Eastern Horrors

This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance.

You chose to hit play on this podcast today.

Smart Choice.

Make another smart choice with AutoQuote Explorer to compare rates for multiple car insurance companies all at once.

Try it at Progressive.com.

Progressive Casualty Insurance and Affiliates.

Not available in all states and situations.

Prices may vary on how you buy.

Story 1.

The Monkey Man of Delhi.

Urban legends exist around the world, mostly to to keep us from parking in dark places at night or from talking to creepy kids with dark coloured eyes.

But what happens when an urban legend goes viral, causing so much panic that people begin to die because of it?

That's precisely what happened in India in 2001, when residents reported some 350 terrifying encounters with what would eventually become known as the Monkey Man of Delhi.

Delhi, the bustling capital of India, is home to nearly 33 million people.

Not only is it vast, it is also one of the most densely populated cities on earth, with an astounding 29,000 people per square mile.

From towering high-rises to sprawling slums, this bustling metropolis positively teems with life.

Despite its status as a major economic hub, however, the city's inhabitants faced significant challenges in the early 2000s.

Unemployment and underemployment were widespread amidst the then population of 14 million, and the city's strained infrastructure struggled to keep up.

Slums expanded rapidly, with many residents lacking access to clean water, sanitation, or education.

These dire conditions were worsened by terrible air quality, with parts of the city perpetually shrouded in a toxic fog from burning refuse, vehicle emissions, and industrial pollution.

To add to the misery, power companies implemented rolling blackouts, plunging poorer neighborhoods into darkness for hours at a time.

It was into this chaotic environment that one of the most bizarre cryptids on record first appeared.

Said to be anywhere from 4 to 8 feet tall, it had the face of an ape and was covered in thick black or brown fur.

It also had glowing red eyes that pierced through the darkness.

Those unlucky enough to encounter it say that it preferred to attack at night, leaping at people and either bludgeoning them with weapons or slashing at them with sharp teeth and claws.

A few were claimed to have died from direct injuries.

but most were reportedly so terrified by the creature that they leapt off roofs and terraces just to escape it.

It didn't take long before everyone in the city came to fear the Monkey Man of Delhi.

Immediately people began raising questions as to what the creature might be.

Amongst the more religious citizens, talk quickly turned to India's legends.

The subcontinent has a rich folklore tradition.

one that contains more than its fair share of monsters.

From the demonic Rakshasars to the vampiric Vetalas, there is no shortage of beasts believed to inhabit graveyards, caves and other ominous places.

Then there are the cryptids like the Mundebrung, a 9-foot-tall Bigfoot-like creature said to inhabit the dense forests, or its Himalayan cousin, the Yeti.

Could one of these creatures have made its way into the urban environment to wreak havoc amongst the poor?

Whatever the case, what follows has been described as either clear evidence of an attack by a paranormal being, or one of the most bizarre and deadly instances of mass hysteria in history.

The appearance of the Monkey Man coincided with a heat wave that rocked the city of Delhi in the summer of 2001.

For weeks, both rich and poor suffered under the high temperatures, which regularly peaked above 40 degrees.

This, combined with the unreliable electricity, meant that many residents could not even power a fan to keep themselves cool.

As a result, many chose to sleep outside on balconies, terraces, and roofs.

Whilst this provided some relief from the heat, it also exposed them to the noxious air.

And, it seems, something much more dangerous.

One particularly hot night, 37-year-old Prakash Chand, a factory worker, decided to sleep out on his terrace whilst his family stayed inside their apartment.

A resident of the slums, the Chand family had precious little space between them, and the searing heat would have made it almost unbearable in the tiny ramshackle flat.

Prakosh later reported that he had placed a rug on his balcony where he listened to the sounds of the city before eventually falling asleep at around 1am.

However, his peaceful slumber would not last long.

At around 4am,

Prakosh said he was jolted awake.

Though he couldn't see anything in the pitch darkness, he later reported being aware that there was something on the small balcony with him.

Without warning, Prakosh was struck hard on the arm before something large and heavy jumped on top of him.

Though he was unable to get a good look at his attacker, he said he could hear it growling and snarling as it repeatedly pummeled him about the face, neck and head.

The attack only lasted a few seconds, and Prakosh reported that whatever had attacked him had simply disappeared into the darkness afterwards.

Worried for his family, he made a call to the authorities, stating that he had been attacked by something strong, well-built, and not human.

