More than an animal?

To gain an objective perspective on the Bigfoot phenomenon, we must consider certain cases of "high strangeness." The Bigfoot that appeared in the eastern United States in the early 1970s exhibited different characteristics than the shambling gentle giant of the Pacific Northwest. However, both had an equal number of witnesses.

Glowing eyes are an unlikely, but often mentioned, detail of eastern Bigfoot, as is its menacing behavior (these reports inspired the spine-chilling 1972 horror film "The Legend of Boggy Creek").

But it's not just in sensationalist America that apes display astonishing abilities. The April 17, 2012 issue of the Saint Petersburg-based magazine "Secret XX Century" tells the story of a bus driver traveling from Novosibirsk to Kemerovo. He had to brake to avoid a collision with a large, ape-like figure on the road. Suddenly, the figure vanished, a fact that was also noticed by other bus passengers.

There's also the ability to confuse our minds. Another Russian magazine, "Niewieroyatnoi Liegenradnyi Dokazatielstwa," in its March 12, 2012 issue, reports that yeti proponent Valentin Sapunov, following a wave of sightings, conducted a field survey in Malaya Vishera, Novgorod Oblast. Having set up camp there, he never saw a yeti with his own eyes, but the proximity of one made him uneasy.

This paranormal element of the phenomenon leads us back to the role this creature played in the mythologies of the past: In Bhutan, the Migoi (their counterpart to the yeti) was associated with phenomenal strength and invisibility. Myra Shackley noted that the Lesky—the Bigfoot seen by the inhabitants of Khanti-Mansiysk in Western Siberia—had eyes "glowing like lanterns," and its appearance brought bad luck (Shackley, pp. 130-131). Things get worse.