"what kind of mystical creatures do actually exist?"
It depends on who you ask, but I think any creature we can think up probably has an equivalent on the astral-- but have personally only seen a nightmare hag (or something that chose to take that form,) angels, and ghosts. My grandfather almost let me stay up to see dwarves (he'd been meeting and talking to them for weeks at our summer house to help us when my aunt was possessed.) Zombies certainly exist at least as far as the "zombies" are concerned. You can explain it away with neurotoxins and cultural reinforcement, but that doesn't change that in a few of the people who tirelessly work in Haitian sugar plantations used to be in coffins. Some magnificent lizards are called dragons, but for the "real" thing here's an interesting account-- it involves projection to a very high astral plane, I've never done it myself.
There are physical illnesses that can make others think someone is a vampire or a werewolf, and psychic abilities that can allow a person to draw energy from others or take on the energetic characteristics of an animal (therianthropy, usually very spiritual.)
I've also been reading the memoirs of a local group of ghost-channelers, and in one the adviser was sort-of haunted by a mystical creature-- something with the legs of a horse, the torso of a man and the head of a goat. The others thought it was the devil, and the adviser himself who knew better still thought it might have been Baphomet, but after a consult with a witch-doctor they found out it was just a tikbalang . It was confusing because folklore includes such a creature but leaves out the goat bits in its description. It was said to be merely a trickster, "who comes into people's lives when a change is needed" and that psychological interpretation seemed to be useful to the adviser. The same might apply to the tricksters in other cultures-- djinn, and pixies, and such. But I can't guess at the deeper purpose of the mystical creatures: same as ours, I guess?
Actually, I noticed they stop being mystical when they exist physically (like able to be dissected like that):
The Komodo dragon can kill a person with a bite because the bacteria in its saliva is so deadly (but not to the dragon itself apparently,) and that's amazing, but nobody considers it a "real" dragon because it can be mundanely explained.
The Narwhal's pretty, but not much fuss is made over it because it's not the unicorn that everyone expects, same with the giant squid not being every bit the majestic sea monster described by old sailors-- but it exists, and that ought to be amazing enough.
Flamingos were said to inspire the noble Egyptian phoenix of ancient grimoires, but now they're just tacky things you put on lawns-- same with gnomes. They even found Hobbit bones a few years ago, apparently the lost race used to live with pygmy elephants.
But apparently we have to wait until something's extinct or endangered before we marvel at it...
Not links, sorry-- I just have a copy of the Almanac of the Uncanny published by reader's digest... and I heard about H. florensiensis from my social studies teacher when they discovered it. The mermaid dissection drawing's kind of cool though, where did you find it?
asually all mythical and mystical creatures exist cause they do they are usually in the shanabevia relam, its a place for creatures to go hide from humans and hunters and some witches live there too.its a place like our planet theirs are similars to ours but with more magic and only somethin that has magic can enter that relam if u dont have magic then u cant eneter but if u do then ur welcome to go there anytime u want but remember only somethin that has magic can enter ok bye for now i quess!!
