Sasquatch Chronicles - SC EP:1151 The Bigfoot Paradox

Episode Date: May 3, 2025

I will be speaking to Author Justin McNeal about his new book The Bigfoot Paradox: Everything is a Lie, and Everything is True.   Summary of the book Are you ready to question everything you thought you knew? For centuries, legends of towering, elusive giants lurking in the wilderness have haunted our imagination and defied explanation. But what if the stories were true...and false at the same time? This isn't just a book about Bigfoot—it's an invitation to step into a twisted reality where myth and fact blur, and where truth hides in the shadows, waiting to ambush you. Inside these pages, you'll uncover shocking accounts, cryptic clues, and hidden histories that have remained buried for decades. You'll journey through hoaxes, government cover-ups, scientific anomalies, and eerie encounters that will make you question every "fact" you've ever heard about the legend of Bigfoot. But this story doesn't end with distant folklore. The author himself has ventured deep into the unknown, surviving a harrowing encounter with beasts as legendary as Bigfoot himself—a near-fatal experience that left him forever changed. Step into his world, where personal brushes with terror, close calls, and whispered secrets reveal a side of cryptids you've never seen before. This book doesn't ask if Bigfoot exists. It dares you to decide for yourself. Delve into the unknown, the mysterious, and the truth that will leave you speechless. Prepare to question everything you thought you knew: Are the hunters actually the hunted?" Discover the real reason no bodies are ever found… or is that just another lie?" From ancient legends to modern cover-ups, has the truth about Bigfoot been hiding in plain sight?" Science or folklore? This book blurs the line until there's no going back." A shocking experiment proves: People see what they want to see. But what if you're wrong?" An eerie blend of fact and fiction—so twisted even we aren't sure what's real anymore." Is Bigfoot just a myth… or an unearthly being defying everything we understand?" The exercises in this book will awaken your spirit, break you free from the constraints of modern life, and transform you into a primal force of nature—drawing Bigfoot to you like a magnet.   The Bigfoot Paradox: Everything is a Lie, and Everything is True

It looked like somebody was bent over and had their head in the window of the deer blind and it either heard me or smelt me and he pulled his head out of the tent and stood straight up and that shocked me. They don't make people that that big. The way it moved, almost as if it was gliding across the beach. I've never seen anything moves like that in my life. They were screaming at each other in gibberish. It sounded like a language and they were chuntering away back and forwards, back and forwards, back and forwards.

I know what a bear looks like and there is no way on this planet that what I saw were bears. What are you reporting? Get somebody out here. What's going on now, sir? That's son of a bitch is about six years. This is about six foot nine. I don't know. Do you see a bouncer? Yes, I'm looking right in it. Uh-uh.

This is John from Ontario, Canada, and you're listening to Sasquatch Chronicles. Welcome to the show, everyone. Thanks for being here tonight. Got a great show plan for you. We'll be speaking with author Justin McNeil about his new book, The Bigfoot Paradox. Everything is a lie and Everything is True. Available now on Amazon, and all include. include a link below.

And Justin's had a few incidences throughout his life. We'll also chat about. If you've had an encounter and you'd like to be on the show, shoot me an email. My email address is Wes at Sasquatch Chronicles.com. And if you get a chance to check out, Sasquatch Chronicles.com, you can become a member and not only support the show, but get additional shows. Let's jump into it tonight. I want to welcome Justin McNeil to the show.

Justin, thanks for coming on. Hey, thank you. It's an honor and privilege to be on your show. I appreciate it. The honor is mine having me on the show. The book, The Bigfoot Paradox. Everything is a lie and everything is true. For the audience, if they go to Amazon, they get a copy of this book.

What can they kind of expect when they read this book? Yeah, so the Bigfoot paradox isn't really, your typical cryptid book. I wrote it to be provocative. I wanted it to blend details and data from both skeptics and believers. You know, I don't tell a whole lot of my personal stories in the book because I don't want to sway their opinion. I just want to open their eyes, right?

So it's a provocative blend of eyewitness accounts, folklore research, and then, you know, something more unsettling regarding Bigfoot. And I try to walk the line between fact and fiction, truth and mythology. And my goal isn't to tell, you know, readers what to believe. I just want to present those layers of reality, force them to question what's real and what isn't.

