Tales and sightings of skinwalkers

Magical Realist

Magical Realist

Valued Senior Member
A relatively new supernatural beast is becoming more popular these days due to reality shows aired on The History Channel about the Skinwalker Ranch. Skinwalkers are legendary creatures of Navajo lore that can take the shape of animals like coyotes and enjoy mutilating cattle. In their natural form they appear as lanky 9 foot tall humanoid figures with yellow/reddish glowing eyes and can move very fast. Here's an article about several encounters with these entities:


"The legend of the shapeshifting entity known as the Skinwalker has largely been dismissed as a hoax. After all, it is difficult to believe that a humanoid figure has been transforming into a four-legged animal and terrorizing families in the American Southwest for decades, if not longer.

But while there’s no scientific proof, the Navajo Skinwalker does have deep roots in Native American lore.

Skinwalker

According to Navajo lore, the Skinwalker is a shapeshifter that can appear in any number of terrifying forms.

As for the rest of America, it got its first real taste of the Navajo legend in 1996. A newspaper story chronicled a Utah family’s traumatizing experience with the supposed creature that included cattle mutilations and disappearances, UFO sightings, and the appearance of crop circles.

But the family’s most distressing encounter with the fabled Skinwalker occurred one night just 18 months after moving onto the ranch. Terry Sherman, the father of the family, was walking his dogs around the ranch late at night when he encountered a wolf.

But this was no ordinary wolf. It was perhaps three times bigger than a normal one, had glowing red eyes, and stood unfazed by three close-range shots Sherman blasted into its hide."
 
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Started watching "The Secret of Skinwalker Rancher" on the History Channel. So far it is very intriguing. It is a reality series documenting a team of scientists paid by the ranch owner to do research on the Skinwalker Ranch in Utah which has been the scene for many strange phenomena over the years--cattle mutilations, ufos, strange beams of IR light emitted from the land, paranormal sightings, high energy transient microwave fields and RF emitted from a point a mile above the ranch, etc. In one episode all five researchers witnessed 2 silver ufos appear over the ranch and then just vanish. There's 70 episodes available to stream, so there's plenty more to discover here.

 
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Kooks on the hunt. The sharp observer will note the somewhat successfully hidden abashed expression on the show's presenters. "God, I'll never be taken seriously again!"
 
This investigation is a good demonstration of how real science can experiment with and analyze anomalous phenomena. Every experiment they do leads them further down the rabbit hole though, forcing questions we may not be comfortable asking. It is refreshing to see these phenomena approached by scientists in a respectful spirit of open mindedness and curiosity rather than the dogmatic skeptical approach of just trying to debunk it all.
 
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Practically everything that can be discovered has been discovered by science. Seems they would appreciate a new and unexplained phenomenon to sink their scalpels into,
 
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From the wiki of Skinwalker ranch:

Skeptical author Robert Sheaffer believes the phenomenon at Skinwalker to be "almost certainly illusory", given that NIDsci found no proof after several years of monitoring, and that the previous owners of the property, who had lived there for 60 years, say that no supernatural events of any kind had happened there. Sheaffer considers the "parsimonious explanation" to be that the Sherman family invented the story "prior to selling it to the gullible Bigelow", with many of the more extraordinary claims originating solely from Terry Sherman, who worked as a caretaker after the ranch was sold to Bigelow.

In 1996, skeptic James Randi awarded Bigelow a tongue-in-cheek Pigasus Award for funding the purchase of the ranch and for supporting John E. Mack's and Budd Hopkins' investigations. The award category designated Bigelow as "the funding organization that supported the most useless study of a supernatural, paranormal or occult [claim]".

In 2023, ufologist Barry Greenwood, writing in the Journal of Scientific Exploration, criticized the $22 million research program led by James Lacatski. He emphasized the lack of any documentary evidence from the ranch after many decades of exploration and characterized Skinwalker as "always in the business of selling belief and hope".[14]
 
Aside from the the predictable debunkery from career skeptics who haven't even been there, we have this unprecedented investigation by scientific experts going on for several years now turning up all sorts of strange phenomena. Bizarre microwave/EMF/magnetic energy readings detected with high tech instruments, orbs of light/ ufo sightings, cattle mutilations, paranormal activity in the homesteads, ambient temperature anomalies, electronic gadgets going haywire, adverse bodily effects on the researchers, etc. It appears the standard skeptic debunk of a mere legend fabricated to sell the land isn't true at all. Anomalous phenomena have been recorded going on long before the Shermans ever took over the ranch. And it is continuing. I encourage anyone who is really interested in learning about this to watch the series. The evidence is simply impossible to deny.

