The "creature" and the "portal" at the Skinwalker ranch - some concerns

Background

Readers of this blog will be aware, that I have recently spend quite an amount of time examining details contained in Jacques Vallee's latest book "Forbidden Science: Volume Four." I did this, because, Vallee is recording history as it happened, in the form of diary entries. For some of the material found in the book, this is the only record we have of particular events or meetings.

One of my blog posts concerned the National Institute for Discovery Science. One aspect which interested me was the happenings at a ranch in Utah (commonly referred to as the "Skinwalker ranch.") My attention was drawn to one observation at the ranch, which is mentioned both in "Forbidden Science: Volume Four" and in the 2005 book, authored by Colm Kelleher and George Knapp, titled "Hunt for the Skinwalker."

The incident as described in "Hunt for the Skinwalker"

Source: Amazon Books

"Chapter 19

The Tunnel

August 25, 1997. The night was warm, clear and beautiful. The NIDS team was sitting silently on the edge of a bluff...Two colleagues were about a mile away on the far side of the property monitoring another hot spot. Mike and Jim had been in specific contact with them every couple of hours...

Some four hours into the watch, Jim the most experienced investigator, had quietly climbed down into the small pasture and had sat in the middle of the field to meditate. He had found over the years that meditation sometimes activated the "phenomenon," what ever that was, although it had happened too few times to be anything other than an anecdotal observation. Nothing happened.

At 2.30am, after a six hour watch, they decided to move their operation to a different part of the ranch. Quickly, they began to disassemble the camera from its tripod and pack up the two equipment containers filled with the tools of the scientific investigator's trade. Cameras, portable magnetic field detectors, and night-vision binoculars. In 1997, their generation-three binoculars were considered state of the art. They worked by amplifying low-level ambient light through a series of high tech photomultiplier tubes. They were far superior to the usual Russian night-vision equipment that looked just in the infra-red. Through these night vision binoculars, the scene appeared to be in daylight with sharp, crisp outlines, not the fuzzy wavy image visible through Russian equipment.

Just as Jim was thinking that his meditation hadn't produced a damm thing, his eye caught a very faint light on the track 150 feet below him. He watched, mildly puzzled, thinking that it might be a  small piece of glass on the track that was reflecting the ambient light. It was a faint yellowish color, and as he watched, it appeared to grow brighter. Twenty seconds later, he nudged Mike. It was definitely getting brighter and as both of them watched, it seemed slowly to be getting bigger.

"Hand me the camera," Jim muttered. At the same time, Mike quietly and efficiently unpacked the night-vision binoculars he had just put away. Jim set up the tripod and positioned his camera loaded with infra-red film in line with the light that had now grown to six inches in diameter. It was still a dull yellow but had definitely grown brighter. Carefully, Jim set the shutter to thirty seconds, reasoning that a long exposure might capture this mystery light on the freshly loaded roll of infra-red film. He was ready to pop off all thirty six shots if necessary.

As Mike brought the binoculars to his eyes, Jim heard the sharp sucking in of breath. Jim could see that the light was now more than a foot wide and was still growing larger. This was very obviously not a reflection. The dirty yellow expanding light seemed to be positioned above the ground, rather than directly on the ground, but Jim could not be sure.

"It's a tunnel, not just a light," Mike whispered. Jim ignored his partner's growing agitation as he increased the length of time exposures to forty then fifty seconds.

Mike was now standing up. "Jesus Christ," Mike said hoarsely. "Something's in the tunnel!"

Jim looked carefully at the light below. It had now expanded to more than two feet. Something that big should definitely register on his film. "Oh, my God," Mike said suddenly thoroughly frightened. "There is a black creature climbing out. I see his head. " Jim felt alarm. His companion was plainly bordering on panic.

"It has no face," whispered Mike. "Oh, my God, it just climbed out." Jim rubbed his eyes and shook his head. All he could see was a dirty yellow light, now about four feet in diameter, a hundred feet below him. Why couldn't he see what Mike was seeing? Suddenly it dawned on him. The binoculars. He motioned for Mike to hand them to him, but not before increasing the time exposure to ninety seconds.

Mike ignored him. "It's on the ground," he said, "Oh, my God, it walked away." As Mike danced on the ledge a few feet away, plainly in a panicky state, Jim could see the light decreasing in size. Within thirty seconds, the dull yellow light had shrunk to about half its full diameter and was losing intensity.

In the meantime, Jim pulled Mike over close to him and asked, "What happened?"

"A big black creature just crawled through that tunnel, got onto the ground, and walked away," Mike said. "That's what happened. And its lurking around here somewhere."

Jim felt a chill. "I only saw that yellow light," he said doubtfully, "Are you sure?"

"Jesus Christ, of course, I'm sure," Mike replied. "The night vision turned the light into a three-D tunnel, and a large creature, I am thinking maybe four hundred pounds, at least six foot tall, just crawled out of that damm tunnel." quickly, but he seemed to be regaining control over himself.

Mike was sweating profusely and still breathing quickly but he seemed to be regaining control over himself...By that time, the yellow light had gradually faded and was no longer visible...

After fifteen minutes or so, they grabbed some detectors and clambered as quietly as possible down the steep rock-filled ground below them...But once near the track, a strong odor assailed their nostrils...It seemed to be centred on the spot where the light or tunnel had been. Jim felt slightly nauseous from the pungent smell. Quickly, Mike scanned the ground in a twenty foot diameter circle for any signs of radiation...only background levels were detectable. Meanwhile, Jim scanned the area with a trifield meter to detect any unusual magnetic spokes. Nothing registered...The team spent the next day searching for footprints...but the ground was hard and none were visible...The photos were disappointing, showing only a single very faint light on one..."

