Other Realms Contact Seekers
By MoonJoey
The Search For Sasquatch With Bio Acoustics
The purpose of this article is a proposal to establishing a rational foundation concerning research methods as they pertain to Sasquatch. Acceptance of this proposal could possibly redraw the lines of the believer/non-believer dichotomy. I am referring to acoustic analysis of vocalizations. Just like with EVPs from paranormal investigations, the analyzing stops at what we think we hear being said and never validating whether what we think we hear really is what is being said. Even if we cannot prove the existence of Sasquatch, we can take the research a step further and compare the vocalizations to human speech and draw a conclusion as to the physiology that is making the vocalizations, not saying it was Sasquatch making them, but rather whatever is making them, indicates being human or not.
In this article I am using an example of the Sierra Sounds a.k.a. Samurai Chatter. If you wish to listen to this vocalization you can check it out here:
The first point to make is that a decision has to be made as to the suspected nature of Sasquatch. Is it an illusive, yet to be discovered ape-like animal? If it is not a being from our world, could it possibly be interdimensional as some contend? Is it aliens in disguise? Regardless, I have taken the time to analyze the Samurai Chatter example to at least illustrate what it might be beyond judgement by just listening. The goal was to determine if the vocalization was indicative of an actual physical being. Keep in mind that techniques used in recent studies of nonhuman primate vocalizations included sound spectrograms (of which I am referring to in this article), oscillograms and computer generated visualizations of the primate vocal apparatus. Studies have shown that nonhuman primates lack anatomically, the apparatus that allows for the full range of human speech.
Results of the acoustic spectrogram analysis of just the first two syllables of the vocalization reveal the following: (you can skip this next 3 paragraphs if they will bore you but they are necessary to make a point)
– there is a diphthong (combination of vowels) evident in the first syllable. This sound required a tongue to make two movments, with the tip of the tongue touching the bottom of the front teeth and then retraction of the same with the tongue pressing against the soft palate (back roof of mouth). This in itself is indicative of a voice box and having a jaw & tongue in a mouth like cavity. If this is an interdimensional creature, it must also have a physical form based on this.
– some claim Sasquatch uses infrasound to communicate however this is not evident here as the first speech formant is in a solid human voice frequency and follows the 1x3x5 general rule with the first syllable indicating F1=500 hz, F2=1500 hz and F3 = 2500 hz. All of this from just the first syllable!!! Analysis shows the 2nd syllable to be a vowel.
– if this is indeed an undiscovered ape-like creature, this sound clip indicates it vocalizes as a human does, even though recent research reveals apes can produce infrasonic vocalizations—very deep calls that lie outside the range of human hearing.
Consulting with a acoustic spectral analysis expert about ape vocalization, he had this to say: “It is true that there is overlap in vocalizations. One cannot say conclusively that a human and ape make completely different sounds, especially when we consider only the vocalizations. The way to separate some of these would be by considering the fricatives (examples of fricatives are consonant sounds i.e. ‘f’, ‘v’, ‘s’, ‘z’, ‘th’- produced by moving the mouth in such a way as to allow passage of air but not completely closing the mouth). The mouth of an ape is distinctly different from a human, plus the variations of tongue placement lends itself to the ability to generate a wider variety of fricatives in a human. It is not 100% conclusive, but when we consider many sounds it becomes more definitive. The number of fricatives we have improves the probability of identification. In other words, vocalizations (Grunts and growls) would be similar for apes and humans, but only humans have the ability to modify them with the range of fricatives needed for speech.” It is important to note here also that the genes involved in speech development such as FOXP2 differ in apes vs humans. When the gene isn’t expressed (the manifestation of a heritable trait in an individual), it causes a condition called specific language impairment in which people may perform normally on cognitive tests but cannot produce spoken language.
You might say, “well, what about those growls you mentioned? That doesn’t involve those fricatives!” In answer to such a question I can offer this example of a bobcat. Listen to this sound and tell me this couldn’t be claimed to be a Sasquatch growl?
I contacted a representative of The Olympic Project which bases its research on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State. He stated, “due to file size and long duration recording times, all my files are originally recorded and reviewed in 320 MP3 format. So right off the bat I am not recording or receiving audio files with the detail needed to look for features you suggest. (did you get that, he acknowledged that the acoustic phonetic analysis wasn’t able to be accomplished in that recording format). Interestingly, their research appears to stop at frequency analysis, attempting to compare them to known animal sound frequencies. I could not find any speech-like vocalizations that were clear enough (close in proximity to the microphone recording them) to be of any analytical use.