So there's accounts in the book. There's eyewitness testimonies and stories from other people. Like I said, I left most of my personal stories. out because I don't want to sway anyone. And just ask them to really, you know, question what's real. And that's the whole point, right? You want to chase the unknown, wrestle with that unexplained, and embrace that tension

between belief and doubt. So, you know, I think skeptics will find information in the book. I think believers will find good information in the book. And I just wanted to get that dialogue started. Yeah, I know that you've written several books on several different topics. And one of the things I want to ask you about is the Aswang or Ashwong in the Philippines. But with regard to Sasquatch, I knew you grew up in Missouri, did you have an encounter? Is that what kind of led you to want to write this book?

I did. So I, like I said, I grew up in a small town, very rural. you know, and I, we, my family hunted and fished and we collected cans and, you know, very poor growing up. And so we hunted and fished not because, you know, we enjoyed it as much as it was supplemental food for our table, right? So I was always involved in that and always outside and I, you know, I'm a, I was a classic latchkey kid, right? You know, leave the house, go out and play. Don't come back until it's stuff. dark, and I spent a lot of my time in the woods and everything. And my family is primarily military and law enforcement. So they were kind of, you know, no nonsenses as well. And I just

enjoyed that stuff. So my first incident, because I was a skeptic, and I had had other strange things happened to me. We can talk about those if you want with paranormal things. But my first real incident was in 2001 when I was on a hog hunt in the Washtas of Arkansas. So again, when I was growing up, you know, I would go and I would convince my mom, you know, 12, 13, 14, I would say, hey, I'm going to go out here and I'm going to take some supplies and I'm going to live and fish and, you know, just do like a survival experience because I've always loved. that stuff. I've always loved reading Native American books and trying those things and making fire with fire drills and, you know, all the different primitive stuff. So I had done that since

I was pretty young. And my mom, my dad wasn't around that much, but my mom kind of got more and more comfortable with it as, you know, she saw, I would say, you drop me off here for a few days typically during the summer and then you pick me up here and uh you know she was fine with it and again i'm from a small town i would go into the forest usually would just i might have like a 22 long rifle pistol um i'd have my knife fishing uh equipment and stuff like that but anyway so i was very comfortable with doing that you know and sleeping in the on the ground and and all of that. I'm extremely comfortable in the woods. So in 2001, I was on a hog hunt.

It was, and I've never told anyone except my closest friends' story, but I was about two days into a solo boar hunt, and I was off grid and off trail, right, off the map. I had set up a little lean-to using some cordage, some pine and a tarp, basically just enough to keep the dew off of me and the bugs out of my, you know, face and nose. So this was kind of primitive camping, you know, I like to do that, build little temporary shelters and everything. And just it's peaceful and relaxing to me. So I didn't have any tent, right?

I didn't have anybody with me. It was just me in the wild. And whatever showed up, you know, when the sun went down. Now on this time, I did have, I usually have a sidearm and a rifle. I carry a six hour P229 usually. I know I was carrying it at that point because I didn't have many firearms at that time. And I had it, you know, loaded it's a 40 Smith & West, and I had it loaded with the solid copper Lehigh defense rounds.

And the reason why I do that is I was doing that on the boar hunt is because, you know, if my rifle gets tangled up or gets jammed or I just hurt the boar and it charges me, I want something that is strong enough to penetrate, you know, deeply into the tissue of the wild pig and bring it down. And so I hadn't seen any bore. I had seen some sign. I had seen, I saw one bore, but it was like at the periphery of a person's property and the backstop. It wasn't, you know, a good place that I could have taken a shot and be safe. So I'd had a little luck with seeing things, but I hadn't killed anything yet, hadn't harvested anything. And so I'm in my shelter, and I have my, also my PTR-91.

I don't, and Wes, I don't know, I think it's said in your profile you like to hump, but a PTR91 is, it's basically an HKG3 clone. So it's a 7.61 by, you know, 52 millimeter NATO or a 308 round. And there are 20 rounds in that. And I'm laying there, the fire had died down and I'm half asleep in my shelter. And everything was quiet. There weren't any animal sounds. You know, that type of night where everything gets super quiet.

