Do fantasy creatures exist?

Do fantasy creatures really exist?

What a simple question but such a complex answer, an answer that really requires us to separate fact from truth. That may seem an odd thing to do, but let me explain. The factual answer is a simple no. Unicorns, Dragons, Sea Monsters, Banshees and the like do no exist, not if proof is required and fact is all about proof and rational, logical thought. Yet the stories of such creatures exist to this day, so there must be more to it than simple fairy tales and that is where examining the truth does exist. The truth behind such tales needs to examine more than scientific fact, it needs to examine such disciplines as psychology, cultural mythology, story telling as well as the exaggeration of realistic starting points into otherworldliness.

Dragons are a good starting point, a creature that seems to exist in most cultures from Orient to Occident and one that western readers will be familiar with from tales of Medieval knights and Dark Ages heroes proving their worth and saving the maiden But what is the reality. Although there is some justification for large lizards such as the Komodo Dragon of South East Asia providing a basis for such a legend, it certainly doesn’t explain the world wide phenomenon of Dragon related tales, or indeed their powers of flight, use of magic and addiction to hoarding gold. Dragons it would seem are pure flights of fancy. And so it goes for Unicorns, Leprechauns, Goblins and Trolls. These creatures have more to do with the psyche and beliefs of ancient man and their view of the world as a place veiled in magic and superstition, where wizards and magical creatures could walk between our world and other dimensions. It is also a good way to explain away events and phenomenon that a pre-science age mind might have difficulty drawing conclusions for. Storms and lightning are better understood as an angry god, thunder as roaring giants, mist as the Dragons breath and so on. Author and psychologist, Brian Bates covered this topic in his masterful book The Real Middle Earth, a book I highly recommend.

On the wild open water, sea monster tales follow a bit more of a reasoned approach. Ancient tales of Kraken and Sea Serpents may have recently been given some validation from work undertaken on the diets of whales. When in the deepest parts of the worlds oceans, whales still manage to feed by diving to the ocean floor and feeding on its denizens. Studies on the stomachs of dead whales have revealed that a favoured food is giant squid, creatures that are of a massive size but are almost never seen alive at the surface. Could the washed up and dead remains of such creatures become the basis of the idea that sea serpents existed? Once the medieval mind was comfortable with such a concept, then all manner of ship wrecks and disasters could be attributed to them, the fact that normally no-body would have survived to deny the fantastic description of events, helped to perpetuate these myths.

One area that has become very popular of late, regarding fantasy creatures, is in the horror genre. The success of shows such as Buffy, Angel and a host of imitators has lead to a surge of interest in the creatures of the night. Whilst creatures such as demons and zombies owe their birth to more religious and philosophical writings, Vampires and Werewolves have an altogether more logical beginning. Although Vampires appear to exist all over the world, they normally do so in the form of winged demon creatures that clearly have a grounding in the blood sucking bats of the natural world. It is the European myths that have an interesting development curve. The root of both creatures is to be found in the peasant villages of the Carpathian mountains, Hungary and Romania. During the times of strict Feudal control by a small privileged aristocracy, most of the good agricultural land was kept as private estates and hunting parks. The lower classes would have found it hard to maintain a good diet in the rocky soils and poor arable land that they were left with. One of the things that they would have lacked would have been the iron that is afforded by the intake of good vegetable and cereal crops. Lack of iron and other trace elements in a diet manifests itself in the form of anaemia, manifesting as pale skin and often with the development of more body hair. To supplement their ailing diet, villages would poach in the hunting parks to obtain meat, blood in particular being a good source of the iron they were missing. So often as well as a couple of legs of deer being the prize a bag of blood to be made into black pudding or sausage was also obtained. Couple these facts with minor detail such as the best time for hunting at night is the full moon, for the light it affords the poacher and you have lots of familiar elements. Pale and hairy people, hunting by the full moon and particularly fond of blood, an easy step to build on the fears and stories of the superstitious mind and the next step is vampires and werewolves.

As you can see, fact may give you one answer, but by examining the truth behind such tales, you get an interesting reason for the perpetuation of such fantastic creatures.

Something a bit different.

Okay, not really ancient at all, but still possibly of interest to the enquiring mind. I found a fantastic list of books for the skeptics and the enquiring minds at the link below. Enjoy.

Heathen Book List

Some thoughts on the Bible in historical contexts

The Bible is a very difficult subject to write about. Its text that has shaped the western world, if not the world as a whole, it's a book that contains subjects as big as creation and as small as a single kiss. It is a book that documents the rise and fall of empires and armies and the lives of ordinary people; it is a book that covers thousands of years in its scope and the most famous last hours of anyone in history. It is a book that has created the basis for one of the most powerful religious institutions in history and yet is regarded as the most personal individual message. In short it is an enigma. So how do you discuss such a book, where do you begin? I will begin by explaining my angle.