The representative felt that due to his following statement, the possiblity existed that Sasquatch could be making the claimed vocalizations, stating, “we may have reason to believe that the variation of Human DNA by 1% could be the difference between Us and Sasquatch.”
NOTE: That 1% however cannot be taken too seriously. It is acually 1.2% of non-coding DNA difference in their genomes that are responsible for all the unmatching characteristics of humans and chimps. That difference was also achieved only if 18% of ape DNA is ignored and 25% of human DNA is ignored for various testing reasons I won’t go into here. This small percentage of difference is a huge and radical one when broken down. As far as their recording technique, consulting with a sound engineer’s opinion resulted in the determination that when performing lossy audio encoding (compression process), such as creating an MP3 file, there is a trade-off between the amount of space used and the sound quality of the result. It is actually impossible to achieve lossless compression with MP3, what is lost is actually the higher harmonics of the base frequencies. Why aren’t they using lossless audio recording formats?
WHAT ABILITIES SASQUATCH MIGHT HAVE THAT PREVENTS SNEAKING UP ON THEM OR EVEN COMING ACROSS ONE ACCIDENTALLY:
1) like some other prey animals, they might have a concentration of cones horizontally across their eyes allowing them to be extremely sensitive visually to movement
2) a 300 degree wide field of vision
3) a sense of smell 1,000 times greater than humans – they could smell you coming a half mile away
4) a greater part of their brain vs humans, devoted to analyzing those smells
5) sensitivity to high frequency sounds which means they hear you from far off and are long gone before you get to that spot they were at
6) extreme vibrational sensitivity to movement. Maybe the reason they have been reported to throw stones is soliciting a reaction that provides movement.
The many experiencers will tell you that Sasquatch exists. Yet, without physical evidence, we will always be left with doubts. Acoustic spectral analysis is a possible step in the right direction to determining whether the vocalizations allegedly associated with Sasquatch are indeed indicative of a non-human. Does Sasquatch really exist? No one can yet say for sure. therefore, I leave you with one of my favorite sayings… “absence of evidence is not evidence of absence”.
The Search For Sasquatch With Bio Acoustics
Gail Hodson Shirk
Other Realms Contact Seekers
By MoonJoey
The Search For Sasquatch With Bio Acoustics
The purpose of this article is a proposal to establishing a rational foundation concerning research methods as they pertain to Sasquatch. Acceptance of this proposal could possibly redraw the lines of the believer/non-believer dichotomy. I am referring to acoustic analysis of vocalizations. Just like with EVPs from paranormal investigations, the analyzing stops at what we think we hear being said and never validating whether what we think we hear really is what is being said. Even if we cannot prove the existence of Sasquatch, we can take the research a step further and compare the vocalizations to human speech and draw a conclusion as to the physiology that is making the vocalizations, not saying it was Sasquatch making them, but rather whatever is making them, indicates being human or not.
In this article I am using an example of the Sierra Sounds a.k.a. Samurai Chatter. If you wish to listen to this vocalization you can check it out here:
The first point to make is that a decision has to be made as to the suspected nature of Sasquatch. Is it an illusive, yet to be discovered ape-like animal? If it is not a being from our world, could it possibly be interdimensional as some contend? Is it aliens in disguise? Regardless, I have taken the time to analyze the Samurai Chatter example to at least illustrate what it might be beyond judgement by just listening. The goal was to determine if the vocalization was indicative of an actual physical being. Keep in mind that techniques used in recent studies of nonhuman primate vocalizations included sound spectrograms (of which I am referring to in this article), oscillograms and computer generated visualizations of the primate vocal apparatus. Studies have shown that nonhuman primates lack anatomically, the apparatus that allows for the full range of human speech.
Results of the acoustic spectrogram analysis of just the first two syllables of the vocalization reveal the following: (you can skip this next 3 paragraphs if they will bore you but they are necessary to make a point)
– there is a diphthong (combination of vowels) evident in the first syllable. This sound required a tongue to make two movments, with the tip of the tongue touching the bottom of the front teeth and then retraction of the same with the tongue pressing against the soft palate (back roof of mouth). This in itself is indicative of a voice box and having a jaw & tongue in a mouth like cavity. If this is an interdimensional creature, it must also have a physical form based on this.
