Hunt for the Skinwalker
Science confronts the Unexplained at
a Remote Ranch in Utah
by Colm A. Kelleher and George Knapp.
Part III
Aftermath and Hypothesis
Chapter 24
The Media
Rumor, innuendo, and wild speculation are the enemies of any scientific investigation, especially one that is focused on such unusual phenomena. Since the arrival of NIDS at the Gorman property, considerable efforts have been made to limit public disclosures about unusual events observed on the ranch. The policy was adopted for very practical reasons, but the secrecy has contributed to the creation of a vibrant and imaginative mythology about the ranch, a mythology that has taken on a life of its own. An ambitious sociologist could probably write a PhD thesis about public reaction to the various rumors that have sprung to life. It is a textbook example of how scraps of information can be weaved into a rich tapestry of nonsense and hyperbole.
A lot of what happened on the ranch before the arrival of NIDS is no secret. Tom Gorman, exasperated by the loss of his animals and by the psychological toll on his family, decided to go public in 1996. He related some of the details to reporter Zack Van Eyck of the Deseret News, Utah’s second largest newspaper, but Tom didn’t come close to revealing everything that had happened, perhaps sensing that the full picture would be tough for anyone to swallow. The Associated Press was quick to pick up Van Eyck’s excellent story, which pointedly did not belittle Tom or ridicule his experiences.
A photo of Tom standing beside the strange scoop like depressions in his pasture was distributed to newspapers all over the country. Radio networks also carried the story. The extensive coverage prompted the arrival of a few enterprising UFO investigators at the ranch. Two of them, Ryan Layton and Chris O’Brien, received permission from Gorman to stake out the property on several nights. Other would-be investigators were rebuffed.
Being a private person, Tom was uncomfortable with all of the attention, but he took the plunge into media-infested waters because he wanted the bizarre activity to stop. The loss of so many cattle had edged him closer to financial ruin. If military or intelligence agencies were doing these things, he reasoned, perhaps the press scrutiny would force them to back off. If not, maybe someone out there could help him find some answers.
The publicity caught the attention of NIDS, which quickly bought the ranch and set up a monitoring program. Not surprisingly, the arrival of NIDS scientists in a small, rural community generated its own media attention and spurred considerable, if subterranean, concern among residents. Who were these outsiders, and what were they really up to? Although NIDS didn’t want any additional attention focused on the ranch, the decision was made to use the media to quell rampant rumors and to appeal for cooperation. NIDS investigators knew that they needed the trust of area residents so that people would talk to them about anomalies they had witnessed in the past and about any new developments that might be relevant to their study. This was especially true regarding animal mutilation cases. If any cows were carved up in the region, NIDS needed to know as quickly as possible so that physical samples could be collected and analyzed before decomposition obliterated any useful clues.
Key members of the NIDS organization granted interviews to a few Utah newspaper reporters. Zack Van Eyck wrote two lengthy articles in which NIDS personnel assured the public that their activities at the ranch were strictly scientific and aboveboard, that there was no truth to the rumors that they had made contact with either extraterrestrials or “lizard people,” that NIDS was prepared immediately to investigate any animal mutilation cases at no cost to the ranchers, and that scientific protocols required a certain amount of confidentiality. The interviews tried to discourage further intrusions by avid but uninvited outsiders.
“We know so little in terms of what the overall scope of these phenomena are that it’s just embarrassing to try and make some conclusions at this point,” a NIDS spokesman told reporters. “Imagine that you have a phenomena that is very selective as to how it exposes itself and to whom. So if you have a tailgate, football stadium-type of atmosphere and everybody’s got hotdogs and hamburgers and they’re barbequing and waiting for the UFOs to come down, I don’t picture a continuation of the activity.”
This seemingly innocuous statement was pregnant with clues about the nature of the phenomena being studied, but the hints sailed over the heads of most who read them. After the articles appeared in print, NIDS initiated a news blackout. No further interviews were granted about activities at the ranch. No outsiders were allowed to enter the property.
For the next six years, a cone of silence surrounded the ranch. Dozens of unusual events were observed. Animals were mutilated. Mysterious aircraft appeared and disappeared. Gunshots were fired at unknown creatures. And “the entity” manifested itself in ways that challenged and bewildered the NIDS team, but none of these events were made public. There were occasional attempts by journalists and UFO enthusiasts to find out what was going on. Curious UFO research groups organized campouts and sky watches on the edges of the property, hoping to catch a glimpse of the rumored activity and to gauge what methods were being used by NIDS.
Public interest in the ranch was piqued in 1997 after a national science magazine published a specious and inaccurate article alleging that Nevada’s ultra secret Area 51 military base was moving to Utah. The article prompted speculation that the imaginary relocation of Area 51 to rural Utah was somehow related to the presence of NIDS. This assumption was flatly ridiculous. Rumor mongering aside, the plain fact is that the outside world had no idea what was going on within the confines of the property.
This changed abruptly in 2002. George Knapp had maintained a working relationship with NIDS since its inception and had earned the trust of principal figures in the organization. The CEO of NIDS had shared, on a confidential basis, incident reports and a comprehensive chronology of ranch incidents and, after some prodding, allowed Knapp to visit the ranch and to bring along television cameramen Eric Sorenson and Matt Adams on different weekends in the spring and the fall. The excursions represented the first visits by journalists since the ranch had been purchased by NIDS years before.
