Can creatures be created by a groups belief in them?

Question

Examples can include Giants, wierwolves, Bigfoot, Dragons, Fairies, water nymphs, unicorns, UFO's and Aliens, Angels, Demons, big cats, and a whole host of mythical figures.

It seems that in many countries' past histories, these things are well documented as truths. In our recent history, the 1950's had more than it's fair share of sightings of UFO's, and very recently the Big cats phenomenon seems to crop up.

Can this be because of collective belief of such things, a being is created - as it is real to so many people?

This was experimented with by a paranormal group who invented a "spirit" called Phillip - who then behaved as if it were real in a table-tipping scenario.

Could these be "the monsters from the Id"?

Answer 1

You bring up a valid point.  It's been my contention all along that many of the creatures and entities people consider paranormal are actually perceived manifestations of cultural icons and archetypes.  That's why what used to be Old Hag Syndrome has become alien abductions.  That's why the ghosts in the West are different than supernatural entities in other cultures.

That doesn't mean the entity actually takes form anywhere but in the imagination of the person who perceives it though.

Answer 2

yes they are called tulpas:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulpa

they can become real through the power of the mind & cause havoc

Answer 3

ISo I don't think you an actually produce a collective image through belivieving in it. A member of a group may think they saw something and another may say, so did I, but I don,t think it would be the same thing. Maybe when they sat down afterwards they then maybe come to think they saw the same image.

Answer 4

Of course it happens all the time.The fact is, these creatures exist only in the minds of the believers.

Answer 5

It's probably just people believing them so when someone sees a light in the sky that's moving, they call it a UFO, when it's probably a plane.

Angels and Demons could have been mistaken for people. Big cats exist, silly.

The reason they are documented as truths is because of superstition and religion.

Bigfoot was a proven scam, fyi.

Answer 6

Yet again, I'm stunned by the lack of basic civility that some people seem to have when answering questions.

Funnyarchie921, could you be any more patronising? "Big cats exist silly" You're talking to a grown man, not a child.

Wonderer, I'm going to bite my tongue here, because if I typed what I was thinking, my reply would be a page of ******* ******s. Your post had me fuming. First of all, you have no concept of basic grammar and spelling. I mean, spell checker anyone? Secondly, if you are going to try and insult someone, at least make the effort to type properly and not be a lazy a$$ and use text speak! Don't try and insult someone's intelligence whilst displaying a staggering lack of it yourself!

"humans can create in some cases a manifestation

but in very limited cases and very limited people who have this abilieties born int,"

This is very hard to respond to, as the appauling grammar makes it virtually impossible to interpret.

"and u to think that ufos alien, angels giants etc are created by that means 2 things

u have no clue

and u have no knowlege

thos thigs are real entitties"

Go back to school, and then go back and read his post again. He's not saying that's how things are. He's asking people if they think it is possible. I can assure you that he has indeed both a clue, and knowledge of these subjects. Sadly it's you that seems to be lacking in both! Learn to spell and learn to type properly before you try insulting someone next time.

"ofcourse how would u know that:) u didnt do ur homework"

Look who's talking!!! Looks like you didn't even go to school! Don't sling mud sweetie, you're not very good at it. Nowhere did Mr.P say these were his actual beliefs, he was simply posing a question.

Psiexploration, thank you. Your reply was really interesting. Thank you also to the other posters who, whilst disagreeing, did so in a polite and sensible, intelligent way.

Answer 7

Non believers shouldn't breed! I'm an alien from an alien world and put on this nasty planet as punishment and I can't get off this rock until man creats a ride to get back to my planet 20 light years away. Life sucks and then you die. And you best know that there are lots of us here millions and millions of us. All here for punishment. Other alien races live here with their machines under our lakes and oceans.

Answer 8

when a large or even small group of people get together in belief of the same thing, energy is harnessed and channeled. An image is created that may be a fantisy but the ENERGY is quite real. what they do with the energy is where most of them go way wrong. the vampire is not real, but the energy caused by the fear, hatred, and power of said beast is very real.

Answer 9

Interesting question. All in all, it is impossible to prove or disprove scientifically that belief in an object can cause it's physical existence, because there are no finite amounts involved in an experiment. (IE, maybe you're not BELIEVING hard enough)

However, don't take that as a sign that it is likely enough belief can cause a physical reality. It is impossibly to disprove anything.

There is an interesting question underneath yours. What constitutes something being 'real'? Is something real if it can be observed individually by one person? That it can be felt, smelled, seen, heard, etc? Probably not. The distinction between reality and perception is very interesting because it is impossibly to observe reality from a third person perspective.

What is more likely than ANY of these things (UFO's, Bigfoot, Werewolves, Loch Ness Monster, etc.) existing, is the existence of a human willingness to believe in things. It's probably instinctual, a survival trait of constantly being prepared for any circumstances. Give humanity a few hundred thousand years, and that instinct is no longer necessary. It's just dormant and unevolved.

