This has typically been a project that is intensely worked by search and rescue teams that begins when the victim is reported lost or missing and usually will continue for the next 7-14 days, and sometimes longer, then, if the victim is not located, the searching will cease and the case will begin to wither in a file cabinet, becoming a cold case. After years of CanAm investigators reading and studying thousands of SAR reports, and speaking with dozens of victims, the CanAm Project has stated it feels the paradigm of this effort needs to change.

The projects initially started as a meeting with a park/forest ranger or law enforcement officer, then, slowly evolved into a study on missing people who vanished in the wild, many under highly unusual circumstances. The CanAm Project found that many of the cases that were researched, the parents or family members of the victims felt that a kidnapping or abduction had occurred.

Sadly however, it is generally the policy of Law enforcement and the media not to publicize the concerns of kidnapping or abductions when the missing can be explained through traditional means. The fact is however, there are just too many of these unexplained cases to ignore, (globally there are thousands) and there are strange consistencies and commonalities that occur in most of these reports.

Alarmingly, for some undocumented reason, it has been the policy of Federal agencies to harbor and suppress statistics and reports on people that have gone missing, that have just enigmatically vanished. To help solve these cases, however, these reports should be intensely studied, and any additional findings applied to each case for continuing research and investigation.

One of the foremost experts in these investigations is David Paulides, a former police officer who is now a highly respected Investigator, Writer, and Videographer, and is commonly known for his self-published books and videos on CanAm Missing 411 cases. He primarily focuses on disappearances of people in national parks, woodlands, and those who vanished under strange and unusual circumstances.

The Videos that Mr. Paulides produces are usually very revealing and detailed in describing the events that occurred before the individual went missing as well as the search and rescue efforts performed by the (SAR) experts in trying to find the missing. Many of the searches reveal strange events and phenomenon that is difficult to understand. You can view his YouTube channel from this embedded internet link: GO VIEW

Despite the large number of searches that have occurred over the years, and the many different Search and Rescue teams involved, including all the (SAR) Experts, none of them were ever able to determine the specific events that caused the disappearances or what happened to the individual after they disappeared.

While most of these missing people have never been found, in a some cases, a body or remains were discovered revealing that some sort of highly strange and perplexing activity took place. The mystery of what caused all these people to go missing remains an anomaly, however, there are continual ongoing efforts to try and discover what is actually causing these disappearances.

As a Pastor, Theologian, and Historical Researcher, I always take interest in events that may have spiritual, prophetic, ethereal, super natural, paranormal or demonic activity involved, this is because there are a lot of hidden dangers and evils that dwell within our society, and when possible, I try to bring awareness to these kinds of dangers, as many people are somewhat oblivious to them.

While doing my own personal research into these mysterious disappearances, which included spending hundreds of hours in various National Wildlife Parks and woodland areas, I developed my own theory of what might be occurring. This theory is of a paranormal nature and I have no actual proof to substantiate it as being factual.

In going back and reviewing cryptozoology history, and trying to identify various archived events associated with missing people, and that occurred over the past several hundred years, I discovered there have been numerous reports of a Cryptoid Being, a type of eerie astrophysical or interdimensional entity that primarily dwells in forests and woodland areas. This Cryptoid Being is commonly referred to as a "Leshen", but has other name titles as well.

It is believed that the Leshen is a type of otherworldly, ethereal or spiritual entity that has supremacy over forests and woodland areas. It is usually depicted male, and usually when seen, is about the size of a human, however, its noted that it can assume any likeness and change size and height. It is sometimes portrayed as having horns or antlers and is sometimes accompanied by Wolves, Bears, or Mountain Lions.

The Leshens are thought to have arrived on Earth centuries ago by traveling or teleporting through some type of interdimensional portal; then, upon its arrival, they materialized into a strange, ethereal, humanoid tree like form, and started to take control of the forests and woodlands as they begin to occupy various preferred forestland areas.

It is believed they first settled in what is currently known as the Central European Continent, in Slovakia, a landlocked area where they became a folklore legend and were sometimes revered as an indigenous deity. However, over time, they spread throughout the entire world occupying woodland areas everywhere.

