The Children of Agni

Now, based from the Book "Hunt for the Skinwalker", states this on Chapter "High Strangness":

"Winter had set in and the temperatures dropped precipitously. Thirty or forty below was not unusual for this time of the year in northeastern Utah. This was very different from the mild winters in New Mexico the family had left behind, but they did not regret their move. At least, not yet."

"Tom had taken to spending a lot of time out at night trying to get a handle on the weirdness on his property, which had really begun to escalate once he brought his cattle onto the acreage. Every night, Gorman crept like a ghostly wraith around the land, trying to catch the intruders in a better light. He was getting nowhere fast. They seemed to have very good antennae. He could see them only in the distance, never up close."

"At the end of one fruitless night, the hard-packed snow crunched underfoot as he walked slowly back from the western part of the ranch. It was probably thirty below and Tom wanted to call it a night. He was freezing cold. As he trudged home, to his north lay the snow-covered slope of the bluff, and the postblizzard freshness bathed everything in an eerie pale light."

"A slight movement out of the corner of his eye caught Tom’s attention. He turned toward the ridge and his jaw slackened. Starkly outlined against the snow-covered ridge was an aircraft that seemed to have just appeared out of nowhere. It was about thirty or forty feet long, and it reminded Gorman of a snub-nosed, smaller hybrid version of the F-117 and the B-2. But it was completely silent. There was no wind, and the stillness was uncanny."

"The aircraft was no more than twenty feet off the ground and, as it moved slightly toward him, a recurring pattern of tiny multicolored lights danced their way across the snow. The lights were obviously coming from the aircraft, but Tom couldn’t make out how they were being projected onto the snow."

"The total silence and barely perceptible movement of the object convinced Tom that there was no way he would have seen it if it hadn’t been so plainly silhouetted against the white snow. Its jet-black color and the noiseless slow motion combined to give him the impression that it was defying gravity. Tom crouched in the snow to avoid being seen. It was moving slowly along the ridge and seemed to be quartering the ground as if looking for something. Its tiny “disco” lights traced their silent pattern in the snow as the object slowly turned at the end of the ridge and then resumed its journey over the snow, searching for God knows what."

"It was a slow, methodical search, but for what? The outline of the object, less than a hundred yards away, gave Toma good view of its short, matte-black wings. It was definitely like a small version of the F-117 “stealth fighter.” The odd angled design seemed quite similar. But Tom knew that the F-117 was extremely noisy."

"As Tom stretched his aching, freezing body, his bones cracked in the still air. Instantly, the disco lights turned off and the object turned toward him It hovered silently less than a hundred yards away and only fifteen or twenty feet off the ground. Tom held his breath."

"The object moved silently away from him without ever increasing its speed and then disappeared into the gloomy night beyond the ridge. Tom heaved a sigh of relief and awkwardly got to his knees in the snow. He looked back several times at the area near the ridge where he had last seen the silent black phantom."

"What was this advanced technology? he wondered. Who owned it? And what on earth was it doing there on a ranch in Utah? Gorman silently let himself into the homestead where his family slept and gratefully embraced the warmth. Several weeks later, Ellen was driving their battered old Chevette home from work when another incident occurred. It was about six o’clock in the evening. Tom was out of town for a couple of days."

"The kids were staying with friends and she was not looking forward to spending the night alone on this property. She had jumped back into the car after closing the entrance gate behind her when she noticed a black shadow moving slowly over the car. It was like a dark cloud, but the night was clear. Looking up, she gasped as she saw a large black, triangular object moving slowly and apparently pacing her car as she drove it slowly along the rutted dirt track toward the homestead."

"She was deathly frightened. The triangular aircraft made no noise as it flew no more than twenty or thirty feet above her car. She could see it out her front windshield and she could see the stubby matte-black wings as she looked out the car’s side windows. She saw tiny multicolored red, green, blue, and yellow lights on the ground on both sides of her as she stepped on the gas."

"The thing kept pace with her for the short quarter-mile drive, and when she pulled into her driveway, the black triangle continued west over the house until she lost sight of it in the gloomy night. She was now badly frightened. She remembered her husband’s description of the silent, stealth shaped-fighter object silhouetted against the snow and she figured the thing was back. She called her husband in his hotel room. He managed to calm her down."

"An hour later, she had eaten a quick solitary meal and was washing the dishes. As she looked west out into the dark night, she was startled to see what looked like a large RV parked in the pasture, no more than two hundred yards from her window. The interior of the RV was brightly lit and she could see what looked like a desk inside."

"Idly, she wondered what on earth an RV was doing trespassing on their property. More to the point, how could it have made it onto the property? After all, there was only one entrance to the ranch and that was right past her home. Then, a black-colored figure moved into view and sat behind the desk. Her sharp eyesight made out what appeared to be a black uniform, including some kind of headgear."

"The figure was just sitting at a desk in the night on her property in the middle of a remote ranch in Utah. How weird. The figure suddenly stood up and went to what appeared to be a light-filled doorway. The size of the figure outlined against the brightly lit interior of the RV gave her the chills. The figure looked huge and probably male. If that was a normal RV doorway, he was maybe seven feet tall."

"And he appeared to be wearing all black clothing, something like a black visor over his face, and knee-high boots. Suddenly, it occurred to her that the bizarre black triangle she had seen and this threatening black colored silhouetted form might be connected. The figure seemed to be looking out the brightly lit doorway and staring directly at her. She could feel his cold gaze. Quickly, she closed the window drapes and hurriedly called her husband. She wanted him back as quickly as possible."

"Given the note of high-pitched panic in her voice, Tom decided to return quickly to the ranch. He drove all night and arrived the next morning. Together they walked down to where she had seen the “RV” Both of them saw the huge footprints in the soft mud at the same time. Ellen became almost hysterical. The size of the bootshaped prints shocked Tom. They were almost eighteen inches long. The prints did not resemble those of a military boot, as there were no ribs, just a smooth surface with a prominent rounded heel."

"This event convinced the Gormans not to let their kids out at night. Something that they couldn’t explain was lurking on their property. Ellen used to love walking at night, feeling the wind blowing on her face. That too ended. Henceforth, the Gorman family members were much more cautious. It finally dawned on them that they might be in danger."

Before we get to the 18" footprint, let's see what the Wiki states on the Triangular UFO:

"Black triangles are UFOs reported as having a triangular shape and dark color, typically observed at night, described as large, silent, hovering, moving slowly, and displaying pulsating, colored lights. A declassified report from the UK Ministry of Defence, addressing Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP) within the UK Air Defence Region and code named Project Condign, includes analyses of black triangle sightings."

"The report includes the statement that "the majority, if not all, of the hitherto unexplained reports may well be due to atmospheric gaseous electrically charged buoyant plasmas" that are "capable of being transported at enormous speeds under the influence and balance of electrical charges in the atmosphere."

"The report also notes that "at least some" of the black triangle observations likely arise from meteor entry into the atmosphere. Regarding the triangular shapes, the report also states: "Occasionally ... it seems that a field with, as yet, undetermined characteristics, can exist between certain charged buoyant objects in loose formation, such that, depending on the viewing aspect, the intervening space between them forms an area (viewed as a shape, often triangular) from which the reflection of light does not occur. This is a key finding in the attribution of what have frequently been reported as black 'craft,' often triangular and even up to hundreds of feet in length."

"A recommendation in the report is that no attempt be made on the part of aircraft to intercept or outmaneuver these objects, and instead to place them astern to mitigate the risk of collision. The report also speculates that the hypothesized plasma formations, through their "magnetic, electric or electromagnetic" fields, could have the potential to induce in observers vivid, but mainly incorrect, perceptions."

"1989–1992 - Belgian wave Main article: The Belgian UFO wave began in November 1989. The events of 29 November were documented by over thirty different groups of witnesses, and three separate groups of police officers. All of the reports related a large object flying at low altitude. The craft was of a flat, triangular shape, with lights underneath. This giant craft did not make a sound as it slowly moved across the landscape of Belgium. There was free sharing of information as the Belgian populace tracked this craft as it moved from the town of Liege to the border of the Netherlands and Germany."

"In The Belgian UFO Wave of 1989–1992 – A Neglected Hypothesis, Renaud Leclet & co. discuss the fact that some sightings can be explained by helicopters. Most witnesses reported that the objects were silent. This report argues that the lack of noise could be due to the engine noise in the witnesses' automobiles, or strong natural wind blowing away from the witnesses. Black triangle UFOs have been claimed to be visible to radar."

"During the 1989-1990 Belgian UFO wave, two Belgian Air Force F-16s attempted to intercept an object detected by radar, but the pilots did not report seeing an object. This entire Belgian UFO wave, however, has been disputed by skeptics."

"1997 – Phoenix Lights incident: A widely reported appearance(s) of black triangles involved the "Phoenix Lights" events, during which multiple unidentified objects were observed near Phoenix, Arizona and videotaped by both the local media and residents beginning on Thursday, March 13, 1997. Some of the observed objects/lights appeared to be grouped in a large "V" formation that lingered for several minutes. Some residents reported one of the black triangles to be over a mile wide, and that it drifted slowly over their houses blocking out the stars of the night sky. An official report from the US Air Force concluded that the military had been locally testing aircraft-launched flares during that time period."

"2000 – Southern Illinois incident The "St. Clair Triangle", "UFO Over Illinois", "Southern Illinois UFO", or "Highland, Illinois UFO" sighting occurred on January 5, 2000 over the towns of Highland, Dupo, Lebanon, Shiloh, Summerfield, Millstadt, and O'Fallon, Illinois, beginning shortly after 4:00 am." "The incident was featured in several television shows including Seeing is Believing, a Discovery Channel special UFOs Over Illinois, and an episode of the Syfy series Proof Positive. Sufjan Stevens included this incident in the song "Concerning the UFO Sighting Near Highland, Illinois" from his 2005 album Illinois. Science writer Brian Dunning has reported that the observed object was identified by the FAA as an advertising blimp operated by the American Blimp Company." "2004–2006 – Tinley Park Lights Three red lights hovered in a triangular formation were seen by several witnesses[importance of example(s)?] in Tinley Park and Oak Forest, Illinois, on August 21, 2004, two months later on October 31, 2004, again on October 1, 2005, and once again on October 31, 2006."