It was only then that he learned that he was not the only one to be attacked in in the slums that week.

Police said that in total, some 20 victims had reported being pounced on whilst walking alone at night or sleeping out on rooftops.

Many of these came away from the attack with deep scratch marks and gouges on their arms, faces and necks.

The victims also reported that after the brutal attacks, the creature seemed to simply vanish.

As the weeks passed, there were even more reports of attacks and encounters with the strange creature.

Despite the fantastic claims, the Delhi police had no choice but to treat the situation as seriously as the public.

They hired more than 3,000 temporary officers to patrol the streets at night, looking for anything out of the ordinary.

They also released a series of sketches based on eyewitness accounts, but these mostly served to add to the confusion.

As the attacks grew more frequent, the descriptions of the Monkey Man of Delhi took a turn towards the bizarre.

In these new reports, he would sometimes appear clothed, often wearing a metal helmet.

Other eyewitnesses reported that the beast had a halo, like an angel, and that it could jump more than 30 feet at a time.

Still others claimed it was not covered with fur, but feathers, and that it disappeared disappeared so easily because it could fly.

At least one person reported it being on roller skates.

The resulting sketches were difficult for many to take seriously, but for the people living in the slums, the Monkey Man was a deadly reality.

After all, a significant number of sightings had been accompanied by injuries.

Some people were scratched, others knocked to the ground and punched, whilst others were simply scared out of their wits and injured themselves trying to get away.

At least one man died after tumbling off a building in panic when his neighbour screamed to alert him of the Monkey Man's presence.

The local media only played into the hysteria, interviewing anybody and everybody with scratches on their arms or a scary story of their own.

Even with the extra officers, younger Delhi residents soon began patrolling the streets with axes and sticks.

This led to more than a few cases of mistaken identity as the mob mentality took hold inside the slums.

Police filed numerous reports of armed groups attacking innocent bystanders or of people being trampled on amidst a rush to escape or attack the mysterious creature.

Despite the circulating rumours regarding the Monkey Man, The heat wave and blackouts forced tens of thousands of people to continue sleeping out on their balconies every night.

For this reason, attacks occurred daily, sometimes as many as a dozen in 24 hours.

Police records tell of one young girl who had decided to sleep outside for the evening, only to awaken in the middle of the night to find a hairy, inhuman hand resting on her thigh.

Hearing her screams, The girl's mother bounded out of the apartment with a broom, swinging it wildly at whatever was near her daughter.

This led to a whole new slew of rumours that the Monkey Man was targeting young women, hoping to kidnap them and take them back to its lair.

By this point, the people of Delhi had been worked into a near state of anarchy.

Every night they would go to sleep in fear, and every morning, the news would report another series of incidents, injuries, and sometimes deaths.

The most prominent example of the Monkey Man actually causing a fatality can be found in the tragic tale of an individual simply known as Suman.

Suman was a 27-year-old pregnant woman living in the slums of East Delhi.

Family members said that the heat coupled with her being pregnant had been making Suman miserable and that she'd been having trouble sleeping.

As a result, she had chosen to sleep out on the terrace one fateful night.

Temperatures had been peaking at 42 degrees Celsius and much of the neighbourhood had decided to brave the night air, likely believing there was safety in numbers.

At some point in the early hours, Suman had been awoken by screams from her neighbours, shouting that the Monkey Man had arrived.

Apparently unable to get inside, she tried to flee down the stairs from her terrace, but in her panic, she lost her footing and ended up falling to the ground below.

Sadly, she later died in hospital from her injuries.

The only other confirmed fatality remains unidentified to this day.

Police reports describe the unknown man as having suffered grievously.

Start the season with Etsy and make your holiday traditions

reported consulting with doctors about the wounds that had been inflicted.

Many of them were confirmed to be bites of some kind, though the doctors could not definitively match them to any known animal.

Upon checking with officials at Delhi Zoo, the police confirmed that all animals were accounted for.

Whatever had killed the man either lived in the city itself or the surrounding natural areas, and since the victim was not eaten, the creature's motives for killing were clearly not related to survival.

In total, there were nearly 350 documented incidents and reports related to the Monkey Man of Delhi over a period of three weeks.

Nevertheless, no animal or human was ever photographed, let alone caught.

Moreover, the incredible variety in the descriptions of this strange entity has raised many questions questions as to just who or what it might have been and whether it even existed at all.

The first theory is that there was indeed an attacker of some kind lurking in the darkness of the Delhi slums.

