I picked up this book because I have some sick and twisted interest in Skinwalker, and when I saw that Joe recommended it, I jumped on it. Once I had the courage too anyway. First of all I have to admit I lost a lot of sleep while reading this book, even now when I hear a noise or I see a light I kinda freak out. I was a little disappointed in the lack of creepy skinwalker stories, but this book did not lack weird tales that a did a number on my tough guy image.
I am a little skeptical though about the ranch, I mean the stories seem a little ridiculous at times, but what interested me most in the book was the theories at the end of the book.
In my opinion all facts aside, just my own thoughts and theories I think the whole ranch is a combination of the conclusions. I do give credit to "Tom Gormom" and his perseverance to win back his ranch, but I also think that had something to do with the continuing appearance and disturbances he wanted them to show themselves and attack the cattle in order for the scientist to conduct their research, I think that most paranormal instances are based on the person willing or wanting something to appear. With that in mind I have also heard that the only way you can see a skinwalker is that you believe in them and have a deep seeded want somewhere in your mind to see one. I think that by giving them that, you in sense feed the flames. I think that idea also translates to the other types of paranormal discussed on the farm.
Contrary to that though are the people who like the Gormans, who move into a place with no intentions of paranormal activity, but I have also think that a presence can stay in the place it was called for so to speak, the discovery channel talks about this a lot in their show "A Haunting" about people moving into places that previous owners had in a sense condemned with their "Black arts" and actions, and the "curses" are just at the location, the beings harass the tenants even if they had no intention or knowledge of the previous tenants. I think that is a part of the problem with the Gormon's ranch, the local Ute tribe wouldn't set foot on the land, and spoke of the land having a lot of activity for many generations, even the previous owners were a little shady with their no digging policy.
I do think of myself as one of those X-files nerds, that think the government usually has it hands in many sinister stews (thanks monarch!) I would assume the government would have an interest the farm with all of activity, and the reasons as to why the government wouldn't be part of the problem are a little weak in this book, they say the government could have taken this land at anytime they wanted, which I say yes too of course they could, but in doing so they have just given validity to the stories, the government would have been bombarded with conspiracy theories that would have lead to FOX reports, which in itself it worth not taking the land. The other reason is that the U.S Government is not one to terrorize its own citizens or harass them, this is kind of funny in its own sense, this government is very self-serving at the moment, so I find it hard to believe it would not harass some local country bumpkins in Utah to get some information.
I did enjoy the talk about inner and outer dimensions, a nice coincidence I had while I was reading this was that I was also reading Slaughterhouse five, and its talks about their being more dimensions that humans just cannot reach without help, I was interested in the effects of the drug DMT on the patients, the idea that you are able to unlock different dimensions inside your head or through meditation is very interesting to me, but I am a nerd so you need to take that into account.
All in all I am no where near finished with my ideas about this book I will need to read it again in order to come to some more solid conclusions, but I would like to hear your thoughts on it Joe, and maybe we can bounce some Duchovny style ideas and theories around, maybe even convince some more people to read it and participate.
P.S I am not some big shot English language guy (as you can tell from that sentence) so bear with me in reading that give me a little slack, unless you are Mr. Strickland (aww yeah reference there)