"The lights were captured on video by some witnesses. According to some ufologists, the video evidence suggests that the lights kept the geometrical shape and moved as if they were attached to each other through a dark object. The incident was examined in a Dateline NBC episode on May 18, 2008, and in the episode "Invasion Illinois" of the television series UFO Hunters premiered on The History Channel on October 29, 2008."

"Military aircraft According to Popular Mechanics, military aircraft may be responsible for a number of black triangle UFO reports. The TR-3A Black Manta is the name of a speculative surveillance aircraft purported to belong to the United States Air Force and to have been developed under a black project, associated with several reports of sightings of flying triangle aircraft over Antelope Valley, an area of desert in southern California." "This stretch of desert draws people interested in potential "black project" aircraft, because it is close to several known military research and testing areas, such as Edwards Air Force Base in California, and United States Air Force Plant 42. The TR-3A was said to be a subsonic stealth spy plane with a flying wing design. It was alleged to have been used in the Gulf War to provide laser designation for Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk bombers, for targeting to use with laser-guided bombs."

"The TR-3 was claimed to have been manufactured by Northrop. According to Popular Mechanics, there is little evidence to support TR-3's existence, however it speculates that black triangle UFO reports associated with Black Manta could be a technology demonstrator for a potential new-generation tactical reconnaissance aircraft."

"A geographic analysis by the now-inactive National Institute for Discovery Science suggested that black triangles might be U.S. Air Force craft. Geoscientist Ben McGee has identified border patrol drones with infrared anti-collision or identification lights as an explanation of some black triangles."

Now, based from the Book, states that the large humanoid had left a "boot print" 18 inches long. Now, in the lecture from George Knapp, he stated that it was "14" inches (I'll leave that to the Reader). But anyway, there could be a connection to these "Giants", and as well the Cattle Mutilation. Based from the website "strangesounds.org" states this interesting connection: Investigators Baffled By Horrifying Death and Mutilation Of Oregon Cow… Again, Aug 8, 2020:

"Authorities are investigating the death and mutilation of yet another cow — this time, on rangeland near Fossil, Ore. And the culprit may have left a clue: a boot print."

"The black Angus cow was found Thursday dead and mutilated — tongue, genitals and reproductive organs cut out. Her carcass was found upright, front legs tucked underneath, a position investigators say they haven’t seen before. The cause of death is unknown, and authorities told the Capital Press the case is ongoing. “She died in a position she couldn’t have gotten into by herself. I don’t have any kind of logical explanation for it,“ said David Hunt, owner of Hunt Ranch and a partner-producer for Painted Hills Natural Beef Inc."

“There was definitely foul play involved in this animal’s death,” said Deputy Jeremiah Holmes of the Wheeler County Sheriff’s Office. Not first time This isn’t the first time Hunt has lost an animal to mysterious mutilation. Last December, he found a dead bull in the snow with its nose, lips, ears, tongue, tail and genitals removed and blood drained. Deputy Holmes said he worked on that case, too, with no leads."

"Hunt isn’t the only rancher to lose an animal this way. FBI case files record thousands of killings and mutilations of cattle across the U.S. since the 1970s. The animals are usually found with the same body parts missing — and no culprit has ever been arrested. Hunt said he found the cow on July 23rd morning when he visited the pasture, as he does once a week, at a spot about half a mile from the nearest road. He said he immediately called the sheriff’s office. There are actually no videos about the latest case, but listen to this UFO specialist speaking about cattle mutilation in Oregon last year."

"Mysterious death Holmes said it’s hard to tell how the cow died. By the time authorities arrived, the animal had likely been dead a few days, past the window to perform a necropsy. The tongue and genital wounds were “clean-cut,” said Holmes, not by a wild animal. But Hunt noted the wounds weren’t as clean-cut as those of his bull last winter. How the cow died is a mystery. There were no dart punctures, no bullets, no strangulation marks, no rope burns, no tire tracks, no signs of poison. In previous cases, people have speculated culprits may be cult members, satanic worshipers, even aliens."

"But something makes this case unique Deputy Holmes told the Capital Press about 100 yards away from the carcass, officers found a partial boot print. It’s possible it was the rancher’s own print. But Hunt says he hadn’t stepped out of his vehicle in that area for a long time, it didn’t look like his boot and Holmes said wind and rain would likely have covered over the print by now if he had. The print, he said, appears fresh."

“I didn’t say much when my bull died last winter,” said Hunt. “But this time, the cops wanted permission to publicize so maybe people can keep their eyes open. I say: all right, tell anyone you want. It won’t bring back my dead cow, but maybe we’ll catch the killer."

"This mysterious cow mutilation case follows another killing near Condon, Oregon, in March. A Hereford bull was found dead, lying on its side in a remote draw, its sex organs and tongue removed. The rancher who found his animal described cuts so precise no blood was on the bull’s white underbelly."

"Last summer, five bulls were mysteriously slain in Harney County, Oregon, outside of Burns. Although there are many theories ranging from payback, cults or aliens, there have been few leads on the case despite the offer of a $25,000 reward by Silvies Valley Ranch."

(Two interesting notes should be made here. Based from George Knapp's lectures on the "Skinwalker Ranch", he mentions how the family would hear strange voices being made up in the air above them. He states that it would sound like some kind of Russian or Scandanavian language. 

Then the second account is based from Johnathan Dover's "Skinwalker Ranch" lecture, as he mentions a Navajo woman seeing a very large rabbit with antlers and black "eyes")

Then Based from the Chapter "The Weirdness", states this excerpt on the "RV" UFO: "A flash of annoyance hit Tom as he spied the lights of a trespassing RV about half a mile to their west. He had little patience for trespassers who ignored private property and hunted on other people’s land. He had let it go a few times before when he had seen distant lights on his property, but this time he was going to tell these louts off."

"He pointed out the RV to the two teenagers, and the three of them increased their pace. When they were about two hundred yards away, the RV started moving away from them. Tom was momentarily puzzled. How could it have seen them? Perhaps the trespassers had night-vision equipment, Gorman thought to himself. He and the boys broke into an easy j og. He did not want this idiot to start breaking fence lines as the RV tried to escape."

"The headlamp in front and the red light behind were moving very smoothly now. Tom wondered why the vehicle was not bouncing over the ruts. Suddenly the lights from the object seemed to rise a few feet from the ground. Gorman’s brow puckered. “What’s goin’ on?” Tad muttered. They were covering the ground quickly now, trying to catch the RV. They could see that it had gradually increased its pace as it maintained the same distance from them."

"All three were now running, and again they could see the lights moving a few feet off the ground. As they came to one of the fences through their property, it dawned on Gorman what was happening. The thing was somehow lifting itself over the fence lines! It had already gone over a couple with apparent ease. This was when he felt the first chill. How could an RV be climbing over fences? The chase continued and Tom was breathing heavily."

"They had now entered the last pasture before the very end of his property, and that pasture was bound on the western end by a line of Russian olives placed thickly together and right behind a stout five-foot-high barbed-wire fence. Tom grunted with satisfaction as he ran. The bastards were trapped. He still could not hear the vehicle’s engine and he wondered why. They were running hard in the darkness now, and the red taillight of the vehicle was still about two hundred yards in front."

"Tom kept waiting for the object to slow down as it neared the impenetrable barrier that formed the western limit of his property. The boys were about ten yards in front of him and he was gasping for air now. But since they were only moments from catching these intruders, Gorman kept running. He kept glancing down at the rough rutted terrain as he ran, making sure that any obstacles were not going to trip him up. Suddenly a loud gasp from the boys made him look up."

"The RV was now definitely in the air. All three stopped to watch. With the red light on its tail, it climbed smoothly, slowly, and silently toward the top of the tree line. Those trees were more than fifty feet high. As the object crested the tree line, the bewildered trio saw the shape of the vehicle perfectly silhouetted against the horizon."

"It was no RV. The object was roughly oblong, shaped like a large refrigerator, with a headlight in front and a red light behind. All three watched in complete silence as the object slowly disappeared over the trees in the distance. It was flying smoothly and slowly, almost casually. There was no sound. "

"Tom’s breathing was still coming in painful gulps. He felt cold chills running through his body even as he sweated profusely. The boys, still gazing openmouthed, turned to Gorman looking for an explanation. Even from several feet away, he could see that Dave was crying softly in the darkness. The fourteen- year-old was obviously very frightened and was deeply disturbed by something this bizarre."

"Tom knew that his son was made of sterner stuff, but Tad too was waiting for an explanation. “I have no idea,” Tom muttered as he turned away, trying to figure out exactly what had happened. What was really spooky was that they never heard the sound of an engine, even from 150 yards away."

".........A few weeks later, Tom and Ellen were walking out on the trail heading west and enjoying the cool air about an hour after sunset. The trail passed close to the ridge that marked the northern boundary of the Gorman property. The bluff was composed of dried mud and sandstone, and was still noticeably red as darkness intensified. Tonight, there was no sign of rain, and the Gormans chatted quietly as they walked."

"Suddenly a loud metallic sound came from their right, cutting through the nighttime stillness. Startled, they stopped abruptly. Both had acute hearing. A few seconds later, they heard the noise again. It sounded like metal being banged on metal, and it seemed to be coming from about a hundred feet above them in the darkness. Tom was puzzled. What could be making the noise? Ellen clutched his sleeve and silently pointed in front of them."

"Tom saw the bright light about a hundred yards out. It was a vehicle. “Probably some miners lost,” he said, putting two and two together. They felt slight apprehension as they walked toward it. As the couple approached the object, it lifted off the ground, moved about fifty yards away, and slowly settled back to the ground. “It’s that thing Tad and I saw a while back,” Tom muttered to his wife. Slowly they walked in the direction of the bright white beam that stabbed the darkness in front of it."

"They could just make out the refrigerator shape behind the light. And the reddish glow behind the object was familiar to Tom. As they drew nearer, the object again lifted off the ground and glided smoothly away in total silence. Again they tried to gain ground, but each time the object repeated the frustrating maneuver."

"It was clearly watching and reacting to them, trying to keep them at arm’s length. Beneath his nervousness, Tom felt a spark of outrage. Who the hell do they think they are? he thought angrily. In the distance behind them, they both heard the mysterious metallic sound again."

"They turned away from the chase momentarily to try to get a fix on the sound. When they turned back, there was no sign of the light in front of them. The vehicle had either turned off its lights or had vanished. Slowly they walked toward the spot where they had last seen it."

