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Review of "Hunt for the Skinwalker," a New Documentary about Skinwalker Ranch

9/11/2018

39 Comments

 
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​I grew up in what used to be known as the “Burned-Over District,” a place where the flames of the true faith—whatever that was—burned so brightly that they scorched all they touched. In nineteenth-century upstate New York, evangelicals spoke of their conversations with the Holy Spirit to rapturous audiences. Joseph Smith preached about visitation from the angel Moroni, and the Spiritualists vouchsafed that they were in direct contact with ghosts from another plane of existence. What all had in common was an unyielding faith in things unseen, and also an unwavering demand that no evidence be admitted against their beliefs, for faith was, as Jesus said, a blessing for those who believed without proof: “Blessed are those that have not seen yet have believed” (John 20:29). The cynic might argue that this type of faith exists precisely to hide the fact that there are no facts to support it. Even Jesus had to show his wounds to Doubting Thomas.
HUNT FOR THE SKINWALKER
  • Directed by: Jeremy Kenyon Lockyer Corbell
  • Cast: George Knapp, Jeremy Corbell, Colm Kelleher, et al.
  • Release Date: Sept. 11, 2018
  • Distributor: Orchard Films
  • Run Time: 2 hours 6 minutes
I open by review of The Hunt for the Skinwalker, a new two-hour documentary by Jeremy Corbell that debuts today, with this rehearsal of the unseen supernatural of my childhood home precisely to make the point that people have always imagined that they have seen the supernatural, or pretended to, and demanded faith without proof. I grew up in the hollowed-out husk of the Burned-Over District, and there were no ghosts, and no angels, and no miraculous appearances of the Holy Spirit. All of those long-ago sightings had faded into the colorful history of a forgotten corner of the globe, stories told in the history books, still believed by some but widely dismissed as fantasy or hoaxes or pious frauds somewhere in between.
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The area around Skinwalker Ranch. (Still from "Hunt for the Skinwalker / Orchard)
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​The documentary tells an abbreviated and impressionistic tale of the Skinwalker Ranch, a desolate set of rundown old homesteads in northeastern Utah that gained fame first as a sort of western Amityville Horror and later, until 2016, as the site of billionaire UFO enthusiast Robert Bigelow’s search for flying saucers and parallel universes. The ranch takes its name from a shapeshifting creature in Ute mythology. The ranch is now owned by Adamantium Real Estate, LLC, a company registered in Delaware and represented by an anonymous corporate trust service. The name Skinwalker Ranch was trademarked by the new owners for “entertainment services,” which the trademark application says includes turning the ranch into a paranormal tourist attraction.
 
Grand claims have been made for the supernatural power of the Skinwalker Ranch, but as The Hunt for the Skinwalker inadvertently reveals, they are nothing but hot air, built on a series of anecdotes by people who scared themselves running around in the dark. To that end, Hunt for the Skinwalker is an important documentary because it reveals the paucity of evidence to come out of the two decades Robert Bigelow’s men spent probing its fictitious secrets, and the depths of belief that his men—many of whom worked or work for the Department of Defense, intelligence agencies, or Tom Delonge’s To the Stars Academy of Arts and Science—still maintain despite admitting to having found precisely no scientific evidence of the paranormal phenomena they sought.
 
Filmmaker Jeremy Corbell, 41, who is both an artist and a UFO enthusiast, opens the documentary with a mission statement. He has no intention of being fair or balanced, nor of looking beyond the ranks of true believers and the men in their employ. Instead, he promises to “weaponize curiosity” in the service of the paranormal. The truth, however, has a way of seeping through, and in this case, the reality under the supernatural story kept poking through despite the layers of mood music, special effects, and shadows Corbell layers on to create an atmosphere of the uncanny. Corbell is a wannabee Rod Serling. He effects a Serling-like narration, even though his natural speaking voice, to judge by his on-camera appearances, is anything but. He empurples the prose to give ponderous wait to his questions and clichés, and he sprinkles into the narrative phrases taken directly from Serling’s Twilight Zone. He speaks, for example, of the ranch as existing “between shadow and substance,” a phrase ripped right from the title sequence to the Zone. This is, of course, intentional. He wants us to see the ranch as a place where worlds meet, where the laws of nature relax, and where the supernatural exists.
 
Nor is the Twilight Zone the only science fiction, fantasy, or horror reference. The documentary lingers lovingly over files marked “confidential” and effects a bit of an X-Files vibe. Corbell’s progress to the Skinwalker Ranch and his night spent there could easily be swapped out for identical adventures from Josh Gates’s old Destination Truth show, while the documentary’s structure, featuring Corbell retracing the investigations of Las Vegas local TV reporter George Knapp two decades earlier, with most of the film made up of Knapp’s abandoned early 2000s documentary intercut with new scenes of Corbell, is not a world removed from the Blair Witch Project. Indeed, Corbell even describes the abandoned homesteads of Skinwalker Ranch as something out of a horror movie and compares them to a staged film set designed to frighten. He lards the story, too, with horror-movie clichés, including ancient Native American legends that hide an evil truth, taciturn locals who won’t speak to “outsiders,” etc.
 
But it’s just rhetoric and art—references and allusions doing the job of facts, pathos and ethos pretending to be logos.
                                                        
The film opens with a meditation on the universe and the nature of reality—there being more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, etc.—before relating the now-familiar story of the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program at the Pentagon, which was tied to Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies, the UFO-hunting subdivision of Bigelow Aerospace, and to the consultants that both shared with To the Stars, including Hal Puthoff, Eric Davies, etc. The key interviewee and the audience’s viewpoint character is Knapp, though Corbell never makes entirely clear Knapp’s relationship to Bigelow. Knapp was and is a Las Vegas-based reporter for the local CBS TV station, but for several years in the late 1990s and early 2000s he also worked with Robert Bigelow’s National Institute of Discovery Science, a private company set up to investigate the paranormal at Skinwalker Ranch, producing a book about the Skinwalker Ranch with NIDS’s Colm Kelleher, who is a major presence in the documentary through archival footage shot for a documentary Knapp produced in the 2000s.
 
