People Claiming to Be Vampires?

As I’m guessing many of you already know that vampirism has been a big subject recently.

Many people have come forward claiming to be one and writing stories about their “experiences”. I find this very interesting in this time, with vampires being so popular. Lets explore this.

Stories of vampirism have been around for hundreds, even thousands, of years but back then they were seen as monsters sneaking into your home to suck the very life essence out of you.

There were thousands of deaths blamed on them, leading to corpses being dug up and mutilated in the name of the safety of the village.

Of course, nobody came forward claiming to be a vampire, and that’s understandable. But in the “age of enlightenment”, still nobody stepped forward with these claims.

In fact there is no real documented evidence of people stepping forward claiming to be a vampire in any form at that time. The earliest that this can be seen happening was in the mid to late 1920′s. Why is this? By this time in history, stories of vampires had died down drastically. Science had come to the forefront and monsters and myths dropped to the way side. Here’s the answer – Dracula. Bram Stoker published his most famous novel in 1897, but it was met with luke warm reviews and sales. It’s popularity only picked up after a stage adaptation in 1924. It began traveling across the country, telling a story of immortal love and the strange sexuality of the vampire. It stuck in peoples minds. The romantic tones being gripped by the repressed society of the time.

Claims of oneself being a vampire has steadily grown since then. Dracula, going on to become the second most used character in stage and film just behind Sherlock Holmes. It sticks with people, someone being so sexy and never having to die. It’s a concept that everyone wants. But, sometimes you have to step back and look at the science andpsychology of it.

Getting to the bare bones concept of it, it’s human instinct to want to stay alive. We naturally fear death because of the sheer inability to understand it and what’s beyond it. The mind is always subconsciously looking for a way to stay alive. This is why the idea of immortality is so appealing. One thing that differentiates us from the animals is our imagination. Imagination is the ability to form concepts that are not perceived by the senses. The imagination is used to solve problems. It is the part of the brain we use when we make theories. We use the same part of our brain to tell stories. It is when these concepts blend that people could become confused.

Now on to immortality. The simple answer is that it’s impossible.

Death is the natural end of the life process. Nothing lasts forever. Rocks, metal, everything disintegrates. Everything in your life deteriorates even your body and mind. The moment you are born, your body starts to break down. The food we eat, the air we breath, the water we drink all causes damage to our bodies throughout our lives.

There are ways to prolong the lifespan but you can’t stop the inevitable.

What is in blood that vampires need anyway?

Blood consists of red and white blood cells, blood plasma (which is 90% water), proteins, minerals, glucose, hormones, oxygen, carbon dioxide, eukocytes, platelets, hemoglobin and waste from the body. All of that would either already be in their blood or be easy to get in hundreds of other ways.

We are meant to believe that this “virus” will mutate the body, but no virus is selective mutagenic, as in growing fangs, or “upping” strength, or changing the body to digest large amounts of blood. In fact, besides evolution itself, there is no known mutation that is beneficial to the being, most mutation is degenerative.

Porphyria is brought up many times connected to vampires. Here’s a quote from a friend on the Talk Paranormal forum named UglyNRude. “This theory was written in 1985 biochemist David Dolphin proposed that the vampires of folklore may actually have been people suffering from porphyria, a group of rare, largely hereditary blood diseases. According to the Times account of his remarks:

1. Porphyria victims are extraordinarily sensitive to sunlight. Even mild exposure can cause severe disfigurement. Facial skin may scar, the nose and fingers may fall off, and the lips and gums may become so taut that the teeth project like fangs.
2. To avoid sunlight, people with serious cases of porphyria go out only at night, just like Dracula.
3. Today porphyria can be treated with injections of blood products. Centuries ago, porphyria victims might have sought to treat themselves by drinking blood.
4. Porphyria is inherited, but the symptoms may not manifest themselves until brought on by stress. Suppose a sibling with an active case of the disease bites you to quench his thirst for blood. Très stressful, non? Suddenly your own latent porphyria goes critical and you start growing fangs too.
5. Garlic contains a chemical that worsens porphyria symptoms, causing sufferers to avoid it. Just like vampires.

Just one problem. People with porphyria aren’t vampires, and there’s no reason to think that the vampires of folklore had the disease (or existed at all). To respond point by point:

1. Porphyria comprises seven separate disorders. Skin problems are a fairly common symptom, but only the rarest form–congenital erythropoietic porphyria–causes severe disfigurement. Just 200 cases of this disease have been diagnosed, surely too few to account for the widespread belief in vampires. In any case, alleged vampires exhumed in the 18th century typically weren’t disfigured but appeared as they had in life (except for being dead, of course).
2. The idea that vampires abhor sunlight was an invention of fiction writers. In Europe during the 18th and 19th centuries, vampires were sometimes reported to have been sighted during the day. Bram Stoker’s Dracula was deathly pale, but folkloric vampires, in the Balkans anyway, were said to be ruddy-faced due to blood consumption.
3. Porphyria victims don’t crave blood. Drinking blood will not alleviate their symptoms, nor has there ever been a general belief that it would. The blood chemicals porphyria victims need do not survive digestion.
4. No one has proved that garlic worsens porphyria.

If vampires existed according to legend they would of destroyed their blood source in less then 3 years. Every person they supposedly turn into a vampire then claims more victims so the multiplication would wipe themselves out.”

Read The Science of Vampires if you’d like to know more.

The human mind can convince itself of anything and just because you think you are a vampire, it doesn’t mean you are. I find it funny that with the popularity of vampires in the media, they are all of a sudden popping up everywhere. The fact that this happens makes me severely question when someone shows up claiming to be a blood sucker. Any regular visitor to the site will have noticed that these supposed vampires practically popped up out of nowhere, and if we are meant to believe that they have been around this whole time, why haven’t they shown up sooner? This reminds me of an article in an old news paper my grandfather had. It was from 1934 and it was about people claiming to be gangsters even though they had legal, mundane, jobs. Basically, they believed what they wanted to believe.

So, like I said, just because you want to be a vampire, it doesn’t mean you are.

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