The paranormal field is wide and vast and covers much more than your typical haunting.  One of the areas within paranormal study is that of cryptids.  These are creatures whose existence is not proven or unsubstantiated - much like I guess a ghost is.  People believe in creatures like Bigfoot and Nessie in the same way they believe in ghosts, but they have never been actually proven to exist.  Known as cryptozoology, researchers are on the hunt to try and get answers.  Again much in the same way a ghost hunter does with a haunting, a cryptozoologist will investigate a claim of a sighting or experience with one of these creatures.  There are grainy photos and weird experiences with these sorts of animal-like creatures all over the World, and there is much debate as to what they could actually be.  Are these creatures some form of an evolutionary trait or are they a form of psychic creature created by us?

Psychic Projection

Psychic projection is something often associated with poltergeists in particular - a ghost created by the human mind.  Many people report having a paranormal experience with visitation from a loved one.  Birthdays, anniversaries, and special holidays always seem to see a spike in reported activity.  While a spirit could be coming to visit, could the simple act of a group of people remembering a person or an event spark some sort of paranormal event? Look at the Philip experiment for example. A group of Canadian parapsychologists came together in the 1970s and created a fictional backstory on a character they called Philip. By focusing on him and what he would have looked like and the things he liked and didn't like etc, they received what they believed to be intelligent responses by paranormal means from this fictional character called Philip. It seemed that they created a ghost with their own mind. It was so successful in their eyes they went on to complete this exercise again and again with other characters.

Image Source: Conjuring up Philip: An Adventure In Psychokinesis by Iris M Owen (1976)

I have to wonder about the times that I have felt I have had a loved one who has passed away around me. It has always happened during a time that I was thinking about them or wishing they were around. Maybe it was something as simple as seeing something they would have liked or just looking at their photo. Maybe it is a special occasion. Anniversaries, birthdays, weddings, or special places seem to be times when we have an experience or feel they are around us. Besides of course the obvious that we could be reading too much into things, what if the reason these things are happening at these times is that we are making it happen just by remembering them? I am constantly using the example of what we do on paranormal tours because the more I think about it and witness it, the more it makes sense to me in a lot of ways. You are on a paranormal tour and you are taken into a room. The group of 10, 20 or 30 people are told the story of the person that is significant to the room. You may talk about what they looked like or how they passed away or what it was that makes their story special. The group is then focusing on the story they were just told and they try to attempt to communicate with this spirit. They will ask questions based on this story and play into the narrative.  To their surprise, they start getting answers.  Are the responses they feel they are receiving due to the fact that there is some sort of spirit there communicating with them and validating this information or is it that the collective focus and energy of the group focused on this one story is unknowingly projecting and causing things to happen?  Are they bringing their own version of Philip to life?  Using this same concept, what if we applied this to what we think about the phenomenon surrounding these mysterious creatures like bigfoot?

If we can manifest something just by thought, it is not just limited to ghosts. 

It could be creatures too!  Scott D Rogo seems to think so too

As far as I can see, there are three psychic explanations for these bizarre animals.  The first would be that they are psychic projections just as are UFOs, miracles, and poltergeists.  Something from us "projects out," takes on a physical form and a vestige of intelligence, and then disappears as the force which gave it birth dissipates.  A second explanation is offered by John Keel, who suggests that these beings are intelligences in their own right and that "they" cause "us" to see them in a variety of forms.  Or, Keel also suggests, they are free-floating, mindless masses of energy which take on a more finite shape when a human mind views them.  A third theory would postulate that they might actually be ultra-dimensional entities which every so often get trapped in our world or travel via some interface between this world and another.  Each of these theories does have some supporting evidence.

The Haunted Universe by Scott D Rogo (1977)

Rogo references journalist John Keel (most famous for his work with the Mothman Prophecies) who himself has a lot of different ideas when it comes to what these creatures could be.  

The Group I type is, as we said animal-or even several different kinds of animals - still unknown to science.  It is hostile only when threatened or attacked.  It seems to be intelligent, perhaps it even has a high order of intelligence - as high, say, as that of the dolphin.  This intelligence has made it almost as elusive and cunning as man himself.  The footprints and other physical evidence accumulated over the years lend further credence to the eyewitness testimony.  This creature exists.  But he does not want anything to do with man.  An who can blame him?

Group 2 comprise the real mystery.  They appear and disappear suddenly, as if they never existed at all.  They rarely leave footsteps or other physical evidence behind.  They seem to be more in the nature of paranormal of paraphtsical appartions.  They attack people and automobiles, causing scratches, bruises, and black eyes.  They chase cars and carry off cattle.  They scream like banshees (maybe they are the original banshees of folklore), and despite their great heigh, weight, and girth, they melt into nothingness when the posses turn out.  Since out data is admittedly only a fragment of all the sightings, we cannot guess at how long this has been going on, or what the real scope of the phenomenon is.

John Keel - Strange Creatures from Time and Space (1970)

This is frame 352 from the Patterson-Gimlin film taken on October 20, 1967, claiming to depict Bigfoot/Sasquatch/Colton.

I am drawn to thinking of the Ghosts of the World Series that I have been writing.  It covers the different kinds of ghosts around the World, which also in some countries borders on strange creatures.  Most are born from folklore, yet so many people report sightings or experiences.  Just like with the elusive Bigfoot.  The stories all have common markers like a high pitched cry, and foul smell.  Thanks to the original alleged picture of Bigfoot, people have implanted in their minds what Bigfoot looks like.  So now you have a story.  You have a visual and you have characteristics - much like Philip above.  While it could be a case of mistaken identity, are we projecting these familiar images almost born from pop culture into being?  If we go into the woods searching for Bigfoot and we have that image of Bigfoot in our head, are we somehow psychically manifesting this?  

Photograph that allegedly showed the Loch Ness monster, 1934. The image, known as the “surgeon's photograph,” was later revealed to be a hoax.

The same can be applied to the Loch Ness monster.  In fact, the original photo above was later proven to be a hoax yet this is the way people usually visualise Nessie.  The myth has in a way come to life in the minds of the people.  So while this photo was proven to be a hoax, it is responsible in a way for creating the myth and visual behind Nessie which maybe could be manifesting from the minds of the very people looking for her.

Interestingly, over my years of paranormal research, I often conduct surveys with the general paranormal community to see where their beliefs and thoughts lie on certain topics.  There is a large portion of the paranormal community that believe in ghosts/spirits and even extraterrestrials but don't believe in creatures like Bigfoot or the Loch Ness monster.  In some ways, I personally don't understand this as why is one more likely than another?  I wonder if it is because it is an area where there is a lot less personal experience?  Often people begin to believe in spirits after having their own experience.  If they haven't seen a creature, maybe they are less likely to believe it?  Maybe it is due to the lack of solid evidence, which again in some ways doesn't make sense as there is also no solid evidence that a ghost exists.  While there are grainy photos of bigfoot which people tend to believe is really someone dressed in a suit, a video on YouTube of cupboard doors being opened by a piece of string when a person happens to be filming their kitchen in the dead of the night can be put in that same category.  It seems to again come down to the very concept of belief itself.  It then makes sense how things can manifest over time from lore.  Look at the story of Slenderman and how quickly it escalated where the lines of reality and fiction became blurred.

Maybe the key to these creatures is just believing in them.  Do we really just need to believe and it will come into being?

References

Strange Creatures from Time and Space by John Keel (1970)

The Haunted Universe by Scott D Rogo (1977)

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