The current documentary began filming shortly before the New York Times revealed that the Pentagon and Robert Bigelow had been working together to track unidentified aerial phenomena at the behest of former Senator Harry Reid (D-Nev.), and it captures an uncomfortable moment. A few days before the Times story hit, Knapp was teasing that a revelation was about to come out that would change how we view the UFO phenomenon. It seems clear that he knew about the Times story, or something similar, but chose not to tell his viewers or his readers, though he was happy to tease. That makes me uncomfortable. Journalists shouldn’t be hoarders of information, nor should they use access to powerful people to present themselves as insiders who hold secrets for the wealthy that they will not share with the public. If you aren’t allowed to report something, I was taught in journalism school, don’t ask to hear it so you don’t have to lie about it to your audience. It’s a breach of trust.

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George Knapp being interviewed for the film. (Still from "Hunt for the Skinwalker / Orchard)
​But that is apparently not a concern for Knapp, who, in the interviews featured here, comes across as someone who revels in the perceived power he holds as a keeper of Bigelow’s secrets. Knapp says that Bigelow gave him secret information decades ago, but he wasn’t allowed to report it for years. He admits, basically, to being a liar either of commission or omission for much of his UFO reporting career. In fact, he tells Corbell that he still can’t share all the information and he won’t say why. Given that Bigelow is a key figure that Knapp covers for his TV station, where he regularly fails to disclose any of this, there are some serious ethical concerns that arise from a reporter having a close relationship with his subject and intentionally withholding information about said subject from the audience.
 
Knapp also tells Corbell that he has never had a paranormal experience at the ranch but has interviewed people who did and therefore believes that something supernatural is going on at the ranch. This is illogical, particularly when there is no scientific evidence to confirm that the people he interviewed are correctly interpreting the events they claim to have experienced. To use an analogy I’ve made in the past, this is a bit like going to a magic show, interviewing the audience, and concluding that David Copperfield has supernatural powers. What people see isn’t always what is there.
 
Across new interviews and archival footage, we learn what Knapp and Kelleher think is happening at Skinwalker Ranch, and it quickly becomes clear why Corbell—who calls the ranch the “Area 51 of the paranormal”—needs dramatic lighting and moody music to make the bizarre claims seem serious. According to the two men:

  • Parallel universes meet at Skinwalker Ranch and can be accessed by a glowing orange hole in the sky.
  • Some of the activity is due to poltergeists, even though such things have never been proven to exist.
  • An evil cloud “invaded” a physicist’s mind and took him over.
  • An intelligent but incorporeal entity plays practical jokes on the scientists and purposely avoids all cameras and detection equipment.
  • The entity speaks English and routinely shouts “Get out!” at ranch visitors.
  • Supernatural forces at the ranch are allegedly provoked by the arrival of outsiders, loud noises, and the digging of holes.
 
As a result of that last assumption, when Knapp first visited, he and other men danced in a circle, chanting and shouting and then used heavy machinery to dig holes in the hope of contacting the “entity.” They did not reach it.
 
It was at this point that it became obvious to me that the people working at Skinwalker Ranch when Bigelow owned the place were scaring themselves in the dark, imagining things that went bump in the night and pretending that weird noises and unusual lights and strange smells were all evidence of the paranormal. But only later as the documentary moved on did it become clear that my intuition wasn’t just right but it was the secret behind the myth of Skinwalker Ranch. The first confirmation came from interviews with those taciturn locals who supposedly were hostile to outsiders. Some of the people supposedly experiencing strange things were quite familiar with fringe terminology—J. Allen Hynek’s idea of “high strangeness” comes up unprovoked in conversation, but in its bastardized form as a sort of analogue to high adventure—showing that much of what is going on is New Age paranormal paranoia feeding on itself. People who believe in the paranormal interpret what they encounter as the paranormal, and those who aren’t sure nevertheless turn to preexisting New Age narratives, though they have no scientific foundation. But this is the New Age as filtered through modern ufology with all its anti-government suspicions. One rancher actually asks if the supernatural is “real, or is it government made-up?” These are not neutral observers but people who interpret their experiences through narratives they had already encountered.
 
I’m not going to tell you that I know exactly what every weird claim made for the area around Skinwalker Ranch actually represents. There are many stories told of the odd behavior of cattle, and the ranchers deny that local teens or any other human might have been involved in herding them into odd places. It sounds to me like they underestimate the ingenuity of bored teens, but however you slice it, there isn’t any particular reason to link the various claims for ghosts, flying saucers, goofy cow antics, etc. into a one multifaceted alternative reality. They are data points with no obvious, proven, or scientific connection, and probably a number of explanations.
 
That’s not how NDIS saw it. Corbell tells us that they related such events to the Ute people’s mythology to justify their belief in a centuries’ long “history” of area residents being scared of wolves, strange lights, etc. All of the stories share one thing in common—they offer no facts, no physical evidence, and no way to confirm any of the accounts, ancient or modern.
 
NIDS, therefore, accepted the idea that many strange stories (not unlike those you can find almost literally anywhere) must have some sort of connection, and they assembled a team to attempt to scientifically investigate what they—without evidence—assumed was a singular phenomenon. In an interview, Knapp lavishes praise on Bigelow’s “bright Ph.D.-level” team, calling them “amazing” and the “greatest minds” in history and intimating that some big names refuse to let their work for Bigelow be known. The known associates of Bigelow—Jacques Vallée, Hal Puthoff, etc.—have a long track record of making supernatural claims that evidence fails to support, so this does not inspire confidence. Knapp also lavishes praise on Bigelow, but he says, again, that he “can’t tell you” what Bigelow found at the ranch that had “shaken” him but he knows something must have happened. This isn’t even hearsay. It’s an assumption wrapped in suggestive spookiness, where implication substitutes for evidence.
 