And I heard like a wet low huff. And, you know, it's funny because I had hunted boar, I've hunted deer, you know, how bucks will snort, pigs will grunt and squeal and things like that. But it was like a wet low huff. And it kind of startled me because I hadn't heard something like that. I knew it wasn't like rooting of a bear or of a boar or like to, you know, grumble of a bear. I knew it wasn't a deer. It was like it was kind of deliberately done like a, I can't even imitate to sound like a, you know, like that.

And so I set up and I slipped my boots on. and I grabbed my flashlight. And I kind of stepped outside my shelter. The air, you know, was heavy. It wasn't much wind. There weren't any bugs. Again, no sound. But, you know, I could feel like a kind of like a tingle, right, on the back of my neck.

Like if you've ever felt something or someone really staring at you hard and you almost can sense it, Right? You feel it. You feel something looking at you. And then the brush basically exploded. I mean, that's the only way I can, it's really the only way I can describe it. So, you know, this, this thing, it didn't really ease its way out. It kind of tore out of the forest like it had been coiled up, like it was waiting for me to move. I don't know. and, you know, so I heard this thing coming at me. Branches were cracking and, you know, the undergrowth was being flattened. Because I could hear it. I'm familiar with those sounds.

It was like it was charging at me. And when I first saw it, I don't know. It was probably eight feet tall if it was an inch and it was wide, you know, shoulders like, I don't know, oil drums and. arms that, you know, hung down almost to its knees. And the hair, you know, was matted and thick, soiled in places, clumped with dirt. God knows what else. And its face really wasn't, it wasn't an ape face, but it wasn't a man.

And I, you know, at this time, right, I'm skeptical, right. I wasn't a believer. I was just, like, shocked. And I was, I remember it had like kind of a flat, broad nose and a heavy brow. And I just, like, froze for a split second. And then, you know, my body kind of reacted before my brain could. And I dove kind of into the bush. And I was scrambling, you know, and thorns and everything.

everything, the brush and everything was clawing at me. But I was like, you know, I need to get away from this thing. And so I just kind of laid there in the brush and I watched it. And then it kind of steps out more clear kind of by the fire pit. And I remember it was like breathing like a bull like it had, it was like it was like it was angry. Like it had done a charge and then it was angry. And then I remember it sniffed the air, like, you know, deep, long breasts through its nose. Almost like it could, you know, separate every molecule in the air. I could hear it, you know, breathing and see that.

And then it kind of turned, it turned its upper body, you know. know, towards me and looked at me and I saw its eyes and, you know, I know people report that their eyes glow. I didn't really see that. There wasn't a whole lot of light, but it didn't have, it wasn't like a typical animal's eyes. I mean, it was, the eyes were like cold and focused and they looked intelligent to me, you know, not the really the eyes of an animal, like I said, but something more aware, something thinking. And, you know, I had my rifle in my tent or my lean to, but there was no way that I was going to try to make a scramble for that,

especially when I had heard how quickly this thing had moved and how big it was. And I was thinking, you know, if it does, if it does grab me, or come to me and hurt me. I will, I'll shoot it, but I was thinking, you know, my 40 caliber pistol is probably just going to make it mad. It's going to kill me anyway. And then I just, I took off and I ran. You know, I'm not really a guy that gets scared really easily and I'll go into that, but I ran.

It was like pure erupting fear not only just because I had seen, I had seen an experience that's something that wasn't supposed to exist, but it was that close to me. And I'm trying to rationalize and trying to think through things. And it's just, you know, you come to the realization that that isn't a man, that, you know, that isn't supposed to be here. And I remember as I started, running, you know, it kind of screamed and it wasn't like a roar. It wasn't an animal call.

It was low and like throaty and violent and it kind of hit me in the chest, right? Like a brick, it kind of vibrated through my body and shook me. And then in later research, I would learn about infrasound, you know, which is low frequency shockwaves of predators used to paralyze prey. Tigers can do it and elephants can do it. I mean, usually we don't perceive it audibly, but it's something that puts us into that panic mode, right? And so I know this thing could do that because when it screamed, I swear my blood ran cold, you know,

and it was like total terror erupted from my core, like fear had been wretched. waiting under pressure and just exploded through every nerve in my body. I mean, I'm sure I had a massive adrenaline dump. But I ran. I kept, you know, tearing to the brush like a wild thing, bleeding and tripping and not caring, just moving, fleeing, just trying to get away from it. Not because I thought it was necessarily chasing me, but because I knew that it could

if it wanted to. And so a few hours later, I mean, I was exhausted. I don't know if you've ever been in Arkansas in the National Forest and in those deep woods, but there's a lot of hills and it's kind of rough terrain. So I kind of collapsed. And when the sun came back up and the light came back to the woods, I went back to my camp cautiously and slowly and I grabbed my rifle and, you know, packed everything and I left. But I'll tell you something that the smell was still there and I'll never forget that smell.

