Hey there and welcome to the BigAppleSchool podcast. My name is Sam.
And today we’re asking what’s the craic about supernatural creatures. So we’re gonna find out what supernatural actually means by our definition, our expert opinion. What systems are connected with supernatural things. Supernatural creatures – what are they, where are they.
Do we believe in them? Is that nonsense? What about Nessy from Loch Ness – is she real? He real? Cultures that include dragons – there are so many! Oh my! Could dragons be real? Ideas about mermaids, sea monsters, the tomb of the mommy, yes, not the one that makes you dinner, but the one who lives under ground in Egypt.
What do you think about people who say they’ve seen aliens – are they mad? We’re gonna find out about that. Big Foot – Big Squatch I was gonna say. Big foot or Sasquatch, not both. Is he real? Or she – maybe it’s a woman. Yeah, maybe it’s a woman, Big Foot. Big Foottina.
And do you think there’s a creature alive today that could be a myth and legend in the future? We’ll talk about that. Ge your ideas Michael, maybe my ideas too. Michael Durotola. It’s your full… First two first names?
Yup. You can call me any of them.
Yeah, or Mick. Michael, oh, sorry.
Yeah, like a mix of those two. That’s nice, yeah! Next time someone asks what’s my nickname, I;m gonna say Micktola.
Micktola. What does supernatural mean?
Yeah well, supernatural for me I think it’s something which our powers as humans cannot control, our minds as humans cannot contain. That what exactly supernatural mean.
So it’s… I’m gonna go literal, it’s something more than natural, like super. You know, it’s much more, it’s much greater than natural. But I guess you can describe it as something not scientific. You know, It doesn’t follow the rules of science.
Yeah, right, you’re right about it.
Something that can’t be explained by science.
So it’s like Superman, it’s like these weird creatures. Although we’re not gonna speak about them. But yeah. So, just to begin, as by way of introduction – what systems are supernatural things connected with?
Yeah, I mean, I think they’re more connected with some spirits, probably some…
You mentioned voodoo in another podcast.
Do you think voodoo has connection with supernatural?
Yeah I think voodoo has a connection with supernatural, because.. so the things voodoo could do are very real, you know, and I think they cannot be explained by science as well, yeah, definitely.
The most I know about voodoo is from James Bond. There’s a James Bond film I think, or, you know, watching TV.
Yeah, I don’t watch so much of films.
The voodoo doll and creepy things.
Ah, I see, sure sure sure.
It’s been in quite a few films actually.
Sure sure sure, I’ve seen that in a film too.
It was really creepy in the James Bond films. And often supernatural things are connected with Christianity and only the inverse of that or the opposite of that, satanic worships. And there are strange things that happen.
I had a guy in school who told me he knows the devil’s real, and this guy wasn’t a Christian guy Because he had dabbled a bit with… I don’t know the name, maybe Luige board or something. Or done something just experimentally. And he ended up like what he believed that he saw the devil in his own home or stuff, so really creepy.
From somebody, you know, very close to you.
It was a good friend in school and he was like yeah, I believe in it. It’s real. And he was definitely scared, so he saw something and it scared him so much.
I mean, I think the mysteries and all that around us – we might not tend to believe them or whatever because our mind mostly scientifically updated or..
We’re used to things being a certain way, right? And then, yeah. And then sometimes, when things aren’t the certain way we realize it’s just our imagination. But I mean, people claim to have seen angels, been helped by angels.
Yeah yeah yeah, exactly. I mean, there are a lot of testimonies, you know, people being healed or people being saved in a supernatural way. Drug addicts or somebody, whatever, get back to their lives and all that.
Something touched them or healed them or whatever.
Exactly! I think it’s not scientific, because scientifically you need to go through rehabilitation, you take some pills, some injections and all that.