Bigelow’s men set up all sorts of equipment over the ranch to test for anomalies of electromagnetic radiation, sound, light, and much more. They found, basically, nothing. Knapp and Kelleher both say as much, admitting that there was no scientific evidence that confirmed the existence of the paranormal. There was some ambiguous “evidence” on display, but it was laughably poor. Their evidence was easily debunked camera artifacts—orbs, lines of light—and some odd-shaped pillar-like clouds that they implied were the ghosts of the World Trade Center towers, or else the symbiote’s message about 9/11. They concluded that an orange light in the sky—never captured on camera, of course—was a portal to another world because somebody said he had seen a shape or figure in the light.
 
Such stories fed into their preconception that the stories and anecdotes they heard represented a reality beyond reality, but unable to churn up any scientific data to support their claims, they abandoned the scientific method and science altogether.
 
According to members of the team, NIDS concluded that the supernatural purposely avoided their cameras, and they explicitly say in the documentary that the longer they investigated and the more they observed, the less evidence they found. Instead of correctly concluding that better investigation methods revealed that the “phenomena” are artifacts of perception that disappear when exposed to scientifically rigorous observation, they instead concluded that there was indeed a supernatural creature and that it was a “precognitive symbiotic” entity that psychically anticipated their every move.
 
We see only two more pieces of evidence on screen. One piece is made up of a couple of blurry photographs of what seem to be airplanes that we hear match no civilian flight plans. Military planes? The question isn’t asked. The other is cattle mutilation. I find the whole subject distasteful, and the segment featuring many closeups of rotted animal corpses was unpleasant to watch. Kelleher tells us that the dead animals had to have been killed by a supernatural entity because there was no visible blood in or around the corpse. The red color of the muscles belies this point, but the researchers’ expectation that the field should be red with blood surprises me. With all the animals that cats have killed in my yard over the years—squirrels, mice, birds—there has never been a pool of blood, not even with the roadkill in the street. I wouldn’t expect farm animals to be different, and it seems that the investigators aren’t entirely familiar with natural decomposition and decay.
 
As we near the end, Corbell brings in a man he claims is the new owner of Skinwalker Ranch, presumably the anonymous proprietor of Adamantium Real Estate. But the man is never identified, and his face is not seen on camera. “I have a vast empire of business interests that I cannot allow to be compromised,” says the new owner. He keeps his identity hidden and disguises his voice, but he and Corbell make sure his gold Rolex Datejust is easily visible on camera to let you know that, yes, he is rich. He’s the guy that let Corbell onto Skinwalker Ranch, and as we saw from the trademark application, he seems to be looking to cash in on the ranch’s notoriety. 
Picture
Knapp (left) and Corbell muse about the paranormal at Skinwalker Ranch (Still from "Hunt for the Skinwalker" / Orchard)
​The film ends with a half dozen older white men sitting around a fire nodding their heads, admitting to having no evidence and no personal experiences, but nevertheless believing without seeing, like those Jesus blessed for their blind faith. And their search for monsters is, in the end, faith masquerading as science. In the film’s final few minutes, archival footage shows one of the NIDS investigators admitting that the “phenomenon” cannot be examined or explored by science and instead can only be understood through anecdotes, stories, and belief. Robert Bigelow shows up as an almost Howard Hughes-like eccentric, muttering that the phenomenon was “playing” with him and giving him a “taste” of the supernatural, but wouldn’t let itself be studied, for the events his team experienced never repeated. Every time, he said, they prepared to observe a particular phenomenon and set up scientific tests for it, it stopped happening and instead they started to see something new occur. Gee, I wonder why.
 
In a postscript clearly added afterward to tie in with current events, Knapp says that Bigelow’s BAASS was not directly involved with the Pentagon’s AATIP, though it did do work for them. Instead, it was contract through a larger government program whose existence he claims to know about but refuses to disclose. This is disingenuous, to say the least, and it seems clear that Knapp isn’t really looking for truth. He is an information hoarder who seems to revel in his role as guardian of “secret” information.
 
Finally, Corbell returns to sum up what he learned—or rather, did not learn. He attempts to preclude criticism—apparently of the myth of Skinwalker Ranch rather than his film—by saying that people “like” to “ridicule or deny” the alleged events at Skinwalker Ranch, and he asserts that the events that everyone involved admits have never been scientifically documented nevertheless occurred.
 
Hunt for the Skinwalker, as a film, is an enjoyable and entertaining two hours, so long as you are amused by old men tilting at windmills. However, as a documentary, it was surprising in its lack of rigor and evidence. Instead, it is a portrait of madness and a commercial for the forthcoming paranormal resort apparently planned for the site. The people involved are the last of the romantics, looking for a world beyond reality, where the fantastic touches the mundane. Just as the Spiritualists and the Evangelicals turned to things unseen as a promise  of eternal life, so, too, do the men who haunted Skinwalker Ranch seem to think that by scaring themselves in the dark they will transcend the limits of nature and escape to a world unencumbered by flesh and physics. 
39 Comments
Hugh’s poo
9/11/2018 12:06:04 pm

Ughh, as a skinwalker I squeezed out a steaming pile of Colavito. But my megalithic load is more sound.

Reply
AmericanCool"Disco"Dan
9/11/2018 01:45:52 pm

As I was reading I thought "This is ripe for a tale of poo."

"As a result of that last assumption, when Knapp first visited, he and other men danced in a circle, chanting and shouting and then used heavy machinery to dig holes in the hope of contacting the “entity.”"

