dragons
Myths about dragons come from all over the world and have been found in the cultures of all the major continents except Antarctica (due to the lack of an indigenous human population). Stories of dragons date back to the ancient civilizations of China, Mesopotamia, India, Hebrew, Native American and Norse to name just a few.
Many of these legends and myths developed completely independent of each other. So, did these mighty creatures once walk the Earth and fly the skies above it – more importantly do they still?
Dragons still infect the culture of our modern life. Their influence can be seen in literature in the books of JRR Tolkien (The Hobbit), Anne McCaffrey (the Pern Series) and JK Rowling (Harry Potter) to name just a few; the hugely popular role playing and computer games based on TSR’s original “Dungeons and Dragons” which became and remains a worldwide phenomena.
Speaking of Dungeons & Dragons a film based on the games has just been released with a rather "unique" dragon. But there have always been dragons in films including “Reign Of Fire”, "How To Train Your Dragon", “Dragonslayer” and countless more.
Dragons can easily be found in other forms of art not covered above and, in fact, date back to the earliest form of human expression – the art of story-telling.
So, what are these fantastic creatures really? Are they just a figment of the human imagination and myths? Are they just a product of the innate human fear of the dark and the unknown?
Many say dragons date back to the primate’s fear of snakes, feline predators and birds of prey all wrapped up into one fearsome creature – essentially that dragons were born from the instinctual fears of our earliest ancestors as we evolved from monkeys and apes. Another accepted theory is that dragons were born when early humans found the fossilized skeletons of dinosaurs.
Yet if dragons were born purely of our fear of the unknown, what of the myths that give dragons the credit for giving us speech or of creating the very world we live on in more Eastern influenced legends? The fear of dragons seems to be a more Western influenced myth with the rise of Christianity and the legends of the serpent of Eden; the Devil.
This is not to say that Christianity was the first to vilify the dragon as examples of that can be found much earlier in human history; the story of Beowolf being the best example. Rather (like many other mythologies) they took an accepted monster and used it to create a creature of ultimate evil.
Thi provides a possible explanation of the differences between the Western and Eastern views of the dragon.
The Western European dragon is most often depicted as a reptilian creature with bat wings that breathes fire, hoards treasure (greed) and is the spoiler of purity and innocence; for example their taste for virginal young maidens.
The Eastern Chinese dragon is more serpent like and is revered for their wisdom and longevity of life; both far exceeding humans. This is best seen in “Dungeons and Dragons” creation of the Red (Chaotic Evil) Dragon who is more Westernized and is rightly identified as a demon or devil and the Gold (Lawful Good) Dragon who is more Easternized and passes on its great wisdom to the human race.
In the end though, this article is written from a cryptozoological point of view rather than a theological one. The question remains (as with other animals covered in this section), did dragons ever truly exist? And, more importantly perhaps, do they still exist now?
The best argument against this is the lack of proof in the fossil record. Although new species of dinosaurs are discovered every year so perhaps a fossil of a dragon has yet to be discovered. Another explanation is that dragons have long been rumored to possess magical or sorcery skills that may allow them to hide from humanity merely because they wish it to be so – putting them in the category of elves or angels and demons.
They also may be extra-dimensional and simply do not die and leave remains in the dimension we call reality.
Every year there new sightings of dragons all over the world – although in modern days these sightings are contained usually in the Far East or Europe.
Could these wondrous creatures of fantasy and legend still exist on Earth or travel to Earth or are they descendants of the dinosaurs that died out sometime near the beginning of the last Ice Age?
Or are they mere creations of human fear of darkness and the unknown?
Or do they have access to dimensions we only theorize about?
You decide.
Ghosts
A ghost is believed to be the discarnate form of a human or animal soul or spirit. It can be either visible or invisible; related to the human sense of sight.
A belief in life after death – or at least in some form of the first law of thermodynamics stating that energy can neither be created by destroyed – is seemingly necessary for the belief in ghosts.
Or is it? Ghosts also have been theorized to be extra-dimensional entities that were never human but have the ability to resemble humans who have crossed into the dimensional of death. My question is why?
Why would entities from different dimensions bother doing this? Some would say to deceive the living and its possible that’s true. But can this possibly be the answer to the thousands of reports of ghosts made every year?
My thoughts? No.
However, I have had experiences with entities much like but - in my opinion – not ghosts. These creatures will be covered in future cryptozoology articles.