In late 2002, Knapp received permission from NIDS to write an account of the ranch activities for publication. The organization reasoned that the publicity might generate new leads about other places around the world that might be experiencing similar levels of paranormal activity. It accomplished that and more. A two-part article, “Path of the Skinwalker,” was published in subsequent issues of the Las Vegas Mercury, a weekly alternative paper owned by the Las Vegas Review Journal, Nevada’s largest newspaper, but the text quickly spread far beyond Las Vegas newspaper racks.
“The articles generated a great deal of buzz, locally and internationally,” said the paper’s editor, Geoff Schumacher. “Soon after they went up on our website, people across the globe were hitting them. Most of these people had never heard of the Mercury before. Even weeks later people were still seeking them out.”
The articles were reprinted in UFO magazines in the United States, England, and Brazil, were translated into French and Portuguese, and prompted other paranormal publications to crank out their own articles, most of which borrowed freely from the Mercury stories without attribution. Tabloid TV shows headed to Utah to produce segments about the ranch, even though they were not allowed on the property. NIDS was besieged with requests for interviews and further information.
On the Internet, a discussion group was formed to chat and share ideas about the ranch. Initially, the participants expressed amazement and great interest. But the tone of the discussion soon changed and members of the chat group began to focus on dark rumors. Some participants argued that the study of the ranch might be some sort of disinformation effort being promulgated by government intelligence agencies. NIDS was described as a “shadowy” organization that likely had ties to the CIA and might be funded by proceeds from drug smuggling or casino gambling.
One UFO researcher proclaimed on the Internet that NIDS board members were part of a secret cabal known as the Aviary. Members of the cabal supposedly had their own birdlike code names such as the Owl or the Penguin. The mission of the sinister Aviary, according to the imaginative writer, was to control all information about the presence of extraterrestrials on Earth. (The Aviary had been, and continues to be, a staple of conspiracy buffs.) Another allegation was that NIDS scientists had acquired ET technology on the ranch and were trying to exploit it for their own nefarious purposes. An underground UFO newsletter printed an opinion that NIDS researchers had been visited by a spaceman who had revealed the secrets of “free energy.” Still another writer opined that the ranch might be a laboratory for secret genetic experiments involving mutilated cattle. And other armchair experts theorized that NIDS might be trying to create the underpinnings of a new global religion as a tool for manipulating the masses, presumably for unholy ends.
Those researchers who had visited the ranch prior to the arrival of NIDS were flabbergasted by the revelations in the Mercury articles. They found it hard to believe that Tom Gorman had not told them everything. Some publicly chastised NIDS for its reluctance to release more details. They argued that whatever happens on the privately owned ranch should be considered public information and should be disseminated immediately.
UFO researchers in Utah were also angered by the Mercury articles, one of which had appealed to “saucer enthusiasts and UFO nuts” to avoid further trespassing on the ranch. Members of UUFOH, the Utah UFO Hunters, an enthusiastic and well-meaning group, assumed that the description had been aimed at them. They vented their anger and dismay on the organization’s website. While acknowledging NIDS’ request that no outsiders do anything to interfere with the delicate give-and take that was under way, they quickly organized new expeditions to the perimeter of the ranch. In retrospect, their curiosity-driven reaction is certainly understandable.
In the summer of 2004, one other ranch-related controversy surfaced, and it carried with it the darkest of implications. A brilliant but maverick physicist known to have extensive contacts in intelligence circles and the UFO community suggested on the Internet that one or two NIDS staffers had been found murdered on the ranch and that the slayings had been covered up. The implication was that an unknown force had gutted the unnamed researchers and that this might signal the beginning of an “all out war with the extraterrestrials.” The physicist considered this to be a matter of national security, and he invoked a comparison to the alien-invasion movie Independence Day. He further asserted that the only reason he had shared the sketchy information with others was so that he could find out whether it was true. In subsequent missives, he stated that the original source of his information was a member of the NIDS board. Needless to say, there is not a word of truth to this rumor. With the exception of nonspecific severe headaches, profuse nosebleeds, and minor contusions, no serious physical harm came to any NIDS staffer or to anyone else on the ranch, and it is ridiculous in the extreme to suggest that alleged crimes of this magnitude would or could be covered up.
For NIDS, the publicity and controversy from the skinwalker articles represented a double-edged sword. Overnight, the ranch became world famous. NIDS was deluged with letters, phone calls, emails, and interview requests. There were several intrusions and attempted intrusions at the ranch, even though the phenomena on the property went into apparent hibernation. But there was a payoff, of sorts. NIDS received a great deal of information about other, eerily similar hot spots, in North America and around the world.
The basic problem remained, however: how to explain what had been seen and experienced at the Utah ranch?
Chapter 25
Hypotheses
The eight-year program of intensive surveillance using equipment and PhD scientists makes the Utah ranch arguably one of the most closely studied anomaly hot spots in history. Putting the results of this investigation into a proper context requires a considerable broadening of the picture, however. The cruel truth of the matter is that the wide sweep of events and anomalies experienced by the Gormans and by NIDS investigators does not fit into any of the well-known subject areas that traditionally define anomalies research. Rather, the ranch experiences appear to overlap all of them.