"Of course, one of the main points that skeptics will make about Skinwalker is that most of the evidence for paranormal activity on the ranch comes from the Shermans, who sold the ranch to a millionaire known for his interest in UFO research. Could they have faked cow mutilations and invented tales of wolf men to entice Bigelow or another buyer?

It’s an interesting theory, however, the Shermans didn’t exactly milk Bigelow for all he was worth. They sold the ranch for around $200,000, which was an average price for a home in that day, and certainly a low one for a 500-acre ranch. Their behavior seems less in line with people trying to turn a profit, and more like folks who were trying to get the heck out of dodge.

So what did Bigelow and NIDSci find? Well, if they found any definitive, world-changing evidence of UFOs or alien life, they kept it to themselves. What they did find — that we know of — was much the same as the Shermans. NIDSCi researchers have shared stories of mysterious creatures with otherworldly eyes that shone through the dark. They also found cattle mutilations, including one that occurred in broad daylight, less than an hour after they had seen the cow alive and healthy. This was also noteworthy because there was a complete lack of blood surrounding the cow, even though it had been almost completely disemboweled.

NIDSci’s stories definitely add to the mystery of Skinwalker, but with years of research and millions in funding, you might expect something more. Well, their lack of evidence could serve as evidence itself. On many occasions, their expensive audio and visual equipment failed to capture what several eyewitnesses had clearly seen, from large mysterious animals to flying orbs in the sky.

NIDSci disbanded in 2004, but maintained ownership of the property until 2016. When Skinwalker finally did change hands, it was passed off to a group that would experience a lot of the same anomalies (and frustrations) as NIDSci.

Brandon Fugal and the History Channel​

In 2016, Bigelow sold the ranch to a buyer who wished to remain anonymous … for a whopping four years. Brandon Fugal, a Utah real estate mogul, announced in 2020 that he was the mysterious owner, and that the History Channel would be recording a reality TV show on the property titled “The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch.”

The show portrays Fugal’s attempts to bring scientific approaches to the mysteries surrounding the ranch. Surrounded by a team of experts in a range of scientific disciplines (as well as a guy named Dragon), Fugal seeks answers to the questions that he and countless others have asked over the years. If it sounds a lot lok NIDSCi, that’s because it is — reality TV just wasn’t as popular in 1996.

Like so many investigators before them, the current occupants of Skinwalker Ranch have found more questions than answers. Why does electronic equipment seem to malfunction on the ranch? Why have so many occupants reported unexplained illnesses? Why does the indescribable feeling of strangeness they feel on the ranch seem to follow them home? Why is there a grown man named Dragon? Did he give himself that nickname? Does he make his friends call him Dragon all the time? The search for answers continues.

Other Local Tales​

The inhabitants of Skinwalker Ranch may have reported slightly different stories over the years, but they have a few things in common that are hard to shake. Most notable is the strong conviction that what they’re seeing is the real deal. And it’s a conviction shared by many in the area.

Since the 1950s, there have been hundreds of reports of UFOs and unexplained phenomena in the Uinta Basin, and not just at Skinwalker. Neighbors of the ranch report seeing various types of bright lights in the sky, often appearing as a shape that looks like a doorway or portal. Others report giant flying objects.

Cattle mutilations are common too; some neighbors have reported seeing cows that appeared to have been struck by lightning with no sign of scorched earth to be found. One group shared a story of trying to spot UFOs one night, only to return to find that their car had been moved without a trace of tire tracks in the desert sand. "--- https://www.utah.com/articles/post/what-is-skinwalker-ranch-and-whats-really-going-on-there/
 
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Gawdzilla Sama said:
Problem there is the lack of testability. Fictional critters aren't testable.
Click to expand...
Every experiment they perform, from lidar measurements to emf measurements to ground penetrating radar to FLIR temperature readings to vector magnetometer readings, is testing and coming up with reliable data. The phenomenon is consistent enough that it can be tested and predicted. That's what real science produces. Measured reliable data. And so far it has no natural explanation.
 
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