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Travis doesn't make final decisions in such circumstances, the team has a specialist in sensor and video technology, and he spent some time analysing the footage. His decision was, and I think he was correct, that it is not a fly. As for the cow's reaction, it may not have been that it saw the object but sensed it in some way. It is only one of multiple events on the ranch. Taking one instance of activity in isolation from the other phenomena is unwise. Here's another example. A local amateur astronomy group with extremely sophisticated gear was asked to study the mysterious area a mile up, to see whether the stars in that area of the sky showed any distortion (i.e. showing that some cloaking device was in operation). Their telescopes were all equipped with the latest very expensive software, comprising comprehensive star maps, so it should have been an easy job. In fact, none of them could do it because their star map programs were immediately immobilised and apparently lost all the location data. They were not pleased (I imagine they were compensated for the damage by the TV company!). Another example of dimensional shifting -- as I mentioned Travis went up in a helicopter to drop sensors through the mystery area, and most of them vanished and the ones that were recovered had bizarre data. But the strangest feature was that Travis was sighting straight down and dropping the packages directly above the mystery area (known as the triangle), but when the data were analysed they showed the helicopter hundreds of meters away from the triangle and actually above the mesa. (Other attempts to use helicopters or small aircraft also failed in weird ways.) I'm not going to keep describing the hundreds of weird things that go on there -- if you are interested, get the DVDs, then see how much you can explain!
The bit that I thought made really convincing film footage, was when they were out on the porch talking between each other, and they caught a good glimpse of something way up high, which was a brightly lit white orb-like object.
Then it seemed to disappear for a short second or two, then re-appeared some distance away then vanished.
 
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The bit that I thought made really convincing film footage, was when they were out on the porch talking between each other, and they caught a good glimpse of something way up high, which was a brightly lit white orb-like object.
Then it seemed to disappear for a short second or two, then re-appeared some distance away then vanished.
Yes, quite a few silvery disc like objects, also one or two small orbs picked up --- one looked as if it was a nearby insect but then it passed behind a tree some distance away. One point that hasn't been brought out in the series itself is that many (if not all) of the team working at Skinwalker have experienced the "hitch-hiker effect" -- when they return home after the shooting has finished they find weird things happening at their homes, and even in the surrounding neighbourhoods. I have experienced similar (but less scary) things since doing a lot of research into weird things.
 
The bit that I thought made really convincing film footage, was when they were out on the porch talking between each other, and they caught a good glimpse of something way up high, which was a brightly lit white orb-like object.
Then it seemed to disappear for a short second or two, then re-appeared some distance away then vanished.
This is it.
orb.png

The 'orb' appears almost on cue, almost as if he was expecting it. It could be something as simple as a mylar balloon shining in the sun; a mylar balloon which could have been released by anyone, even someone associated with the production.

We should not lose sight of the fact this is entertainment- and I have no more faith in their interpretations than I would have watching Derren Brown.
 
I have no idea what is going on. I tried watching some of the youtube videos about this and found them unbearable.

If the anomalies are real, then this approach does them a huge disservice.

Amateurish; too many people not contributing but may be interfering with measurements and results. If this man's professional vita is accurate, he presumably has well-trained scientist colleagues and associates he could call upon to help him with rigor of methods (designed to reduce error of measurement and error of interpretation), more than one trained observer (inter-rater reliability), etc.

But he does not. As @eburacum has noted, he does not take measures to eliminate conventional causes. Or at least he doesn't demonstrate that he does, which is the same thing in terms of others accepting his conclusions.
 
This investigation by Mick West is very informative.
plane1.png


They film an ordinary plane with a contrail, then claim that an identical object next to it is a UFO because it doesn't have a contrail. Anybody with an MS in physics should know that planes tend to fly at different levels when near each other, and the conditions for forming contrails are different at each altitude; it is easy to demonstrate that with two planes apparently next to each other, one may have a contrail while the other does not.

But there is more; the Skinwalker goons look the planes up on their radar; this identifies one of them as N519AS, ASA9340 at 33000 feet. This plane actually flew on a different day to the dates shown on the computer monitor in this episode, so either they filmed the computer readout on a different day, or it was a different plane.

Assuming they simply showed the computer screens on a different day, then the editing of this episode is misleading (but not as misleading as claiming it was the wrong plane). I suppose we should make allowances for the fact this is an entertainment show, not a science documentary. But it should ring alarm bells.