Some of these guys did not go through this system, but they got back to their life and became really really good people, been family inclined and doing some other stuff. I mean, I’m not saying that yeah, if you have a family, then you’re really the best person. You get it, right? But it goes to show how much they act as a human, you know, getting a family, having kids and all that.
So you can imagine going way down and coming back on track at a top. So I think…
It could happen, so it’s kinda mystery.
There are things out there that we can’t explain I think.
Exactly. We need to accept that. We need to accept that.
Well, this is what we’re gonna talk about and so, what are some of the supernatural creatures that people speak about? I mean, we’re not saying that these are necessarily real, but we’re gonna talk about them and give our opinion anyway.
Exactly. Hopefully you’ll like it.
So, dragons and fairies, witches, ghosts, angels, demons – do you believe in any of those?
Yeah, well, if we’re talking exactly about believing, people always ask me about belief, like do you believe in voodoo? Yeah, I would’ve loved not to use the word believe. Probably… Do you know voodoo exists? I’m gonna say yeah, I know. But if it’s ‘believe’, probably I follow… So yeah I do…
You’re not a voodoo…. Voodoo doctor? How do you call it? Witch doctor?
Yeah yeah yeah, definitely. Yeah…
Have you ever seen a fairy for example?
No, I have not seen fairies. Not even in my dreams.
I have visited Ireland, I mean, the republic, and I live in Northern Ireland and, you know, fairies are like part of the folklore there, but I haven’t yet seen one. I’m not saying they don’t exist, but…
You need to keep searching, you need to keep searching and definitely…
Maybe they’re hiding under a mushroom.
You’re right about it, yeah.
Do you believe in dragons?
Yeah, I mean, again, you call it believe. I think they don’t exist, not really, I don’t know where people got it from.
The X-Files, you know. Have you ever watched the X-Files?
There’s an old tv show, I don’t thin it’s on now, it’s just a tv show and a couple of films. And there’s Mulder and Scully. And Mulder always believed or wanted to believe and the doctor, the lady Scully never believed in it. Until she saw it. And he always started out believing this probably. It’s quite…
That’s funny. What do you call it again?
The X-Files. Yeah, I’ve heard something about that, but I haven’t seen it.
He was like ‘I want to believe’. I think there’s a poster about aliens, you know, and ‘I want to believe’.
Yeah yeah yeah. So I mean, for dragons- I think they’re fairy tales, just like fairies. But I believe in angels, yeah, definitely.
Witches – yeah. It’s not like believe, but I think they do exist, yeah, witches. Because according to my faith, witches are probably the, you know, satanic accomplice.
So I was told about witches. Not taught, but told about witches by my English teacher.
When I was 14-15. And he contested that there were witches in the area where we were living and that they were doing not so good things and that they had real power. In fact he told me the high witch, the chief of the group, could point at a bird and it would fall out of the sky.
I hadn’t any experience with that, but that’s he contested. I don’t know how he knew that, he never said how. But he wasn’t joking, he did really believe in that.
Yeah yeah yeah, it’s not a joke. It’s not a joke. Most of the times just because of our probably culture, upbringing, our surrounding, our experience, our knowledge, our scope of, you know, whatever, it tends to make it like something irrelevant or funny.
We see witches in, you know, cartoons.
Yeah yeah yeah, this isn’t funny, they do exist. Because most of all these guys, I mean, if I can call them guys, I think they’re cool too - all these guys use, you know, people’s blood or they do, you know, some freaky things. Of course, I think they eat to give them power, you know, using human whatever to do whatever. Something, you know.
Some creepy power from it, you know.
Yeah, or you’re at a cemetery at night trying to evoke some stuff. I think some experience are gonna appear to you, they’re gonna, you know, you’re gonna be part of them and you’re gonna do something.
It could happen. I mean, it sure happen, you should be able…
Not that I recommend or you recommend…
No no no no, I’m just happy being here.
Frankenstein’s monster, vampires, werewolves, mermaids and goblins.
Vampires sound kind of like cannibalistic, so….