There seem to be two opposite camps that people fall into when the Bible is the subject for discussion. The devout see the writing as nothing short of the very word of God or at least the interpretations of his word by his chosen envoys on earth. Standing fast against this group are a body of people who wish to dismiss the book as "rubbish" or a "a hoax." Neither group seem to have any fact to back up their standpoint or even feel the need to look for any. The truth seems to be that both sides are frightened of any solid information coming forth as it undermines their safe worldview. I do not subscribe to any of the religions that hold the book as being holy, I don't believe it is the work of a higher power and I certainly wouldn't be so naïve or condescending to tell you that its "gibberish" as one reviewer here described it. As someone interested in history, I find the Bible to be one of the most fascinating books ever created. I will not offer any spiritual arguments, I am certainly not qualified to do that, what I wish to do is offer an argument that the book is of major importance interest and importance. Everything is created for a reason, sometimes a number of reasons, and to understand something as evolved and complex as the Bible you first need to understand how it came to be.

Many people in the west see the Bible as being a purely Christian work but this is an error. Whereas the New Testament, which covers the events surrounding the life of Christ, is the foundation upon which the Roman Catholic Church was founded, The Old Testament also forms part of the creed of Islam and Judaism. The three faiths are collectively known as the "Religions of the Book" for this very common factor. The first thing that needs to be understood is that the Bible is not one book, it is many. The obvious major division is between the New Testament, the life of Christ and the Old Testament, which is best seen as a history of the Hebrew people from their own perceived creation to the first century B.C. These will be tackled in two separate sections of this review as they really have very little in common. What the two testaments do have in common is how they took shape. The Bible derives from selection of text that were carried around by Priests and teachers, firstly in oral form and latter in written. Depending on their taste, the tradition of their locality and what writing they had access to would actually shape their version of the teaching. Even once it had been committed to a permanent written form, one teachers Bible may contain different books to another teachers. The word of God, it would seem, depended on individual choice. The contents of the Bible were only finalised in a church synod or meeting in the fourth century, where the choices for inclusion were decided by a show of hands by the church hierarchy. From that point on any books that didn't make the final list, such as The Book of Enoch, The Book of Tobit and a whole number of gospels, some penned by women, were seen as heretical and dangerous.


Beginning with the Old Testament, an understanding of chronology is essential. Whereas the books are presented in order from the oldest series of events to the newest that is not necessarily the order in which they written. A study of the earliest stories, The Garden of Eden, Enoch and the Fallen Angels and the most famous of all, Noah's Flood, shows marked similarities with Babylonian creation myths. This would suggest that one evolved out of the other. In the sixth century B.C. a Babylonian king called Nebuchadnezzer invaded Israel and took many of societies leaders into exile back to his home city, as a way of isolating any influential that could cause an uprising. It is during this "exile" period that these stories seem to have been added to the Hebrew canon. After these early, and ultimately undatable, creation myths we get into more solid facts. The most famous Old Testament character looms large next. Moses is seen as the father of the Hebrew nation, the man that led his people to a new land, and many people have looked for a record of such an Exodus out of Egypt. If such an event did take place then surely a country that kept such strict records, as Egypt would leave us a documented description. One period does offer up many parallels, the fall and banishment of the pharaoh Akhenaten a period deliberately erased from history, almost. This parallel neatly illustrates one of the problems you have to deal with when understanding such a work. Whereas names such as Moses, David, Solomon, Saul and even Jesus himself are well known names, they are not the names we need to use to find their historical counter parts in the written record of the times. The Bible was carried around in a host of different languages, translated into Aramaic then Greek, Latin and finally English and in the process the names of people and places have been changed out of all recognition. It is the events that these characters lived through that enable us to find them. For example if we look for a young warrior who lead a band of mercenaries, who established a new dynasty we find a parallel for David, if we look for the son of such a man who lived through a time of peace we find Solomon. Both names are titles only "beloved" and "peace" so we need to look for deeds not names and when you use that criteria the leaders and kings, warriors and priests of the Bible are easily identified. David Rohl the eminent Egyptologist has created a body of work that manages to show the underlying history behind the Biblical events and is invaluable in gaining an understanding of the Old Testament. Once you know how to read between the lines, the historical truths become apparent.

The New Testament covers a much smaller time frame, on the surface the period of time from the birth of Jesus Christ to his death and resurrection, however a closer examination will reveal a more complex situation, one that makes for a much more interesting reading. The four gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are widely held to contain the story of the key events in Jesus Christ's life, yet they not only tell different versions of those key events, they openly contradict each other. Some stories appear in one gospel and not others and things that we take for granted are not found there at all. For example how many wise men came to Jesus birth? It doesn't say in the bible. The story of Jesus life is filled with parables and vague mysticism in its description. We hear of "Fatted Calves", "Angels of the Lord" "The Whore of Babylon" but what does it all mean.