That sounds very Iron John. But it explains the death of the Kensington Runestone party: they were killed by the Skinwalker because they drilled stoneholes.

In this Age of Trump, "older white men" is a dog whistle telling us "These folks must be scorned."

Reply
Joe Scales
9/11/2018 03:43:01 pm

[ In this Age of Trump, "older white men" is a dog whistle telling us "These folks must be scorned." ]

When you clean the turd off this strand, you gotta real gem here. Just to let you know beforehand, should it go bye-bye.

AmericanCool"Disco"Dan
9/11/2018 04:41:41 pm

Yes, there's some removitation going on, specifically my tale of having a zesty session with Tom Mellet's totally imaginary slug. I guess some Buddhuist somewhere was offended.

Sandra Trammell link
4/1/2020 02:24:52 pm

Dont support waste time. Should be worried about levels of radiation. The science and scientists you hired need to walk away. They are being exploited and may potentially have health issues. This folley isn't worth it. If it's a real unkown mystery the past owner present investors employees would more than welcome scientific studies without conditions. This would be better suited on wifi channel. So sad. Think just trying to make bank. God bless.

Reply
Scott Hamilton
9/11/2018 01:52:39 pm

Totally random thing I recently noticed in relation to cattle mutilation:

The case of livestock mutilation that turned it into a "thing" for the fringe crowd was the discovery of a horse named Lady dead in a field in Sept. of 1967. Months before, cattle mutilations were used on the soap Dark Shadow as a harbinger of the fact that the guy who looked and acted exactly like a movie vampire was (and I apologize here for the spoilers), in fact, a vampire. The description on the show includes no footprints and all the blood being drained. Producer Dan Curtis would return to the same imagery in The Night Stalker.

Reply
Tom Mellett
9/11/2018 02:53:02 pm

Jason,

Do you realize that there is a whole catalogue and classification of the weird supernatural creatures and forces that have appeared at Skinwalker Ranch over the years? There are 15 different species that have been identified on the Skinwalker Ranch website here. I will give one description for you because its name is the “Cthulhu Slug” and it may eventually find its way into your temporal lobe and terrify you at night, so be careful what you write about it.

http://www.skinwalkerranch.org/classificationsystem.html

“Cthulhu Slug"

DESCRIPTION:
Not much information is known about this creature. Described as large, slimy, black, and slug-like and/or snake-like. This may be the same creature responsible for killing several swimmers in nearby Bottle Hollow Reservoir. Witnessed during daylight and evening hours.

FUNCTION/INTERACTION
Speculated to be a bizarre dimensional monstrosity which has temporarily wriggled into our dimensional space.

TYPE
Potentially a unintelligent biological creature heralding from a parallel universe. Possesses a aggressive demeanor.

DURATION
Unknown

FREQUENCY
Unknown

Reply
AmericanCool"Disco"dan
9/11/2018 04:35:41 pm

Your copious list of notes do not constitute "evidence" but...

I think I swived one of those slimy black slug-like suckers. Banged the bejeebers out of it. They get horny after a kill. Come to think of it so do I.

Are the animal corpses rotted or is the muscle red? Can it be both?

Skinwalker Bunny Ranch. Is it prostitution to pay for sex with interdimensional space aliens?

Reply
Tom Mellett
9/11/2018 07:12:25 pm


You know, if you want to have safe and legal sex with any of these entities, I would suggest the Sentient Mist Creature because of these 3 qualities —- which are mentioned in the species catalogue below

[1] it’s a quickie (Duration=30 seconds)
[2] Instant Orgasm is a terrific Electric Bang.
[3] In the afterglow, it appears to be dead, so definitely NSA and thus like a sexbot, I suppose, except it’s Inter-dimensional, not terrestrial.

(BTW, the Bigelow researchers are Astrophysicist Eric Davis and Biochemist Colm Kelleher)

http://www.skinwalkerranch.org/classificationsystem.html


“Sentient Mist"

DESCRIPTION
Described by Bigelow researchers as "a neurological electricity". This unique entity is completely black in color, takes the intangible form of a thick smoke. The smoke is described like a disembodied skin of black electrified energy that posses an intellect. Theories hold that this is a pre-transitional embodiment of a not yet formed entity as it emerges from a portal or flashdrone. This shapeless malleable mist will eventually mold itself into a local animal or humanoid.

*Update: this form has been known to take a humanoid like shape with tentacle appendages.


FUNCTION/INTERACTION
Believed to be a temporary body type taken by a unformed entity. This form may be a temporary non-physical state necessary to survive the physically challenging and complex nature of transversing a wormhole. The mist will typically transition to a humanoid, wolf, or local animal shape once it emerges from the portal and is solidly within our dimensional space.

*update: described as having tentacles which it uses to toxify its victims by inserting via the mouth and thereby suffocating the lungs with what feels like burning dust. This immediately transports the victim into the "spirit world" a nether region the devoid space between earth and the heavens.


TYPE
This sighting almost always results in a close encounter with an entity. No communication occurs. Will result in a noticeable electric shock if physical contact occurs. Resulting final form is believed to be a lifeless yet physically real creature.


DURATION
30 seconds


FREQUENCY
2% chance of experiencing

Adam W.
9/12/2018 10:41:48 am

Hit Dice 4
Armor Class 16
Attacks 1
Damage 1d8+2
Alignment Chaotic Evil
XP value 100

Reply
Finn
9/14/2018 01:39:39 am

I attack the darkness!

Finn
9/14/2018 01:39:05 am

"There are 15 different species"

What makes them separate species? How do you know some of them aren't the same thing, in different forms? I mean, "species" has a specific* definition in science, so if you're trying to use a scientific system to explain these, you should adhere to the rules.

Otherwise, you might as well be arguing that metallic dragons and chromatic dragons are separate species (when in fact, NONE of the rules apply, because they can hybridise with almost anything. Ogres, giants, hydrae, demons, devils..)