Some of the events seemed to reek of poltergeist activity; some appeared to be paranormal in nature; some exhibited behavior reminiscent of UFO-like objects; and there was a smattering of cryptozoology-like events thrown into the mix. Were UFOs flying over the Utah ranch, or was the ranch haunted? And according to local lore, sometime in the 1970s after a series of unexplained happenings on the property, the ranch was even visited by a strange individual wearing a black suit and driving a brand new black Cadillac with tinted windows, an event that is reminiscent of the so called Men-in-Black episodes. Brand-new Cadillacs were a rarity in the Uinta Basin in the 1970s and remain so today.
In short, it is very difficult to encompass all of the events reported at the ranch into a single tidy discipline. This is no semantic discussion because there is considerable mutual suspicion, and even hostility, among the groups who study UFOs and those who research mystery animals and those who study hauntings and poltergeist activity. Which particular research data from the Utah ranch does one have to discard in order to fit the rest into a tidy box? Or should we just ignore all of the tidy boxes? This kind of discussion becomes surreal, and even ludicrous, when one considers that most of mainstream science does not recognize the legitimacy of any of these research areas.
In the future, an adventurous sociologist might consider writing a paper that examines the “caste” system in anomalies research. The “nuts and bolts” UFO research people regard the “psychosocial” UFO researchers with disdain. UFO researchers in general regard the cryptozoologists with contempt. Cryptozoologists who embrace the possibility of a paranormal connection to Bigfoot sightings are generally viewed with derision because of the prevailing view that Sasquatch is an undiscovered primate species, not an interdimensional playmate of alien beings. Likewise, the paranormal researchers view the UFO researchers with disdain, while the ghost hunters keep their distance from everybody else. And all of this hostility and contempt is a vain and so far unsuccessful attempt to earn a small measure of respect and acceptance (and maybe funding) from mainstream science, a lofty but unlikely goal.
So how does one go about modeling the range of more than one hundred phenomena that occurred on the ranch between 1994 and 2004? The events the Gormans and the NIDS investigative team experienced were mostly isolated incidents that were transient, opaque to interpretation, and rarely or never repeated. Many of them represented very physical intrusions, including the killing and mutilation of a young calf, the “transfer" of four two-thousand pound bulls into a small trailer, scoop marks removing a few hundred pounds of soil, the destruction of three video cameras, injuries to the Gormans and to neighbors, and much more.
Other incidents involved events that were invisible to the human eye, such as the “creature” crawling through the hole in August 1997 and the “black object” seen by the physicist in June 1997, both of which were detected in the infrared region of the spectrum but not the visible. Tom Gorman witnessed an intense splashing as a result of some thing or some creature running at full speed along the canal on the ranch, but the actual creature that gave rise to the splashing was invisible to him. This happened in daylight as Tom sat on his horse only a few yards away. The “Predator” incident of early 1996 seemed to indicate a creature or an object that was barely visible but mostly camouflaged; while in April 1997 something invisible drove or ran through the herd of grazing cattle and parted them like the Red Sea. Whatever accomplished this conjuring trick appeared to profoundly affect a compass from a distance but was otherwise invisible.
An assortment of red orbs, blue orbs, and white orbs was observed. They appeared to be light forms, but they certainly had physical effects. The blue orbs acted like well-oiled rheostats by dimming the lights in the home as they flew past the windows. The same blue orbs were closely associated with the deaths of Gorman’s three favorite dogs, presumably by incineration. Both Ellen and Tom were overcome by a fear that transcended everything in their previous experience as a blue orb hovered over them and seemingly stimulated the fight-or-flight reflex in their brains. The red orbs directly caused the death, injury, and abortion of several cattle in August 1997. The chupas, as they flew through the cattle, seemed to be associated with the mutilation and disappearance of both Gormanowned and NIDS-owned livestock.
NIDS’ attempts to measure this range of bizarre activity were unsuccessful, if success is defined by data published in a scientific journal, or even data that could be presented to a panel of mainstream scientists. The weird animals observed in late 1994 and in March 1997 felt—and smelled—like real physical animals, but their response to bullets fired from high-powered rifles was unquestionably different from that of any creatures known to science. I personally witnessed the shooting of a large catlike animal from a tree. I was forty to fifty yards away and am certain the bullet hit its target. I was just a few yards away when an unknown doglike animal weighing an estimated four hundred pounds was pierced by bullets fired by an experienced marksman, yet no body and no blood were found after both of these incidents. The only physical evidence was a single claw mark left in the snow. The saga of the bulletproof wolf is likewise difficult to interpret. In short, after several years of Gorman family trauma and of focused NIDS investigation, we managed to obtain very little physical evidence of anomalous phenomena, at least no physical evidence that could be considered as conclusive proof of anything. This was in spite of hundreds of days of human monitoring and several years of camera surveillance.
The plethora of tantalizingly short-lived phenomena gives rise to a simple question. The witnesses were exposed to a variety of apparently unconnected incidents, many of which were difficult to explain, but all of which raised more questions than answers. The central question is: Did all of this varied activity on the ranch originate from the same source? Or was the ranch a “Grand Central Station” where multiple phenomena intersected, all totally unrelated?
There are several hypotheses that have traditionally been used to explain anomalous phenomena, particularly of the unidentified flying object variety, of which the ranch certainly had its fair share. We will briefly examine each of these hypotheses in turn.
Hoax
Did the Gormans make it up? Could they have hoaxed the whole thing? It’s true that the NIDS investigators took the Gormans at their word for those events that occurred prior to 1996. Skeptics might argue that the family made it all up, perhaps because they wanted to extricate themselves from a financial disaster.
