Book 'Hunt for the Skinwalker' explores UFOs, the unknown

(This article also appears on on the Transcendent TV & Media site.)

The non-fiction book HUNT FOR THE SKINWALKER, published in 2005, is a fascinating account of a scientific research team's investigation into unusual phenomena at a remote Utah ranch.

Written by research scientist Colm A. Kelleher, Ph.D., and award-winning investigative journalist George Knapp, the book takes readers on an exciting, mysterious and somewhat frightening adventure into the unknown.

The full title is HUNT FOR THE SKINWALKER: SCIENCE CONFRONTS THE UNEXPLAINED AT A REMOTE UTAH RANCH.

The book begins as a cattle-ranching family is getting settled into their new 480-acre spread in northeastern Utah, where they had moved from New Mexico.

It's a lovely place, perfect for their high-quality registered cattle and a lifestyle living close to the land in a rural setting.

Before long, very unusual things begin to happen. Odd, oversized wolf-like creatures come around the ranch. Stranger still, the animals seem impervious to bullets.

Items from everyday utensils to work tools disappear, only to show up later in different locations.

Cattle are found mutilated consistent with other such cases in the West and Midwest.

Small glowing orbs and UFO-like craft hover and zip around the ranch.

And that was just the tip of the iceberg.

RESEARCH TEAM ARRIVES

Kelleher and a scientific investigative team from a group called the National Institute for Discovery Science (NIDS) arrived at the ranch to conduct extensive research on the strange goings-on. They reported to a NIDS scientific advisory board.

In fact, NIDS eventually buys the ranch from the family, who by that time has had more than enough of the many odd events. The family moves off the ranch and the investigative team moves in.

However, the family also wants to understand what was going on and assists the researchers, giving detailed accounts of what they have observed and experienced.

It doesn't take long for the researchers to learn that odd things had been going on at the ranch for decades or maybe centuries.

The local Ute Indians believed that the ranch was "in the path of the skinwalker," an evil entity. The Utes stayed away from the area on which the ranch was located.

The Utes, as well as Navajo and other tribes use the term "skinwalker" to describe an Indian who has delved into evil witchery and dark magic. In Indian lore, a skinwalker can assume the form of other animals.

Hence, the Utes in the region near the ranch traditionally considered at least some of the bizarre things going on there as the work of a skinwalker.

Tales among the local Utes about strange happenings in the area of the ranch go back at least 15 generations, according to the investigators.

Kelleher and the researchers also noted that the region's Indian tribes have had conflicts and wars over the centuries, as well as with the Spanish and Americans. Black "Buffalo Soldiers" of the U.S. Cavalry were stationed in the area.

INVESTIGATING THE SITUATION

Armed with a variety of high-tech instruments, the researchers set up observation stations, at times peering through night-vision equipment and taking scientific measurements on the environment at the ranch.

They, too, observed and experienced strange and sometimes frightening incidents that they could not explain.

A unique aspect of the odd activities on the ranch was that they did not neatly fit into single categories of unusual phenomena we read about or see on TV. There were multiple kinds of mysterious situations.

The ranch seemed to be some kind of intersection with other dimensions and a site of several different kinds of anomalous activity.

In addition to the lights and UFOs flying around the ranch (sometimes with apparent crew members onboard) there were unidentified creatures like the large wolf-like animal. There also seemed to be creatures present that could not be visually seen.

The many mischievous and trickster-like incidents were apparently harmless, but bizarre and sometimes quite amazing.

Though the ranch family was quite shook up and frightened out of their wits at times, the research team was more objective and actually sought out the unusual events so they could investigate them.

The anomalous activity decreased during the months and years the researchers monitored the ranch, yet there were still intermittent cases of very unusual events that were hard to fathom.

Did the odd phenomena "lay low" somewhat while the researchers were investigating? It seemed so.

Still, there was enough reliable multiple witness testimony to convince the team that many people in the area of the ranch and in the region had experienced truly unusual situations.

Also explored in the book are other locations in the U.S. and around the world that seem to be centers for similar kinds of mysterious events and encounters. Some are in the American Southwest, in Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona. Others are overseas.

MYSTERIES REMAIN

After several years of gathering information in and about the region, interviewing witnesses and local people, staking out the ranch day and night, conducting police-like evidentiary investigations, applying a wide range of scientific measurement equipment and experiencing very strange incidents first hand, Kelleher and the research team seemed to come to some tentative general conclusions.

Among the apparent conclusions: Anomalous events were actually occurring in the ranch area. This situation had been reported for many generations by the Utes and others.

The events were varied and spanned a range of what we think of as ancient and modern mysteries of different kinds.

In addition, something about the physics of the ranch seemed to indicate a kind of traffic between unseen dimensions.

There seemed to be an intelligence or many different intelligences at work.

Indian tribes such as the Utes interpreted and explained the phenomena in their own cultural context. The research team tried to apply modern knowledge and perspectives from a variety of scientific disciplines, while accepting that the Indians' experiences and legends were quite valuable in the investigation.

Was the ranch a site of wormholes that connect different dimensions? Where extraterrestrials somehow able to fly their UFOs into and out of the ranch area more easily? Did wild creatures from other worlds also slip in and out through invisible portals? Did our normal laws of physics cease to completely apply at the ranch?

The researchers could not find enough hard scientific proof to completely answer these questions, though they tried their best to get hard data and evidence.

However, when taken together, the account by Kelleher and Knapp in HUNT FOR THE SKINWALKER presents an amazing experience into very strange mysteries.

For scientists, including social scientists, researchers and investigators of all kinds, the information in the book poses intriguing questions and suggests a few startling possible answers.

Readers of all kinds can thoroughly enjoy the fast-paced adventures and thoughtful information in HUNT FOR THE SKINWALKER.

NOTE TO READERS: For more information, visit the Joint Recon Study Group and Transcendent TV & Media sites and have a look around.

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