Cochise said:
It's why I've wondered if many kinds of encounters - elves, some kinds of ghost, aliens etc are 'strange encounters' all of the same type of thing but modified in our perception by the current culture.
Robert Anton Wilson has talked about this a lot too. He often recanted one of his own personal experiences:
"Around 1973 I became convinced for a while that I was receiving messages from outer space, but then a psychic reader told me that I was actually channeling an ancient Chinese philosopher. And another psychic reader told me I was channeling a medieval Irish bard. And at that time I started reading neurology and I decided it was just my right brain talking to my left brain. And then I went to Ireland and discovered it was actually a six-foot-tall white rabbit. They call it the pooka."
You can see the full interview here, which expands on the point further comparing different supernatural experiences from a psychological point of view (highly recommended):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfrCLOIaro0
It may be a bit confusing if you haven't read his books, but he covers it in his
Cosmic Trigger series. It should be compulsory reading for any Fortean.
On a personal note, I remember once, a Greek friend of mine living in Scotland remarked that it was strange that there were so many ghost stories in Scotland. I asked her if they had ghosts in Greece and she said no. She explained that sometimes people in Greece have visions of saints, but she'd never heard any Greek ghosts stories though.
Come to think of it, I can't remember ever hearing about any saintly visions in Scotland either. Draw your own conclusions
Maybe a Greek orthodox christian could explain this by saying that they receive divine visions because they follow the one true faith and the "fact" that Scotland is haunted just goes to prove that the place is godless and damned.
My friend was an atheist by the way.