Yeah, drinking blood. Well, do you believe in it? I guess Frankenstein monster is a pure fiction written by Mary Shelley.
Vampires, I think it sounds real.
Could they be able to drink blood?
I think or me it just sounds like people drinking blood.
Yeah, not a monster that could transform into whatever.
I watched a program once where they were talking about real vampires, and I think it was energy vampires – people who claim that they steal other people’s energy. I don’t know if it’s a real thing or not, but in other way some people will contest that we have an aura around us. Like energy field.
These energy vampires as I call them, they call themselves vampires, claim to be able to steal someone’s energy or take it.
I mean I know in Nigeria there were cases when people used voodoo to steal someone’s fortune.
Yeah I think it works. But I mean, not just for everybody.
I don’t know. I think, you can get a lot of people who are sceptics on these topics. If you think about it or if it happens to it, I think when it comes to like stealing somebody’s fortune or whatever, I think it boils down to how mentally strong you are in all that stuff. I don’t know, it’s complicated.
You can buy a lot more than you could too as well. So are you a werewolf?
This is another one, yeah, definitely. I think you might wanna talk about that, because….
Well, I’ll be honest, I used to be a werewolf.
But I’m alright noooooow, owowow! No, honestly never been a werewolf.
I read about that in my storybook when I was a kid, you know.
It’s a good… It’s what they call a dad joke. I used to be a werewolf, but I’m alright noooooow owowow.
I used to like a picture a lot in my storybook when I was a kid. You know, the guy with a leg of a human and stuff, you know, it was just really funny.
I mean, some of these creatures are very entertaining. Scary. I mean…
An entertainment in films is pretty much all that we’ve mentioned. They’re there, and they’re there quite rightly… maybe not so much fairies, but they’re there and pretty popular, pretty entertaining. Have you ever had an experience with the supernatural?
Yeah, well, yeah, well, I think I have. As a Christian, as we’ve mentioned, I’ve done…. I’ve had experiences, I have testimonies and stuff. Not something I wanna go into right now. But I mean…
A faith in god that came to you naturally.
But talking about something unexplainable, once I woke up in the middle of the night, I was in the second floor, went to the ground floor and I looked ahead, and from a distance…
No no no, this was in Nigeria. It seems to me, because it’s all a mystery, it seems to me or I might just say that yeah, I saw some kind of creatures. They were all in white. But the more I tired to focus, you know, to really try to get what it is, the more…
The more difficult it was for my head. I had a feeling of like a headache or being dizzy and stuff. It was right in the middle of the night, so the picture of these guys for me – it seemed they were going for, they were going backward, they were going for and they were going backward.
They were far away from me. I wasn’t scared, I wasn’t terrified, I was just trying to… you know, focus. You know, like when you use a lens in the photo and you’re trying to really get a close shot, so that is what was happening.
And there were about four of them?
No no no, there were like a number of them.
So I was trying to get this close up, but my head hurts the more I tried to do that. And what happened… Probably I got tired of that and then I went back to sleep. Or they disappeared, I don’t remember exactly what happened.
But you could go back to sleep – you weren’t afraid or anything?
And what do you think they were?
Yeah, that’s a very very difficult question, really.
You think they were a good thing or a bad thing?
I think not good things, because my head hurt the more I tried… From a distance I was at I think I could see them clearly, but my head hurt, and I tried to do that. So I think they knew there was someone who was trying to see them.
In the morning I went to the same spot and honestly speaking, it looked just like a very ordinary place.
Was this down on the ground?
Yeah, it was a street, yeah, it was a street, somewhere, a part of the street. So I went there the next morning and there just shops to the right, shops to the left, there was an asphalt road and cars were moving everywhere. Usual, like every other place, yeah. And I tried to see if it’s gonna happen some other time, and nope, nope, nope.
Why do you think that happened that time?
I mean, so that could be on this podcast. Insane!