In summary. One person saw a yellow light which grew brighter, and larger, then decreased in size. A second person, in the same spot, using night-vision binoculars reported seeing a tunnel, from which a creature crawled out on to the ground and then moved off.  There were no unusual radiation nor magnetic disturbances. Both smelt a pungent odor at the site of the light. 

My comments

1. The event occurred at 0230hrs on 25 August 1997 at latitude 109 deg 31 mins west and longitude 40 deg 27 mins north. Near Roosevelt, Utah. 

2. According to the Stellarium astronomy software program, at this time the Moon was at an elevation of 37 degrees; in the ESE (azimuth 101 degrees.) The Moon was at last quarter, thus, providing a degree of lighting sufficiently to see something at 100-150 feet away. 

3. The maximum size of the light was estimated as four feet, at 100 feet distance (though earlier in the text it said the light was 150 feet away.) Using the 100 foot distance, its maximum angular size was 2.3 degrees, almost five times the diameter of the full moon seen in the sky. Using the 150 foot distance, the maximum angular diameter would have been 1.5 degrees, three times the diameter of the full moon in the sky. Quite a large size, at either distance.

4. It seems to me, that a person looking at a 1.5-2.3 degree diameter light at a 100-150 foot range, should have visually noticed a dimming of the light, as a six foot black creature emerged from it. However, Jim did not report seeing anything of this kind.

5. I note that no noise was reportedly heard from the light or creature at any time.

6. It is a pity that we do not have the field of view in degrees of the binoculars, and an estimate of how much of the diameter of field of view both the light and the creature occupied, as an independent measure of actual, as opposed to estimated angular size.

7. The observation of the creature was reported by a single person, who described it to another person, to which it was not visible. 

Jacque Vallee's recollection of the event

Image courtesy of Amazon Books

On page 391 of Vallee's "Forbidden Science: Volume Four" in a diary entry dated 18 October 1997, Vallee reports on the 10th NIDS Science Advisory Board (SAB) meeting. This was the first meeting of the SAB since July 1997, and thus the first opportunity for Vallee to learn of the event. 

"There was an incident at the ranch on 28 August about 2am when Chad Deetken and Terry Sherman  saw a light from the ridge. Chad saw a glow and his photos show nothing, but Terry observed a ring of light, opening up above the ground and a black creature emerging from it. Going to the site later they found no tracks: ghost stories, after all.

During the observation Terry, a big strapping cowboy, was reportedly trembling with intense fright. Chad, who had looked through the same night vision system, saw nothing. This triggered a technical discussion among the physicists, and it caused Bob Bigelow to make an emotional speech to suggest that 'they' might be using means beyond our physics."

My comments

1. Note that the date given by Vallee is three days after the date given by Kelleher and Knapp.

2. According to Kelleher and Knapp, the observers were named "Mike" and "Jim." Whereas, Vallee names them as Chad Deetken and Terry Sherman. "Jim" equates to Deetken; while "Mike" equates to Sherman.

3. Terry Sherman was the real name of the ranch owner (before Bigelow bought it.) "Hunt for the Skinwalker," says that Sherman, whom they called Tom Gorman, had long thought that some of the lights he had seen, were "doorways" to other dimensions. Quoting, "Hunt for the Skinwalker":

"Tom felt like it could have been a tear or a rent in the sky about a mile away, and through the rent he could see a different world, or perhaps a different time."

"This incident convinced Tom that his ranch was the site of some kind of dimensional doorway..."

4. Who was Deetken? Vallee's book mentions him a few times:

a. Page 301. Deetken had been sent by NIDS to Puerto Rico to research crop circles and mutilations.

b. Page 391. "Chad Deetken always prayed to protect himself when he keeps watch at night."

c. Page 392. "Chad Deetken gave an impassioned but unscientific description of the English crop circles..."

5. Vallee states that both Terry Sherman and Chad Deetken looked through the night-vision binoculars. Terry Sherman reported seeing a black creature, but Chad Deetken saw nothing. 

Conclusion

What to make of the observation of a "creature" and a "tunnel." The fact that there was a quarter Moon illuminating the scene; that Jim, in my opinion, should have been able, visually, to see some alteration of the relatively large diameter light, if something came out of it, but didn't; plus the statement from Vallee that Jim (Deetken)  "...had looked through the same night vision system, saw nothing," provides me with concerns about this observation.

Update

I thought I would do a bit of research about Chad Deetken.

I found an article dated 1 October 2014 in the "Salmon Arm Observer" which provided some details. It reported that Deetken became interested in the subject of crop circles in 1990, upon watching an episode of the TV series "Unsolved Mysteries." He then went on to investigate circles in his native Canada.

"In 1992, Deetken was invited to go to the stone monuments of Avebury in South Central England. Part of an investigative team, Deetken visited every year, but has given up going." Noting that hoaxing had become a part of the crop circle scene, the paper went on to say "...Las Vegas billionaire who invited Deetken to work for his National Institute for Discovery Science has since quit funding research in England."

I then found a number of crop circle websites with articles written by Deetken.

1. 1998. "Crop Formations and the Secrets of Deception"

2. 1998. "Crop Formation at Vanderhoof"

3. 1999. "The 1999 Avebury Avenue 3-D cubes. Another scam?"

4.  2005, Deetken featured in a documentary titled "Star Dreams: Exploring the Mysteries of the Crop Circles."

5. 2010, Deetken was still lecturing on the topic, and was cited here, as a "Recognized crop circle authority."

6. 2014, there was the "Salmon Arm Observer" article.