Customer Reviews

Hunt for the Skinwalker: Science Confronts the Unexplained at a Remote Ranch in Utah

5 star:		(36)
4 star:		(27)
3 star:		(14)
2 star:		(13)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

Ok... I ask you... if you were routinely harried by a bullet-proof wolf the size of a Ford Supervan, if you encountered a 400 lb. pterodactyl sitting in a tree, if you and your prized cattle were constantly under assault by glowing gobs of light, if you witnessed a portal to an alternate dimension suddenly appear in the night sky, if you saw a refrigerator-shaped craft soundlessly take flight, what is the ONE ITEM that you might (just might) want to consider taking along with you next time you headed out to the pasture? Perhaps... a camera!?!? Better yet, maybe even a video camera! I mean, c'mon, if I saw 1/100th of the crap alleged to have been witnessed by this bunch I'd take out a second mortgage acquiring every type of surveillance gear imaginable. Yet, as mentioned in some other reviews, the book contains not a SINGLE photograph or video still of any of the fantastic events alleged to have been seen.

Ultimately, the behavior of the people in this book (primarily the Gorman clan) just doesn't make much sense. They are alleged to be hard scrabble ranching folk whose very existence is tied to maintaining their prized herd of cattle and yet they routinely leave their animals out in the midst of what appears to be an inter-dimensional combat zone. I mean, the dude allegedly shoots a wolf at 10 feet with a .357 Magnum FOUR times, then lobs THREE rounds from a 30.06 rifle into it and the wolf barely flinches before VANISHING into thin air... at that point, I think most sane people would probably be inclined to round up the cattle ASAP and get as far away from that place as possible.

Still, it's a pretty fun way to pass a few hours leisure time and it does have a pretty creepy overall vibe which might make for some good campfire stories

Imagine if you will a remote ranch located in Utah has been the focal point of every known paranormal phenomenon you can think of: UFO's, poltergeists, Bigfoot, cattle mutilations, portals opening to reveal an alien sky beyond, and strange, unknown creatures ranging from invisible horrors to bizarre chimeras attacking the cattle and horses.

Supposedly, the Gorman Ranch in Utah is one of the planet's focal points for high strangeness and its story is captured in Hunt for the Skinwalker, by Colm A. Kelleher and George Knapp, the purportedly true story of the Gorman Ranch. Ultimately purchased by the National Institute of Discovery Science from its battle-weary owners, this group of scientists attempted to study the paranormal events that took place on the ranch with amazing frequency and diversity.

The result is a story that, if not true, is still worthy of a movie. The opening chapter with the bulletproof wolf that eventually disappears into thin air is creepy enough for a good Hollywood flick let alone the farm dogs being incinerated by a floating orb of blue light, cattle being horribly mutilated practically under the very noses of the ranch's residents, disembodied voices, and invisible monsters roaring and running throughout the property.

However, I still have to withhold judgment as to whether the story actually is true. The book contains many anecdotes and theories as to the cause of the paranormal events, but we are not treated to one picture or even one simple report form from one of the scientists who witnessed any of the events.

Plus, for scientists, they surprisingly appear to lack imagination on how to conduct active research. For example, none of the farm animals were chipped and tagged so they could be located with a GPS system if needed.

The result is a book no different from the popular Amityville Horror books (which themselves were eventually proven to be fabrications): simply a listing of anecdotes with nothing to really convince the reader there is any truth to them which belies the subtitle: Science Confronts The Unexplained At A Utah Ranch.

There is simply no science present.

Nonetheless, the book is really a good read with some truly chilling stories. The reference list at the back of the book is a dream library of high strangeness and there is a thorough index at the back of the book.

I'm looking forward to the movie which I`m hoping is only a year or two away.

