Variety of supernatural beings are caused by cultural differences. Our interpretation of life gives a different meaning to same situations. For western countries, a possession story is mostly causing of ghost or evil. For the far east, it is a cause of spirits or gods. And for my country Turkey, it is made by genies. It is an effect of religion mostly.
Probably Erzebeth Bathory was the closest to a real-life vampire. Born in 1560 in Hungary, part of a royal family and the Order of the Dragon, -Vlad the Impaler and his family was also a part of the Order of the Dragon-. She killed and tortured more than 500 people, mostly girls age between 10-15. She bathed in their blood, ate some of their body parts and kept certain parts for later use (i guess:/) She was obssessed with staying young and being immortal.
Think about vampires. It is a result of Europe -especially eastern- folklore. In literature, it is mostly a metaphor for autocracy. When public can't understand a behavior, they call it supernatural and bad, just like in Salem.
In Medieval time, it was common to bury someone with a stone in their mouth if public suspect that they were vampire.
And the reason why they stuck a wooden or iron stick to their chest is not to kill but to be sure that they stay under the soil.
Question is, does fear create folklore about supernatural, or does folklore create fear? I don't know. I will try not to tackle this in my stories. Because I can't explain how did they happen or how had they been solved. Only thing I can tell you is, they all happened and they freaked me out.
Let's start with a non-scary one. When I was in elementary school me and my sisters were sleeping in same room. I was sleeping in a single bed they had a bunk bed. There was a routine my mom used to do, checking windows just before we sleep. That night, after midnight, she came again to check windows. When I opened my eyes to see her, she was like a shadow and I could see her perms as shadow so clearly. ( It was 80's guys, everybody had perms:/ ) I quietly said 'mom' couple of times but she didn't respond. She just checked the windows and returned. In the morning I asked her why she didn't respond and my older sister also said she saw her too and she also asked why she didn't respond to me. My mom's answer was, she didn't check them that night.
This one is about one of my closest friend's cousin. She is a gorgeous girl, you know, one of those girls who can attract men even when they are in a big crowd full of beautiful girls. This girl started to have something like a night terror. She acts strangely during the night, talk strange and it seems like she doesn't have any control over her body. So my friend and his mother came to this girl's house. And when they were there she had another episode like that. My friend's mom is so into this stuff and knows lots of people who claim to solve these issues. (you may call them something like reverend) They call someone and this guy -reverend- ask them to let the girl listen to his voice via phone. And when they did, he started to say a prayer in Arabic, in 10 sec she fell asleep. Then he told them to bring the girl to him cause he believes that a spirit of a soldier possessed her cause that soldier fell in love with her. After a couple of treatment session, she was ok. No sign of night terror or any kind of possession.
Almost 20 years ago, I was staying at my friend's house. The house was full, lots of friends were staying that night and not enough space for all. We made some floor beds just like in Japan and I was sleeping next to a friend. Late that night I opened my eyes and there was darkness above me. I scared a lot and closed my eyes again, like if it'd disappear after that. Then I wanted to wake my friend up but when I tried to move my right hand, i couldn't move at all. I wanted to yell but even when I opened my mouth, there was no sound at all. I felt like I was suffocating. It was a struggle between me and something but I didn't feel a force. For about a min I struggle then I was able to move my finger and at the same time I made some noise. It wasn't a scream or a word, more like a giving a big breath after holding it for a long time. Then I opened my eyes and woke my friend too. He didn't give a damn and continue sleeping. That worked, his careless act made me relaxed and I slept like nothing happened.
A similar thing happened to a friend when they were younger but their incident was worse. They are brothers and they were sleeping in the same room. In the middle of midnight older one woke up and saw a head, just a dark head, hanging over his brother bed and looking down at him. When he about to say something to his younger brother, He realized that his brother is levitating and was going higher. He was in shock and couldn't say or do anything for a couple of seconds. Then he wanted to get up and do something but that head turned his face to my friend. As soon as the head turns, my friend couldn't move just like what happened to me. The head flew to my friend's bed and levitated over his body. My friend was praying from inside, all the prayers he knows, he couldn't talk or couldn't move at least for 1 min. Then he fell from the bed and able to move again.
In our culture and in Islamic belief, genies have their own life similar to our way of living. They even have religion. There are christian genies, Muslim genies etc.
The last one is more interesting. It happened to a friend's mother and it happened for almost a month. There wasn't a camera phone back then, otherwise, we could see one of the weirdest videos ever. For a couple of times in a week, when his mother woke up, her feet were covered with dirt. They couldn't understand why or how it happens, apparently, his mother didn't remember anything at all. After the second week, she woke up with dirty clothes this time. They realized that it wasn't just a sleepwalking. So one day, he and his father decided to follow the mother (it is a bit too late I guess, I'd have followed my mom on the second day. I know I am too curious but they were too careless I think) She got up from bed, unlock the door, goes out without wearing shoes. Then she passed through some construction area and they showed me the way she passed, it is impossible for that fat lady to pass those areas. She walked over scaffoldings! Then she stopped in the middle of a construction area and started to work with a shovel. She was mixing cement with a shovel and doing that kind of stuff. They watched her for an hour or two (why!! I would take my mom out of there at that moment) then she stopped and went back home. They did what every other Turkish family would do, found a reverend. It is obviously not a reverend but I don't know what to call them in English, sorry. Anyhow, he said, she was possessed by a genie and he explained how it happened. She was dumping garbage at night to a certain place. It was under a tree and there were ashes there. In Islamic belief, genies are living mostly under a tree, around ashes, dirty places like toilets etc. So what he said was, she dumped those ashes to this genie's living place. And genie possessed her. They went to this reverend couple of times and she was well after 2 weeks.
These are some examples what you might hear in Turkey. Turkish supernatural stories are mostly about genies so I wrote only one genie story cause you will bump into more of them in this contest. Can we explain all these happenings with physics and science? Are people get better because they believe? In an anime about gods and spirits, the main character says something so important: those demons, spirits, and gods become real because someone believes in them. And those people get rid of those beings when they believe themselves. (the main phrase in anime was, no one saves anybody, only you can save yourself) So, can we say, we create those monsters, demons, ghosts, and genies with the power of our minds, and again with the power of the mind, we get rid of them?