Do you believe in any mythical creatures?

No, because of the definition of mythical. If I believed in ghosts, I wouldn’t call them mythical. :)

Vampires are real. there’s a religion where they worship the devil and drink human blood.
big foot is just a giant undiscovered ape
chupacabra i saw on the history channel was some kind of fox with mange

I have personally met a dragon, so I know they are not mythical.

Why would I believe in a mythical creature? It’s a myth, right? That makes it metaphorical or allegorical. I believe in metaphors. I mean, I don’t believe in them; I have personal experience with them.

So I guess I’d have to say that I don’t believe in any mythical creatures. I don’t really believe in anything. Either I’ve got sufficient evidence for a phenomena or I don’t. If I have enough evidence, then I take that phenomena into account when making choices about how to live.

It is a very pretty dragon, by the way. ;-)

Luv ya, hun!

Jesus Christ guys, I know mythical implies doesn’t exist, but you know what I’m saying. If you’d like to suggest a better way to ask the question, go ahead.

Can you tell me more about this dragon you saw?

I believe all mythical creatures are projections of human imagination representing fears, hopes and dreams, desires and attempts to explain what can’t be explained. I’m a wide-eyed and open-minded romantic who believes in the art and creativity of mythology—just not its reality.

I have a different take on mythical creatures. They don’t necessarily exist, but they can possibly exist. It’s just a creature that was described in a myth. But myth is often based upon misunderstood fact.

So the sea monster is a giant squid. Nothing mythical about it except that the ancient sailors thought it was sent by the gods to punish them. That doesn’t change the true nature of the sea monster.

I have had run-ins with what I could easily consider to be angels and demons. A vanishing human of good fortune that no one else saw but me. A dog that lived just long enough to save my child’s life. Giant insects and toads blocking my path, suggesting if I approached them that harm would come my way. Yes, I saw a common housefly the size of a baseball glove, and a toad the size of a Maine Coon cat. He had tentacles sprouting from his upper lip that dragged upon the ground. Both demons were still, and never moved. I did not cross them. Later a girl was run over and killed by a car at the very spot where I would have had to cross the road to avoid the giant toad. I was 14 years old at the time. I was much younger 4 or 5 when I saw the giant housefly.

Ask me if I believe in these things as an adult? No, I do not. I must have projected these images and scenarios somehow. But I cannot deny that I actually experienced some things that I cannot explain.

Did I say I saw the dragon? I don’t think so. I said I met her. I said she was pretty. But I did not say I saw her. Not with my eyes.

What, did you talk to it on the phone or something? Are you setting me up for a joke?

I personally believe in mythical creatures, but I also believe they are in a different, so called world, or maybe a better word is realm.

I’ve experienced numerous Dragons. One thing I’ve learned, is that to kill a Dragon, you must go lower than the Dragon. It’s the soft underbelly where weakness is found. Never face a Dragon head on.

OK OK I cannot resist. If this answer is too long and/or off topic, please just flag it and have it removed. I don’t want to consume this thread. But @wundayatta is dancing all around the Dragon, and I’ve dealt with them too. I’d be interested in knowing if he recognizes these Dragons.

I will share the tales of three Dragons. There are many more, but these should suffice, and illustrate @wundayatta‘s comment that they are not necessarily seen with the physical eyes.

One spoke directly of my son, revealing the plot to devour him, taking advantage of his parents negligence and disunion. This one spoke as Legion:
From my actual notes at the time:

The dragon is dead, his body dismembered, dissection complete. His entrails speak horrors for our son. Telling of the evil and anguish they had planned for him. Oh how they would persecute us. They whispered of animosity building between the parents and the unspeakable turmoil they had planned for our boy.

“Look! His trustees see him not. They are busy hating. They fill the boy with hatred. Throw it to the dirt and watch them grovel for it as dogs. Let the boy see them for what they are. He will be like them for they are his teachers, cunning and deceitful. He hears what they say, even the un-said. He hears it in their dark hearts and it tolls heavily upon him. No child can bear the weight of the parents. Quickly, snatch his youthful charm away. We hunger but soon will feast upon his innocence. The troubled years approach. The boy will be ours”.

This Dragon gave away too much. And though my sons mother and I did not reconcile, I refused to fight with her no matter how much she baited me. My son was more important than my pride. This reckoning ultimately made everything much better for my son. Learning to take a hit without hitting back proved empowering to my manhood. I’ve learned the true meaning of “meekness” as silent strength. I’ll trade manhood for pride any day. Over the years, my son has suffered through hearing mother attack me. He once believed her and it was very painful for me. But patiently and consistently I answered her accusations with forgiveness and compliments. I refuse to attack her. My son now sees a strong father standing before him, as he questions with maturity her willingness to hold on to anger and pain. But he will always see her beauty through my eyes, no matter how ugly she becomes to herself. She does not see the Dragon. She is consumed by him as he slowly grinds her into a sad heap of nothing left of self. One day soon, in that nothingness, she will hear the Cry of Truth Molested, and her Dragon will be slain. His entrails will speak shocking revelations to her. One day soon.

A second Dragon, in his death, illuminated a fork in the road. One leading to self control. The other road leading to addiction. His entrails were prophetic and non threatening.

“Evil always disguises itself as good. Good never disguises itself as evil. Good is mistaken for evil when it challenges current comforts. Evil is mistaken for good the upon the Sirens song being accepted as true”.

