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Reality Check

When the word "vampire" is mentioned, it tends to conjure up all manner of visuals within our minds. From the far-fetched to the ideals of what most believe to be real vampirism. This article will touch bases on different perceptions of the "v" word, and I will attempt to untie some of the more firm knots that make vampirism so difficult for many to grasp. Let's begin with the mythical vampire…

Long before Hollywood existed, the Victorians were doing their very best to make the most of their lives. For the most part, men strived to attain the status of "gentlemen", while ladies were expected to be prim, proper, complacent creatures, not very interested in worldly affairs. In those days, one was either rich or poor. Middle classes were unheard of or nigh. Entertaining would consist of ladies gathering at one another's houses, where quiet, ladylike chat was to be had over numerous cups of tea. Proper manners were the norm of the day in their societies, as were flowery speeches. Although this may seem "nice", life was on the whole, what we of this day and age would consider to be dull and boring. It is any wonder why such things as fainting couches existed, with nothing very exciting to stimulate the mind. Works of art in the way of writing, especially along the lines of gothic horrors were seen as very exciting, and quite often, the weekly paper would feature one excerpt a week from one book or another. Take, for example, Bram Stoker's Dracula.

Although most people assume Bram got his inspiration from the tales of Vlad Tsepes (Impaler), according to scientists and scholars of this day and age, it is felt that Bram's inspiration came from a little closer to home, in his native Ireland. It's well documented that Mr. Stoker never went to Romania, and many Romanians claim they never heard of vampires from their own neck of the woods, until Bram wrote Dracula. If this is true, where did Bram get his ideas from? Again, according to the scholars, he got it from the legend of Abhartach. (http://www.geocities.com/silvervcc/abhartach.html). So why is it, within this day and age, that so many people out there are far more willing to believe in the mythical vampire, rather than in well-documented truth? Let's go into why this might be…

Hollywood, as we all know, is in the business of moneymaking. Movies provide us with countless hours of entertainment. Films such as the ones featuring vampires, werewolves, and other sinister creatures of the night, are created for the same purpose as they were used for in the Victorian days. They are used to set the scene, perhaps one of terror or dread, in which people and animals are hunted and killed for one reason or another. Getting a little more up to date, perhaps some of those vampires have evolved via movie magic through one of the many great effects companies, such as "Industrial Light And Magic" or even "Lucas Arts". The reason these movies do so well is because the kind of characters they use, especially the leading characters. They beef them out, make certain to use good looking actors/actresses in order to grab more attention, to make them seem sexy and appealing, and then add special effects to make them seem like real living individuals, and with many "special gifts".

Quite often, vampires are made to seem like passionate, romantic creatures, therefore, who WOULDN'T want an encounter with them? Immortality is such a beautiful dream, but like Lestat said in Queen Of The Damned, "Immortality seems like a good idea... Until you realize you're going to spend it alone...” Then the reality of it comes crashing home, for who wants to spend eternity alone? Forever is a long time. And when the movie is over, the feelings they cause us to feel don't simply disappear. They linger. This is what the movie houses WANT. Because then, you'll be tempted to spend more and more money going back and forth to the cinema, seeing them over and over again, and when they are released onto video and DVD, it ensures very healthy sales.

Nowadays, it seems the attitude towards mythical vampirism has changed very little. One thing about this, ladies and gentlemen, is that movies and books were made for entertainment purposes ONLY. This means that the characters are not real. The actors are doing what they are being paid to do, which is act. This is not actual real life. We may wish it to be, but the fact is, it is not, and never can be. Ask Wesley Snipes - he doesn't really have fangs, nor does he walk around in the garb of the Daywalker, complete with pigsticker. Lestat is just a character, albeit a desirable one. Real people, including real vampires don't live forever. We all have an expiry date, we simply don't know when that will take place. The Earth was not made for immortal beings - it simply could not contain us, and eventually, supposing we were immortal, everyone, everywhere would be the same - then what? Do we all just "prey" upon one another? A sort of Stone Age 'survival of the fittest'? Not likely to happen.

Why people believe myth over reality -

"Because it's old, it MUST be correct".