Merging and alternate dimentions being a pet study project of mine, this book was reccomended to me by some fellow paranormal researchers. From the moment I opened this book, it became rather difficult to put down.
This book outlines a plethera of phenomina occuring in an around a valley property in Utah, ranging from giant wolves, possible sasquach-like beings, demons, orbs, UFO's and all mannor of cryptozoological oddities, all tackled in their own chapters. The phenomina picked up in the early '90's, when a rancer and his family moved onto the property (and were driven out when they had more than they could take 20 months later) through the time NIDS (National Institute for Discovery Science)bought the property from the rancher and through 2 years of the occupancy of NIDS researchers. The most fascinating chapters have to do with the first hand accounts by the rancer and his family. Some of the phenomina continued on through the NIDS era, but eventually slowed down.
My only complaint about this book is that it does not seem to get too deeply into the science; just the recounting of the occuring phenomina; the presance of pictures (it seems many were taken) would have been a definate plus as well. What it lacks in science, though, is made up in the streightforward writing style, and the interest in the range of accounts of what had happened.
If you are a fan of horror novels or the paranormal, this book is one hell of a good read. If you are a serious researcher looking for hard core proof or facts with outlined scientific backing, it probably will be a dissapointment.

I picked up "Hunt for the Skinwalker" out of curiosity. I read part of the Forward in the bookstore and was intrigued. Scientists looking into Bigfoot and UFO's? Expectations were low, but the subject matter beckoned me.

The first time I opened the book, I was up for hours. And when I did manage to close it and head up to bed, my walk down the darkened hallway of my own home raised the hair on the back of my neck. Some scary stuff in the book's first section.

This is a compelling read. Believer or skeptic, Skinwalker will inform you, entertain you, frighten you, educate you, and - most importantly - make you think about the world around you in a different way, and wonder why there are no scientists looking into these unexplained events.

Whatever you do, make sure you stay through to the final chapter. Like a good work of fiction, it all comes together. But this isn't fiction.

I'm very glad I picked this book up and highly recommend it.

This book is an account of the unexplained phenomena that is associated with a true vortex area, and as such will be of interest to any reader/researcher with a fascination of such areas.

A vortex area is a geographical point on our planet where another parallel dimension intersects our dimension. These vortex areas "open" and "close" based on astronomical influences, and can remain open or closed for years at a time, sometimes decades. All true dimensional vortex areas exhibit the following unexplained phenomena: cattle mutilations, UFO/BOL (ball of light) sightings, bigfoot sightings, magnetic anomalies, phantom/nonindigenous animal/creature sightings, and underground "machinery" sounds. The authors and "scientists" involved in this book never understood any of this, although they offer various explanations that sometimes remotely approach this understanding.

The "scientists" associated with the study of the Skinwalker Ranch were wholly unqualified for this pursuit (Kelleher is a biochemist, not a physicist!), and were using only a few very crude scientific instruments. This is tremendously ironic, since they were being backed financially by an individual (Robert Bigelow) who was worth over 100 million dollars. At one point, the authors brag that they were the only paranormal researchers who had access to a private jet on standby, and yet their equipment and protocol was crude at best. For example, it took them a year before they finally installed video surveillance equipment on the ranch.

In contrast, my colleagues and I have very sophisticated scientific equipment we utilize when researching such areas, including a tri-axial DC magnetometer capable of creating 3D magnetic maps to a sensitivity of 1/100,000 of a Gauss, portable radar units capable of scanning an area with a sixty mile radius, gravitometers, and true thermal imaging cameras, instead of simple image intensifiers (starlight scopes). We have all of this, any yet none of us are backed by any centimillionaires.

Not only was Bigelow's organization (NIDS) apparently duped into hiring unqualified researchers to study the ranch, but they also purchased the Skinwalker Ranch and promptly closed it off to legitimate researchers. This is the real travesty of the Skinwalker Ranch investigation, as this vortex area has now essentially "closed" once again, meaning that the priceless research that could been gathered by legitimate researchers was prevented by this purchase and occupation by the NIDS personnel.