Mick West looked at the Flightradar for the day that this plane actually did fly over, and found that it happened at mid-day, not in the evening; he also found two other planes flying past in a different direction which could have been the two in the film clip. These two planes were not mentioned, so it looks almost as if someone is playing with the data.
metabunk-2020-04-22-09-34-23-jpg.40486


In neither scenario are the facts as presented in the episode accurate. Perhaps they don't expect anyone to check up on them.

more info here
https://www.metabunk.org/threads/skinwalker-ranch-episode-4-ufo-just-a-plane.11227/
 
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Not so much a documentary as a zoom call with Colm Kelleher and George Knapp.

Knapp is the 'investigative reporter' who started all this Skinwalker nonsense. Knapp also was responsible for publicising the known hoaxer Bob Lazar, so I see little hope of getting anything like a balanced view from him. Colm Kelleher is his co-author in a couple of publications about the Skinwalker ranch, and a former member of NIDS, so he's partaken of the Kool-aid too.
 
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Here's a much better podcast by Brian Dunning, who exposes how the bizarre Skinwalker Ranch label came to be applied to this obscure and inconsequential location.
https://skeptoid.com/episodes/4321

With a small portable building as a command post, they kept the ranch manned 24 hours a day to record any phenomena with remote cameras, and Knapp reported on any sightings they collected. They never found anything Kelleher would describe as physical evidence of anything, in fact the only real phenomena anyone ever experienced there were occasional cattle mutilations and floating lights. From my read of Knapp's reporting, none of it sounded outside the realm of normal cattle carcass predation and the various types of ghost lights we've discussed here on Skeptoid. Skinwalker Ranch seemed to have little or nothing to do with skinwalkers.

Knapp and Kelleher eventually published all of this in a book called Hunt for the Skinwalker, which, paradoxically, was mostly about hunting UFOs on the ranch instead. The explanation for the name Skinwalker Ranch came from their friend, UFOlogist Junior Hicks, who told that the ranch was "in the path of the skinwalker" according to, as he said, a curse that the Navajo once placed on the Utes. I was not able to find any historical basis for this suggestion. More likely, the name Skinwalker Ranch was chosen in recognition of the popularity of author Tony Hillerman's 1986 novel Skinwalkers, which is said to have been a pretty decent read, and had a classic juxtaposition of Navajo mysticism with modern detective science. It was probably this novel's success that suggested to Bigelow and Knapp that capitalizing on the scary-sounding word "skinwalker" would be a good marketing choice for their ranch and nonfiction book.
 
Since Travis has a PhD in optical science, he should know this, so I can only imagine he is deliberately obscuring the real nature of this data, or ignoring the reality for some perceived alternate explanation which is not in accordance with the facts.

And don't forget the light pillars. If I recall correctly they were much hyped, never explained and not revisited, most likely because the explanation was obvious and didn't play into the paranormal angle. The fact they claim to be conducting a serious scientific investigation yet fail to explain well known atmospheric phenomena to the audience is quite telling.
 
I still wonder - after all these years - what the Navajo make of the name given to the Sherman Ranch. And given apparently at random - skinwalkers having nothing much to do with the supposed phenomenon involved, aside from the fact that some have a tendency to parcel this stuff up as a package.

A skinwalker is a very powerful and malevolent thing in Navajo culture - so much so that discussing it in the wrong company, or even using the term itself - is not something people are comfortable with. When JK Rowling added the phenomenon to the Harry Potter universe the issue for the Diné was apparently not simply a kneejerk one based on general ideas of cultural appropriation - but based largely on the specific fact that the subject's exposure to the limelight was encouraging others (often strangers - which is an important factor) to ask Navajo people about skinwalkers, and/or to discuss them in their presence - which is something traditional Navajo are apparently deeply uncomfortable with. I read some years back that even protesting about the use of the name is difficult, as it involves discussing the subject with strangers.
 
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This is it.
View attachment 64292
The 'orb' appears almost on cue, almost as if he was expecting it. It could be something as simple as a mylar balloon shining in the sun; a mylar balloon which could have been released by anyone, even someone associated with the production.

We should not lose sight of the fact this is entertainment- and I have no more faith in their interpretations than I would have watching Derren Brown.
Yes, that's the clip. And yes it 'could' possibly be a mylar balloon. But it could also be the real thing, especially as it did appear, then disappear, then re-appear again! (And balloons usually don't disappear), but who can really say one way or the other with absolute reliability?:thought:
 
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A mylar balloon usually has a lenticular shape, and when it is edge-on to the observer it reflects less light towards the eye and is much less easy to see. But that is only one possible explanation, none of which were explored in the program.