Whether it was a disfigured human, giant monkey, demon or something else entirely is less important than proving that it was actually there.

Its existence seems to be supported by the numerous injuries inflicted and the fact that many of them seem to be bite-like lacerations.

Some say it was a case of mistaken identity.

Due to the pitchblack conditions, residents simply confused a local monkey or other animal for something larger and more sinister.

Others say nobody could possibly mistake the types of monkeys native to India for a 5-8 foot tall creature.

The largest species in the region, the grey langur, peaks at just 2 feet tall and 44 pounds in weight.

For the majority of Delhi residents, however, the Monkey Man was nothing short of being supernatural in origin.

This would explain why it was able to attack so swiftly and then completely disappear.

Some have even theorised that it may indeed have been a demon or mystical being with the ability to shapeshift.

much like the skinwalker of north america or phase between dimensions

Finally, there are those who believe the Monkey Man was entirely human, or a group of several humans, possibly in disguise.

Whether they were pranksters or had criminal intent is still up for debate, but proponents of this theory say this is the only way to explain the size of the animal and the fact that it was often witnessed wearing clothes.

Still, scientists and researchers around the globe have a different opinion.

To them, the Monkey Man was a perfect example of mass hysteria, one exacerbated by higher than average heat, blackouts and media sensationalism.

It's true that as the initial reports of the Monkey Man attack spread, fear and anxiety grew amongst the city's poorest residents.

This collective apprehension may have caused people to misinterpret sounds, shadows or even common animals as being the Monkey Man.

When we look into the reports, many of the worst injuries seem to involve people running from things they didn't actually see and harming themselves in the process.

Suman, the pregnant woman, only ever heard her neighbour's screams and fell to her death in an effort to escape.

Prekos Chand, the man sleeping on the balcony, didn't get a good look at his attacker either.

Only the unnamed man who died of his wounds provides any physical evidence, yet he was sadly never able to describe to anyone what had assailed him.

It's worth noting that animal attacks are relatively common in India, with bears, leopards and tigers accounting for dozens of deaths each year.

Could he have been the victim of an unrelated animal attack that simply got lumped in with the growing hysteria?

Finally, there's the matter of the reward.

Shortly after the stories began circulating, Delhi police announced a 50,000 rupee reward for information leading to the capture of the Monkey Man.

As anticipated, this led to a flood of new calls and reports.

However, many of these turned out to be hoaxes or lies trumped up in an effort to claim the money.

It's impossible to ignore that the vast majority of the victims, around 94%,

were from the poorest areas of the city, while some 89% of these were of low socio-economic status.

After the sightings died down, police reported discovering that some people had faked injuries for medical and media attention, whilst others reframed existing unrelated injuries as stemming from encounters with the infamous interloper.

Of course, none of these revelations ever received anywhere near the amount of attention as the Monkey Man sightings themselves, leaving many residents convinced that all of the encounters had been equally legitimate.

For many, it's difficult to accept that the citizens of Delhi could react so violently without the presence of a real physical threat.

After all, Even mass hysteria events do not occur entirely in a vacuum.

But as to what exactly was happening during those few months in 2001, there's almost no way to tell.

What we do know is that the situation in the city at that time was far from ideal.

The people in the slums where most of the sightings occurred were poor, malnourished and often suffering from heat or air quality related illnesses.

Could they have conjured the Monkey Man up from nothing?

Or did someone or something simply use the conditions of the crowded slums as cover for their nefarious deeds?

Unless the Monkey Man appears again, we may never know.

For now, the phenomenon remains an unsolved mystery, with multiple theories offering little in the way of explanation for what's happened.

Even if it was simply a case of mass hysteria, pranks, misidentified animals, or some combination of these factors, the incident serves as a fascinating fascinating example of how fear and rumour can rapidly escalate into a full-blown urban legend.

We do know that the current population of Delhi has recently crossed 33 million.

With so many people living in the city, it would be difficult for a large animal or other strange creature to hide forever.

If the Monkey Man is still out there, It will only be a matter of time before someone spots him again.

Unless, of course, he truly was

supernatural.

Story 2 The Dread of the Jinn

Many ancient texts speak of supernatural beings representing the forces of good and evil.

However, not all of these entities fit quite so neatly into such categories.

For centuries, people in the Arabic world have spoken of creatures who bring fortune and pain in equal measure.

But despite the age of these legends, recent reports from the Near East seem to indicate that even our modern world is subject to the dread of the jinn.