Leshens appear to use their wisdom and tactical knowledge to curse what they perceive to be intruders that have entered the forest or woodlands, which they feel pose a threat to the environment where they dwell, and will not hesitate to attack in some form. Its known to be able to summon crows for the purpose of distraction or harassment, and has the ability to lure travelers and children away, and in some cases blindly lures humans to fall off cliffs, stumble into deep ravines or lures them to a body of water, usually a river, reservoir or small lake where they meet their death, therefore, it is not considered to be a benevolent spirit, and is usually portrayed as being evil, possessing a somewhat demon like character.

Most of the time, however, the Leshen is depicted as being neutral towards humans depending on how they treat the forest. It is believed that the Leshen dislikes the activities of hunters, loggers, hikers, and campers, and can become annoyed at children playing in the forest. The Leshens perceive these activities as corrupting the environment of the forest or woodlands as well as being a threat to its supremacy, and will sometimes react in a malevolent aggressive manner.

Sadly, the Leshen has proven to be most dangerous towards young children, as it seems to stock them and can lure or snatch them away in seconds. Any child that enters a forest or woodland area with their family members should be carefully watched and supervised, ‘and never left alone’, not even for a few seconds. Throughout the world, there are thousands of cases of children gone missing from wooded areas, that have just vanished without a trace and are never found.

A Leshen can dwell in any forest or woodland area in any country throughout the entire world. Depending on the country and its native culture, the Leshen has been identified by many different forms and names over its long existence.

Some Russian names for it are: Borovoi, meaning "he of the forest," and Gayevoi, meaning "he of the grove." North American names include: Sasquatch, Yeti, Bigfoot, Wendigo, Skin-Walker, Chupacabra, Werewolf, Dogman, Mothman, Kushtaka, Kahuna, Skookum, and numerous others. It is believed that the Leshen shape shifts (being polymorphic) into these creature forms to frighten humans, to instill fear in an attempt to keep them away from camping or settling in certain areas of the woodlands.

Various cultures have similar deities, such as Haitian culture, which refer to it as the Grand Bois, where its believed to be some type of etheral entity associated with trees, plants, and herbs (heh), and in China, its referred to as the Yaoguai or Yaomo, meaning strange devil of the forests. The Mayan culture has a version of the Leshen called Yum Kaax, which has been portrayed as an ethereal creature that helps farmers by protecting their fields. The India and Pakistan cultures refer to it as Nawab or Nabob being a type of ethereal viceroy or governor possessing great authority and supreme powers.

Among those powers include its ability to shape shift, to polymorph into different forms and sizes, speak in different languages and tones, possesses telepathic powers that can cause a human to become mentally befuddled or have memory loss, and has the ability to travel interdimensionally, and can teleport humans into a different dimensional realm causing them to thoroughly vanish without a trace.

The Leshen's body structure or biology is completely alien to the known world and to modern day science. The creature stands upright on two limbs that support an eerily humanoid tree like body made of what appears to be wood or tree bark, which it covers with ragged clothing; branches are said to grow out of its shoulders and arms, and sometimes may have parts of the remains of its most recent victims hanging upon them.

However, it can change its shape or become unseen at any time. It can blend in so perfectly within a forest environment that it makes it almost impossible to be seen. It would just look like one of the many trees within the forest or woodland areas, or it may take on the form of a common woodlands animal like a Stag Deer or a Great Horned Owl.

The Leshen's head is thought to be some type of an animal's skull, topped by a pair of antlers unlike anything seen in the old or new world. The Leshen seemingly lacks any functioning eyes, mouth or any features expected from the head of a living creature. It is thought to be an ethereal nature spirit rather than any kind of an actual earthly living creature.

Therefore, it cannot be killed to death, as we know death to be, because it is not a living earthly physical creature, but rather an ethereal spiritual entity that exists within a different dimensional body form, which we are not familiar with, and which remains unknown to most human beings.

The only features of Leshens compared to humans that would make sense are its long pair of arms, which end in razor-sharp claws. While Leshens aren't nearly as fast or ferocious in close-quarter combat as many creatures of the known world, the Leshen's cunning mind and supernatural powers allows it to make effective use of its claws, often executing deceptively shrewd maneuvers or using its teleportation to cut down unwary opponents from behind.

When stocking their prey, a Leshen can move in perfect stealth, appearing like part of the woodlands that surrounds them and can move slowly with no sound, and they take on the natural smells of the environment around them so they cannot be detected by emitting body scents or odors in the air as most animals do, however, the Leshens radiate an invisible flow of energy, and their presence can be sensed by instinctual feelings, by a person's natural intrinsic psychic awareness.

