Mysterious Universe - 35.12 - MU Podcast - Mysterious Creatures

Episode Date: March 27, 2026

Welcome to Mysterious Universe Season 35 episode number 12! Mysterious creatures and rumors of mysterious creatures have been passed down from times long lost, but where do they come from? What may be considered to be fantastically incredible creatures to us could simply be “the way” for other inhabitants of the realm that have experienced a variety of critters. Perhaps like seeing and disobliging a dragon the way one would have seen a squirrel. In our Plus+ extension, we cover a classic metaphysical book called The Ra Material by Don Elkins. This is a wild ride of abstract philosophical meanderings, paired with short stories and anecdotes, but rather than dramatic alien encounters, it's more like a technical philosophy of reality, laying out a structured model of consciousness, reincarnation, ethical polarity, and humanity’s place in a larger developmental process. Be sure to sign up for Plus+ if you haven't already and don't miss this extension that ties a lot of these ideas together rather neatly. Check out the link and get the new Inescapable Podcast out now. Get both amazing shows for the investment of one through April 14th. Plus+ Members can now find the new feed on your Dashboard and add it to your preferred podcast player. MYSTERIOUS CREATURES  - The Truth Behind the Legends David Alderton Akara HeartPlus+ ExtensionThe extension of the show is EXCLUSIVE to Plus+ Members. To join. click HERE. The Ra Material BOOK ONE: An Ancient Astronaut Speaks (Book One) LinksLink Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You said this place was steps from the water. We just haven't found the steps yet. How much did we save? Enough. Enough to get lost! Or you could book a stay with Hilton. Welcome to your oceanfront room. Just steps from the water.

The Hilton sale is on now. Book on Hilton.com or the Hilton app and save up to 20% to get the stay you expected. When you want savings, not surprises. It matters where you stay. Hilton, for the stay. You know what time it is. Welcome to Mysterious Universe. This is season number 35 episode number 12 there. Mysterious creatures and rumors of mysterious creatures abound and have been passed down from times long lost.

But where do they come from? Now, I'm your happy host of Brandon Thomason with me as always. It's Mr. Joe at O'Hodgden. How are you over there, Frida? What's up, man? So what is this? Is another cryptozoology type of adventure we're going on? Damn it. Yes, and I left the book over there, but the book is sent to me, actually. This is our first reach-out, connect, since we've taken over the show. And it's a really cool book called The Mysterious Creatures. This is by David Alderton and Akara Hart. Now, this thing is not yet completely available. It's going to be available April 2nd. So pretty soon here, guys. But you can go ahead and do pre-orders. It's going to be linked down below. But it's actually really, really cool. Wait, you're saying we got this before anybody else? We did get this before anybody else. It was really cool. It's one of these perks of the gig, I suppose.

And it is our first one. And she, whoever EMI is, EMI is the name. They sent me the publicist reached out and said, it was actually forwarded from Ben because they sent it to him. And they said, hey, would you like to send you this work here? And I said, yeah, send me a PDF. And they said, what's your address? We'll send you a physical copy when they print. I knew they weren't even out yet.

But got a physical copy in. And they're cool. It's fun to holding a hand. It's very cool. It's bright and colorful. The cover's really, really well done. It's just got a really cool cover artist to it. It's an awesome read. And the thing about it is, is it breaks down these mythological creatures that have long histories to them. And he does a great job of laying out where that comes from, who utilized it, what it was symbolic of, and if these creatures existed at all, and compares it to a couple of other things. So there's a wide variety of stuff going on in this work. And again, it's by David Alderton and Akara Hart. It's going to be linked down in the show description. But this thing's got unicorns, mermaids, dragons, phoenix, vampires, werewolves, Sasquatch, and Thunderbirds and similar tales.

So stuff like that, these real classic things. And you may not know the origins of this stuff, and we're going to get into it here today. But before we do all that stuff, ma'am, what are you doing? What are you been up to? You know, a little bit of this, a little bit of that. We are getting our big archive of books in the physical books from Ven & Air. And hopefully this week, so excited about that. I finally get to fill up all those shelves that I made like three months ago.

But we're totally stoked about that. There's about 16 boxes apiece we're getting. I pity the driver because I used to do that job. But we're excited. Mary looked it up. She converted the kilograms or whatever, 550 pounds. Did you see that? These poor drivers, I was like, well, I've got my dolly.

and like a $20 bill waiting for him. So we'll send him home with some candy or something too. That was basically our signing bonus for taking this job. They're like, how would you like over 500 pounds of books? And we're like, yes, thank you. Yeah. And this is the trash and treasure thing we talked about because they were just done with it. They didn't want anything to do with it.

It was actually burdensome at that point is what they said. So they were looking to unload, but they got to unload it here to a grateful set of hands ready to receive here, man. That's so cool. Before we get going to you, I wanted to mention that, for our gracious YouTube listeners and soon-to-be viewers whenever we get our video versions up and running. But until then, it is audio-only on YouTube. But if you want to get earlier access to those, we're staggering it a bit. So the YouTube version comes out a week or two after the original that comes out on audio.

So just letting you guys know out there on YouTube that you can get them earlier if you want to, especially since it's still audio-only. but we do realize that there's people who prefer the YouTube platform over, you know, a podcast platform. So either way, you'll get it eventually. Coming up in Plus, though, would you like to know? Thank you. Yes, that's exactly the next thing I was going to ask you. So please, sir, what is it? What do you got coming up in Plus here, Joe?

I actually decided before the show, which one I'm going to cover this time. And this is called the raw material. And it's R.A., the raw material by Don Elkins. Yeah, back in 1980. So I'm moving forward in the timeline. I'm not covering 100-year-old books, just, you know, 40-year-old books. But it's kind of a transcript of these alleged non-human intelligence explaining the structure of reality, consciousness, human purpose, all the good stuff. And it's kind of a technical, almost clinical Q&A format, so I'll do my best to make it not clinical and boring.

But it's a classic in esoteric circles, and I've never read this one. So I'm stoked to bring that one out in Plus. We are stoked for it, sir. Very cool. And you guys can check the links down below to get a hold of that because you can sign up for Plus. You should totally do that. You could still do this through April 14th and get both shows. The guys are burning it to the ground over there on Inescapable. And you can do both shows for the investment or value exchange of one there. So go ahead and sign up there. April 14th is coming very quick, man. We're rolling through time. Time is going super fast. It doesn't even exist anymore. Is that right? Is that what it is? Do I keep trying to clean? to something that's not available anymore, meaning some stable thing just such as my perception of time? Well, having a Monday through Friday 9 to 5 job, roughly before, it was very, like I've mentioned before, my life was ruled by the clock, and now the clock doesn't really exist,

except for to meet with you to record these shows. So I don't look forward to Friday any more than any other day, which is kind of a bummer, but it's also cool because every day is kind of Friday, but every day is also Saturday and Sunday. So, yeah, time doesn't exist anymore. I'm glad I have a wife that has a Monday through Friday job because she lets me know what day it is. Well, I've set home too now. So we're both just like, oh shit, it's Tuesday, I guess, huh? Yeah, it's an odd thing when you start doing this. And then our buddy Tom Sherman, he created something called the new calendar. Did you get that guy on your old show? I don't think so. He created a new calendar system, basically looked at the Gregorian calendar, flipped it off, did the

robot and designed his own. And he's got an incredible layout on this. So we kind of also will eye that thing as well. I've got a section in the journal that I use that will mimic this and allow for that bit to be tracked also along with the regular area. The 13 month calendar at 28 days apiece or something like that? So he added a fifth season. So there's another season to this thing. No more four seasons. We do have an autumn and a fall. So it actually extends things just a little bit more. It recognizes early spring, which again goes more along with the new year, which is probably actual new year, which Happy New Year, by the way. March 20th was Happy New Year, so happy New Year, bud. Oh, that's right. Yeah. You have this kind of idea. And it's nine-day weeks. He uses the planets

to represent the days of the week. So you go through Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, and so on. So more of a full utilization of the sky clock. Exactly. And he's got five rest days in between each sets of seasons. So basically there's a day out of pocket, out of time, where you just relax, you do whatever you want, you create art, something like this, live your life. And it's supposed to be sort of this more sacred reflection with the realm and how it functions. It's very cool and we'll probably cover it. Tom's a great dude. He's a sweetheart too. So let's get to mysterious creatures, the truth behind the legends. Now this is a book that explores the intersection of myth and scientific reality regarding creatures like unicorns, dragons, bigfoot, and so on.

