Folklore in the making (part 1)

 

So I looked into Dogman...again. It seems the skeptics are mostly right about this one. While strange reports of doglike creatures are as old as civilization, the modern Dogman seems to be a piece of emerging folklore which can be traced back to an April Fool´s Joke in 1987 (Michigan) and to Linda Godfrey´s article on the Beast of Bray Road in 1991 (Wisconsin). Godfrey´s subsequent book (published in 2003) plus the Internet popularized the Dogman and also "streamlined" him. 

Previously, there wasn´t really a single Dogman phenomenon. Now, there is. The creature is virtually always depicted as large, bipedal, intelligent, extremely dangerous and obviously canid. It´s also a flesh-and-blood creature. Finally, note the difference between Dogman and werewolves: the latter are said to be humans who can shape-shift into standard quadrupedal wolves.

Of course, a paranormal explanation is also possible, and the Dogmen would then be fairies taking whatever form we expect them to...

Can you look specifically at the earliest Bray Road reports and list what each witness actually said about whether the creature was walking on two or four legs?

Yes. I went back specifically to the earliest material, rather than relying on later Dogman summaries. The picture is actually more nuanced than I suggested before: some of the earliest Bray Road-area reports explicitly involve four-legged movement, while others involve upright movement or a transition between the two.

The most important source is Linda Godfrey's contemporary December 29, 1991 article in The Week, because it records testimony and the Humane Officer's files at the time, rather than decades later.

Earliest reports, approximately 1989–1991

Witness/report	Approx. date	What was actually reported about locomotion
Lorianne Endrizzi ("Barbara")	1989	Kneeling, not simply standing. She saw the creature beside Bray Road eating roadkill. Its knees were bent "like a human would do"; elbows were up and it held the food in its hands/paws. She did not actually describe seeing it walk on two legs.
Scott Bray	~1989	Reported a very large dog/wolf-like animal. Later accounts describe it principally as quadrupedal. The available contemporary 1991 article does not give a detailed locomotion account for his sighting.
Russell Gest / Heather Bowey group	~1990	This is particularly interesting. Heather and the other children initially thought they were looking at a large dog. It then stood up, and subsequently ran toward them "kind of like a dog," with bigger leaps. Thus this account explicitly contains both four-legged and upright behavior.
Mike Etten	~1990	Reported seeing a large animal sitting on its haunches, holding roadkill. This is not necessarily evidence of habitual bipedalism; the posture could be interpreted as a quadruped sitting upright.
Doris Gipson (Pat in the original article)	Oct. 31, 1991	Saw the creature running toward her after she got out of her car. She specifically qualified her interpretation: "you could suggest that it was on two legs," because she could see its chest so clearly. Thus probably bipedal, but she herself expressed some uncertainty.
Other reports in Jon Fredrickson's "Werewolf" file	pre-Dec. 1991	At least one report involved a hairy, pointed-eared creature chasing a deer on two legs. Another involved a fast "man-like" creature. These were already in the Humane Officer's files before Godfrey's article.
Robert Bushman and wife	reported as 1991 in later chronologies	Four-legged animal, described as running/chasing a deer. This is consistent with the quadrupedal strand of the reports.

The Endrizzi report is especially revealing

This is the famous image that essentially became the visual prototype of the Beast of Bray Road.

Endrizzi did not see a seven-foot humanoid walking down the road.

She saw something kneeling beside the road, with its back toward her, eating something. Its elbows were raised and its claws/forepaws were turned outward. When she drove past, it turned its head toward her but didn't flee. She estimated it at about 5'7" and 150 lb.

Godfrey's original sketch consequently depicted a kneeling canine humanoid, rather than a conventional upright Dogman.

That is an important distinction.

And the children give us perhaps the clearest "shapeshifting" locomotion

The Heather Bowey account is particularly interesting because the creature apparently looked like a large dog while on four legs, then stood up, and later ran back toward the house in a dog-like manner.

Godfrey's 1991 article records Bowey saying:

"When it stood up, they looked bigger than a dog's or coyote's..."

And then:

"I looked back and saw it running toward us kind of like a dog would run but with bigger leaps."

So this isn't merely a later embellishment that somebody "couldn't tell whether it had two or four legs." The original 1991 reporting already contains an animal that alternates between the two modes of locomotion.

Gipson is somewhat different

Doris Gipson's Halloween 1991 encounter is probably the strongest early apparently bipedal report.