The djinn are unique beings in ancient folklore, often defying the typical classification of supernatural entities as angels or demons.

Like humans, they are believed to possess free will, allowing them to choose between good, evil or neutrality.

Whilst Western culture often portrays the jinn as genies, wish-granting figures appearing from lamps, the real jinn are far more complex.

The word jinn comes from the Semitic root jan,

meaning to hide or to adapt.

This Marshan Beast Mode Lynch prize pick is making sports season even more fun.

On prize picks, whether you're a football fan, a basketball fan, it always feels good to be right.

And right now, new users get $50 instantly in lineups when you play your first $5.

The app is simple to use.

Pick two or more players.

Pick more or less on their stat projections.

Anything from touchdown to threes.

And if you write, you can win big.

Mix and match players from any sport on ProsPicks, America's number one daily fantasy sports app.

ProzPix is available in 40 plus states, including California, Texas, Florida and Georgia.

Most importantly, all the transactions on the app are fast, safe and secure.

Download the PrizePix app today and use code Spotify to get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup.

That's code Spotify to get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup.

PrizePicks is good to be right.

Must be present in certain states.

Visit PrizePicks.com for restrictions and details.

Its exact definition in Arabic is debated, but it relates to similar terms in Latin and Persian.

The blending of cultures and the rise of Islam complicate pinpointing the legend's origins, though scholars agree it dates back thousands of years.

Some believers argue that the widespread presence of similar entities in different cultures supports the idea of their existence.

Descriptions of the jinn vary across centuries, but they are generally considered shapeshifters created from smokeless fire or scorching wind.

They can take human form, often recognized by glowing eyes or ethereal bodies, or appear as animals like snakes and dogs.

Their behavior is more consistently depicted.

According to the Quran, the jinn are sentient beings created by God, similar to angels and humans.

They can either follow Allah or oppose him,

capable of both compassionate and malevolent acts.

Although they tend to avoid human interactions, they may fixate on individuals, influencing their lives either through love or more commonly, by causing pain and suffering.

Though many dismiss the jinn as mere legend, some evidence suggests these ancient stories may contain more truth than once believed.

Matt Emsch is is the host of the Planet 412 YouTube channel, where he explores the world of paranormal investigations.

His deep interest in the unknown comes from personal experiences with unexplainable phenomena.

Although Matt was born in Ohio, his family hails from Lebanon, and growing up, he often listened to eerie tales passed down through generations.

One of the most unsettling stories he heard was about his great-aunt Alice, which occurred when she was just a child.

She had been playing alone in the family home one afternoon whilst her father worked outside in the yard, feeling safe with him nearby.

However, as she continued to play, an overwhelming sense of unease crept over her.

Looking around, She saw nothing unusual.

Everything in the room seemed perfectly normal.

But the discomfort lingered.

Her gaze eventually settled on a darkened corner near the door that led into the kitchen.

Unlike the rest of the room, which was otherwise bathed in sunlight, this corner was cloaked in shadow.

As she stared, she noticed the darkness itself seemed to shift.

For a brief moment, it even appeared to take the shape of a human figure, before returning to its indistinct form.

Thinking it was just a trick of the light, she tried to focus on her game once more, but couldn't help turning back every now and then to look.

On her third glance, she saw something that made her heart stop.

The door in the corner was now slightly ajar.

and through the crack she could make out the silhouette of a man, or at least what looked like a man.

The figure was entirely black, devoid of any features, as though it was made of shadow.

Frozen in fear, she instinctively began to crawl backwards, her eyes locked on the dark entity.

As the door creaked open wider, The shadowy figure stepped into the room.

Slowly, a pair of glowing emerald green eyes appeared on its face, staring straight at her.

Panic surged through her body and she screamed for her father, but her cries did nothing to stop the creature, which continued its slow deliberate approach from across the room.

Hearing his daughter's terrified screams, Matt's great-grandfather rushed to the front door of the house, which led directly into the living room, only to find that it wouldn't open.

The door wasn't locked or obstructed, yet it refused to budge.

Desperate to reach his little girl, he grabbed a nearby cinder block and smashed one of the panels.

When he peered inside, what he saw left him paralysed with fear.

His daughter was huddled in the corner, her wide eyes fixed on a tall, human-shaped shadow advancing towards her.

As he shouted, the figure paused, seemingly irritated by the interruption, and slowly turned its head towards him.

Its face was featureless except for a pair of piercing glowing green eyes.