David Alderton is a prolific British author living in Sussex, known for books on animals that have sold millions of copies worldwide. And Akara Hart is a Glastonbury-based writer, dancer, artist, whose work often focuses on animal themes and mythical creatures. Now, David actually has this breakfast with. breakfast with a Bigfoot and it's a children's mystery novel and it was published in 1986 by

Beaver Books How How How? And the book explores the legend of Bigfoot aiming to investigate rather such creatures actually exist fitting into his work of course focused animal related themes because he's really into that

he wants to teach kids about animals and so he took a crack at this at all of these classic you know dogman again the Sasquatch the vampires, all of your classic monsters almost, right? Or mythical beings such as the unicorn, which we're going to break down, because I learned a lot about the unicorn. And I thought it would be fun to share with you.

Nice. Yeah, the dog man thing is funny because it kind of crosses over with werewolves, right? Dogman. Well, yes. And actually, I'm going to kind of spoil it here, but I'll plant this seed in your mind so that you can merit it on it only because you mentioned this, by the way. So we are going to cover only two of these creatures, because he does an extensive breakdown, and we're just going to kind of go through quite a bit of this per thing, because there's a lot to cover. And then he also does a 10 things you may not have known about at the end of each chapter of these. So I went ahead and pulled all those as well.

So we're still going to go through some fun facts on the other ones. But what I had planned to do here, sir, is to do the quest for the unicorn, because you got to do that. Okay. I don't know enough about you. I didn't know enough about unicorns. I figured you didn't either. Let's fucking roll. Well, have you seen that meme?

it's something like that where it's like, what's more probable a horse with a horn or a giraffe with, you know, a 19 foot neck or like that seems more improbable than just a horse with a horn? There's a lot of animals that have horns. You're right. Or an octopus or something, man. Yeah, like as far as bizarre creatures goes in the realm of how you, how they function. I always got them mixed up though with Pegasus because a Pegasus is just a horse with wings. And that seems a little more improbable than a horse with a horn. But they relate, and we're going to talk about it, because he does go into the history because definitely Pegasai, Pegasus, and they all relate. He goes into the Latin origin of unicorn, of course, which means one horn, unicornis. And then in here, though, and this is the part, he had the other ones, right, Dragon, Phoenix, all this kind of stuff. Now, I picked two more and went ahead and pulled them fully. We can discuss them fully, but I'm going to let you choose your own adventure on which one you want to do.

one of them was going to be the world of dragons and the other one was going to be exactly what you said there the curse of the werewolves and dogmen and they have it listed here as both together werewolf and dogmen because they are

like canthropy canthrope okay well if I get to choose we don't have to choose now what's that you don't have to choose now oh do you want to choose like yeah so I'm definitely going to do the unicorn

which I'm going to kick off now and then you marinate on it and you let us know if we're going to do the dragons or the dogman werewolf later okay Fair enough? Yes, take it away.

Now, in the late 1500s, English traveler Andrew Battell became one of the first Europeans to journey widely across Central Africa. And he returned to England with tales about his travels of two fearsome creatures called Pongos and Ingekgoes. Now, Pongos were taller than men, hairy, and they had human-like faces. And they lived in groups, and they attacked and killed people, and they drove elephants with clubs, scary beasts. Now, Betel said that Pongos were impossible to capture alive due to their strength, and that they sometimes kidnapped children who were just never seen again. Now, the reality they say in the work here is less frightening, and the truth is that Betel's frightening descriptions emerged in the 1850s when missionaries obtained skulls from Ingeckos from Gabon. Now, today we recognize Ingeckos as chimpanzees and the pongo as the lowland gorillas. and these shy apes feed mainly on plants and berries, unlike how Battell described them.

Now, in 1902, a skin obtained by Captain Oscar von Barange was sent to the Berlin Zoological Museum for study, revealing the gorilla's true nature. And these events illustrate how folk stories can develop when, in fact, fiction mixes with accurate knowledge, obscuring the truth. Now they ask, could this apply to North America's cryptids, such as the Sasquatch or Bigfoot? What do you think? Do you think that it could just truly be an undiscovered ape out there in the woods somewhere? I don't know. I go back and forth on the Sasquatch Bigfoot thing quite a bit just because some of the stories are so dumb, for lack of a better word. they used to kind of lose me at the psychic Bigfoot thing, but then I looked into it more, and I'm like, okay, maybe if it's some kind of interdimensional or something to do with aliens, then maybe there's a psychic component to it.

But I think a lot of these, like you kind of said, were, they overlap with myth and actual reality. And it gets lost in translation over the centuries. And you have the Native Americans almost always have some kind of lore about the Harryman in the woods. Yes. For the most part, I think, from what I remember is most of the Native American stories on Sasquatch are kind of like, just leave it alone. It's just, it's a group of things that live out there.

We leave them alone. They leave us alone. And then you know, you get Americans that go in there and go, oh, let's go try to find this thing and kill it and get its skin and study it and grab its poop or whatever. Season 12 on Shaking Balls with a Bigfoot. Yeah. Now, there's been some amazing creatures that have come. back from the dead and he goes over the celicant of course which we talked about and other stuff

having to do with Kirapuru and other cryptozoological type creatures but they ask what other undiscovered animals could exist and that new technology helps reveal and track such species these weird species that they didn't know were still around such as in 2013 a trail camera in central vietnam captured the first sighting of a so soola a critically endangered species And it had been spotted in Laos in 1999. But without technology, the Saola would have been largely unobserved since its discovery in 92, raising doubts about its survival at all. Do you grab these stories based specifically on words that are hard to pronounce? Yes.

And I really, yes. And hoping that you pick the one where I get to do the Asian accent the most. But that's fine. Definitely. Yes, I do. And then, of course, it auto corrects this thing, and I tell it to learn it, but it doesn't learn all of them, and then the red line fucks me up. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, it tries to change it to something else.

See if it would just get out of the way. Yeah. Come on, autocrect. I have never once meant the duck. Yes, thank you. Yeah, just as is. Thank you. That would be wonderful.

Sometimes it's helpful, sometimes pain in the ass, right? So they ask, could it exist? This book explores the most well-known, mysterious creatures, all considered living animals at different times. And this is what's important about this. The dragon, all this kind of stuff. Werewolves, Bigfoot, they have actual legends, tales, people coming into contact with these things, having to do with specific rituals, rights, and I guess, what would you call them, superstitions, having to do with interacting with these beings to make sure they stayed on their good side or avoided them all together. And it's just an interesting thing. Why would you go through

all that trouble? Some folks, you know, will say, well, this is just some invisible, ethereal thing that they're just paying homage to, but maybe not. No, I think some of these real experiences just get embellished or, you know, mythologized over time, and then it gets kind of put in the back as a, oh, this is just a tradition they had. It's some weird God they worshipped or something, but it could have started with a real encounter, and then, you know, the telephone game over the centuries just gets turned into this crazy idea. Well, and that's the thing. Before we get into this, and just your personal opinion, no one's going to hold anything to you here.

what do you feel is going on with this? Do you think that we do exist in a realm where this was maybe either something in the past or that exists alongside us in one form or another, maybe hidden throughout the realm, maybe interdementially, whatever? But do you think things like this that folks were contacting? Do you think that they're beyond just a fable, a tall tale that somebody made up? Yeah, for sure. And nothing's off the table these days, but I think it's a,

I think it did start with some kind of real encounter, and it could be an extinct species of something. that got, like I said, overly exaggerated over time. So a dragon could have been something like some kind of bird that they, oh, it breathes fire and it hoards gold and, you know, things like, who knows. But I think it did start originally with some kind of real creature. Yeah. I mean, I'm with you on this, honestly. It's really interesting because there's just too much to it, I feel.

