The Skinwalker Ranch, Utah, USA

The Skinwalker Ranch

The Skinwalker Ranch lays claim to having an array of orange coloured, glowing, visible portals that appear spontaneously over the land. The people who have seen them state that the portals (which are flat discs several feet across apparently suspended vertically and quite arbitrarily in midair) permit glimpses into another reality; the reports from the witnesses are quite consistent and describe how they have quite literally seen an ‘alien sky’. There are also reports of strange, small, airborne craft flying towards and vanishing into the portals/openings. Viewed from the side the effect is rather similar to watching a film or cartoon where a large object progressively vanishes behind and into a very narrow lamp post or tree. What is not clear, however, is whether these anomalies connect with another dimension, or they are corridors opening instead into another time frame, perhaps the far future or distant past? Why they are there at all is a complete mystery.

The people affected by the events that took place in Arizona between 1994 and 1996, were the family of Terry Gorman (sometimes and confusingly, depending on the source, referred to as the Sherman family). Not surprisingly they were extremely traumatized by the events they witnessed, and after selling the ranch for approx. $200,000 to NIDS (National Institute for Discovery Science), a research organization founded by the Las Vegas based millionaire philanthropist Robert Bigelo specializing in researching paranormal phenomena, purchased a smaller ranch approx 15 miles away.

It is vital to make clear that NIDS is the antithesis of groups like CSICOP (Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims Of the Paranormal). This organization is composed of people who seem dedicated to debunking the possibility that any supernatural or paranormal agency interfaces with the physical world today; this includes any and all types of psi phenomena. Perhaps we should pay a little more attention to this organization and those like it.

Ostensibly, CSICOP, its members and fellow travellers, claim to be skeptical, rational, fair minded and objective in their approach to investigating claims of anomalous and paranormal phenomena. This, if true, would be admirable because the subject of the paranormal needs a critical but fair-minded organization to examine some of the claims, especially those that have apparently impeccable provenance. Unfortunately this is simply not the case because, in the main, CSICOP appears to set up these claims to fail and brands anything that does not fall within its narrow remit as ‘pseudo-science’.

This is an excellent and simple stance to defend because it immediately throws the weight of proof on those making any claims of ‘psychic phenomena’, which includes psi, clairvoyance, spiritualism, the continuation of consciousness after death and even some aspects of Ufology. As far as their skeptical stance goes it falls under an unhappy mixture of aggressive atheism, humanism and debunking, one has to ask why, what is there for them to lose? While hiding behind the pretence that they base their opinions on science rather than dogma, they claim that the public needs to be saved from charlatans making specious claims, and rightly so, but it is also certain that their operating paradigm will not guarantee an unbiased perspective on anything. However, there is one eminent psychologist and occasional contributor to the CSICOP canon who does admit that remote viewing seems to work, and of course remote viewing falls squarely in the field of paranormal phenomena.

Nevertheless he still refuses to fully accept it on the basis of any evidence so far offered, saying that ‘extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof’. This being the case it is unlikely that organizations like this will ever accept any evidence irrespective of how strong it is. It is uncertain whether they, as a body, have as yet openly attempted to debunk religion since this too is an entirely supernatural phenomenon founded on faith alone. That said, perhaps it does effectively demonstrate that CSICOP and its members are as blinkered and dogmatic in their fevered debunking as true believers are in their irrational and unthinking belief in what is demonstrably untrue.