It is a dark and moonless night when you hear a knock on your door.  As you answer it you wonder ‘who could it be?’ You look through the peep hole and see a well dressed middle aged man standing there waiting for you to open the door. You say "who is it?" and he answers that it is your “father.” You look through the peep hole again and actually see your father, so you open the door. Your father is just standing there as you look at him dumb founded then he looks at you and asks you "are you not going to invite me in?" As you start to do so what he has asked you starts to trouble you. He never asked to be “invited in” before. What should you do? Invite him in or just walk away from the door to get a mirror and crucifix because you think he may be one of the un-dead? Or if we take the name that was first used in the 18^th century "Vampire?” Why would we think he was a Vampire? First would be the change in appearance and then the fact that he would not come in without being invited. These are some of the legends that are associated with the Vampire, in this article let’s take a look at some of the folklore and modern views on what constitutes a Vampire .

For me, the hardest part of writing this article is where to start. I know that there is so much information out there that I fear that I will leave something out or mix up the facts with the fiction. This often happens with legends and folklore that are as old as this one. If you look at the basics of what a Vampire is or what its characteristic are, then you have more to look at and more places to visit. There are tales of supernatural entities that drink blood in all most every culture around the world spanning many centuries. So looking back in ancient times we see many stories that have an entity that today would be called a vampire. Looking back, the Persians are one of the first peoples to have tales of blood drinking entities or creatures. They have depicted these creatures on some of the pottery that has been found showing creatures drinking the blood of men.

Most of these ancient entities or creatures were thought to be Demons by the people of the time, they thought that all entities or creatures were Demons or Deities. In India they have Kali who has fangs and who had on its person dead bodies or skulls and was another blood drinker. The People of India also have tales of Vetalas ( a ghoul like entity that inhabited the body of the dead), Pishacha (a spirit of evil people or those who died insane) who both have vampiric attributes. Babylonia had the stories of Lilitu that was a demon that was often depicted taking the blood of babies. This Lilitu tale was thought to have been taken by the Hebrews for their tale of Lilith and her daughter Lilu that was said to take the blood of men, women and newborns.

Interesting to know that the Lilith legend is also attributed to the Succubus, that takes the life force of a man and has sex with him to spawn an Incubus. Stealing the life force is an important aspect of the legends of the Vampire, in ancient times the blood was attributed to the life force. But for now we will keep to the blood drinkers. The Greek and Romans had the Empusae, Lamia and Striges to cover their blood drinking demons. The Empusa was said to change into a young beautiful woman to seduce men as they slept before drinking their blood. This is very similar to the Succubus legend again. So maybe a lot of the original tales that are attributed to being a Vampire are Succubus and Incubus. Or these were the original Vampires and as the times changed so they changed with it. I could go on and on about the ancient times and different cultures legends that could be associated to the Vampire but I think it safe to say that there are way too many to relate in this column. We have seen that Vampire-like creatures have been in our folklore for as long as we have feared the night.

Our fear of the night is rooted in our psyche from long before we had the ability to reason. It comes from a time when the night was filled with animals that would call us prey if we were not careful to protect ourselves and our families. This is not to say that legends are not based in some facts. Let’s take a look at some of the things in legends and in the present that a Vampire is said to be able to do. The first one is drink blood, this is one of the main things that makes an entity a Vampire in most peoples mind. One of the definitions of a Vampire is a corpse that comes out of its grave at night to drink the blood of the living.

 In the time that they thought that Vampires were running rampant they would unearth the graves of the recently deceased. When they found that the body was bloated and had blood or reddening around the mouth they were sure that they were a Vampire. They would stake the body and when the trapped gasses would expel, they would think it was a breath and then they were sure that it was a Vampire. Sometimes they would burn the remains and even behead the body before re-burying the remains and sometimes they would not only burn them but cremate the remains and scatter them. Looking at the body was not the only way that they thought that you could tell if it was a Vampire.

