Conclusion
You have just read five case histories of bestial behavior in man. It is hoped that the exposure to this information will have, in some way, given you a greater insight into man's nature, and therefore, into your own nature. We must not be too hasty to criticize a man for his expressions of love, no matter how bizarre, for all of us contain the germ of longing which draws us strongly towards a closer fusion with our universe.
In the words of the great naturalist and philosopher, Henry David Thoreau, taken from his classic story of living in the wilderness entitled Walden:
Once or twice, while I lived at the pond, I found myself ranging the woods, like a half-starved hound, with a strange abandonment, seeking some kind of venison which I might devour, and no morsel could have been too savage for me. The wildest scenes had become unaccountably familiar. I found in myself, and still find, an instinct toward a higher, or as it is named, spiritual life, as do most men, and another toward a primitive rank and savage one, and I reverence them both. I love the wild not less than the good.
We can take much to heart from these words. Man must accept that he is an animal, completely and irrevocably. An animal with animal impulses, instincts, desires, sexual urges, and needs. Lurking deep within man's psyche, deep within the dark caves of his collective unconscious, are the primitive and very real forces which are a natural part of his history. Man has a natural tendency toward loving himself and loving his environment. Yet, it is out of his foolish fears and perplexing prejudices that man teaches himself and his children to wage war, to hide in fear, to repress his natural inclinations, to avoid rather than fulfill his dreams.
It has been shown that man is fascinated with animals, and man is fascinated with himself in relation to animals. In his dreams and fantasies, his myths and legends, his religions and rituals, cultures and creations, man symbolically expresses his undeniable connectedness and relation with all of the other forces in his environment and his inner nature, a relationship which must include every small and great part of his need to fulfill himself, to find wholeness and freedom, to discover within himself, and without, the road to a happy marriage with his universe.
And if one views the paths man treads, one will accept the fact that man is mad in his search for sanity.