The book is awesome, guys. And again, it's going to be linked down below. They ask in here again, if not, what caused the enduring stories about them? And let's take a look at some of the truth behind the legends. So you're ready to do that with me here, Joe? Do it. Okay, so the quest for the unicorn. I'm going ahead and pull the 10 things you may not know about unicorns before we get deep into this thing.

So let me ask you two-part question here. First of all, what do you know about unicorns? Follow up. Do you think that they should be called unicorns? That makes more sense, yeah. What do I know about them, though? A horse with a horn, that's about it. And little girls really seem to like them.

and there's little strange TV shows or YouTube shorts about them. That's about it. Yeah, yeah. Well, that was the extent of my knowledge as well, sir. So would you like to dive a little deeper? Please. So number one here, there's a national unicorn day in the United States each year, and it's celebrated on April 9th.

So just here in a couple weeks, actually, guys. So you can go ahead and get on the bandwagon of National Unicorn Day, April 9th in the States. There's a national day for everything now. Why not? I mean, every day pops up on Facebook. Today's National Fucking Donut Day. National Unicorn Day is celebrated annually on April 9th to honor the mythical horse-like creature,

symbolizing purity, innocence, and magic. The day embraces fantasy and imagination, often celebrated with rainbow-colored treats and glitter and crafts and watching unicorn-themed movies. So what's your favorite? I did leave that out. I did know that about unicorns. They're a bit gay.

Just a bit. Now, I think they're fantastic. And I have no whams about them. They are dangerous as shit when it comes to it. Honestly, we're going to get to the lethality of these damn things. But what was your favorite unicorn theme movie? I don't have one. Could not name one.

What? All I know is that creepy old YouTube video back in the day, the classic. The Charlie. We're going to Candy Mountain, Charlie. Remember that? Yes. All right, now that one's mine just because of your memory. I have attached with it now with you.

So it has roots in Scottish culture, which the unicorn is their national animal. Did you know that? Had no idea. They wouldn't make it something bullshit. You know, the Scottish aren't just over there drinking in kiltz. They observe animals. They say, man, look at that badass. Let's adopt that as our national symbol here.

They do also drink in kiltz, though, and I respect that. So number two here, unicorn tears are said to possess incredibly powerful healing properties. both for the mind and for the body. Ah, yes, the majestic unicorn. You see it out there in a field and you're killed. You're drinking from probably a horn of a different animal, meat or something, I suppose. And you're like, man, I wonder if I can make that fucking thing cry.

So I could heal my mind and my body. Brilliant. So they're incredibly rare, however, because unicorns are believed to only cry a few times during their lifespan of several centuries, as they are normally pretty cheerful in nature. How do you make a unicorn cry? I don't want to find out, honestly.

If it's that hard to do, it must be awful. Awful. So, some suggest that if a unicorn is driven to cry, it will die, actually. See, and that's even fucking sadder, isn't it? Number three, it has said that if a unicorn is near you in a forest, but it is hidden from sight, you may nevertheless detect a cinnamon smell revealing its presence. How about that, a new line of cinnamon-scented colognes for woodland.

dudes to tame some fair maiden strange out there. I like that better than the Bigfoot sulfur smell. Yeah. Yeah, you want to wear that to pick up chicks out there? Yeah, they're hunting Bigfoot, so it's a smell like Bigfoot. That is a typical sign of a Bigfoot in your general vicinity is it just smells like farts. And you're like, oh, it must be a Bigfoot out here. Oh, God.

Okay, cool. Well, gross. Maybe that's how he punks everybody. These Invisible Bigfoots, they come up and just crop dust you. Yeah. Gross. It's their defense mechanism. Wouldn't you?

If you were invisible when you found some shitheads in the woods walking around with guns? Oh, I already do that, so yeah. They're like, we can see you, sir. Number four here. Unicorns are said to be able to help people when they are troubled by visiting them

when they're asleep and dreaming, helping them to find the right path in life. You dream. Have you ever had a unicorn come lead you to the right path in life? Never, not yet, but I probably will tonight now that you mentioned it.

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Number five, the link between rainbows and unicorns has only recently become prominent. Had been gay for that long. This only dates back to when the toy manufacturer Hasbro launched its popular My Little Pune series of toys in 1982 and included unicorns that had colorful oras around their bodies.

Did you know that there's a whole subculture of dudes that like My Little Pony and they call themselves bronies? Really? You didn't know that? If you're a brony, reach out. I'm curious to study your culture, to learn more about you. I don't want pictures. You could just reach out, just, hey, I'm a brony touching in.

That'll be fine. I'm assuming it overlaps at some point with the furries, but I don't want to see that either. I would think so. I would think that it's a slippery slope, isn't it? The term unicorn is used to describe a private business startup with a value of $1 billion. This description was first used in 2013 when there was an estimated to be, when they were estimated to be 39 such companies

trading, 39 such billionaire companies where they just started up and they're like billion dollars unicorns

just running around. So if there's 39 of them not much of a unicorn then is it? Yeah, right? Yeah. Do you know the

we're going to get to it but do you know the name for a collection of unicorns? Um, a herd of them. No. All right,

well we'll get to it. I'm marinade on it. All right, the seven. The unicorn is the national animal of Scotland, which we've covered, the country also used to have two gold coins known as the unicorn and the half unicorn, which were in circulation from 1484 until 1525, and carried

the image of a unicorn, yeah. That's right. Number eight, there are various other unicorn-like creatures reported from other parts of the world. The rare geneal-l is a magical fortune-telling animal from China, first described in 2700 BC. C.E. It has a very gentle nature, but can defend itself with fire, giving us dragon vibes there. Hmm. Now possesses the characteristic single horn on its forehead, combined with the body of a deer and the tail of a bull, of course. Ambition comes in all shapes and sizes. At First Citizens Bank, we roll with your goals because we're built for what you're building.

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Plus taxes and government fees. GoogleFi Wireless is not subject to data traffic deprioritization during times of high network usage. Now number nine, there are nine mentions in the Old Testament of the Bible of the Hebrew word Rahim, which was traditionally translated as unicorn. Although more recently, it has been interpreted as meaning wild ox, but we're going to stick with unicorn because it's way cooler. This again reflects the confusion, though, between these animals that has arisen in the past. So that's the other thing is that you'll see something. Maybe you only saw it from the side.

And you said, shit, that's a unicorn. But then you walked away, went on about your business. I saw a unicorn today. Then the things turned sideways, two horns. And it was an ox, actually. Maybe you're just retarded, you know. You know, you roll that out. Miss sightings, yes.

Sure. Tard sightings, too. Now, 10. A patent to create unicorns was filed in 1984, although it is now expired. So that shit's up for grabs. Grab it while you can. Yep.

The idea here was to transplant a horn bud in a newborn animal such as a cow or antelope, moving it to the center of the head, as in the case of the unicorn, and removing the second bud entirely. You'd imagine someone saying this to you. You know what the problem is? You look too much like you,

and not enough like this mythical creature thing that you could. So let's fix that. That sounds like very human, you know, like head binding or foot binding or these weird things people do to make themselves look better. Not take a horn off, planet here, disregard the other one altogether so I can look like this thing that's in a mosaic.

Like that's weird, man. You'd think they could just do it with CRISPR or something now? Yeah, yeah, maybe a little less. Because that's just, it seems like Frankensteiny. It seems real, it just, it seems gross to me. I mean, why would you do that? Just leave him alone. Yeah, leave him alone.