We mention this possibility solely in the interests of thoroughness. First of all—and this is an admittedly subjective assessment—the Gormans are rock-solid, firmly grounded, honest people. There is no hint in their background of anything shady or questionable. The kids were excellent students, the parents were happily married, and the purchase of the ranch represented the culmination of a lifelong dream. The onslaught of bizarre activity did eventually take a toll on the family’s reputation but, in light of what transpired, this isn’t entirely unexpected.
Tom Gorman did not invent the long-standing reputation of the ranch. He didn’t even know about it until it so abruptly intruded into the life of his family. He obviously could not have manufactured the stories told by the Utes. Besides, many people outside the Gorman family, including neighbors, law enforcement personnel, reporters, and assorted visitors, witnessed the incidents that occurred prior to the arrival of NIDS. And dozens of the most disturbing incidents were personally witnessed and documented by NIDS scientists and researchers. The Gormans did not—and could not—manufacture them.
Did the Gormans crave media attention? None of them had the slightest interest in talking with the media or attracting attention in any way. By all accounts, they tried to cope with the inexplicable activity on their own terms and were embarrassed even to discuss it privately with others in the community. Only once did Tom Gorman talk to local reporters as a last resort, and then only reluctantly, hoping that someone might see the story and offer some kind of help. (Someone did— NIDS.)
In spite of everything that happened, Tom Gorman did not want to surrender his dream, and he departed the ranch with extreme reluctance. Although the family has moved to another state and has started a new life, we know that Tom still harbors a gnawing curiosity about what really happened during his years on that accursed patch of land. Today, years after they moved out of Utah, the Gormans don’t grant any interviews and don’t want their new neighbors to know about what happened.
In short, though it is impossible to rule out any individual incident as a hoax, especially those in which NIDS was not involved, it is highly unlikely that all of the strange events at the ranch were somehow manufactured by the family.
Delusions
The scientific community usually rationalizes eyewitness reports of anomalous phenomena by assuming that the witnesses are operating from a delusional framework. Because of the popularity of this explanation among scientists, NIDS took it very seriously and spent a lot of time examining possible psychiatric explanations for the events that its investigators had witnessed. We reviewed the literature on stress-induced fugue states, on paraphrenia, and on the folie-a-deux phenomenon, as well as the vast literature on the interplay among hallucinations, psychopathology, and anomalous experiences.
We found the paraphrenia hypothesis particularly worthy of examination. Note that we used the term paraphrenia as a catchall for a multitude of nonorganic psychosis, which is the basic European definition of the term, rather than the U.S. definition of late-onset schizophrenia. An individual can be paraphrenic in a narrow slice of life while maintaining high function in the remainder of his or her life. Thus, by definition, “paraphrenic perception” on the ranch would be very difficult to spot even by an objective observer. In fact, any differences between “normal” observation and slightly abnormal processing of information on the part of scientific observers might have been too subtle to catch. But suggestions that we conduct a battery of psychological tests—including Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory, indices of suggestibility, fantasy proneness, and more—on all NIDS field personnel was never implemented.
NIDS carefully investigated the wide variety of eyewitnesses to the incidents at the ranch and interviewed neighbors and locals who also experienced very similar events. Although in addition to psychological profiling, multiple discussions took place on the need to monitor stress hormones and other blood chemistry profiles of all researchers on the ranch, the initiative never went beyond the discussion phase. Such data might have contributed to supporting or eliminating the fugue hypothesis. Nevertheless, we found no common thread that might point to an underlying psychopathology among the various witnesses from different locations and backgrounds. It is unlikely that fugue states, paraphrenic delusion, or groupthink were involved in all of the occurrences, although isolated episodes are difficult to refute on these grounds, particularly those in which only a single individual visually perceived and reported an event while a nearby colleague could see nothing.
Nature
Could a natural phenomenon be responsible for the events? Could the presence of either a seismic, an electromagnetic, or an environmental variable have induced consistent hallucinations in the human brain and altered the perceptions of both the Gormans and the NIDS investigators? NIDS spent a lot of time investigating and testing this hypothesis.
The best-known theory of environmental variables affecting human perception and giving rise to anomalous phenomena is the Tectonic Strain Theory (TST) proposed by Michael Persinger, John Derr, and others. These researchers have published widely on an alleged geographical and temporal relationship between mild tectonic or seismic stress and reports of anomalous aerial phenomena, including, but not limited to, earthquake lights. The TST holds that electromagnetic energy released from seismic stress sometimes manifests as light (the so-called earthquake lights) and also may interact with the human brain, perhaps as VLF (very low frequency) or ULF (ultra-low frequency) radiation to cause hallucinations, particularly in the temporal lobe. The former “direct effect” of earthquake lights has been seen and reported in conjunction with and in the vicinity of seismic activity, but the latter theory of an effect on the brain is little more than informed speculation.
Persinger and Derr have invoked the TST to explain the long history of UFO activity in the Uinta Basin. Therefore, the events at the Utah ranch provided an excellent opportunity to test the TST. NIDS attempted to correlate the timing and locations of seismic activity, using both United States Geological Survey and Utah State University seismic databases, in a three-hundred-kilometer radius of the ranch over a ten-year period with events reported by both the Gormans and NIDS investigators. But we found no such temporal or geographical correlations.
