Fairies, Bigfoot and Hauntings

This first appeared on Tim Binnall's Binnall of America site for my Trickster's Realm column over there in May of 2006.


I'm still making my way through the very excellent book Daimonic Reality, by Patrick Harpur. (Usually I'm reading at least five books at the same time, so it takes me awhile.) Harpur discusses paranormal Bigfoot and suggests that the so-called paranormal Bigfoot (a whole other topic unto itself; one I've been fascinated with for a long time) is a fairy. 

Fairy for lack of a better term. Unlike the image many of us may have of fairies -- that they're diminutive, and sweet, pretty girly colors with transparent wings and delicate forms -- fairies come in all sizes and shapes. They are sometimes friendly, sometimes mischievous, sometimes dangerous. They are fickle, easily offended. They need to be treated with some dignity and care, respect and distance. Traditional folklore tells us that leaving food out for fairies is important. Harpur describes a family who had Sasquatch-like encounters on their property; the being seemed to hang around the place, took the food offered, at times seemed playful. But when humans got too close, expected too much, and didn't leave food out, it was gone forever.

The behavior of fairies can mimic hauntings. What we might assume is a haunted house, and its apparitions and actions seem like those of ghosts or spirits, are not ghosts (impressions of the once living humans, or interactive deceased) but fairies. 

Sometimes these fairies attach themselves to a specific individual or family. This is what got my attention in particular; I have a close friend who, along with many members (mostly on the female side) have experiences with ghosts and hauntings, as well as UFO events. Many family members, who are scattered all over in different states, have elaborate stories of paranormal, ghost like encounters. Ghosts seem to follow them I, along with everyone else in the family, assumed these things were due to ghosts. I myself have seen and heard many ghostly type things connected to this family. 

But I always wondered at the sheer number of hauntings in this family. It seemed to be very unusual; all theses people, regardless of where they lived, have ghost issues. There often was so much activity; and the interactions between whatever entity is in this house (or, entities) seemed too intense for just a ghost. Reading Harpur's suggestion that it is entities that are not human, that are in fact, fairies of some type, attaching themselves to a family is intriguing. It's an interesting road I hadn't explored. 

Both in the cases of paranormal Bigfoot and some hauntings, this idea of a fairy entity as the cause for the manifestations seems to fit. Both topics -- Bigfoot and hauntings -- are huge, of course, and deserve their own focus. There's much more to what Harpur says in his book about this overall. I've only touched upon an idea about what might be occurring in with my friend, and her family, as well as the Bigfoot idea.
One more fascinating thread to explore in the land of the weird!