So how is trusting authority working out for you so far?
It's a piece of the puzzle, these stories come from somewhere. The general idea is to use your brain to put the pieces together.
A very rich imagination? It's so easy to see something perfectly normal and imagine a whole new world around it. Even more so if at the time there is no "rational" explanation for it.
A three headed malformed dog? It must be the monster guarding the entrance to Hell.