We also looked at a number of other possible environmental variables, such as the possibility of ingested hallucinogens. But we found no correlation with local drinking water, since in most cases NIDS researchers consumed only bottled water. A close study of the flora on the property also failed to reveal an abundance of plants known to contain psychoactive substances. In the event that hallucinogens may have been windborne, we examined local wind direction data for a period of ten years and found no correlation with the timing of reports of anomalous events at the ranch.[I know 6 people who were on the property in the late summer of 1979 who did ingest hallucinogens and for almost 20 years those people thought it was the LSD that was responsible for the events of that night. DC]
Finally, we mapped magnetic field anomalies, using published aeromagnetic surveys as well as taking dozens of field measurements of magnetic field flux on the ranch ourselves—not to mention gravitational and other incongruities around the Uinta Basin—but all these efforts failed to correlate with the events observed on the ranch.
Advanced Terrestrial Civilization
This hypothesis would have us believe that sometime in human history, maybe during the biblical era, during the Middle Ages, or even just prior to the Nazi era, an isolated group of humans gained access to advanced technology and have controlled world human affairs for their own ends ever since. To cover their activities, these humans are said to engage in deceptive simulations to persuade people that benign extraterrestrials are visiting Earth. Their presence on the Utah ranch would imply a covert program of unknown purpose, possibly a tiny but inscrutable part of a larger scheme fitting their overall global agenda. But if they are humans, they would still think mostly like us and make mistakes like us. Some puzzling lapses on the part of the phenomenon, including several instances when Tom Gorman was apparently able to hide on the property while a bright light searched for him, lend weight to such a hypothesis.
One anecdote in particular deserves elaboration. Gorman was gathering hay one late summer evening in 1995. He noticed a bright light that appeared to be “watching” him while hovering above the ridge. He saw such objects often and was accustomed to being watched in this manner. For whatever reason, on this particular evening Gorman grew impatient, threw down his pitchfork, and ran in the direction of the bright object. His reaction seemed to catch the light by surprise. The object darted down out of sight behind the ridge. Gorman quickly seized the opportunity and dove behind a nearby hay bale and burrowed out of sight. Then he waited. Sure enough, within a few minutes the brightly lit object flew low over the field and began flying back and forth. Gorman sensed it was looking for him but could not find him. After several minutes of quartering the area, the object flew toward the ridge and Gorman climbed out from his hiding place and began shouting and taunting the object. Gorman said it blinked several times on and off and then flew away.
The incident left Gorman feeling elated because psychologically he knew he had won a small battle in this long war. He had succeeded in making a fool out of the probe or drone or whatever the bright light represented. Gorman thought he had also exposed the fallibility of their sensing system. The actions of the probe, as it flew around the field at low altitude, appeared to indicate it was not sophisticated enough to spot Gorman as he hid in the hay bale. Only much later did Gorman consider the possibility that the object knew exactly where he was hiding but had merely been toying with him. Regardless, for a time, this incident convinced Gorman that these intruders—human or otherwise— were not omnipotent.
Extraterrestrials
The best-known, but not necessarily the most credible, model for multiple anomalous phenomena is that extraterrestrials from a distant planet have been, and still are, visiting planet Earth and for some unknown reason the ranch as well as the surrounding Uinta Basin for decades. But it is very difficult to conceive of an agenda for a group of extraterrestrial visitors choosing such a remote and out-of the-way location. In the standard model of the ET hypothesis, the aliens are flying nuts-and-bolts spacecraft and interact with their surroundings in relatively understandable ways. The testability of the ET hypothesis lies in accumulating sufficiently robust and repeatable data. Overall, the events at the ranch yielded insufficient data to support or eliminate this hypothesis.
However, some of the events on or near the Utah ranch very much fit the standard description of UFOs. (We recognize that UFOs and ETs are in no way synonymous.) For example, within a couple of weeks of selling the property to NIDS, Tom and Ellen saw a silver-colored, disc-shaped object hovering over the ridge. The object, which was twenty to thirty feet in diameter and apparently metallic, brilliantly reflected the midday sun. As the Gormans drove onto the property, the object moved quickly from the ridge and then hovered directly over the ranch. Without warning, the silver disc disappeared in a bright flash of light. The Gormans felt unnaturally elated by the episode. This exhilaration appeared quite out of place given the extreme stress that the family had been under since arriving on the ranch. The silver disc they saw very much fits the classic description of an unidentified flying object as reported by thousands of people worldwide.
Another example of a “classic” UFO sighting occurred on November 13, 1996, at 1 A.M. , when a colleague and I witnessed a silent, extremely fast-moving object coming from the north and rapidly executing a perfect loop over the command and control center before returning north. Again, the rapid speed, perfect maneuverability, and eerie silence fit the descriptions of a typical UFO, which the public tends to view as synonymous with extraterrestrials. But these sightings of “nuts-and-bolts” craft constitute a distinct minority of the reported events when measured against the total spectrum of weirdness on the property.[LOL...weirdness on the property,yeah that sums up the night the six I know had on the property DC]
Could the various orbs have been unmanned extraterrestrial probes? Some of the more daring members of the SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) community have predicted that if intelligent life from somewhere else had begun to explore the cosmos, it would do so by launching small smart probes that could report back over the vast interstellar distances. This strategy would lessen the obvious costs of organic beings having to make the arduous exploratory trip across interstellar space. Thus, one prediction from University of Toronto professor emeritus Allen Tough is that if Earth is, or has been, visited by ET, we should see some evidence of such small, smart probes.
