Bigelow Tells Fugal To Change Skinwalker Ranch Now pt.2

Robert Bigelow, who owned Skinwalker Ranch for roughly 20 years, has told the current owner, Brandon Fugal, that the entire approach to investigating the property is wrong. The exchange came in the second part of their sit-down on the Bigelow Podcast, hosted by investigative reporter George Knapp.

https://youtu.be/ZvGv0Tptyj0

According to Bigelow, measuring the phenomenon is not enough. For years, the History Channel series The

Secret of Skinwalker Ranch has run on one method, provoking the site and recording whatever reacts. Bigelow argues that method has reached its limit, comparing it to poking a hornet’s nest or a bear. In his words, forcing a reaction is not the same as making contact, and treating the ranch as a laboratory turns the team into a threat in the eyes of whatever is present.

The advice carries added weight given the history between the two men. When Fugal bought the ranch in 2016, he received the land and nothing else. Reference to Bigelow’s earlier work shows two decades of study, first through his own group, the National Institute for Discovery Science, and later through a Defense Intelligence Agency contract worth about $22M. Almost none of that research has ever been released for outside review. The privately funded findings stayed private, and the government-funded portion remains held by the government.

George Knapp (left), Robert Bigelow (center), Brandon Fugal (right)

Bigelow’s central claim is that whatever operates on the land does not read words, it reads intent. He told Fugal that sincerity cannot be faked there, and that a hidden agenda would be obvious. He pointed to accounts his own researchers recorded years earlier, including one in which an investigator felt something move through him and deliver a telepathic message, that they were being watched. Bigelow and Knapp also raised the possibility that the ranch holds more than one intelligence, which would complicate any attempt at communication.

Fugal agreed to consider the change, calling it a 180-degree shift, though he cautioned it cannot happen overnight. He noted that the moments closest to real contact did not come from equipment but from people. According to Fugal, a chant performed by Rabbi Ariel Zadok was followed by a sharp temperature drop captured on thermal FLIR cameras, described by those present as walking into a deep freezer. He also described a guard who felt ill, was photographed surrounded by white orbs, and reported feeling well afterward.

Notably, Bigelow never explained why his data was never shared. One interpretation is personal. At 82, following the 2020 death of his wife of 55 years, Bigelow has turned his focus to whether human consciousness survives death, work he funds through the Bigelow Institute for Consciousness Studies. His guidance to Fugal appears to line up with that late-life focus, less about proving something is there and more about what it might reveal.

Sources

Bigelow Podcast. (2026, September 1). The Future of Skinwalker Ranch | Bigelow Podcast Ep. 5 [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9o8qJbln7AA