What is the mysterious water monster? This needs to be explained by psychology

"Godzilla" is an enduring series in the history of world cinema. Every few years, we can shout: "Godzilla is coming again!" This Japanese monster, which has been popular for more than half a century, always attracts people's attention every time it appears.

Stills from the movie Godzilla

Godzilla looks similar to a dinosaur, lives in water, and spits out flames, energy waves, lasers, etc. depending on what he eats. In addition to the "Godzilla" series, there are many movies with large water monsters as the theme, such as "Pacific Rim", "Deep Freeze", "The Abyss", "Loch Ness Monster", etc.

Why are water monsters so popular? In fact, people all over the world are very interested in strange creatures in the water.

Humanity's fascination with aquatic monsters

Psychologists of the psychoanalytic school believe that the fascination with water monsters (especially humanoid water monsters) reflects our "death instinct". The fetus experiences a feeling similar to drowning but not dying in the mother's amniotic fluid for 10 months. Although the brain does not have a clear memory at the time, it is deeply engraved in the subconscious. Being taken into the water by "water people" such as mermaids is like returning to a peaceful "dormant state" like a fetus.

Therefore, although the sea is dangerous and may hide all kinds of monsters, it is so fascinating. Almost every nation close to rivers, lakes and seas has legends about sea monsters. Most of the sea monsters are mysterious or terrifying. Although some sea monsters are as beautiful as supermodels (such as the Siren in Greek mythology), they are definitely villains who harm people with their beauty.

Sea monsters in the 1558 History of the Nordic Peoples

If there is something on land, there should be something in water as well?

In addition, from a psychological perspective, people's views on unknown things also have a kind of "learning transfer", which means that they will use the experience of the last learning in the next learning. Sometimes, this kind of transfer is unhelpful, as is the case when studying marine life.

Many ancient people who loved to use their imagination believed that there were not only fish-men and mermaids in the water, but also various aquatic animals that corresponded to animals on land, such as seahorses (not the kind that can be seen in aquariums) and sea pigs that are found both in China and abroad.

There are sea rhinos and sea bears in the cartoon "SpongeBob SquarePants", and giant monsters such as sea giraffes and sea lions in "One Piece". They are just land animals with scales, fins and tails.

Both Chinese and Japanese believe that there are man-eating monsters called water monkeys (kappa) in rivers that will drag people into the water. The prototype may be a combination of a giant turtle and a monkey living by the water.

European explorers believed that there were monsters with long tusks like elephants in the sea. Early European nautical maps were even filled with various monsters. I wonder if the long-legged fish monster in the movie "Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons" was inspired by these maps. All of this stems from the fear of unknown things, the deduction of curiosity, or blind guessing.

Early European Nautical Charts Were Filled with Sea Monsters

The "Elephant of the Sea" in a 1516 nautical chart

This practice of adding fins and tails to marine life without authorization has been used in early scientific research, such as walruses. Although Swedish naturalist Conrad Gessner collected very detailed information about walruses, he couldn't help but add non-existent fins and tails to walruses in his book "History of Animals". The same is true for other animals. Adding these parts will turn them into a newly created sea monster.

Walrus with added fins and tail

When sea monsters meet reality

Leviathan, a sea monster that appears in the Bible, is now believed by some scientists to be a whale. So when the fossil of a predatory sperm whale was discovered, it was named Leviathan.

A 2-meter-long sea lizard found in the Pacific Ocean is also called "Godzilla", but the limbs of Godzilla in the movie are obviously closer to theropod dinosaurs (Tyrannosaurus Rex, etc.). In 1958, the captain and crew of the Japanese Antarctic research ship "Soya" also saw an unidentified giant marine animal, and the captain Matsumoto Manji called it "Antarctic Godzilla". But the difference is that the captain believes that this is not a reptile, but a sea beast. In 2002, someone found in a photo that there may be humanoid creatures in Antarctica that are 20 to 30 meters long and can walk upright. The Japanese call it Ningen. There are rumors that this is a monster secretly created by Japanese scientists, but this inference is pure nonsense.