In its normal form, the Leshen is thought to feed by absorbing rich nutrients from within the woodlands where it dwells, by extracting and ingesting mineral compounds from within granite boulders, crystalline rocks, and certain riverbed and lake stones, and sometimes has been known to emit a pungent sulfur like odor shortly after absorbing its nutrients, but only for a brief period. It is believed that a Leshen’s usual feeding time is each day just after sunrise, and Leshens do not extract fecal matter or leave waste on the ground that can be found or detected.

Leshens are said to be very territorial and will attack anything that they cannot control or influence with their supernatural powers, and that they are closely attuned to the forests or woodland areas in which they dwell, and can slay anyone who fails to treat the forests with respect. For this reason, the Leshens have come to despise humans for destroying or polluting woodland areas as humans expand their real estate developments and intrude on the Leshen’s areas.

Leshens are believed to have powerful supernatural abilities that they can use to command areas of nature itself, including weather conditions. They have been known to create heavy rain and snow storms to repel woodland travelers from traversing or occupying certain areas, and sometimes will heavily populate an area with virulent wood tics and other dangerous biting or stinging insects to keep humans away.

They seem to mostly lurk among tree branches, from which they can quickly prey on targeted victims. Its mightiest weapon is the ability to shape shift. It can polymorph into a humanoid being that looks like a harmless old man or into a tree branch that is practically identical to real ones.

It has been said that for a human being to escape from a Leshen’s control, you must where your clothing inside out and wear your shoes on the wrong side of your feet. Also, its believed the Leshen can be temporarily repelled by wearing a waist scarf containing garlic cloves, dried red peppers, onion skins, and eucalyptus leaves, and by Godly spiritual prayer, however, whether or not these things are actually true remains speculation.

Some believe the Leshen has a connection to UFO activity and sometimes attracts strange orbs of multi-colored lights. It cannot be detected by infrared cameras or heat sensing radar devices or its true image captured on a camera or video recorder. It can, however, be seen by the naked eye of human beings in certain circumstances.

It is speculated that several Departments of the U.S. Government, specifically the NSA, CIA, FBI, The U.S. Department of Agriculture, and The U.S. Forestry Service possess documented evidence that this creature does exist, but they keep the information classified and unpublished, similar to how the U.S. Military has dealt with UFO information.

Whether the Leshen is just a myth or it actually exists is a quagmire of uncertainty, however, thousands of people throughout the world believe it does exist, and that it has been responsible for the disappearance of thousands of people over time.

Understandably, there will be those people who take the position that a creature or entity like the Leshen does not exist, that ethereal creatures or Cryptoids have never existed, that they are simply a myth, folklore or folktales, and those skeptics are certainly welcome to their opinions.

The facts are, however, there are thousands of children and adults that go missing, that disappear every week in wooded areas around the world without explanation, that simply vanish and are never found, and the truthful reality is, that someone or something is responsible for those disappearances. Thousands of Human Beings simply do not vanish off the face of the Earth without a trace by themselves, never to be found again.

I want to emphasize that despite there being research information available about the Leshen Cryptoid as well as credible I witness sightings from people who have actually seen it, to the best of my knowledge, no human being has ever captured or constrained a Leshen and lived to tell about it. Therefore, no one really knows for sure or has a full understanding on the diversity of the Leshen's character, what its total abilities and powers are, and where it originated or came from.

In closing, just to go on record, over the years during my many visits to National Parks, woodlands, and wildlife management areas, on two separate occasions while hiking and camping in these areas, I briefly spotted and came within a close proximity to what appeared to be a Leshen, which resulted in me having reoccurring headaches, nausea spells, and disturbing unpleasant dreams. It was an abhorrent experience which I hope never again to repeat.

Words a Warning!!  When traveling in forests or woodland areas, even for a short distance, stay vigilant, keep a sharp awareness of what is around you and trust your instincts. Try to anticipate the unexpected, and always have with you: A compass, needle and spool of thread including safety pins, pocket butane lighter, container of pepper spray, camping knife and first aid kit, a canteen or bottle of water, at least three protein bars, a fully charged cell phone with GPS App, and most of all, a personal locater beacon device.