New Owner of Skinwalker Ranch Credits Hal Puthoff for Inspiring Purchase

3/12/2020

Note: An earlier version of this post noted Brandon Fugal's connection to a Utah-based Ancient History Research Foundation, which listed him as its director on its website. The AHRF, which explored giants, hyper-diffusionism, and other fringe topics, was also affiliated with Wayne May, the patron of infamous figure Frank Joseph, and house Joseph's writings. These references have been removed because Fugal informed me that his affiliation with the foundation ended in 2005, he was not part of the organization when it began housing May's and Joseph's work, and he is not actively investingating anomalous archaeology. I regret the error.

This week, MJ Banias revealed the name of the new owner of Skinwalker Ranch, real estate investor Brandon Fugal, who came out of the shadows four years after purchasing the paranormal property from billionaire Robert Bigelow, just in time to promote his ranch’s new History channel series. But, as always, there is more to the story than meets the eye—and it is weirder than you might imagine.

Fugal is well known in Utah as a real estate developer, but he is also a science fiction nerd. In 2010, he invested in efforts to create, basically, anti-gravity technology. Although the project failed, he continued to invest in science-fiction projects he describes as “James Bond” technology. His pursuit of fantastical inventions naturally led him into the orbit of some very familiar figures. As Banias reports:

Several scientists who were brought in to consult on the project, namely Dr. Hal Puthoff and Dr. Christopher Green, were also involved in Bigelow’s DIA project. They became friends. Even after the project was shut down in 2014, Fugal stayed in touch with these scientists.

“They wanted to introduce me to Mr. Bigelow because of the positive experience we had working together and asked if I would be willing to potentially entertain meeting with Mr. Bigelow regarding the ranch,” Fugal stated. “I had heard of the ranch but I never really thought about it until they proposed the idea.”

Yes, Bigelow’s team arranged for the sale of the ranch to its new owner, just like Bigelow’s pet reporter, George Knapp, helped push then-senator Harry Reid to take an interest in the ranch and UFOs. Puthoff moved on to Tom DeLonge’s To the Stars Academy of Arts and Science, where he continues to investigate his longstanding fantasy that UFOs are interdimensional incorporeal entities, or space poltergeists.

If you’ve been paying attention to the web of crazy that surrounds the History channel axis of stupid, you wouldn’t be surprised by any of this.

29 Comments

Kent

3/12/2020 08:44:16 am

Did you know...
Jason was raised Catholic
His experience led him to be biased against all Christianity
He was fascinated by the fringe
When Giorgio of Ancient Aliens fame rejected his advances Jason turned his infatuation to hate
Jason’s jealousy of all the talking heads he makes fun of emerges as hatred
Jason writes many click bait articles
Jason makes false claims about himself
Jason has no background in science
Jason lies when he wants to make a point
Jason not capable of dealing with the above

PIXEL

3/12/2020 10:32:13 am

Who cares if he has background in science or not. Being a "scientist" whatever that term means is not a prerequisite to being smart.

David Childress

3/12/2020 01:34:46 pm

I don’t say extraterrestrials are responsible for the anomalies of the past but instead that human beings from an advanced civilization were responsible.

Bill May

4/3/2020 07:45:52 pm

I have been following this story since the late 90’s. It is not stupid. The History channel is showing all this stuff because there is a huge interest and it has phenomenal ratings but also because they want to know. Nobody is saying it is anything more than speculation but it makes you think and question everything. At least it does me.

Pixelated

3/12/2020 11:03:02 am

Smart doesn’t mean knowledge or accuracy or being correct. Smart can mean clever enough to manipulate people who have damaged psyches. Self described sceptics are 90 percent white, middle aged or older, gay or tormented by their predilections, have rejected religion because of abuse or characteristics that are abhorrent to religion, are seething with jealousy, see themselves as better and smarter than everyone else, look down with disgust on those who don’t recognize their superiority, make fun of others in whatever way they can. Except for a small notable number of exceptions self described sceptics are marginal failures. Look through this huge mass of hate and you’ll find posts that make fun of being fat, old, pudgy, and worse. Jealousy is seen in snide comments about free vacations. There are posts calling for banning books and tv shows that our hate-driven host dislikes.

eddy

3/12/2020 11:31:27 am

[citation needed]

Hal

3/12/2020 02:33:11 pm

Is this a peer reviewed journal or a blog? Why didn’t do you ask for citations for the blog. Hypocrisy.

Dr Whodat

3/13/2020 03:17:37 am

Agreed. Assertions without references are no more than the mumblings of madmen.

Pepe

3/12/2020 11:53:18 am

The last time that i checked just about every prominent fringe writer I am aware of is white and middle-age or elderly, are jealous of the education and prestige or legitimate scholars, and hurl their fair share of abuse at anyone who emphasizes science over wishful thinking. If you look at the comments by their fans on sites such as the Graham Hancock reddit page they are constantly spewing vitriol that makes most of the comments here appear tame in comparison.

Maybe try engaging the skeptics on the content of their criticisms rather than just having a knee jerk reaction to the fact that they offered criticism.

3/12/2020 12:04:30 pm

I don’t disagree with this. You are probably correct. But I was referring to this blog not others. Who will take the higher moral ground here? Will it be no one?

Black lives matter

3/12/2020 03:22:58 pm

Perhaps you only notice white people for a reason. According to this blog the “Afrocentric” the India proponents and the Hispanic proponents are all fringe too. You are racist.

3/12/2020 08:48:04 pm

I was discussing prominent people that I am aware of. I can't think of the name of a single fringe author of color although they are occasionally mentioned here. On the other hand, everyone is familiar with names like Hancock, Schoch, Carlson, Pulllitzer, and Wolter being dropped here on a regular basis. All white devils. .