Of course, the existence of ghosts has, thus far, truly never been proven so I suppose you can believe whatever you want to believe. I’m attempting to stick to proven scientific methods for the time being anyway.
But generally, people who believe in life after death believe the energy that is the soul moves on to a better place. Call it Heaven, the Happy Hunting Grounds, Valhalla or what ever you want. This is, of course, an opposite direction the soul can go but the journey in either direction is well beyond the purview of this article.
Except for one little question this brings up. Why would a soul choose to stay in our reality rather than move on; why would it become a ghost?
There are no facts, but plenty of theories: they’re trapped here, they don’t know they're dead, they’re trapped in a dimension for final judgement before moving on, they’re afraid of what may happen to them if they do move on; they have unfinished business on this earthly plane; they are unwilling to move on etc.
Although the existence of ghosts cannot be proven; it cannot be proven that they don’t exist either.
The amount of false evidence and outright fakery in this field – especially from so-called “paranormal celebrities” who treat the field like a game show or worse – these days has made those of us who truly want find evidence proving or disproving the existence of ghosts and the paranormal have to work even harder.
Unfortunately today, most people tend to believe that any evidence presented has been faked. Either that or people actually believe investigating is like a game show. Honestly, I couldn't tell you which of these facts are worse.
The non-believers – composed of those who seek to disprove but also those who seem to feel that anything they don’t believe in is a personal attack – are quick to point out that hallucinations can be caused by any number of things such as mental health, drugs and alcohol, physical health and even carbon monoxide poisoning. And they are absolutely right.
The use of non-believer as opposed to skeptic is purposeful. Skeptics are open to the truth be it paranormal or not but not blind believers. Believing in something that cannot be proven is dangerously close to zealotry.
The one constant in the paranormal field is that in approximately 75% reports of paranormal activity of any kind is actually due to something quite normal. A list of things that people have reported as ghostly activity but turned out as something explainable would fill a thousand articles.
Any investigator truly devoted to the truth will always look for the normal before the paranormal.
I’d also like to point out 2, well not facts but not just theories either, that have been brought up by many people in the field.
1) If everyone became a ghost they would outnumber the living by billions so, logically, not everyone who dies becomes what we call a ghost
2) No one has ever reported the ghost of a tyrannosaurus rex, a woolly mammoth or even a cave man so, again logically, ghosts don’t last forever. At some point their energy must change forms into something different. Something we either cannot precieve or we do not understand it’s relationship with ghosts.
There have been reports of ghosts dating back to the beginning of human history. Long before written history ghosts show up in in the spoken history and legends of every society. Ghosts also showed up in classical written literature such as William Shakespeare, Emily Bronte and Charles Dickens.
Ghosts have been reported by many trusted and respected people such as police, fire, EMS and Presidents and other world leaders.
There are even instances of ghosts helping to solve their own murders.
As you can see the topic of ghosts just opens door after door after door to other topics. It is a question that cannot be answered – at least right now – and a question that only leads to other questions.
Hundreds of questions.
MOTHMAN
On November 12, 1966, a group of grave diggers in Clenden, West Virginia 75 miles (112.6 kilometres) southeast of Point Pleasant were distracted by something nearby. They saw something they described a large brown humanoid figure moving through the trees around them. As they watched the large figure took flight and flew over their heads.
Three days later, on the evening of November 15, two couples near Point Pleasant witnessed a creature a six to seven feet tall with white wings spanning about ten feet with bright burning red eyes. It landed directly in front of their car but quicky moved away when they turned on their head lights.
They were near what they called the TNT building, which was actually an old World War II munitions factory.
The four witnesses all described the creature the same way.
The teenagers fled the scene, but the creature followed them flying at speeds up to 100 miles/hour (160 km/h) but very slow and clumsy when it landed. Terrified they raced back toward Point Pleasant; the creature chased them to the outskirts before running off into an empty field and disappearing.
Over the next few days there were numerous sightings including one by two volunteer fireman. Another witness, Newell Partridge, shined a flashlight at the creature and claimed it’s eyes reflected the light back like reflectors on a bicycle. He also blamed the creature for causing his tv to emit a buzzing noise and for the disappearance of his German Sheppard.
People also claimed to have precognitive visions including a major disaster on the Ohio River which did happen (see below).
