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Subject: Re: beast of bray road? From: MisterMannix posted Fri, Feb 11 2005, 11:11pm  Interesting. Gadara was the name an ancient Palestinian city, which people believe was in present day Jordan (Umm Q'ais). It was called Gerasa by the Greeks, and was one of the cities of the Decopolis. There are three other Gadaras, a lost city in Palestiana Prima (west of the R. Jordan), a shady University in Nigeria, and a suburb in Australia, none of which are relevent to this discussion. What is really intersting is that Gadara/Gesara is also associated with Mark V:1-20. (Also in Luke IIX:26-39, & Matt.IIX:28-34, but I'll be taking quotes from Mark.) When he was traveling near Galilee Jesus+ came across "a man with an unclean spirit, who had his dwelling in the tombs" and who ran out to Jesus+ begging to be released from his torment. This is the famous exercision, where Jesus+ confronted the demon "And He asked him, What is thy name? And he saith unto Him, My name is Legion; for we are many." After which Our Lord cast out the demons "And the unclean spirits came out, and entered into the swine: and the herd rushed down the steep into the sea, in number about two thousand" thus establishing the Biblical precidence for Daemonic Excercism. The connection to Gadara? Well, after the excercism Jesus told the man to go to his home and tell people how he had been healed "and he went his way, and began to publish in *Decapolis* how great things Jesus had done for him: and all men did marvel." In the King James translation, he calls the town Gadara. In other words, Gadara is a word with a direct connection to +ian Demonology. More over, there is a connection to desecrating tombs. In the Catholic Bible, however, the word "Gadara" is replaced with the Greek name for the city "Gerasa", and there is not a direct refference as in the King James. I suspect it is quite possible that the elder Schackelman recognized the creature's grunt as a word that was somewhere in his subconcious. I certainly did when I read it, although I had to do some digging to figure out why. So, from a skeptical position, what the witness heard may just have been a grunt that happened to sound like a keyword from the Bible; from the position of a Demonologist, however, it adds an interesting extra dimention. Demons are certainly not cryptid, because they are not Temporal in their nature. So, please, let's not get side tracked by this; I've spent a great many years reading about Demonology, and I am chosing to share some points for consideration, apropos THIS story only. I'm not going to sight sources, et c., because Demonology is not an open feild of study. You just have to take what follows at face value. So, let's keep our skeptical replies focused on the beast, not this demon stuff, okay. To start with, sometimes a Demonic Power can muster into a presence, but that presence is more felt than it is seen and when seen it is in a form that plays upon the witnesses subconcious fears. Additionally, in cases of Posession, a Demonic Power can occupy a place in a person's, or animal's, psyche from which it can manipulate thoughts and actions. Finally, actual manifestations (in which a Super Natural Power becomes Carnate) are extreamly rare, and almost impossible to validate as such. In short, if this beast of Bray Road has a supernatural element, then we are talking about something akin to a Demonic version of the apparitions of the Blessed Mother at Fatima. All in all, a chilling twist on an unsettling topic. Linda, thanks for sharing your research. SMM Subject: Re: beast of bray road? From: Lorelady posted Sat, Feb 12 2005, 8:45am  Hello Mister Mannix, Very astute of you to pick up on the Biblical connotations of Gadara. Gerasa was the capital city of the Gadarene region, in which the smaller city of Gadara was located. I do go into all that at length in my book, with another connection or two as well. The demon theory is covered to some extent also, although I go farther into that topic in the second book since I have more to work with now. But as I said, the great majority of sightings don't lend themselves to that kind of interpretation as well, so I'm not giving up on cryptid theories either. And I'm glad to share what I can, although it's hard to pack the contents of two full books into these posts! ;-) .....Linda Subject: Re: beast of bray road? From: MisterMannix posted Sat, Feb 12 2005, 9:52am  Well, thanks for sharing your research. It is difficult to condense big ideas into these little posts. I think you are doing some good work, and I'm glad you're out there doing it. Thanks, SMM Subject: Re: beast of bray road? From: Gerry Bacon posted Sat, Feb 12 2005, 10:56am  Well Linda, you don't want to do that anyway. Some cheapskates here won't buy the book then...like me...lol. Gerry - who is kidding, of course and does want the book... Subject: Re: beast of bray road? From: Cthulhu posted Sun, Feb 13 2005, 8:26pm  Hold on. This is a cut & paste from the Weird Wisconsin website, isn't it. If I can remember the website address, I can know for sure, but it sounds oddly like what I recall reading there. Subject: Re: beast of bray road? From: MisterMannix posted Tue, Feb 15 2005, 10:59pm  That is my own research. Quotes from BibleGateway.com using the New American Bible.

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