Post by JoannaL on Aug 29, 2019 14:24:56 GMT -5
Lorraine Warren Telepathically Communicated with Bigfoot in Tennessee
In their book Ghost Hunters, published in 1989, Ed and Lorraine Warren recount some of their most terrifying cases, investigations that include such things as disappearing Nigerian priests, judo-chop martial arts murders, porno theater demons and possessed biker gangs, just to name a few. It is without doubt one of the weirdest, craziest books you’ll ever read and it will give you a much better idea of the duo’s actual beliefs than what is offered in The Conjuring or Gerard Brittle’s book, The Demonologist.
Tucked away among the tales of demonic terror, however, is an interesting case file unlike any other in the Warrens’ catalogue and it’s not scary at all, in fact, it’s actually sort of sad. Titled “Bigfoot” and covered in a scant eight pages, this Ed and Lorraine Warren story is largely forgotten, even though it is both wildly entertaining and presents some fairly groundbreaking ideas about paranormal research in the 1980s. The file begins with a quote from Lorraine:
“We had never paid much attention to the stories about Bigfoot. I wouldn’t say that we dismissed them as fictitious, but Bigfoot didn’t hold much interest for psychic investigators. That changed one spring when we were lecturing in Tennessee and a reporter from the Elk-Valley Times contacted us and told us about some hill people who kept insisting that something was threatening their children ….”
On a foggy morning just before embarking on a four-day lecture tour, Ed and Lorraine headed to rural Tennessee to meet with a group of frightened “hill people” seeking their help with a very strange problem: something dwelling in the local forest was after their children. Just the day before they arrived, one woman claimed a massive “ape-man” had crept up to her two-year-old child and attempted to snatch him by the arm.
Lorraine didn’t exactly believe the stories, but having “never seen poverty this raw,” her sense of guilt pushed her to entertain the claims of witnesses and help ease their fears. A short time later, she found herself following them into the woods, climbing steep hills and descending into gorges in search of the legendary monster. As a psychic ghost hunter, it wasn’t exactly the sort of investigation to which she was accustomed.
Hours later, exhausted from hours of hiking and frustrated with what felt like a waste of time before a busy lecture tour, Lorraine took a break near a tree. Suddenly, her mind flashed with a mental image of a large creature, “a fusion of man and ape” with long arms and shaggy hair. Its face was like that of a caveman, but its eyes were kind and “shone with intelligence.” Lorraine knew it was Bigfoot.
As she focused on the being, she realized the creature was just 40-feet from her, hiding in the thick brush and he was in pain. Lorraine knew this because Bigfoot was telepathically communicating with her. “He was hurt,” the chapter reads, “his hairy, splayed foot scabbed with still-seeping blood. During his travels that day, he had somehow injured his foot. Afraid that his injury would keep him from returning to his secret cave, the creature now projected great fear.” Bigfoot missed his family, and fearing death or capture by the humans seeking him, felt trapped and isolated. He was scared for his life.
Lorraine began returning the creature’s telepathic messages, explaining he had terrified the settlement by attempting to kidnap one of their children, but Bigfoot shook his head, claiming he meant only to make friends with the child. “Youngsters don’t have the prejudices of adults,” he told her, “so he felt he could perhaps explain himself to the child, just as he was explaining himself to Lorraine.”
Eager to help, Lorraine began to shake with anxiety as she hushed her hiking group, requiring total concentration for her communication with Bigfoot, for whom she felt a maternal love.
As she crept farther into the brush, projecting images of her bandaging Sasquatch’s foot, she spoke softly to the beast, hoping to calm the creature enough to approach him. “I am coming to you,” she mentally whispered, “I will help you, I will be your friend.”
Suddenly, the sound of a bullhorn sounded, breaking her concentration and sending Bigfoot fleeing into the forest. A member of the hiking group had honked the horn as a joke, startling Lorraine ... and frightening the Sasquatch.
Lorraine’s mental images became frantic, the searing pain of Bigfoot’s injury almost too much to bear. He was running as fast as he could, limping up a hill, shaking with fear and exhaustion. Then, the projections disappeared. Bigfoot was gone.
Lorraine spent the next 20 minutes following a trail of blood “both redder and more viscous than human blood” to the edge of a cliff, but there was no sign of the creature.
And so the case file ends, with an apparent Sasquatch suicide. It’s a sad finale to what is quite possibly the weirdest Warren investigation (though the “state park garbage can monster” comes close), but it didn’t end there. In an intriguing addendum to the tale, demonologist Ed Warren chimes in to offer his own thoughts on Bigfoot, which are mighty interesting for a ghost hunter of the time period. “It is my belief that Bigfoot is a Tulpa, a mind projection,” Ed claims. “So is the Loch Ness Monster and many other now-you-see-it-now-you-don’t creatures that get reported to the press.” In the most simplistic terms, Ed Warren is saying that Bigfoot is a ghost, decades before most ghost-centric paranormal researchers were contemplating such an idea.* He goes on to say he believes the same could be true of UFOs, then goes and blames it all on “black magic,” which he might not be completely wrong about, if you consider the theory that Aleister Crowley summoned the Loch Ness Monster. It’s pretty forward-thinking stuff from the ghost-hunting community of the time period, even if you have to peel away the Catholicism to see it.
The modern media doesn’t do Ed and Lorraine Warren’s actual investigations justice – their cases are downright bonkers, loads of fun to read, and you won’t see them in The Conjuring. They met Bigfoot for God’s sake!
Sources: Greg Newkirk, Week in Weird, April 19, 2019; "The Warrens: Separating the Truth from the Hollywood Myth," WhatLiesBeyond, July 8, 2014; and Cryptozoology News.
*Actually, the concept of Bigfoot and other cryptids as something other than flesh and blood creatures can be traced to the writings of Loren Coleman and Jerome Clark in the 1970s.
