The Smell of Gunpowder and the Smell of Bigfoot
It is common in Bigfoot sightings to not only see some large dark shape, particularly at night but to also smell a very strong, unmistakable odor. This is strange because there are strong logical reasons to believe that Bigfoot does not exist.
No remains of Bigfoot have ever been found. No Bigfoot has ever been run over by a car or a logging truck. About a half dozen black bears get run over by cars each year in Yosemite Park alone, a tiny fraction of the Western Wilderness. But no Bigfoot. No hunter has ever killed a Bigfoot.
Science has made it much easier to find Bigfoot. With DNA testing. A blood sample, hairs, even stool samples, when found, will betray the presence of an unknown ape specie, must closely related to man, or maybe an orangutan.
Do bears go in the woods? Of course they do. Their scat is often found. Do Bigfoot go in the woods? Apparently not, as one would expect of a non-existent animal. Or one that makes extensive use of public restrooms.
Even mosquitoes can be enlisted. One can capture hundreds of mosquitoes, sequence the blood within them and get a good idea of what mammals live in the area. But it seems that even the mosquitoes can’t find Bigfoot.
Clearly Bigfoot does not exist. And yet its smell is very commonly associated with Bigfoot sightings? What is the explanation? People see a large dark shape moving in the dark. It is really a bear, or another person, or some other animal. There minds think it’s a Bigfoot. They remember hearing that Bigfoots have a very strong smell. They check for conformation and sure enough, they smell a very strong, unmistakable, foul, pungent odor. I would explain this by saying they are smelling what they expect to smell. But that there is, in most cases, no strong odor, no nearby skunk. just their imagination.
What is the most likely explanation of witnesses smelling gunpowder at Dealey Plaza? Something similar. They think they hear gunshots. Indeed, they have heard gunshots. They check for conformation. They find conformation. They can smell the gun smoke.
This is surprising. They are not next to any gunmen on a calm day. They are a long way from the sniper’s nest, on a day with the wind blowing at 10 to 15 mph. Even if one believes there were multiple gunmen, they should not be smelling any gun smoke.
This is further conformation of what skeptics have been saying all along. Eyewitnesses, Earwitnesses, Nose witnesses, are not reliable. Whether they are trained policemen, trained pilots or whatever, people are easily mistaken. They can see, hear or smell what the expect to see, hear or smell. Such evidence is unreliable.