She saw the creature charging her after she had gotten out of her car. She could see its large, hairy chest and described its movement as extremely powerful. But importantly, she didn't say categorically, "It was running on two legs."

She said that one could suggest that it was on two legs because she could see its chest so clearly.

That's a useful piece of evidential caution that often disappears in later retellings, where the account becomes simply:

"Doris saw a seven-foot Dogman running upright."

The original account is more qualified.

So your original impression was correct

Looking specifically at the early evidence, I'd characterize the phenomenon this way:

1989–91 Bray Road reports were not consistently of a permanently bipedal humanoid.

Instead, there were several morphological/locomotive patterns:

quadruped → large wolf/dog-like animal

crouching/kneeling → Endrizzi

sitting on haunches → Etten

stands upright → Bowey group

moves on four legs, then stands → Bowey group

apparently runs upright → Gipson

explicitly runs on two legs → one of the reports in Fredrickson's file

That is considerably more interesting than the later standardized "Dogman" description.

One further wrinkle: pre-1991 reports

Godfrey herself later said that when her December 1991 article appeared, people came forward with additional accounts and told her that some sightings had occurred as much as ten years earlier. She also mentions a possibly related 1936 incident in Jefferson County, roughly 40 miles away.

So there really are two separate questions:

1. Was the Beast of Bray Road originally reported as a biped?
   Yes, unequivocally.
2. Was it originally reported exclusively as a bipedal Dogman?
   No. The earliest material contains a mixture of quadrupedal, crouching, sitting, transitional and apparently bipedal behavior.

And I think this is relevant to our previous discussion about the pre-1987 Dogman reports. The Bray Road material doesn't look like a simple case of people copying a pre-existing "Dogman = seven-foot wolf-man" template. The earliest witnesses were actually describing something considerably more ambiguous: a strange, unusually large canid that could apparently behave like an ordinary quadruped but sometimes adopted a remarkably human-like posture.

That makes the locomotion itself one of the most intriguing features of the case..

Big dog

 

Or just a wild psychopomp? Sure hope this isn´t a true story...

Pointless Tuesday aggression

 

- Hello, dear Sir, some
esoterick knowledge maybe?

So I looked at the (bizarre) reactions to David Wilcock´s death from the New Age-channeling community. I won´t link, but here is a description of one particular YouTube video chosen at random. OK, maybe not entirely at random, but you get my point... 

A lady who claims to be a channeler sits in apparent lotus position on the floor. She speech sounds unnatural and forced. And that´s the *real* her, not the spirit communication. She laughs constantly, despite commenting a tragic suicide. She is frequently off topic: "I actually grew up in the same small town as Charlie Kirk". And despite claiming to know who David Wilcock is, she constantly calls him "David Wilcox". And no, I didn´t misunderstand the grammar. Maybe the spirits in the netherworld can´t tell the difference between a personal name and its possessive form...

Then, the channeling session starts. The lady uses rods to speak to the spirits?! Yes, really. When the rod in her right hand points to the (her) right, that´s a "yes". And when the rod in her left hand points to (her) left, that´s a "no". The lady is a bit overeager, and sometimes knows beforehand when the "right" rod will indicate a "yes", indeed sometimes even if it doesn´t point to the right but kind of hovers in the center. Strictly speaking, however, the rods always point in different directions! Curiously, she puts the rods aside on a regular basis. Part of the trickery or self-delusion? I´ve seen better dowsers than this...

Of course, the information given is pointless and doesn´t even come from David Wilcox, sorry, Wilcock but from some guardian spirit overseeing the transition blah-blah.

OK, enough of this Tuesday aggression, needed to focus my Martian-martial energies on something!        

The man who would be King

 

Viral last week, I think. Very disturbing case study of clinical madness. Viewer discretion strongly advised here! (Un-ironic comments.)

The nine angles of accelerationism

 

Guess who allegedly inspired this guy to allegedly kill his parents and allegedly plot the assassination of Donald Trump? Here we (allegedly of course) go again...

17-year old allegedly killed his parents as part of a plot to kill Trump

Michael Tracey on the assassination plot (X account)

Weathervane

 

Trump suddenly has a lot of new friends. When Chris Christie turns again, we´ll know for sure The Donald will win.

Democrat swing state senators cozy up to Trump

Nikki Haley to join Trump on campaign event

Trump campaigns in Michigan with Arab-American mayor

Ironic lawfare?

 

The shenanigans around Robert F Kennedy Jr never end. After first trying to keep him off the ballot, the Democratic Party now tries to keep him *on* the ballot in certain states. The irony.

