• We have updated the guidelines regarding posting political content: please see the stickied thread on Website Issues.

Werewolves

Werewolf, teryanthrope pictures

Me and my wife had been talking about how "real" pictures of suposed human or humanoid animals, werewolves, nahuals and others, seem to be impossible to find on the internet or any other media. Is there any place where you can find purported pictures of this creatures?
 
By "real pictures" do you mean photos? Cos if you do there may be a reason for that...
 
Evilsprout said:
By "real pictures" do you mean photos? Cos if you do there may be a reason for that...
Click to expand...

Yep, photos. I know is sound funny to ask for some, but bear with me for a moment. There are a bunch of "real" images of Yetis, chupacabras (note that I wrote "real" instead or real), so I was wondering how come there are none of this type of creatures. I mean, there have been seen in places in America and Europe, like the Bray Road Beast, but there are no pictures, no photos of them anywhere. See what I mean? The idea is to get them and just discuse how real they look like, if we can detect how they were faked and the like.
 
I think the reason that there are no pictures of werewolves, is... no one thinks werewolves exist. They, like many other myths, have passed into, well "myth". No one believes in werewolves, so no one takes the time to fake a picture of them. It'd be like faking a picture of a hobbit.

What are the most common fortean pictures? Ghosts and angels. I think. Maybe because that's what the most people believe in.
 
I was pretty sure I saw a werewolf when I was 7 in the local woods around Belfast . It has stayed in my mind ever since, pitty I didn't have the kodak instamatic on hand but I was too busy running, there may have been some screaming as well.
They only come out at night when the moon is full and the f-stop and apperature on my camera won't cope with the lighting conditions. If you are looking for pictures of werewolves I always fing the old German woodcuts are good.
 
I've seen photos of wild children and pictures of people suffering from lycanthropy so I'm sure you'd be able to find them on the interweb. Is this what you mean?
 
pi23 said:
I've seen photos of wild children and pictures of people suffering from lycanthropy so I'm sure you'd be able to find them on the interweb. Is this what you mean?
Click to expand...

Yes and no. You see, there are a bunch of pictures of "modern" (for lack of a better word) monsters like the Yeti, bigfoot, chupacabras, etc. But the traditional monsters, like Vampires, Ghoules and Werewolves are nowhere to be found. I am looking for purported real pictures of them. I know it can pretty well be an exercise in futility, since those entities are not supossed to be real as a Yeti, for example, but still, it would be great to find some photos, even if they are probably hoaxes.
 
I always suspected there was an aspect of serial killers about them. You know; evil nasty killer, has to be a beast, can't be human - that kind of thing. And I suppose an insane person, in the throes of madness, can look rather bestial.
 
Porphyria could make them look more beast like. The dicease seems to affect the mind to a certain degree also.
 
Re: Werewolves!

Mr. R.I.N.G. said:
Shapeshifters have been reported all over the world - anybody believe it could be something more than hallucenagenic drugs?
Click to expand...
it's funny how werewolves (or were-animals) and vampires seem to have very similar traits in cultures worldwide yet their existence in present day is considered foolish, and improbable. by all known science it is but still the fact that these myths seem to be commonplace worldwide even though religions and cultures themselves differ completely. makes you wonder what the truth of the matter is. Usually most myths are localized based on the landscape and surroundings but were-critters and vampires all the same for the most part, even in areas where the exchange of cultural ideas couldn't have happened (vampire and were-animal myths among North American Indians have been well ingrained for centuries before europeans came). Some food for thought
 
I did hear a wonderful explanation last weekend. Apparently, a small percentage of the population are allergic to cannabis. Their allergy manifests itself by the victim believing themselves to be a werewolf, and running around howling. A friend of mine actually witnessed this. Some time later, he was reading a book about werewolves where this theory was put forward, which certainly explained what he'd witnessed.
 
Read up on the symptoms of rabies.

Many of the symptoms exhibited match vampirism and lycanthropy. The best fit is on vampirism (in fact, rabies pretty much exhibits all the traditional features of vampirism). But the vulnerability to silver of werewolves (mirrors were silver, rabies induces hyper sensitivity which causes sufferers to avoid both sunlight and reflective surfaces). Hyper sexuality, psychosis and a reversion to an almost animal state, frothing at the mouth, bleeding from the mouth, biting and savaging of victims... The fact that wolves were a carrier of rabies, and would be more likely to attack humans... And if you survived the attack, you yourself would become rabid. Rabies victims also were active at night due to intense insomnia, and would be best suited to wandering under the full moon... Etc.

I don't think this is the sole cause of werewolf lore, but it could explain some
 
I just read Brad Steigers book on Werewolves. I liked it because it didn't go into any apologetics, it was just an A-Z format listing different accounts, personages, types, etc.