The ability of the blue orbs to negotiate skillfully through the branches of a tree on the ranch, to dexterously dodge the snarling jaws of dogs (often by mere inches), to inflict unspeakable fear on both Tom and Ellen Gorman all suggest an advanced technology and intelligence. Were the blue orbs examples of small smart probes?
NIDS was actually able to test a version of this “extraterrestrial probe” hypothesis. In the 1990s, aerospace engineer T. Roy Dutton published a predictive model based on thousands of global sightings of anomalous aerial phenomena over a period of fifty years. Dutton proposed that the data was most consistent with orbiting unmanned (presumably) extraterrestrial surveillance craft, which on a predictable basis released smaller probes that entered Earth’s atmosphere. He believes that the entry into, or exit from, Earth’s atmosphere of what he called small “scout ships” is responsible for the so-called UFOs seen by thousands of people around the world. What we found most interesting about Dutton’s work was that he claimed to be able to specifically predict, from latitude and longitude coordinates anywhere on the planet, the timing of the appearance of such anomalous aerial phenomena.
Naturally, NIDS considered the Utah ranch a perfect location to test Dutton’s predictions. But human and camera surveillance deployed specifically to monitor at the precise times predicted by Dutton (plus or minus twelve hours) failed to detect any evidence whatsoever of anomalous activity on the ranch or in the air space above.
NIDS also attempted to acquire real time spectra of the mysterious flying lights. We deployed an extremely efficient, custom made, portable spectrometer on scores of occasions in order to capture spectrographic data and came up empty-handed on this front as well.
NIDS participated in multiple expensive forays into the analyses of purported extraterrestrial artifacts and even alleged extraterrestrial biological tissue, but without exception the results of our analyses yielded only terrestrial signatures. In fairness, we should point out that the many attempts made in the past to analyze physical objects or artifacts said to come from UFOs yielded not a single piece of evidence of extraterrestrial origin either. All artifacts, pieces of metal, or other objects from purported anomalous origins have yielded uniformly terrestrial signatures after being subjected to metallurgical, chemical, physical, biological, or other analysis. This includes the analysis of isotope ratios in metals from unusual sources, all of which yielded nothing but terrestrial signatures. To our knowledge, not a single piece of metal or artifact acquired in nearly sixty years of research has survived scrutiny and is still regarded as genuinely anomalous.
Ancient Astronauts
A version of the extraterrestrial hypothesis holds that alien interest in Earth is not new, but that, in fact, colonizing ETs or gods have been on Earth, the moon, Mars, or somewhere close by for thousands of years and have routinely interacted with humans since time immemorial. This hypothesis holds that the ETs may be responsible for the Bible, for the ancient legends of the gods in multiple cultures, for building some of the ancient monuments, etc. This scenario may be consistent with the concept of angels and demons from the Bible and other religious beliefs. Whether these beings are angelic or demon like ultimately depends on belief. Quite aside from such considerations, there is no physical data to support this version of the ET hypothesis either.
Chapter 26
The Military
Could the phenomena seen at the ranch be the result of the military’s newest ultra secret toys? If this hypothesis is true, then the Uinta Basin has been an outpost for the testing and deployment of military gadgetry and advanced technology since the advent of the military-industrial complex in the late 1940s. Such military technology may include advanced camouflage techniques; Special Forces insertion, extraction, and assassination techniques; psychological warfare techniques; advanced holographic technology and aircraft; drone and unmanned combat vehicles; and more.
What might the military’s agenda be? To test advanced technology on unwary individuals in isolated rural communities who would be less likely to raise a fuss about being “experimented” on? Both northeastern Utah and northern New Mexico have a four- or five-decade history of intensive, sustained anomalous activity involving hundreds, maybe even thousands, of people subjected to bizarre, unexplained phenomena. These communities exist far off the main highway system. From personal experience interviewing scores of the residents, both communities fiercely protect their privacy and are not predisposed to reporting what they experience to either strangers or the media. Both areas are relatively closed populations with low standards of living and both contain Native American reservations. In this context, if one were going to conduct a program of testing new technological toys on an unwitting population without much fear of getting caught, these isolated rural groups might be ideal. Of course, this kind of program would be a violation of civil rights and thus would be illegal. Does the illegality rule out this possibility? We think probably not.
In their efforts to leave no stone unturned, NIDS personnel invited input from “remote viewers” concerning the activities at the Utah ranch. Remote viewing is a controversial but intriguing mental technique that has been investigated and developed in classified studies sponsored by military and intelligence agencies in the United States, Russia, China, and other countries. Although it is widely considered to be a form of psychic ability, proper remote viewing is conducted according to structured scientific protocols.
A gifted remote viewer named Ingo Swann provided the spark that led to a decades-long study of remote viewing sponsored by American intelligence agencies. The primary research was conducted by the Stanford Research Institute under the direction of physicist Hal Puthoff and was funded by the CIA. Puthoff and his team succeeded in documenting results that can rightfully be described as mind boggling. In essence, remote viewers are seemingly able to project their consciousness across space and time and to access information that is unavailable by other means. Viewers are given a random series of numbers and letters that serve as target coordinates but that have no relation whatsoever to the target itself and are intended solely as a focal point for the viewers. All tests are blind, in that viewers are given little or no information about the target itself, although test managers sometimes give them questions about the kinds of information they should seek.