To be honest, if it appears on Skinwalker Ranch, it ain't the real thing. This does not necessarily mean they are being deceptive, but they consistently fail to consider other explanations (for entertainment purposes).
 
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It gets worse. This New York Post report suggests funds were diverted from the Pentagon's UFO investigation into the Skinwalker nonsense.

The UFO Lie: Shocking truth of Pentagon AAWSAP program
 
I have no idea what is going on. I tried watching some of the youtube videos about this and found them unbearable.

If the anomalies are real, then this approach does them a huge disservice.

Amateurish; too many people not contributing but may be interfering with measurements and results. If this man's professional vita is accurate, he presumably has well-trained scientist colleagues and associates he could call upon to help him with rigor of methods (designed to reduce error of measurement and error of interpretation), more than one trained observer (inter-rater reliability), etc.

But he does not. As @eburacum has noted, he does not take measures to eliminate conventional causes. Or at least he doesn't demonstrate that he does, which is the same thing in terms of others accepting his conclusions.
Perhaps you can suggest "conventional causes" for local changes in magnetic field, extreme microwaves targeting individuals, someone's scalp completely detaching from their skull, time and space distortions such as I quoted, active interference with equipment, bizarre heat effects caused by playing an audio recording, UFOs apparently triggered by broadcasting a tape, As you clearly haven't watched the series yourself, you may regret making premature judgements about Taylor's competence, which seems excellent to me. In fact he is an example of a real, hands-on scientist, a rare type these days.
 
It gets worse. This New York Post report suggests funds were diverted from the Pentagon's UFO investigation into the Skinwalker nonsense.

The UFO Lie: Shocking truth of Pentagon AAWSAP program
They were basically two arms of the same research effort. If you would take the trouble to study phenomena yourself, rather than to criticise those who are doing the best they can to apply scientific method in a completely unprecedented environment, you might applaud those with the imagination and foresight to see the potential for new discoveries at the ranch.
 
Not so much a documentary as a zoom call with Colm Kelleher and George Knapp.

Knapp is the 'investigative reporter' who started all this Skinwalker nonsense. Knapp also was responsible for publicising the known hoaxer Bob Lazar, so I see little hope of getting anything like a balanced view from him. Colm Kelleher is his co-author in a couple of publications about the Skinwalker ranch, and a former member of NIDS, so he's partaken of the Kool-aid too.
Nice nasty comment about Kelleher who is arguably the best informed person around as far as the history of the ranch is concerned. You can't resist doing it, of course.
 
They were basically two arms of the same research effort.
In order to study the UAPs sighted by Navy personnel (which is what they were paid for) they went to the middle of a desert to study hobgoblins and werewolves? That sounds like a funny way to do it. But they don't need the Pentagon's money now, because they are getting funds from the History Channel, and the viewers. Good luck to them; if they discover anything useful, even better.

But that hasn't happened yet, and I am fairly sure that this 'research effort' will never produce anything the Pentagon, or science in general, can use.
 
In order to study the UAPs sighted by Navy personnel (which is what they were paid for) they went to the middle of a desert to study hobgoblins and werewolves? That sounds like a funny way to do it. But they don't need the Pentagon's money now, because they are getting funds from the History Channel, and the viewers. Good luck to them; if they discover anything useful, even better.

But that hasn't happened yet, and I am fairly sure that this 'research effort' will never produce anything the Pentagon, or science in general, can use.
Strange, but I don't recall "hobgoblins" or "werewolves" ever being mentioned. I suspect that the Pentagon knows exactly what it's doing, although whether it has some hidden agenda I couldn't say. But if there is some intelligence involved, and since the ranch is always one step ahead of the team's plans I think that can be assumed, it makes sense that the Pentagon, which is after all concerned with the nation's defence, has a responsibility to check out every potential threat -- and something that can produce seemingly impossible effects and mess around with space and time is certainly that.
 
These is no record that the people who owned the ranch from 1934-1994 had any unusual experiences. In the book Hunt for the Skinwalker, most of the interesting stories come from the previous owner, the Shermans, who bought the place in 1994. (For some reason, Knapp changed their name to Gorman in the book). These stories are entirely unsupported by evidence, of course. Bigelow bought the place in 1996, but Sherman still worked there and continued to report most of the weird stuff.