I especially liked it because he brought up the question of what was meant by "werewolf" way back when. In that it also meant Berzerker, outlaw, or someone who was deranged. Because of the confusion with the word itself, he also included accounts of movie werewolves, serial killers, Inquisition testimonies, Yeti (wildman accounts) and of course accounts of real shapeshifting from cultures around the world.

I was also really intrigued by the idea of the belt made of animal skin as extremely important in shape shifting in many cultures. Why just a belt? You'd think the whole skin at least, or a mask, or something that would make the person feel "covered".
 
Helen said:
I did hear a wonderful explanation last weekend. Apparently, a small percentage of the population are allergic to cannabis. Their allergy manifests itself by the victim believing themselves to be a werewolf, and running around howling. A friend of mine actually witnessed this. Some time later, he was reading a book about werewolves where this theory was put forward, which certainly explained what he'd witnessed.
Click to expand...
Correct me if I'm wrong but Cannabis is a new world species, and lycanthropy is significantly older than even the Vikings landing of the new world (just using this as point of reference, columbus was closer to a cannabis growing region)
 
Search said:
Correct me if I'm wrong but Cannabis is a new world species
Click to expand...

You're wrong. It's thought to have originated in Asia, but it's been traded all over the world for thousands of years.
 
Beany said:
You're wrong. It's thought to have originated in Asia, but it's been traded all over the world for thousands of years.
Click to expand...
you're right, I'm thinking of coca (cocaine)
 
To bring this back to a cryptozoological rather than a mythical/disease-related perspective, i think there is a strong possibility that a baboon-like primate could be responsible for some of the more recent, American reports of semi-bipedal, hairy, dog-headed and humanoid-bodied "werewolves", such as the Bray Road Beast and the "Fluffy" carcass (which, while circulated as a "chupacabra", was originally alleged to be the "Cajun Werewolf"). There are also similarities to some NApe and "Devil Monkey" reports...
 
Goldstein said:
To bring this back to a cryptozoological rather than a mythical/disease-related perspective...
Click to expand...

Maybe this would be a good time to ask - is there now, or has there ever been as far a scientists know, a creature that could tranform back and forth between two distinct forms?
 
No, even primitive organisms like protozoa can't manage that one.

Even basic limb regeneration is limited to creatures like lizards and starfish (though curiously enough it can be stimulated in a small way in mice if treated with the right hormones), and then you're looking at weeks or maybe months for the repair to take place.

So the concept of a creature that can break down and regenerate it's significant morphology in less time than it would take you to heal from a papercut is quite outlandish.

It might be more interesting to look at what kind of creature could give the impression that it had done that, I don't have any particular one in mind, but perhaps think of variations on camoflage or mimicry?

(The bit I never understand about Werewolf movies is why it is that they always start to change in front of a victim, then they stand there for like 2 minutes doing some spectacular rending/stretching/morphing, and when they've finished changing the victim is still stood there! Darwin Award anyone?)
 
Mr. R.I.N.G. said:
Maybe this would be a good time to ask - is there now, or has there ever been as far a scientists know, a creature that could tranform back and forth between two distinct forms?
Click to expand...
Not exactly an individual entity, more like group effort, but rather odd:

'Slime Molds'

More on 'Slime Molds'
 
BlackRiverFalls said:
So the concept of a creature that can break down and regenerate it's significant morphology in less time than it would take you to heal from a papercut is quite outlandish.
Click to expand...

According to this axolotl faq, axolotls can transform into salamanders (losing gills, and becoming land dwellers rather than amphibians) in four days. This process also appears to be (at least partially) reversible - the gills can be lost and grow back, if the stimulus for change is applied and subsequently removed.
 
BlackRiverFalls said:
It might be more interesting to look at what kind of creature could give the impression that it had done that, I don't have any particular one in mind, but perhaps think of variations on camoflage or mimicry?
Click to expand...

Octopi can change colours really fast. Perhaps the werewolf transformation could take place in a reasoble amount of time, maybe months, at least on the physical (sp?) stage, whilst on the mental area the changes are faster. Anyway, I wonder if there's any medical condition that can radically change the apareance of the victim. How long does it take to develop hirsutism if you have a bad case of porphyria? And perhaps some hormonal changes could affect the bone structure.
 
c4miles said:
According to this axolotl faq, axolotls can transform into salamanders (losing gills, and becoming land dwellers rather than amphibians) in four days. This process also appears to be (at least partially) reversible - the gills can be lost and grow back, if the stimulus for change is applied and subsequently removed.
Click to expand...