Well, that’s… That’s a deep meaning of this.
I mean, I was really very shocked when I saw it. I don’t know if I really told people about that, cause something can’t really explain that much. But you know, we’re on a podcast right now, so…
Yeah, sure. I have never seen any, like, ghosts or anything like that.
But I know a woman who says that, and I believe her, that she saw like a ghost in her garden, in the back garden, and it… I think I’m right to say it had red eyes, but she didn’t feel alarmed by it or that it was a dark thing. But drawn to it even.
And almost wanted to invite it in. But she spoke to a family friend and they decided to have someone pray over it and get rid of it. Because even though hit didn’t seem like an evil thing, it could have been, and that’s what they decided, so the pastor of the church decided.
So they prayed and it was never seen again after that. But I think this lady saw it a few times, not just once. But anyone else in her house didn’t see anything at all. So, quite strange. Why does it appear to one person and not others?
It’s like choosing people to terrorize.
And was it a ghost or was it an evil, like, creature, you know, supernatural.
Or somebody alien from… Just fell from the sky.
Or a demon. Or something like that. Who knows?
Have you ever heard about domovoy in Russia?
I’ve heard of him, yeah. Or sometime, if you translate to English, it’s brownie.
Oh really? I didn’t know!
It sounds like a bun or something sweet you eat.
To me, when you say brownie, it reminds me of bush baby.
Okay. But a domovoy lives in a house, and it’s attached to a house. Like a ghost, am I right?
Yeah, something like that.
I’ve heard of it, yeah. It freaks me out, the idea, to be honest.
You’re being strangled at night and all that, I think I had a scaffold with one when I was a boy probably.
Yeah, it was a restless night. I went to visit a friend, and yeah, I wasn’t alone, we had a party and stuff like that. They have a parrot or two in their house, and really, for the first moment I didn’t really feel really comfortable in that house. And the guy said there were a lot of cases of domovoy in the building. Back then we had a scaffold with one of them.
The group that you were with?
Yeah, with the domovoy. And I have scaffold with the domovoy.
Is it an invisible thing?
Yeah yeah yeah, it was a night, and I was sleeping. And you know at night it sometimes happens when you have a dream and you’re fighting in a dream, stuff like that. There was something too… I was being strangled, it was more stronger than me.
The only thing… I wanted to scream out, you know, I wanted to scream and, you know, calling the name of God and all that, but I lost my voice, I couldn’t say anything, so it continued to go on.
but I was saying his name in my mind and I was trying to fight back. And at last it left me and my voice came up. And I woke up immediately. So…
Was it a dream? Was it domovoy? Well, I’ll leave it to our listeners to decide.
It happened, it happened. I was gasping for breath and all that.
A friend of mine claims, saying there was a girl in his house as a visitor, and she got possessed by something evil. And her head was spinning around, like supernatural, like the whole way round.
I mean, I don’t know, I wasn’t there, but yeah. Having an exorcism, and yeah, it was not… It doesn’t sounds like something I would’ve liked to see. But anyway, maybe…
Moving on. Is Nessy real?
You should know more about that, I’m from Nigeria.
So there’s a lake, lakes in Scotland and Ireland are called Lochs.
And it’s a slightly different spelling in Ireland to Scotland, but anyway. It’s the same pronunciation, Loch. Loch ness is a lake, and it’s a pretty long deep and fairly wide lake as well, but it’s much longer than it’s wide.
Now in Northern Ireland there’s a loch called Lough Neagh, some people kinda get it mixed up and say ‘Oh is Nessy I there?’ And I say hang on, this is Northern Ireland, there’s no Nessy there. It’s not nearly as deep though. But it’s pretty deep Loch.
So, I mean, who knows, because it’s quite deep. Scientists have done a lot of research, particularly recently. And they’ve come to the conclusion that it’s maybe just a group of eels. I don’t know, I mean…
There have been photographs, but not very clear, so… Honestly, it’s again, I want to believe. It’s something it’d sound great. If it were real I’d probably say it’s a dinosaur.