One theory, as put forward by Christian Theologian Barbara Thierring, is that instead of being the open and sweeping story of the life of a heaven sent teacher, the truth is more guarded. Jesus and the other prominent characters of the New Testament where not the simple wandering devout that they are painted. New movements don't normally spring out of nowhere and are normally created by influential leaders. If the New Testament characters were various charismatic teachers and church leaders trying to create a new more unified version of the Jewish faith then things seem to make more sense. But why the secrecy? The country of Jesus birth and most of the known world was under Roman occupation but trying to promote an anti-Roman faith under their noses would only end in trouble so their history and thoughts have been made more vague by the use of pseudonyms. Returning to the use of those mystical names. "The Fatted Calf" was the name of a person, in this case Herod, and knowing that the "Five Thousand" was a church leader who represented that many followers turns the sermon on the mount into a ritual meal rather than a miracle. If the need for this secrecy seems far-fetched then consider this. The Romans are mentioned very rarely in the New Testament, by any recognisable name at least, that would be like writing a history of France in the 1940's and not mentioning the Nazi's, there is clearly more going on here than meets the eye.

The ideas here are really the tip of the iceberg and whilst I know that to those who consider the Bible, as being sacred, will dismiss my thought, that's fine, I'm not trying to undermine anyone's faith. To those of a more open persuasion, hopefully you can see that there are lots of things going on in this book that make it worth looking at closer. I may even make the bible-sceptics think again and realise that there is nothing to be scared of from getting too close to such a piece of history. It won't turn you into a T.V evangelist overnight but it may just open your eyes to how man records his own history. No matter what you believe in, there is no getting away from the fact that this is one of the most influential, powerful and fascinatingly insightful books ever written.

Museum of Missing History

Another great link for you. A site that highlights the history and clues to missing items from the Ark of the Covenant to Ben Franklins Chess Table.

http://www.museumofmissinghistory.org/

The Lost Books of the Bible

I found a wonderful site over on Squidoo that hosts articles pertaining to the Apocrypha, or books that were removed from the bible when it was finalised into an accepted and standardised form. Scholars of early Christian writings should find this a wonderful source, check it out.

http://www.squidoo.com/groups/Apocrypha

From the Ashes of Angels - Andrew Collins (book review)

Angels...what does that mean to people today. Guardians sent by god to watch over us, spirits that inhabit a parallel dimension or is there a more substantial explanation to their appearance in our history. Andrew Collins seems to think there is. Unlike most of the books that are published on Angels, this is not a New Age search for something to enrich our shallow lives, this is a pure historical detective work, a search for a historical reason for the existence of Angels.

A basic recap of the Biblical angle on these characters is in order. The Angels, known more often as Watchers, were the messengers of God, some of whom fell from grace by "knowing" mortal women. The offspring of this union was known as the Nephilim, giants who walk among men. Nowhere does the Bible state that the Watchers had any special powers, not un-natural ones at least. Nor does it state that they where immortal, in fact it almost implies they had a limited life span. Noah's birth is of interest, he is described as being a Nephilim, with Caucasian features rather than the dark appearance of his kin.


The problem with any work of this nature is trying to remove the later gloss of Christian dogma to try and find the original story. Angels have been made into some chubby little Cherubim by medieval artists and the realities of what they represent has been lost. Once you manage to separate embellished religious nonsense from the fragments of the original mythology a different picture begins to emerge. Apart from the bible itself Collins has found some useful sources. The book of Enoch, for example is a book that although was once part of the original teachings of the Christian way, fell out of popularity and was eventually lost. It never became part of the "official" bible and was rediscovered and finally translate in 1821. The Book of Enoch is an account of a mortals journey to the place where the Angels live in the sky. That all sounds a bit fanciful if we believe that they are some sort of spirit guardian of the Christian paradise. If however they where just a slightly advanced but secretive culture living in the mountains, it becomes a lot more plausible. Babylonian mythology comes under scrutiny from Collins new interpretations as does the later writings of the Angel cults which still thrive to this day amongst the Kurdish tribes of the area.

Before you dismiss this as a load of old von Daniken, at no point is Collins suggesting that there where aliens or some super race living unnoticed in the vicinity. More a race of what we call Culture Bringers, a common phenomenon through out ancient history, operating at a respectful distance, but imparting some of its knowledge on the budding civilizations on the plains below. Could this be the original Eden, or paradise itself. Collins study of linguistics from the area shows us the stem of many of the words we now use in a mystical sense that link into the story in a very matter of fact way. The conclusions of the book are fascinating and hold up well to close scrutiny. Any book of this nature can only be the results of one interpretation of the facts, but after reading this I am quite prepared to fight from his corner of the ring.

