In the final installment of my cryptid-posting trifecta, I will be handling my most schizophrenic take: bigfoot, the giant ape man with, well, big feet, is actual a demonic spirit of chaos and madness. I guess we can just get into it.
First, I'll address his modern incarnations and then I'll handle his more ancient forms. In summary, bigfoot is a large, very hairy man with large feet, which makes him identifiable by footprint, sometimes described as a branched ape evolution from the Americas, other times as a missing link between man and apes. However, there is also a more spiritual element to such a being. As established in another post, aliens are certainly demonic spirits. Well, Bigfoot is actually loosely associated with UFO phenomenon in a number of cases. This HuffPost article details many of these connected accounts, and I think an analysis of one of the full accounts would really drive the point home. On the evening of October 25, 1973, in Pennsylvania, there were sightings from at least a dozen people witnessing a hovering red ball of light, and when a man and his sons went to take a closer look, they saw a bright white "dome-shaped" object which was appearing to land and made a loud noise. Near there, they saw two, seven or eight-foot tall, dark grey, hairy men with long arms and calls that sounded like a crying baby. One of the boys fired four shots, one as a warning and three into the tallest one, at which point it whined and the ball of light disappeared as the two walked back into the tree line. The young man came back a little later with a state trooper and after seeing the two creatures again, fired his last shot into one, and when it didn't fall, they high-tailed it out of there. At around 2am that night, a local UFO study group questioned one of the boys, and I think for the rest of the story I'll just quote the account, because I won't do it justice: "he [the young man] suddenly began breathing heavily, growling like an animal, and flailing his [arms], knocking his father and the investigator to the ground. As this behavior was occurring, one of the team members complained of feeling light-headed, then another of breathing difficulty. Then the young man, still swinging his arms around and growling like an animal, suddenly collapsed face down in a heavily manured area. Then he came to and warned the others, 'Get away from me. It’s here. Get back.' The father and the investigator who had been knocked to the ground, began to help the young man out of the area. The young man pointed into the darkness, claiming it was nearby, mumbling that he would protect them. He also said something about seeing a man 'in a black hat and cloak, carrying a sickle.' The young man claimed that the dark figure gave him a message: 'If Man doesn’t straighten up, the end will come soon.'" If that isn't a case of demonic oppression/ possession, I don't know what is. The man was growling like an animal, a sign of madness and inhumanity, think of Nebuchadnezzar's punishment in Daniel to live as a cow. From there, the spirit tosses him into a place of filth, just as the demonic spirit sent the man's child into fire and water in Mark 9. Finally, it gives him horrifying visions which he delusional promised to protect him, with them urging him into pride, but nonetheless being overcome by fear, a sign of despair. In this same vision, he saw death, signified by dark clothing and a sickle, prophesying the destruction of the world, which is an empty threat, since Christ is king and the destroyer of Death, and the Father is the one who will bring about the world's end. We know that, at the very least, this man's experience ought to be chocked up to demonic deceptions.
Contemporary paranormal researchers are also starting to connect ghosts, aliens, and bigfoot to a common source as well. In many sightings, there are glowing orbs, and in this documentary, you can see many bigfoot enthusiasts who have become obsessed with new age spirituality and in a kind of bigfoot cult. Some Sasquatch afficianados have theorized that they are interdimensional travelers that use magnetic portals to get to our realm and back, positing this as an explanation as to how no one has ever found a body. Others have supposed that the neanderthals evolved their societies to become excellent at hiding themselves and their corpses, though this is poor at explaining how absolutely no bones have been found. However, the spiritual explanation avoids this entirely. Rather than requiring such far-fetched and sci-fi-esque explanations, if the beings are actually demons, then of course there would be no corpse, demons don't have flesh. Instead, they lead humanity on a hunt for a creature with ancient pagan connections, bringing back the worship of the wild, as in the cults of Pan and the nature spirits.
Though there are sighting of wild men all over the world, the two hotspots for the phenomenon are the Orient with the Tibetan Yeti, and North America with the Sasquatch, though he goes by many names. First, I will handle the eastern myths about the being. In Tibetan folklore, the Sherpas said that the Yeti was a being that inhabited the realm between man and animals and that they were the children of two incarnated gods (giants?) but eventually became humans. The Yetis, though they retain kinship with humans, are still in a liminal space between the beast and human worlds. In Tibetan Buddhism, Yetis were considered good Buddhists, either as the companion and protectors of the yogis or of specific pagan temples and shrines. There are also rituals, including fertility ones and spells, which require yeti blood and scalps. There are also stories of yetis as fearsome incarnations of mountain deities, causing illness, crop and livestock destructions, and even death. and their presence is sometimes seen as a bad omen. The Lepcha see them as lords of the wild, granting either good or bad hunts and requiring offerings as deities. Two of the most interesting are those of the Sikkimese and the Bhutanese. The former tell stories of a mountain spirit who helps those meditating in the mountains with their mental ascent by giving them meat and firewood for their survival. They are also said to be local deities but they all work together to protect Sikkim, a land hidden in the mountains but full of treasure, relics, and medicinal herbs. The Bhutanese yeti is said to have magic powers, being able to become invisible at will and having blood that can be used in magical relics. This being, however, is said to have a hollow back. There is also another figure called the "forest shaman," who is said to teach other shamans about the spirit world, and he is described as a furry man with backwards feet. Hollow backs and backwards feet, in Nepalese folklore, are exclusively used for particularly aggressive spirits of the dead, once again pointing to the supposedly benevolent spirits' nature as demonic deceivers.
