Cryptid Life

Between Monsters and Mystics

Between movie tropes and nightmares, there is something haunting humanity. What are we dealing with?

‘They mostly come at night. Mostly.’ Perhaps the line I will never forget, from Aliens, James Cameron, 1986. In terms of scary, that and the first Alien, 1979. The 1972 movie Gargoyles gave me nightmares every time it aired. Remember, back then there were only three channels and you watched what the family watched. In fairness, flying monkeys and tornadoes bothered me, too. It doesn’t matter if they are real or not when they’re in your head. Your body responds as if they are real. Are we controlled by shadows, the puppeteers creating shadows, or the thoughts about the scary other, always lurking somewhere nearby?

When you add all the books about Jungian archetypes and books by Joseph Campbell and the likes, coupled with evolutionary psychology, and Epigenetics, and seriously paying attention, you realize very quickly you aren’t in control of anything. All control is seriously an illusion, which is probably just another reason why neuroscientists suggest consciousness is an illusion and freewill is a joke.

Consciousness isn’t an illusion. It’s simply shackled to a sea going vessel. Essentially, you are Odysseus tied to the mask. Your…