The CIA’s remote-viewing program was eventually transferred to the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA). In the late 1970s, the U.S. Army created an operational remote-viewing unit and used it to gather information about foreign adversaries. Overall control of the program was then turned over to the DIA in the mid-1980s and operated under the code name of “Star Gate.” The program was transferred back to the CIA in 1995 and was then canceled after the public release of a controversial report that declared that remote viewing had little or no value as an intelligence tool. This conclusion was so inconsistent with the astounding results that have been documented over three decades that most people familiar with the capabilities of remote viewing speculate that the research program is ongoing, but as an even more secretive operation.
While we do not place undue weight on any results obtained from remote viewing, we also did not want to omit any possibilities. This research project, after all, was not following any beaten path. By the very nature of the subject matter, NIDS had to keep an open mind and be willing to explore all avenues. In that spirit, NIDS asked several capable remote viewers to view the ranch on four different occasions. One was a former government employee and is regarded as the most uncannily accurate remote viewer alive today. Although he had no information about the property and no knowledge of what had taken place, his off-the-cuff peek at the target produced a nearly exact sketch of the ranch, including the canal, the ridge, and the individual homesteads. He identified a spot on the southwest portion of the ranch as harboring an energy that he described as “disturbing.”
A second remote viewer quickly homed in on the middle homestead as the center of what he described as weird energy vortices. That homestead was the location of much of the most intense activity recorded on the ranch.
Another prominent remote viewer, a retired military officer who was active in the CIA/DOD research program in its early stages, was asked to provide his impressions concerning the daylight mutilation of a calf. He said he had the sense that a robotic drone had carried out the mutilation, and that the drone might be of interdimensional origin. He then added that the drone had some connection to the military.
A fourth remote viewing exercise also suggested a military connection for the events at the ranch. Angela Thompson, a published author and trained remote viewer, teaches RV techniques to interested students in Boulder City, Nevada. At our request, she asked her associates in the Nevada Remote Viewing Group to take a look at the Gorman ranch, although none but Thompson were given any information about the target. Thompson’s group consists of remote viewers around the country. They offer their services to corporate clients but also to humanitarian projects and law enforcement investigations.
Five remote viewers agreed to participate and were given a random coordinate, SR110202. They were told that the target is a location and were asked to describe events that occurred at the location in July 1996. They were later asked to describe current activity at the location, as well as activity five years hence. NIDS received a report on their findings in January 2003. The overall impression of the group was that the location was the site of a military operation, an operation that most likely involved the U.S. Navy. One viewer described the Pentagon. Two perceived images of a navy ship, perhaps an aircraft carrier, which was somehow linked to the activity in Utah. The viewers saw armed men in military uniforms who wore dark sunglasses and sported navy tattoos.
Remarkably, three of the five independently perceived a large grid, net, or honeycomb made up of sophisticated electronic equipment and wires that had been embedded in the ground. Most of the activity at the location, they said, was taking place outdoors and at night. One viewer mentioned sparkling lights in a dark sky, something akin to a Fourth of July display. Another perceived the presence of a humanoid with a long neck and large head who spoke a “foreign” language. Overall, they came away from the task with feelings of dread, nervousness, darkness, and death, which is consistent with the impressions of the previous remote viewers.
Though it sounds far-fetched, the idea that some sort of military facility might be located in the underground had surfaced before. Tom Gorman and his family said they often heard the sounds of heavy machinery or metal equipment coming from under the earth. The fact that the previous owners had warned them to avoid any digging is a curious footnote to this scenario. Why give such a warning?
We offer one additional anecdote in this regard. Following the appearance of a mysterious ice circle in a shallow pond, a local psychic who walked the property declared that the circle had been produced by a technology that was located underground. We do not ascribe any level of credibility (or non-credibility) to this psychic impression but mention it because of its similarity to the events listed above and because of its consistency to the stories and legends of the Ute tribe, whose members have long believed that some kind of presence dwells in the ground beneath the Gorman property.[I am hesitant to add anything,but we were tripping on this thumping sound that we could not locate all night,so something underground makes sense to me in hindsight. DC]
We emphasize that the impressions of psychics and remote viewers do not constitute solid evidence of anything. NIDS simply hoped that the remote-viewing strategy could generate additional leads that we could investigate independently; we did not expect remote viewing to generate information that would stand on its own. We relate these investigations only in the interests of exploring all options and possibilities. The suggestion, psychic or otherwise, that the ranch was the site of some sort of clandestine military experiment cannot be ruled out entirely. The military and intelligence communities have vast resources at their disposal. They undoubtedly possess technological capabilities that are far beyond anything that is known in the public sector. And in the past, they have certainly demonstrated a willingness to carry out psychological warfare exercises, disinformation campaigns, and surveillance programs against unwitting civilian populations, even when such programs are clearly illegal.
Could the military be responsible for the phenomena observed at the ranch? The fact that military personnel were seen on several different occasions in the vicinity strongly suggests that the property became, at some point, a topic of interest for intelligence operatives. Whether they were attempting to monitor an unknown phenomenon or were gauging reactions to their own secretive endeavors is not known and may never be known. The U.S. government isn’t exactly cooperative in freedom of information matters these days. More material is being classified than ever before, and military officials have been advised to stall, delay, or deny requests for information, no matter how benign. However, we are reasonably confident that the military scenario is not a satisfactory explanation for all or most of what transpired.