Sorry but axolotls are just salamander tadpoles that usually stay in tadpole form, able to breed in this form etc, but can change into "adult" form if need be. Salamanders are still amphibians.
 
Maybe we're looking at this a bit too literally, I mean, some animals can appear quite anthropomorphic when they're in odd positions, I've always found my cat to look oddly that way when she lays on her back and half sits up to wash her belly, sort of like a small humanoid.

I don't know dogs well enough to speak for them, but I can imagine something like a bear seeming very humanoid in the same position, maybe just enough to fool a superstitious peasant in the half light, or enough to inspire them to spin a tale or two?

Just musing...
 
I favor the rabies explanation for lycanthropy, however there is also the case of giant wolves such as the beast of gevaudan. I don't agree with the rabies explanation for Vampires though, far different objects
 
Search said:
I favor the rabies explanation for lycanthropy, however there is also the case of giant wolves such as the beast of gevaudan. I don't agree with the rabies explanation for Vampires though, far different objects
Click to expand...
Did I read here or somewhere else that the Beast of Gevaudan could have been a hyena? Someone said the descriptions could only match a hyena and a local Lord was known to keep a few in his "Menagerie" or home zoo.

Sorry to move this up again but I must interject some pseudo-science. (Maybe the thread doesn't belong in Cryptozoology, but instead in Esoterica?)

I've read that people with split-personality disorder have been known to have variable physical disorders (I don't know if this is medically true). One personality will be diabetic or have an accute allergy, another will not. When the healthy personality is in charge, the person suffers no ill reactions. When the unhealthy person is in charge, the person gets hives, or has high blood sugar. If a person really believed they were a werewolf, could actual physical changes occur like becoming more flexible to run on all fours, drooling excessively, eye color change? If we can control how much blood insulin our pancreas produces or how much histamin our body produces, what other temporary changes could we make? How far do you suppose our control extends?
 
Tulip Tree said:
Did I read here or somewhere else that the Beast of Gevaudan could have been a hyena? Someone said the descriptions could only match a hyena and a local Lord was known to keep a few in his "Menagerie" or home zoo.

Sorry to move this up again but I must interject some pseudo-science. (Maybe the thread doesn't belong in Cryptozoology, but instead in Esoterica?)

I've read that people with split-personality disorder have been known to have variable physical disorders (I don't know if this is medically true). One personality will be diabetic or have an accute allergy, another will not. When the healthy personality is in charge, the person suffers no ill reactions. When the unhealthy person is in charge, the person gets hives, or has high blood sugar. If a person really believed they were a werewolf, could actual physical changes occur like becoming more flexible to run on all fours, drooling excessively, eye color change? If we can control how much blood insulin our pancreas produces or how much histamin our body produces, what other temporary changes could we make? How far do you suppose our control extends?
Click to expand...

I've seen people gallop like horses, so the lycanthrope could do it, but I don't think physical changes would occur, at least not in a short period of time. But, if somehow there's a change in hormones, perhaps you could get hirsutism.
 
Tulip Tree said:
Did I read here or somewhere else that the Beast of Gevaudan could have been a hyena? Someone said the descriptions could only match a hyena and a local Lord was known to keep a few in his "Menagerie" or home zoo.

Sorry to move this up again but I must interject some pseudo-science. (Maybe the thread doesn't belong in Cryptozoology, but instead in Esoterica?)

I've read that people with split-personality disorder have been known to have variable physical disorders (I don't know if this is medically true). One personality will be diabetic or have an accute allergy, another will not. When the healthy personality is in charge, the person suffers no ill reactions. When the unhealthy person is in charge, the person gets hives, or has high blood sugar. If a person really believed they were a werewolf, could actual physical changes occur like becoming more flexible to run on all fours, drooling excessively, eye color change? If we can control how much blood insulin our pancreas produces or how much histamin our body produces, what other temporary changes could we make? How far do you suppose our control extends?
Click to expand...
The beast of gevaudan couldn't have been a hyena, primary accounts of the beast identify it as indeed a wolf, just slightly larger than your average alpha male and unusually aggressive. A hyena wouldn't have been able to survive the winters anyways. It's common in the world of mammalian predators that once they get a taste of human blood, they will want more. Goes for wolves, big cats, hyenas etc. Tigers in India will be dropped if they are proven a man eater. I think trying to prove explain lycanthropy through what we know as science is fruitless and just as speculative as basing it off our myths about the subject, except we aren't tampering with any well founded scientific principles. we simply don't know how a were-critter can exist and operate if they exist at all. the only thing we have for the case is widespread comparative beliefs and stories about were-beings that are too similar to be a mere coincidence as seems to be the case with all creatures of the night. my two cents
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top