Comments on: Mothman, Garuda and Indonesian Air Crash

By: daledrinnon

daledrinnon — Sun, 11 Mar 2007 13:23:32 +0000

John Keel’s book The Mothman Prophecies comes with the subtitle relating Mothman to ‘The Mysterious Feathery Garuda’.

This was Keel’s attempt to link Mothman reports to an underlying archetype. It was perhaps an unfortunate choice. Garuda is the vehicle/mount of the Hindu supreme God Vishnu. As such, it is commonly portrayed in religious art.

By: springheeledjack

springheeledjack — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 04:25:55 +0000

Once you start throwing the supernatural or spiritual in with cryptids and cryptozoology is that most people shut the “open mind” door all together. Links between cryptids and mythology are all too common, but you have to be careful the terms you throw around with them.

The Garuda is an interesting idea that I had not been aware of before with Mothman (no I didn’t read the definitive work on that one…Mothman has always been kind of abstract and too intangible, even for me:)

By: Rillo777

Rillo777 — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 04:04:46 +0000

Maybe I’m just missing something here. I didn’t read Keel’s book on the Mothman Prophecies (primarily because I tend to shy away from books on prophecies delivered by cryptids. I mean, what’s next? The Bigfoot prophecies? The Loch Ness Monster Prophecies? The Leprechaun Prophecies?) And what exactly does Hindu or Buddhist mythology have to do with an event that happened in rural america anyway? Sorry for the ignorance here but I don’t get it.

(And yes, I saw the movie with Richard Gere and, outside of the Mothman name, I didn’t get it, either.)

By: shumway10973

shumway10973 — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 01:58:48 +0000

Remember folks, most of what we consider cryptids, most natives think of them as real or with the stories of their ancestors where a majestic animal became some messenger or something to the spiritual realm. Case in point, think of what the native americans of the Dakotas think of bigfoot. There was probably a large bird matching the description (except for the human body), but it was so big that most people thought something like they were as big as a person, therefore they must have the body of a human.

By: Mr.PassiveAggressive

Mr.PassiveAggressive — Wed, 07 Mar 2007 16:54:32 +0000

Although it may wander into the realms of the paranormal and far from the fields of cryptozoology, there is a definite connection between names and of incidents of high strangeness.

Looking through lists of incidents, the occurrance of ‘devil’ish names has been commented on frequently.

Science can mean many things, but it should not preclude using data from sources that, at first, might seem off-base. It’s that attitude that has kept CZ from ‘accepted’ fields of exploration for far too long.

If paranormal events manifest themselves disguised as cryptozoological phenomena, then it certainly bares some investigation from the CZ end, even if just to eliminate the event.

The Garuda ‘connection’ might be just coincidence and the garuda creature just a cryptozoological disguise for a paranormal event, but if certain names create focal points of paranormal energies that can turn destructive, I’d certainly want to know about it. Even if it doesn’t strictly fall under cryptozoology.

By: mystery_man

mystery_man — Wed, 07 Mar 2007 16:39:41 +0000

MatteBille- I think the plane crash is maybe just to illustrate that the term Garuda is a name for an airline being mentioned in the news and use this as a jumping off point to talk about this cryptid. I don’t believe there is any physical connection between the two being implied.

By: daledrinnon

daledrinnon — Wed, 07 Mar 2007 16:37:36 +0000

Actually, a LOT of Cryptozoology acts as if witness’ fantasies are somehow relevant.

There is a train of thought that ‘The Loch Ness Monster must be supernatural because the witnesses react with such unreasoning terror, etc.’
The reactions of the witnesses is basically irrelevant to ANYTHING that is being witnessed. The sightings cited by Bord and Bord in Alien Animals supporting this idea are elsewhere interpreted by critics as being swimming deer, otters and the like. If the witnesses (including Greta Finlay,the Spicers, etc.) actually WERE seeing such mundane objects, then it goes to point out the absurdity of assuming that panicked, irrational fears actually have some sort of an actual reason for existence.
Irrational fears do not need to be explained and do not need to be considered as evidence. Mere coincidence in names (as in Garuda) are also not actually evidence of anything.

By: elsanto

elsanto — Wed, 07 Mar 2007 15:22:22 +0000

I don’t see how Garuda can be considered a cryptid. Garuda is the vehicle of the god, Vishnu. Hindu and Buddhist teaching made manifest through imagery can be approached at several levels. Ultimately, when working in those contexts one is working with intricate symbology that illustrates not only religious dogma, but psychological and metaphysical principles as well. Only the most uneducated and simple believers would consider that Garuda can manifest himself physically.

By: MattBille

MattBille — Wed, 07 Mar 2007 13:52:59 +0000

I can imagine no reason whatever to tie the air crash to the cryptid or the Garuda legend. We are supposed to be doing science here.

Matt

By: daledrinnon

daledrinnon — Wed, 07 Mar 2007 13:18:03 +0000

That is not the best representative depiction of a Garuda.

From the coloration indicated, Garuda is a large fish eagle like our bald eagle in the USA. One feature is that some depictions of the feet of Garudas (and Tengus) match bald eagle feet.