Do you believe in Werewolves?

no news = bad news
not even local press want to even look at footage
I'm sorry for hyping something up, I feel such a fool.

I consider myself to be a rational, logical individual. I try to look at the world through eyes of common-sense. Yet I also know that the world contains many inexplicable things that defy rational approaches.
I do believe in what I would call "shape-shifters". Humans that can change out of their human form and into animal likeness. Physical transformation. I believe that it is done through occultic powers. I cannot prove it nor will I try to convince others that it is true. Hope these links work, but this can give some background;

news.bbc.co.uk...

www.nationmalawi.com...

I don't know what the truth is on the hyena but I have two other stories from this exact location in Dedza about hyena's and witchcraft. They are anecdotal and will not prove anything to anybody but they are the reason why I believe what I do. I'd share them later if anyone is interested.



[edit on 6/30/2005 by JungleMike]

I don't know what the truth is on the hyena but I have two other stories from this exact location in Dedza about hyena's and witchcraft. They are anecdotal and will not prove anything to anybody but they are the reason why I believe what I do. I'd share them later if anyone is interested.

What I'm seeing on the BBC link is a story that notes the actions of the hyenas, and then mentions as a passing comment other beliefs of the tribe, in particular the one about shape-shifting. The article itself isn't linking the two, per se.

Most tribal cultures throughout the world have shares similar beliefs relating to shape-shifting; some of the "shape-shifting as a metaphor", and some retaining the traditional interpretation.

I'm not sure what, if anything, these links prove?

Greetings, Tinkleflower.
You are correct, the links don't prove anything, I posted them to give background on both Malawian beliefs and the actual incident itself. Dedza area has lots of hyenas and I know two men who have had experience with this "weird" hyena situations. It is their stories that convinced me that there's more to this than what is at face-value. My stories will not convince anybodyelse, but they did for me.
Salutations.

i dont think i believe in them, but i do dream of werevolves frequently, ands they arepretty bloody dreams...i read it means i dont trust peok,ple easily, becasue they may turn into someone else ...

If there is the basta*d better know how to dodge buckshot

so you know,
In the bible it talks about one of the kings getting the "Fever", growing hair all over his body, taking on the appearace of a wild animal and slaughtering cattle with his bare hands and eating the raw like a wild animal.

Fact: there is no scientific proof that they exist.
Fact: just because you dont believe in something doesnt make it fake.

No im afraid not! Its not biologically possible either as a natural or artificial
reality . Animals have been cloned, recently a dog, buy removing the nucleas of the dogs egg and inserting dna from the animal to be cloned.
If you inserted animal dna ,replacing the nucleas of a human egg, im sure it still wouldnt work, the egg itseld contains dna and what happens when
both sets of dna try instruct cell growth? It simply wouldnt work. This method i beleive is the most modern way, or one of them, its failed repeatly to produce a viable animal before it was perfected. How can could this possibly occure from the bite of a wolf, or in any 'natural' fashion at all.
Its just silly and some folks gullability knows no bounds, but then it always has, thats humanity.

Originally posted by XphilesPhan
well, this is an interesting topic since werewolves have been sighted in europe & the US over the last 600 years or so. One of the most famous ones is the bray road beast. this one is fairly recent, but was sighted in wisconsin, of course it was first sighted on halloween so thats suspect in my opinion. people still dress up and go out in strange places to scare people.

i know a girl that claims to have seen one in wisconsin but not not on halloween an it scared the crap out her to the point she wont drive alone any more.
she says it walked on two legs and looked like a bog with black and gray hair. i beleave her!

[edit on 6-8-2005 by DRAGON27]

Originally posted by Zaknafein
A lot of the time people would use a local hallucinogenic plant, like belladonna, and believe that they would morph into animals.

I've heard this before. Supposedly the seeds from the plant mixed with the grains used for making bread and as a result became ingested by the towns people and caused them to believe they were animals

To be honest,

I don't know if they exist. Never seen one and don't wanna either.

Shapeshifting on the other hand is a fact. And it's a very common practice in some countries, as well as the zombie and etc.

So if a Werewolf is somebody that can shift his shape into a wolf on a full moon, then it stands to reason that they do exist. However, scince this is a very spiritual practice I doubt science could ever get their hands on it.

Originally posted by joyouslyhumored
.

Shapeshifting on the other hand is a fact. And it's a very common practice in some countries, as well as the zombie and etc.
.

Huh. I thought zombies were known to be unfortunate victims of curare poisoning?

As suggested here

Could you give us a bit more evidence supporting shapeshifting to be physically possible (as opposed to mental shapeshifting, etc, commonly carried out amongst certain shamanic peoples with the aid of hallucinogens etc)?