So I'm meling a shit. Now, it's unclear as to whether this bizarre experiment was ever carried out. But you and I know for sure that folks were doing this shit. For sure, in some deep underground military base, they tried it at least. Do you think it was ever successful? Do you think they could do this? Again, I don't think anything's off the table. There's probably all kinds of weird creatures out there, and there's been plenty of TV shows and works of so-called fiction where they're experimenting with these weird creatures,

and they eventually escape, and that's why you see a big foot in the woods because he escape from a lab somewhere. Yes, or you see the outline of two children. chimpanzees shaking your seven foot tall trees, but you can only see the outline because they're translucent because they were injected perhaps with a serum that makes them invisible. Right. It's like seeing two midgets in a trench coat. Yeah. Yes.

All right. So let's go over here the quest for the unicorn. The unicorn. I just like that better. The quest for the unicorn. Now, thousands of years ago, people had limited knowledge of animals in the natural world. Sharing knowledge was hard because you had to copy everything by hand, dude. Yeah.

and life was just hard as shit, right? Allegedly. People often spent their entire lives in villages, and so traveling and stuff like that was just extremely dangerous and difficult. So those who did venture to foreign countries often returned with exaggerated tales, especially if money was involved, of course, as in the case with unicorns. Now, the earliest references here dates back over 4,000 years. Wax seals used to close documents contain images.

of bulls with single horns in the middle of their foreheads. And these wax seals, you know how this works, right? They're just cool as shit. Why don't we do this anymore? Man, you close up a letter. You dip a little wax on there. You press your seal in that thing. Very elegant.

Send it off with your owl, probably. I think it's probably because nobody sends letters anymore. Is that it? Probably. Would be cool to, like, print one out, 3D print a little seal, have that be like a delivery system. Do you think that we could work something like that out with technology? Self-adhesive.

Yeah. There's something fun. The seals originated in southeastern Asia and included parts of India and Pakistan. Now, the earliest known definite description of unicorns dates back to approximately 2400 years ago. Now, it appears in Ticius's book, Indica, legalize it, written by a Greek doctor born in 400 BCE, Tisius, who had previously worked as the official court physician to King Darius, Second in Persia gained valuable information from various sources, including travelers who had ventured far east.

And upon returning to Greece, Cicius wrote Indica about the mysterious area of southeastern Asia, now known as India. And he used his knowledge to describe Unihorns as wild asses, similar to horses but with very distinct features. Now, we called them multicolored with bright red head. against a white body and bluish eyes. The most unique aspect of their appearance was their horn, of course, positioned in the center of their head and measuring about a cubit long. Did you know how long a cubit is? Isn't about 18 inches or so?

A foot and a half. And actually the measure is from the tip of your elbow to the tip of your fingers. That distance right there. Right. 18 inches would be a foot and a half. I know. I'm just... Oh, okay. Cupid.

You're the homeschooled one. No, I know. I remember hearing about that because a cubit would actually kind of change length, depending on who the king was, because they went off the king's elbow to his middle finger or something like that. Oh, so it would change slightly over the years because of different size kings, I guess. So from this reign to this rain, they had to measure things in that standard? Yeah.

What a pain in the ass. Yeah. Just use one. It gets convoluted pretty quickly. Yeah. So the unicorns had had striking colors. It had a white base in a black middle and a stunning shade of flaming red. Now, Theseus' account was a matter of fact, presenting unicorns as actual real animals,

although he'd not personally seen any of them. And he'd also noticed that unicorns were said to outpace horses, way faster he says. Now, the unicorn's range, he said, was the land of where the unicorn could be found. Hang on. Theseus described the land where the unicorn could be found as indica, but its exact location is unclear. Some suggest he may have referred to the Tibetan plateau, and who knows what's out there, man. They have all those cool big lions and shit like that. Maybe it's simpler than that. He was referring to smoking indica and seeing uniforms. Yeah, there you go. He went to India.

He got all hopped up on the opium there, and then just he saw all kinds of shit. Now, during T. Teasius' time, it was likely common, but 100,000. hunting wiped out populations in the 1900, but there was a surviving wild horse out there, the Piskwalski's horse in the region of Asia on the central steeps. Again, wiped out in 1900. Captain breeding, though, saved it from extinction. And a thriving population of these unique wild horses was reintroduced into Mongolia in the 1990s. Now, following thesis, Aristotle, which was 384 to 322 BCE, continued writing about,

the majestic unicorn. He included in his 10-volume Historic Aluminium acknowledging its unobserved nature. So he was very aware that people hadn't seen this thing as well, but he was just describing it from other folks. And have you seen

the artwork of medieval artists drawing things from description like elephants? Oh, yeah. And they've never seen one before? No, yeah. Especially horses. Oh, yeah. Yeah, bro. I've totally seen a horse from the front. It looks hilarious.

Yeah, right, right. There's tons of them, too. It's so good, yeah. So it's sort of like that. So you're now describing something. And like you said, maybe there was a branch there when they were describing it. Or he had something stuck on it. Or you see these deer, man, have you seen those deer that will get into a fight?

And the other one dies and they have to wait until it rots enough to rip its head off so it can go free and eat. Fucking metal. Yeah. Something like this. It got something stuck on its head. And then just this huge story came out of it. This increased curiosity led to attempts to, understand the animal relationships and group them.

And this process, known as classification, continues today. And the key aspect that specimen must be available for study in a museum for an animal to have a specific name in italics. And since the unicorn specimen has never been found, it lacks a formal scientific name. That's just a shame. Only 25 copies of Aristotle's original manuscript survive. And given the scarcity of written material then, the influence of Cetius and Aristotle remained significant for centuries. And later, Roman writers were familiar with their works, leading to further confusion about the unicorn's identity. Now, Pliny the Elder, do you think they called him that his whole life when he was young?

Yeah, was there a Pliny the younger? Yeah, Pliny the prepubescent. Pliny the deadest now? Well, 23 to 79 C.E. Compiled a comprehensive study of known animals titled Naturalis Historia, which included an Indian animal called the Monoceros. It was said to have had a head with a horn.

Monoceros resembling a stag with an elephant-like feet and a pig-like tail, all combined with a horse-like body. However, its most distinctive feature, of course, according to Flaini the Elder, was its single black horn, which grew to be about three feet or 90 centimeters in length. That's a long horn. That's a long horn, dude. And it was also said to be fierce and impossible to catch. Although Monoceros was a Greek word, it was soon translated into Latin as unicornis, meaning one horned,

from which we derive the modern word unicorn. Now, as civilization spread across Europe from the third to the seventh centuries, C.E. Beastiaries illustrated manuscripts about animals became popular. Physiologists' most significant Bessieri in terms of the unicorn is unknown, but its title translates to naturalist, referring to someone with expert insight into the natural world. And unlike simple description, physiologies stories were allegorical, carrying deeper meanings, particularly regarding rebirth in the case of the Unicorn.

Now, the popularity led to its transition into various languages, including Ethiopic, Armenian, and Anglo-Saxon, which continued for thousands of years. And it was a crucial work in natural history and featured the Phoenix, which they also cover in this book, The Phoenix, which, again, is fascinating. Like all of the shit's really, really cool. That's probably one of my favorite ones, too, is the Phoenix idea. It's very cool. Right, yeah, and the metaphor of it all, right?

It's just beautiful. Now, inspired other bestiaries that featured both living and mythological animals, drawing heavily on classical scholars like Aristotle. And this explains the prominence of the unicorn in these works. Now, bestiaries are usually beautifully illustrated, featuring a wide range of animals, though portrayals may not be accurate. And this is what we're talking about.

These do just draw things from a description. Oh, yes, it looked like this. Like a sketch artist for the animal kingdom. And people would just come to him with bizarre shit they thought they saw. And they'd be like, sure, this is what it is. And they'd put them all together in a book. Do you imagine how cool one of these would be to have? It sounds like an early, you know, police artist trying to draw somebody.

That's what I was in. The nose looked like this. The eyes look like this. He's like, I got you, bud. How do your lips on that? Yeah. Why are all of them black? Yeah, yeah.