Biblical re-interpretations are always a brave thing to undertake, but what Collins manages to do is unravel and re-examine facts with out in any way undermine anybodies faith. So are the Angels of the Bible a real race, up until now hidden from the distant gaze of modern historians. I think that they just might be, but I'll let you draw your own conclusions. Anyway Angels as a forgotten race is far more believable than a bunch of babies with blond curly locks, wings and harps, don't you think?

The Atlantis Blueprint, by Rand Flem-Ath and Colin Wilson (book review)

Mention the word Atlantis to people and most will automatically categorise anything that you have to say following that statement in the section marked "fairytales" possibly also in the subsection "get this idiot away from me". But although it is a word that seems to be associated with Sinbad movies and progressive rock albums, it still has its place in historical research; the problem is most people who go looking for the answer to Atlantis haven't bothered to understand the question. What do I mean by that; let me explain. Atlantis as a literary reference is a historical reality, it turns up in none other than Plato's work and you can't get much more high profile than that. The problem is that the few veiled references that occur two and a half thousand years ago in his writing have since been manipulated, added to, sensationalised and have grown out of all proportion thanks to everyone from well respected academic authors to the Hollywood film industry. Atlantis is such a vague concept that it can be easily spun into almost anything the searcher wants it to be and there for we have to define what we are actually looking for and that can vary immensely from one person to the next.


To most people Atlantis is a lost island that sank beneath the waves of, probably the Atlantic Ocean, in prehistory taking with it an advanced civilization. Sorry that's Hollywood talking. To Plato and the Egyptian scribes who first conveyed the story it was a place where their ancestors came from before arriving in their Nile kingdom and ancient homeland if you like. Many modern authors have looked for the possible location of an older culture, evidence of which has been removed by the movement of Ice sheets and the rising sea level thousands of years ago. Almost every location on earth has been offered up as the mythical homeland from the mountains of Peru, the Caribbean, Indonesia, Greece and even Antarctica! But what if the idea of Atlantis is not based on a localized nation that has now vanished but is based on a global culture that has not disappeared from view but been assimilated into the cultures that id patronised and spawned. Not a lost race but a parent culture that instigated the rise of civilization and whose markers and evidence has been misinterpreted to fit with our modern perceptions. We are not talking aliens or hi-tech super humans, but is the fact that human civilization much older than we give it credit for really to hard to believe? Rand Flem-Ath claims to have been told by eminent cartographer Charles Hapgood that he had evidence that human civilization was much older that most scholars thought, possibly one hundred thousand years older. Tragically before he could impart the full story Hapgood was killed in a car accident. This book is the result of years of research by Flem-Ath to back up Hapgood's conclusions.

With the definitions in place Flem-Ath and Wilson, both established authors in this area head off to find evidence for the roots of civilization further back in time than the accepted view of history suggests. Where would you find such evidence? The answer is simple, everywhere. This is not so hard to believe when you realise that most of what they are looking at is not newly found evidence but a re-interpretation of existing and well recorded information. But with their suggested re-interpretation a new view of the pre-historic world takes shape. If you are no longer bounded by the modern view which allows no more that ten thousand years in which to fit mans civilized development then some of the supposedly well established theories fit better in new chronological homes in the time line. By examining many of the world's sacred sites not only does a new place in history for their creation present itself but a pattern begins to emerge. A global plan seems to fall into place that has major repercussions. Not only are many of these sites set out in an undeniably geometric pattern but this also implies that they were not localised endeavours but build as part of a precise worldwide plan. Only a large, well-organised and globally mobile culture could be responsible for such a creation. Hapgood himself always advocated that there is no one steady rise from savagery to civilization. That information once learnt can easily be forgotten. War, disease and natural disasters can eradicate whole populations losing the knowledge that they have, their place to be taken by a new group who must re-learn the tools of civilization and progress. Is it to much to suggest that we are not the first great civilization to have passed this way merely the most populous, and the way we advocate war, greed, disease and hate it is easy to see a time when we have engineered our own downfall leaving the survivors a chance to begin the journey again.


Not only do the authors back up these ideas very succinctly they manage to follow many other threads and ideas through time. In fact the scope of this book is staggering. Following the idea that ancient science has been periodically lost and regained they take us to Lebanon, Peru, China and Egypt and incorporate a whole string of legacies from this parent culture, ideas that in our current understanding stand out as anomalies that are best swept underneath the carpet. The Atlantis Blueprint does nothing less than challenges our perceptions of humanity and the history of our journey to occupy our modern place. It presents its arguments with enormous persuasiveness and that argument is that our civilization is not the first to occupy the planet, nor is it likely to be the last.