Reply
Finn
9/21/2018 02:32:29 am

Ugh, rereading this, I forgot to add my footnote:

* Yes, I realise the redundancy of this, but it serves to illustrate the meaning of "species".

Carson H
9/11/2018 09:29:36 pm

Nihilistic scientific rationalism wrapped in postmodern hyper-consuming neo-marxism is OMG So EdGy!!!! How does it feel to be so edgy. It must be something.

Reply
Syrus Stone
9/12/2018 12:38:21 am

The difference between Colavito and Colm Kelleher is that one is an actual scientist while the other isn't. How many actual field investigations has Colavito done? My guess is none. It's easy to critique something while sitting at your desk.....

Reply
AmericanCool"Disco"Dan
9/12/2018 12:44:07 pm

What sort of sciencing did Dr. Kelleher do in the course of the field investigation? Did he biochemistry the sex snails?

Reply
Dan
9/12/2018 01:57:12 am

Thank you,Jason.

That was awesome, and it totally hit he spot.

👍

Reply
Pat McDonald
9/12/2018 04:18:40 am

This time Jason removes his pseudo-conspiracy theory from previous post where he claimed that "Knapp worked for Bigelow". Now he has a new modified claim pasted from wikipedia : "Knapp worked with Bigelow.” At least a small progress but still a long way to go.

After some thinking I decided not to sign up as his patreon. My money will go to those who have better facts and knowledge. Sorry.

Reply
Doc Rock
9/12/2018 02:34:03 pm

While working as a graduate research assistant for one of my professors we decided to use the process to collaborate on developing an article manuscript for publication. So, I could be described as having both worked FOR him and WITH him. In some contexts, those terms are not necessarily mutually exclusive. Might be best to offer a more substantiated argument in terms of why it is incorrect to apply both terms to the relationship between Knapp and Bigelow before making any financial decisions based purely on this issue.


Reply
AmericanCool"Disco"Dan
9/12/2018 02:48:13 pm

Let me explain why you suck Pat. You said "Now he has a new modified claim pasted from wikipedia : 'Knapp worked with Bigelow.'"

What Wikipedia ACTUALLY says is "In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Knapp worked with the now-defunct group National Institute of Discovery Science (NIDS). Founded by Las Vegas businessman Robert Bigelow, NIDS was charged with scientifically studying unusual phenomena with scientists and funding. Based on his work with NIDS and biochemist Colm Kelleher, Knapp publicized the so-called Skinwalker Ranch in northeast Utah, where strange events are alleged to have occurred."

True or not, it's NOT what Jason "pasted".

Reply
Francisco Park
9/12/2018 10:50:03 am

Funny how Jason claims testimony is not evidence then quotes BIBLE VERSES ... not funny, hilarious!

Reply
Jason Colavito link
9/12/2018 12:13:11 pm

I often forget that some people reading my work are only semi-literate and have difficulty with concepts such as figurative language, dramatic irony, and rhetorical devices. I did not quote Bible verses in the expectation you would believe them; instead, the opposite is the case. I used a literary allusion to a familiar story as a comparison and contrast to the events under discussion. In this case, the point was to compare Skinwalker believers unfavorably to religious fanatics, not to endorse religion.

Reply
Luke Skinwalker
9/15/2018 06:57:17 pm

It's Jason't blog, so Jason's never wrong and everyone else is.

Reply
LBP
9/12/2018 11:01:50 am

Nearly 30 years ago, when Knapp was aggressively promoting Bob "Area 51" Lazar and I was the City Attorney of a nearby town, I wrote Knapp a letter on my letterhead offering to personally fund an investigation into who Lazar actually was, using one of the professional firms that attorneys routinely use. I followed this up with a voice message on his personal line at KLAS. I never received even the courtesy of a response - because, of course, Knapp had no interest in facts that might poke holes in his promotion of Lazar. I believe he's a complete clown and am astounded that he manages to keep his job as (theoretically) a journalist or to have any credibility within the community of those with a serious interest in the paranormal.

Reply
Dan
9/13/2018 03:33:37 am

Dear, AMERICANCOOL”DISCO”DAN.

Sociology as a “Full Contact Sport”?

Bordeiu would be proud.

I am, too!

😊

Reply
Robert A. Goerman link
9/13/2018 06:35:54 pm

What happens when atheists meet God?

Reply
Finn
9/14/2018 01:35:31 am

Depends on which god; probably first off, they will ask for proof of divinity that can be empirically tested.

Me, I'd be asking for a refund for all the time I wasted sitting at bus stops for buses that ran ridiculously late.

Reply
Finn
9/14/2018 01:33:30 am

just wanted to note:

"He empurples the prose"

is amazing :D

Reply
Marty
9/16/2018 12:48:54 pm

So its basically a movie by someone whose never seen anything, about 3rd hand stories from people that also seen nothing about people that told them stories about something they once heard somewhere? Been to this place a few times, followed by the orange ball in the sky, seen/heard weird stuff, ... its all orchestrated by technology that was tested there. The fact no one seen or can explain it is a testament that it is 100% effective and works awesome. But, because no one is aware of the technology and capabilities, the only explanations they can some up with is the ones they heard stories of. The movie is just a money grab.

Reply
AmericanCool"Disco"Dan
9/16/2018 07:39:38 pm

"a movie by someone whose never seen anything, about 3rd hand stories from people that also seen nothing about people that told them stories about something they once heard somewhere?"

Yup. Perhaps without meaning to you've also summarized the entire Atlantis industry.

Reply
Riley V
9/16/2018 01:35:38 pm

Thanks Jason.

On off my profs used to say "Believing is seeing." This film seams to prove his point.

