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I've been meaning to post here for a while, but haven't gotten around to it till now. The term Demonicly Possessed Corpse kinda grabbed me when I read it a few threads back, and bothered me for a while, and I didn't realize why till an old friend reminded me.

The skinwalker is a being from native american myth. It is an evil force, called into this world by a shaman, and put into a corpse. The corpse then lives again, it breaths, it eats, it drinks, and it kills. The Skinwalker is created of hatred and evil, and the Shaman who brings it into being imparts it with a single task which it MUST carry out before it can rest again. While I've never seen a skinwalker, a good friend of mine, Jerome Heywood, has.

Jerome is Cherokee, and a medicine man. Durring one of our conversations, I brought up the term, and he got very quiet. Jerome is a large man, six foot tall and nearly three hundred pounds of muscle. I have never seen him afraid, and heard enough of his stories to know that there is very little in this world that frightened him, but just the word was enough to unerve him. He started by explaining that very few people who knew what a skinwalker was, would be willing to talk about it. Most of them were the men and women who lived in the deepest parts of the reservation, and belived that even talking about a skinwalker would bring one. He then related an instance, where at a reservation bar many years ago, a man walked in. He was pale, his hair stringy and unwashed, and his eyes were dark almost to the point of being black. As Jerome described him, there was a feeling of something being very wrong about him, the sence to run and never look back. The man walked in, and the room went silent, ordered his drink, drank in silence, and left within a few moments, the room coming to life again as he left. Jerome never let go of his pistol the entire time the man was there, and he claims to have felt a menace in the air, as if by his very breath the man wanted to kill all of them. I have tried to talk to him more about it, but he does not like to bring back that memory. It may just be a story, it may just be his imagination, but whatever happened unnerved him.

My thought, simply put, is this.

Demons occure in every culture, vampiric qualities are very common as well. While this can be explained as myths traveling where there is connection, how do we explain these similarities in cultures which are, essentialy, cut off from outside contact? Is this circumstancial evidence for there being some form of truth to these tales, or is it mearly a coincidence?

Thank you for reminding me of this. I have been racking my brain, trying to remember the name of this Native American being. The area I live in is rich with Native American history. There is actually an area, more a local road, that is purported to have a "skinwalker." If anyone watches X-files like I do, they might remember the "Manitou" episode. Well, I live near Manitou Rd. It is alleged to be the home of a "skinwalker."

~Stri

id say that it is hard proof there there is demons and such. another example would be the dragon on every continent in every country there are myths and legons of dragons. most dating back to relitivly the same time. so it couldnt have been spred by word of mouth.

Whoa there - how can folklore be taken as hard proof? suggestion, yes, an indication, perhaps, but no way can it be described as hard proof. where is the physical eveidence?

Sorry karnstein,

But I'm not sure to whom your post is directed. Could you clarify, since I don't think Olwen was stating that she had proof, but that she actually questioned whether it was a coincidence or not.

I love this post. I never have heard of that previously but I'm glad I read this it is very interesting. I believe every cultural due to the way and places that they live their life experience different things and therefore events and stories vary from place to place.

Pleasent Nightmares, Rose (Blade)

There is always an unknowable amount of truths to these stories, regardless of what evidence may or may not exist. Regardless, the human mind can only lock itself down so far. Circumvention of will is a much more viable alternative, as even those around often take very little notice to the spectrum within.

as to physical evidence...in the case of a skinwalker that might be somewhat hard to aquire....as all it would show is that a human body is in front of you....and since they still eat and drink...you aren't even dealing with a corpse...but a ressurection...so medical testing would most likely show simply a body with an unnerving individual attached to it...
all cases have had this problem of how to prove it without drawing out the offending /intruding spirit...with demonic this is more clear cut as malevolence is all they are....(presumably)...but with reintegration of a human spirit into a human host.....more easily hidden..

The idea of similarities in legends and myths between cultures and countries has always interested me. For me this is a bit of proof that to every legend and myth there is some small part of truth. I might carry this ideaology simply becaues I do not believe that there are coincidences but also I think that myths and legends that come from isolated groups (such as the myth of the 'skinwalker') that can be related to myths from larger less isolated groups proves something.

~Fie

Well this to me sounds very similiar to the practices of the Hatian worshipers of the Serpent God Zombie. There was also a similiar practice in the Middle East. etc.

I think this practice is simular to the practice of creating golems. Otherwise know as creating elemtentaries (not elemtals/constructs). Like the humunculus.

I will have to look into this more.

I was enthralled by this thread so I did a little research.
This is the best article on Skinwalkers I could find:


A Skin-walker (also known as a Yenadlooshi) is a shaman with a supernatural talent to turn into a certain creature. References to such shamans can be found in numerous cultures' lores all over the world, closely related to beliefs in werewolves and other "were" creatures. The Mohawk Indian word "limikkin" is sometimes used to describe all skin-walkers.

Possibly the best documented skin-walker beliefs are those of the Navajo yee nadlooshii, also sometimes referred to as a Navajo witch by outsiders. The yee nadlooshii are human beings who have gained supernatural power by breaking a cultural taboo. Specifically, a person is said to gain the power of a yee nadlooshii by murdering a close relative. The skin-walker will sometimes travel through the community by night, spreading misery and desecrating holy things. He or she is usually described as naked, except for a coyote skin. The yee nadlooshii is also said to have the power to assume the form of a coyote or other animal.

The main power of the yee nadlooshii comes from its use of corpse powder which is made from human cadavers. Touching the powder will curse a person with sickness or death. This is an inversion of the use of pollen among the Navajos, which is sprinkled to produce blessings. Another form of this is a bone pellet which the yee nadlooshii will shoot into a victim's body.

In ancient Hopi culture there was a ritual ceremony once performed called the Ya Ya Ceremony. In this ceremony members would change themselves into various animals using the hide from the animal they chose, and the members use certain animal attributes like sight, strength,etc. The ceremony was banned after members developed a disease of the eyes.

In Norse folklore, a skin-walker is a person who can travel in the shape of an animal and learn secrets, or take on certain characteristics of an animal. The person is then said to be wearing that animal's hide. The most well-known example of the latter is the warrior who takes on the strength and stamina of a bear, called "bear shirt" or Bear Sarcca, the origins of the word berserker. The use of an animal shape for other purposes was considered unholy, and people accused of having such abilities were frequently cast out or summarily executed. Females so charged got off more lightly, until the witch trials began in the Middle Ages and Renaissance.

There are also cases in western-central Europe known as "the wolf-coats".These were individuals who would use a witches' ointment smeared upon the skin of the animal they were trying to transform into.

From Wikipedia