Japanese yokai, cryptids, urban legends, UFOs, mythical beasts and ancient mysteries, translated into English.
Entries: 431
The phenomenon of many people remembering the same thing differently from the facts. It is named after the many people who remembered President Nelson Mandela "dying in prison in the 1980s." It is sometimes cited as proof of parallel worlds, but psychology explains it through how memory works.
If you display October 1582 in a smartphone calendar, the 4th is followed by the 15th, with ten days missing. The cause is the calendar reform (the Gregorian calendar) by Pope Gregory XIII, which really did skip ten days.
An endless office-like space of yellow wallpaper, damp carpet and humming fluorescent lights, which you enter if you "noclip" out of reality. Born from a single image posted to an online forum in 2019, it became a worldwide phenomenon through videos and games.
The hypothesis that the world we live in may be a virtual reality (simulation) inside a computer built by an advanced civilization. Proposed in a 2003 paper by the philosopher Nick Bostrom, it is widely known through the film The Matrix and remarks by Elon Musk.
An urban legend that moving between floors of an elevator in a set order takes you to another world. Detailed steps are told, such as not speaking to the woman who gets on at the 5th floor. It is the best-known of the "ways to reach another world" that spread online from the late 2000s.
A faceless, unnaturally tall man in a black suit. He is said to abduct children and lurks quietly in the background of photos taken in the woods. Created in 2009 in a photo-editing contest on an American forum, he became one of the world's most famous internet-born urban legends.
A famous urban legend and game in Europe and America: if you say "Bloody Mary" three times facing a mirror in a dark room, the ghost of a bloody woman appears in the mirror. One theory says the name comes from the nickname of Mary I, the 16th-century Queen of England who had many people executed.
A female ghost of Mexico and Latin America. A woman who drowned her own children in a river is said to wander the waterside after death, crying "Oh, my children," and to take children away. It is also told to warn children not to stay out late at night, and it became a horror film.
The theory that the day is near when the existence of aliens (extraterrestrial life) will be officially revealed and open interaction with humanity will begin. It spread through repeated discussion on the Japanese TV program Yarisugi Toshi Densetsu. It comes up together with U.S. congressional UAP hearings, but the existence of aliens has not been officially confirmed.
Belief and ritual worshipping the Christian devil (Satan). From the Middle Ages on it was used as a pretext for accusing heretics and witches, and in 1980s America a baseless panic over "satanic ritual abuse" broke out. Real organizations need to be distinguished from rumors and conspiracy theories.
A festival held on October 31. Its origin is said to be "Samhain," celebrated by the ancient Celts at the end of summer, when the spirits of the dead and monsters were thought to return to this world. Jack-o'-lanterns, costumes and trick-or-treating spread mainly in America.
The theory that the moon affects humans: on full moon nights, crimes, accidents and births increase and minds are disturbed. The English word "lunatic" also comes from the moon. It spread through a 1978 book, but most statistical studies have not confirmed any link.
People believed to bring misfortune through magic. In 15th–17th-century Europe, many people were put on trial as witches for "making pacts with the devil," and tens of thousands were executed. The image of flying on a broomstick with a black cat spread through folklore and later stories.
An art and philosophy from ancient to early modern times that sought to turn base metals such as lead into gold and to make an elixir of immortality. Born in Alexandria, Egypt, it developed in Europe by way of the Islamic world. It never achieved its goals, but its laboratory techniques became the foundation of modern chemistry.
The mystical tradition of Judaism. It explains God and the creation of the world through diagrams such as the "Tree of Life" (Sephiroth), ten spheres connected by lines. It developed in medieval Spain and southern France and later influenced Western magic, the occult, numerology, and even anime and games.
A mysterious figure who appeared at the courts of 18th-century Europe. He spoke several languages, was versed in alchemy, and was rumored never to age. Records say he died in 1784, but sightings continued to be told afterward, and he became legendary as an "immortal man" and "time traveler."
A "library of cosmic memory" said to record every event since the beginning of the universe, down to people's thoughts and feelings. Talked about in 19th-century Theosophy, it spread in the spiritual world as a way to learn about past lives and the future. There is no scientific support for it.
In Christianity, the leader of evil who opposes God and tempts people toward evil. Also called Satan or Lucifer, he is said to have originally been an angel serving God who was cast out of heaven for his pride, a "fallen angel." The image with horns, a tail and bat wings became established in art from the Middle Ages on.
A story pattern in which a hero dies and is reborn in another world, or wanders into another world alive. It became a huge boom in the 2010s from novel-posting sites. Tales of going to another world and back are old, like Urashima Taro, and the internet also has urban legends about "ways to go to another world."
A Western grimoire compiled around the 17th century. Based on the legend that King Solomon commanded 72 demons, its first part, the "Goetia," records the names, appearances, seals (sigils) and summoning methods of 72 demons. It is famous as the source of demons in games and manga.
