Gathering shows proof of interest in paranormal Options

[Paul1968UK]

Gathering shows proof of interest in paranormal
Sunday, March 20, 2005
BY JOHN LUCIEW
Of The Patriot-News

GETTYSBURG - Eric Altman has spent the last 24 years of his life trying to track down Bigfoot.

Yes, that Bigfoot, a.k.a. Sasquatch, Yeti, the Skunk Ape, Yeren or Yowie.

Altman simply refers to him -- or her -- as "a large, upright, hair-covered primate." And he just knows he's out there, somewhere.

Maybe even in one of Pennsylvania's forests.

"We get calls about sightings all the time," said Altman, co-founder of the Pennsylvania Bigfoot Society in Jeanette.

As it turns out, our state is a hotbed of close encounters of all kinds -- ghosts, UFOs, monsters and, of course, Bigfoots.

These alarming facts were revealed at yesterday's fourth annual Pennsylvania Paranormal Conference in Gettysburg.

The event attracted about 100 people, all willing to plunk down the $90 registration fee, plus the cost of a hotel room, to listen to a day's worth of spooky stories.

They came from all over -- Pennsylvania and its surrounding states and some as far away as Georgia and Kentucky.

Not all are believers, but most seemed open to the possibility that we are not alone.

Or, as Bill McEwen of Lawton, Susquehanna County, put it: "They can't all be crazy."

McEwen related his eerie tale of a disappearing rabbit.

It happened while he and a friend were hunting small game. Both drew a bead on the same bunny and fired. Just like that it was gone.

"Poof, it just totally disappeared," McEwen said. He hastily added, "And we weren't drinking. It was a ghost rabbit."

If there's a universal trait among true believers, it's that they're passionate about the paranormal.

Frank Feschino's eyes grow as wide as saucers when he talks about the misnamed Flatwoods Monster of West Virginia.

It really wasn't a monster, or as Feschino put it, a biological entity.

It was a UFO probe that a bad sketch artist and a shaken housewife turned into a monster dressed in monk's clothing, with a blood-red face, claw-like hands and an ace-of-spades cowl.

That description could also fit a rocket-like UFO, Feschino says. The cowl could be a helmet; the flared monk's robe, a propulsion system; and the claws, possibly antennas.

After 15 years of research, Feschino says he's pieced together the flight paths of three UFOs that streaked the skies above Washington, D.C., and 11 northeastern states, including Pennsylvania, on Sept. 12, 1952.

Several sightings were made at the former Olmsted Air Force base in Lower Swatara Twp. And there are headlines from dozens of old newspapers, all talking of "lights in the skies."

"It was a craft, a probe, that came out of a larger craft," Feschino said of the Flatwoods incident. "They were checking out the Washington area."

In the end, however, the U.S. government chalked it up as a meteor shower.

And that's the rub. Even the most ardent believer will admit that absolute proof of these phenomena remains elusive.

One man's UFO crashing into a Carbondale pond in 1974 is another's railroad lantern at the bottom of the pond.

That's why they keep looking.

Like Fox Mulder on "The X-Files" or Kolchak on "The Night Stalker," they go on documenting the cases. They even hold academic-style seminars like yesterday's to share what they've uncovered.

It's why Altman keeps answering the phone at the Bigfoot Society. He takes down sighting reports, reviews photos of purported tracks and even makes 15 or more field trips each year -- all of it detailed in quarterly newsletters.

But what would he really do if he ever came face to face with the big guy?

"That's a hard question," Altman said, a table full of plaster footprint casts before him. "I'd like to think I'd get a picture or a video, but I don't know."

Then his wife, Kathy, looked up from her knitting and shot her husband a skeptical look.

"He'd probably invite Bigfoot to dinner," she said.

Eric Altman didn't disagree.

JOHN LUCIEW: 255-8171 or jluciew@patriot-news.com

Copyright 2005 PennLive.com. All Rights Reserved.

http://www.pennlive.com/news/patriotnews/i...14087325560.xml

[legend-2]

Yep, Eric's a pretty Kool guy.

[billgreen2005bigfoot]

hi researchers good morning thats a wonderful article about pa sasquatch researcher eric altman i always visit his great pa sasquatch website. i hope this article help eric get even more sightings from his state. also i used to get his newsletter as well. thanks bill green

[GrandCherokee]

McEwen related his eerie tale of a disappearing rabbit.

It happened while he and a friend were hunting small game. Both drew a bead on the same bunny and fired. Just like that it was gone.

"Poof, it just totally disappeared," McEwen said. He hastily added, "And we weren't drinking. It was a ghost rabbit."

Yeah! I encountered a Ghost Duck once while hunting! Forgot I had a slug in the barrel and not birdshot. Damn near dislocated my shoulder and that sucker (duck) just disappeared just like a ghost too!! Don't remember if I were drinking or not...wouldn't have made much difference anyway!