Why do all of them have such big tits? Many living animals have never been seen in life, so artists relied on descriptions of previous portrayals. As a result, lions vary widely in appearance, with male lions, mains being more accurately portrayed in some cases. Sometimes they just look like shit. And I love the biblical walking onto Noah's Ark. Did you catch that as a kid?

Oh, the two male lions. two manned lions walking onto the boat to keep the species going. Good luck with that. Animals known in Europe like bears were often portrayed as more realistic than others, such as elephants. Unsurprisingly, unicorns also varied in style, sometimes having a goat-like beard and appearance instead of a horse profile. They weren't the only horned imaginary animals in B-Syries. another, the Yale or the Seneca, had a pair of swiveling horns.

Check this out. It typically had one horn forward and the other over its back. It was a formidable combatant capable of using either horn. And this led to the Yale featuring often in medieval heraldry. That's pretty cool.

Get you from both sides. Doesn't the unicorn typically have like a spiral horn too? It's not like a smooth horn. It almost looks like one of those specialty candies, you know, that's all spiraled up. You're absolutely right. And it's the way it grows.

And if you look, there's shells that do that as well. Those little shells that wash up on the beach that do that. They're almost like miniature little horns. So maybe those are miniature, what would it be a sea horse equivalent? Sea unicorn? Sea unicorn? Maybe they're out there, dude. Maybe that's what they are.

And they just shed their unicorn horns off. And then that's what we see. I don't know. Now, the physiologous unicorns were reported to be fast and difficult to catch, except by maidens. Now, they would often approach maidens in forests and fall asleep in their labs. How adorable. Hunters used maidens as decoys to lure unicorns out and to calm them down. Lions, though generally feared, could sometimes defeat unicorn.

This idea comes from an document attributed to an Ethiopian. Ethiopian king called Priester John. Ethiopian important trading center in the northeastern Africa, in northeastern Africa, was believed to have unicorns and sometimes killed lions with their horns. And when a unicorn rested under a tree, lions could creep up, creep up behind it and kill it. When it misjudged its strike, its horn became impaled into the tree.

So the idea here is that the lion scare it, it runs around the tree. It then comes back to lunge at the lion and then sticks its horn in the tree and becomes stuck there and now the lion can eat the thing. Hmm, there's a whole strategy to this. Yes. Now, this belief became widely accepted in Europe and featured in stories like The Brave Little Taylor in Grimm's fairy tales. Even Shakespeare referred to this method of tricking a unicorn in his play, Julius Caesar. Now, there was a deep rivalry between unicorns and lions for centuries. So I feel that this is much more allegorical when we get into the tissue salts, which I know I've been promoting guys.

You're going to get to the animal nature and then also the connection to the Unicorn Narwhal, which also comes up in this. So I think that this personally has a lot deeper meanings, but he goes over some really interesting shit here, so let's talk about it. So the origin of this rivalry is unclear, and perhaps it is a clash between the king of beasts, the lion, and the untamed nature of the unicorn. Now encounters between the two date back to the ancient palace of 40 pillars built by Darius I and Peripolis. Percipolis. His son, Darius II, completed the construction and Cetius worked as the court physician. Stone reliefs in the palace show a lion attacking an animal with a single horn. And the animal is a combination of a goat, a bull, and an alope, and all with the horn,

a unicorn. The battle between the lion and the unicorn continues to this day as a reflection of the UK's Royal Coat of Arms which shows both animals together. And this might not suggest a bond as they are still rivals.

The lion represents England while the free-spirited unicorn stands for a Scotland. And the coat of arms was created in 1603 when King James the 6th, yeah, king of Scotland, became King of England as King James I.

Now, despite United, there is a subtle difference between the designs used in the two countries. Do you know this? Have you seen the Scottish coat of arms and the English coat of arms? Don't think so. Okay, so the Scottish coat of arms portrays both animals, both of them wearing crowns, with the unicorn on the left. Okay, that's Scotland. Now, the English version has both animals as well, but reversing them.

The lion's now on the left. I'm infreient. And then the lion is the only one with the crown on. Scotland's unicorn is bareheaded. Hmm. As a fuck you. Yeah. The use of the lion and unicorn in a coat of arms is not unique to the United Kingdom

as both animals feature in the coat of arms of other countries. The Canadian provinces of Newfoundland and Labrador feature the lion and the unicorn in their coat of arms, though the lion is often depicted without a crown. The enmity between the two animals is often featured in popular nursery rhymes as well, compiled by Charles Pierlett in the 1690s. The origin of the lion and the unicorn rhyme was unclear, but it's inspired by C.S. Lewis's classical work, Alice's Through the Looking Glass. This thing has inspired a lot of culture that we have looked into.

Again, like this through the Looking Glass. I didn't even know that that was part of it, because it's not in the movie. You know? Did you read the book? No. I don't think I ever... Well, I might have read like a children's abridged version or something like that, but I don't think I've read the full thing. Yeah, it ends with them leaving with plum cake, and then Alice repeats the rhyme and watches the animals fight in front of the king while the unicorn asks her for some plum cake and the thing.

That's the, like the... There's a whole tale, a whole cadence that goes through with it. Yeah, and the unicorn asked for plum cake after the fight with the lion. and so they parody it in the Allison Waterland through the looking glass book. Weird. So the lion and the unicorn in heraldry have other meanings. The line represents strength,

while the unicorn, of course, stands for chivalry. This is reflected in the six tapestries known as the Lady and the Unicorn. The tapestry's origins are unknown, but they likely originated in Flanders. Howdy-ho. And were commissioned for a French lawyer whose royal advisor was named Jean. leviste, and they dated back to

1500. Now these things, the five portray the senses touch, taste, smell, hearing, and sight. For example, in the touch tapestry, the maiden holds the unicorn's horn while in the sight tapestry, the unicorn kneels beside her looking in a mirror.

Now, in the sixth one, it is very different than the others, and it incorporates the courtly love motto, a mon suit is there, above, a blue tent. That's very noticeable. It's right up on top. Now the lion and the unicorn are in their usual

positions in a mischievous monkey can also be seen. The unicorn has a goat-like beard and even cloven hooves. Believed to live in enchanted forests living well away. Unicorns are mythical creatures that rests on mossy

ground like horses. They feed on fruits in the forest and vegetation and prefer areas where streams or ponds They sometimes live together in small herds called Blocks. Blessings. Oh.

How cute is that? Now, older unicorns protect their young known as sparkles who have a seven-pointed star on their foreheads where their horns will develop, but it will take a year for the baby's unicorn's horn to grow its maximum size. Let's do some magic here. Now, a unicorn's horn was believed to have magical prongs. properties, protecting people from poisoning animals. This led to great demand for the rare item, and if dipped in contaminated water, it purified it.

In the Middle Ages, wealthy and influential people saw special ornate cups called henaps, likely made from unicorn horns. And I like that they put in here likely made from unicorn horns, because, of course. I'm surprised they weren't trying to use unicorn horns as some kind of a boner supplement, you know. We're not saying they didn't because they do this with rhino horns now, right? Because it's phallic in nature. And maybe that's why they went through extinction. If you think about it, if there was an animal out there that could help your wee-wee, people found out about it.

It's not going to be around very long. It amazes me that even back before all this technology and poisoning of our food supply and air and all that stuff, that people were having trouble in that department, you know what I mean? Yes, as if that's the only symptom, those things will make you happy and therefore a reflection of that. Yes. Yeah. Where your inner power comes from. Very interesting.

So they believe the cups, of course, had healing benefits. They could cure epilepsy and other ailments. And unicorn horns were valuable because they could detect poison in food. And if it touched unsafe food, it would become hot and smoke, indicating danger. You said it in something where somebody was just poisoned it and you're like, oh, is that a unicorn horn? I didn't know you had that. Check it in there. Start smoking their face gets all right.