And yes, I know that the GOP threatened to keep Joe Biden on the ballot in some other states. 

Democracy, American style! Ever new since the 19th century... 

DNC tries to keep RFK Jr *on* the ballot in swing states

Man bites dog

 

Copilot Designer´s take on Dogman!

Let´s have some fun, kids. Darren Naish has written an interesting article/essay on Dogman, a cryptid broadly similar to the Werewolf. He reaches the conclusion that we´re dealing with evolving folklore, not with a real creature (although misidentified bears, hikers or even kangoroos can´t entirely be ruled out). 

The phenomenon really got off the ground during the 21st century and has become a staple of Internet horror (and horrific cryptozoology). Linda Godfrey´s classic "The Beast of Bray Road" was published in 2003. Naish is extremely skeptical of the material. The famed canid beast seems to be inspired by a song played on the local radio on April Fool´s Day in 1987. He also notes a prominent encounter on Halloween (!) 1991. Another source of inspiration might be horror flicks depicting - guess what - werewolves. There seems to be some confusion between the Dogman and Werewolves depicted as bipedal monstrous wolves (rather than as humans shape-shifting into regular wolves). 

One aspect not mentioned by Naish is the observations of "Lobos" by Mexican immigrants at the US-Mexican border. Another thing worth mentioning is how "Finding Bigfoot" tried to explain the Beast of Bray Road as a misidentified Sasquatch! I admit that I find the Dogman phenomenon difficult to take seriously, and as Naish points out, it simply can´t be an unknown flesh-and-blood animal. There is no evidence that canids evolved bipedalism, or even that they can.

So yes, it´s probably fakelore morphing into folklore. Or it´s the fairies, per usual.      

Werewolves in America: The Tale of Dogman 

Don´t freak, she´s a Sikh

 

"RNC opens with prayer to demon". Trump, right? :D 

Nah, apparently it was an Indian-American woman who offered prayers for the GOP presidential nominee. The Christian fundie above doesn´t even mention her name: Harmeet Dhillon, a former chair of the California Republican Party and a Trump supporter. Nor does the content-creator know that Dhillon is a Sikh, rather than a Hindu...

The man is so angry that his thumb-nail actually shows the Hindu god Vishnu riding an elephant colored like the American flag, obviously intended to symbolize the Republican party!  

Teamster rebellion

 

The president of the Teamster Union was invited by Donald Trump to address the Republican National Convention. 

Teamster president addresses Republican convention

The reason for the color revolution season?

 

Iran is watching. They are worried that Biden will lose to Trump, and therefore want the Dems to become more anti-Israeli. The second link is about recent "Uninstructed" protest voting against Biden in the Dem Wisconsin primaries, apparently at the behest of anti-Zionist activists. We have already seen such action in the Michigan primary elections.

Somehow I doubt that *this* is why the US plots to overthrow Netanyahu, but who the heck knows? Unless the Biden Administration is simply bluffing precisely because it´s election season. But somehow I doubt that, too.

Iran is watching. And so, I suppose, must we...

Brace for impact.  

Iran state media: Pro-Hamas activists could cost Biden the election

Protest voting against Biden in Wisconsin

Alien pancakes

 

A discussion of the easily most bizarre UFO case on record. And yes, I´ve heard about it before. 

In 1961, Wisconsin farmer Joe Simonton met space aliens who were eating pancakes! They even let him take a bite. Even more weirdly, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) analyzed the alien pancake and reached the conclusion that it was entirely earthly. Well, maybe the UFO occupants procured their foodstuffs at a local grocery store? So what´s the problem here, huh, huh?!

The YouTube channel above, moderated by American Zen Buddhist Brad Warner, looks at the UFO phenomenon from a paranormal and somewhat conspiracist perspective. Think Jacques Vallée or John Keel. Since Warner is usually very "moderate", it´s actually quite funny that he is so radical on the UFO topic.  

Karmic culmination

Credit: Gage Skidmore

Many of the reactions to the Rittenhouse acquittal have a very disturbing quality about them. I mean, how could a person like *this* ever become a staffer of a main line political party? Don´t they understand that they could be setting the stage for a quite literal civil war? The Dems had to drop this character from their payroll, but unfortunately I don´t think this is an isolated example... 

Chicago Democratic staffer resigns after bizarre tweets

Guess who share the same birth date?

Credit: Giles Laurent 

Bizarre stuff.  