The moment their eyes met, A deep sense of dread washed over him.

Desperately, he began kicking at the door, splintering the wood and badly injuring his leg in the process.

Finally, with one last push, he fell into the room, crashing onto the floor.

But it was too late.

The shadowy figure simply dissolved into thin air before his eyes.

In the days that followed, The initial relief of his intervention turned into heartbreak for Matt's great aunt.

Her father soon became gravely ill.

A doctor who examined him diagnosed that he was suffering from gangrene, likely caused by bacteria from the rotted wood of the door next to the river.

The infection had entered his bloodstream when he injured himself breaking through it.

Just three days later, Matt's great-grandfather succumbed to the illness.

leaving his daughter to wonder for the rest of her life, was she the true target of the green-eyed phantom or had the sinister presence merely lured her father to his doom?

One evening in 2018,

a young man named Rami was driving home from a tense family gathering.

His cousin sat in the passenger seat beside him whilst his mother and aunt were in the back.

The day had been unseasonably hot and uncomfortable, and to make matters worse, the family had left the gathering on bad terms after an argument.

Between the stifling heat and the simmering tempers, the mood in the car was heavy.

No one spoke, each family member lost in their own thoughts, replaying the details of the argument.

Their destination was several towns away.

and by the time they were nearing it, darkness had fallen.

Fortunately, the familiar roads were now lit by street lights guiding their way.

As they approached the outskirts of town, the car passed by the railway station, a familiar sight, though long closed for the evening.

Without warning, Rami felt an irresistible urge to stop.

His foot slammed on the brakes and the car came to a sudden halt in front of the station.

Strangely, no one else in the vehicle seemed surprised or questioned his abrupt stop.

Instead, his cousin mother and aunt stared silently at the darkened building as if in a trance.

Trying to shake off the unsettling feeling, Rami was jolted by a sudden gasp from his cousin, who grabbed his leg and pointed out the driver's side window.

Out in the darkness, a figure was running towards them from a grove of trees by the road.

As it passed under the dim glow of the street lamp, Rami caught a glimpse of its strange appearance.

The person's clothes were filthy and mud-stained, but Rami could tell they had once been pure white.

Their long unkempt hair hung across their face, reaching down to their shoulders.

But it was their legs that unnerved him the most.

They were unnaturally long, causing the figure to move with a bizarre skipping motion.

The body bent and swayed unnaturally, almost as if it was riding an invisible horse.

Rami was terrified, but he couldn't look away.

Worse, he couldn't move.

His foot rested on the accelerator, but he was powerless to drive away.

It was as if an unseen force had locked his attention on the approaching figure.

The screams from his family felt distant and muffled, as though he was hearing them through water.

A desperate cry from his mother broke through the haze, snapping Rami out of his trance.

He pressed on the accelerator and sped away down the road.

As he glanced back, the figure was still racing towards them.

In the dim light, Rami saw the hair around its face part, revealing smooth, featureless skin where a face should have been.

The panicked screams of his passengers filled the car as he accelerated away from the horror.

Glancing in his rearview mirror one last time, he saw the figure now kneeling in the middle of the road where the car had been, its unnaturally long arms waving menacingly after them as they sped away into the night.

Often misunderstood as just a desert country, Lebanon actually borders the Mediterranean Sea east of Cyprus and is home to lush landscapes, including large nature reserves filled with dense cedar forests.

In 1992, A young executive attended a business conference near one of these natural areas.

Eager for a break from work, she asked the hotel staff for recommendations and they suggested she take a hike through the nearby forest.

Excited for the walk, she set off along a trail, but to her dismay, the path wasn't as clearly marked as she would have liked.

Before long, she was completely lost.

and her initial sense of adventure turned to anxiety.

After an hour of unsuccessfully trying to retrace her steps, her unease deepened, not only because she couldn't find her way back, but because something felt off about the forest.

When she first entered the woods, the sounds of birds chirping and squirrels rustling through the leaves filled the air.

Now,

everything had gone eerily silent.

Even the wind, which had been gently stirring the branches, seemed to have vanished.

Alone in the stillness, she was gripped by an overwhelming sense of isolation.

Feeling desperate, she decided to leave the trail and head in the direction she believed the hotel to be.

Picking up the pace, she pushed through the trees and after several minutes, stumbled upon a small brick structure nestled in a grove.

Relieved, she hoped it was a ranger station with a phone, but as she approached, she realised the building wasn't a ranger station at all.

