they were and are real, but there is one confounding factor; modern man has 'demystified' the world he sees through the lens of science. as much as science claims to be objective, a 'purely transparent, non distorting lens' no such perfect lens exists. all lenses, hammering the optical metaphor, introduce some distortion of the light, have some 'tint', as it were. to the ancient irish man he looked at a butterfly and saw a faerie. to a modern man he sees an 'insect', which is neatly and systematically categorized into the linnean catalogue of 'animal species'. essentially people blind themselves to 99.99999...% of deeper reality by subscribing to a particular reality, in most cases the one taught to them by their social circle.
Pirate