"Nothing stirred in the still night. They passed the spot on the path where it had been, but there were no tracks in the hard-baked mud. They didn’t talk much after that, although they walked the entire length of the ranch to the western boundary. The night appeared to have swallowed the mysterious flying refrigerator."

"Tom knew then for certain that something very unusual was unfolding on the ranch they had purchased just a few months before. It was around this time that the Gorman family first heard the rumors that were circulating in town."

"The scuttlebutt being whispered in local coffee shops and stores acknowledged the legends told by the Utes about the secret history of the Gorman property. In short, the ranch was considered to be off- limits for tribe members. Piece by piece, the Gormans learned that their land was cursed and no Native American would ever set foot on it. Why, the Gormans wondered. Nobody would give them a straight answer."

Then there is a somewhat connection to the creature called "Predator" from the Movie, and a strange cloaked Entity that was encountered. Here on the Chapter "The Orbs" states this:

"By the end of June 1996, stories and rumors had begun circulating about weird events taking place at a remote ranch in northeastern Utah. Tom groaned. It was only a matter of time before the media got involved and the family’s much-prized privacy would be history. One day shortly afterward, as if to co nfi rm their fears, Tom and his son Tad watched a vehicle drive slowly from the entrance gate all the way down to the homestead. As the bouncing vehicle approached, Tom could see a large, blonde haired man at the wheel. Hiding his annoyance, Tom nodded as the stranger dismounted from the vehicle."

"The guy was broad shouldered and over six foot two. It did not take him long to dispose of the pleasantries. The stranger explained that he had learned about the bizarre events on the property “on the grapevine” and had driven a long distance to visit. Tom interrupted to reiterate that this was private property and that neither he nor his family were interested in developing the land as a tourist attraction. The stranger was insistent, even pleading. All he wanted to do, he explained, was to go onto the property and meditate. Tom could see his son grinning to himself, and eventually, half in amusement at the bizarre request, Tom relented."

"The three of them piled into Tom’s diesel truck and headed down into the ranch. After about a mile, the stranger announced that he would like to meditate here, near a small pasture surrounded by trees. The stranger walked into the middle of the open ground, about a hundred yards from the tree line. Tom walked with him a short distance and then stood watching. He glanced back at his still grinning son who had elected to stay by the truck."

"Tom was about thirty yards from the stranger, who had closed his eyes and, in a faintly religious gesture, had spread both his arms out. Tom was amused. Silence reigned and the late afternoon sun cast a beautiful light on the scene, this tall blond man standing silently in the middle of the pasture with his eyes closed and his arms raised, much like the pose struck by saints and angels in religious paintings."

"In the distance Tom heard the sudden chime of a cowbell. He was puzzled. None of his animals had cowbells. The sound seemed to be coming from deep within the trees. There it was again, nearer this time. The stranger seemed not to have heard it. Tad made a gesture of puzzlement. Tom looked at the trees and thought he could see a faint blur. Something was moving very quickly between the trees."

"Tom could not make out the shape, but he knew it was big. Was that the source of the cowbell sound? He watched carefully as the shape moved like a fast blur from tree to tree. It was almost as if it was circling. Tom suddenly felt uneasy. Without warning, something broke from the tree line and moved swiftly toward the meditating man."

"Tom blinked. He still couldn’t see what it was even though it was broad daylight. It was blurred as if it was hidden in the middle of heat distortion, and it was covering ground at enormous speed. Gorman realized that this chimera was making a beeline for the blissful meditator, who was completely unaware of what was rapidly bearing down on him. Tom was about to yell a warning, but it was too late."

"The shimmering wraithlike huge “thing” had stopped just inches from the meditator as it let out a deep-throated animal roar that echoed around the ranch. The roar sounded half like a bear, half like a lion. Tom froze. The stranger leaped back about ten feet and fell down. He began screaming. As fast as it had approached, the shimmering, almost invisible “creature” departed for the tree line at top speed. Tom’s sharp eyes could make out only a blur of dancing, flickering, wavy lines, like pixilated blocks. Within seconds, the creature had vanished into the trees."

"The visitor was on the ground, still screaming hysterically, and Tom hurried over to make sure he had not been injured. Suddenly, the stranger jumped up and threw his arms around Tom, weeping like a baby. He was obviously out of his mind with fear. Tom struggled to extricate himself, but the guy was big and he was possessed of a strength borne of blind panic. He simply would not let go. After a few minutes, Tom said quietly, “If you do not let go, I am going to hit you.”

“I will let go, if you promise to get me to my vehicle,” the stranger babbled. His ruddy face had turned chalk white and it was obvious he felt the fear of God. Slowly, with the man still hanging on to him, Tom made his way to the truck. His son started the engine and Tom, with his cargo of blubbering humanity, climbed into the back seat. The stranger swore that this property was cursed and that he would never set foot on it again. Of that, Tom was thankful."

"They watched as the stranger drove erratically toward the gate. He was driving dangerously fast on the rutted track and Tom hoped he would slow down once he got on the country road. Tad was still shaken. That roar had penetrated to the very core of their being. It was like being shot with a bullet."

"Some time later, as Tom and Tad were watching the moviePredator, in which Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jesse Ventura battle an alien life-form in a jungle in Central America, they let out a loud yell when they first saw the shimmering creature. “That’s what we saw,” they yelled in unison to the astonished family."

"The predator in the movie seemed to exactly encapsulate the degree of camouflage of what they had seen. Tom calculated that the thing they saw was moving at between fifty and sixty miles per hour when it broke cover from the trees. Again Tom wondered if his ranch had become a testing ground for advanced military equipment. Now suddenly the list had expanded beyond high-tech aircraft and surgical derring-do to advanced camouflage technology."

"But why would some kind of super tech advanced vehicle emit a roar? Was it possible that a creature could have advanced camouflage capabilities? Like a chameleon taken to the next level? Tom refused to dwell too deeply on what that creature might do if it decided to harm his family. He already knew what the creature was capable of."

Now, based from the Chapter "The Bulls" states this excerpt on an invincible Entity:

"As we unpacked the instruments we had brought with us, Tom began relating the second incident that had happened only a few hours earlier. Tom and Ellen had gone to the west end of the property to check on the herd that was grazing. After the inexplicable incident the previous day in which their bulls had briefly disappeared, they were on the lookout for anything unusual."

"All seemed quiet as they parked their truck in the pasture. They watched dozens of well cared for animals grazing nearby. Fifty yards away, one of the cows wandered casually toward a bright blue salt lick that lay between two straight lines of poplar trees that jutted a hundred feet into the air."

"Tom watched as the animal suddenly stopped dead in its tracks and, head lowered, began to back away from the salt. Tom gently nudged Ellen and pointed. Ellen jumped nervously and turned her head toward the animal. She, too, watched as the cow, transfixed with fear, was literally backing away from something invisible as fast as its legs could move."

"Tom reached through the window of his truck and grabbed his compass. He had learned a long time ago that strange events caused the compasses to act strangely. The frightened cow had now backed thirty yards away and suddenly turned tail and stampeded toward the eastern end of the pasture. Tom then watched as the herd of cows suddenly split in two in Red Sea fashion, as if something invisible was now in the middle of the herd of cattle."

"Dozens of animals ran west, while the remainder stampeded east. Tom glanced briefly at his compass and saw that the needle was pointed to the invisible something in their midst. Whatever was dispersing the cows was invisible even in the noon sun, yet it was exuding a powerful magnetic field that was detectable on Tom’s compass."

"Tom and Ellen could follow the mysterious, invisible object as it made its way through the herd of animals, as the panicky animals were constantly stampeding away from it. Whatever it was, it was heading south, as did the needle of Tom’s compass. Sitting in his seat in the command and control center, Tom told us, “The needle of the compass stayed locked onto that thing for exactly eleven minutes.” So there had been two magnetic field effects at different ends of the ranch in less than twenty-four hours."

“That is the first vague pattern that I have seen so far,” I commented. The next two days were uneventful as the team divided up and began systematically mapping the ranch for the magnetic and electric fields that appeared to be diagnostic of the presence of the phenomenon. But apart from the magnetic field that radiated from the bars of the western part of the corral near the small white trailer for a couple of days, we saw nothing."

"Mapping the south side of the ranch, with its acres of dense Russian olives and thick brush, was slow and tough going. Tom took us to a region in the brush where he had come across unusual tracks a few days previously. The tracks were perfectly round and appeared to be from some mechanical object rather than from a known animal. The team took plaster casts of the mysterious tracks."

"Then as we were quartering the ground about twenty yards away, an overpowering stench of musk assailed my nostrils. I had spent enough time on the ranch to know the difference among fox, skunk, and this particular odor. It was very strong and appeared localized. I carefully looked around. I could see another team member, the experienced Canadian investigator, about fifty yards away making noises he searched the dense brush for tracks."

"Suddenly, the hairs on the back of my neck stood up. A chill ran down my spine. Something was close by and watching me. The locus of the strong musk odor was coming from my right, and I slowly turned my head in that direction. But as my eyes quartered the area, I could see nothing."

"Since it was broad daylight, I could only conclude that I was either imagining things, or else there was something well camouflaged nearby. This was one of the very few times, in the hundreds of days that I spent on the property, that I ever felt physically threatened. I gritted my teeth and continued the mapping. Gradually, the intensity of the musklike stench began to recede, and at the same time I began to sense that whatever was close by had left."

"Later the Canadian investigator told me that he too had suddenly become aware of being watched. He could not explain it. He had also smelled the strong musk odor. Tom, who was a lifelong hunter and was familiar with the scent of all wildlife in the area, swore the smell was associated with the “phenomenon,” whatever it was."

"That smell came back to haunt us repeatedly throughout our research program on that ranch, appearing suddenly without warning, sometimes in a highly localized way, sometimes right inside our command and control center. Whatever it was, its invisibility sure gave it an advantage over us...."

The "opaque" appearance, was mentioned in an interview with "Larry Cesspooch" of the "Ute" tribe, by Marc Coppell. Here he details a similar description of an Entity cloaked in invincibility. It seems the description of this being is "transparent", ghost-like, and "water-like".

Based from Cesspooch's talks, he details that mankind is not the only people on this Earth, nor in the Universe. This is stated by Project Camelot on Jordan Maxwell, when he stated how the "Alien" Girlfriend's father, was telling him about the different Alien races that live below the Earth. 

