My previous article was on why and how lake monsters cannot be plesiosaurs. I pointed out all of the main reasons that make it clear. There is, however, another reason, for why there are no plesiosaurs in Loch Ness, or in any lake. It's because lake monsters are paranormal. They aren't flesh and blood animals, but plesiosaurs most definitely were. A careful study of the history of the Loch Ness Monsters will show just how weird and eerie the story really is. Long before the Nessies were on the scene, there were Kelpies in Loch Ness. They were shapeshifting creatures that could take on multiple forms, including beautiful women and large horses. They would drag poor folk into the waters of Loch Ness (and of other Scottish lakes, too), and to their deaths. While many might say this is all down to folklore and myth, the fact is that the Nessies of today can be termed as shapeshifters, too. That's right: the supernatural Kelpies are still with us. The year 1880 was when one of the most spectacular and nerve-jangling of all Nessie encounters took place. The unlucky eyewitness – and that really is the only way we can describe him – was a man named Duncan MacDonald. It was his task to take a dip into Loch Ness, at Johnnies Point, and examine a ship that had sunk in the entrance to the Caledonian Canal at Fort Augustus. MacDonald was confronted by something far stranger than a sunken ship. After being lowered to a depth of around thirty feet, he suddenly raced for the surface, practically screaming to his friends to haul him aboard their vessel. It was several days before MacDonald could bring himself to confide in the rest of the crew what he had seen. It was nothing less than a frog-like creature, perched on a rock shelf, and which was around the size of a fully-grown goat.
The wave of encounters at Loch Ness in 1933 prompted a Miss K. MacDonald to come forward with her account of a strange-looking creature in Loch Ness, one which looked nothing like the classic, humped, long-necked monster that was all the rage. According to Miss MacDonald, she saw a six-to-eight-foot-long animal swimming the River Ness, and approaching the Holm Mills weir. Very bizarrely, she described it as looking somewhat crocodile-like and added that it seemed to have very large teeth – or possible even elephant-like tusks! Some have described the creatures as looking like plesiosaurs. Others, as large, wriggly, worm-like things. The list of different descriptions goes on. Now, let's take a look at a few more reasons why the Nessies and other lake monsters are supernatural. One of the most dedicated of all Nessie seekers was F.W. "Ted" Holiday. When he began to spend significant time at Loch Ness, he noticed that his camera - and the cameras of others - would fail to work properly. Sometimes, those same cameras wouldn't work at all. Holiday shared this weird angle to Nessie legend Tim Dinsdale. Quietly, Dinsdale told Holiday there was a paranormal side to all of this. With "this" being the Nessies.
Then, there was Holiday's encounter, in June 1973, with nothing less than a Man in Black at Loch Ness. It was an M.I.B. that dematerialized before Holiday's shocked face. The man appeared to be dressed in what Holiday described as black plastic. His hands were gloved (black, too), and his head was covered by something that looked like a motorcycle helmet. No surprises on its color. Goggles covered his eyes, and even his nose and mouth were covered – by a black band, possibly made of cloth. Holiday tentatively walked towards the definitive Man in Black. Even when Holiday was mere feet away, the MIB neither moved nor acknowledged his presence. Most terrifying of all, there appeared to be no eyes behind the goggles. Shocked, Holiday continued walking for about ten feet and then stopped. It was Holiday’s quickly thought out intention to pretend to fall on the grass and reach out to the man for support as he did so – specifically to see if he was physical in form, or some kind of intangible specter. Holiday was prevented from doing so, however, when the sounds of whistling and unintelligible whispering filled the air, and the MIB vanished – as in dematerialized, literally.
As Holiday – now petrified out of his wits – shakily scanned the half a mile of open road that dominated the landscape, it became clear to him that there was simply no way the "man" could have made good a stealthy escape in conventional fashion. Stunned to his core, Holiday tried to reconcile the whole thing as nothing but a bizarre hallucination – a theory that, he knew deep down, simply wasn’t viable. It should be be noted that on the night of June 2, 1973 - the night before, no less - Loch Ness played host to something truly extraordinary. It was nothing less than a full-blown exorcism, one that was designed to forever banish the malignant monsters from the deep and dark waters. It was all the work of Donald Omand, both a doctor and a reverend. He was a man who had substantial knowledge on, and experience of, the domain of all things supernatural. Clearly, the exorcism didn't work: the Nessies are clearly still with us.
In April 1974 - and in a private reply to a letter that Holiday had sent to him, describing the most recent weirdness at the loch, including the exorcism and the creepy Man in Black affair - Tim Dinsdale had some notable things to say. He admitted to Holiday that he had crossed paths with what appeared to be a paranormal component to the mystery of the monsters of Loch Ness, but he remained baffled regarding how something of a supernatural nature could provoke such things as wakes in the water, photos of the monsters, and even sonar-recordings. And finally, there's the matter of Aleister Crowley's presence at Loch Ness. It’s important to note that it was not random chance that, in 1899, took Crowley to Loch Ness. The location was as important as the purpose he had in mind. In some respects, it was even more important. Crowley’s goal was to perform the ritual of the book of the Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage. And to successfully perform it meant finding an abode that perfectly fitted the requirements of the ritual, one that had to be specifically situated in an isolated spot. It turned out to be Boleskine House, that overlooked Loch Ness and became Crowley's home. The above amounts to just a small amount of the paranormal activity that has been discussed in relation to Loch Ness and its resident monsters.