Vampires and Vampirism

Vampire or vampirism means to take something without giving anything in return. In this hub I will discuss the mythological vampire, and the people in the world who suffer with vampiric like symptoms. This is definately not a hub about Twilight, Interview with the Vampire, House of Night, Vampire Academy or any other forms of fiction written about the mythological vampire (although they are awesome books).

Secondly I do not claim to be a vampire, sanguinarian or anything further. I am simply a writer with my own thoughts and opinions who stumbled upon a few things to do with vampirism, the culture created and so on. Nor am I interested in becoming a vampire. Just so you all know.

Mythological Vampires are what we all know and love. They are gorgeous undead creatures who are immortal, seductive, feed on blood, and are usually the love interest of a female character in a book.

These vampires are also incredibly fast, strong, brooding (except for the bad guys) and some of them even have the ability to wield magic. Most are chivalrous and very smart. Basically the mythological vampire is something everyone wants to be. Why? here are a list of reasons:

• Immortality, all humans either fear death or just aren't ready to die yet.
• Youthfulness, imagine being always young and beautiful, no sagging no proctologists just loveliness.
• Never getting sick. I don't need to explain that one.
• Telling any boss anywhere to stick it because you have forever anyway.

I could go on and on but there really is no need for that is there? Vampires have every strength we want and none of our weaknesses.

In the olden and ancient days a whole lot of evil was blamed on vampires. The black plague for instance was one of them. Then there was the matter of burying people who were alive at the time and so on. There are even Austrian government accounts of exhuming bodies believed to have been vampires and staking them, nailing them beheading them, burning them, all because of the superstition that vampires were these evil creatures coming to kill everyone. The exhumations did not stop until 1912. Could it have been that bodies were not being buried properly in the first place? With all of this dead body hunting was when the discovery of Garlic as a vampiric weakness came to be, most likely because of the strong smell of garlic covering the smell of a body or because garlic is known to purify blood.

Then Christianity sets in and vampires then became the sons and daughters of Satan out to do Satans work. These vampires were often people who were excommunicated from the church before they died. Crosses and Holy water also then became a weakness of vampires. People with blue eyes were also considered vampires.

Then there is my all time favourite thing about the Vampire the weakness of being staked through the heart. Where did this one come from I hear you ask. Vladimir Drakul who we now know as Dracula, also known as Vladimir Tepes (which means Impaler) Yes Vladimir Drakul III whom ruled Wallachia three times was known as Vladimir the Impaler. Why? Because when Vladimir Drakul fought his battle to claim back his throne he impaled his opposers and left the impaled bodies staked in the ground around the borders under which he ruled.

There is however, no explaination for sunlight, at all. My own theory is that at night we become a little more edgy because we are afraid of what we cannot see and therefore the vampire must only roam at night when we are all a little more edgy, maybe the nocturnal part was brought up to frighten us a little more, to be good to our husbands/wives and make our kids behave. Who knows? In all of my research that is all I can come up with.

Nowadays, the vampire is more romanticised, less violent and has very little blood lust. Even looks appealing.

Are vampires real? If they were what would you say to them? Would you fear one?

The technical answer to this question is this, vampires are real but are nothing like the mythological creatures we perceive them to be. There are different types of vampires but the ones closest to our mythological friends are the Sanguinarians.

Yup thats right there are people i the world whom drink other peoples blood because they feel a physical need to without any medicinal explanation.

These vampires are not immortal. They don't sleep in coffins and see garlic as nothing more than a spice. They have no aversion to religious icons or holy water. Staking them would most definitely hurt and probably kill them as with any other person in the world. Sunlight is something that tends to harm most of them.

Do they burst in to flames and turn to ash? NO! They do burn very easily and get severe headaches and migraines from the sun, they feel weakened by it, but I must stress it will not kill them. Now this is the reason for writing my hub. Some people claim to be vampires or sanguinarians and say they are centuries old etc etc etc. More like; I am a wannabe goth who feels so out casted in the world that I want to make up some B.S for some more attention. Mark my words those people are out there, making a mockery of those whom suffer (their description not mine) with what they are and how to deal with these problems.

Some sanguinarians I have found enjoy being just that. Others find it debilitating. Can they get help is the most important question that comes to mind for many of us who do not understand it. Well it may be difficult to get medical help where do you think waltzing into a doctors office and stating "I think I am a vampire" is going to get you? Ten seconds away from the looney bin I'd wager. Whether or ot you choose to believe this or not there are people in the world who feel the physical need to drink blood and feel the same side effects of a junkie going cold turkey when they cannot get it. Which brings me to my next point.

If a sanguinarian happens to be reading this let me be the first to apologise, through this hub I am trying to create a better understanding.

Could it be Rabies? It is a known symptom of rabies to feel the need to consume blood. However I am yet to hear of a sang frothing at the mouth and drinking peoples blood.