Now, this Chapter will be based on the strange wolf like creatures, that are spotted on the Ranch. Based from "Part I The Hotspot Chapter 1 “Wolf’, states this:

"What is that?” Tom Gorman wondered as he looked across the field at the distant animal loping in his direction. He paused briefly and put down the heavy box he had lifted off the truck. Tom had the perfect eyesight of a trained marksman, and he knew from a half a mile away that this animal was big. The approaching shape was much too big for a coyote."

"His wife, Ellen, joined him, an unspoken question in her eyes. Tom briefly nodded his head in the direction of the animal and she too began to look puzzled. The thing was about four hundred yards away, and the closer it got the bigger it looked. “Wolf?” murmured Ellen. Ed Gorman, Tom’s father, joined them. The beast was gray, and even from three hundred yards they could see that its pelt was wet from running through the wet grass."

"The animal loped gracefully in a series of S turns and stopped about fifty yards away from the family. This was very bizarre behavior for a wolf. But this wolf was almost three times as big as any Tom had ever seen. It gazed peacefully at the family. Ellen shifted uneasily and glanced around to see where her two children were. Both were standing in silence on the top of the flatbed truck, looking right at the wolf."

“Maybe its somebody’s pet,” ventured Ed. The animal began walking casually toward the family, unconcerned but obviously determined to make some kind of contact. It appeared completely tame. Tom glanced at the corral seventy feet to his right where he had just unloaded several of his prize Angus calves. They were the first of his herd to be on the property, and briefly he wondered about the wisdom of bringing them onto the land."

"One calf, more curious than the rest, stood with its head through the bars of the corral, looking directly at the wolf that was now only a hundred feet away. The other animals were at the back of the corral, and they shifted nervously at the strong scent in the air. From ten feet away, the smell of rain on dog pelt filled the air as the animal trotted peacefully up to Ed Gorman."

"Ed, like his son, stood over six feet tall, and the wolf reached almost to his chest. Massive muscles rippled beneath its shiny gray-silver coat. The eyes were a shocking shade of light blue that penetrated the soul. Ed reached down and petted the huge beast as it stood looking at the family. Tom felt a tightening in his gut. Something was not quite right. Even somebody’s pet wolf would not be this completely tame."

"A two-hundred-pound wolf exuding a Zen-like calm? Something did not compute. The animal walked nonchalantly around in front of the family, and Ellen and Ed began to relax. Ellen turned around and yelled to the kids to come over. Tad and Kate Gorman jumped from the flatbed and ran over."

"The family began talking all at once. Tad suggested they try to keep the wolf as a pet. Too late, they saw the swift, graceful bound that took the wolf to the bars of the corral. With unbelievable speed, the young calf s head was trapped in the animal’s powerful jaws. The movement had been lightning fast, and the family stood paralyzed with fear."

"The three-hundred-pound calf bled pitifully as the wolf tried to drag it through the bars of the corral. Tom sprang into action, ran across, and landed two powerful kicks into the ribs of the wolf. Ed followed and grabbed a stout baseball bat he had just unloaded. With all of his considerable strength, Ed beat on the wolfs back as it braced against the bars of the corral trying to drag the hapless calf through it."

"The bleats were getting more urgent as the viselike lock on the calf's snout tightened. “Get my Magnum,” Tom barked as he aimed more kicks at the wolfs ribs. Even as the sickening thud of Tom’s heavy boots rained into the animal’s abdomen, the beast seemed unconcerned. Tad ran to the flatbed, retrieved a powerful handgun, and quickly delivered it to his father. Gorman took aim and squeezed the trigger. The shot rang across the field and slammed into the wolfs ribs."

"The slug from the .357 had no effect whatsoever on the attacking animal. It didn’t yelp, didn’t pause, and didn’t bleed. Quickly, Tom pumped two more shots into the wolfs upper abdomen. On the third shot, the wolf slowly and reluctantly released the bleating calf. The calf scampered quickly to the back of the corral and, still bleating, lay down. It was bleeding heavily from the head."

"The huge beast stood about ten feet away from Tom but displayed no signs of discomfort. Tom couldn’t believe it. Three shots from a Magnum should have killed the animal or at least very badly injured it. Not a sound came from the wolf as it gazed unconcernedly at Gorman."

"The chilling, hypnotic blue eyes looked straight at him. Gorman raised the Magnum again and, aiming carefully, shot the animal near the heart. It backed off maybe thirty feet, still facing the family and still showing no signs of distress. A chill crept over Tom. The family drew closer together."

"They were all more than familiar with the power of the Colt Magnum They had seen firsthand the devastation it causes, yet this huge wolf was not even making a sound after being shot four times at point-blank range. There were no signs of blood on the beast."

"It seemed peaceful but glanced back at the calf in the corral as if pondering the wisdom of another attack. “Get the thirty aught six,” Tom said through clenched teeth, never taking his eyes off the huge beast. Tad ran to the homestead and returned in seconds bearing the heavy firearm. Tom had killed dozens of elk from over two hundred yards with this weapon."

"As he took aim at the wolf a mere forty feet away, he momentarily felt pity for the beast. The thunderous shot rang out. The sound of the bullet hitting flesh and bone near the shoulder was unmistakable. The wolf recoiled but stood calmly looking at Tom. His mouth went dry. He felt a cold sweat running down his back. Ellen began to cry. Ed began to curse softly under his breath, shaking his head in disbelief. The wolf should be a silent, bleeding pile of dead flesh."

"Instead, it had recoiled, backed off maybe ten feet, but still seemed perfectly healthy. Tom took a deep breath and raised the weapon again, aiming for the huge chest cavity. The bullet ripped through the animal, and a sizable chunk of flesh detached from the exit wound and lay on the grass."

"Still the wolf made no sound. Then, with a last unhurried look at the stunned family, the wolf turned slowly and began to trot away across the grass. Tears of fear streamed down Ellen’s face as she hugged her twelve-year-old daughter."

Tom’s face was white and there was strain in his voice as he turned toward his family. “Let’s keep calm,” he muttered hoarsely but didn’t sound very convincing. “I’m going after it.” The animal was now almost a hundred yards away, Lotting west across the field in the direction of a dense group of cottonwoods. Beyond the cottonwoods lay a roaring creek. Tad grabbed the Magnum and Tom hefted the thirty aught, and the family watched as they sprinted off in the same direction as the wolf."

"The animal was only trotting but was covering ground quickly. Anger and fear pulsed through Tom as he pushed himself to run quicker. He was already out of breath, but they were gaining on the wolf. They could see the animal disappearing into the belt of cottonwoods and then reappear in the open ground beyond. It stopped, momentarily shaking itself free of the moisture from the grass before heading for the creek. Tad ran silently, feeling how upset his father was but concentrating on keeping the wolf in his sight."

"The wolf seemed to be accelerating. It was now almost three hundred yards ahead of them and still loping easily as it reached a denser patch of Russian olive trees that bordered the creek. As they ran, Tom noticed that the tracks of the animal were easily visible in the wet ground. Gorman was an experienced tracker and he was confident that they could track the animal even in the thick Russian olives."

"His sharp eyes spotted the silvery-gray blur as the animal disappeared into the tree line. Minutes later, Tom and Tad ran into the line of trees following the giant animal’s tracks. In some places it had left inch-deep impressions in the soft ground. There was no evidence of blood on or between the huge footprints. Tom couldn’t shake the fear he felt as he brushed through the tightly woven undergrowth. His pace had slowed because the large trees were interwoven with thorny brambles and weeds."

"The tracks were still visible. As they approached the creek, they could hear the water gurgling as it cascaded merrily over the rocks. They broke cover near the bank of the creek and Tom held up his hand. Tad stopped and the two listened carefully. They heard no sound of an animal crashing through the undergrowth. The huge paw marks periodically meandered in and out of the surrounding vegetation but consistently shadowed the direction of the creek."

"Tom guessed they had run about a mile. Several minutes later the two broke through into the open about forty yards from the river. They breathed a sigh of relief. It was hard going, stumbling through the trees, making sure the head-high thorns and bushes didn’t take a toll on their skin and their faces. Suddenly, Tom stopped breathing. He grabbed Tad’s arm and pointed. The wolf tracks were directly in front of them, as plain as day, as they headed toward the creek."

"About twenty-five yards from the river, the prints entered a muddy patch, and it appeared as if the two-hundred-pound animal had sunk almost two inches into the mud. The deep paw prints continued for another five yards and then stopped. The tracks simply vanished. So did the wolf. Gone. There was no possibility that the animal had leaped the intervening sixty feet to land in the river. The tracks just stopped abruptly."

"The Gormans walked slowly and carefully, looking at the perfectly formed tracks in the thick mud and trying to see any change that might explain the sudden disappearance. Around where the tracks halted, the ground appeared about as soft as the mud patch. It was as if the animal had vanished into thin air."

"Tom looked at his son, and he could see that the teenager was white faced and trembling, close to tears. Tom felt stunned. He couldn’t reassure his son, because he just didn’t have an explanation. “We’d best be getting back,” he said hoarsely. “It’s near sundown.” Tad nodded dumbly, fighting to keep his father from seeing how scared he was."

(Sounds like the Legend of "The Beast of Gevaudan")

Chapter 4 "The Weirdness", states this: "The Gormans tried to ignore the wolf incident. It had been too surreal. One of their new neighbors remarked casually to them a few days later that their land was home to a herd of large wolves. They were relieved to hear that their family was not party to some collective delusion. Other people had seen the wolves too."

"A few weeks later, Ellen was driving in her gray Chevette back to their homestead. She was coming home from her new job with the local mortgage company. She had opened the gate to the property and closed it behind her. As she sat in the car, she noticed a movement to her left in her peripheral vision. She gasped. The wolf was huge, and it had silently approached within thirty feet of her."

"Now it stood outside her window. As she stared into the friendly light-blue eyes of the huge animal, she felt a knot of fear tighten. The animal’s head stood over the roof of her car. This was no ordinary wolf—it resembled the bulletproof animal they had encountered only a few weeks previously. Easily visible in the gathering twilight was another animal, all black. It stood farther away from the car and appeared more reserved."

