Friday, October 31, 2008

Vampires II

Psychotic vampire- A psychotic vampire is a person who has a sociopath mental illness that leads him (an exclusive male trait) to behave like a vampire, and sometimes to actually self-identify as one. In most cases, this identification is with folkloric/fictional vampires such as Dracula, Anne Rice's characters or the vampires in role-playing games. But more usually, psychotic vampires are simply obsessed with blood and will commit brutal crimes without remorse in order to see, taste, and feel it. Some may also take on the travesty-go of vampyre lifestylers by wearing capes, sleeping in coffins, filling their homes with skulls, bones, and souvenirs stolen from cemeteries through they should not be confused with true lifestylers. *See Richard Trenton Chase

Human Living Vampires (HLV's)- are individuals who, while they firmly assert that they are essentially human beings, and to all external appearances are exactly that, nevertheless have pronounced vampiric characteristics having a need, compulsion, or involuntary tendency to "feed" upon some substance or some kind of energy produced by other living things, primarily other people. HLV's fall into two main classes: sanguinarians who experience blood-lust or blood-craving, and "psychic vampires" or "psi-vampires". Boundaries among categories can be hazy and overlap considerably, and there is no rule that says a bona fide HLV might not also be interested in lifestyle vamping or be a blood fetishist. Within these two larger categories, there are several subdivisions among self-defined HLV's. There are also a number of different "theories" proposed by HLV's to explain their own origin, or the cause(s) of their conditions. Human Living Vampires are human beings who are born, grow up, age, and fully expect to die at the end of a conventional lifespan. No HLV claims to be immortal, invincible, or possessed of supernatural abilities.

However, many members of these groups believe themselves to have some form of sensory amplification or extrasensory perception, such as:

-Improved night-vision, sometimes to the point of being able to see without even moonlight
-Stinging of the skin when exposed to sunlight
-An ability to sense other vampires
-Broader range of senses
-Prescience, or the capacity to instinctively predict the immediate future
-Perception of auras

Although some report enhanced strength, stamina, resistance to disease, and so forth, in no case do these traits exceed the limits of human norms. They are prone to any illness or injury that afflicts human beings. They can and do have children. They have normal nutritional requirements (although some HLV's report unusual food cravings, allergies or aversions) and in all other ways are bound by natural law.

Both blood-drinking and psi-draining HLVs use the term "feed" to refer to what they actually do. Representatives of both groups have made strong statements to the effect that "feeding" (on blood or "energy") is what makes a Human Living Vampire what it is, and that other identifying "traits" or characteristics (if any) are of little or no importance.

"Feeding" appears to be a given not an option; an HLV must feed, feels a compulsion to do so, in the case of psychic vampires may do so involuntarily, and yet nobody seems to understand why. This desire to feed also identified as the Thirst, Hunger or the Need, bears strong parallels with drug addiction. Pulse, heart rate, blood pressure, and sometimes even body temperature, increase in anticipation of the act of feeding. Blood-craving HLV's assert that only the communion of taking blood from a consenting human donor, sometimes during sex, is truly satisfying to them. The "need" that HLV's experience is for a fix, not a meal. The chief concern for most HLV's seems to be how to "feed" more efficiently, how to find "donors", how to guarantee a regular supply of the needed substance, and so forth--very similar to drug addicts.

"Secondary symptoms" of vampirism (that are not directly related to an HLV's craving for blood and/or energy) include sensitivity to sunlight, a tendency to be awake and alert at night but lethargic during the day, migraine headaches as a common malady.

Here's a video clip of National Geographic episode on vampires:

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