After all, who is going to argue the toss with what many before us have said time and time again? Just because the information is dated, doesn't mean it's correct! Read the bible for proof of that! Mommy and Daddy said the same thing about the Boogie Man, Santa Claus, and the Sand Man, and their reasons for bringing them up to us in our youth was to cause fear or great excitement. It was to get us to do as we were told, or else! "If you are naughty, Santa will check his list, and only bring you coal and switches"! "If you don't go to sleep, the Boogie Man will come and get you"! "The Sand Man sprinkles sand in your eyes so that they get heavy, and you'll then fall to sleep". Even when those sources have been checked, people are still happier with believing the myth, even when that myth has been broken down and explained in simple, easy to understand language. Myths seem to offer more than plain old dull and boring reality!

"Myth is much more colorful, while reality seems to be boring".

This is true of everything. Real vampirism is devoid of the color and excitement that mythical vampirism offers, so, more people tend to gravitate towards the exciting, rather than the mundane. Why do people prefer myth? Because their lives are lackluster or they feel themselves as boring, or unattractive. Slap an exciting label onto yourself and people will hopefully find you more interesting to hang out with, thus paying you the attention your ego craves. We are all guilty of attention seeking - we just all have our own ways of going about it.

"If it's told, told, and retold, it tends to become part of long term memory".

Of COURSE it does! Forming a new habit, or a new way of believing is simple, and takes little time at all to achieve. All it takes is to reinforce the idea/s over a short period of time, and the brain gets the idea after awhile. You make one new connection within your brain, and each time you repeat it, that idea uses the same path as it did when you first started. It is simply reinforcing it to yourself. It's part of how we conform. Belonging to a group that believes the same, makes it far easier to convince others of the same "reality" whether or not that supposed reality is factual. For more information on how and why people conform to a certain way of thinking, or behaving, check out the experiments lead by Zimbardo and Milgram. Both are equally fascinating.

"If it's more exciting, people want to be a part of it".

As above, so below. It's much more exciting to be someone other than who you are. People are more apt to want to know you if you come off as a mysterious and "dark", whether or not you are in reality. In truth, there is really nothing wrong with this - until it takes over your life. The truth be told, soooooooo many find fault with themselves, whether that "fault" be physical, or within. And what's more exciting than attempting to coerce people into thinking you're some sort of being who is thousands of years old, full of mystery and wonder, and IMMORTAL! Then actually having the nerve to get offended because some don't take you at face value. Strange isn't it, how people truly believe in immortality. How much they really want to believe in it. Do these people fear death so much that they delude themselves into thinking it won't touch them?

"Myth leads to the belief that being superhuman is possible".

EVERYONE would like to believe they are gifted with superhuman powers. The James Randi Foundation has offered one million dollars to ANYONE who can prove above and beyond having supernatural/superhuman powers. Most people make statements such as "I would NEVER share my gifts for money or fame"!! What better reason to share if NOT for money and/or fame? Who DOESN'T want to be rich and famous? Saying you'd never show it for money or fame PROVES this. It’s easy to delude oneself into believing something other than what really is, and just as easy to convince some others of the same. Are there those who have proven their "gifts"? Well...Let's just say the 1 million is still unclaimed :o)

If we present ourselves as something other than we really are, we delude ourselves into thinking we deserve respect and admiration from others. People tend to believe on a whim, and take other people at their word, sometimes sight unseen. There have been MANY who have attempted to tell other people they were something they really are not. Because of the persuasiveness of our language, people simply accept it as truth. What's wrong with being yourself? It takes courage to be able to say, "I like me just as I am, and I wouldn't change anything, because I am just fine the way I am".

"Any "special gifts" being related to the condition are seen as somehow divine".

Yes, I WISH I had the gift of waving a magick wand, and letting that magick clean my house for me, so I don't have to waste what little energy I have doing it myself! I'll say this one time: Having the vampiric condition doesn't bring with it any special gifts, with the possible exception of being able to tap into a variety of energies from different sources, and process them to be made use of for one's health. But just about anyone, with a little bit of vision can do this. We don't do this because we CAN, but because we MUST. Or we suffer. We don't get superhuman strength, or faster healing times, we're not impervious to colds and/or diseases, and we don't get to become immortal! Period ended.

"Being superhuman makes one feel invincible".

After all, who DOESN'T want to feel bulletproof now and again? :o) But while that may be, we're NOT superhuman. Even Princess Diana had an expiry date, may she rest in peace :o) And with all she did, in my opinion, it was that what makes one a super-being. In my opinion, a super-being is someone who has helped people in their time of need, who has gone the distance, despite the odds, and did it all out of the goodness of their hearts, expecting nothing in return. Only a handful of people both living and dead have acquired superhuman status, and NONE of them came from an AIM chat. They were out there making a difference, not chatting about how mighty they are to people unseen online.