Reply
John Alexander
9/17/2018 02:13:10 am

Who knows not that they know not is a fool

Reply
Jacques Valley Girl
9/17/2018 08:40:18 am

Hoo-Rah, Col. Alexander!!! Therefore, ignorance is bliss and knowledge is a bitch. Q.E.D.

(I learned that when the goat stared back at me.)

Reply
Ronan Coghlan link
9/17/2018 07:08:40 am

I find it profoundly distressing that anyone assessing evidence or lack of evidence of the paranormal should receive hate mail. It has absolutely no place in research.

Reply
Hanslune
9/17/2018 11:27:22 am

The first letters of the months July through November spell the name "Jason".

I suspect evil inter dimensional forces are behind this obvious galaxy wide plot.

Reply
Lando link
9/17/2018 12:56:16 pm

There are hundreds of haunted places all over the Americas. because of it's connections , this one gets the popcorn for the Nutball Nation.

Reply
Stella Alexander
10/4/2018 01:07:24 am

I have read the book written about the going-ons at this ranch and, last night, watched this 2 hour documentary ("Hunt For The Skinwalker" on Amazon.com. I've never seen a documentary give such spell binding "hype" for things that would be "revealed" to us only to come up empty; leaving more questions than answers. A story has yet to be told on any subject that defies the imagination, without substantial, solid proof and facts to convince it's audience that it's more than just a hoax. I can't imagine that I was the only viewer who realized there was absolutely no, hard evidence to any of the claims made of strange going-ons at this ranch.

Furthermore, there certainly should've been "proof" collected over decades at that ranch, at least of the residual fall-out left behind. Even the few strange glowing lights in the sky convinced the viewers of absolutely nothing worthwhile. I'm surprised this documentary even found a network that would air it. I kept waiting until the bitter end to be "surprised" by a giant reveal that never came about.

Why was British singer, Robbie Williams, injected into the last few minutes of this documentary? Was it to give this show a bit of desperate, celebrity credibility? Those observations were made by him years ago about an undocumented sighting he'd had at a different location all together! But these documentarians spliced his commentaries into this show as if he'd had that experience while on Skinwalker Ranch. In fact, he was referring to a "gold ball of light" he spotted in the night time skies of Arizona back in 2008 which he spoke about in a different show years ago.

I'm wondering what else this documentarian randomly injected into this show from other paranormal telecasts that had absolutely no connection to the supposed going-ons at Skinwalker Ranch.

My rating? D+ (at least it kept me waiting until the bitter end for the "great reveal" that never came. I have to give this director credit for stringing me along for a compelling ending which never came about!)

Reply
EDWARD LOPEZ
3/29/2020 11:41:06 pm

You said above: "What all had in common was an unyielding faith in things unseen, and also an unwavering demand that no evidence be admitted against their beliefs, for faith was, as Jesus said, a blessing for those who believed without proof: “Blessed are those that have not seen yet have believed” (John 20:29). The cynic might argue that this type of faith exists precisely to hide the fact that there are no facts to support it. Even Jesus had to show his wounds to Doubting Thomas."

Give me a break, Jason! You are an alleged well-educated critic so you must know that written history does not support the reality of the mythical Jesus, a human creation. You can't quote a myth and, worse, the also mythical new testament. Since Jesus is a myth, there were no scribes following a myth.

Reply
EDWARD LOPEZ
3/29/2020 11:46:58 pm

You say above: "...and demanded faith without proof." Definition of faith: "strong belief in God or in the doctrines of a religion, based on spiritual apprehension rather than proof." Faith is the result of mental conditioning. Once you have proof of anything it becomes a knowing so faith goes out the window.

