise would spark scientific debate.

Instead, he found himself shunned. At one wildlife conference, he said, a paper he wanted to present detailing what he thought was important evidence was dismissed as “tabloid material” not worthy of discussion. He wasn’t even allowed to present his argument, let alone defend it.

“It isn’t uncommon for a discovery that’s seen as far-fetched, such as this one, to be resisted [by the scientific community],” he said.

Dr. Bindernagel said at first he was stung by the way his colleagues rejected his ideas, but he has become more philosophical about it.

This summer he released a new book, The Discovery of the Sasquatch – Reconciling Culture, History, and Science in the Discovery Process, which deals as much with the scientific community’s attitude as it does with the Sasquatch itself.

“In my first book, I described the anatomy and behaviour of Sasquatch. And there was no scientific discussion of that book at all. After about three years, I realized...the problem is I had described the anatomy and behaviour of an animal not yet discovered,” said Dr. Bindernagel.

In his new book, he argues that, in fact, the Sasquatch has been discovered, but the discovery has not been acknowledged because the scientific community has a blind spot about the subject.

“I describe it as an unwillingness to consider the evidence,” Dr. Bindernagel said. “I’m not concerned whether or not the scientific community accepts that the Sasquatch exists. I am concerned, however, that they are unwilling to scrutinize the evidence. That does speak to a kind of closed-mindedness.”

He said the attitude baffles him, and he is hoping his new book will open doors so that he can speak at conferences and present his ideas.

“The real mystery of the Sasquatch is not, does it exist or not? But why is it a scientifically taboo subject? And that is quite interesting. That’s really what I got to in the book. It became as much about the discovery process as it did about the Sasquatch.”

His book also chronicles the long history of reported sightings, dating back to the 1800s. One section deals with the pre-contact record, as seen in native carvings, including a startling mask from the Nass Valley that looks like it was modelled on the face of an ape.

Dr. Bindernagel said early anthropologists always recorded native stories about the Sasquatch as tales of a “mythical beast” not as something real.

Native story tellers, he argues, were describing something they’d seen – but they couldn’t get themselves taken seriously.

Centuries later, he’s pretty much in the same spot. What will it take to change that?

“People say you need a [Sasquatch] body...well, obviously. But my question has always been, can we not address this subject prior to that?” he asks.

You can purchase both of Dr. John Bindernagel's books at his website BigfootBiologist.Org

Joe Nickell Promotes his Patterson Debunking Book

Analysis of a frame from the 1967 Roger Patterson "Bigfoot" film shows evidence of fakery. Costumer Phil Morris reports he sold Patterson a gorilla suit and material for modifying it, while a man named Bob Heironimus says he wore it for the hoax.--Joe Nickell

Fans, you all know how well Phillip Morris and Bob Heironimus did re-creating the Patterson/Gimlin film back in 2005. No? Here check it out.

Phil Morris (left) with Bob Heironimus (right) on set of the 2005 National Geographic documentary Behind the Mysteries. Bob in Phil's suit (inset) failing to come close to re-creating the Patterson/Gimlin film

One of the biggest fails in the re-creation is the "stovepiping" of the hind leg (this is when the pant-like leg looks like a stovepipe). We didn't even have to use our "pants detecting technology" to see Phill's Costume is a far cry from Patty in the Patterson/Gimlin film. So, who is this Joe Nickell?

According to Huffington Post Joe Nickell, Ph.D, is...

"...perhaps the world’s only full-time professional paranormal investigator – with a background to match. He has spent his life collecting “personas”: carnival pitchman, stage magician (he was Resident Magician at a Houdini museum), private investigator (for a world-famous detective agency), folklorist and historian, forensic-science author, historical document consultant, and many, many others.

In a field where people too often divide into “believers” and “debunkers” – those whose minds are made up in advance of inquiry – Nickell has gained international acclaim and respect as a successful, fair-minded investigator, choosing neither to foster mysteries nor reject them.

Taking a hands-on approach, he has traveled around the world to investigate the strangest mysteries – often innovative strategies such as conducting an original experiment, applying a forensic science in a unique way, doing painstaking historical research, or even going undercover and in disguise. Nickell sees science as a progression of solved mysteries.

Last Saturday (08/13/2011) Loren Coleman posted on Cryptomundo a response to an article on i09.com promoting Nickell's book, Tracking the Man-Beasts. In the post Coleman isolates Nickell's argument:

"...Then the Patterson film was made in 1967. It attracted widespread publicity and was shown on popular national talk shows. From that point forward, variations in Sasquatch sightings began to dwindle. Creatures sighted after the release of the Patterson film exhibited a great tendency to resemble the creature depicted in the film." --Joe Nickell

Nickell's i09.com Article has some interesting points, and we recommend reading Loren Coleman's post for balance.

Besides i09.com, Nickell has also written an article for Huffington Post. You can read article in it's entirety below.

Paranormal Investigation: From Big Foot To Aliens
Written by Joe Nickell, Ph.D.,

If legends and even many eyewitness accounts are to be believed, since ancient times we have shared our planet with various "man-beasts" - monsters that are more or less in our image. While monsters are often consigned to ancient legend and literary fiction, many are held to be in some sense real. Such paranormal beings (those beyond the normal range of science and human experience) include supernatural ones, such as the werewolf, as well as others (like the Yowie, Australia's version of Bigfoot) that, if they indeed exist, could be perfectly natural creatures. These are those embraced by cryptozoology, the study of unknown or "hidden" creatures (i.e., cryptids).

I have been studying these and other reputed paranormalities for 40 years. By 1995 I had become, apparently, the world's only full-time professional paranormal investigator. I have studied mythological, folkloric, and literary monsters; traveled to remote regions in search of legendary creatures; sought vampire graves in Vermont; visited carnival midways to meet human "monsters," look behind the scenes at exhibited spiderwomen and the like, and witness the transformation of a lovely girl into a wild gorilla; took part in a nighttime expedition with Bigfoot hunters; and explored the Pacific Bigfoot country.

In the slides that follow, as well as in my new book "Tracking the Man-Beasts," we set out to track the man-beasts - to separate fact from fancy.

You can see the slides here.