So let's become a unicorn. Detective, Unicorn Horn is incredibly expensive item with lucrative trade, and they had to exist physically due to its rarity and ease of folklore. Sellers typically displayed small pieces of the whole horn to convince buyers of its authenticity as chemical tests were not yet available. Could be like, is that a true unicorn horn? What you could do is just put some poison food there, right, and see if it detected it. Yeah. See if it performed as a problem. I would think so.

Yeah. So the horn's distinctive spiral or corkscrew-like configuration set it apart from the tusks and horns of other animals. This is what made it very interesting as well. But let's talk about the true horn here, the norwall. What do you know about a norwalk? Not much. Okay, I have a norwal joke. I've been toting around in my back pocket for a while now.

Would you like it? I don't know. Yes. Do you know what a normal is with the whale with the horn on it? Yeah. On its head? Like a unicorn? Okay. So what's the deal with those horns? It serves no porpoise.

Hmm. Just deadpan. God, what a crowd. Okay. Now, the Norval is a distinctive member of the whale group. It has inspired and sustained the unicorn story. Now that it can be found in the seas far north throughout the year, extending from around the Arctic Circle to Canada and Russia. Now, these things, of course, have this huge horn coming out of their head. and actually, they're called the corpse whales because they are gray on top, white on the bottom, and when they come up to the surface and float around,

they look dead, you know, like a corpse. Yeah. So these things can reach over in 10 feet in length and weigh 22 pounds. Only the males grow them traditionally. It's very rare for a female too. They're a tooth. It's the left tooth.

Very rarely, one in 2000 will be the right tooth. But it's the left tooth. And again, it grows out of the top, basically of their head. So that it can be... Narwhals are real, right? Yes, Narwhals are very real. Yes.

That horn, debatable on what it does. And actually, it's very important. Scientists found out, and we'll talk about it here, that they have thousands of little nerve endings in them and actually help them sense everything in the water. A tooth. It's a tooth. Yeah.

So the purpose of the Norwal's tusk remains a subject of various theories. But as an air-breathing mammal, it has to surface regular. So males could smash holes in ice so that they could do that. And they've also observed drones have observed Norwell's catching, using their tusks to catch fish. But this may an adapt, must be an adaptation because females lack tusks. So it couldn't be the only way that they're doing it. But could you imagine that thing swimming through and like spearing it with it?

Yeah, just spearfishing with your tooth. Yeah, with your jetting spike tooth. And recently scientists discovered that Norwell tests contain millions of nerve endings, providing sensitive surroundings monitoring. And previously it was thought that male narwhals engaged their tusks together to show aggression, but it's now clear that this action communicates with one another. Narwhals face danger that can cause mortality due to their need for air. So again, these winter storms come in, they do need to be able to surface,

and they say that that's maybe what they're used for. What a bizarre creature. You're communicating with another one by rubbing your teeth together. Yes, yes. And then, you know, it's like an antenna, honestly, too, because if you think of all the nerve endings in there, it's going to, at those different gradients, it would sense things in a different frequency as that makes sense, because they'd be, like, tuned. So it's like testing barometric pressure and salinity in. Yeah, exactly.

Yeah, it's like, oh, oh, some nice da-da-da-da. Tide's coming in. My tooth told me. Yes. Now, this goes through other stuff, because they just do an extensive deep dive on this. So one of the things about it is basically that they're going to connect. the Norwal to the Unicorn and that these were possibly washed up. You had the early Vikings that were bringing these things in and they ended up being a pretty big commodity.

And so if nobody had ever seen a Norwalk before, but there's tales of unicorns running around. And also if you've gotten any Norwell's tooths or this piece of it, because they have a picture of one in the book, there'd be just a chunk of it with that thing washed up on shore. maybe you're sitting here thinking, oh, I've heard of a unicorn. Maybe it's one of those that fell into the water. It's only the top of it and the horn, but you don't need to see the rest of it. You just kind of form your own picture out of it. Maybe you'd never seen a whale before. Obviously, there's an easy test.

You bring it around some poison water and see if it starts smoking. That's all you got to do. So again, this thing goes really deep, but we are going to go ahead and actually get to some other fun facts. Do you want to do a... Dragons and Werewolves thing? Or do you want to do a highlights on that? Or do you just want to do some 10 fun facts about all of them? Let's get into as much as you got on dragons,

because I love Lord of the Rings. I love dragons. I'm a nerd. Let's do dragons. Let's do dragons. That'll be the most fun. Now, one thing I did want to say is that, again, the way that they broke this stuff down, very deep, very detailed.

They've got a wonderful way of articulating the information in here. Definitely check it out, guys. It's going to be linked down there. Again, mysterious creatures. Very cool. Okay, so the world of dragons. Now, stories about dragons exist in various cultures worldwide, dating back from millennia. Joe's big fan.

And while their appearances differ, they all share reptilian features. The European dragon mythology likely originated in the region between the Mediterranean and the Caspian Sea centered around Mesopotamia. Now, subsequent portrayals were incorporated into the Ishtar Gate in Babylon, 569, but by then it had appeared as a distinctive quadruped supporting itself on four longer legs. And this is from the Mu-shushushu. Mu-yushu. Yep. Mu-Yushu.

This was found on the libation vase of Gudera and 21BCE, and it's a composite animal that translated into a fierce snake from ancient Samaria. Its slender body resembles a serpent with a forked tongue. wings powerful legs, distinctive horns, and a neck crest. It's like this big sort of thing. Now when it then appeared as a distinctive quadrupad again for long legs, these display lion paws on the front feet and eagle talons on the hind feet. Combined with a narrow head and neck, maintaining the serpent theme,

this image likely reflects a monitor lizard or something like that, right? Is that any of, do you think that these are just written off to some crazy reptile they saw tripping? Well, I mean, think about like woolly mammoths or something, you know, they went extinct. As so we're told, maybe there was just really, really fucking big lizards back in the day. And they got hunted to extinction or something like it could be. I doubt they breathe fire. I don't see how that would be, you know, plausible. Do you think you could be glands?

like two glands of I've heard that that's just two sacks of something that are separated in the body and then when combined out they combine and then ignite Maybe they just had really bad breath I mean you know you wake up with dragon breath

in the morning maybe that's what it is You know like back in the day They didn't Not everything that had wings Had wings and could fly They depicted things Having wings that could fly Does that make sense

So they would depict like a dude flying around But that they saw a dude flying Not necessarily that he had wings They just knew that wings. Just to show that it was flying. Yes. Maybe that's what the fire is. It's just to show that all dragons have shit breath.

Yeah. That's what it is. Dragons wild variability and appearance makes them difficult to define and compare to other mysterious creatures. They typically display reptilian features resembling snakes and more closely to the lizards. And the overall appearance is a composite

as seen in the Mu Yushu, which also displays avian and mammalian characteristics, like these chimeras, you know. Interestingly, the Greek word for dragon is the same as that's sometimes used for snake, confirming this link. And this overlap was reinforced by Roman writers like Virgil, who described a fierce battle between massive constrictor snake,

the Culex, referring to the creature as serpines, but also as drako, meaning dragon. There's all these early accounts of Greek origins, and then it even gained a second tale around 500 BC. through textual accounts only referred to the multiple heads that it then had. Because this is from the Greek legend, the Hercules, the 12 labors, including the killing of the hydra. Are you familiar with that old bitty? Yeah, vaguely.

As he decapitated the beast, his nephew Locos burned its neck to prevent regeneration. You got to do that, kids. When you're cutting off multiple-headed hydras, you've got to sear the neck so it doesn't grow back. Together they defeated it, of course, and Hercules faced the central immortal head, using Athena's golden sword. He beheaded it. Despite this, the Hydra thrashed and Hercules avoided its toxic blood. Now, he safely threw it into a deep cavern and filled the hole with rocks,

trapping its head. Then he used blood from the spilled blood to kill Langdon, a snake guarding the golden apple in the garden of Hespels. Yes, I do pick the shit with the weird word. This is particularly fractal explanation for the hydra's death. Because before venom was understood fully, the certain snakes were very, very deadly. And it could have been believed that the venom was in the snake's blood, but decapitating the... Because you've done this.