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    • Television Reviews >
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    • Collection: Ancient Alien Fraud >
      • Chariots of the Gods at 50
      • Secret History of Ancient Astronauts
      • Of Atlantis and Aliens
      • Aliens and Ancient Texts
      • Profiles in Ancient Astronautics >
        • Erich von Däniken
        • Robert Temple
        • Giorgio Tsoukalos
        • David Childress
      • Blunders in the Sky
      • The Case of the False Quotes
      • Alternative Authors' Quote Fraud
      • David Childress & the Aliens
      • Faking Ancient Art in Uzbekistan
      • Intimations of Persecution
      • Zecharia Sitchin's World
      • Jesus' Alien Ancestors?
      • Extraterrestrial Evolution?
    • Collection: Skeptic Magazine >
      • America Before Review
      • Native American Discovery of Europe
      • Interview: Scott Sigler
      • Golden Fleeced
      • Oh the Horror
      • Discovery of America
      • Supernatural Television
      • Review of Civilization One
      • Who Lost the Middle Ages
      • Charioteer of the Gods
    • Collection: Ancient History >
      • Prehistoric Nuclear War
      • The China Syndrome
      • Atlantis, Mu, and the Maya
      • Easter Island Exposed
      • Who Built the Sphinx?
      • Who Built the Great Pyramid?
      • Archaeological Cover Up?
    • Collection: The Lovecraft Legacy >
      • Pauwels, Bergier, and Lovecraft
      • Lovecraft in Bergier
      • Lovecraft and Scientology
    • Collection: UFOs >
      • Alien Abduction at the Outer Limits
      • Aliens and Anal Probes
      • Ultra-Terrestrials and UFOs
      • Rebels, Queers, and Aliens
    • Scholomance: The Devil's School
    • Prehistory of Chupacabra
    • The Templars, the Holy Grail, & Henry Sinclair
    • Magicians of the Gods Review
    • The Curse of the Pharaohs
    • The Antediluvian Pyramid Myth
    • Whitewashing American Prehistory
    • James Dean's Cursed Porsche
  • The Library
    • Ancient Mysteries >
      • Ancient Texts >
        • Mesopotamian Texts >
          • Eridu Genesis
          • Atrahasis Epic
          • Epic of Gilgamesh
          • Kutha Creation Legend
          • Babylonian Creation Myth
          • Descent of Ishtar
          • Resurrection of Marduk
          • Berossus
          • Comparison of Antediluvian Histories
        • Egyptian Texts >
          • The Shipwrecked Sailor
          • Dream Stela of Thutmose IV
          • The Papyrus of Ani
          • Classical Accounts of the Pyramids
          • Inventory Stela
          • Manetho
          • Eratosthenes' King List
          • The Story of Setna
          • Leon of Pella
          • Diodorus on Egyptian History
          • On Isis and Osiris
          • Famine Stela
          • Old Egyptian Chronicle
          • The Book of Sothis
          • Horapollo
          • Al-Maqrizi's King List
        • Teshub and the Dragon
        • Hermetica >
          • The Three Hermeses
          • Kore Kosmou
          • Corpus Hermeticum
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          • Hermetic Fragments
          • Prologue to the Kyranides
          • The Secret of Creation
          • Ancient Alphabets Explained
          • Prologue to Ibn Umayl's Silvery Water
          • Book of the 24 Philosophers
          • Aurora of the Philosophers
        • Hesiod's Theogony
        • Periplus of Hanno
        • Ctesias' Indica
        • Sanchuniathon
        • Sima Qian
        • Syncellus's Enoch Fragments
        • The Book of Enoch
        • Slavonic Enoch
        • Sepher Yetzirah
        • Tacitus' Germania
        • De Dea Syria
        • Aelian's Various Histories
        • Julius Africanus' Chronography
        • Eusebius' Chronicle
        • Chinese Accounts of Rome
        • Ancient Chinese Automaton
        • The Orphic Argonautica
        • Fragments of Panodorus
        • Annianus on the Watchers
        • The Watchers and Antediluvian Wisdom
      • Medieval Texts >
        • Medieval Legends of Ancient Egypt >
          • Medieval Pyramid Lore
          • John Malalas on Ancient Egypt
          • Fragments of Abenephius
          • Akhbar al-zaman
          • Ibrahim ibn Wasif Shah
          • Murtada ibn al-‘Afif
          • Al-Maqrizi on the Pyramids
          • Al-Suyuti on the Pyramids
        • The Hunt for Noah's Ark
        • Byzantine World Chronicle
        • Isidore of Seville
        • Book of Liang: Fusang
        • Agobard on Magonia
        • Book of Thousands
        • Voyage of Saint Brendan
        • Power of Art and of Nature
        • Travels of Sir John Mandeville
        • Yazidi Revelation and Black Book
        • Al-Biruni on the Great Flood
        • Voyage of the Zeno Brothers
        • The Kensington Runestone (Hoax)
        • Islamic Discovery of America
        • The Aztec Creation Myth
      • Lost Civilizations >
        • Atlantis >
          • Plato's Atlantis Dialogues >
            • Timaeus
            • Critias
          • Fragments on Atlantis
          • Panchaea: The Other Atlantis
          • Eumalos on Atlantis (Hoax)
          • Gómara on Atlantis
          • Atlantis as Biblical History
          • Sardinia and Atlantis
          • Atlantis and Nimrod
          • Santorini and Atlantis
          • The Mound Builders and Atlantis
          • Donnelly's Atlantis
          • Atlantis in Morocco
          • Atlantis and Hanno's Periplus
          • Atlantis and the Sea Peoples
          • W. Scott-Elliot >
            • The Story of Atlantis
            • The Lost Lemuria
          • The Lost Atlantis
          • Atlantis in Africa
          • How I Found Atlantis (Hoax)
          • Termier on Atlantis
          • The Critias and Minoan Crete
          • Rebuttal to Termier
          • Further Responses to Termier
          • Flinders Petrie on Atlantis
          • Amazing New Light (Hoax)
        • Lost Cities >
          • Miscellaneous Lost Cities
          • The Seven Cities
          • The Lost City of Paititi
          • Manuscript 512
          • The Idolatrous City of Iximaya (Hoax)
          • The 1885 Moberly Lost City Hoax
          • The Elephants of Paredon (Hoax)
        • OOPARTs
        • Oronteus Finaeus Antarctica Map
        • Caucasians in Panama
        • Jefferson's Excavation
        • Fictitious Discoveries in America
        • Against Diffusionism
        • Tunnels Under Peru
        • The Parahyba Inscription (Hoax)
        • Mound Builders
        • Gunung Padang
        • Tales of Enchanted Islands
        • The 1907 Ancient World Map Hoax
        • The 1909 Grand Canyon Hoax
        • The Interglacial Period
        • Solving Oak Island
      • Religious Conspiracies >
        • Pantera, Father of Jesus?
        • Toledot Yeshu