Then what you've got is a willingness to believe. People WANT to believe in these things. Consider this, how many people have actually SEEN UFO's who have never heard of them beore? Very few. The very irst UFO sightings weren't considered aliens but rather considered to be enemy stealth technoligy (something that people of the 1950's WANTED to believe in, whether or not it was flying over their town) The stories evolved into UFO's after Cold War fear made people WANT to believe (to be frightened, of course) that there was nonhuman intelligence greater than his own.

(HG Welles was way ahead of his day considering that Aliens might be much more intelligent than ourselves)

Answer 10

With a strong enough following and belief in them such creatures can take on a life of their own as popular legend that becomes real to some who don't need to see it.  It doesn't become real to everyone.  

Assuming the entities you described definitely don't exist AND don't have enough basis in an actual phenomenon that we interpret as these beings for lack of another understanding.

Answer 11

I don't know about humans actually CREATING something, but I do believe that there are a majority of paranormal "experiences" that can be debunked easily but the people who experienced them were so willing to believe what they saw that they won't let it go.. and that people who think they see something spread their "experience" and cause others to believe them.

I suppose energy could be collected in some way to form some sort of paranormal creation, but I really don't know.

Fascinating.

I do know.. That I have seen what looks like a very large saucer-shaped object in the sky {very close to the ground} in the exact moment I was having a conversation about UFOs with a friend of mine. Did we somehow cause it to manifest? I wouldn't say we wanted to see it so badly that we did, because we had at least ten other people that we asked to confirm that they were seeing the same thing. *shrug*

D: I tried to explain what I think as best I could.. Hope I did alright.

Answer 12

No.

Answer 13

Possible, I have heard of the possibility before but couldnt get my head around it, now I think I can see where youre coming from? and UFOs are real it just means unidentified flying object, as for the giants?..... well just look at Andre the giant and the worlds tallest men, all over 7 feet tall, sure theyre real.

Answer 14

Please allow me to correct an untrue assumption in your question. The Philip Experiment as detailed in the book " Conjuring Up Philip: An Adventure in Psychokinesis" by Iris Owen and Margaret Sparrow was not an experiment in creating a ghost. It is true that the group created (made up) a person that had died, gave him a story, and acted in groups as if they were communicating with a ghost.

However, Dr. Owen (one of the authors husband) was a parapsychological researcher and he was testing a hypothesis regarding Victorian era seances.

In particular he had the hypothesis that physical manifestation (table levitation, trumpet playing, etc.) that people associated with spirits during the Victorian age was not the only explanation. He thought that PK (psychokinesis) that came from the living could explain these events (of course when fraud was first eliminated).

In psychology there is something called ownership (taking responsibility for ones actions) and he thought that no one (since no group member claimed any psychic ability) would be at ease if they were singled out as responsible for any events of PK. Thus, to eliminate ownership issues (and more closely replicate actual seances) while conducting PK experiments he created a "ghost" to blame the activity on (all involved knew or at least believed it was their collective PK activity and not a ghost responsible for any positive results).

No one in the experiment from Dr. Owen (who only observed) to any member of the seance group ever claimed to have created an actual ghost.

There are some religious beliefs about thought forms called Tulpa (link below)

Answer 15

humans can create  in some cases a manifestation

but in very limited cases and very limited people who have this abilieties born int,

and u to think that ufos alien, angels giants etc are created by that  means 2 things  

u have no clue

and u have no knowlege

thos thigs are real entitties

ofcourse how  would u know that:) u didnt do ur homework

Answer 16

This is exactly how "god" came about.

Answer 17

Dude have you ever heard of psychic Sylvia Browne, she kinda believes in the same thing your on. Bigfoot is created in a way that so many people believe in it so it creates a physical entity, its called a tulpa. reasearch it.

Answer 18

no i really don't think that a monster or creature, or what ever could be created just because a group of people choose for it to be real. its like a kid with with an imaginary friend, just because the child chooses that friend to be real doesn't mean that it is. even if a whole group of children believe that the same imaginary friend is real doesn't mean that its gonna come to life and be real.

Answer 19

No amount of human creativity will create an actual being. It take energy to create energy, the mind has no real physical energy. The mind can trick a person in thinking they are seeing or hearing UFOs, or ghosts.

Answer 20

There is evidence of group belief so strong that something can be believed into reality but some of the creatures do have some basis in reality.

Answer 21

it is entirely possible for a group mind to create an entire dimension.

Answer 22

i dont think they can ohysically be created or manifid=stated just by people's belief alone, BUT peoples beliefs can often times get so out of hand that people try to create hoaxes and try to put their belief into a physical form. Sometimes when a really big group of people all believe in one thing strong enough they dont have to exactly see it in order to believe that its there. An example would be the philippines, it consist of thousands of little islands, each with their own version or dialect of the filipino language, and also with their own beliefs of creatures and monsters. Monsters are really common in the philippines and i believe that alot of it is just someone imagination that got out of control one day and now everyone thinks they see these creatures. Often times they are stories they tell their kids, so their kids will stay home at night, or not play in the high grass, stories that were told so much that after all this time people dont know whether they were true even. So yes this happens alot, i guess when you think about it, my answer to your question would be Yes, creatures can be created by people's belief in them, the only catch is, are they real to others too or just the group that started it