I have been asked many times in the past what I felt on the issue of Hibernation and whether I felt that this may be an explanation for the sharp decrease of reports during the winter months. This short interview was recorded by Jason Cain on a recent winter outing, Sunday January 18, 2015 and expresses my own views on the subject.
Thomas Steenburg
We are flooded with claims of encounters today which sound too incredible to be true. With the internet making it so easy for the tellers of wild yarns to make false claims so readily available to a ever increasing numbers of the gullible, so-called researchers are more interested in attention than whether or not such a creature exists.
“IVAN MARKS SYNDROME”. To the public in general it must seem that the community of Sasquatch research more resembles an Asylum being run by the inmates! And this tragic situation seems to be getting worse rather than better. In this mess, what advice can an old timer like me give to a young guy or girl who really wants to become involved with doing their own research? How does one advise how to avoid the BS?
Well, you can’t. All honest researchers have to learn how to spot this stuff on their own. The best way to do this is when you are investigating a claim from a witness or on going claims from other researchers, take in all the information you can, stand back and turn your common sense switch. View everything with a healthy dose of skepticism. Skepticism is the best quality a researcher can have. After all, we are researchers trying to find an answer to a mystery; we are not some kind of religious leaders trying to push a faith.
Thomas Steenburg
It seems to me that over the last 15 years or so a plague of sorts has been gaining continuous ground in the field of Sasquatch research. A problem, only magnified by the wide spread use of the internet (great tool though it is). One large, unfortunate side effect is it has become an easy to use soap box for every snake oil salesman out there.
Hoaxing, as far as this researcher is concerned, has reached epidemic proportions. It seems to me that people, for whatever motive they may have in private, have no reluctance at all to state publicly that they have had, or continue to have, one or numerous Sasquatch encounters. Too incredible to believe? Most often the case comes down to, “Take my word for it”, as no supporting evidence is forthcoming. Or said evidence is there but, for one reason or another, it can not be revealed at this time?
Media programs like ‘Finding Bigfoot’, are often targets to those looking for their 15 minutes of fame. Young guys submitting all kinds of bogus evidence with outrageous stories hoping just to see themselves on the tube, while having a laugh with their friends. The general public has lost the usual shyness, and reluctance, of making bogus claims as there really is no consequences for what is, to their minds, nothing more than a good joke; spinning a yarn; or no worse than faking a haunted house for Halloween.
This is a growing problem and getting worse but it pales in comparison to something much worse: The Hoaxing Researcher. There has always really been one golden rule in the world of Sasquatch research, right from the beginning: “THOU SHALT NOT HOAX’. Unfortunately, from the beginning there always have been researchers in this field faking evidence. However, back then, we all basically knew who they were and their motives for their actions. The late Ivan Marks was the first example of this behavior that I personally ever knew. His motive pure and simple: Attention-seeking fame. In fact, I have seen this motive in others so often now, I have given it a name in honor of the original model: ‘IVAN MARKS SYNDROME’.
Quite often the scenario is the same, the person has become involved in a event which at first might be legit. The person finds him or herself the center of attention for a period of time but as interest dies down, their own interest does not. They then undertake their own research and become engrossed in the whole question, as so many of us have. Sometimes, it is the rush of being the center of attention which some find irresistible; so they start making things happen to keep the media, as well as others, interested in their activities. The attention becomes the main focus of their activities rather than the question of the existence of the Sasquatch.
This is excluding, of course, the people who are just absorbed in some spaced-out faith which they are convinced must be reality: for lack of a better term, the paranormalists. All of these individuals, of course, only serve to make the subject as a whole appear foolish in the eyes of science and academia. Is it any wonder the majority won’t touch this mystery with a ten foot pole? I don’t blame them. We, as researchers, may have to endure the college hoaxer/ huckster when they come out of the woodwork, but there is no way we have to tolerate them. If I come across a case of ongoing hoaxing (which I have on a number of occasions), I will expose it for what it is. Let the chips fall where they may.
And I will close this post with a piece of advice: Anytime someone comes out of the woodwork with incredible claims of evidence for the existence of the Sasquatch, but for some reason the evidence can not be revealed at the present time, it’s BULL SHIT!
Thomas Steenburg
A researcher can never be ready to record images and video footage 24/7 unless you are able to employ one of those continuous recording devices now available on the market. But even then, it seems more often or not the researcher was looking the wrong way at the key moment. Or the camera failed to record, or it was over too fast to get a good clear image.
All these scenarios are conceivable for the one time so far in my 37 years of searching I might have seen a Sasquatch at extreme distance. There wasn’t time to bring my Land Rover to a stop, let alone take aim with a camera and start shooting. We also should remember that the researcher is a human being, with the same human traits. He or she encounters something incredible, and he hesitates. By the time he recovers to think about aiming and shooting, it’s most often too late.
So it seems that getting good clear footage of a Sasquatch is a long shot at best but we all still hope that someone out there, whether searching or just a witness out to enjoy nature, will come across a Sasquatch and get that nice clear photo or that incredible bit of video footage that has not happened since 1967. (Hoaxers need not apply). But I, like all of you, still try. And we still hope.
Thomas Steenburg
As a quick first post on this new blog, I will just simply start things off with posting my opinion as to what this species is; assuming of course the creature actually exists. I started looking into this matter in September of 1978 and since that time the world of Sasquatch research has grown and transformed into a little bit of everything for everybody. Researchers from all walks of life have entered this mystery with every type of preconceived notion the human imagination can possibly contrive. All this to the detriment of the subjects credibility to those in society whom would or could influence the direction of on-going research, thus stacking the odds against a discovery in the near future. Assuming of course there is anything out there to discover?
With this in mind, I very early in my own personal research adopted a personal motto. ‘Stick to the facts, and never deviate from the facts‘. By doing this I discard, for the most part, claims of a paranormal nature. The Sasquatch, in my opinion, is a species of higher primate. A creature of flesh and blood. They have been here for thousands of years and will continue to do so. As long as large areas of wilderness continue to exist in western North America I can see no problem with this creatures ability to survive.
Some have claimed that the Sasquatch is an endangered species. I think those who make such claims are acting on emotion rather than any common sense study of the facts. They are thinking with the heart not the head. This creature has displayed an amassing ability to live and breed and exist on the very edge of our modern society. Their elusive nature is what makes the species a success story of survivability and a great ongoing mystery for society in general.
Thomas Steenburg