But I honestly think they’ve probably just seen something floating, maybe a piece of wood and stuff, and so honestly, not to be too negative, I don’t think Nessy’s real.
Yeah, for me too, for me too. I feel like thing is… Somebody was having fun nearby.
It’s still nice to imagine
I mean, I wouldn’t wanna get in to this lake.
Don’t go swimming there, yeah. Why do so many cultures, I mean, so many cultures, China, Wales has dragon on its flag, why do so many cultures include dragons do you think?
Probably because of the strength of the dragon…
But where did it come from?
Yeah I mean generally speaking, names, flags, armor and everything – it tried to portray power. So they’ve got the power, the dragon, you saw that in… What is it? Games of Thrones?
Yeah, the dragons there….
You should never speak of that. The ending was terrible, classic disappointment.
No no no, we’re not gonna go into that. It sure is not about…
I honestly wonder if there used to be dragons, because… maybe not the same as in the Game of Thrones, they were huge, but maybe much smaller, like the size of maybe a lion or something.
No, but the size of a lion or a tiger. Because there are so many stories and legends about dragons, I sort of wonder where did they come from? Or maybe it was like a superhero, you know like today we have superheroes, and it’s comics, and it’s the idea.
Maybe it came from like a story and someone designed this feature, and it’s not real.
And it became so attractive.
Either… For me it’s so widespread, there must have been something tangible to start off. Either someone imaginative and creative that created something, or it was an actual and real creature.
A lot of questions to research on! Probably I should start a research on it.
Google it when you get home.
No, no googling, come on! I need to travel everywhere, especially China. I think China is mostly associated with dragon. We need to move to China.
And Wales. Wales too, and parts of England. There’s George who killed the dragon. I was reading about… Is it Northern Ireland? Or it’s the north east of England and there were legends about worms which is like a smaller dragon and all kinds of stuff, like really.
Probably the idea of dragon… Probably the weapon – what is the weapon that… that makes fire?
A flamethrower, yeah, I think it came from a dragon you know.
I guess. Isn’t it St Peter who killed the dragon? Legend, it’s a legend. I don’t think it’s true, but there’s a depiction of him killing the dragon, isn’t there?
We… Okay well. But dragons now, I don’t know. I do respect all culture related with dragons and all that. I think it’s pretty very nice and all that, but yeah, I think it’s mythical for me.
Mermaids and sea monsters. Where did the idea of those come from?
Mermaids I think there’s some pretty irony, I’m really very interested in the underwater world. But I found mermaids, like half-human, half-fish I think it’s too much for me.
Maybe some pirates got tired of being alone.
I think just like witches or whatever, some people are like under water, but I think they’re not half0humans half-whatever, but they could do… They could be living under water, or be some… Something connected with water.
Some of those guy is like today you can breathe under water so much longer. Maybe something like that.
Yeah yeah yeah, but half-fish, half-human? I find it very hard to take, you know.
Hard to believe. If you got to the tomb of the mummy, would you go in and explore?
Nope, nope, nope. I’m not really very curious person. Not only about mummies, but really, not very curious. Yeah, it’s not that I don’t like…
Do you think there’s some dark magic still lingering?
Not really because of that, I’m not really very curious.
You’re not Indiana Jones.
Yeah, I’m not really very curious. I tried to gather mostly information that is good for my mind, you know, to make me a better person. And I don’t know how mummy could make me a better person to be more reasonable, more hardworking and all that. And so that’s why for me it’s not important.
I think I wouldn’t go in because there could be traps and stuff. I mean, leave all that to the experts. And I would ruin the mummy.
All these bacteria flying in there and so.
But these traps, like from Indiana Jones, like you don’t wanna step on any of that. So let’s avoid mummies.
I mean, let’s keep it for the archaeologists.
