ReFrame: Bigfoot, Yeti, & Hoaxes
Bigfoot! Everyone knows him! Although nobody has ever seen him… Suspicious, eh?
Okay, well, maybe someone did saw him instead of pulling some BS out of their ass. However, none the proofs are convincing enough.
This is the most famous picture of Bigfoot — or rather the most convincing Bigfoot sighting (according to this article by Outside.) — hence why this picture is always used when referring to Bigfoot, but I believe it has been debunked. (Read here — TL;DR: It’s a costume for an old film.)
As for Yeti…
Yep… This sums up pretty much everything about their existence.
Part 1. History: Yeti & Bigfoot.
Bigfoot might be a more popular thing in our culture compared to Yeti, but I’ll include him due to their similarities… and because Yeti has more of a history.
To put simply, Yeti and Bigfoot are large, ape-like, bipedal creatures. They are similar in appearance, except most times, Yeti are depicted as white-furred, while Bigfoot has brown/dark-brown fur. Bigfoot or Sasquatch resides in the forests of North America, while Yeti is from the Himalayas.
Now, the question is: Why do these furry creatures exist?
Yeti is a part of history and religion, especially Buddhism around Nepal and Tibet.
There’s this story of Sangwa Dorje, a Buddhist hermit who was meditating, and a Yeti took care of him. The Yeti brought him food and water, and even became his disciple. When the Yeti died, Sangwa Dorje took some of his scalp and kept it. Sangwa Dorje’s successors paraded the Yeti’s scalp to bless the people and the land in fertility rituals. It is done periodically for centuries until the scalp was stolen in 1999.
And then there are stories of Yetis being shrine attendants in a Buddhist temple. However, they only come out at night so that nobody can see them. They clean and refill the offering bowls on the altar and disappear before sunrise.
Yeti is also believed to be a ‘guardian creature’ who protects the believers from evil spirits.
Thus, Yeti’s existence is a part of history and religion, specifically in Tibetan Buddhism. As for Bigfoot, I don’t know… They just exist, I guess. Maybe as a warning for people who love camping in the forest?
Look, I hear a lot more about cut-off sets of stairs in the forest than some chunky apes, and I hear those stairs are a lot more life-threatening than the furry creature.
And that’s why I brought Yeti along, or there will be no explanation section in this post…
Anyway, as per mentioned above, there are only a few possible explanations of Bigfoot sightings:
- Possibility one: Big apes… or bears… chunky monkeys?
- And two: Humans in furry costumes.
So, yeah. That’s all there is to the story of Bigfoot and Yeti, and yet many still believe. And it’s interesting that, despite lacking proof, a lot of people believed that they exist.
And that’s what we’ll discuss: Hoaxes.
Part 2. ReFrame: How Fear is Made.
For now, I won’t discuss why hoaxes exist or who started it. Instead, let’s see this matter through the question: Why many people believe things that aren’t necessarily proven?
And my answer to that, or at least my theory, is: Peer pressure.
People believe what everyone around them is believing… usually.
But then, what’s the connection between peer pressure and unproven beliefs?
Have you ever heard of advertisements that said something along the line of, “9 out of 10 professionals use this product”? And you must be familiar with “according to studies” type of advertisements.
These are techniques used in marketing to convince people to buy their products.
And what does that have to do with believing in the unproven?
Well, if the marketing team can convince thousands of people to buy the company’s products instead of hundreds, what do you think would happen? More profit! But then, how do they make that happen? Perhaps scaring them would be quite effective, don’t you think?
No, I’m not saying this is always the case, but often time similar.
People can just say “according to studies done to a certain group of people,” or “I’ve taught hundreds of successful people and millionaires,” in order to sell an online course, or maybe just so that they’ll look more professional and intellectual, thus boosting their follower counts and overall profits.
Meanwhile, all they did was prepare the course or the product and not actually teach or test the products to see if they really worked.
This works in reverse too. Someone can be against a certain product and tries to get everyone else to fight against the brand — sometimes we call it “getting cancelled”.
People like anti-vaxxers who have good intentions, i.e. protecting their children, but so hellbent on not equipping them with the things protecting them from diseases.
My theory on how this started is: Perhaps they think that the government is actually lying about the importance of vaccination and using that as an excuse to get their money, so they refuse to vaccinate their kids. Words started to spread and they got twisted along the way, so now we got “vaccines cause autism” rumors.
And that’s another issue: Words spread too fast.
We can get new information instantly even if it’s from the other side of the world. Words that make no sense can gather believers, let alone words that make some sense. Beliefs have the potential to gain followers and grow from insignificant to radical.
Perhaps in the case of Bigfoot, it’s less harmful or manipulative. It doesn’t profit one particular group nor does it take advantage of its believers.
And by the way, no, I’m not making this post to rip apart Bigfoot or Yeti believers.
In fact, the hoax and stories of Yeti and Bigfoot sparked creative minds to make stories and video games using the hoax. In my head, the root of this particular belief is to fulfill someone’s fantasy and, as someone who love fantasizing, it’s actually pretty cool and fun.
Part 3. Afterword.
The reason I’m making this post is just as a reminder to be wise with any information you hear/see/read, especially from the internet.
People can be very opinionated and close-minded. People can lie, manipulate, and unfortunately, use this technique to make profit.
Politics, food, health, art, psychology, and anything that exists in this world, people will have opinions and they will defend it, and someone else will make money off of it.
This is for later discussions but let me just say this:
Fear, whether or not the thing feared is proven or justified, is necessary.
I’ve mentioned this in my post on Sadako: Fear keeps us alive.
However, we need to be wise. Everyone can lie about anything in order to get what they want. By the way, it’s not just about money. Popularity, security, love, or chaos. Some people just want to see the world burn.
Fear needs to be threaded carefully.
Do not trust everything without proper research because some parties can utilize fear to their advantages.
And you might be wondering, “who can control the public?” and “no way, that sounds dumb and impossible!” or perhaps, more importantly, “why would anyone do that?”
Well, this happens in a waaaay larger scale than we can comprehend, but that’s a discussion for another day.
Fortunately, you don’t have to fall or support one side and fight against the other side. It’s called being “nuanced” — and that’s what makes us humans.
You can be in the middle and… enjoy life? I guess?
That is all! This is a continuation of the (unplanned) Fear series. The first part, Re:Frame — Sadako & Fear, is already available and you can click the link here if you’re interested.
Final plug: If you like what you read and want to see more, please support me on my Patreon here. Thanks!