By AJ Cross
Photo: Some hot vampire on vampire action in HBO’s “True Blood”
With all the sensationalism surrounding vampirism today and in conjunction with the approaching Halloween holiday, I decided to delve into the world of the occult and learn more about the subject. It seems that even with the glamour of shows such as “True Blood” or “Vampire Diaries,” there is a more medical and psychological reality to vampirism.
Dr. Stephen Caplan is considered to be one of the leading authorities on the subject of “vampirism” in the United States, and according to him there are approximately fifty living “Vamps” in the US today. If you take away immortality, crushed velvet shirts and the ability to transform into a bat, he says that the movies and television shows are not that far from reality. In almost every case study, the so-called Vampire did exhibit a physical need for human blood and in some cases that need would equal up to a pint of blood per week.
These subjects also had a physical intolerance to natural light and though they did not burst into flames while standing in the sun, they do wear hats and dark sunglasses to avoid the pain light causes to their sensitive pale skin and eyes.
Many of the Vamps he studied were able to successfully locate “donors,” who were people willing to donate their own blood during physical and predominantly sexual encounters. In only three cases did the Vamp puncture skin with their teeth and suck the blood out, In most cases, a sterile hypodermic needle was used to puncture the donor’s skin and the blood was drawn out medically. In the absence of donors, some Vamps would find other blood sources in animals such as rabbits. In every case, the blood snack had to be fresh, untainted and as close to 98 degrees temperature as possible.
There was a time within the Roman Catholic Church that “vampirism” was taken so seriously that there was a school for the occult.
One of the leading authorities for the church on the subject was Dom Augustin Calmet who was a French Benedictine monk. It was through his studies that we learned that most of the myths came from Europe in a region of Romania called Transylvania. This is why Bram Stoker, in 1897, decided to tell his story of Dracula which was set in Transylvania.
So, as you trick or treat this year and pass all the sexy people on the street wearing next to nothing, be wary of that mysterious stranger whispering to you in the alley. He or she may not be pretending, and you just might be getting your teeth into something you are not ready for. Or should I say, someone may be getting their teeth into you.