It was like a heavy stomach turning mix of rot and wet for stale urine, old blood. I mean, it was like a almost like a dead body. but, you know, like a predator that's been sleeping in the same nest of corpses for weeks. And it kind of clung to the trees and hung in the air and stuck on, you know, my gear, my backpack. And yeah, I never went back to that spot again after that. I didn't think I needed to because, you know, it definitely saw me. It smelled me. It let me go.

and I know people laugh about Bigfoot and they treat it like a mascot, a meme, but what I saw wasn't a blurry joke. It was calculated and, you know, controlled and probably capable of ripping me apart. And I'm a big guy. I'm like six feet tall, 275 pounds. So that was that situation. And that kind of got me started like, what the hell? was that, you know? No one could blame me for not going back.

And you're pretty close to this creature. When you were looking at it, what kind of stood out to you about it? I mean, what kind of stays with you today looking back on that moment? I was probably 15 feet away. Like I said, I mean, it had to be eight feet tall if it was an inch. And it, you know, as wide as a truck. I mean, much, much wider than me, probably twice as wide as me. And, you know, I've got a 60 inch chest and it was, I mean, I felt like a child, you know,

next to it and matted hair and kind of a flattened nose, dark, darker skin on its, on its face and kind of a heavy brow line. And, you know, you could see its muscles, you know, you've hunted, right? I mean, I'm sure you've seen like the muscles under the skin of deer and things as they're moving. I mean, it was, it was lean like that. You know, you had talked about the smell. And when you're out there in the woods, when you're hunting, I will say animals have

kind of a wild smell to them, but I wouldn't say it's the worst smell you've ever smelled in your life. The way people describe it. I've heard sulfur. I've heard rotten eggs, basically sewage, the worst things you can think of. And sometimes that's what people smell when they run into these things. I've never smelled something like that. I've had the, you know, unfortunate opportunity to, you know, be around a dead body.

And, no, it was different. Yeah, there's kind of the wild gamey smell, but this is different. It's like, I don't know, it's something that kind of invade your nostrils, right? Just a disgusting. Yeah, maybe sulfur. for maybe like rotten, rotten flesh. I mean, I spend quite a bit of time in the Philippines. And one of the fruits they eat there is called durian.

And, you know, what they say is it smells like hell and tastes like heaven. And it has kind of a sulfury smell. But maybe if you mix durian with like a dead rotting corpse or something, It was definitely unforgettable, for sure. What's Daryon? Is it like a fruit? Yeah, it's a fruit common in the Philippines and Asia. It's got spikes all over it.

It doesn't look like something anyone would ever eat. It's, you know, probably two or three times are larger, bigger than a coconut, yellow flesh in it that, like a custardy flesh. And it's amazing, but some people can't eat it. In fact, it's banned from hotels, banned from the airport and things like that. Areas, some people will gag if they smell it. So it has a very strong smelly odor. But yeah, it's delicious. The book, again, is called The Bigfoot Paradox.

Everything is a lie and Everything is True on Amazon. And Justin, you know, a couple of years ago, I did this. this whole show about the Aswong or Ashwong, I'm not how to pronounce it. But the show I did on the As Wong is it's from the CIA's perspective and how they were able to accomplish this psychological warfare against the Filipino government. But I can never quite figure out what the Aswong was or Ashwong actually was. I know the Filipinos have a very deep belief in this entity or creature, but it's been described as, I almost think it's like an umbrella term, because if there's a sheepshifting creature, you know, like a skinwalker, it's an as Wong. If there's a vampire,

you know, type creature out there or demon, it's an Aswong. And that's kind of what I got from it. Like there's not really one basic description of what the Aswong is, but you went to the Philippines, If you would tell me about your experience with this Aswan or Ashwong. Yeah. So when I went to the Philippines, and this is in 2022, I basically went with two goals. To meet my new girlfriend, and I was going to hunt and try to, you know, go on a little quick expedition for the Amanongo, which is the cryptid in the Philippines. that people say is like our Bigfoot or our, you know, folk monster or Sasquatch.