In fact, it looked more like an old bathhouse.

Even more baffling was the absence of a door.

She circled the building twice, searching for any sort of entrance, but found none.

As she completed her second lap and returned to where she had started, she was startled to see a figure now standing outside.

It wore a long flowing cloak and she assumed it must be an employee of the bathhouse.

She was just about to call out when something strange caught her eye.

Its feet.

Whilst the legs appeared normal at first, they ended in what looked like blunted hooves covered in dark bristly fur.

Her heart raced as she gasped, looking back at the figure's upper body, only to find its face completely hidden beneath a hood.

Despite this, she could feel its gaze locked upon her.

Paralysed with shock, she watched as the figure slowly raised an arm, gesturing for her to approach.

As it moved, a flicker of emerald green light flared from where its eyes should have been.

Overcome with terror, she spun around and sprinted away as fast fast as her legs would carry her.

When she finally stopped a safe distance away, she turned back, expecting to see the figure following her.

But to her astonishment, both the brick building and the mysterious cloven-hooved entity had entirely vanished.

As she caught her breath, the sounds of the forest gradually returned.

Birds chirped and the wind rustled through the branches once more.

Soon, she found her way back to the road leading to the hotel.

However, too shaken to explain what had happened, she at first said nothing to the staff.

When they asked how her hike had gone, she simply nodded and hurried to her room.

The ordeal haunted her over the next few days.

but she still had meetings to attend before she could leave.

On her final day, she confided in one of the maids about her experience.

Instead of disbelief, the hotel employee gave her a stern cryptic warning.

Without a hint of emotion, she explained that creatures lived deep in the woods, beings which had been there far longer than humans.

She cautioned that these entities should never be disturbed.

or they might take more than just an interest in those who crossed their path.

What are we to make then of these stories and others that claim to depict human interaction with the djinn?

One clear thread running through such encounters is the bold and almost playful demeanor of the entities involved.

At no point do the djinn exhibit any fear of humans.

Instead, they seem fully aware of their power and are confident in how little humans can do to resist their will.

On the other hand, those confronted by the jinn are nearly always overwhelmed with intense fear.

Many report feelings of panic, an uncontrollable urge to flee, or, as in Rami's case, a strange compulsion to act against their better judgement even before they see the entity itself.

With such a wide range of abilities and behaviours attributed to them, it becomes annoyingly difficult to define or categorise what the djinn truly are.

Western scholars have often drawn comparisons between the jinn and the fee of Celtic, Slavic and Germanic folklore.

Like the jinn, the Fae are said to encompass a broad array of spirits, from benevolent nymphs to mischievous house elves, and even malevolent entities with glowing red or green eyes.

The Fae are also known for their interest in certain places, objects or people.

This comparison doesn't contradict the Quranic and ancient Arabic descriptions of the jinn.

In Islamic tradition, they are clearly defined as beings created by God, just like humans and angels.

The notion that they were made from smokeless fire suggests their ability to change form, appearing, much like in the tale of Mat's great aunt, as nothing more than shadows.

Skeptics however tend to view the djinn as a psychological phenomenon.

They argue that many who claim to have had encounters come from cultures steeped in the legends, making them more likely to interpret strange experiences as supernatural.

The pervasiveness of the djinn legend across the Near East is not surprising, given that the creatures are said to be native to the region.

Another intriguing theory suggests that they may be extraterrestrial or interdimensional beings.

According to this view, they exist in a dimension parallel to ours, occasionally interacting with the physical world in ways we can perceive.

This could explain their ability to appear and disappear at will.

as well as their apparent difficulty in mimicking human forms convincingly.

Some proponents go further, speculating that they are energy beings, possibly tied to electromagnetism or plasma.

Could the smokeless fire mentioned in Islamic texts be a metaphor for a form of pure energy?

If so, their ability to influence physical matter might make more sense.

Ultimately, despite the many theories, There is simply not enough hard evidence to prove the jinn's existence.

Most of what we have are stories shaped by humanity's instinctive fight or flight response and the subsequent urge to share these unsettling experiences.

Perhaps in retelling these stories, the very concept of the djinn spreads, perpetuating itself across cultures and generations.

In the end, One thing unites both sceptics and believers.

The jinn remain beings of twilight, forever elusive and lingering just on the edge of perception, reliant on eyewitness accounts and evading any attempts at acquiring concrete proof of their existence.

Bedtime is for us.