An expert has explained the very real reason behind why so many people spot Bigfoot and UFOs in a spooky region known as "Monsterland".
The woods around the small city of Leominster in Massachusetts, US, attract people keen on spotting something otherworldly from across the country.
Sightings of strange creatures are said to date back to the 1800s. In the 1950s a man is said to have vanished after claiming he encountered a monster. Now it's a hotspot for Bigfoot and UFO sightings.
READ MORE: 'Monsterland' woods where scared locals regularly spot UFOs, floating orbs and Bigfoot
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Ronny Le Blanc, who grew up in the area, had his first supernatural experience aged 11 and penned a book, Monsterland, about the spooky sightings. He previously suggested the Bigfoot and UFO sightings might be linked, telling CBS: "This is something more alien, something more interdimensional."
Cryptozoologist Andy McGrath, author of Beasts of the World: Hairy Humanoids, told the Daily Star there is likely a "sociological" reason behind the Monsterland legend.
He explained there are several similar places around the world where "the entire pantheon of paranormal phenomena seems to reside" according to local legend. Cannock Chase in Staffordshire, England, said to be home to "Werewolves, Bigfoot, Trolls, Pigmen, Black Eyed Children, UFOs and Orbs", is one example he gave.
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McGrath said: "It would seem the reason these places seem to house such a high density of weird entities is sociological in origin and has more to do with the cautionary tales our ancestors taught their children to keep them safe in a natural world that was a wild and hostile place, rather than any real fear of bona fide paranormal entities.
"It is also no coincidence that these areas normally exist in a relatively small catchment area on the border of a town, such as the 5 square miles of forest ('Monsterland') near Leominster, Massachusetts and the 10 square miles of Cannock Forest near the towns of Cannock and Rugeley, reinforcing the theory that these mysteries are man-made, emanating primarily from ghost stories, told around the campfire, and ancient ecumenical proclamations from the pulpit!"
Regarding Monsterland in particular, McGrath said legends described in former colonies in America tend to be "watered-down versions of their original European counterparts". He explained: "It becomes easy to pick apart the tales of Dogman (Werewolf), Bigfoot (Wildman), Pukwudgie (Puck/Imp), Orbs (Will O' the Wisps), UFOs (Chariots of Fire), and Lake Monsters (Water Horses) by simply matching witnesses with their ethnicity.
"A very obvious example of this would be the proliferation of the Duende (Little People) legends among both the peoples of Portugal and Spain and the nations of Latin America."
McGrath's theory doesn't suggest people are making things up, but rather that "background culture... has a deep psychological impact on our belief systems", and that "our minds are primed by numerous socio-cultural triggers that automatically interpret what we see within the prism of what we know".
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