Below are descriptions of three grotesque monsters. Two of them are merely the fictional creations of popular artists; one is a creature that has actually been reported. Can you Find the Fiend?

• This scaly, winged creature, which some people claim has existed since biblical times, can allegedly rejuvenate its body by consuming human tissue.

• This powerful being is said to be the physical manifestation of a skilled ascetic’s projected thoughts.

• Thought to dwell in underground caverns, this strange rock creature is said to tunnel through stone by secreting a highly corrosive acidic solution.

Answer AFTER THE JUMP…

The correct answer is b.

A tulpa, or “thoughtform,” is a projected entity that Tibetan Buddhists believe can be created, shaped, manipulated and dissolved through a meditative process that allows a person (or group) to mentally focus a portion of his life energy outside of himself and psychically craft it into a separate, but spiritually tethered, object or being. The concept of tulpas entered western consciousness during the late 1800s after Alexandra David-Neel, an explorer, spiritualist and prolific author, wrote about her Buddhism-born ability to craft a portion of her disembodied consciousness into the form of jolly monk. Supposedly, she became so adept at casting the tulpa, it gained self-awareness and began threatening sinister deeds, at which point David-Neel destroyed it. As unexplained phenomena go, tulpas carry an impressive resume that includes several requisite black metal songs and stints on both “The X-Files” (6×13) and “Supernatural” (1×17).

Statement a. described the Creeper from the 2001 film “Jeepers Creepers.” Demonic, grumpy and brutish, the Creeper awakens every 23 years and goes questing after specific human body parts that he must eat in order to restore his own deteriorating anatomy. With his comically threatening van and ridiculous vanity license plate (BEATNGU), the Creeper presumably lures his prey by posing as a rejected Wacky Races character.

Statement c. described the Horta as featured in Star Trek’s 25th episode, “The Devil in the Dark,” which explains that every 50,000 years, the entire race of rocky, amorphous horta dies off, except one horta, who is left to guard the horta egg chamber and raise the baby horta. It’s this horta, wounded and frightened, that Kirk and the crew successfully heal and protect. Merriam-Webster’s definition of “horta”? “When repeated, the standard onomatopoeia used to represent Louis Anderson’s depressed binge eating.”

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