"It was large, but not quite as big as the wolf. It looked like a very weird dog but unlike any she had ever seen. Perhaps it was an exotic breed created by centuries of mating on the nearby Ute Indian reservation? Maybe one of her Ute neighbors owned this wolf?"

"The dog’s head was much too large for its body, but the body was still big. Now thoroughly alarmed, Ellen slammed the gas pedal with her foot and drove quickly along the last half mile to the homestead. She made a mental note to complain to the local tribal office in Fort Duchesne the following day."

"No matter how placid and tame these huge wolves appeared to be, they were still wild animals. She was determined that they would not be allowed to roam freely on the property, especially since the family was preparing to move their extremely expensive herd of registered animals onto the grass fields within a few more weeks."

"Winter was approaching. Ellen was really puzzled the next day when her polite requests to rein in the wolves were met with blank stares and uncomprehending silence at the tribal office. Nobody owned any wolves around here, she was told. In fact, wolves had not been seen in this part of Utah for seventy years; the last wolf in Utah had been shot in 1929."

(These events happened a lull year before a herd of gray wolves was transplanted into Yellowstone Park and into Central Idaho in 1995, and in December 2002 one of those wolves would be caught in a trap near Ogden, Utah. In 2004, a couple of wolves were spotted around Vernal.)

"The soft-spoken tribal official eventually told Ellen that she must be mistaken. Perhaps she had seen a busy with ranch chores that Ellen quickly forgot about the huge animals; out of sight was definitely out of mind."

Then there is the Chapter "The Curse". This will be the last segment based from "Hunt for the Skinwalker".

"In the religion and cultural lore of Southwestern tribes, there are witches known as skinwalkers who can alter their shapes at will to assume the characteristics of certain animals. Most of the world’s cultures have their own shape-shifter legends. The best known is the werewolf, popularized by dozens of Hollywood movies. European legends as far back as the 1500s tell stories about werewolves."

(The modern psychiatric term for humans who believe they are wolves islycanthropy.)

"The people of India have a weretiger legend. Africans have stories of wereleopards and werejackals. Egyptians tell of werehyenas. In the American Southwest, the Navajo, Hopi, Utes, and other tribes each have their own version of the skinwalker story, but basically they boil down to the same thing—a malevolent witch capable of being transformed into a wolf, coyote, bear, bird, or any other animal."

"The witch might wear the hide or skin of the animal identity it wants to assume, and when the transformation is complete, the human witch inherits the speed, strength, or cunning of the animal whose shape it has taken. “The Navajo skinwalkers use mind control to make their victims do things to hurt themselves and even end their lives,” writes Doug Hickman, a New Mexico educator."

“The skinwalker is a very powerful witch. [It] can run faster than a car and can jump mesa cliffs without any effort at all.” For the Navajo and other tribes of the Southwest, the tales of skinwalkers are not mere legend. Just ask Michael Stuhff. A Nevada attorney, Stuhff is likely one of the few lawyers in the history of American jurisprudence to file legal papers against a Navajo witch. He has often represented Native Americans in his practice."

"He understands Indian law and has earned the trust of his Native American clients, in large part because he knows and respects tribal religious beliefs. As a young attorney in the mid-1970s, Stuhff worked in a legal aid program based near Genado, Arizona."

"Many, if not most, of his clients were Navajo. His legal confrontation with a witch occurred in a dispute over child custody and financial support. His client, a Navajo woman who lived on the reservation with her son, was asking for full custody rights and back child support payments from her estranged husband, an Apache."

"At one point during the legal wrangling, the husband got permission to take the son out for an evening but didn’t return the boy until the next day. The son later told his mother what had transpired that night. According to the son, he spent the night with his father and a “medicine man.” They built a fire atop a cliff and, for many hours, the medicine man performed ceremonies, songs, and incantations around the fire. As dawn broke, the three traveled into a wooded area near a cemetery, where they dug a hole."

"Into the hole, the medicine man deposited two dolls. One of the dolls was made of dark wood, the other of light wood. It was as if the two dolls were meant to represent the mother and her lawyer. Although Stuhff wasn’t sure how seriously to take the news, he recognized that it certainly didn’t sound good, so he sought the advice of a Navajo professor at a nearby community college."

“He told me that the ceremony I had described was very powerful and very serious, and that it meant that I was supposed to end up buried in that cemetery,” Stuhff says. “He also said that a witch can perform this type of ceremony only four times in his life, because if he tries it more than that, the curse would come back on the witch himself. He also told me that if the intended victim found out about it, then the curse would come back onto the person who had requested it.”

"Stuhff thought about a way to let the husband know that he had found out about the ceremony, so he filed court papers that requested an injunction against the husband and the unknown medicine man, whom he described in the court documents as “John Doe, A Witch.”

"The motion described in great detail the alleged ceremony. The opposing attorney appeared extremely upset by the motion, as did the husband and the presiding judge. The opposing lawyer argued to the court that the medicine man had performed “a blessing way ceremony,” not a curse. But Stuhff knew that the judge, who was a Navajo, could distinguish between a blessing ceremony, which takes place in Navajo hogans (homes), and what was obviously a darker ceremony involving lookalike dolls that took place in the woods near a cemetery."

"The judge nodded in agreement when Stuhff responded. Before the judge could rule, Stuhff requested a recess so that the significance of his legal motion could sink in. The next day, the husband capitulated by agreeing to grant total custody to the mother and to pay all back child support. “I took it very seriously becausehe took it seriously,” Stuhff says. “I learned early on that sometimes witches will do things themselves to assist the supernatural, and I knew what that might mean.”

Whether or not Stuhff literally believes that witches have supernatural powers, he acknowledges that this belief is strongly held in the Navajo nation. Certain communities on the reservation had reputations as witchcraft strongholds, he says."

"It is also not known whether the witch he faced was a skinwalker or not. “Not all witches are skinwalkers,” he says, “but all skinwalkers are witches. And skinwalkers are at the top. They are a witch’s witch, so to speak.”

"According to University of Nevada-Las Vegas anthropologist Dan Benyshek, who specializes in the study of Native Americans of the Southwest, “Skinwalkers are purely evil in intent. I’m no expert on it, but the general view is that skinwalkers do all sorts of terrible things—they make people sick, they commit murders."

"They are grave robbers and necrophiliacs. They are greedy and evil people who must kill a sibling or other relative to be initiated as a skinwalker. They supposedly can turn into wereanimals and can travel in supernatural ways.” Benyshek and other scientists do not necessarily endorse the legitimacy of the legends, but they recognize the importance of studying stories about skinwalkers because the power of the belief among Native Americans manifests itself in ways that are very real."

“Oh, absolutely,” says Benyshek. “Anthropologists have conducted scientific investigations into the beliefs in Native American witchcraft because of the effects of such beliefs on human health.”

"Anthropologist David Zimmerman of the Navajo Nation Historic Preservation Department explains: “Skinwalkers are folks that possess knowledge of medicine, medicine both practical (heal the sick) and spiritual (maintain harmony), and they are both wrapped together in ways that are nearly impossible to untangle."

"As Zimmerman suggests, the flip side of the skinwalker coin is the power of tribal medicine men. Among the Navajo, for instance, medicine men train over a period of many years to become full- fledged practitioners in the mystical rituals of the Dine (Navajo) people."

"The U.S. Public Health Service now works side by side with Navajo medicine men because the results of this collaboration have been proved, time and again, in clinical studies. The medicine men have shown themselves to be effective in treating a range of ailments."

“There has been a lot of serious research into medicine men and traditional healers,” says Benyshek. “As healers, they are regarded as being very effective in some areas.” But there is a dark side to the learning of the medicine men. Witches follow some of the same training and obtain similar knowledge as their more benevolent colleagues, but they supplement both with their pursuit of the dark arts, or black magic."

"By Navajo law, a known witch has forfeited its status as a human and can be killed at will. The assumption is that a witch, by definition, is evil. “Witchcraft was always an accepted, if not widely acknowledged part of Navajo culture,” writes journalist A. Lynn Allison. “And the killing of witches was historically as much accepted among the Navajo as among the Europeans.”

"Allison has studied what she calls the “Navajo Witch Purge of 1878” and has written a book on the subject. In that year, more than forty Navajo witches were killed or “purged” by tribe members because the Navajo had endured a horrendous forced march at the hands of the U.S. Army in which hundreds were starved, murdered, or left to die. At the end of the march, the Navajo were confined to a bleak reservation that left them destitute and starving."

"The gross injustice of their situation led them to conclude that witches might be responsible, so they purged their ranks of suspected witches as a means of restoring harmony and balance. Tribe members reportedly found a collection of witch artifacts wrapped in a copy of the Treaty of 1868 and “buried in the belly of a dead person.” It was all the proof they needed to unleash their deadly purge."

“Unexplained sickness or death of tribal members or their livestock could arouse suspicion of witchcraft,” Allison writes in her book. “So could an unexplained reversal of fortune, good or bad.” In the Navajo world, where witchcraft is important, where daily behavior is patterned to avoid it, prevent it, and cure it, there are as many words for its various forms as there are words for various kinds of snow among the Eskimos. The Navajo people do not openly talk about skinwalkers, certainly not to outsiders."

"Author Tony Hillerman, who has lived for many years among the Navajo, used the skinwalker legend as the backdrop for one of his immensely popular detective novels, one that pitted his intrepid Navajo lawmen Jim Chee and Joe Leaphorn against the dark powers of witchcraft. The following excerpt is ff omSkinwalkers: “You think that if I confess that I witched your baby, then the baby will get well and pretty soon I will die,” Chee said. “Is that right? Or if you kill me, then the witching will go away.”

“You should confess,” the woman said. “You should say you did it. Otherwise, I will kill you.” Hillerman has been harshly criticized by some Navajo for bringing unwanted attention to the subject of skinwalkers."

“No one who has ever lived in the Navajo country would ever make light of this sinister situation,” wrote one critic after Hillerman’s book was dramatized onPB S in 2003. Anthropologist Zimmerman explains why so little information is available on skinwalkers: “Part of the reason you won’t find a lot of information about skinwalkers in the literature is because it is a sensitive topic among the Dine."

"This is often referred to as proprietary information, meaning it belongs to the Dine people and is not to be shared with the non-Dine” We know from experience that is it extremely difficult to get Native Americans to discuss skinwalkers, even in the most general terms. Practitioners ofadishgash, or witchcraft, are considered to be a very real presence in the Navajo world."

