Perhaps life is more interesting and exciting when there is something to be afraid of or maybe in our minds good requires evil to exist, but what ever the reason around the world a huge quantity of writing has been created about monsters from Milton's fallen angels to Anne Rice's vampires, from Bram Stoker's Dracula to indian tales of ghosts. In popular culture the mummy, the vampire and the zombie have been a staple source of inspiration for script writersand horror lovers. To look at what a monster really is though it is necessary to realise that almost everything is one. Indeed the worst kind of monster is human.
Most people see those in society that commit more serious crimes as being monsters, a menace to society, evil entities however these are just people nothing essentially special. These people are not the type of monster that I will provide any details of here but are of great import when considering what poeple mean by the term "monster".
The list of different names for monsters is almost inexhaustable but these may be devided into types, under their original (or anglicized) names of which there are supprisingly few. Due to personal affiliations more than anything else witches as a force of evil are omitted here however clicking here will spirit the reader off to a witchcraft page.
Fear is all in the mind psychologists have noted, using several techniques it is possible to make the patient afraid of anything at all or to "cure" fears but the reason that fears exist is fundamental to human survival. Fear is a defence mechanism in all animals that makes the animal flee or fight a fear inducing stimulus and thus aids its survival. On a sideline to be petrified means to be turned to stone, a truly petrifying experience does not really exist although becoming rooted to the ground when afraid has similarities with being petrified and is therefore probably whence the term was coined. A small digression, however, fear is one of the mental responses that is found through out the animal population and due to its utility in survival is a response that is likely to have been evolved early. The response to a fear inducing stimulus is not simple and varies from person to person and between animals. Examples of human reactions include feeling a "shiver" down the spine, the inability to move, actually fleeing, screaming and praying. Although it is not absolutely obvious why some of these may help under such circumstances it is clear that they must or such would not have been evolved.