Easter Island Heads (Moai): Not Too Scary After All

Amazingly a person’s perspective can change dramatically after getting more information on something.

Moai at Rano Raraku, Easter Island (Source)

I once thought of Easter Island heads or Moai as scary and supernatural. As a 3 or 4 year old kid, I remember seeing something about it on TV. I’m not sure if it was a horror show or just a documentary on these giant stone heads but it definitely gave me a nightmare.

In that nightmare, one of the giant heads rose up from the land. Our entire family was there in front of it when it happened. While it was coming out making the ground shake and rumble, we ran for our lives. I think more of the heads eventually followed suit, like they suddenly got activated and came alive and grew bodies or something. But since the one after us became as tall as a 40 or maybe 50 floor building, it eventually came close to stepping on us. Of course I woke up before anything bad happened. What a nightmare for a little girl eh? It shook me to the core that from then on I decided I would not watch scary stuff anymore, ever.

Of course I’ve seen a few scary shows/movies since then but only when I got really interested about it. That childhood nightmare really made an impact in my life. It gave me the creeps every time I see images of Moai. Even a Nintendo game I played as a kid had images of it during the game’s warp speed moment, it gave me slight shivers whenever I saw it. I don't remember what game it was... It's not Macross/Robotech I think. Tried to search for it but I can't find it because I don't remember what game it was. (I found other games though, a post for another day.)

Anyway I also saw the pilot episode of Ancient Aliens (in 2009) talking about these heads being possibly done with alien technology. It made me think it was possible but a lot of their episodes have already been debunked at some point, which leads us to the question: What are these Easter Island Heads really?

What and Where Are The Moai Heads?

In case you didn't know, according to Wikipedia,

Easter Island is a Chilean island in the southeastern Pacific Ocean, at the southeastern most point of the Polynesian Triangle in Oceania.

And on Easter Island, there are a lot of giant head sculptures called Moai. Actually, not just heads but gigantic human figures carved by the Rapa Nui people who lives on Easter Island.

4 years ago I found a BBC documentary by Dr. Jago Cooper about Easter Island so I watched it then. My thoughts on these scary heads changed at that point because I learned more about the island’s history. It showed how these Moai sculptures were made by humans, the Rapa Nui people of the island, and how they might have moved them to where they are now. You will see how amazing and ingenious these people are portrayed that such giant sculptures they made would seem really harmless.

This means what I realized in life a decade or so ago is right: We all fear the unknown, while some are fascinated by it, but once we know more about something then it ceases to be scary or fascinating.

Six of the 15 Ahu Tongariki Moais (Source)

Wanna see a video of how the Moai might have "walked" to where they are now? Watch this video.

Let me leave you with another video about it for additional info.

If you watch the videos and check the images above, that's not how it looked like in my kiddie nightmare. They had big bulky squarish stone bodies like ours and were real heavy too of course. Each step they took shook the Earth. Whew.

Would you like to go to Easter Island and see these monolithic sculptures for yourselves? I still wouldn't even if I know they are not something to be afraid of. Lol. Okay, am off to watch spooky vids now.

XOXO,
@artgirl