Where oh where is the Vampire’s grave? OK, just a little laugh there. The people would not just dig up the newer graves, because whenever they thought they had a Vampire they would run some test on old graves also. One test was to walk a virgin boy through the grave yard and if he stumbled or would not cross a grave then it was concluded that a Vampire must be in it. Some would take a virgin horse white or black in color to the grave yard and if the horse would not cross or would balk at a grave again they must be a Vampire there. So there was a time that the hysteria of the people led them to desecrating almost all the graves thinking at there were Vampires everywhere. During this time in history the Vampire was not romanticized but rather a horror that was feared. All deaths that were not explained were thought to be caused by Vampires, this includes deaths of the live stock. The Vampire of the past was a true fiend that was not a well dressed handsome man or a beautiful woman - it was a ghastly ghoul of a being. It was not until the book Dracula was written that romance was brought to the  to the legend.

Dracula was one of the first romantic Vampires that brought sexuality into the legend, yes, there was the succubus but it was not a vampire. The story of Dracula took horror and mixed in legends and a love story that transcended time. Well sort of a love story - dead guy loves the reincarnation of his true love. This book and then the many movies that were stories about Dracula also brought the Vampire hunter into the story. Before the Dracula story the churches were the ones that hunted Vampires. Van Helsing was the first paranormal investigator, he used the science of the day to fight Vampires. Well he used more than just holy relics to fight and detect the vampires. Bram Stoker brought Dracula to life or to un-dead form in part from Vlad the impaler who was said to have killed well over ten thousand by impalement. He was also said to have drunk their blood while dinning in the presence of their corpses. Sounds like a good person to become a timeless villain to humanity but, because of literature and movies we have a few more.

There are many ways that the Head or first Vampire was thought to come into being such as a curse from God. This one I believe is because of the fact that they thought that when a witch died there was a chance that it would come back as a Vampire. Another way was if a animal jumps over the body, especially a dog or cat that the body would become a Vampire. Being possessed by a demon or evil spirit that wants to feed on humans is another way. This one is from folklore of many different cultures with some differences such as the a person who asked for the entity to come into them. Others have the entity attacking the person who after the attack becomes a Vampire. These are examples of  the blood drinking type of Vampire but is that the only type of Vampire?

We have talked a bit about the un-dead Vampires and I know that there is a lot more information out there on Vampires. You can spend years reading the folklore alone. I would like to talk now about a type of Vampire that is a blood drinker but is not one or the un-dead. There are people all over the world who believe that they are Vampires and have clubs where they drink blood. There are people that go to these clubs to be dominated and to have their blood drunk. Now as long as they are consenting adults for this sort of thing - who am I to judge their behavior? If that computer geek by day becomes a blood drinker by night more power to him. It seems that it is all about the power that it gives a person and the act of pretending of being something that is far from what he/she is in normal life. I do have to say that I do like the way some of the woman dress in that particular Vampire genre! But I digress a little here, well there is still one other type of un-dead Vampire and they may dress the same as the blood drinkers.

Sorry about getting stuck on the woman dressed in gothic attire… back to the next type of Vampire the psychic type. These psychic Vampires are not always dressed in gothic attire or even believe that they are Vampires. Concerning a psychic Vampires we have some questions to ask… Who are they? What are they? AND Why are they? A psychic Vampire could be anyone, and anyone can become a psychic Vampire. Yes, anyone. There are people out there who say that they can teach you how to become a psychic Vampire. But if the conditions are right we all can be a psychic Vampire and not even know that we are. This is not to the extent that some of the people that have embraced being a vampire has, but rather by “chance” and “need.” So what is a psychic Vampire?

