The Legend of Bigfoot. T. S. Mart
While different field research organizations continue to endorse a biological description of Bigfoot, others believe the absence of a body might indicate a spiritual being, a forest demon. People are seeing something. Is it possible a demon would embody Bigfoot to terrorize people, play mind games, or entice men and women to compromise values and morality in a quest for something outside their reach?
Is pursuing Bigfoot a faithful quest or one riddled with selfish desires, threatening to steal a bit of humankind’s soul? Each person speaks for him- or herself and the motivations that drive him or her in the quest to discover the unknown, but as we’ll see in later chapters, money, fame, and fortune have driven much of the Bigfoot-seeking culture. Discovering Big-foot can become an all-consuming quest to find or prove the truth. What if the truth is something entirely different? Are people being led down a dark path of deception away from truth? In his book Operation Trojan Horse, John Keel wrote, “Demonology is not just another crackpot-ology. It is the ancient and scholarly study of the monster and demons who have seemingly coexisted with man throughout history. Thousands of books have been written on the subject.… The manifestations and occurrences described in this imposing literature are similar, if not entirely identical, to the UFO phenomenon itself.… The devil and his demons can, according to literature, manifest themselves in almost any form and can physically imitate anything from angels to horrifying monsters with glowing eyes.”
BIGFOOT AS A MONSTER
Monsters are scary. Fascinating. Fun. Millions of people enter haunted houses and watch horror movies to encounter these creatures. Why? What makes a person want to see (from a safe zone) a monster terrorizing innocent people? Is there something wrong with humans, or is it natural to crave this excitement? As we explore our reasons for inventing monsters, we’ll examine how Bigfoot fits into the monster world and if that’s where he belongs.
Various definitions for monster have these descriptors in common: frightening, destructive, strange, disgusting, crafty, killer, cruel, repulsive, and man-made. They’re also described as operating outside morality, violating the laws of nature, and—interestingly enough—having a literary and cultural heritage.
The common denominator in each of these descriptors, except the last, is fear. Fear is the unpleasant emotion caused by … those things listed in the previous paragraph. But why? Why do we fear these things? Our perspective and level of fear are rooted in our personal experiences and how those experiences have affected our mind, body, and soul.
As we look at these three areas and think about Bigfoot, we’ll examine whether this creature is a monster and whether firsthand encounters could be the psyche’s manipulation of a frightening situation.
The Body—Physical Reactions to Fear
The film The Legend of Boggy Creek came out in 1972 and is categorized as a drama, horror, and mystery. With mild violence and gore, it has severely intense and frightening scenes. The low-budget film was a success (read more in chapter 4: “Bigfoot Culture”). Scary, ferocious Bigfoot films exist in abundance. At the writing of this book, there are twelve pages of Bigfoot horror films on Amazon. Why do so many people love horror in movies and literature and during Halloween?
In movies and literature, writers strive to give the viewer or reader a visceral experience. It’s what keeps you watching or reading. The way they tell the story through a point-of-view character allows you to experience the unfolding events alongside the protagonist. You get to be victorious over the monster, or you get to be the monster. What is it about the human condition that desires this entertainment?
The physical reasons we entertain the company of a monster are straightforward. It’s fun, and the adrenaline rush leaves us feeling good after the event is over. It’s biochemical. We get to laugh ourselves silly in a haunted house or sit in a theater hanging between the desire to watch a gruesome scene unfold or bolt for the exit. Fight or flight.
How about the real people who encountered the Fouke Monster in The Legend of Boggy Creek? They weren’t laughing. When the gruesome, hairy creature chased them into the house and threatened their lives, the fear was real. It’s not likely that the individuals who experience such horrific events enjoy horror films. Our experiences shape our fears.
If you were a five-year-old scared out of your wits while watching Halloween during a storm with a strange babysitter who threatened to call Michael Myers if you didn’t sleep, then you might attach a stronger feeling of fear to horror films. This could carry over into adulthood.
Conversely, if you tour a haunted house with a group of friends and have the time of your life despite the terrorizing efforts of monsters, you are likely to associate haunted houses with fond memories. Dr. Glen Sparks of the Brian Lam School of Communication at Purdue University explains this as the “excitation transfer process.” Adrenaline intensifies the emotions we attach to specific events. For some, “negative emotions are resistant to being extinguished,” and high levels of fright should be avoided.
Perceiving Bigfoot as a monster may depend on how a person has learned to experience frightening situations.
The Mind—Emotional and Mental Reactions to Fear
Could there be a place deep in our psyche that fears such monsters and, as a result, manipulates signals as they travel from our optic nerves to the brain’s visual cortex, causing shadows to twist into fearful beings who lurk behind trees and rocks? Could he be the monster under our bed, a subliminal function of our psyche that represents deep-seated fears?
The emotional response to fear is highly personalized. Because fear involves some of the same chemical responses in our brains as positive emotions such as happiness and excitement, feeling fear under certain circumstances can have lasting effects unless addressed.
Could this be why there are so many Bigfoot horror films that paint Bigfoot as a bloodthirsty monster? When Bigfoot is categorized in this way, it affords viewers a sense of control and makes the possibility of the creature’s existence seem less real. Or could it be the opposite? Movies about Bigfoot are the resources we use to learn about him, and what we feed our mind becomes our reality.
Typhon, the father of all monsters.
The Soul—Spiritual and Intellectual Reactions to Fear
Why are monster origins found in literature? Why did people write about these figures? We’ll go into more depth on the origin of monsters in the “History and Legends” chapter of this book, but for now, let’s dwell on the notion that people often teach and learn better when thoughts and ideas use parables or story form. Creative people best express themselves through their art. For storytellers, the written word anchors a story in time. Thus, many monsters found their way to the page when early school ars wanted to teach, share a message, or entertain a thought. Monsters were the perfect representation of evil.
Our nature is to live our lives with an element of monster lurking about. Around the time Homer and Hesiod were recording gruesome stories about Cyclops, the Chimera, and Typhon, the Prophet Isaiah was writing about what many believe to be a real monster who’d been roaming the earth since the beginning of time. The Bible and Torah tell the story of Satan as a serpent tempting Adam and Eve. In the Koran, Iblis is a jinn or genie but acts as the same evil predator. In each case, an angel fell from God’s grace and took the form of a monster to deceive humankind. His intent—to kill and destroy. “Now the serpent was more subtil than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made” (Genesis 3:1, KJV). This devilish monster influenced the early writings of Dante’s Inferno (AD 1320) and John Milton’s Paradise Lost (AD 1667).
Over time, imaginations broadened, and the monster world grew. What better way to express these beliefs than through figments of our imagination? Every culture has its own monster that stands out to represent societal fears and unfulfilled desires. Does Bigfoot represent that for America?
OTHER
Other interpretations of Bigfoot suggest a humanoid ape, a missing