'That was me': Minnesota shaman who was wearing hair-covered animal skins says he is the SASQUATCH spotted by the Bigfoot 911 team

  • A group called Bigfoot 911 claimed to have encountered the creature on Friday 
  • Gawain MacGregor, 36, claims that it was him that the group saw in the woods
  • He was performing a shamanistic ritual in North Carolina when he saw the group
  • He wears a special garment made of raccoon skins in an attempt to connect with an ancient character called Enkidu, which is similar to Bigfoot, during his rituals 

A Minnesota man says that cryptozoology enthusiasts have mistaken him for Bigfoot after reports surfaced about an alleged sighting in North Carolina last week.

Gawain MacGregor, 36, was performing a shamanistic ritual in the woods of Pisgah in western North Carolina on Friday night when people claimed to encounter Bigfoot in the same area.

As part of his ritual, MacGregor was wearing a special garment made of raccoon skins in an attempt to connect with an ancient character called Enkidu, which is similar to Bigfoot.

He said he was in the woods performing his ritual while traveling through North Carolina when researchers from Bigfoot 911 encountered him believing he was the creature they were looking for.

Gawain MacGregor, 36, was performing a shamanistic ritual in the woods of Pisgah in western North Carolina on Friday night when people claimed to encounter Bigfoot in the same area
As part of his ritual, MacGregor was wearing a special garment made of raccoon skins

Gawain MacGregor, 36, was performing a shamanistic ritual in the woods of Pisgah in western North Carolina on Friday night when people claimed to encounter Bigfoot in the same area. As part of his ritual, MacGregor was wearing a special garment made of raccoon skins

'That was me,' he told The McDowell News . 'It's not a coincidence.'

The Charlotte Observer revealed earlier this week that a member of the Bigfoot-watching group claimed to have had an encounter with a 'large bipedal animal covered in hair,' on Friday night at about 11pm, in a wooded area in North Carolina's McDowell County.

John Bruner, of Bigfoot 911, reported that at the time of the apparent sighting, he and six others were in the woods, spreading out glow sticks in hopes of attracting Bigfoot's attention.

According to the Charlotte Observer, Bruner wrote in a Facebook post that, 'I turned on my headlamp and saw a large bi-pedal animal covered in hair.' He described the creature as having had a smooth, solid black face and shaggy hair.

Bruner noted that he chased the creature and had a 'stare-down' with it, before it disappeared deeper into the woods.

The Greenville Police Department, in Greenville, South Carolina, later posted a tongue-in-cheek warning about the sighting on its Facebook page on Tuesday morning.

Greenville police were equal parts tongue-in-cheek and serious in their warning against shooting during Bigfoot sightings after this news report from North Carolina resurfaced 

Greenville police were equal parts tongue-in-cheek and serious in their warning against shooting during Bigfoot sightings after this news report from North Carolina resurfaced 

Greenville, South Carolina police warned its community against shooting during a close encounter with Bigfoot - seen here in the infamous 1967 'Patterson' video shot in northern California. It has yet to be conclusively debunked or proven to be real 

Greenville, South Carolina police warned its community against shooting during a close encounter with Bigfoot - seen here in the infamous 1967 'Patterson' video shot in northern California. It has yet to be conclusively debunked or proven to be real 

In the post, police exhorted: 'If you see Bigfoot, please do not shoot at him/her, as you'll most likely be wounding a fun-loving and well-intentioned person, sweating in a gorilla costume.'

MacGregor said that it wasn't Bigfoot that the group saw on Friday - it was him.

He claimed that he walked away from the group quickly and did not throw rocks at anyone, as Bruner had previously claimed.

He says that he is a Christian who incorporates the ancient Assryo-Bablyonian religions predating Christianity into his faith.

'Shamanistic traditions are the oldest in the world so to me it's not that out of the ordinary,' he told The McDowell News. 'For me, it's no different than going to church on Sunday.'

He said that wearing the raccoon skins and wandering the forest is part of practicing Enkinduism.

'The foremost sacrament I practice is the wearing of hair-covered animal skins and wandering in the forest, the same way Gilgamesh honored him thousands of years ago,' he said.

He added: 'While this may seem unusual, the practice actually dates back to long before Gilgamesh, as images of shaman dressed as animals appear as far back as the Neolithic paintings in France's Trois-Frères cave.

During his ritual, MacGregor recites a prayer to Sasquatch.

'Hear me O Sasquatch, children of Enkidu, in your great mercy, may you walk forever before me, guiding me through the forest and guarding me from every danger that may come,' reads the prayer on his blog.

MacGregor, however, claimed that he himself has seen Sasquatch.

'I've seen Sasquatch before and I didn't have a camera,' he said to The McDowell News. 'It's a moment to reflect on what's going on. It's a spiritual experience.'

Bigfoot sighting reports in the Carolinas are common, with multiple reports circulating around Bigfoot enthusiasts Facebook groups and drawing enough attention from professional Bigfoot hunters to warrant filming episodes of TV series in the area.

Laws regarding the shooting of Bigfoot and other similar cryptids vary by state.

Mental Floss reported, for example, that killing Bigfoot is expressly outlawed in Skamania County, Washington, but it's technically legal to hunt and kill one in Texas because the cryptid is not on the state's recognized official species list. 

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