Sean Connery is so old to come and save you. I guess nobody can save you.
What do you think of people who say they’ve seen aliens?
Do you think that’s a real thing?
That is another thing, sure.
One of my art teachers in school claimed that she saw UFO. Not an alien, but a UFO. And it was like following her car or something at night. And I don’t know. Do you think that’s a real thing?
Nope, not really. I don’t think so.
Maybe it’s new technology.
I dunno, I don’t think so. Probably I’ve seen something falling in the sky, once it was flying. And I wasn’t the only person who responded. The guys next to the window also responded at the same time, so I think something must’ve flown past us.
Meteor I do agree, we’ve seen it, but any other thing out there – no no no.
We want to believe, but we don’t. We’re a bit sceptic for a lot of these things.
I’m skeptical about it, sure.
I think it’s some kind of marketing. Big money thing.
Yeah? UFO marketing? There are a lot of dollars, pounds whatever made by the marketing of these stuff, tourism and all that.
That’s what I’m saying, yeah, that’s what I’m saying. I remember in the year 2000, there was a lot of propaganda that all computers are gonna crash. I was in Nigeria I was working there, you know, in a computer company.
And there was propaganda, all our computers are gonna crash, all our information gonna be, you know, all our information is gonna disappear and all that. We had to spend the new year’s eve at work trying to secure our…
And what happened to banks. Banks had to pay a lot of money. I forgot what the security system was, you know, to secure all their documents and, you know, information. I’m not joking. And the first night if the year 2000 I remember I was in office.
Yeah! That’s what I’m saying. That’s what I’m talking about.
And nothing happened to our computers and everything.
Is Big Foot real? It’s not a thing, a Sasquatch, Big Foot, and we’ve got the Yeti. And something happened in Russia a longtime ago, 80s maybe or something. Dyatlov pass. And people were killed. Some people think it happened supernaturally. Do you think Big Foot is real?
Yeah, it’s so hard for me to believe. But I think there could be something mysterious. Kind of like animal-human like something.
I think new animals are still being found. And not so often. I mean, some animals are being re-discovered that people thought had become extinct. So I don’t know, I don’t wanna say it’s not possible.
Like finding a lion in Yakutsk. Have you heard about that?
I didn’t know about that.
There was a frozen lion that was found there. How comes lions found themselves in…?
Yeah, climate change. In those days there weren’t zoos and stuff, so what happened?
Actually, according to history, I forgot how many thousands of years ago, so there weren’t zoos at that time. Sure.
Saber-toothed, there were saber-toothed.
Yeah, eating it to survive at that time.
So, do you think there’s a creature alive today that will become a myth or a legend in the future?
Not… For me, I don’t know. I think for now, we are safe. We’ve got all weapons to protect any… whatever.
Is there something that you know, when it goes extinct, people will say Wow! Did that really exist?
I don’t think anything will come anywhere near, so we need to go to sleep, have fun, have sweet dreams, and wake up in the morning, go to work or go study.
Michael, you’re talking about saber-toothed tigers, it’s almost a legend. But I think crocodiles might be a legend in the future, if they ever die, if they ever became extinct.
Like a crocodile. I mean, they’re killing machines, really dangerous.
But there are things more dangerous. Because that mountain snakes, they can be found everywhere.
I mean, yeah, that’s true. And crocodiles tend to stick to certain river.
Yeah, like rivers or some swamp areas and all that.
I still wouldn’t wanna mess with them.
I know, I know, I know. They can crack every crack.
You can get rid of the crack.
So there you go, that was the craic about supernatural creatures. So we talked about what is supernatural. Some of the systems connected with it, religions and so on. Different supernatural creatures, some maybe more realistic, some reality, and some that are totally fiction.
And whether or not we believe in them of course. We talked a little bit about the Loch Ness monster, dragons, mermaids, mummies, aliens even a little bit, and Big Foot. So we found out what was the craic about supernatural creatures.