When I got there, and let me back up a little bit. So I didn't go looking for Ashwong or anything. Again, I'm perpetually skeptic unless I've seen it or experienced it. I wanted to see what this Amanongo was about. And it's said to be, you know, most prevalent in the mountains of Negroes Occidental. And again, it's supposed to be a large beast, you know. Some people describe it with a sagittal crest. Some people describe it, you know, as looking like an A, it's seven to ten feet tall.

All of that, all of pretty much the same stuff that we talk about with Bigfoot and Sasquatch here. So I arrived in the Philippines and met my girlfriend and we had met online and it was, you know, one of those things. And so I told her, hey, I want to take a week and I'm going to go to Negro Soxedenthal and I'm going to, you know, see what I can find out there because I was already earnestly in my research and everything for this book. and I wanted to talk to locals. I wanted to, you know, get out there and see if I could find anything. Plus, it was a cool opportunity to, you know, get down into the wild and into the jungle and all that stuff. So my girlfriend, I'll try to paraphrase what I have in the book, but she was, you know, she thought I was insane, of course. But I reassured her and I said, you know, I'll just be gone a week and then I'll be fine.

I'll be back. And I had found this gentleman named Ronaldo, who was an Ate tribesman, which is a local tribe there, and Negro Saksidental, and just some background for people. So I speak to Gaelog, and I am also learning Wari. And he told me that he knew the jungle well, and he knew where the Amamongo. lived and he basically told me it was like in the shadows of Mount Kano on, which is a mountain there in Negroes Occidental. So at the time I was, my condo was in Ilo, I lo, and I took the ocean jet ferry from Iloilo, Ilo, to Bacolod, which was like a two-hour

ride and then I met Ronaldo at there's a local bar there called Tipi's Bistro and I paid him 3,000 pesos and then we kind of set off and you know we're

hiking to the jungle and the first day or two is kind of uneventful right but then at night I would hear especially on the second night I would hear like, you know, whoops and sounds like that.

This one is actually a little traumatic for me because I was actually physically attacked. So I would hear those whoops and, you know, I would hear jungle noises, but I mean, I'm not as familiar with the jungles of the Philippines as I am with the forest and woods of, you know, North America. So I didn't think too much of... about it, but Ronaldo, he was kind of getting anxious and nervous. And I could see that he was, you know, uncomfortable, even though he was kind of trying to hide it. And I could tell he was definitely afraid.

On the morning of the third day, I woke up and Ronaldo was gone. And most all of my gear was gone. He had left a note there, and the note said, Patawad, I'm not quite alam of the monga nalilang, non-lid, butan, can backet tally on d'atatatila, which means,

sorry, I can't take it anymore. The creatures of the forest know why we're here. They're angry. I've left you. it's up to you now which was a horrifying realization that this person that I had paid to you know take me and show me this place was gone and had taken my ear so without my guide and my supplies and no idea of where the Amamonga was I I really didn't have any other choice but to abandon the hunt for it because obviously at that point I was I was worried you know there's there's rebels there's Abu Sayef you know there's there's a lot of dangers there and it is so rural and everything I was alone I didn't have a you know I didn't have a guide I didn't have my

cell phone, no gear, because he had taken that. My cell phone, I left back in the hotel. I knew I I wouldn't have reception for it anyway, which reception and things like that that we take for granted in the U.S. is, it's non-existent in parts of the world and third world countries like that. So yeah, my hunt for the Amamanga would have to wait. And at that point, I was just, just concerned about survival, right? But I am a survivalist, so I knew that if I followed a stream, you know, down, downhill, down the mountain, that, you know, the stream would lead to a river and a river would lead to larger bodies of water, and water will lead to villages, right? And villages meant safety for me. So I just tried to get out. And then as night fell, I came upon a little

village and, you know, lit by a few lamps here and there. And a friendly man invited me into his shanty, which was kind of, it wasn't a nipah hut. And I don't know if you know what that is, but that's a little hub made out of, like, bamboo and straw. It wasn't a full nip of hub, but it was like, you know, corrugated metal and rusted metal and bamboo. And I was obviously tired, so I accepted his hospitality and went into his house there. and his wife was in there and their gaunt child. And child was probably no older than 12. So the guy goes in the back and, you know,

says he's going to prepare dinner. And so he's out there doing that. And, you know, the wife gave me a small glass of tuba, which is it's a local red wine that's made out of a coconut. And so, you know, it tasted bitter. It tasted a little strange, but I'm sitting there and I'm drinking this. And I'm, you know, kind of talking a little bit with them. They were kind of shy.

