Nick Redfern September 28, 2021

My previous article was on the subject of the extremely controversial “Philadelphia Experiment” of 1943. Supposedly, it was an experiment involving to find ways to make U.S. Navy ships invisible to the enemy. Namely, of course, the Nazis. Unfortunately, so the story went everything collapsed: some men died, others were never seen again, and a few were said to have become periodically invisible. It’s not surprisingly that many of the crewmen went insane. Truth or reality? Or, somewhere in between? It’s hard to say after nearly eighty years since the experiment reportedly took place. It should be noted, however, that reports of invisibility – in all locations and situations – have been made. And that’s the theme of today’s article: invisibility, true or not? Let’s see some of the stranger aspects of this phenomenon. One particular case involved me. On August 16, 2015, I was on Steve Warner’s Dark City show, which operates out of New York. We were discussing the M.I.B. During the interview, Steve experienced something very odd. It revolved around the lights in his home. Namely, they were repeatedly turning on and off. I don’t mean flickering on and off, as they might during a violent storm. Rather, Steve – sat in front of his computer – could hear the light-switches being turned on and then off – as if by invisible “hands.” Maybe claws or talons would be far better candidates. It was something that actually became an entertainingly weird part of the interview!

There is verifiable data that the U.S. military, in the 1940s, was exploring the issue of invisibility. One such program was code-named “Yahootie.” The plan was to create an airplane that could not be visually seen. The plan revolved around strategically placed lights and mirrors on the planes, which were designed to reflect the skies in which the plane was flying. Of course, this would not have amounted to literal invisibility, but it does show that some degree of invisibility was an issue on the minds of the military when the experiment was said to have occurred in Philadelphia in 1943. If nothing else, this brief aside is definitive food for thought. Now, there’s the matter of Bigfoot! What??? That’s right: within the field of Cryptozoology, there are a number of cases of the huge, hairy things having the ability to become invisible. The website Native Languages notes: “The Bigfoot figure is common to the folklore of most Northwest Native American tribes. Native American Bigfoot legends usually describe the creatures as around 6-9 feet tall, very strong, hairy, uncivilized, and often foul-smelling, usually living in the woods and often foraging at night…In some Native stories, Bigfoot may have minor supernatural powers – the ability to turn invisible, for example – but they are always considered physical creatures of the forest, not spirits or ghosts.”

Native Americans aren’t the only people who hold such beliefs. Bhutan Canada says: “In 2001, the Bhutanese Government created the Sakteng Wildlife Sanctuary, a 253 square-mile protected habitat for the Migoi. The sanctuary is also home to pandas, snow leopards, and tigers but the Bhutanese maintain that the refuge was created specifically for the Migoi. Migoi is the Tibetan word for ‘wild man’ or more common to Western culture, the Yeti. The Yeti, often called the Abominable Snowman in the west and referred to as the Migoi by the Bhutanese, is a bipedal ape like creature that is said to inhabit the Himalayan region of Nepal, Tibet, and Bhutan. The Migoi is known for its phenomenal strength and magical powers, such as the ability to become invisible and to walk backwards to fool any trackers.”

(Nick Redfern)

Davy Russell, who, in 2000, penned an article titled Invisible Bigfoot, refers to an incident that occurred in 1977 and which may be relevant to this particularly charged area of research. The location was North Dakota: “A Bigfoot-type creature was spotted throughout the afternoon and into the evening. Locals, along with the police, staked out the area to search for the mysterious creature. A rancher named Lyle Maxon reported a strange encounter, claiming he was walking in the dark when he plainly heard something nearby breathing heavily, as if from running.” Russell continued that Maxon shone his flashlight in the direction of where the sounds were coming from, but nothing could be seen. Puzzled and disturbed by the encounter, Maxon gave serious thought to the possibility that the beast had the ability to render itself invisible to the human eye. Such cases like the ones above are both controversial and bizarre. Nevertheless, there’s no doubt that invisibility is an issue that, over the decades, has surfaced and resurfaced, and it has been debated over and again. No doubt, such debates will continue.

Bigfoot article “Invisible Sasquatch”

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