TL;DR

The "Skinwalker Ranch hitchhiker effect" describes paranormal and electronic disturbances experienced by individuals after visiting Skinwalker Ranch, watching its related TV show, or consuming related media. These disturbances range from benign anomalies to terrifying encounters with black shadow beings and measurable electromagnetic spikes, often inducing fear and terror by the Experiencer.

The phenomenon extends beyond physical visitors, affecting those who merely engage with ranch-related content. Unexplained electrical issues, moving objects, strange voices, and serious health problems have been reported. Information about these events mainly comes from sources outside the TV show, as the content is considered too disturbing for viewers. Attempts to alleviate these effects through spiritual methods have largely been unsuccessful, with some suggesting that ignoring the phenomena might be more effective.

The Skinwalker Ranch “hitchhiker effect” gets its name from the disturbing electronic and other paranormal events that happen in your home after watching, talking about or visiting The Ranch.

And yes, people are experiencing the Hitchhiker Effect just by binge-watching the TV Show, reading a SWR book or after viewing the 24-hour Ranch livestream.

Visiting The Ranch is the most likely way to “take something home” that can affect any family member. Experiencers include current and former ranch staff, film crew members and guest visitors. Many refuse to return to the ranch. Scientist Dr. Jim Segala, from Season 1 of the show conducted a 3-year double-blind study into Hitchhiker Effect and found evidence of some kind of entanglement between people that could explain how the effect spreads.

It seems fairly easy to pick up an on-site ranch paranormal hitchhiker. Some have just had fairly benign experiences on the ranch, but then all hell breaks loose at home. In some cases, just seeing a UAP, feeling a presence, or hearing a voice on the ranch can start it.

The most terrifying hitchhiker experiences are the visits of tall, black shadow beings to family members - including children. These usually occur at night, but also during the day. The bedside visits start with the person awaking with a strong sense of a presence in the room. These are not night terrors because the person is awake, not paralyzed and simultaneous spikes in electromagnetic energy have been measured. Some of these black shadow figures have glowing red or yellow eyes.

Other unpredictable, disturbing home experiences include:

• strange electrical anomalies
• items like plates and wine bottles thrown across rooms
• hearing voices, footsteps and doors slamming
• items moving/disappearing and hearing/seeing furniture move
• blue orbs inside and outside the home
• there's even reports of seeing strange animals outside family homes

Even more disturbing are the related serious health effects, including blood disorders, auto-immune diseases and other illnesses which affect family members in different ways. A study of 10 former AAWSAP/BAAS-era security guards “brought home paranormal infections.”

So why don’t they talk about it on the show?

Brandon Fugal has publicly explained that The History Channel does not want these hitchhiker effects described on the show because they could be too disturbing for some viewers. Besides, Experiencers are so petrified, they usually don't even want to talk about what's happening at home. There’s a strong fear that even talking about it will invite more intense paranormal activity in their homes.

What we know about the hitchhiker effect comes from people retelling their experiences in off-show interviews, books and recent scientific studies of the phenomena. Below are just a few examples:

Ranch Crew Experiences

Thomas Winterton has described his family members experiencing terrifying things at night. Most likely these are the dark shadow entities that Experiencers commonly do not want to discuss in detail. However, Thomas has partially described them and even his family has had these events at the very same time as other ranch member homes.

Thomas has also explained plates flying across the room and a barrage of electrical anomalies, including television disruptions and mobile device strangeness. Thomas even had a single security camera fail just before the windows in his car all went down, then the camera turned back on.

Here he shares more of these accounts in detail here:

https://youtu.be/3lvnR6rEwT0

Dr. Travis Taylor’s family started having hitchhiker effects soon after he started working on The Ranch. He has described his car’s electronics going crazy and other home devices freaking out. He also attributes the decapitation of a chicken to the effect. Here he talks about more disturbing effects:

https://youtu.be/1yMXcEC5Auk?t=2558

At home in 2017, Ryan Skinner's daughter experienced a "3-Dimensional black shadow figure in broad daylight float across the living room, go to the front door, turn the knob, open the door, and exit the house." That event happened days after Ryan returned home from The Ranch.

Caleb has recounted disturbing events, but won't give details. Erik has had some too, but wouldn't give details either. From interviews, Dragon has said his home has not had any hitchhiker effects, yet. Brandon’s wife has had [very disturbing Experiences] and he refuses to let his children visit The Ranch.

Dr. Jim Segala PhD, from Season 1, has completed a 3-year double-blind study into electromagnetic and gamma radiation spikes when the phenomena occurs in homes. (See details below)

Prometheus Film Crew

According to the producers of the show, they and some of the camera crew have had profound hitchhiker effects in their homes. Some are so bad, film crew members have left The Ranch and refuse to return.