TIA

I dont really believe in Werewolves.

Originally posted by Tinkleflower
Huh. I thought zombies were known to be unfortunate victims of curare poisoning?

Yeah, that's what I wass reffering to.

Could you give us a bit more evidence supporting shapeshifting to be physically possible (as opposed to mental shapeshifting, etc, commonly carried out amongst certain shamanic peoples with the aid of hallucinogens etc)?

If I had more evidence I would have probably started a new thread. Like I said, I think it's literally imposible to get your hands on that type of evidence.

well there are several types of known shifting. Mental shifting would be hard to proove becuase it appears to happen randomly, and it could also be the many fake ones out there a sub-culture called furries or people who believe they are some type of animal at heart.

I have heard a couple stories that might prove some evidence, try searching for point shifting. The ability to transform one point of youre body into an animal form.

There is also soemthing called Biokinesis. Which may also explain some things.

as for a werewolf mmm its hard to say. The closest to evidence would be a spiritual therian.

I wish I remembered the book title where i heard about some of this. Oh, but try looking up Rosalyn (sp?) Greene I think she wrote it. I don't know how credible she is but maybe you can find some answers in her bibliography.

Originally posted by Binx
I have heard a couple stories that might prove some evidence, try searching for point shifting. The ability to transform one point of youre body into an animal form.

Sadly when I researched point-shifting, all I could find were references to chakra point healing techniques, none of which referred to transforming from human to animal forms. I found many Whitewolf references, but these don't count, for obvious reasons.

There is also soemthing called Biokinesis. Which may also explain some things.

Alas, there's no proof of that either, sadly. You'd think that if it were possible though, somebody, somewhere, at some point would have been able to provide clinical evidence of at the very least, "before and after" DNA or physiological changes.

as for a werewolf mmm its hard to say. The closest to evidence would be a spiritual therian.

Therian referring to the spiritual or psychological identification with a non-human? I know the background of this, but it doesn't really constitute proof of anything other than a belief.

Oh, but try looking up Rosalyn (sp?) Greene I think she wrote it. I don't know how credible she is but maybe you can find some answers in her bibliography.

I'll certainly check out the book, thanks , though it doesn't appear that Greene is actually considered credible (fwiw, the name itself is apparently the pseudonym of three people who contributed to the book). I'll keep an open mind though.

I think that on top of some medical conditions that have been mentioned that the legands of werewolves spread because of serial killers.

I think it was devloped to explain horrible murders done by the serial killers of that time. It makes a good explanation for the "normal" person with 15 kids buried in his backyard. Even today a lot of serial killers will eat parts of their victims which would only add to the Myth.

Interesting, Amok.

The thing is, most serial killers don't consume the body parts (not physically, at least); it's apparently a relative few who do this.

Because serial killers are something of an obsession for me (I'm not a potential killer, honest! I'm really not! I'm a bleepin' tulipwalkin' pacifist, fer cryin out loud! Ok, shutting up, lest I garner shouts of "Methinks she protesteth too much!")....I've put together a wee list of some really, really good books on the topic, if anyone's interested in the occult links to serial killers (and for most, lack thereof).

Clues From Killers - Dirk Gibson

John Douglas's Mindhunter

Whoever Fights Monsters - Robert Ressler

Dark Dreams: Sexual Violence And The Criminal Mind - Roy Hazelwood

Anyone You Want Me To Be:A True Story of Sex and Death on the Internet - John Douglas

The phenomenon of serial killers is predated by werewolf mythology, though I'm sure that those few heavily publicized examples (Dahmer, etc) have greatly fueled the imaginations of people everywhere...and I've no doubt that there are some killers who have indeed harboured beliefs or delusions relating to the inherent "powers" gained from the consumption of their victims' flesh.

Creepy, innit?

i wrote a couple of werewolf sourcebooks for rpgs way back and researched the subject pretty thoroughly... This is what I found...

The 'shapeshifter' is a universal myth like the dragon and the flood and can be traced across all continents and civilisations.

As for any proof there is none that can be considered strong. Some of the most interesting cases are from France and Germany from the Middle Ages. (In fact a significant amount of werewolf lore is written in German, way over and above any other language).

The climate of the most interesting cases are from what can be termed the 'Inquisition' era and a read through of the pertinent aspects of the Malleus Malificarum 'Hammer of Witchs' by Sprenger & Kramer and the witcg burners manual of the time shows an absurd level of paranoia and rubbish written about werewolves. It's hard to read that and believe in them at all.

However, a far larger amount of people than you would think are affected to a lesser or greater extent by the moon cycle (and most don't even know it). This is similar to seasonal affective disorder. Plus there's the Mr Wolfe people (I'm a werewolf thread) who have unusual physical characteristics.