There was a full moon last night, and I couldn't help but think of werewolves. And then when I thought of werewolves, I decided to look them up. I read some things.
One of the first accounts of a werewolf was in the Medieval period. It was of a man who supposedly prowled the forests, mutilating animals, then humans...women and children included. When they finally got their hands on him, they strapped him to a torture wheel, tore off his skin with hot pockers, amputated his arms and legs, and finally decapitated him.
They call it Lycanthropy. Supposedly there are still cases of it today, those being clinical cases. Science says it can be a combination of many things, namely Psychosis with any sort of acute hallucinations and much more. This is just off the top of my head of course. The actual explanation is much more comprehensive. There are types of hallucinations in which a person actually feels like parts of their body are transforming, and due to their beliefs, make this out to be a werewolf transformation. Some report demonic visions (again, beliefs) and actually start to behave as they would believe a werewolf would behave. And all this is as real to the person as their own hands and feet. Could you imagine the terror? The pure madness of living such an ordeal?
I am very afraid of any kind of Psychosis. The word itself carries a most unbearable connotation when I mouth it on my lips, and think of it in my head. In other words, I fear the living hell that would be existing in a nightmare that cannot be escaped, that carries with it all of the bodily pains and fears of living in consciousness. I say, the mind is an incredible force that when turned against itself can bring more destruction to the victim than any bad dream. It is your own personal black hole. Inescapable.
The problem with me is that when I read history, especially such grisly history as this, I cannot help but place myself directly in the reading and begin to live it as far as my imagination goes, and it sometimes proves unsettling.
I mean, what is going on out there anyway?