Have you ever killed a venomous snake? Yeah. And what do you do when you chop its head off? Smash it? Yes, but do you pick it up right away? No. No. I don't go near it because you can see, you can actually see the vent like in a rattlesnake.

You can see it coming out. When it'll keep biting. Like this is the thing too. It's like those dudes that give vasectomies and don't let the chamber clear. They can need to go about 14 rounds for you. Go, go, go, go, you know what I mean? Talk to your doctor about that. It's not a medical advice.

But they'll go get a vasectomy, go home, start just treating their beautiful wife like to come down something and they know she can be. Then all of a sudden they get pregnant again. I know a dude that did this. He got a vasectomy and got his wife pregnant immediately. You got to check the chamber. Got to make sure you empty the chamber. You got to just follow the directions on this shit. I know we're all excited, but just be careful.

But this is the thing about it. They can still bite you. So then these real elaborate stories come up with just the fact that snakes are venomous, and when you cut their head off, they can still kill you even though they're dead and dying, which is an awesome feature, to be honest with you. So yes, if you decapitate a venomous snake, stay away from it for a minute. Let it settle down. Talk about passive aggressive defense mechanism.

Let's talk about an Asian perspective. Now, just as in Europe, beliefs in these creatures has a long history on the continent. Now, images interpreted as dragons appear on the Neolithic pottery that dates back to 10,000 years, and other portrayals are found on ritual vessels from the Bronze Age. The Miao people of southern China believe dragons created humanity by transforming monkeys that entered their cave into people by breathing on them with their horrible breath. Oh, rea-ree.

And then, you know, what's that sound like? Creating humanity from the local primate species that's here. Yeah. Breathing into them the breath of life. A little nephalim action too. They came down and said, man, we don't want to do this gold. Do you guys make the gold? So dragons were also considered to control the weather,

especially rampal. This led them to gaining wings in a characteristic that seems to have originated in Asia and being confined to weather influencing dragons. So these dragons just went around, said, not today. Now, we've also heard of a serpent

and we said this in a story about, I think it was Texas, the guy that reported the serpent in the sky, and there were three different sets of witnesses to that account. They said it looked like a banded serpent rolling through the sky. Could be these damn dragon things. Not all of them need to have wings allegedly to fly.

And what's that about? Well, again, there's a lot of you know, the jellyfish in the sky type of and being able to see what we were talked about a couple shows ago, a very small percentage of the light spectrum, there could be these things getting around up in the sky that we just don't see, at least under normal circumstances. Yes, absolutely.

Yeah, so he goes through more Asian dragon stuff, the reappearance of dragons in Europe, and then the role of the dragon slayer. Let's go over this, and then we're going to do just another top 10 list, and then we'll call it for this one to get to the extension, okay? So the role of the dragon slayer, what do you know about dragon slayers? Do you have a favorite one? No, from what I know about it, it's mostly archetypical.

It's slaying your own dragons, you know, descending to the underworld, slaying your dragons, and reemerging a better person. But are you talking about actual, well, supposed real stories? Yeah, other than that, beautiful metaphor that you said, that's probably the ultimate truth of all of this. Although other similar accounts of Christian saints exist, the story of St. George and the dragon is the most well-known. However, its roots predate the medieval period. St. Theodore Trio, an early Greek Christian, was burned to death in 300 C.E. for refusing to renounce his faith.

Ichronography on church walls reveals how the legend evolved. Artwork was crucial, of course, as it told stories to illiterate congregations. They can't redo it pictures, like now, right? It's all back to the moment. Uneducated peasants. Now, he was initially portrayed on horseback holding a military standard with a Draco, dragon or snake. And the Roman cavalry units called cohorts carried these flags.

Over centuries, the imagery changed. And by the 10th century, a fresco in Turkish cave churches at Gomei shows saints battling snakes. And another fresco in Cappadocia depicts St. Theodore and St. George fighting a snake in the snake church. That's the thing, is these saints, they just use in metaphors for battling off their wainers. So our work is believed from the same period if not earlier, or if there's little information about St. George himself.

He likely died around 30 CE, but the legend of St. George and the dragon first appeared much later. The story describes a dragon persecuting the residence of the Libyan city of Selene, forcing them to offer two sheep daily until they had none left. And the dragon then demanded people, reaching the point where the king's daughter was due to be sacrificed. Luckily, George arrived at that time, of course,

and slayed the shit out of that dragon with a long lance, mounted on horseback, beheading it with his sword. Pretty cool. This king offered George a reward of treasure, but he declined, insisting on helping the poor people. They converted to Christianity. and gratitude. Maybe that's it.

It's just a big propaganda toy. Early sigh up. Yeah. They send in the dragon, then they send in this guy. It all works, you know. I'm sure Oswald thought that he was probably

going to be sitting on a beach somewhere. Now, again, this goes through tons of different symbols and differences. It's just a deep study on dragons. Most of the history through this again, you know, where they'll get down to the stones,

the translucent stone called the dragonites in their brains and they're considered valuable as a whitish gemstone. Obtaining it while the dragon was alive was crucial as it softened and dissolved otherwise. So there's these just really cool little one-offs in here, but it's a deep look at each of these topics. So again, guys, it's going to be linked. This sounds like a thick book. How many pages is it? Not much.

It's just got heaps of information in it. It's just one of those. Now, let's go over the 10 things you may not know about dragons. So, number one, it is believed that the length of a Chinese dragon will directly affect its power to convey luck. So that one does have to do with the size. Size does matter. Which is ironic for them, right? Now, the most extensive yet constructive measured a remarkable 18,390 feet in overall length being created in October 2012 in Hong Kong.

Oh, record this. Now, number two, the dragon, Samo-Mong, as portrayed in. Beowulf inspired J.R.R. Tolkien's work, The Hobbit, which was published during 1937, nearly a thousand years later. Good old smog, yeah. The operic composer Richard Wagner took the legend of Sigurd, the dragon slayer, as part of his inspiration for the opera Derring des Nebruggen. It forms the third part of his four-part work known in English as the ring cycle.

So number four here, the lance with which Sir George slew the dragoon was given the name of Ascalon, commemorating the ancient city of Ashkelon, which today lies in Israel. Do you think maybe that's why we're wanting to go over there? A lot of things point back to Israel, don't they? Pretty damn interesting. Pretty damn interesting. Number five, the Ascradari family given to a group of terosaurs extinct flying reptiles that lived in the time of dinosaurs stems from the Persian word for dragon, which is Al-Hazar. Al-Haz-Dar.

You got to add a little more flam than there. Al-Hazar. El-Hazar. You know what? That was it. Az-H-D-D-R. As-T-A-R. Damn it.

A-Z-H-D-A-R. would you say that? You spell it A-L-Flem A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-G Now these giants could have a wingspan about 39 feet. Number six here, Dragon Boat Racing has become a very popular

sport over recent years. Now, even the Prince and Princess of Wales took part in a race of this type on a trip in 2023 to Canada. Number seven, the Dragon Fruit. Have you ever had Dragon Fruit? Are you a dragon-fruit fan? I have, and it is not

great. It's not a huge fan. Not as good as you'd hope, is it? Not as good as the name. No, no, it looks dope as shit too. Maybe I just don't know what to do with it. No, and I do like Dragon's Blood incense, because it looks really cool when you burn it. Okay.

I'm not really a fan of the smell. It's a little too sweet or something. Yeah, can I get some unscented Dragon's Blood? I like the way it looks. Can't stand the way it smells. Yeah, it looks like simmering blood when you burn it. But yeah, the smell is a little bit too much. Just to be clear, sir, you would like scentless incense.