But I'm trying to talk with them and, you know, I'm thanking them for letting me have some food and drink. And I started to feel strange. So I started to get extremely sleepy, and my head in the room was kind of spinning. And my vision was starting to get blurry. And at first I was just thinking, you know, I'm just really super exhausted.

But then it kind of hit me that they put something in my drink. and I tried to stand up to kind of shake off the dizziness, and that's when the room kind of began to spin. And that's when I looked at the kid, like I said, probably 12 super skinny, gont kid, and his eyes were red, and they were glowing red. And he's staring. staring at me.

Man, it was so bizarre. He's staring at me like, like, you know, like a lion and looks at something or, you know, like a predator looks at you. So he's like staring at me like he's, you know, hungry and, and his,

I remember his lips curled back and his teeth were jagged. And I said, you know, what the hell is happening? And I was kind of struggling to stay upright. And then I was like, I've got to leave. I've got to, you know, get the hell out of here. And I went for the door, the doorway, which just really had, you know, some cloth hanging down over it to cover it up. and that's when the kid he growled and he lunged at me and jumped on my back

like a wild animal and he was clawing and punching at my face and just like a feral, you know, animal. And I grabbed him. And again, you know, I'm six feet tall, 270 pounds. I'm strong. I used to power lift. I've studied, you know, Taekwondo and Shidoconful contact karate and Shingotai Jiu-Jitsu and Judo. And I just grabbed him and just to throw him off of me because he's like clawing at my face and everything. and that's when he is his teeth sank into my arm, deep into my forearm when I had, when I tried to grab him.

And I think when he did that, it hurt so bad. I think it made the seriousness and everything of the situation like, you know, it made everything spike. And so I had that moment of clarity because of the. pain and the pain was so intense and I I threw him into the wall, you know, with all the strength I had and he kind of thudded against the bamboo and was on the ground and my arm was throbbing and, you know, I had his teeth marks in my arm and there's blood running down from my face and on my arm down my hand. So I'm just trying to escape.

And the mother started screaming. And she was also, you know, it was like a twisted gutterle filled with rage and desperation. She was saying, she said, Tyon, hurry, our food is escaping. Don't let him get away. and her face, and so she's blocking the doorway out in my escape, and her voice had transformed. It wasn't sweet anymore.

It was like a growling, menacing half beast, half human voice. Her son had recovered at this point, and he's like scrambling towards me on all four. and the walls were, they seemed to close in. I could feel like, you know, I'm going to die here. You know, I had that realization, and I was extremely desperate to escape. She was in my way, and I just remember I kicked her as hard as I could, as hard as I could with everything inside me right under her chest. in. And she drops to the floor. And that was really all the time I needed to escape. And I had seen the

husband come from the back outside where he was. And he had a bowl of machete in his hand. And his eyes were glowing red, too. And I realized these are Ashwam. These are. This is, these are Oswald. And again, it's like, you know, I couldn't believe, I couldn't believe what was happening and what had happened. And I, I ran out the door and just, I just kept running until my, you know, legs gave out and my lungs were burning. And I could no longer hear them. and I was at a small barangai hall. So that's kind of how things are in the Philippines, right,

especially in the Bukit or the Boundak's areas, you know, neighborhoods or a few houses, small villages. They'll typically have a Burungai hall and a Burungi captain there and they'll kind of handle internal disputes and everything. But anyway, I, so. I went to the Barangai Hall door and there was light on inside and I beat on the door. And a man probably, probably in his 60s, mid-60s, introduced himself as the barangai captain and led me inside. And, you know, he had kind of a first aid kit there and he's like trying to help me.

and as best he could. And I told him what happened, and that's when he confirmed what I thought. He said, Aswan, he said, you're very lucky, Joe. And, you know, I'm an American, right? I'm a Caucasian guy with a shaved head. I mean, it's fairly common, especially in the rural areas for people to call you Joe,

as in G.I. Joe from the military. But anyway, so he patched me up as best he could, and he called his friend who had a vehicle, you know, and I'm just kind of sitting there in shock, and he said again, he said, you're lucky, and he's shaking his head. And then he told me, you know, my friend, will drive you back to your hotel.