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        • Rosslyn Chapel and the 'Prentice's Pillar
        • The Many Wives of Jesus
        • Templar Infiltration of Labor
        • Louis Martin & the Holy Bloodline
        • The Life of St. Issa (Hoax)
        • On the Person of Jesus Christ
      • Giants in the Earth >
        • Fossil Origins of Myths >
          • Fossil Teeth and Bones of Elephants
          • Fossil Elephants
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          • Giants' Bones Dug Out of the Earth
          • Fossils and the Supernatural
          • Fossils, Myth, and Pseudo-History
          • Man During the Stone Age
          • Fossil Bones and Giants
          • Mastodon, Mammoth, and Man
          • American Elephant Myths
          • The Mammoth and the Flood
          • Fossils and Myth
          • Fossil Origin of the Cyclops
          • History of Paleontology
        • Fragments on Giants
        • Manichaean Book of Giants
        • Geoffrey on British Giants
        • Alfonso X's Hermetic History of Giants
        • Boccaccio and the Fossil 'Giant'
        • Book of Howth
        • Purchas His Pilgrimage
        • Edmond Temple's 1827 Giant Investigation
        • The Giants of Sardinia
        • Giants and the Sons of God
        • The Magnetism of Evil
        • Tertiary Giants
        • Smithsonian Giant Reports
        • Early American Giants
        • The Giant of Coahuila
        • Jewish Encyclopedia on Giants
        • Index of Giants
        • Newspaper Accounts of Giants
        • Lanier's A Book of Giants
      • Science and History >
        • Halley on Noah's Comet
        • The Newport Tower
        • Iron: The Stone from Heaven
        • Ararat and the Ark
        • Pyramid Facts and Fancies
        • Argonauts before Homer
        • The Deluge
        • Crown Prince Rudolf on the Pyramids
        • Old Mythology in New Apparel
        • Blavatsky on Dinosaurs
        • Teddy Roosevelt on Bigfoot
        • Devil Worship in France
        • Maspero's Review of Akhbar al-zaman
        • The Holy Grail as Lucifer's Crown Jewel
        • The Mutinous Sea
        • The Rock Wall of Rockwall
        • Fabulous Zoology
        • The Origins of Talos
        • Mexican Mythology
        • Chinese Pyramids
        • Maqrizi's Names of the Pharaohs
      • Extreme History >
        • Roman Empire Hoax
        • America Known to the Ancients
        • American Antiquities
        • American Cataclysms
        • England, the Remnant of Judah
        • Historical Chronology of the Mexicans
        • Maspero on the Predynastic Sphinx
        • Vestiges of the Mayas
        • Ragnarok: The Age of Fire and Gravel
        • Origins of the Egyptian People
        • The Secret Doctrine >
          • Volume 1: Cosmogenesis
          • Volume 2: Anthropogenesis
        • Phoenicians in America
        • The Electric Ark
        • Traces of European Influence
        • Prince Henry Sinclair
        • Pyramid Prophecies
        • Templars of Ancient Mexico
        • Chronology and the "Riddle of the Sphinx"
        • The Faith of Ancient Egypt
        • Remarkable Discoveries Within the Sphinx (Hoax)
        • Spirit of the Hour in Archaeology
        • Book of the Damned
        • Great Pyramid As Noah's Ark
        • The Shaver Mystery >
          • Lovecraft and the Deros
          • Richard Shaver's Proofs
    • Alien Encounters >
      • US Government Ancient Astronaut Files >
        • Fortean Society and Columbus
        • Inquiry into Shaver and Palmer
        • The Skyfort Document
        • Whirling Wheels
        • Denver Ancient Astronaut Lecture
        • Soviet Search for Lemuria
        • Visitors from Outer Space
        • Unidentified Flying Objects (Abstract)
        • "Flying Saucers"? They're a Myth
        • UFO Hypothesis Survival Questions
        • Air Force Academy UFO Textbook
        • The Condon Report on Ancient Astronauts
        • Atlantis Discovery Telegrams
        • Ancient Astronaut Society Telegram
        • Noah's Ark Cables
        • The Von Daniken Letter
        • CIA Psychic Probe of Ancient Mars
        • CIA Search for the Ark of the Covenant
        • Scott Wolter Lawsuit
        • UFOs in Ancient China
        • CIA Report on Noah's Ark
        • CIA Noah's Ark Memos
        • Congressional Ancient Aliens Testimony
        • Ancient Astronaut and Nibiru Email
        • Congressional Ancient Mars Hearing
        • House UFO Hearing
      • Ancient Extraterrestrials >
        • Premodern UFO Sightings
        • The Moon Hoax
        • Inhabitants of Other Planets
        • The Fall of the Sky
        • Blavatsky on Ancient Astronauts
        • The Stanzas of Dzyan (Hoax)
        • Aerolites and Religion
        • What Is Theosophy?
        • Plane of Ether
        • The Adepts from Venus
      • A Message from Mars
      • Saucer Mystery Solved?
      • Orville Wright on UFOs
      • Interdimensional Flying Saucers
      • Poltergeist UFOs
      • Flying Saucers Are Real
      • Report on UFOs
    • The Supernatural >
      • The Devils of Loudun
      • Sublime and Beautiful
      • Voltaire on Vampires
      • Demonology and Witchcraft
      • Thaumaturgia
      • Bulgarian Vampires
      • Religion and Evolution
      • Transylvanian Superstitions
      • Defining a Zombie
      • Dread of the Supernatural
      • Vampires
      • Werewolves and Vampires and Ghouls
      • Science and Fairy Stories
      • The Cursed Car
    • Classic Fiction >
      • Lucian's True History
      • Some Words with a Mummy
      • The Coming Race
      • King Solomon's Mines
      • An Inhabitant of Carcosa
      • The Xipéhuz
      • Lot No. 249
      • The Novel of the Black Seal
      • The Island of Doctor Moreau
      • Pharaoh's Curse
      • Edison's Conquest of Mars
      • The Lost Continent
      • Count Magnus
      • The Mysterious Stranger
      • The Wendigo
      • Sredni Vashtar
      • The Lost World
      • The Red One
      • H. P. Lovecraft >
        • Dagon
        • The Call of Cthulhu
        • History of the Necronomicon
        • At the Mountains of Madness
        • Lovecraft's Library in 1932
      • The Skeptical Poltergeist
      • The Corpse on the Grating
      • The Second Satellite
      • Queen of the Black Coast
      • A Martian Odyssey
    • Classic Genre Movies
    • Miscellaneous Documents >
      • The Balloon-Hoax
      • A Problem in Greek Ethics
      • The Migration of Symbols
      • The Gospel of Intensity
      • De Profundis
      • The Life and Death of Crown Prince Rudolf
      • The Bathtub Hoax
      • Crown Prince Rudolf's Letters
      • Position of Viking Women
      • Employment of Homosexuals
    • Free Classic Pseudohistory eBooks
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