– some claim Sasquatch uses infrasound to communicate however this is not evident here as the first speech formant is in a solid human voice frequency and follows the 1x3x5 general rule with the first syllable indicating F1=500 hz, F2=1500 hz and F3 = 2500 hz. All of this from just the first syllable!!! Analysis shows the 2nd syllable to be a vowel.
– if this is indeed an undiscovered ape-like creature, this sound clip indicates it vocalizes as a human does, even though recent research reveals apes can produce infrasonic vocalizations—very deep calls that lie outside the range of human hearing.
Consulting with a acoustic spectral analysis expert about ape vocalization, he had this to say: “It is true that there is overlap in vocalizations. One cannot say conclusively that a human and ape make completely different sounds, especially when we consider only the vocalizations. The way to separate some of these would be by considering the fricatives (examples of fricatives are consonant sounds i.e. ‘f’, ‘v’, ‘s’, ‘z’, ‘th’- produced by moving the mouth in such a way as to allow passage of air but not completely closing the mouth). The mouth of an ape is distinctly different from a human, plus the variations of tongue placement lends itself to the ability to generate a wider variety of fricatives in a human. It is not 100% conclusive, but when we consider many sounds it becomes more definitive. The number of fricatives we have improves the probability of identification. In other words, vocalizations (Grunts and growls) would be similar for apes and humans, but only humans have the ability to modify them with the range of fricatives needed for speech.” It is important to note here also that the genes involved in speech development such as FOXP2 differ in apes vs humans. When the gene isn’t expressed (the manifestation of a heritable trait in an individual), it causes a condition called specific language impairment in which people may perform normally on cognitive tests but cannot produce spoken language.
You might say, “well, what about those growls you mentioned? That doesn’t involve those fricatives!” In answer to such a question I can offer this example of a bobcat. Listen to this sound and tell me this couldn’t be claimed to be a Sasquatch growl?
I contacted a representative of The Olympic Project which bases its research on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State. He stated, “due to file size and long duration recording times, all my files are originally recorded and reviewed in 320 MP3 format. So right off the bat I am not recording or receiving audio files with the detail needed to look for features you suggest. (did you get that, he acknowledged that the acoustic phonetic analysis wasn’t able to be accomplished in that recording format). Interestingly, their research appears to stop at frequency analysis, attempting to compare them to known animal sound frequencies. I could not find any speech-like vocalizations that were clear enough (close in proximity to the microphone recording them) to be of any analytical use.
The representative felt that due to his following statement, the possiblity existed that Sasquatch could be making the claimed vocalizations, stating, “we may have reason to believe that the variation of Human DNA by 1% could be the difference between Us and Sasquatch.”
NOTE: That 1% however cannot be taken too seriously. It is acually 1.2% of non-coding DNA difference in their genomes that are responsible for all the unmatching characteristics of humans and chimps. That difference was also achieved only if 18% of ape DNA is ignored and 25% of human DNA is ignored for various testing reasons I won’t go into here. This small percentage of difference is a huge and radical one when broken down. As far as their recording technique, consulting with a sound engineer’s opinion resulted in the determination that when performing lossy audio encoding (compression process), such as creating an MP3 file, there is a trade-off between the amount of space used and the sound quality of the result. It is actually impossible to achieve lossless compression with MP3, what is lost is actually the higher harmonics of the base frequencies. Why aren’t they using lossless audio recording formats?
WHAT ABILITIES SASQUATCH MIGHT HAVE THAT PREVENTS SNEAKING UP ON THEM OR EVEN COMING ACROSS ONE ACCIDENTALLY:
1) like some other prey animals, they might have a concentration of cones horizontally across their eyes allowing them to be extremely sensitive visually to movement
2) a 300 degree wide field of vision
3) a sense of smell 1,000 times greater than humans – they could smell you coming a half mile away
4) a greater part of their brain vs humans, devoted to analyzing those smells
5) sensitivity to high frequency sounds which means they hear you from far off and are long gone before you get to that spot they were at
6) extreme vibrational sensitivity to movement. Maybe the reason they have been reported to throw stones is soliciting a reaction that provides movement.
The many experiencers will tell you that Sasquatch exists. Yet, without physical evidence, we will always be left with doubts. Acoustic spectral analysis is a possible step in the right direction to determining whether the vocalizations allegedly associated with Sasquatch are indeed indicative of a non-human. Does Sasquatch really exist? No one can yet say for sure. therefore, I leave you with one of my favorite sayings… “absence of evidence is not evidence of absence”.