Colm A. Kelleher and George Knapp's meandering Hunt For The Skinwalker: Science Confronts the Unexplained at a Remote Ranch in Utah is an unpersuasive overview of events which purportedly took place during the Nineties at the former Gorman cattle ranch in Utah.

When news of the bizarre incidents occurring there was disseminated throughout the paranormal subculture, the ranch quickly became the subject of abundant rumor and speculation; numerous websites addressed the topic, and Fortean Times wrote a feature. The property was eventually purchased for study by the National Institute for Discovery Science (NIDS), and it is the NIDS scientists--most of whom remain anonymous throughout the book--to whom the title refers.

The book has numerous problems, but perhaps the biggest is that most of the information is lightly conveyed over a precarious bed of broad, frequently subjective, and definitely non-scientific assumptions ("There is a distinct difference between monsters that exist only on celluloid or the printed page, however, and those that occasionally make overt intrusions into our personal realities; one emerges from the supernatural, while the other, like Bigfoot, has distinct roots in our flesh-and-blood reality."). Correspondingly, the book is padded with extraneous lore on masonic societies, Indian curses, Bigfoot sightings, and a history of unidentified flying objects. Hunt for the Skinwalker doesn't attempt to prove that Bigfoot and extraterrestrial craft exist among us; it comfortably begins with the presumption that they already do.

Considering that Kelleher is supposed to be present as a research scientist, it's amazing how often he both relies upon and reports personal testimony like "Suddenly, the hairs on the back of my neck stood up. A chill ran down my spine. Something was close by and watching me" or "When I first set foot on the ranch I had an unmistakable feeling that something was not quite right. Things were not what they seemed." Obviously, however instinctively sound such intuitive responses may have been at the moment, they are utterly useless as evidence, especially since the ranch was well known to be "haunted" by the time the NIDS staff arrived, full of anticipation and ready to encounter manifestations of the supernatural.

Before selling the ranch to NIDS, readers are told that patriarch Tom Gorman, who lived on the property with his wife and children for over twenty months, routinely ("dozens of times") observed "strange, unworldly orange structures" that resembled portals, or "windows," "in the western sky." When examining these structures with special binoculars at night, on occasion Gorman believed he could observe daylight within them, as well as craft-like objects exiting them. An entire short chapter is devoted to the subject, but once NIDS purchases the ranch, even though Gorman is still present daily as foreman, the question of why he no longer sees the orange structures, or why they aren't visible to the new arrivals, is never raised.

Though photographs of the area--and the aftermath of specific events--might not count as scientific evidence, the addition of some photographs would have made the book more believable.

In one extraordinary event, the authors report that four beloved Gorman bulls disappear from their pen, only to be discovered shortly after stuffed--but still alive--into a tiny, disused trailer on the grounds, a space which they couldn't possibly have gotten into in any natural manner. Since NIDS was already an active presence on the ranch, photographs of both the inside and outside of the trailer, of the four bulls, and especially of the animals trapped in the trailer would have greatly bolstered this event's credibility, and perhaps made investigation by other researchers possible.

Since the Gorman family reported encountering all manner of high strangeness with regular frequency--from "flying triangles" and hovering "refrigerators" similar to those investigated by Jacques Vallee in South America--long before NIDS became involved, it seems reasonable that the family would have at least attempted to document some of their experiences on film. Later, Kelleher and Knapp report how Gorman discovers a badly mutilated calf purposefully posed in a bizarre position, and so calls the NIDS staff, who collectively witness the aftereffects; where are the photographs?

Inconsistencies and irrationalities abound throughout the book. If Tom Gorman was able to observe the unnatural 'orange structures' in the sky with such regularity, and simultaneously recognized them as extraordinary, why didn't he contact the local authorities or media to witness and document them? If the Gorman cattle were as financially precious to the family as reported, why were so many left behind to be slaughtered by unseen forces, instead of being moved to the safety of the family's new ranch 25 miles away?

