By Kristi O’Toole

When you think of shapeshifters, typically a werewolf comes to mind, at least for me it did. I say ‘did’, because once I began research for my last supernatural novel, ‘Winds of Change’, I was surprised to see the broad range covered by these mystical creatures. The idea of shapeshifting has been present since antiquity and may be common in all cultures. It is present in the oldest forms of totemism and shamanism where the shapeshifting is usually induced by the act of a deity. The idea continued through the Middle Ages, where the cause of shapeshifting is usually a sorcerer or witch, and into the modern period. It holds a common place in modern fantasy, children’s literature, and works of popular culture.

I personally spent most of my childhood fearing witches because I had been told (‘true’) stories of local witches turning folks into horses and riding them all night; the proposed victim would wake in the morning a human again, but with severely wounded hands and feet. That’s enough to terrify any small child.

The question is where did the idea of shapeshifting start? I mean, certainly someone somewhere saw something that convinced them it was a possibility? There’s a tale in old English folklore of a man so desperate to have a child that he claimed even one that looked like a hedgehog would be fine, so that’s what was bestowed on him, a hedgehog. He raised the hedgehog, and after a period of time the father’s true love turned it into a human.

Realistically we know a hedgehog cannot turn into a human, but what if this is a classic case of mental illness and the gentleman, being so brokenhearted sincerely believed he had a human baby. Kind of like the original, ‘crazy cat lady.’

There are a few facets we should explore regarding shapeshifting. Many people believe it’s a power harnessed by witches. They can shift into a cat (black no doubt) or a raven, and spy on their enemies. Truthfully that doesn’t sound too bad. But what of those cursed by the very same witches, those forced to turn into a dark and unholy beasts, controlled by the moon or likewise.

Next we have skinwalkers. Never heard of it? Skinwalkers are prevalent in Native American cultures, more so with the Navajo tribe. Most stories of the Navajo skinwalker today carry a modern touch, such as the various ways skinwalkers could and could not be killed with bullets. This may be simply because it wasn’t until European culture began to mix with the Native Americans, and introduced things like guns and horses, that the stories were translated into English. Stories of the skinwalkers are usually about strange half-human looking creatures chasing cars and terrorizing the innocent on foot.

There are many recorded stories of such encounters with half human half beast creatures, here are but a few:

Two New Mexico Highway Patrol officers experienced nearly identical terrifying encounters, as they discovered when comparing notes later. Both were driving on lonely stretches of road late at night, outside of Gallup, New Mexico. They described hideous dark creatures who appeared to be wearing what they called “ghostly masks”, and ran alongside the patrol cars at full highway speed, seemingly trying to get in.

In 1983, a family in Flagstaff, Arizona was woken in the middle of the night by the sound of drumming outside. Investigating, they saw the dark forms of three men repeatedly trying and failing to climb a fence to get onto their property. They invited a Navajo woman to investigate, and she reported that the men had been skinwalkers who wanted the family’s power but couldn’t get in because some spell was protecting the home.

A Bureau of Indian Affairs security officer working on the Ute reservation near Fort Duchesne (doo-SHEN) spotted a large, dark, round-looking creature outside a tribal building that vaulted a wall and ran away with surprising speed when confronted. He called another officer, and the two chased it through the neighborhood called Little Chicago. It knocked over trash cans throughout the town as it escaped. They described its eyes as coal red and unusually large.

A family driving through the Navajo reservation along route 163 in southern Utah was shocked as a dark hairy animal wearing a man’s clothes suddenly sprang out of a ditch and lunged at their truck with its arms up over its head. It had glowing eyes and despite its dark fur, looked like no animal they’d ever seen. They sped away, leaving the ugly beast behind.

After reading these accounts, I had a brief thought that perhaps many of the daily reported sightings of ‘bigfoot’ could actually be skinwalkers; that would certainly explain why we’ve yet to catch a Sasquatch.

Perhaps the best known facet of the skinwalker lore is the so-called Skinwalker Ranch in Utah. To understand Skinwalker Ranch, you have to know Robert Bigelow, the wealthy hotel entrepreneur who owns the Budget Suites of America hotel chain. Today he’s best known as the founder of Bigelow Aerospace, a private space ventures company that wants to expand into orbiting space hotels. Bigelow Aerospace is very serious: they actually launched two modules, Genesis I and Genesis II, in 2006 and 2007, that remain in orbit as of this date. But in 1995, Bigelow himself was more interested in spending his vast fortune on paranormal research.

For the better part of a decade, Bigelow and Kelleher’s group set up shop on the ranch and, with an assortment of paranormal researchers and working scientists who had interests in the paranormal, made observations. They called it Skinwalker Ranch. With a small portable building as a command post, they kept the ranch manned 24 hours a day to record any phenomena with remote cameras, and Knapp reported on any sightings they collected. They never found anything Kelleher would describe as physical evidence of anything, in fact the only real phenomena anyone ever experienced there were occasional cattle mutilations and floating lights. From what I understand of Knapp’s reporting, none of it sounded outside the realm of normal cattle carcass predation and the various types of ghost lights that have been discussed more times than not.

Now having said that, when you have cameras sitting ready all over over your ranch, and your cattle are being mutilated yet nothing is caught on film, that rings paranormal to me. Cattle do not spontaneously mutilate.

Lastly, some have also pointed to clinical lycanthropy, a bona fide psychological condition, as a legitimate basis for the authenticity of skinwalkers. It turns out that the psychiatric literature is indeed sprinkled with cases where patients held delusional beliefs that they were animals, which is what lycanthropy is. These afore mentioned cases give us interesting clues that may help us to understand the skinwalker phenomenon, and the larger worldwide idea of shapeshifters in general.

I feel skinwalkers should be filed under ‘I’ for inexplicable. I mean what if it’s as simple as some acient Navajo tortured by guilt and depression believed himself possessed by a wolf spirit as punishment for his sins. Perhaps he acted out the role, and perhaps the story was told and retold throughout the generations.

What if it isn’t? What if there is such a thing as a generational curse passed down from individual to individual. What if the sons have to pay the price for the sins of their fathers? We may never know the truth behind shapeshifters and skinwalkers, but what we do know is the rare few that have been witness to such creatures are forever changed.

Next time I’d like to discuss such generational curses….

Until then, leave the nightlight burning.

When Kristi isn’t writing for NewzBreaker, she writes supernatural suspense novels having three currently published. If you would like to check out any of her books they can be found online and at other major retailers like Books a Million and Amazon. Never one to rest, she also paints/designs shoes and items for the home. Check out her eBay store, Watered Down Vodka and her FB page.