Under Bigelow, the 'National Institute for Discovery Science' investigated the ranch from 1996 to 2004, when they were disbanded. After NIDS, Knapp and Kelleher totally failed to record any usable scientific data at the ranch, Bigelow sold it to Fugal, who has a much more commercial approach to the subject.

Using Travis Taylor as a 'chief scientist' is a stroke of genius; with his approach they are guaranteed to never produce any useful data. Watch what happens with the 'buried UFO in the mesa' cliff-hanger; I have no doubt they will not find any real traces of extraterrestrial technology, even if they do get round to doing any excavation.

Perhaps it is all 'extradimensional' instead - a code word for 'invisible, intangible and not reproducible'.
 
I have always wondered why so many occurrences of unexplained and different phenomena are only here? Why have we not seen anything similar elsewhere on earth?

I do believe some of the different occurrences have been created to maintain the entertainment value. "Created" not meaning made up, but but that events have only been viewed within a very specific narrative.
 
These is no record that the people who owned the ranch from 1934-1994 had any unusual experiences. In the book Hunt for the Skinwalker, most of the interesting stories come from the previous owner, the Shermans, who bought the place in 1994. (For some reason, Knapp changed their name to Gorman in the book). These stories are entirely unsupported by evidence, of course. Bigelow bought the place in 1996, but Sherman still worked there and continued to report most of the weird stuff.

Under Bigelow, the 'National Institute for Discovery Science' investigated the ranch from 1996 to 2004, when they were disbanded. After NIDS, Knapp and Kelleher totally failed to record any usable scientific data at the ranch, Bigelow sold it to Fugal, who has a much more commercial approach to the subject.

Using Travis Taylor as a 'chief scientist' is a stroke of genius; with his approach they are guaranteed to never produce any useful data. Watch what happens with the 'buried UFO in the mesa' cliff-hanger; I have no doubt they will not find any real traces of extraterrestrial technology, even if they do get round to doing any excavation.

Perhaps it is all 'extradimensional' instead - a code word for 'invisible, intangible and not reproducible'.
It seems that contrary to your opinion, Bigelow and the NIDs team did make some significant discoveries, but did not publish details. I would certainly be interested to know what exactly you would consider to mean by usable scientific data, and I wonder if you were there what experiments and observations you would make. Incidentally, early on the team contacted Col. Alexander, who was involved in the NIDs investigation via a video link, and this is a brief summary:

Alexander says that he was with Bigelow on the day that he bought the ranch from
the Shermans. Events began to occur immediately, especially in the homestead
areas. NIDs had 24/7 video surveillance and sensors. On one occasion observers
looking down from the mesa from above Homestead 2 saw a brilliant light expand,
and a tall (6’) entity emerge and run off. They found no footprints or other physi-
cal evidence. Travis explains that they have also had two such events, with no
tracks left.
The Colonel also says that in winter, with snow on the ground, someone saw some-
thing like the predator in the film of the same name (a kind of visual distortion giv-
ing the impression of a entity cloaked from observation in some way). In another
incident someone saw something similar up a tree and shot at it. It fell, and subse-
quently they found the tracks of a large Raptor (“Jurassic Park” style).
Travis asked Alexander what he thought it all was. He felt they were dealing with
portals, a multidimensional reality. Sometimes different dimensions overlap, and
things can get through as real as anything else, but when the dimensions separate,
they’re gone.
 
Strange, but I don't recall "hobgoblins" or "werewolves" ever being mentioned.
George Knapp mentions them in his book, co-written with Kelleher. He uses the 'werewolf' myth as a way to explain the nature of a '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’scultures 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 is lycanthropy.) 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.
 
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I would certainly be interested to know what exactly you would consider to mean by usable scientific data,
A film clip or even a set of photographs is a good start. This would allow independent investigators to suggest better explanations for the data than the ones put forward by the ones put forward by (possibly-biased) observers. NIDS produced very little data of this sort; Taylor has produced a lot more film data, but (as demonstrated in this thread) this data can be interpreted in alternate ways.

I would also recommend the use of synchronised stereo cameras, which would allow the distance and size of an object to be calculated with some accuracy - this would eliminate flies, spiders' webs, and other nearby natural phenomena.

I'd get a bunch of real archaeologists on site as well; they are used to dealing with geophysical anomalies, which are commonplace phenomena near buried relics.
 