Jim Davis

3/12/2020 12:54:35 pm

<i>Self described sceptics are 90 percent white, middle aged or older, gay or tormented by their predilections, have rejected religion because of abuse or characteristics that are abhorrent to religion, are seething with jealousy, see themselves as better and smarter than everyone else, look down with disgust on those who don’t recognize their superiority, make fun of others in whatever way they can. Except for a small notable number of exceptions self described sceptics are marginal failures.</i>

So because skeptics are horrible people, Atlantis existed, aliens built the pyramids, and ufos are alien spaceships?

I have my own issues with organized skepticism (mainly with the almost total politicization in he past 25 years; this blog could be the poster child) but at the end of the day none of that has any bearing on whether bigfoot and ghosts exist or the Knights Templars are burying treasures on Oak Island.

3/12/2020 01:27:42 pm

You are irrational. Illogical.

Irrational & illogical

3/13/2020 07:29:06 am

Being officially irrational & illogical is okay.
Get up-to-date.

3/12/2020 12:44:17 pm

"Societal biases, personal agendas among the academic community and layman alike, disinformation, and misinformation have had a tremendous influence on the way humans in general view the past."

That's all true. In fact Jason just recently had a book published about it.

3/12/2020 01:38:27 pm

Our ancient ancestors here may well be in a sense aliens from some other solar system, perhaps the Greys. What they’ve done is manipulate what were already humanoids on this planet, brute humanoids.

Joe Scales ghost

3/12/2020 01:46:04 pm

Yes, so true!

Phoenix555

5/11/2020 03:24:37 pm

I have always thought the same. We have found proto-humans, then modern humans. This appears to have been in an anthropological flash, some being might have spliced/modified our DNA to both be of service and be recognizable to the parent beings.

3/12/2020 01:25:13 pm

My head came off. I’m heading the wrong way.

Being Smart

3/12/2020 02:02:04 pm

Being Smart is a professor dude of Christianity without revealing all the facts that would debunk the subject matter.

AMHC

3/12/2020 07:20:22 pm

Meanwhile in Suburbia, A Walmart in Tennessee had ZERO toilet paper in the entire store at 11 am over CoronaVirus fears. The local Target had less than half of it’s own supply still in stock at noon, while it did have two entire packages of Zicam remaining and 8 individual boxes of Tylenol Severe Cold and Flu still in stock. The local Twice Daily Shell station reported that they had been told Home Depot still had toilet paper at 12:30 pm. And in Washington D.C. a registered California RN was speaking out to say that despite showing symptoms of CoronaVirus, the CDC REFUSED TO TEST HER because “if I’d been wearing proper sterile garments I wouldn’t have contracted the virus.” In her words “What kind of science based answer is that?”

Why ??

3/12/2020 08:16:40 pm

Why doesn't your God perform miracle cures in 2020 like he did in 1st century Judea ?

AHMC

3/12/2020 08:46:22 pm

Sounds like an entitled hooah. But thanks for the Hooterville update!

3/12/2020 09:58:04 pm

That's avoiding the answer to the question

3/13/2020 03:28:12 am

Could the run on toilet paper be related to the fact that US Government's management of COVID-19 has scared the crap out of them?

Or could it be that to many Americans are basically full of crap on their best day?

Could it be a huge evacuation of US citizens?
Look "evacuation" up. You might be surprised at its definition.

3/13/2020 03:39:07 am

So given the revelation of the new owner, should we expect glowing orbs to lead us to the Golden Tablets of Joseph Smith fame? Will we be able to finally decode the cattle mutilations if we look at them through a hat?

Just wondering.

tom mellett

3/17/2020 07:34:44 pm

Jason,

First, I’m quite baffled as to why you let Brandon Fugal skate on his explanation of mere “affiliation” with AHRF. If someone is the Director of an organization, doncha think he is more than just “affiliated” with it? And then there’s the timeline. He says his “affiliation” stopped in 2005, yet, in 2020 he is still listed as the Director on the AHRF website. And now, suddenly, all traces of Fugal have been expunged from the website as he never even existed, let alone had an “affiliation” with AHRF, let alone “directed” it!

Secondly, even more puzzling is: why do you regret an error that you did not commit? You discovered on the AHRF website that Wayne May was an Advisor of AHRF along with Steven Jones. With Brandon Fugal listed as Director of AHRF, it would seem logical that these two Advisors had to be at least “affiliated” with Fugal. And it would not be an error on your part to assume that Fugal knew something about the background of these Advisors in the organization that he is directing. Now suddenly, all traces of Wayne May have been expunged from the website as he never even existed, let alone had an “affiliation” with AHRF, let alone advised the organization that Fugal must have directed at some time in 2005.

Thirdly, I do not understand why you deleted the entire section from the blog about Wayne May. You could have just left it as is with a disclaimer. Or else, revised it a little because I think it’s important to note for the record on your blog that Wayne May was once “affiliated” with AHRF. Does Fugal claim he never met May? It would be interesting to see the timelines of affiliation these 3 men had with AHRF over the last 20 years.

Zachary Mohrmann link

5/29/2020 06:18:58 pm

I got one burning question for the show. Maybe I'm wrong to ask, but that one fellow always dressed in black in a dessert climate is he not the ranch security guard...? If so what the hell is he doing giving question to science experts about what they are doing...? Does this man have some kind of science degree in which others need to be compelled to except his in put...? And what is the big deal about magnets, I have handled almost every type magnet there is..? I am really getting board of this show fast because nothing there is nothing beyond the scope of science, to suggest something abnormal..

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