"Few Navajo want to cross paths withnaagloshii (oryee naaldooshi), otherwise known as a skinwalker. The cautious Navajo will not speak openly about skinwalkers, especially with strangers, because to do so might invite the attention of a witch. After all, a stranger who asks questions about skinwalkers just might be one himself, looking for his next victim."

“They curse people and cause great suffering and death,” one Navajo writer explained. “At night, their eyes glow red like hot coals. It is said that if you see the face of a naagloshii, they have to kill you. If you see one and know who it is, they will die. If you see them and you don’t know them, they have to kill you to keep you from finding out who they are."

"They use a mixture that some call corpse powder, which they blow into your face. Your tongue turns black and you go into convulsions and you eventually die. They are known to use evil spirits in their ceremonies. The Dine have learned ways to protect themselves against this evil and one has to always be on guard.”

"One story told on the Navajo reservation in Arizona concerns a woman who delivered newspapers in the early morning hours. She claims that, during her rounds, she heard a scratching on the passenger door of her vehicle. Her baby was in the car seat next to her."

"The door flung open, and she saw the horrifying form of a creature she described as half man, half beast, with glowing red eyes and a gnarly arm that was reaching for her child. She fought it off, managed to pull the door closed, then pounded the gas pedal and sped off. To her horror, she says, the creature ran along with the car and continued to try to open the door."

"It stayed with her until she screeched up to an all-night convenience store. She ran inside, screaming and hysterical, but when the store employee dashed outside, the being had vanished. Outsiders may view the story skeptically, and any number of alternative explanations might be suggested, but it is taken seriously on the Navajo reservation."

"Although skinwalkers are generally believed to prey only on Native Americans, there are recent reports from Anglos claiming they encountered skinwalkers while driving on or near tribal lands. One New Mexico Highway Patrol officer told us that while patrolling a stretch of highway south of Gallup, New Mexico, he had had two separate encounters with a ghastly creature that seemingly attached itself to the door of his vehicle."

"During the first encounter, the veteran law enforcement officer said the unearthly being appeared to be wearing a ghostly mask as it kept pace with his patrol car. To his horror, he realized that the ghoulish specter wasn’t attached to his door after all. Instead, he said, it was running alongside his vehicle as he cruised down the highway at a high rate of speed."

"The officer said he had a nearly identical experience in the same area a few days later. He was shaken to his core by these encounters but didn’t realize that he would soon get some confirmation that what he had seen was real. While having coffee with a fellow highway patrolman not long after the second incident, the cop cautiously described his twin experiences."

"To his amazement, the second officer admitted having his own encounter with a white-masked ghoul, a being that appeared out of nowhere and then somehow kept pace with his cruiser as he sped across the desert. The first officer told us that he still patrols the same stretch of highway and that he is petrified every time he enters the area."

"One Caucasian family still speaks in hushed tones about its encounter with a skinwalker, even though it happened in 1983. While driving at night along Route 163 through the massive Navajo reservation, the four members of the family felt that someone was following them. As their truck slowed to round a sharp bend, the atmosphere changed, and time itself seemed to slow down. Then something leaped out of a roadside ditch at the vehicle."

“It was black and hairy and was eye level with the cab,” one of the witnesses recalled. “Whatever this thing was, it wore a man’s clothes. It had on a white and blue checked shirt and long pants. Its arms were raised over its head, almost touching the top of the cab. It looked like a hairy man or a hairy animal in man’s clothing, but it didn’t look like an ape or anything like that. Its eyes were yellow and its mouth was open.”

"The father, described as a fearless man who served two tours in Vietnam, turned completely white, the blood drained from his face. The hair on his neck and arms stood straight up, like a cat under duress, and noticeable goose bumps erupted from his skin. Although time seemed frozen during this bizarre interlude, the truck continued on its way, and the family was soon miles down the highway."

"A few days later, at their home in Flagstaff, the family awoke to the sounds of loud drumming. As they peered out their windows, they saw the dark forms of three “men” outside their fence. The shadowy beings tried to climb the fence to enter the yard but seemed inexplicably unable to cross onto the property."

"Frustrated by their failed entry, the men began to chant in the darkness as the terrified family huddled inside the house. The story leaves several questions unanswered. If the beings were skinwalkers, and if skinwalkers can assume animal form or even fly, it isn’t clear why they couldn’t scale a fence. It is also not known whether the family called the police about the attempted intrusion by strangers."

"The daughter, Frances, says she contacted a friend, a Navajo woman who is knowledgeable about witchcraft. The woman visited the home, inspected the grounds, and offered her opinion that the intruders had been skinwalkers who were drawn by the family’s “power” and that they had intended to take that power by whatever means necessary."

"She surmised that the intrusion failed because something was protecting the family, while admitting that it was all highly unusual since skinwalkers rarely bother non-Indians. The Navajo woman performed a blessing ceremony at the home. Whether the ceremony had any legitimacy or not, the family felt better for it and has had no similar experiences since then."

"This disturbing account is not offered as proof of anything, particularly since we have not personally interviewed the witnesses. It is presented only as an illustration of the intense fear and unsettling descriptions that permeate skinwalker lore, which is accepted at face value by the Native Americans for whom the skinwalker topic is not just a spooky children’s story. So exactly how and when did the skinwalker legend intersect with the Gorman ranch?"

"Junior Hicks says his friends in the Ute tribe believe that the skinwalker presence in the Uinta Basin extends back at least fifteen generations. The Utes, described by historians as a fierce and warlike people, were sometimes aligned with the Navajo against common enemies during the 1800s. But the alliance didn’t last."

"When the Utes first acquired horses from the Spanish, they enthusiastically embraced the Spanish example by engaging in the slave trade. They reportedly abducted Navajos and other Indians and sold them in New Mexico slave markets. Later, during the American Civil War, some Ute bands took orders from Kit Carson in a military campaign against the Navajo."

"According to Hicks, the Utes believe that the Navajo put a curse on their tribe in retribution for many perceived transgressions. And ever since that time, Hicks was told, the skinwalker has plagued the Ute people. The ranch property has been declared off-limits to tribal members because it lies in the path of the skinwalker. "

"Even today, Utes refuse to set foot on what they see as cursed land. But the tribe doesn’t necessarily believe that the skinwalker lives on the ranch. Hicks says the Utes told him that the skinwalker lives in a place called Dark Canyon, which is not far from the ranch. In the early 1980s, Hicks sought permission from tribal elders to explore the canyon. "

"He’d been told there are centuries- old petroglyphs in Dark Canyon, some of which depict the skinwalker. But the tribal council denied his request to explore the canyon. One member later confided to Hicks that the tribe denied the request because it did not want to disturb the skinwalker for fear that it might “create problems.” The tribe’s advice to Hicks: “Leave it alone.”

"Dan Benyshek suggests that some parts of this Utes’ account don’t add up. He thinks it unlikely that the Navajo would enlist the assistance of a skinwalker to carry out their revenge on the Utes, no matter how much the tribe might want some payback on their enemy."

“The skinwalkers are regarded as selfish, greedy, and untrustworthy,” Benyshek says. “If the Navajo knew someone to be a skinwalker, they would probably kill him, not ask for his help with the Utes. Besides, even if he was asked, the skinwalker would be unlikely to help the Navajo get revenge, since his motives are entirely evil and self-serving. From the Navajo perspective, this story doesn’t make sense.”

"But from the Ute perspective, it could ring true. “The Utes could very likely have concluded that the curse is real,” explains Benyshek. “Different tribes or bands would often tell stories about the evil motives of other tribes they were in conflict with, about how another tribe was in league with witches, or how other tribes were cannibals. The Utes might tell themselves this story as a way to explain their own misfortunes.”

"Hicks told us that the Indians say they see them a lot. “When they go out camping,” he says, “they sprinkle bark around their campsites and light it as protection against these things. But it’s not just Indians. Whites see them, too.” Like his Ute neighbors, Hicks sometimes uses the termsskinwalker and Sasquatch interchangeably."

"He says he’s seen photographs of the telltale huge footprints often associated with Bigfoot, taken in the vicinity of the Gorman ranch. But whether it was a run-of-the- mill Sasquatch or a far more sinister skinwalker isn’t always clear, even to those who accept the existence of both. “There was an incident sixteen years ago where a skinwalker was on a porch in Fort Duchesne,”

"Hicks remembers. “They called the tribal police and tracked it east toward the river. They took some shots at it and thought they hit it because they found blood on the ground, but they never found a body.”

We also conducted an interview with a Ute man who worked as a security officer for the tribe. He provided us details about his own encounter with a Bigfoot. Brandon Ware (not his real name) received his police training at an academy associated with the Bureau of Indian Affairs. He says he was working the 10:00P.M. to 4:00A.M. shift, guarding a tribal building near Bottle Hollow."

"Between midnight and 1:00 in the morning, Ware walked up to check on the building and noticed that the guard dogs inside were calm but staring intently through a window at something outside. They weren’t barking, he said, just looking. “I could see this big ol’ round thing, you know, in the patio over there,” Ware recalls, “and the hair started raising on my neck and I kinda got worried a little bit trying to figure out what things were."

"I stood there and watched it for a few minutes, then it came over the top and headed down the road. But I could smell it. Even after it was gone, you could smell it.” Ware says that when the creature realized it was being observed, it briefly looked over at Ware, then vaulted over a low wall that surrounded the patio area outside the building. He says it took off running toward the Little Chicago neighborhood, crashing into garbage cans as it moved past the homes, and generating a cacophony of loud barking by every dog in the immediate area."

"Ware then went into the building and telephoned another on-duty officer who was nearby. By the time Ware left the building, the other officer had pulled up in his patrol car. Ware told the other officer to turn off his engine so they could listen to the hubbub that was still unfolding among the nearby homes."

“We listened a little bit and we could hear it. Then we jumped in and took off. We headed down the hill to see if we could catch up to it.” The two officers didn’t see the creature again that night, but they had no trouble tracing its path through the cluster of homes because they were able to follow a noticeable trail of scattered garbage cans."

“It must have gone straight on through,” Ware recalls. “We could see where cans—people usually tie up their cans—them were all off. I told the other officer, ‘Hey man, maybe it picked up them cans and was throwing them at those dogs.’