The Japanese also have a few yokai (traditional spirits) that match the sasquatch or the yeti. Satori, whose name simply means "enlightenment," are large mountain apes that eat men and abuse women, but they are not simple savages. They are able to read people's minds and have a tendency to scare people by speaking their thoughts out loud before they can even say them out loud. Another very similar spirit is the Hihi, who also has the ability to read human thoughts and loves to kidnap women. However, his blood is said to have magical properties in that is will never fade if used as a red dye, and if drunk, it allows the drinker to see ghosts and demons.
Now for the Native American stories about the being. In the northwestern tribes, they are referred to as the Stick Indians. Though they were already very large and very strong, they were also said to have a great deal of mental powers at their disposal. Some said they could hypnotize people or cause insanity, but at the very least, all agreed that he confuse men and evoke anxiety and dread in their hearts through his malevolence. There are also other stories from the same area about him. Dakota Sioux call him the Big Man, and they say that he is an interdimensional being with the abilities to travel through different realms to get to us and back. He is supposedly a messenger sent from the divine realm to tell mankind that they are on the wrong course. This story is shared by the Athapaskans and the Turtle Mountain Ojibway, and the Iroquois also have legends of his psychic abilities and interdimensional travel. My favorite account, however, is that of the Slant-Eyed Giant or the Cherokee Devil, as it was mistranslated. The story begins with a woman wanting to marry a mighty hunter and the giant appearing to her. The two marry, but her family still hadn't met him. However, the mysterious stranger was able to read minds wherever he was and so was always able to bring the family what they needed, until her mother asked for wood and he gave them trees, to which she complained that he brought too much. From then on, he had a distaste for the mother and refused to ever see her. When his wife asked him to, he demanded that none of them shriek nor call him frightening but nonetheless agreed to appear. When the mother shrieked after she saw him, he said he would never return, after which the girl had a strange and very bloody delivery, having not even known she was pregnant. The mother threw out the strange bloody clump, and so the giant saved the child and took his wife from her mother for abusing their child and they all went back to his homeland. Then her brother went to find them and found out the giant lives with other giants inside a mountain and that his wife also lived there with her now two children. The brother went multiple times but each time she would come out to see him with her children but never let him in, which parallels the idea of gods living on mountains that most mortals cannot approach. Finally, he was invited in and the giant said he wanted to see the young man. However, he could not see him until he was purified with new dress, once again some very divine imagery. From there, the giant, still unseen, told the young man that all the people had to fast for a week, put on those same special garments, which the beast would give them, and could not "raise the war whoop" when they heard him coming, and then they could see him. When he got back, all the people agreed to these terms, but one foreigner secretly snuck out of town every night and would go eat. When the time came, there was a great roar, and as it got louder, the foreigner raised the war whoop and ran, and the monster left, never to return. The brother still was able to go and visit his sister, but the creature would not be seen by mortal eyes.
With all that said, there is also an interesting relationship between Judeo-Christian tradition and bigfoot. In one traditional interpretation of Lamech's Song of the Sword in Genesis 4:22-23, there is a story that Lamech and his son Jubal were hunting in the former's old age, during which he shot a creature which he mistook for a wild animal but which was actually Cain. The idea is that Cain became more and more bestial as he was cast into the wilds, becoming hairier with teeth and claws etc., which signifies that he became one with the ferocious sin which was "crouching at his door." This is actually carried into a Mormon folk belief that bigfoot actually is Cain. According to one of the first twelve Mormon apostles, he actually saw a large man with no clothes but covered with hair who said he was a miserable but deathless creature and that "his mission was to destroy the souls of men." After hearing this, the faux apostle rebuked him in the name of Jesus, at which he promptly fled. Now, the creature actually never says he was Cain, though he references the Lord's curse when he calls himself a wanderer, but his reference about being a destroyer of the souls of men is odd if this is really Cain. I would propose that this account make much more sense as a demonic spirit, as not only does Cain have little to do with the soul's destruction, but he also likely wouldn't be cast out by Christ's name. What's more, there are also many traditions about Cain's death, so to say that Cain is immortal seems unlikely. The claim to be "wandering to and fro" could be a reference to Job, where the devil tells the Lord that he wandered to and fro on the earth, instead of to Cain's curse. The final Christian story is that of Nebuchadnezzar. In Daniel 4, the Babylonian king is punished for his pride, and his punishment consists of a bestial madness. For seven years, he was chained in a field, grazed like a cow, and was said to have hair as long as eagles' feathers and nails like birds' talons. This description is also very similar to Sasquatch, which points to the theme of a hairy wild man as a symbol of madness and demonic powers, being the Babylonian king.
O Lord, let us make use of the reason which you give us and keep us free from the demonic powers of madness in our world. Amen.
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