This October 22-23rd the Westmoreland Community College will host a one of a kind event: The PA UFO and Bigfoot Conference. The list of speakers are astonishing, including Bill Birnes of UFO Magazine and the popular TV show UFO Hunters, famed UFO author and researcher Stanton Friedman, Dr. Jeff Meldrum Anthropologist and Primate Anatomist from Idaho State and Western Pennsylvania's own UFO and Bigfoot expert, Stan Gordon.
Since 1965, Stan has conducted On Scene Investigations of thousands of mysterious encounters across Pennsylvania. Stan gained prominence in the field of UFO research as the authority on The Kecksburg UFO Incident. He is also well regarded in the area of paranormal research with his first hand investigation into a series of documented Bigfoot encounters and UFO sightings that occurred throughout Pennsylvania in 1973.
Stan created the Westmoreland County UFO Study Group in 1970 which expanded into the Pennsylvania Center for UFO Research in 1975. Stan served as State Director of the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) for many years during the 1970’s. His new book 'Silent Invasion: The Pennsylvania UFO-Bigfoot Casebook' is available on Amazon and at his online store.
I had a chance to interview Stan last week about regarding the Bigfoot-UFO connection. Stan was aware in the early 1970s that there was a possible connection between Bigfoot sightings and the UFO appearances. Since not all cases of either phenomena were always related, he was cautious to associate them. But starting in January of 1973 there was an extra ordinary amount of UFO activity and during the summer of that year there were numerous Bigfoot sightings...some of them occurring together or within the same area around the same time. His UFO study group had become very well known in the community and often he was fielded investigation by the police, sometimes within minutes of the report of the sightings.
One of the first things that Stan noticed as an investigator was that in many of the Bigfoot sightings of that year, there were obvious prints from the creature left on the ground. In some cases investigators would follow the prints and they simply would vanish. There would be no visible marks or trails left by the creature to show how it exited the area, the prints just abruptly stopped as if the creature vanished into thin air.
Then in September and October of 1973, two events firmly fixed the UFO-Bigfoot connection in Stan's perspective.
First, on September 27, 1973 there came a report from two young girls. These girls were waiting outside for a friend to join up with them for an evening out. Before the friend arrived they were startled to see a large hair covered bipedal creature emerge from the woods. Stranger still the creature was clutching what appeared to be a glowing ball of light. Within a short time a UFO appeared over the woods and a laser like beam of light shot out from the craft into the surrounding woodland the Bigfoot like creature, which quickly vanished into thw woods. The UFO then also flew out of sight.
Then in October 25th of the same year a report came in of a UFOs sighted over an area farmhouse. A large red glowing object was moving over the pasture prompting the farmer's son and two of his friends to venture out to investigate the object; the farmer's son was armed with a rifle outfitted with live and tracer ammunition. As the field came into view they came upon a large white luminous object hovering over the ground 250 feet away from them near the fenced boundary of the field. The object cast a white glow over the entire area, and they noticed two large ape like creatures with long arms moving towards them along the fence line. As the creatures moved their heads they could see their eyes, which were glowing green. It was then they noticed an odd smell permeating the area, a stench that smelled like burning rubber. Feeling threatened and a bit frightened the man aimed and shot at the creatures. After two tracer shots were fired, the largest of the two creatures reached out with its long hairy arm as if to grab the tracer fire and instantly the UFO vanished. Then the creatures quickly turned around and walked into the wooded area nearby, all the while the man were firing his rifle to no effect. The State police were called to the scene and upon arrival the Trooper noted that the entire area, almost 150 feet in diameter was aglow with an eerie luminescence. Stan and his investigative team arrived at the farmhouse early the next morning. The farmer's son showed them the area of the incident, it was noted that usually the animals would walk by the fenced area, but now after the incident they seemed to avoid it purposefully. It was then that one of the oddest occurences happened to Stan in his investigations. One of his assistants noticed that the bull in the field was motionless and appeared to be staring at something intently. As Stan's assistant was talking to the farmer's son, the farmer's son began to suddenly exhibit odd behavior. He started shaking uncontrollably, and then during these spasms he began to growl in a deep guttural voice. Then with a burst of uncontrolled energy the man began to run around in the field screaming furiously. The man's own dog that was nearby ran toward him and began to assault him, as if protecting itself from a threat. Then as suddenly as the odd incident happened, the man collapsed in a heap on the ground. As Stan and the others approached him they noticed a peculiar sulfur smell. When the farmer's son awoke, he remembered nothing of the strange behavior, it was if he was momentarily not in his body and something else had control. Stan related to me that ever since that incident his the farmer's son became very sensitive to paranormal phenomena, something that he never had experienced before. It was if the incident changed him in some fundamental way.
From these two incidents Stan's perspective on the UFO-Bigfoot connection changed, and while he has had many other experiences of both phenomena that were not connected, he has noticed that there are incidents up to this day that associated Unidentified Flying Objects with creatures that are distinctively Bigfoot like hominids. To learn more about these occurrences and Stan's further investigations into the subject please seek out his book 'Silent Invasion' on Amazon here or get an autographed copy of it from his own bookstore here.
And please mark on your calendar October 22nd and 23rd of this year for the UFO-Bigfoot conference at Westmoreland Community College in Youngwood, Pennsylvania. UFO speakers will be presenting on Saturday the 22nd and Bigfoot Investigators will be presenting on the 23rd. Stan will be speaking on Sunday, featuring a multimedia presentation that covers his 45 years of experience in the field. You can by your tickets at the conventions website: 2011 PA UFO-Bigfoot Convention.
Comments