You need rest. And I just remember on the ride back, I was just trying to register everything that had happened and, you know, feeling grateful that I was alive. And then in my hotel, I was still in a state of shock and my arm and my face and my body was littered with bites and laceration.

and so I, you know, took photos and some of those photos are in the book. But yeah. As you were talking, I was like, man, did they put a hallucigen in his drink? But it couldn't have been because it wore off too quick. What do you think happened there? I think, based on my research after the fact, there is a bitter gourd called umpalaya that you can brew down to a tea and then i would think or they could have used a local plant called saangubat um and then probably something like a diphenhydramine hydrochloride

which we know commonly as benedril um it was probably a combination of that mixed with the too, but because they don't have access to medical clinics and drugstores and things like that. And like I was saying earlier, I've really researched this Ashwong creature in the Philippines. And sometimes people describe it as a creature. Sometimes people describe it as like an evil spirit. I could never really get a clear answer on, like I said, I feel like it's kind of an umbrella term. There are parts of the Philippines where they believe that Ashwongs will climb on top of roofs and stick their tongue in through the window to suck, you know, whatever blood or whatever from pregnant women to latch onto their stomach. There's some other local folklore about them being able to shape shift and turn into things like pigs and are.

are other creatures. But my understanding is people there do know that these things exist. And usually they, if they live in a small village or they live in a boondocks or Bukid, they will punish them and will, you know, attack them or beat them if something happens. But I think I was, and, you know, it's all related to. blood or are being, you know, carnivorous. But I think because I was a foreigner, I just think I had an extremely unlucky situation. Again, they didn't, they didn't change into animals in front of me, but they definitely, which is another part of the folklore is that they're normal looking

people during the day. But at night, they take on more of the Ashwong tendency. Some, some people, People even say they have wings, but I didn't see any of that. All I saw was the glowing red eyes, the teeth changed, obviously the ferocity and the way that they were, you know, attacking me. Yeah, so, yeah, some people equate them to vampires, although if you look deep into the folklore, they don't, they're not immortal. they're not supposed to be, you know, immortal. But, yeah, it always revolves around blood or, you know, carnivorous, you know, are cannibalistic, I mean, tendencies. And, you know, and I've been in the Philippines. I've been probably 10 or 12 times.

And, you know, I've had people say before to me, yeah, that's, that's, that's. That's where the Oswang lives. And I've walked by and they just seem like normal, you know, Filipino people. But they say that at night is when they change and they get like this. You know, when I hear the account, I think of, especially the glowing red eyes, in a lot of possession encounters, demonic possession,

this is reported where people will have glowing red eyes. red eyes. And a guy your size trying to fight off an old woman, an old man, and their gaunt son, it would seem like it would be no problem. But it was. Do you think that they were possessed? Or do you think this is the Ashwong or it's kind of all the same thing? No, they absolutely could have been possessed. I just know that it wasn't normal. Yeah, they absolutely could have been possessed. And maybe that's what, you know, being an Ashwong is. Maybe it's an evil or malevolent spirit that, you know, makes these people do that or, you know, gives them those, those strange attributes and abilities. I really don't know, but I just

recognized, you know, that that's what it was that attacked me based on the folklore and everything I had read, but you're absolutely right. It could be just a demonic possession or something like that. It could be. Now, why it was all three of them, why it was the

the, you know, the lackey, Baba'ai and the Batang Lalaki or the husband, the wife, and the and the child, I don't know. Usually in possession instances, you don't see like

that, you know, the entire family is like that, right? Usually it's just one host. And, you know, people ask me, people that don't understand the Philippines and don't understand culture there and how life is there and how remote. And just how it is there, I mean, they will say, you know, well, why didn't you call the police or why didn't you go back and do that? Because, I'm a foreigner and these are local people and I'm going to make an accusation against locals and it's not even you you can't even call the police there they might have you know two or three police that are two or three towns over that that are there and you know half the police don't even have firearms they can't afford it they can't afford to outfit their police like that

it's you know i'm sure i would have been just laughed off and i and i knew that i was just grateful to be to be back at the hotel and and away from that and i understand why you didn't go to the cops i mean it's this as one thing or ashwang is very much in their culture and the cops probably would have thought there's no way in hell i'm going down there uh people are terrified of it. That's why the CIA used that as a psychological warfare weapon against them in the 50s. And I encourage people to go research that, the Ash Wong and the CIA. The book again is called the Bigfoot paradox. Everything is a lie and everything is true available on Amazon. And I noticed in the book, you go into skeptical questions like, why don't we have any bodies?