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It seems that contrary to your opinion, Bigelow and the NIDs team did make some significant discoveries, but did not publish details.
Sure they did.
Colonel Alexander seems unusually wacky. That makes me concerned about the US military mindset.
On one occasion observers looking down from the mesa from above Homestead 2 saw a brilliant light expand, and a tall (6’) entity emerge and run off.
There were two observers on that day, and a camera. Only one observer (Mike) saw this strange event (through night vision binoculars, which are notoriously difficult to use). The other observer (Jim) and the camera did not see this.
Mike and Jim worked on a written report of the incident. Their instruments had failed to record anything unusual. The photos were disappointing, showing only a single very faint blurry light in one and nothing on the rest of the roll of film. What had Mike witnessed crawling through the strange three-dimensional tunnel? What was that large, featureless, bulky humanoid creature that stood up and walked away silently into the darkness?
I suggest that Mike was simply mistaken, and the apparition was an artifact of a poorly-functioning night scope, like so many other 'sightings'.
 
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Perhaps you can suggest "conventional causes" for local changes in magnetic field, extreme microwaves targeting individuals, someone's scalp completely detaching from their skull, time and space distortions such as I quoted, active interference with equipment, bizarre heat effects caused by playing an audio recording, UFOs apparently triggered by broadcasting a tape, As you clearly haven't watched the series yourself, you may regret making premature judgements about Taylor's competence, which seems excellent to me. In fact he is an example of a real, hands-on scientist, a rare type these days.
No, I cannot. I am not a physicist. The skinwalker ranch videos I have watched in the past were on youtube, and they were dreadful: uninformative, speculative, music to heighten sense of anxiety, etc.

I have located the series you have stated is quite good. Here in the US, it is on Netflix. I will watch and get back to you.

I do apologize for coming across as flippant and dismissive. That was wrong of me.

BTW, I have had a background in designing and running large multi-disciplinary projects, with Ph.D.s in different fields working together. This experience informs my view of what gives an appearance of legitimacy and how different scientists working together is done.
 
Perhaps you can suggest "conventional causes" for local changes in magnetic field (snip)
You may have missed it, but I already pointed out that Taylor detected 'local changes in (the) magnetic field' while holding his compass directly between the bars of a metal fence. Here it is again.
f70a2995-5a50-411f-a287-5311effd5ac9-jpeg.52540


---------
Mick West replicated this effect by moving a conventional compass next to a metal gate in his back garden.
https://www.metabunk.org/data/video/51/51874-eefbe35939764a4070416a68c6e9593b.mp4
gate.png


---------------
They also detected microwave emissions in this episode, while standing near an observation tower full of wi-fi connected cameras.
cameras-on-tower-wifi-annotated-jpg.40490

and near a wi-fi connected weather station and booster
metabunk-2020-04-15-08-35-48-jpg.40340


Even when they are in the cave they are surrounded by radio-connected microphones and cameramen carrying electronic equipment.
metabunk-2020-04-12-08-50-38-jpg.40298


Basically, these geniuses are just detecting themselves and their own sensor equipment.
 
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A film clip or even a set of photographs is a good start. This would allow independent investigators to suggest better explanations for the data than the ones put forward by the ones put forward by (possibly-biased) observers. NIDS produced very little data of this sort; Taylor has produced a lot more film data, but (as demonstrated in this thread) this data can be interpreted in alternate ways.

I would also recommend the use of synchronised stereo cameras, which would allow the distance and size of an object to be calculated with some accuracy - this would eliminate flies, spiders' webs, and other nearby natural phenomena.

I'd get a bunch of real archaeologists on site as well; they are used to dealing with geophysical anomalies, which are commonplace phenomena near buried relics.
The team are already using an advanced video system which gives 24/7 recording of the entire ranch. They have also had an archaeologist examining the ancient stone structures on the mesa. One very bizarre finding in the last episode of the series to air in the UK arising from a very comprehensive scan of the entire area by the latest photogrammetry equipment were two anomalous sets of data points on the plateau that appeared a 100 feet or so above the surface of the plateau. The line connecting them passed through the location of a stone circle (one of the features seen by the archaeologist) -- in fact it was aligned with the large stone in the centre. I will try to upload some screenshots:

1 Major data point anomaly.jpg


2 Smaller anomaly.jpg
3 Both anomalies with the large central stone of the circle.jpg


This is a very interesting and puzzling finding. The two anomalies align perfectly with the centre of the stone circle. The petroglyphs carved on rocks near the feature indicate some kind of doorway or portal as they say these days. I am convinced from my own time slip research that the ancients knew exactly what effects they would get when aligning their stones and circles with the local energies.
 
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