WGBH, given your description of this event, which preceded the sighting of the presumed bigfoot, I would like to submit the possibility that you were having a hypnagogic hallucination, which sometimes occur in conjunction with sleep paralysis.
"Hypnagogia" is the transitional state between wakefulness and sleep. A hypnagogic hallucination is a dream that occurs between the REM (dream-) state and full wakefulness. Such hallucinations can and have been taken as real events in the minds of those who experience them.
Sleep paralysis is a condition that sometimes occurs when the brain awakens from the REM (dream-) state, but body paralysis -- a natural part of the REM state -- persists. This conscious-yet-paralyzed state is sometimes accompanied by hypnagogic hallucinations and an acute sense of danger and panic. Distorted perceptions of one's surroundings, and imagined objects or beings, are known and documented elements of these paralyzed hallucinations.
In the above-quoted report, you say you had not eaten that day and that you became weak and debilitated from nausea. You describe being "frozen... stuck there" prior to being "curled up in the fetal position" on the floor of the deer stand "for about five minutes".
This sounds like a description of sleep paralysis.
You also describe being alone in the woods for the first time in your life. "Sudden environmental change" is a factor that has been reported to increase the likelihood of sleep paralysis occurring. Others include:
* Sleeping in a face upwards or supine position
* Irregular sleeping schedules; naps, sleeping in, sleep deprivation
* Increased stress
* Sudden environmental/lifestyle changes
* A lucid dream that immediately precedes the episode.
WGBH, if you are interested in discovering what happened to you that night in 1982, and have an open mind on the subject, I invite you to look into sleep paralysis and hypnagogic hallucinations, and decide for yourself if the factors involved with this known and studied, but little understood, phenomenon, match your recollection of the events.
It occurs to me that you might have witnessed a bear from the deer stand and, in your waking dream state, distorted the perception into a bigfoot, of which creature you have said you were aware from television. The feelings of panic and irrational danger that often accompany sleep paralysis have stuck with you all these years, and have led or contributed to on-going feelings of unease associated with the memory.
From WebMD:
Over the centuries, symptoms of sleep paralysis have been described in many ways and often attributed to "evil" presences: unseen night demons in ancient times, the old hag in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, and alien abductors. Almost every culture throughout history has had stories of shadowy evil creatures that terrify helpless humans at night. People have long sought explanations for this mysterious sleep-time paralysis and the accompanying feelings of terror.
But sleep researchers now know that, in most cases, sleep paralysis is simply a sign that your body is not moving smoothly through the stages of sleep. Rarely is sleep paralysis linked to deep underlying psychiatric problems.
I honestly hope this helps. Here are some quick links to get you started in any research you care to undertake:
http://www.webmd.com/sleep-disorders/sleep-paralysis
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep_Paralysis
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypnagogic_hallucinations
http://watarts.uwaterloo.ca/~acheyne/S_P.html
NOTE: I've relied on wikipedia's entries for the general wording of some of my descriptions of these conditions or phenomena, but the wiki entries are fully corroborated and supported by medical websites' descriptions and definitions of the terms as well. Also, I've written an unpublished novel in which the main character experiences sleep paralysis and hypnagogic hallucinations. I mention this to explain how I've come to understand a little about these events beyond simply looking them up tonight on the internet.
