When you look into vampires throughout history, which is really fascinating, btw, you see the bizarre means they used to identify vampires, bloated bodies, recedng cuticles on the fingernails, red ooze coming from the mouth, you begin to realize that in a time before embalming this is what typically happened to bodies as they began to decay. So it's an easy deduction that people were merely making assumptions about a natural process they didn't understand, like they did with the concept of god in general. Now was there a time when people returned from the dead to drink blood/essence/energy from the living, probably not, however is it possible that certain societies already deeply superstitious took coincidences and natural phenomenon and created something supernatural from it...like with god...zing again...definately.
Zombies...see above
Magic...see above
Demons...see above
Witches are an interesting subject. Practictioners of several of the world's longest lasting religions, and held to blame for every foul deed and misfortune in simpler, more superstitious times, they have appeared in every civilization in one form or another. Are there witches, yes, are there covens, yes, are there ancient rituals and rites with deep ties to older covens and systems of worship since the beginning of time, yes, are they actually magicians, no. I think the historical witch is a lot like the historical ninja, except not as badass. Witches were practicing medicine long before anyone believed that anything other than prayer could fix anything. The problem with witches however is that most of the time, it was really hit or miss, as coven A in Ireland and coven B in South America never spoke or traded recipes/spells so a cure for hiccups in one place could be pine root, while the cure in another place could be crows foot. Again, superstition and horror stories turned them into Hansel and Gretel level powerful sorceresses who could turn men to toads and fly on sticks. A lot of innocent men and women died because of the fearmongering done by ignorant and superstitious people.
Ghosts...this is really a case of human romanticism. We would like to believe that a mirror, house, car, garage, church, library, or book could possibly mean so much to someone that even after death, they just couldn't give it up. It connects to anyone who has lost someone, the belief that no matter how much time passes, that person is still here, somewhere, and if you are open to it, if you believe just enough, you can communicate with them. Seriously. I'll admit that I watched ghost hunters when it first started, like maybe the first two seasons, because I was curious to see what if anything could be caught on camera. And what they caught moved me so much, I stopped watching. People mistake ambient noise, dustballs and moths as the spirits of long lost relatives, catch some shadow trickery on film and sell it as a haunted house. Meh. This is one of those things that I would absolutely have to see to believe, and even then, I would rack my brain trying to rationalize it, so I probably still wouldn't believe it. Spirits are a romantic and creepy way of saying that the people we lose never leave us.
Zombies...see above
Magic...see above
Demons...see above
Witches are an interesting subject. Practictioners of several of the world's longest lasting religions, and held to blame for every foul deed and misfortune in simpler, more superstitious times, they have appeared in every civilization in one form or another. Are there witches, yes, are there covens, yes, are there ancient rituals and rites with deep ties to older covens and systems of worship since the beginning of time, yes, are they actually magicians, no. I think the historical witch is a lot like the historical ninja, except not as badass. Witches were practicing medicine long before anyone believed that anything other than prayer could fix anything. The problem with witches however is that most of the time, it was really hit or miss, as coven A in Ireland and coven B in South America never spoke or traded recipes/spells so a cure for hiccups in one place could be pine root, while the cure in another place could be crows foot. Again, superstition and horror stories turned them into Hansel and Gretel level powerful sorceresses who could turn men to toads and fly on sticks. A lot of innocent men and women died because of the fearmongering done by ignorant and superstitious people.
Ghosts...this is really a case of human romanticism. We would like to believe that a mirror, house, car, garage, church, library, or book could possibly mean so much to someone that even after death, they just couldn't give it up. It connects to anyone who has lost someone, the belief that no matter how much time passes, that person is still here, somewhere, and if you are open to it, if you believe just enough, you can communicate with them. Seriously. I'll admit that I watched ghost hunters when it first started, like maybe the first two seasons, because I was curious to see what if anything could be caught on camera. And what they caught moved me so much, I stopped watching. People mistake ambient noise, dustballs and moths as the spirits of long lost relatives, catch some shadow trickery on film and sell it as a haunted house. Meh. This is one of those things that I would absolutely have to see to believe, and even then, I would rack my brain trying to rationalize it, so I probably still wouldn't believe it. Spirits are a romantic and creepy way of saying that the people we lose never leave us.
"In our youth, we lacked the maturity, the decency to create gods better than ourselves so that we might have something to aspire to. Instead we are left with a host of deities who were violent, narcissistic, vengeful bullies who reflected our own values. Our gods could have been anything we could imagine, and all we were capable of manifesting were gods who shared the worst of our natures."-Me
"Atheism leaves a man to sense, to philosophy, to natural piety, to laws, to reputation; all of which may be guides to an outward moral virtue, even if religion vanished; but religious superstition dismounts all these and erects an absolute monarchy in the minds of men." – Francis Bacon
"Atheism leaves a man to sense, to philosophy, to natural piety, to laws, to reputation; all of which may be guides to an outward moral virtue, even if religion vanished; but religious superstition dismounts all these and erects an absolute monarchy in the minds of men." – Francis Bacon