Celiac Disease? Celiac disease does weird things to sufferers. I personally know people with celiac one of them a child. This child could be given chocolate and still take preference to going out to the yard and eating dirt by the handful. Drinking blood could be a result of celiac but then again if the tests are negative then celiac is not the cause of someone feeling the need to drink blood.

Porphyria? This is not a blood drinking problem as it is a sunlight problem. Sufferers of Poryphyria burn very quickly in sunlight and cannot be in any artificial lights because of the burns and symptoms of sunstroke. People who are sanguinarians and claim to have an aversion to sunlight don't have symptoms as severe as porphyria and the results being negative leaves it a medical mystery.

Now we get to the psychological and psychiatric part of vampirism. Many people who claim to be vampires are diagnosed with schizophrenia and other psychiatric disorders. Schizophrenia is usually found in the vampires who have delusions of grandeur. eg. " I can run faster than the average human being, am stronger than the average human being, I am Immortal" etc.

There is another disorder that people have called Renfield's Syndrome. This is often the result of a male having trauma in their childhood and then associating blood drinking with sexual arousal. More often than not those who suffer with Renfield's will often feel empowered as a direct result of those who feel the compulsion to drink blood because of the sexual association with it. This is a treatable disorder and again if someone is assessed as someone who suffers with Renfield's results are negative then it leaves the need to drink blood a mystery.

Now that we have that out of the way I should move on to the psi Vamps.

I personally find Psi Vamps harder to believe than the sanguinarian. Before I upset anyone my reasons for this is simple. Remember back in the day when you were a kid and you would play with a Ouja board, or you would tell ghost stories and all of a sudden things go bump and bang? That's kind of why I am a bit doubtful about them. I think this is because it's harder to put a B.S filter on people claiming to be psi vamps; but nonetheless I brought them up so I will objectively talk about this aspect of vampirism also.

Ok so Psychic Vampires are also known as Psi Vamps. Psi Vamps feed off the psychic energy or prana of others as they cannot regenerate this energy themselves. Now why do they not just call themselves psychics I hear you ask? (label this label that) Psychics are tuned in to the energy around them, whether it be knowing what kind of mood you in before entering the room, seeing the dead etc. Psi Vamps FEED off this energy which is why they are different. Psi vamps feed off all types of energy including thunderstorms, wind, animals and human beings. They also state that it is better to feed in crowds.

Have you ever seen a vampire movie where a vamp walks through a garden and all the plants die? Imagine that vamp as a psi vamp absorbing the energy from each plant, taking in its life force feeding from that energy. That's what Psi Vamps do, but without killing things.

When a psi vamp feeds off the energy around them they do not put it back, therefore making it a term for vampirism. Psi Vamps feed off the willing and the not so willing depending on the morals and ethics that influence the said vampires conscience.

Do I think there is such a thing as a psi vamp? Yes, but like all things in life I dont nessesarily believe everyone who says they are a psi vamp. I also believe that the psi vamp is more acceptable to the mainstream culture because there is no blood and therefore no harm done. Which is fine but it does not negate that .these psi vamps (they know who they are) have the right to turn on sanguinarians and tell them that they need to feed off the prana of others instead of blood. That's like telling a white person born in africa that because he comes from africa he must be black. Not cool. Ok losing my objective here.

Now, just like with sanguinarians I also believe that psi vamps could have some psychological or psychiatric assessment to ensure that they are sane and not suffering from schizophrenia or any other kind of disorder. Believing one is something does not nessesarily mean that they are. Schizophrenics see and hear and believe things all the time. Getting a mental assessment would not hurt.

Not that I am saying that all who claim to be vampires psi or otherwise must be crazy, I am simply saying that sometimes people can confuse things for one thing when it is another. If you believe you are a vamp and you do not want to get an assessment medical, psychiatric or otherwise thats cool too.

 This section needs to be brought up. There are people who claim to be a vampire of some degree or another and make a complete mockery of people who really are vampires.

Imagine if the "in" trend was having cancer and someone managed to falsify that they suffered from it causing those around them unessasary anguish and grief. That is exactly what the posers do. They pretend to be vampires and then continue onward to say that they are immortals who are lightening fast and incredibly strong and can grow back body parts etc. They cause people who are the real kind of vampires to hide and not want to say anything.

Imagine trying to come to terms with the fact that someone is a vampire a friend or loved one confides in you because they feel they can trust you to still love them anyway and your perception is altered because of the posers, that would be an incredibly sad day for you and your loved one.

Posers need more psychiatric assessment than anyone because of their ability to be such pathetic wannabe goths who feel they deserve the attention of others by making up lies and believing their own delusions. 

I embrace the vampires, just as I do those who are gay. No matter what type of human being you are, you are still a human being to me. Hopefully in writing this hub I have made a movement in the human race that creates understanding rather than hate and fear.

have a great day and thanks so much for reading!!!