by Karen Frazier, Managing Editor
Paranormal Underground Magazine
What if you ran across this creature in the wild? What would you think you were seeing? Would you run away in fear? Would you stop to snap a photo? Would you believe that you’d come across some fearsome cryptid?
Actually, the creature in the picture is Delores, a German bear who is suffering from a mysterious skin ailment that caused her to lose her fur.
A friend was at the house last night and showed me pictures of Delores. As I looked at the pictures, I realized what a striking resemblance she had to a lot of pictures I’ve seen of supposed cryptids found dead, like El Chupacabra.
Hairless is not always attractive. As a matter of fact, a normal animal sans fur can actually appear to be something other than it really is. It reminds me of two birds I used to have – a pair of blue rumped parrolets who had systematically plucked one another of every single feather on their bodies. They were tiny, and yet they still managed to look otherworldly in their nudity – unless they rolled around in the millet on the floor of their cage. Then they just looked like Shake n’ Bake.
Recalling those birds, it is easy to see how one might mistake a larger featherless bird – say a bird of prey – with a flying lizard or a throwback to the dinosaur era – say Batsquatch.
One wonders how often personal paranormal experiences – not just cryptid sightings but all of them – might just be a case of mistaken identity. It’s why seeing isn’t necessarily believing, and it is why we have to question our perceptions. We have a propensity to interpret things that we see according to our belief systems. Take for instance, the full-body apparition I “saw” a few weeks ago. It was in a location that I have experienced to be pretty haunted. I’ve never seen a ghost before – just experienced them in other ways. Poof there he was, and then poof he was gone. Did I see a ghost? I am prewired to believe that I did. Objectively, however, I realize that I can never know for sure what it is I saw.
Question everything – and then decide what you believe.
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