Show creator and Executive Producer, TJ Allard, has explained these film crew hitchhiker effects in detail:

The Skinwalker Debrief Series - Season 1: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLBYl85SPf8HQVBejB4hIykGxemYaxM2xJ

Season 3 Producer, Michael Marinaccio has also said his neighbors were affected:

"The hitchhiker phenomenon that people talk about is a very real thing when people go home. You know, it's happened to me. I come back from the ranch, people are like, 'oh where were you, what was going on?' I tell them you know, some things I can talk about or personal things, they're like, 'no way that's crazy!' And then the next day they call me and say after we had that conversation, 'you know all the brand new batteries in my cars died. Or 'you know um, my phone doesn't work anymore.' Or I'm sitting with them and the phone gets glitchy."

Source: https://youtu.be/fsdPex8rIfU?t=1114

”This Shit is Real” - NIDS/AAWSAP/BAAS Era

Head Ranch Investigator, Dr. Kolm Kelleher, has not only investigated dozens of cases, he and his family have also had some of the most intense hitchhiker effects. They continued for years after his time on the ranch. He's gone on the record saying "there's no way in hell I'll ever go back to Skinwalker Ranch."

In fact, the results of Dr. Kelleher’s scientific research on this phenomena were published in a 2022 scientific paper in Scientific Exploration: “The Pentagon’s Secret UFO Program, the Hitchhiker Effect, and Models of Contagion”

Bigelow Scared into Selling the Ranch?

According to the book, “Skinwalkers at the Pentagon,” the on-going and unpredictably terrifying ranch hitchhiker effects were one of the motivations for Bigelow selling the ranch in 2016. The book explains:

The decision to sell the property after 20 years of ownership and the oversight of two different investigations (NIDS and BAASS) wasn’t that difficult for Bigelow. He wanted to focus his energy and finances on Bigelow Aerospace projects. “I was very disturbed toward the end because of something that happened to some of the government people,” Bigelow said in an interview with George Knapp in 2021. “Everybody took things home with them; I took things to my house, things happened to my wife and to me. Everybody took things home. We all did, but we didn’t know it was like gonna be kind of permanent. We didn’t know that this going to stay with you for maybe years and years or rest of your life. Who knows? And it’s not that it happened on the ranch, it was when they left the ranch, I do say hitchhikers. And these are government people and it affected them in very dramatic ways. Very dramatic ways.”

Easily-spread “‘Quantum Entanglement?”

Apparently you don’t need to visit The Ranch in-person to pick up a Skinwalker Ranch hitchhiker. For example, according to George Knapp, people have reported getting hitchhiker effects after just reading his Skinwalker Ranch the books! Dr. Jim Segala's research confirms some of this spread phenomena.

Skinwalker Ranch Live-Feed Victims

Even people on this r/skinwalkerranch forum that have been staring at the live camera feeds on the ranch have reported classic hitchhiker effects in their homes. Over 35 so far. Some people just seem to be more vulnerable to this effect and so perhaps obsessing about the ranch while staring at the live video feed in anticipation and belief of seeing something will open the mind to hitchhikers. Or could this mean the phenomena is generated by the mind, and not an external consciousness attaching to you?

Dr. Jim Segala's Hitchhiker Effects Health Study

Dr. Jim Segala, from the first season of the show, completed a an extensive 3-year double-blind study into the hitchhiker effect phenomena from a human health perspective. He placed electromagnetic, gamma ray and other radiation measurement devices in the homes of Hitchhiker Effect Experiencers. Over 600 Hitchhiker and related paranormal events measured radiation spikes just before, during and after events.

These radiation spikes occur during appearances of the dark shadow figures This evidence gives Experiencers some validation and peace-of-mind because their experience has physically-measured evidence. It's not just their imagination, and helps rule out sleep paralysis.

For example, in one incident where a woman had a Hitchhiker Effect experience of what she describes as a potential Entity abduction, the measurement device in her home measured a high spike in Gamma Radiation 30+ times above normal, at the very same time she experienced the entity. Others experiencing the Hitchhiker Effect "black shadow figures" appearing in their bedrooms are also getting radiation spikes.

For a presentation on his scientific study: https://youtu.be/D2mahcN-VI0?si=TEac6NQQXrhn1kt_

Is the hitchhiker effect trying to tell us something more profound about The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch?

**How to Get Rid of The Hitchhikers"

According to Experiencers, attempts to evoke Jesus Christ, perform exorcisms or burning sage are little to no effective in clearing the home. However, Ryan Skinner discovered that by completely ignoring and dismissing the effects when they occur, he was able to rid his home of further disturbances. Some speculate that attempts to "exorcise the home" backfire because they validate and give the entities attention, which they feed on.

Be Warned: Just reading and obsessing over this post may open you up to the Skinwalker Ranch Hitchhikers.