"Ware provided further details about what he had seen. His initial impression was of something dark and round. But he says that when the creature stood erect to vault over the patio wall, it appeared to be “huge.”

"Ware was carrying a large flashlight at the time of the encounter. He says he was using the flashlight just minutes before while checking the doors of the building, but when he tried to use it to illuminate the creature, the light wouldn’t turn on. When the creature took off running down the hill, the flashlight clicked back on. “He moved quick,” he told us."

“Whatever it was, it moved. I called him a ‘he’—it could have been a she. It could have been whatever, but he moved quick going down through there. But it was kind of cool. It was neat. I never knew it.it was something I’ve never seen before. I’ve heard about them. I heard the old people talking about some of these things.”

"Just a few nights later, Ware got a chance for a second look. He and another officer, Bob (not his real name), were patrolling a back road that emerges at a spot known as Shorty’s Hill. They emerged from the road into a pasture area that is punctuated by a large rock."

“I don’t know if it was the same guy or not,” Ware says. “It was a big ol’ black hairy thing hanging there, and when it turned around, it had big ol’ eyes on him. It had big oT red eyes on him about yea big. We’d just passed it and I told Bob, ‘There he is,’ and then he come to a screeching halt and we backed up. By the time we got out, it was gone.”

"Ware described the creature’s eyes as being “coal red” and unusually large. He isn’t sure whether the headlights of the patrol car might have affected his perception of the beast’s eye color, but tends to doubt it. He has no doubt about the presence of the beast itself. “We got out there to go look and we had shotguns and pistols and everything. We were going to blow him away,” Ware admits."

"When pressed for his opinion of what he had seen, whether it might have been a Sasquatch or even a skinwalker, Ware’s response seemed to draw a distinction between the two, but the distinction became blurry as the conversation progressed and Ware explained his understanding of tribal lore. “Sasquatch, he’s an old man, an old man that lives on a mountain,” he explained."

“He just comes in and looks at people and then he goes back out again. He just lives there all his life, never takes care of himself, and just smells real bad. Almost like, almost like that guy, like he is dirty, dirty human being smell is what it smelled like, a real deep, bad odor. It smelled like dirty bad underarms. The closer I got, the worse the smell got.” Could the creature he saw have been a skinwalker? “Nope,” said Ware."

“A skinwalker’s smaller. A skinwalker is the size of humans, six foot and under. They don’t come in most of the time to where the animals are at. They come in where people are at. They can come right here and you’d never know he was standing here looking at you in the middle of the night. They can take the shape of anything they want to take the shape of. Like I said, they’re medicine.”

"Ware said that skinwalker sightings among the Utes are not uncommon. He told us of an encounter with two shape-shifters near the Gorman ranch. The figures he described are so unusual, so far outside our own concept of reality as to be almost comical, like something out of a Saturday morning cartoon. One local who saw them in the road in Fort Duchesne described them as humans with dog heads smoking cigarettes. But Ware was perfectly serious in his description."

"He certainly did not bare his soul for comic effect, and we have no interest in making light of his story. For him, and for many others, skinwalkers are as real as the morning sun or the evening moon. They are a part of everyday life, and they most certainly are integral to the story of the Gorman ranch. Could the Utes have used the skinwalker curse as an all-encompassing explanation for their assorted tribal misfortunes, as Benyshek asks?"

"Or are they relying on the legend as an umbrella explanation for the wide range of paranormal events that have been reported in the vicinity of their lands for generations—in particular, in the vicinity of the ranch? If a skinwalker really is a shape-shifter, capable of mind control and other trickery, might it also have the ability to conjure up nightmarish visions of Bigfoot or UFOs?"

"Could it steal and mutilate cattle, incinerate dogs, generate images of monsters, unknown creatures, or extinct species, and could it also frighten hapless residents with poltergeistlike activity? At the very least, the skinwalker legend might be a convenient way for the Utes to grasp a vast menu of otherwise inexplicable events, the same sort of events that might stymie and confuse a team of modern scientists."

It seems that the actual Werewolf like beings are said to be "larger" in comparison to the human shapeshifter. This ties heavily to the Lore of the Book "Dzyan". 

The Chapter "The Native American Connection" states this:

"Could the skinwalker curse somehow explain the various unusual phenomena that have been reported at the Gorman ranch over many decades? We are hesitant to endorse the existence of either skinwalkers or curses in any objective or literal sense, but there is no question that the story, as told by the Utes for a century or more, hangs over the ranch like a dark and ominous cloud."

"It is the umbrella explanation the Utes have embraced to try and make sense of otherwise inexplicable events. While mainstream scientists are unlikely ever to give credence to any theory based on tribal lore or the black magic powers of shape-shifting Indian witches, it is difficult to ignore the seeming connection between the best-documented paranormal hot spots around the country and a strong Native American presence."

"Indigenous tribes seem to be on the fringes of nearly all of these paranormal outbreaks. Where you find one, you almost always find the other. The Uinta Basin is the most notable example, but there are several others, including Yakima, Washington, and Dulce, New Mexico, as we have already mentioned."

"The San Luis Valley of Colorado is another location that fits the profile. It is the largest alpine valley in the world, eighty miles long, fifty miles wide at some points, with a floor that sits seventy-five hundred feet above sea level. Mount Blanca, the fourth highest peak in Colorado, dominates the skyline."

"More to the point, the San Luis Valley has long been the site of well-documented incidents of high strangeness. It is the place where the first publicized case of an animal mutilation occurred in 1967. Not coincidentally, the valley has also been the site of hundreds of UFO sightings over several decades and easily ranks as one of the most intense UFO hot spots on the planet."

"Journalist Christopher O’Brien, who has lived in the San Luis Valley since 1989, has chronicled a rich tapestry of paranormal events in the vicinity, including continuing incidents of animal mutilation, frequent sightings of UFOs and mystery helicopters, and numerous eyewitness reports of Bigfoot encounters."

"He says the valley’s paranormal legacy extends back centuries, and that one of the first Spanish explorers to enter the valley wrote diary accounts about weird flying lights in the sky and powerful humming noises that emanated from underground. Not surprisingly, the region also oozes Native American mysticism and legend. The Yuma culture was in the valley five thousand years before the birth of Christ."

"The list of tribes, bands, and peoples that are known to have moved in and out since then is long. Among those indigenous groups that managed to survive into this century, the San Luis Valley is almost universally revered as a special, mystical place. The Tewa Indians, descended from the Pueblo people and now living in New Mexico, believe that the San Luis Valley is the equivalent of the Garden of Eden."

"The Tewas say the first humans to enter this world crawled up through a hole in the ground to escape their previous plane of existence. Native Americans who live in the valley today say they were taught that the Creator still lives in the mountains that surround San Luis and that He sometimes appears to humans in the form of a Sasquatch."

"It is the beliefs of the Navajo, though, that are more pertinent to this book. Like many other tribes and bands, the Navajo visited, hunted in, and inhabited the San Luis Valley, off and on, for hundreds of years. Historians believe that the Navajo were finally ousted from the valley by none other than the Utes. It is a development the Navajo people are not likely to forget, since they regard the valley as a sacred place and a fundamental cornerstone of their culture."

"Mount Blanca, the fourteen-thousand-foot peak that towers over the valley, known to the Navajo as Tsisnaasjini’, the Sacred Mountain of the East, is revered as one of the four mountains chosen by the Creator as a boundary for the Navajo world. It is considered to be an essential component in the Navajo quest to live in harmony and balance with both nature and the Creator."

"If the Navajo were Christians, Mount Blanca would be their Bethlehem. If they were Jewish, it might be their Wailing Wall. At a minimum, the San Luis Valley provides another example of a place that has experienced an extraordinary litany of high strangeness events, a “paranormal Disneyland” in the words of Chris O’Brien, while also being of great significance to Native Americans, a place drenched in tribal mysticism."

"The intersection of these factors may be meaningless, or at most coincidental, but considering that there are several other examples involving this same unlikely confluence of unusual circumstances, it at least deserves to be noted. Sedona, Arizona, is yet another example. Long before Sedona became an artsy Mecca for New Age believers of all stripes, it was hallowed ground for Native Americans."

"The long-gone Anasazi believed the area to be the center of the universe and the home of the gods. More recently, Sedona has been transformed into a haven for spiritualists, channelers, UFO enthusiasts, and assorted free spirits, drawn by the town’s mystical vibe and by persistent stories about an energy vortex that just might be a portal to other worlds or realities."

"Hard-core skepticism isn’t Sedona’s strong point, and it is prudent to carry more than a few grains of salt when evaluating extraordinary claims emanating from the locals. One case that seems to have merit is eerily similar to the events endured by the Gormans. Over a two-year period in the early 1990s, a ranching family named Bradshaw persevered through a frightening series of unusual events."

"Their tribulation began with frequent sightings of glowing orbs in the sky, then progressed to poltergeist events in their home, highly dramatic Sasquatch episodes, sightings of gray “aliens,” brushes with some sort of invisible being, the mutilation and harassment of their livestock and dogs, and the appearance of a portal of light. The Bradshaws say they could see another world on the other side of the portal, a description remarkably similar to things seen on the Utah ranch."

"In 1995, a book about the episode was published called "Merging Dimensions". The writers, Linda Bradshaw and Tom Dongo, arrived at the conclusion that there are rips or openings in the fabric of reality, and that these openings can create merging points between different dimensions and different realities."

"The Bradshaws think that the entities and energies they encountered were from some other reality and that they were able to slip in and out of our world through the merging point or portal that had somehow opened on their ranch. The Bradshaws had no idea that during the same time period they were enduring their own series of encounters with the unknown just outside of Sedona, the Gormans were trying to cope with similarly bizarre activities in northeastern Utah."

"Native American beliefs about alternate worlds pop up as well in a provocative work of fiction by the late, great Louis L’ Amour, who wrote more than a hundred novels in his prodigious career. Readers bought more than 225 million copies of his books. Thirty of his novels were made into movies."

"L’ Amour was best known for his western sagas, tales of gunfighters and lawmen, good guys on galloping horses and bad guys on the receiving end of frontier justice. But L’Amour’s final novel, released a year before his death, represented an abrupt departure from what his readers had come to expect."