Why weren't the NIDS teams sent out with more than one pair of infrared binoculars, so that at least two people could simultaneously observe the same phenomena in the same manner? Why do the NIDS scientists seem so professionally disorganized and unsure of how to proceed? If 'ice circles' may be a naturally occurring, if as yet unexplained, phenomena, why does the author attribute the one discovered to a paranormal agent? Why is the chapter on "revolutionary science," which Kelleher clearly puts faith in, sheepishly placed at the end of the book? Why are the NIDS members unwillingly to allow themselves to be identified? Where are the extensive footnotes the text requires?

As writers on the paranormal, Kelleher and Knapp lack the diligent, hard-nosed intelligence of an Ivan T. Sanderson or the ability to assimilate visionary experience that John A. Keel and Patrick Harpur have shown in their own work. At present, there is so little hard evidence available that the story of the Gorman ranch resembles 'a folk tale in the making,' or even, as many have already publicly suspected, a fairly successful disinformation campaign. Hunt for the Skinwalker is simply too breezy, and easy on itself in every manner possible; it especially fails as a work claiming to have anything to do with applied science.

This is an excellent book dealing with unexplained phenomenon that occurred on a privitely owned ranch in Utah. Animal mutiations have been occurring in the south western part of the U.S. in an abundant number beginning in the late 60's.Far from being the animal kills and lighting strikes debunkers would have you believe, these are real unexplained events that the debunkers simpley over look the facts of the cases so that it can be "explained" away. This book also deals with other strange occurances (to put it mildly) that are documented by a highly regarded team of scientist. If you are one of those people that expects to have everything explained in the end all in a nice package then this' not the book for you. I would suggest debunker books for those so declined, because if they don't have the answers they will just make something up(actually that is what they would do in any case IMHO).If you are on the other hand intelligent enough to know that mankind is at a very earily stage of understanding paranormal mysteries(and many other things) then this book will be a killer and enjoyable read for you as well.Buy this book it is well worth reading to the open minded!!

I enjoyed this book immensely. It gave much food for thought in terms of the possible ultradimensional nature of anomalies observed at the Utah ranch.

Unfortunately, since NIDS has stopped research at the site and seems to be underfunded or even near-defunct, we may never know anything further than the information provided in this book.

I hope that Mr. Kelleher will find someone else to fund this research into the site and give us further updates on the activity at the ranch.

Authors Kelleher and Knapp have written an incredible account about bizarre events at a remote Utah ranch. Paranormal events like this are often frustrating for the storytellers because there are no neat answers that bring the whole story to a final conclusion. Five stars for their backgrounding and colorful detail - including an interesting review of the paranormal from a regional aspect. Whatever is going on out there is obviously one step ahead of the observers. Strongly recommended if you have any interest in the paranormal. Stephen King should take notes. This is one book that should be adapted into a film.

The book is worth it I must admit, even with the occasional slight-of-type.

For instance: at one point Kelleher appears to bemoan the fact that online, NIDS was described as a "shadowy organization that likely had ties to the CIA", but a chapter later he mentions the use of Remote Viewers by NIDS, including "a retired military officer who was active in the CIA/DOD research program..."

And curiously, NIDS board member John Alexander of the NSA isn't mentioned until the back pages- just his name in the acknowledgments, and as a Doctor, not a Colonel.

But I think Knapp and Kelleher have put together a decent package. And here and there you come across some real gems:


"Just prior to the purchase of the ranch by NIDS, Tom Gorman says that an incoherent woman arrived one day in 1996. As the woman got out of her car and began talking to Tom in the front yard of the homestead, a nearby tree began to shake violently and the leaves began to rustle loudly despite a total lack of wind.

Suddenly the woman, who admitted to being mentally disturbed, began to scream loudly and pointed at the tree. She described the presence of legions of demons and monsters in the shaking tree. Tom couldn't see the"demons", but he could plainly see the whole tree shaking. After ushering the crazed woman off the property, the tree returned to it's previous stillness..."