Magic Forums

I'm reading this book, on Scribd (linked at the end), about supernatural abductions in Japan -- aka, being "spirited away". I would venture to say that every continent had at one point a belief that people (mainly children) could be led astray by supernatural beings. Some more indigenous cultures still hold this belief. I personally believe in it, but as I said in the chatter the other night: I think the development of society and cities in particular, have pushed these abducting creatures farther away from people and inhibit their influences today. Part of me thinks that it was naivete, misunderstanding of kidnappers and such. But the other part of me keeps that wonder and "you never know" mentality. I think if it does actually happen, it happens to people that most of the world doesn't pay attention to in places that aren't paid much attention. Like, a child in Sri Lanka goes missing and no one outside of the particular village may ever hear about it, whereas here in the US we have "Amber Alerts" and such.

What do you guys think? I know we have a lot of members from all over the world... do you have any local or country-specific legends?

I'm from the USA, and all I can really think about are "will o' the whisp", AKA "swamp lights" or "swamp fire", which some legends say are related to fairies or they are their own sort of mysterious being that will lead people away into the swamps where they get lost, drown, or 'gators get them.

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Link to book:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/3830220/Supernatural-Abductions-in-Japanese-Folklore