There were a number of theories as to what was being seen: the County Sheriff decided the sightings were of a large heron he called a shitpoke. A more – ummm – scientific explanation from a professor at the West Virginia University was it was a sandhill crane which is quite a large bird and not a normal resident for the Point Pleasant area; and therefore, easily confused with a monster.
I have been close to face to face with a sandhill crane and, while I haven’t been face to face with a/the mothman, I highly doubt a crane is responsible for the sightings.
It is thought that the villain the killer moth in popular Batman comicbooks is how the newspapers came up with the name Mothman.
On December 15, 1967 the Silver Bridge over the Ohio River collapsed resulting in the deaths of 46 people. This led to the belief that the mothman(s) is/are harbingers of tragedy.
In 1975 a book called The Mothman Prophecies was published telling the story of the Point Pleasant encounters from the munitions plant – which many believe to be the lair of the mothman – to the Silver Bridge disaster. In 2002 a movie, which was very loosely based on the book, staring Richard Gere.
There have been many mothman sightings since the 1960’s; all associated with large scale high fatality disasters including the collapse of the Twin Towers in New York City (2001), the Chernobyl disaster in the Ukraine (1986), the multi-city Apartment Bombings in Russia (1999), the I-35W bridge collapse in Minneapolis (2007) and the Swine Flu outbreak in Mexico (2009) to name but a few.
Although the mothman has been seen before other disasters the Point Pleasant sightings far outnumber any other series of encounters. Over 100 encounters with the Mothman were recorded during the 66/67 events.
Many people believe the mothman either prophesies major disasters or is the direct cause of them.
They/it are thought to be either extra-dimensional or extra-terrestrial or possibly just so much more advanced than us that we can’t tell the difference.
There is a scene in the movie where an example is given from a skyscraper where a traffic accident can be seen 10 blocks away from the building but the people on the ground below are completely blind to it. Does this make the people in the skyscraper more advanced?
No.
They simply have a different perspective. Following this train of thought perhaps the mothman/mothmen just have a different perspective and are attempting to relay it to us.
In 2002 Point Pleasant held it’s very first Mothman Festival. The site was chosen because it has the strongest connection to the Mothman and as a way to celebrate the town’s uniqueness and legacy. In 2003 the, now, world famous metal statue of the mothman was unveiled. In 2006 the Mothman Museum was opened.
The festival is now held on the third weekend of every September. An estimated 10 to 12 thousand people visit the festival every year. It has become the most important tourist related activity in the city; not to mention an infusion into their economy.
So what is a Mothman? Or Mothmen? There remain multiple theories.
You decide
werewolves
by amy ritchie
Werewolves are a creature that is half man, have wolf. If a man becomes infected by the bite of a werewolf, he will change into a lycanthropic type beast on the night of a full moon; a werewolf will appear when you least expect it too. It will appear when you are probably the most vulnerable.
In fact, many people have been caught so off guard over their werewolf sightings that they felt the need to post their stories! Werewolves have been seen and heard all over the globe! In one particular location known as Wisconsin the “Bray Road Beast.” Is a very popular sighting! This particular creature is seen walking around at night; especially on the nights of a full moon.
People claim to have seen them walking around like a person on their hind legs. They have been said to have glowing eyes, strange smells, and three claws on both hands. Their fangs are huge and their fur is of a reddish color.
Sometimes people driving along the road see the beast making a snack out of the dead animals that sit on the side of the road. As soon as it sees the people looking at it the beast it runs away.
Also in Wisconsin, a man by the name of Mark Schackleman was driving on highway 18 near Jefferson. He said that he saw a beast that was well over 6 ft tall. Glowing eyes and fangs. It was digging in the ground until it saw him looking at him then took off into the woods!
In a similar situation, in Ohio, many people said they have seen werewolves between the months of July and October in the 1970’s.
In Indiana there is a place of high paranormal activity known as Werewolf Hollow. There have been several strange animal sightings, strange sounds as well as unidentified objects as well. Many people go on hunts there to try and find some sort of answer to all of the unusual circumstances…
The final werewolf sighting I uncovered was in France in the 17th century. The beast was known as the “Beast of Gevaudan” . A beast wandered around several villages choosing to snack on people more so then animals. It made over two hundred attacks! Finally the villagers put the beast to sleep. Later on another animal did the same thing…to this day the animal has never been seen again…
There have been many more almost countless sightings of these creatures for hundreds of years. So are werewolves real?
You decide.