Things That Go Bump in the Night

It's officially October.

The SyFy channel is playing horror movies all month.  Halloween is coming.  A chill is in the air.  Thoughts stray to what goes bump in the night.

We live in an interesting world.  With all the legends and stories handed down through the years, one has to wonder what kind of world we really live in.  After all, there's an element of truth at the base of every story.  There are some legends across the globe that share so many similarities that sometimes the only difference is the language in which it is told.

I am considering starting a series of writings about these ghoulies and ghosties and long-legged beasties and things that go bump in the night.  There may even be a few interesting ghost stories thrown in for the fun of it.  It is October after all - the season for witches and vampires to come knocking at your door.

Photo from etsy.com

Today will just be an introduction.

I believe in quite a few things.  I was brought up in a good church-going household.  Raised Lutheran, my father was ordained at the Gettysburg Seminary.  He was a prominent figure in our small town community and church.  Every member of the family participated in some part of the church at one point in our lives.  I was a member of the choir and played my trombone with the brass ensemble at Christmas.  My parents are members of the church council and have sung with the choir.  In addition, I went to a Catholic high school.  My mother has taught at a Franciscan private school and a Catholic high school.  My brother went to the same Franciscan school.

In short, religion was never a short-coming for our family.

Since those days, my parents are still prominent in their church.  My brother has converted to Judaism.  I have researched and explored various religious philosophies and have settled on my own beliefs.

As for the world and how I see it?  Well, I do believe in a logical and scientific approach to finding out what is out there.  There are many things out there that can be explained away naturally.  That which can't be becomes supernatural.  Lots of occurrences happen normally, though sometimes in a spooky or disturbing way.  Those that cannot be debunked as such become paranormal.

With today's technology and methods, there are more creatures and occurrences that we as humans are becoming aware of.  That is not to say that everyone believes.  There are still those that wouldn't acknowledge a ghost if it walked up to them and said boo.  Many won't believe in Bigfoot until a body is produced.

Still of Patterson-Gimlin bigfoot film from cfva.com

There is a lot in our world that people cannot or will not accept as real.  According to research, scientists believe that there are over 5,400,000 species of animals that remain undiscovered.  Almost 18,000 of those are vertebrates, the rest invertebrate species.  In addition, there are about 80,500 species of plants that remain to be identified and/or discovered.*  As of 2010, that is more than 3/4 of the total species in the world.  Many of these species will likely be extinct before we even know they existed.  A large majority of those may not even be known due to lack of fossil evidence.

That's a lot of plants and animals that we share our world with and don't even know.  All of these can be considered to be cryptids or plants and animals whose existence has been suggested but has not been discovered or documented according to science.  Cryptozoology and cryptobotany are the sciences dedicated to finding and identifying these unknowns while traditional science studies those already known.

There are quite a few creatures out there that we know now that once were considered cryptids.  The okapi, mountain gorilla and panda are just a couple of those.  These creatures were once only known to local tribesmen through story and legend.  It wasn't until science recognized them that we truly became aware of their existence.

Okapi from denverzoo.org

When you think about it, there is quite a bit of this world that remains undiscovered.  Sure, we've got satellite images of every place on Earth, but how much of that is covered by woodland and forest?  How much of that is ocean?  How much of that has been physically seen by the human eye?  How much of that is only inhabited by these undiscovered species?

Considering our technological advances over the past century, there is still a lot about our planet that we do not know.  Without those few out there that say "What if?", we wouldn't even think to look for the bases of the stories and legends handed down by our ancestors.


*As of 2010, according to www.currentresults.com