"Greta Thunberg and Kyle Rittenhouse were born on the same day"

The only sane Democrat?

 

Credit: Gage Skidmore

The only sane Democrat left? 

Tulsi Gabbard on Kyle Rittenhouse

"The jury got it right—finding Rittenhouse not guilty on all charges. The fact that charges were brought before any serious investigation is evidence that the government was motivated by politics, which itself should be considered criminal."

Black Muslim Lives Matter

Just realized I haven´t linked to this little site for quite some time, so here we go again...

Note the intricate intersectionality here. A Black Muslim prisoner was strip-searched by a White trans-person prison guard. I´m sure the SJWs believes that this Black man´s life matter, right? Or no? 

Black Muslim sues prison for trans-guard strip search

The mainstreaming of David North

So I've been reading World Socialist Web Site, the publication of David North's "Socialist Equality Party", formerly known as the Workers League. For decades, the Northites were considered to be one of the crazier outfits on the far left, even a borderline cult. However, I noticed something strange when I browsed their web zine...

The SEP claims that Trump is "fascistic", the worst president in US history, that he is preparing to launch a civil war, and wants to end democracy. The COVID pandemic is painted in apocalyptic colors. The SEP supports the lockdowns. Climate change is another apocalypse. The Northites support the BLM protests (or Antifa riots). The Trump supporter in Kenosha who killed two criminal Antifas in self-defense is called a "murderer", while the anarchist in Portland who murdered a Trump supporter in cold blood is apparently a hero. 

Yes, you got it. *The Northites sound like any other leftist or liberal*. The hysterical cult has gone mainstream! 

OK, maybe not entirely. In contrast to other heroes of the color revolution, the SEP doesn't support Biden. They don't even support Sanders. Instead, they have their own presidential candidates. They are also opposed to "identity politics", the 1619 Project and toppling Lincoln's statues. In addition, they take a hysterical line internationally, as well. Apparently, Boris Johnson is "fascistic", while Justin Trudeau secretely cooperates with the far right?! 

Even so, I must say that the mainstreaming of the International Committee of the Fourth International and their traditional doom-mongering feels so 2020! 

Be careful what you wish for

The irony... 

Police refuse to protect Democratic National Convention

Literal creepypasta

“The Slenderman Mysteries” is an extremely eclectic book by Nick Redfern, the paranormal researcher and monster hunter. Strictly speaking, only a few chapters are about Slenderman (or the Slender Man), a fictitious demon created by Eric Knudsen at the “Something Awful” web forum. The fantasy demon came to life when people began to encounter it IRL, most tragically during the 2014 Slender Man stabbing case in Wisconsin…

The rest of the book covers other ghost stories, MIBs, the NZ Parker-Hulme murder case, astral travel, Chaos Magick, Mothman, the Singularity and even a peculiar subset of the Bronie fandom known as tulpamancers. The connection to Slenderman isn't always obvious, and I got the impression that the author has cut-and-pasted very different material in order to write the book as fast as possible. Or perhaps he has created his very own creepypasta?

This *could* be entertaining (after a fashion) if you're into H P Lovecraft, ghost stories or belong to some paranormal-related subculture on the web, but the book lacks a real synthesis (at least in this work, Redfern is no John Keel or Jacques Valée). I was somewhat disappointed with this material, frankly. That being said, I nevertheless give it three stars. And hey hey, let's be careful out there!

Deeply disturbing

This is an extremely disturbing documentary about the so-called Slender Man stabbing, a bizarre crime case in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. In 2014, two 12-year old girls attempted to murder their best friend as a kind of sacrifice to “the Slender Man”, a fictitious demon popular on the Internet. Apparently, the girls believed that the Slender Man was real, and wanted to run away to his “mansion” in the woods!

The documentary features real video recordings of police interrogations with the girls, plus interviews with their parents. Both suspects are clearly delusional, and have been for a long time. We also get a few glimpses of the Creepypasta subculture and even a short interview with Richard Dawkins talking about memes and mind viruses. The victim and her family decided not to participate in this project, and I understand them.

One thing that struck me was the ambivalent nature of the Slender Man. On the one hand, he is a scary demon and one of the girls was clearly afraid of him. On the other hand, he is also pictured as a protector (sic) of children – the other girl may seriously have wanted to reach his “mansion” to escape a hard life with few friends and a lot of bullying. Unfortunately, it seems Slender wants something in return for his aid…

Once again: this is disturbing material, so don't watch it if you are a very sensitive person.