extraordinary%20encounters

animals go, it does not have human, much less
superhuman, intelligence. T h e re are, howe ve r,
individuals who claim contacteelike dealings
with Sasquatch, which they describe as highly
e vo l ved beings with extraord i n a ry mental
p owe r s .
Southern California psychic Joyce Pa rt i s e ,
holding a sealed envelope containing a photograph
of an alleged Sasquatch footprint,
d e c l a red that “t h e re’s a civilization of thous
a n d s” of “gorilla men” who live underg
round and are “able to communicate with
those in outer space” (Slate, 1976). So m e
witnesses assert that when they tried to take
photographs or collect other direct evidence
of their Sasquatch sightings, the cre a t u re s
used a kind of hypnosis to pre vent them
f rom acting.
Sasquatch 219
A photograph of the track of a huge animal, seen by Mount Everest climbers and said to be made by the Abominable
Snowman, 1958. Similar creatures, generally called Bigfoot or Sasquatch, are often reported in the forests of the Pacific
Northwest of the United States and Canada’s far west. (Bettmann/Corbis)
Still others say they have re c e i ved detailed
p s ychic messages, often consisting of spiritual
and ecological material. The Sa s q u a t c h
may appear, at least initially, as no more
than a pair of glowing eyes or a ball of light
that can enter anywhere, even into closed
houses and bedrooms. They can also change
shapes. In a handful of cases, UFO witnesses
say they have seen apelike cre a t u res during
close encounters, and a small number of abduction
incidents recount onboard interactions
with Sasquatch cre a t u res, seen in the
company of (re l a t i vely) more conve n t i o n a l
h u m a n o i d s .
See Also: Abductions by UFOs; Contactees
Further Reading
Chorvinsky, Mark, 1994. “Our Strange World.” Fate
47, 10 (October): 22–24.