Every person has an energy field that is a part of their life force and it changes with their emotions and physical condition. When someone’s energy field is low there is a chance that the vacuum of the missing energy will attract another person’s energy to fill the void. Some examples of this is when your in a good mood and you run into a person that is not in a good mood then all of a sudden you feel rundown or your mood changes. We can freely share our energy such as with practicing reiki or using your Qi (Chi) in healing or in combat. The psychic Vampires do not give any energy or life force they take it from their victims which could cause problems. The problems that a psychic Vampire attacks could cause are physical and emotional because of the energy your body is missing. The energy is part of your life force and as such helps in protecting your physical body by working with the immune system. The emotional side comes from the depression that comes from the lack of energy. We know that lacking the energy to enjoy life is a symptom of depression and as such can lead to depression. Many of the people that have experienced prolonged psychic Vampire attacks have a

hard time getting back to normal. So why would do this to someone if you knew you were doing it? Well the people that practice being a psychic Vampire become addicted to the availability of the extra energy in their lives. Or they believe that they are true Vampires and that everyone who is not able to defend themselves against their attacks is their prey. This type of person is the one that is into Vampires for the power - the feeling of superiority over others. This is one of the lures of the Vampire lifestyle that attract some people.

I have touched on the vampire clubs that are around the world which are for the most part harmless except that it is a starting point for something more serious. Once a person gets on board with the clubs then they may form a Vampire cult. This is like a satanic cult in many ways, it will have a head person and they think that the laws and rules of man do not apply to them. Rod Ferrell a Vampire cult leader in 1996 killed a member of one of his cults parents. This is just the one that I remember, I am sure that there are many others that have happened with the increased popularity of Vampires and the lifestyle.

Movies and TV shows have started to depict Vampires as good and also have started to target the youth with movies like "Twilight.” The life style of Vampires has changed with movies like this from vampires being always in the shadows to being in the light of day. This took away the dark gothic looks for more stylish look and the once nocturnal powers to the light of day. So now you have the gothic looking Vampires that sleep during the day and are pale night dwelling people. These are the ones that would go the clubs and become members of Vampire cults. The others, lets call them the twilighters, are small cults that may or may not have a head Vampire. They form as social clubs and grow into a cult, even to a point that they start blood drinking. You can see that the people that start to live the Vampire lifestyle have a chance to become more like the Vampire of legend and that is without being bitten by a Vampire. Looking at all the different Vampires of legend and present time there is always someway that you can protect yourself.

Protection from historic Vampires starts with what your religious beliefs are, this is important. If you want to use the old tried and true cross and you are Jewish then there is a chance that the cross or crucifix will not work. The way I see it is that you need to use the artifacts of protection of your own religious beliefs. This is because the power of the artifact partially comes from your belief in the artifact

So for protection, on your person, it needs to be something that you believe in, this goes for crystals also. Protection from most of the things that we call supernatural starts with you, that is what you believe in. There is an adage that if you do not believe in it that it cannot harm you, I like to add that if do not believe that it can hurt you it can’t. It is part of the way you set up your energy field to protect you. Also there is the protection of the white light, you imagine that you are surrounded by a white light that will protect you from the negative.

You can read up on many different ways to protect yourself from the native entities and pick out the one that fits your belief. Here again you need to believe that it will work for you, you have to have faith.

With all negative entities, including any type of Vampire that is out there, you need to be sure of your beliefs and who you are to help yourself ward them off. Now don’t get me wrong here if you are dealing with a sociopathic 7 ft tall body builder who thinks he is a Vampire - garlic, holy water, crucifixes or any crystals that you have will not help to protect you. That is when you need to have a 12 gauge shotgun. But for the real type of Vampires that are out there in the supernatural world the 12 gauge shotgun is no good without silver in the shot shells.

There is too much from legends and literature to cover in this article but I hope that this synopsis will help you to determine how you think about Vampires. Are they the evil spirits, demons or deities of the past that have been modernized for our time or are they Vampires who are un-dead and look at us as prey? Maybe you believe that we as humans cannot understand what a Vampire truly is. Well for me I think that there are psychic vampires and demons or entities that can have all the traits that we attribute to Vampires. Over the years names change and legends grow and mix with other legends until all the different entities that were involved are all thought to be one and the same. So now I hope that you will not fear the strangers that you may meet in the night, even if they look the part of a Vampire.