"The title of the book was "The Haunted Mesa" and its focus was Indians, not cowboys. Relying on a lifetime of dogged research and personal experience, L’Amour plunged headfirst into the topic of Native American mysticism and spiritual beliefs. The result was a book that closely parallels some of the possibilities that are central to the mysteries of Skinwalker Ranch. L’ Amour basedThe Haunted Mesa on his understanding of Navajo and Hopi beliefs concerning “other worlds.”

"Hopi spiritual leaders teach that our current earthly plane of existence is the fourth world the tribe has known. They traveled into this fourth reality, they say, by passing through a door or tunnel that opened in their previous world. The Hopi view closely parallels that of the Navajo. The Navajo are taught that they entered this world via a tunnel in the earth and that they departed their previous reality in order to escape from an unspecified evil."

"In his narrative, author L’Amour relies on his principal characters to argue for the existence of other realities. The story line implies that the other worlds from which the Hopi and Navajo escaped are most likely other dimensions, and that the doors between these dimensions are sometimes traversable. It’s a fictional account, of course, but is firmly based on tribal religious traditions, which, from one perspective, seem to be in sync with prominent theories now being championed by cutting-edge physicists."

"In essence, Native Americans have believed for hundreds of years in the existence of such concepts as parallel universes, alternate dimensions, and traversable wormholes, although this isn’t the terminology used by the tribes. To think they arrived at their beliefs without the benefit of Ivy League educations, particle accelerators, or Doppler-based calculations is certainly curious."

"Though we have no empirical evidence to prove that a Navajo skinwalker might really have the black magic ability to put a curse on the Utes, thus triggering a century or more of weird activity near the Ute reservation in Fort Duchesne, there is plenty of historical evidence to suggest the Utes certainly had done enough to deserve a curse or two, at least from the Navajo perspective."

"The Utes were often at war with the Navajo, and those wars were fought in places of interest to this book. The Utes’ traditional homeland encompassed most of the state of Colorado, including the San Luis Valley and Elbert County, both of which, as we’ve noted, are areas of high strangeness."

"In the San Luis Valley, the warlike Utes drove the Navajo out. In the early 1800s, the Utes allied themselves with the Jicarilla Apaches (the same tribe that now occupies the paranormal hot spot of Dulce) in a bloody war against the Navajo, all at the behest of the Spanish."

"The Utes considered much of present-day New Mexico and Arizona to be their homeland. It could be argued that the Utes have historical ties to nearly all of the areas that are now regarded as paranormal hot spots. And there is no question that they, along with most of the other tribes in the American West and Southwest, consider the subject of witchcraft to be very serious business." 

"According to Tom Gorman, the Fort Duchesne Utes were not happy to learn that NIDS had purchased the Gorman ranch. But NIDS received gracious cooperation and friendly openness from the tribe. Some tribal members initially warned Gorman that the NIDS purchase was a big mistake."

"In hindsight, it appears they were worried that a team of scientists poking around might annoy or arouse whatever malevolent force might inhabit the place. Tom Gorman came to believe that some of the Utes were dabbling in black magic rituals themselves. One day, he discovered the carcass of a raccoon that had been mutilated in ritualistic fashion and was left splayed on top of a tree stump in a manner so obvious that he believed he was meant to find it."

"Someone had slipped onto the property to perform what Gorman suspected was some sort of black magic ceremony. Was it a warning of sorts? The title of this book mentions a hunt for skinwalkers, so it’s fair to ask whether we found any. We have no real evidence to suggest that Indian witches have the ability to pull off the kind of wild exhibitions and phantasmagorical events that were seen on the ranch by many witnesses."

"Native American beliefs in other worlds and portals to other realities have demonstrable equivalents in modern science, and in that sense, we wondered if their legends about skinwalkers might also have a scientific stepbrother, something that might help us to understand what unfolded."

"It may not have been a true skinwalker that was haunting the Gorman ranch, but something certainly manifested itself, again and again, over a period of several years. Something gave rise to the bewildering plethora of anomalies. Something manifested itself as a black cloud in the trees, from which a telepathic voice reached out to the NIDS scientists."

"Something appeared as an opaque “Predator” creature that roared loud enough to make a grown man cry. Something moved through water but could not be seen. Something generated voices from the sky. Something floated in the sky as glowing orbs, Stealth-like craft, disc-shaped UFOs, and even a flying recreational vehicle."

"We saw them. Either a single “intelligence” was responsible for conjuring up this amazing variety of ephemeral events, changing its appearance and form as well as its tactics and strategies, or a “family” of anomalies was sharing the rent in some kind of paranormal fraternity house."

"Skinwalker or not, it could be argued that the ranch, for unknown reasons, functioned as a one-stop supermarket for all manner of bizarre activity. Though we can’t say with any certainty whether the things that happened at the ranch represent the presence of one entity or force, or whether there was more than one “intelligence” at work there, we can speculate about intentions."

"Was “the skinwalker,” for lack of a better term, a malevolent force? In a sense, it was. It butchered and abducted livestock, attacked other animals, and seemed intent on generating strong emotional responses from the Gormans, as if it thrived on terror and confusion. But it also seemed to draw a distinction between harming animals and harming humans."

"Other than psychological damage, intense headaches, nosebleeds, and a few unexplained cuts, no humans were physically maimed, while animals certainly were. Whatever might have been slipping into our world seemed to know the difference between slicing up a newborn calf and doing the same to a human. It stuffed bulls into a trailer, but didn’t do the same to people."

"Dogs were incinerated, but the Gormans were not. If we are to believe both the Navajo and academic researchers, skinwalkers are inherently evil and would not hesitate to kill a person. It suggests that whatever was present on the ranch was not a skinwalker in any traditional sense."

Chapter "Epilogue": "More than seventy years ago, the brilliant physicists Werner Heisenberg and Niels Bohr were involved in emotional shouting matches about how best to reconcile the “impossible” world being described by the equations of fledgling quantum mechanics with the world that we all live in."

"Since then, the physical models and mathematical constructs that are published in peer-reviewed journals have only become stranger, more bizarre, and almost frightening. They describe a universe that few of us would ever experience without having a nervous breakdown. Traversable wormholes, parallel universes, and extraspatial dimensions all seem fascinating to us while we are sitting in our armchairs watching PBS or the Discovery Channel."

"These TV programs can be assimilated relatively comfortably, and then we go to bed, wake up in the morning, and go to work. The ideas, we think, have little or no bearing on the “real world.” They are merely abstract physics concepts and have no real effect on our lives. But suppose they intruded into our lives? Suppose that, against our will, we were plunged into a world where traversable wormholes were staring us in the face from only one hundred feet away."

"Suppose that, as happened to the Gorman family, we saw a completely different sky from another world on the other side of that wormhole? Suppose we came up against bizarre creatures and monstrous denizens of the “underworld” as they walked freely around our property? How would we react if the concepts of extra dimensions and parallel universes were interfering with our daily lives in a frightening and completely unpredictable manner? What then?"

"Suppose we were suddenly living in a reality where we were certain that some nonhuman intelligence was aware of our every word and move and seemed to have a fascination with toying with us. What if these intelligences began introducing terrifying animals onto our property from other dimensions and, conversely, what if they stole our cattle and transported them into another dimension, never to be seen again?"

"This may have actually happened to a ranching family in remote Utah and, under the radar, possibly happened dozens of times around the United States to other ranching families. These families did not go in search of the bizarre, nightmarish realities they encountered. They are normal citizens who are concerned with paying the mortgage and spending time with their children."

"Mainstream physics journals now describe time travel, macroscopic extradimensional spaces, and zero-point energy as serious topics. They are not part of some realm of fantasy. Rather, they appear to be legitimate ways of describing the real world, admittedly a world that few of us get to see."

“Throughout mankind’s cultural history,” notes Hal Puthoff of the Institute of Advanced Studies at Austin and arguably one of the preeminent theoretical physicists in the world, “there has existed the metaphysical concept that man and cosmos are interconnected by a ubiquitous, all-pervasive sea of energy that undergirds, and is manifest in, all phenomena."

"This pre-scientific concept of a cosmic energy goes by many names in many traditions, such as ch’i, ki or qi (Taoism), prana (yoga), mana (Kahuna), brakah (Sufi), elan vital (Bergsonian metaphysics), and so forth.. .Contemporary physics similarly posits an all-pervasive energetic field called quantum vacuum energy, or zero-point energy, a random, ambient fluctuating energy that exists in so-called empty space.....”

".....What does any of this have to do with the events at the ranch in Utah? After all, millions of us have watched highbrow science shows on the Discovery Channel or PBS while stretched out on our living room couches. We’ve heard the sound bites from prominent thinkers as they spoke of parallel universes, extraspatial dimensions, and traversable wormholes."

"We’ve rented the movieContact and rooted for Jodie Foster as she overcame jealous rivals, religious zealots, and budget-minded bureaucrats in her pursuit of the ultimate truth about the structure of reality. And we are comfortable in our assimilation of these entertainments."

"We watch them, then click off the tube, go to bed, get up in the morning and drive to work, as if none of this has anything to do with our real lives. Abstract physics concepts might be a pleasant diversion on a Tuesday night, but they sure don’t pay the bills on Wednesday. But what if these fantastic scenarios suddenly intruded into our lives in direct, unmistakable, and frightening ways?"

"How would we react if we were forcibly dragged out of our psychic comfort zone into a world where wormholes were staring us in the face from only one hundred feet away? What if those wormholes revealed to us an alien sky from another world, an incomprehensible glimpse of an alternate reality, as we stood in shock in our own front yard?"

"What if bizarre creatures, long-extinct prehistoric beasts, and futuristic flying machines somehow seeped into our mundane existence from some other place and systematically assaulted our loved ones, our possessions, and our most basic concepts of reality?"

"Add to this seemingly improbable set of circumstances the presence of a pervasive, sometimes malevolent, nonhuman intelligence, an invisible trickster who knows our every thought, anticipates our every move, and seems intent on toying with us, terrifying us, and screwing with our daily lives, a presence that orchestrates a relentless, perverse, and unpredictable campaign of all-out psychological warfare, a campaign that ultimately makes us question our own sanity."

"Imagine the grotesque mutilation of prized livestock, the brutal incineration of family pets, frightening intrusions by disembodied voices and shadowy figures into the sanctity of a family’s home, and inexplicable manifestations by unknown beings that cannot be harmed by guns or bullets. That’s clearly what happened at the ranch in Utah. What if it happened to you?"