Does the United States government possess technology that could duplicate many of the events and phenomena that were documented on the ranch? Holographic projections might conceivably account for some of the UFO sightings. We also know of advanced camouflage experiments that could theoretically explain some of the unusual intrusions or poltergeist-type incidents. It is even conceivable, if unlikely, that a new generation of silent, hovering Stealth-like craft has been developed and was deployed in a remote corner of Utah for purposes that cannot be discerned at this time. But if such technology is being used to terrorize innocent Americans, to inflict permanent psychological scars on entire families, to butcher animals and destroy the financial resources of law abiding, taxpaying citizens, then such activity is not only illegal, it is despicable. No excuse, even the threat of global terrorism, could justify such an endeavor.
Our military probably wishes it could do some of the things that have been seen on the ranch, but it seems doubtful to us. Blue, glowing, glasslike, electrically charged orbs filled with swirling liquid, orbs that act and react intelligently, independently, and instantaneously, orbs that are capable of vaporizing dogs and of terrorizing people and animals, are well outside the realm of any known or projected military research programs. This statement is made with some confidence, based on our long-standing personal relationships with persons who are in positions to know such things.
Has any mind-control research yet perfected methods by which individuals can be made to feel intense fear or unexpected elation, as was reported on the ranch? Such a capability would undoubtedly come in handy, if it could ever be mastered by the United States government. Again, we have no way of answering this question, but we are skeptical it would be used on U.S. citizens if it existed.
Although holographs or other projected illusions could conceivably explain some UFO or creature sightings on the ranch, they do not explain the physical evidence that accompanied those sightings. Some of the creatures that were seen left footprints in the snow and the soil. The unknown animal that attacked a horse left bloody wounds along the legs of the horse. The entity that stripped forty-five pounds of flesh from a newborn calf in a matter of minutes during broad daylight certainly left behind some physical evidence. Some physical object, definitely not a holographic projection, created large, distinct impressions in the grass and dirt.
One final possibility should be mentioned from the perspective of military activity on the Utah ranch. Recent allegations have surfaced that the Air Force Office of Special Investigations (AFOSI) engaged in several deception and disinformation operations in the 1970s, the 1980s and (presumably) in the 1990s. Many of these operations involved the simulation of “UFOs,” the manufacture of bogus evidence indicative of “extraterrestrial visitation” designed to conceal classified military technology or simply to lead investigators astray. In 2005, retired AFOSI special agent Richard Doty broke his silence to publicly acknowledge being involved in several of these “alien visitation” operations, the most famous being the disinformation campaign to persuade Albuquerque physicist Paul Bennewitz that an alien base existed in Dulce, New Mexico. The operation is described in detail in Greg Bishop’s book Project Beta: The Story of Paul Bennewitz, National Security, and the Creation of a Modern UFO Myth.
Since Dulce appeared to be the site of AFOSI orchestrated bogus alien and UFO operations, was the Utah ranch also in the cross-hairs of another AFOSI (or other agency) disinformation campaign? Was the huge plethora of phenomena experienced by the Gormans and by NIDS simply a well-orchestrated deception that was designed to create yet another UFO or “alien” myth? While the motivation for such an exercise is unclear, it is difficult to refute, on a case by case basis, that many of the incidents that the Gormans and NIDS experienced could have been created by a creative and very skilled team of deception artists. But the motivation? A possible explanation for targeting the Gormans was that prior to the family’s arrival, the abandoned property was being used for an important purpose and the operation was designed to drive the Gormans off the land. Or was the intent simply to create yet another “UFO” legend? Were the later ranch incidents designed to lead NIDS, a high credibility, well-funded organization that was spending considerable resources, astray? We will probably never know.
Regardless, although we deem it unlikely, in the light of Richard Doty’s allegations, we cannot completely refute the possibility that the Utah ranch was the target of a deliberate and very skilled deception operation.
But what technology could account for a living, breathing, bulletproof wolf, a beast that seemingly disappeared in mid-stride but left behind a chunk of its decaying flesh? What military or intelligence program can pull off a trick like that? What invisible soldier repeatedly slipped into Ellen Gorman’s locked bathroom (see page 239) and removed her towel and hairbrush? What Delta Force commando infiltrated her kitchen and unpacked her groceries from the cabinets? How many covert operatives did it take to surreptitiously invade the Gorman home for the purpose of taking the spatula out of the frying pan so that it could be hidden in the freezer? Which tough-as-nails marine was assigned the vital but routine task of switching the salt into the pepper shaker and the pepper into the salt shaker? To put it mildly, it’s a bit of a stretch.
As for the UFOs and anomalous aerial objects, it could be argued that our military might currently be capable of replicating some of the objects that have been seen on the ranch by the Gormans, by NIDS observers, and by others. But it is doubtful that any government on earth had such technology more than fifty years ago, which is when the sightings of huge, structured, metallic saucers and discs in the Uinta Basin became a matter of public discussion. Hundreds of well-documented sightings have been recorded in the area in the ensuing decades. What’s more, the Ute tribe lived in the basin long before the CIA or U.S. Air Force existed, long before the United States itself existed.
The Utes say the unusual aerial objects have always been present. They also say that the Gorman ranch has been a repository of dark, evil energies for at least fifteen generations. The military did not invent these perceptions.
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PART 7 OF 7
https://exploringrealhistory.blogspot.com/2021/01/part-7-of-7-hunt-for-skinwalker-native.html
The Native American Connection
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