Why can't we find a body of one of these things? And I know a lot of skeptical people ask that, and it's a very fair question. Very fair question. What's kind of your take on why we aren't finding bodies of them? So my theory, and I've interviewed and a lot of these interview excerpts are in my book. But I've kept their names private. But my take is I think this thing is intelligent. I think it may be more than what we think it is.

And I think one of three things probably. And I document it and put it in the book from a tribal elder. And he gave me the impression that they eat their dead. that it's seen as a waste of the meat and they need to eat because of their size, that they eat their dead. So I would, my theory, my speculation is that they either use caves and cave systems and they place their dead there or they could bury their dead with some type of rituals like we have funerals. they could bury their dead or that they probably eat their dead. And keep in mind, it is not uncommon even for human tribes to eat the dead. There's tribes in New Guinea, tribes in other places that don't necessarily eat their own dead,

but they eat dead or they would eat the dead of any rival tribes. This is well documented. Even chimpanzees, if we look just pure as primates, chimpanzees will oftentimes consume one of their small offspring. If the offspring either by the scent or the development or something is not seen as able to survive, the mother will eat its own offspring. So I don't think it's out of the question that they could eat and consume their dead. Yeah, I've heard that theory before.

I'm not sure if I'm on board with it, but that doesn't mean that I'm right by any means. What do you think that these creatures are? I think that there's something that I think that they're probably an offshoot of the genetic tree or something that is not of the natural world. You know, it's interesting, too, if you look at statistics, how many sightings and things are around the same time as UFO sightings and UAP sightings. So I definitely explore in the book, you know, could these be scouts? Could they be, you know, from another civilization, could they be, you know, protectors?

There's series about Bigfoot being transdimensional or interdimensional, which is, you know, one of the theories that I explore in the book because there's lots of instances, and I've had those instances with tree peaking. and then as you approach the creature it disappears and and you can only see like a partial head and a shoulder peeking out from the tree and the trees too small to cover you know the animal or the creature and it just kind of disappears in the thin air but but what I really think they are is probably offshed. of the genetic tree from man and primate. And I struggle with that West because I'm a Christian, so I don't put a whole lot of, you know, stock into at least macro evolution. But there's definitely something there. I mean, when you have a legend and folklore that transcends,

you know, hundreds and thousands of years, and multiple tribes and multiple locations around the world and covered the oral tradition and cave paintings and everything. I mean, there's something there. So I don't really know what they are, but I would suspect that, I don't know, some type of hybrid genetic fork from probably Neanderthal man. And, yeah, who knows?

but that's what I'm thinking. I think it is a very real creature and we will learn about it someday. Yeah, hopefully one day we'll all know. The book again is The Bigfoot Paradox. Everything is a lie and everything is true available on Amazon. And I'll include a link underneath the show. I haven't gotten my copy yet, but it's on its way. but, you know, just from talking to you, what I really like is you're willing to look at all aspects of this whole phenomenon with Sasquatch.

It's not just gauged towards eight people or people who believe, you know, it feels like everyone can kind of read this book and I really can't wait to get my copy. And I really hope people out there go out and get their copy. You know, thank you again, Justin, for coming on. Hey, thank you so much, Wes. Anytime. It's been my pleasure. And yeah, just if you want to buy a book that looks at all the known angles along with eyewitness accounts and research I've done, I recommend people pick it up. Thank you so much, Wes. I appreciate it.

Thanks again, Justin. And I'll include a link underneath this episode. And that's it for tonight, everyone. Remember, if you've had an encounter, shoot me an email. My email address is Wes at Sasquatch Chronicles.com. And if you get a chance, check out Sasquatch Chronicles.com, you can become a member and get additional shows. Until next time, everyone.