The machine elves
Today, for something entirely different: the machine elves! One could argue that stories like this one are a form of modern folklore.
Terence McKenna, an American mystic, botanist and advocate for the use of psychedelic plants, coined this term to describe the elf-like creatures seen by people using DMT. Described as ‘self-transforming vibrating elves’, these creatures are supposedly entities from a higher dimension, and their true form cannot be comprehended by the human mind.
This is, of course, nonsense, and possibly a product of our brains tendency to produce a humanoid or anthropomorphic image when something is wrong, which is supposedly the same process that we experience during sleep paralysis, when people see a scary humanoid monster (I found no decent sources on that, don't take it as fact). Some conspiracy theorists, however, often claim that these elves are entities from another dimension and that we can only see them and communicate with them by using psychedelic substances (DMT in particular).
According to McKenna, the machine elves live in a large enclosed space deep underground, which is shaped like a dome. These creatures are able to "create and make things using language".
Some people go as far as to claim that native American shamans (as well as African tribes and Australian Aboriginals) used to communicate with these ‘machine elves’. I’ve even seen claims that these creatures are Biblical beings. They are also sometimes called ‘fractal elves’ or ‘jennies’.
Some believe that the Jennies are ancient, timeless beings in charge of maintaining reality – the architects and technicians of the cosmos. One theory (can it be called that?) is that these creatures are our future – or rather, higher - selves, having ascended into a higher plane of existence. I have to admit, while the entire story is nonsense, I love the idea and think it would be a great plothook for a fantasy novel.
Sources: non-aliencreatures.fandom.com https://conspiracycorners.wordpress.com/2012/03/21/dmt-machine-elves-a-footnote/ https://educateinspirechange.org/spirituality/many-people-on-psychedelics-seem-to-encounter-machine-elves-who-what-are-these-mysterious-beings/ https://medium.com/@mustaphahitani/the-cabiri-machine-elves-and-other-dimensions-998a2df937b4 (image source 1: non-aliencreatures.fandom.com) (image source 2: Alex Grey)