"Glorifying myths on the silver screen reinforces belief in them".

Ahhhhh Hollywood :o) What would we do without Hollywood? The movie makers in Southern Cali have been getting rich off myths and fantasies for many, many years :o) Through special effects, they can make anything believable :o) They made 4 little girls the most popular pseudo - witches going, and GUESS how the pagan population exploded after that movie came out? GUESS how many "immortal vampires" and "lycans" came crawling out of the primordial ooze that is the internet when Underworld came out? These days, such behavior is trendy, and everyone is jumping on the bandwagon.

How many claimed they were one of the "original 9" (whatever that means) and here to warn us lowly human creatures that the vampire war was coming, and we all need to be prepared? Hundreds came seeking "dark" lists and organizations, making no end of claims to being related to Lestat himself! Or to having been descended from good ol Vlad Tsepes who was not a vampire at all! But because Bram Stoker wrote it, and Hollywood glorified it on the big screen, why it MUST be true :o)

Some people carry on glorifying those myths and movies by taking it a step further, and making an entire lifestyle/subculture out of it. And this is fine - each to their own, just so long as you realize it's a choice of LIFESTYLE and NOT real vampirism. There are plenty of clubs and hideaways that cater to alternative "vampire" lifestylers, that are often full of gothlings trying out bloodletting in the most unsanitary of conditions, with little to no regard for the health or mental wellness of their "donors" or themselves, for that matter. There was a program featured on TV over the summer called "American Vampires", and the people in it got up to all kinds of nasty things that they claimed helped with their vampiric condition. One guy was making regular visits to the butcher, buying bloods for what he said was to be used in making black pudding. Instead, he poured it into a soda can, and began quaffing the foul brew.

A few things here - firstly, this gent was suffering from porphyria. Porphyria and vampirism are not one and the same. Secondly, drinking dead animal blood does no one any good. It's full of chemicals, and other assorted nasty surprises well known for causing most people to become deathly ill. Drinking dead animal blood is not conducive to helping the vampiric condition, just the same as having a donor being put into an irresponsible situation so you can take whatever you want is also not conducive to the condition. Dead blood serves absolutely no purpose, and if you feel you're getting energy from it, then you really are not afflicted with this condition. There is no energy in anything dead. That's the facts. And thirdly, drinking large amounts of blood such as this individual, will only cause you to vomit, as blood is a natural emetic.

Another favorite that caused no end of chaos both sides of the coin, was "Mad Mad House". I recently watched one episode in which other housemates were made to "chug" glasses of blood. That's not very smart. The individual in charge of that ridiculous circus act had a great opportunity to take away the negative stigma that has been universally slapped HARD on this community. Instead he decided to further tarnish it by pandering to the cheap entertainment of others, and pander to his own ego. Like I stated above, everybody wants a piece of the pie. So let's further tarnish our already decaying reputation by getting people to perform like trick poodles on live television, and get paid for it, and screw an entire community of people who work HARD daily, and give their time for free in order to make recent information freely available to all, so these irresponsible dolts can get rich quick.

I understand the ratings were through the roof on that show. It is programming like this that really should be our wakeup call. As it is, we are put in a position of having to keep our lives on the hush, hush, lest we take undue criticism about it, and put up with death threats from would be "slayers. At the end of the day, people have a need to believe in something higher than themselves, and there will always be those out there who capitalize on that, and take unfair advantage over ignorance and naiveté, mainly to line their own wallets. Learn to read between the lines - if it sounds too good to be true, it most probably is.

Vampirism is a human condition with which not all humans are afflicted. There are no gifts, or extended life granted to you. You will still get sick, and you will eventually die. None of us are impervious to that. We have an energy deficit, and we must learn ways of dealing with it - how does how we dress or act have to do with this condition? The one thing everyone reading this article can do is realize that myth is simply that - it's myth, a fantasy story. Realize it for what it is, enjoy it if you wish. But to attempt to fit your mind into a space where reality doesn't exist, and fantasy land rules all is really not a very healthy way to go. This is not only not unhealthy, it shows true ignorance. Be who you are, and do so with a semblance of dignity and grace. Accept you for you, and cease trying to be something you never can be, lest disappointment creep upon you, and send you crashing hard back down to earth.

Enjoy the Holiday Season ~

Silver Rainbolt

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