Many of you have written to me about the “dark watchers.” They have been mentioned in stories and poems and by others here on my blog in their comments, along with the mysterious lights out above the horizon over the ocean. I haven’t found a good explanation for the lights, although lots or reasonable sounding theories.
I have found a scientific explanation for the Dark Watchers. Did you know they are found on other mountains, not in Big Sur, like Scotland? Read here to discover the answer science provides:
From Sula Nichols:
My dear friend Sean Sweeney’s rendition of the Dark Watcher
(Part of an art installation done on my property)
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Spooky nevertheless.
Do the Esalen people have thoughts on the subject of the Dark Watchers?
Interesting explanation, the Brocken Spectre … what I love, is that it’s still all so mysterious :)
Sounds a bit like Marfa. Tx’s “Marfa Lights”
Light shining through hash pipes.
Kenny C calls these entities that seem to be following but never there when you turn to look, the “Behinders.” I’ve occasionally felt the presence when hiking off-trail.
That presence you feel could be your brain attempting to restore an atrophied element of predator sensing . . . Cougars, for example, stalk silently and attack from behind, going for the back of the neck. Humans are ambush hunters of their own species, usually from far away. One time I heard a "brrrrrrrrrrtt" followed by a loud BANG from the hillside; I looked up and saw some blue smoke, probably from a .30-.30, what we used to call a dirty-turdy. At that range, the bullet was probably tumbling. Black bears don't often attack, but when they do, they mean business--FIGHT! Grizzlies usually just want to neutralize the threat, so playing dead MIGHT work--but there have been serious exceptions. Make noise. I have heard stories about bells being found in grizzly scat; that might have originated as a legend. I had a funny feeling one time as I was working my way down a creek clogged with willows, making visibility very restricted. I climbed up on a big stump, and sure enough, there was a black bear about fifty feet away.
Trump's BIGLIE, Big Foot (a guy with alder-wood-carved feet on backwards, Flat Earth, and now Dark Watchers ... why does anyone with an IQ over 80 pay any attention to these stories?
John did you read the article about a scientific explanation?
People shared by their own shadows. Sounds about right, ha ha!