The third Dragon in this tale was so utterly destroyed that the Cry of Truth Molested actually spoke to mock it, and all Dragons, for the pitiful toothless voids that they actually are.

That’s enough for now… It’s very tempting to go on. But I think the message is clear enough. No need to bore you any further by uncovering the Devil in the details.

None of the above. I know, I’m boring and cold and my life lacks whimsy and wonder.

The thing is, there’s enough whimsy and wonder in the world without any of those things. Let’s just say, if one of these things showed itself to me, I wouldn’t deny it.

To me, the existence of aliens, Bigfoot, and the Loch Ness monster are much more likely than any of the other creatures. I don’t necessarily believe that they exist, but I really do think their existence is more likely than the others.

I believe in ghost and spirits. Ever played with a Wiji(Have no idea if I spelt that right) board

Yeah I do, a pleasant Mother in Law….....well you never know. There has to be one somewhere, surely.

@RealEyesRealizeRealLies Interesting…

@DominicX My life also lacks whimsy, but totally agree that reality is interesting enough without added fantasy. Personally, I’m 99% certain aliens exist (maybe no UFOs have been here though), and also think they are way more likely to exist than Loch Ness or Bigfoot. There would have to be a population of those, and no way we wouldn’t have proof by now. In my opinion.

@Mom2BDec2010 I played with a Ouija board and nothing happened. Some asshole did try moving the little thing we had our hands on, but we busted him. What happened to you?

@ucme My mother-in-law is a very nice, friendly, non-judgmental lady, but really annoying. Does that make her semi-mythical? Legendary?

@cockswain It probably makes her a treasure worth appreciating.

I don’t believe in any, but I haven’t closed the book on The Mothman.

We once held a séance at a friend’s house using a Ouija board, and called upon the spirit of a girl we knew that was killed when a car struck her when she was walking home from school. The Ouija board was worthless, but a picture did fall off the wall during our activity. I chalk it up to coincidence.

When it comes to the paranormal type of creature, I think it’s a possibility. This world is full of undiscovered stuff. Take the bottom of the ocean for example. There’s stuff down there that we have no idea about. So who knows what might be lurking around.

@cockswain I don’t know you, so I don’t know how old you are. One thing I think you discover as you grow older is that the world is not at all as it seems. There is a lot of information in the world, but we filter most of it out. There is a practical reason for this—we then can live more efficiently, seeing only that which is absolutely necessary to see so that we can survive.

There’s a bit of research out there that suggests we see very little of what is available to see. It takes too much time. So our eyes actually collect a kind of sample of the information out there, and our brains make up the rest. We perceive it as a whole picture, unaware that most of what we “see” is made up by our brains.

As I grow older, I think I am gradually becoming more aware of other stuff that is in the world but that I don’t normally see because it is not necessary to see it. Also, since I have been sick, I have been having these occular effects that I never had before. Sometimes, at night, I will see what appear to be purple aurae on the road or on the edges of taller buildings.

I’m pretty sure this is something else my brain is making up, but why it is making it up, I don’t know. Normally, I would say it is a hallucination. I am seeing something that isn’t there. But I choose to see it as something magical, just because it suits me to have magic in the world. It gives me something to chew over. What does it mean? I mean, really, why would a road or a building have an aura? It’s something one could gnaw on endlessly because it doesn’t have to make sense.

Once I thought I saw an aura around a person. Now I don’t believe in aura readings because there is no way to verify the sight of an aura. I don’t even believe in my own “sight,” because I know no one else sees this stuff. But, as I say, it amuses me to treat it as if it is real. It makes me feel special, and God knows I deserve to feel special after what I’ve gone through. But deserving has nothing to do with it. I choose to feel special, and this helps.

I’m actually pretty good at figuring out what is going on with people, and offering helpful advice. I don’t have all that lurve for no reason. The reason why I am good is that I have this mental model of how people behave. I use it to great effect.

Lately, I’ve become more aware of the world that we don’t usually see. I think it does have an impact on us, but its impact is all inside our heads, so no one can tell whether it’s there or not.

Joseph Campbell has written a lot about what myth is. It is a story that conveys an archetypal human character or relationship or event. Myth may not be specifically real, but it is archetypally real. That is, it is a part of what I would call my mental model of how people act and interact. It contains a truth far more important than the issue of whether something is real or not.

The dragon is real. I have been, and may even now be in her presence. I don’t know what she is or why she is there, nor why I can detect her. She may not be real in a real-world kind of way, but she is real in an archetypal kind of way.

This dragon—when I am in her presence—fills me with a kind of energy that reminds me of those pictures you see of magma welling beneath a volcano, getting ready to blow. The energy I feel is this welling sensation, but not the “about to explode” part. She also has tremendous erotic energy. That part could explode, but for some reason, it is my job to see that it doesn’t.

What does this mean? How does it fit with your definition of real? How does my dragon relate to @RealEyesRealizeRealLies‘s dragons? Well, I can only answer the last question. The only way in which my dragon is similar to @RealEyesRealizeRealLies‘s dragon is that they have the same name.

You can decide about the reality on your own. I will worry about what it means. Meanwhile, I’m just going along for the experience. It makes me feel like a shaman of sorts. It makes me feel like I see things that other people don’t. I helps me feel special, which is something I want more of in my life.

Yes, I believe in some of the concepts and deeper meanings they represent.