In folklore all over the world, monsters are talked about that can take on the form of
a human.
Some people who study these stories think they originated out of a metaphor for a lack
of humanity.
Others who study them believe the stories to be true
Either way, today I will be talking about theses shapeshifters that pretend to be human.
Hi most amazing fam!
My name is Abbey and this video is Top 10 Scary Monsters That Pretend To Be Human!
Throughout time, people all over the world have written about encounters they have had
with beings that disguise themselves as humans to trick them.
Sometimes it’s just the beings being tricksters, but the shapeshifters can also be up to no
good.
Are these stories meant to have morals to condition the listeners to do as the storyteller
says, or portrayals of real evils that live among us?
Let's get into the list
At number ten we have Kitsune This one has also been associated with Kumiho
from korean legends or Huli Jing from Chinese legends.
It is a creature that appears as a fox with shapeshifting abilities.
And, it’s commonly a trickster.
In the Korean legends a Gumiho can freely transform into many things, but most commonly
into beautiful women.
These Gumiho in female form then set out to seduce boys and eat either their liver or
their heart depending on the legend.
Kitsune and Gumiho have also been recorded as far creepier as well.
Some have been recorded as bloodthirsty half human half fox hybrid that lurks in cemeteries.
They would wait until night and then dig human hearts from graves.
Number nine La Segua This legend comes from Costa Rica.
And, it originated as a device to scare men into being loyal and stay close to home at
night.
Men would be charmed by Le Segua’s beauty as they wander home.
She would appear out of a fog with porcelain skin, long black hair, and big dark eyes.
Men would forget their wives and ask if she needed to be escorted home.
They would turn to look at her again in all her beauty, but she had changed.
Once they finished their offer La Segua would be completely transformed.
She would turn from beauty to nightmare, appearing as a monster with a horses head, flaming red
eyes, and big yellow teeth.
She made men go insane, and sometimes didn’t let them leave with their life.
Number eight Lycanthrope AKA Werewolf Now, I’m not talking about the big bad wolf.
But, really for a moment he had a pretty convincing take as the grandmother, I’m not going to
lie.
No I am talking about werewolves.
While they are not fully pretending to be human, they come up so often it would be wrong
to not have them on this list.
Werewolves are frequently depicted in folklore and often as creatures that wreak havoc upon
the natural world.
They are seen as creatures unable to stop themselves from transforming into a bloodthirsty
wolvish beast.
They got this curse in some lore as a punishment from god.
A kind of divine smite against those who provoked their wrath.
Other ways of becoming a werewolf or shapeshifting was by wearing an animal skin or drinking
water out of the footprint of an animal.
Seven Selkie When you think of a water human hybrid, a
mermaid might be what comes to your mind.
But, they are permanently caught in between.
They have a human top half and a fishy lower half.
Selkies, on the other hand, can truly roam the land and sea.
Selkies are commonly found in Northern European mythology.
Their main form is the seal form.
In order to shapeshift into human form, they need to shed their seal skin.
This is risky for selkies because it is rumoured that they need their own seal skin to return
to their seal form.
But, once they are in human form, they have been known to lure humans into the sea.
They seduce people, and create illusions to form a false sense of reality, leading humans
to their death.
Six Encantado This legend comes from the Amazon.
They are said to be a water cryptid that lives in the Amazon river.
Most of the time, they are a pink river dolphin, but once a year they come out of the river.
They shapeshift into a young man in white clothes for a Brazilian celebration in June.
The one thing that doesn’t change is the blow hole from the dolphin form, so the Encantado
has to wear a hat to keep their disguise intact.
Allegedly, it is dangerous to see or be near the Encantado at these festivals.
This is because they attend the parties in order to seduce, kidnap, or impregnate young
women.
Stories like these are thought to be a way to convince young women to not trust handsome
strangers, because they may just be a pink dolphin in disguise.
Five Rakshasa The Rakshasa is a humanoid being in Hindu
mythology.
It was also later incorporated into Buddhism.
They were created by the breath of Brahma, the creator god in Hinduism, when he was asleep.
They were so bloodthirsty they started eating Brahma.
So, Vishnu came to his aid and banished the Rakshasa to earth.
They were most often depicted as ugly, fierce-looking and enormous creatures.
They were shown with two fangs protruding upwards and having sharp, claw-like fingernails.
They are mean, growl like beasts, and have an insatiable desire to eat man.
All the way to the point that they can smell the scent of human flesh.
Some of the more ferocious Rakshasa were shown with flaming red eyes and hair, drinking blood
with their palms or from a human skull.
Most Rakshasa had magical powers of illusion, called Maya, which enabled them to change
size at will and assume the form of any creature.
Using this, they could disguise themselves as a human.
Four Noppera-bō The Noppera bee is a faceless ghost that looks
human, but has no face.
They can often feign having human facial features, but can wipe them off like wiping off a chalkboard.
An old tale about ti called The Noppera bee and the Koi Pond goes like this:
A lazy fisherman decided to fish in the imperial koi ponds near the Heian-kyō palace.
Despite being warned by his wife about the pond being sacred and near a graveyard, the
fisherman went anyway.
On his way to the pond, he is warned by another fisherman not to go there, but he again ignores
the warning.
Once at the spot, he is met by a beautiful young woman who pleads with him not to fish
in the pond.
He ignores her and, to his horror, she wipes off her face.
Rushing home to hide, he is confronted by what seems to be his wife, who chastises him
for his wickedness before wiping off her facial features as well.
Just imaging you are chatting someone up and they give you one of these *move arm in front
of face and change expressions*
Three Ghoul The ghul from Arabic folklore is said to lurk
around uninhabited places like cemeteries.
It lures people to deserted locations or abandoned places to kill and devour them.
It is said to prey on young children, drink blood, steal coins, and eat the dead as well.
This may be why the lore says they lurk around cemeteries.
After eating their prey they are said to take on the form of person they most recently ate.
Other tales of the ghoul say it dwells in the desert and can assume the guise of a hyena.
Using this form it is said to lure people into desert wastes.
In the Vampire Book: The Encyclopedia of the Undead, a ghoul is said to roam throughout
the wilderness of Afghanistan and Iran.
Two Doppelganger There are also superstitions that claim the
doppelganger is a non-human entity which can alter its physical appearance to literally
become someone else and take their place.
Obviously, they are not human, but they look just like the person they are trying to mimic.
In old lore it was said that the doppelgänger consumed the original person once they looked
the exact same and met.
The stories of doppelgangers were used to explain early misunderstood cases of Alzheimers.
Also, they were used as an answer to severe depression, or violent thoughts of mothers.
The letter being used as a justification since it was believed that no mother could ever
hurt her own child unless she wasn’t truly the mother.
All in all, the thought of someone in your life being replaced by an entity which only
pretends to know you and care about you is pretty creepy.
One The devil The devil and demons have believed the best
way to get humans to sin is to be among their ranks.
Essentially, peer pressure.
To do this, devils and demons will assume human form.
They can either possess a human or disguise themselves as one.
Old folklore says they could easily be spotted, as they often forgot to hide some of their
more prominent features.
Features like horns on their head or forked tongues.
The devil himself apparently forgot to hide his hooved feet quite a bit.
Once devils and demons are found out, they usually disappear, but not always.
If the human target doesn’t renounce them, but instead chooses to make a deal with them,
there could be consequences.
And that’s the end!
If I was a shapeshifter of any kind I would be a La Segua because all I would have to
Is dye my hair black and then have a horse face in my other form.
Let me know down below what you think your form would be and while you are down there
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I’ve been your host Abbey, and until next time, have a good one.