Uh-huh. That'd be great. It's a dragon fruit, which, originates from the selenis cactus is also called because of its skin, which has a leather-like texture with scaly spikes that has been lightened to that, likened to that of a dragon. Now, Asiatic gliding lizards, which is cool as shit, have been given the scientific name of Draco reflecting their miniature dragon-esque appearance,

although they only grow to less than eight inches overall. Now, in mythology, their smaller dragons are described as dragon. go-nets. How fun is that? I mean, it makes sense. Number nine here. No, more than 200 dragon-esque brooches, which served as functional fasteners, have been unearthed from sites in Roman Britain. These date between 75 and 175 CE and acquired their name because some believe that they

may bear the resemblance to dragons, of course. All right, and number 10 here, let's round it off. In China, the emperor was regarded as being a... descendant of a dragon, of course. And while in the case of the Chinese zodiac, the year of the dragon is the fifth year of the 12th year cycle and is considered to be

particularly auspicious year for pregnancies. So if you're trying to get pregnant. That is interesting that they say he descended from a dragon because a lot of other ideas floating around about a certain, you know, what do you call them?

Lizard turds. Mm-hmm. that, you know, potentially rule the world. You know, and I'm just going to say it here, that a lot of folks who say that they were abducted by non-human intelligences, they say they most resemble agents a lot of times, which is really interesting. Yeah, the grays, yeah. What's up with that?

There was a story, and I know Ben and Aaron covered it, and I actually, I'm on personal terms with him, Terry Lovelace. Oh, yeah. He described, after his whole experience at Devil's Den, you might remember that whole story. I still have the book somewhere. He described years later, I think, this Asian lady coming into his house, and it's kind of a woman in black type of thing. And she talked to her.

And I think he was actually on friendly terms with her. But he describes her as kind of, maybe he said oriental, but he thinks, from what I remember, he thinks of it as more like a screen memory and that it was probably a gray because of the way their almond-shaped eye. and all that kind of thing, you know, which could come across as racist, but hey, we're just describing things here. Dave Emmons, same thing. Had him on a couple times the old show author. He is obsessed with this Asian woman that he met at Mount Chasta, by the way. He met him at the base of this mountain, just attached to him,

and told him all kinds of things about how she's an alien and all sorts of shit. So yes, and it is an Asian thing. What's with the Asian persuasions and aliens? I don't know. All right. It's interesting, though. Do you want a 10 fun fact about the rise of the Phoenix and we'll get to the extension? Let's do it.

Let's do this. So 10 things you did not know or may not know about the Phoenix. And if we miss any on here, guys, please write them in. Now, number one, the city of Phoenix, Arizona, of course, owes its name to this legendary bird. The modern city is built on land formerly occupied for about 2,000 years by the Hokoham people. They had been forced to abandon the area about 1,400 CE because of drought, leaving their irrigation. canals empty or because we dammed something up and then made a move maybe. Number two there, the name Phoenix was proposed by one of the city's first settlers, an

Englishman born in Paris, who styled himself as Lord Darryl Dupa. Then he knocked about here from 1832 to 1892, and he helped to pioneer the city's development from 1867 onward. A little fun fact there. Just about the city, not the bird at all. Now, in Slavic mythology, the mythological firebird has parallels to the Phoenix, but in this case it takes the form of a falcon, being recognized as a symbol of masculinity and harned dickadness. Now, the firebird's existence is closely linked to the seasons with its rebirth occurring each spring, which I like that. I like the concept of that.

Number four, in China, the phoenix's links with beauty and fertility resulted in being portrayed as a symbol of, of the Chinese Empress. Number five here, during the early days of Christianity, the phoenix was regarded as a symbol of death and resurrection of Christ, of course. And as a result, it was frequently featured on tombstones at that stage in history. Number six, there is a group of stars in the southern hemisphere first identified in 1603 to take the form of a bird, and these have been named the Phoenix Constellation. Number seven, the famous opera house in Italy cities of Venice is La Finesse.

And it has strangely lived up to its name, which translates as the Phoenix. This is because it has burnt down twice in his history in 1836 and subsequently in 1996 and has been rebuilt on both occasions. It's probably not a good thing to call your building if you would like for it not to constantly burn down and you need to embody your name. Yeah, and literally rebuild it from the ashes. Yeah, pass. So number eight, Jewish mythology features a phoenix-like entity called the Mechalburd. More flam against her. The Milcham bird.

There you go. Its origins trace back to the Garden of Eden, where Eve, having persuaded Adam to eat the forbidden fruit, you thought, then offered some, of course, to the other living creatures living there and being jealous of their immortality. Now, the Mechayim bird also referred to as the... the hoi in the Bible declined. And it was rewarded by God because it's super good. It was called the hoi. Hoy!

Yes, now it is. With a home in a safe walled city where it could live for 1,000 years before becoming reborn. Number nine. Referring to the Phoenix. Atlanta, the capital city of the U.S. state of Georgia, features a Phoenix on its flag and city seal, reflecting how it was rebuilt from the ashes. after being torched by General Sherman's army during the Civil War,

which could have most likely been another form of a reset, huh? Which also includes burning out of a lot of things. And number 10, let's wrap it up here. The Phoenix features in many songs. One of the most successful was the title track of the 1979 double platinum selling album simply titled Phoenix by singer and songwriter, Dan Fogleberg. That's right.

Now the cover art was also featured as a Phoenix So it goes on to do vampires, Werewolves, Dogmen, Thunderbirds, guys, this book has it all. It's very in-depth. It goes through some very interesting connections, honestly, and I highly recommend that you check it out.

So, going to be linked down below in the show description. Make sure you check it out. Mysterious Creatures, The Truth Behind the Legends, by David Alderton, and Akara Hart. Thank them for sending it, too, by the way, because again, this is the first one somebody who sent us and she's really interesting. I learned some really interesting stuff in there. No, yeah. I think I'm going to pick up a copy of that one actually because that's,

I mean, it's kind of a lot of stuff you've heard before, but it does have a lot of other, like those 10 facts about every one of them that I didn't know. Yeah, they're really interesting. And then they combine a lot of other things in here too. So again, a lot of the history, a lot of the nomenclature, the words being used. Yeah. No, and thanks for sending that over. That's awesome. Anybody else out there who's got a book, feel free to send them over.

Yes. Bring on. Because, yes, we do have 16 boxes of books coming to us, but we're also fucking nerds. And I've been building a library for like 20 years. Let's go. I'm getting an embossor. Have you got an embosser yet for your library? No, I've been, you know, it's funny as I've been seeing ads for that, though,

like a personal embosser for your books. Yeah, for your library there. Oh, what was I got? Oh, brain fart. Oh, coming up in Plus. That's what I was going to do. Yeah, what's coming up in Plus? Yeah, the raw material by Don Elkins.

And again, this kind of sits adjacent to UFO contact literature, some hermetic or Gnostic style cosmology. There's some new age metaphysics and almost simulation ideas. And this book is actually mentioned alongside works by people like Blavatsky, Edgar Casey, Robert Bert Monroe, Jacques Valet. So it's a kind of a, I'm surprised I hadn't actually ever read this before because it's very central to a lot of the things we talk about on MU. So stick around for that if you're on Plus. It's like one of those little gems that we saved from the 80s.

It's just we keep, you know, finding these older things, which are really nice. We don't want the recycled nonsense now, the new age, new versions of this kind of shit that's been recycled without the new ideas. Honestly, there's a lot of wisdom and a lot of interesting things that can be found back there, especially in these older writings, it turned out to be pretty damn prolific. Yes, and also stick around for next week's free show, because I'm going to be covering a pretty interesting book by a guy I've mentioned before, Guy Anderson, actually, and it's going to be, that one's a fun one. It's pretty crazy, but it's fun. Okay. Well, we will definitely be tuning in

for that. And guys, check the links down below, so you can do that and sign up for Inescapable before April 14th, which is when that window closes and you're going to want it. So go ahead and get that down in the links. Check out the book as well linked down there below. Mysterious Creatures. Thanks again, guys, for sending it. And thank you guys for listening. Stick around for everything after the break for everybody else. See you next week.

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