Do vampires exist? Who is a vampire, what does it eat, where did it come from and how does it hunt? Who invented vampires and werewolves

The original meaning of the word is also unclear: some associate it with the word bat, others - with the root words soar, feather(cf. from Old Polish) wąpiory"feathered") There is a (usually rejected) version of a connection with Turkic languages ​​(Tatar. uvir- “witch”, in many fairy tales sucking the blood of young people caught in the forest). There is a witch in Kazakh mythology Zhalmauyz camper, whose habits include sucking blood from the heel or knee of the victim. In this phrase camper(from which they could have come ghoul And a vampire) simply means old woman, and the demonic principle is expressed by the characteristic zhalmauyz(ogre). Other versions interpret the initial ǫ- as a negative particle, bringing the meaning of the word to “not having feathers” or “unburnt.” Other interpretations are also known.

Analogues of vampires in ancient cultures

Stories about the dead shedding blood are found in almost all cultures around the world, including the most ancient ones. Vampire-like spirits called Lilu are mentioned in early Babylonian demonology, and blood-sucking aksharas in even earlier Sumerian mythology. These demonesses wandered in the dark, hunting and killing newborn babies and pregnant women. One of these demons, named Lilitu, was later adopted into Jewish demonology as Lilith.

In Rome, bloodsucking ghosts were called lamias, empusae and lemurs. The strix, a nocturnal bird that fed on human blood and flesh, is mentioned in Roman stories. The Romanian word for vampires, strigoi, is derived from this word, as is the Albanian name Shtriga, but the myths about these creatures show mainly Slavic influence.

As an example of the existence and prominence of similar legends in later times, it can be noted that in the 12th century, the English historians and chroniclers Walter Map and William of Newburgh recorded several stories that have debatable similarities with Eastern European vampires.

The vampire myth as we know it originated in Eastern Europe from Slavic folklore (discussed in more detail in the next section), where vampires were creatures that killed people by drinking their blood or by strangulation. A vampire could be destroyed by cutting off its head, driving a wooden stake through its heart, or burning its corpse.

Popular beliefs about vampires

It appears that before the 19th century, vampires in Europe were described as terrible monsters from beyond the grave. Vampires usually became suicides, criminals or evil sorcerers, although in some cases the “spawn of sin” who became a vampire could transfer their vampirism to innocent victims. However, sometimes a victim of a cruel, untimely or violent death could become a vampire. Most Romanian vampire beliefs (with the exception of Strigoi) and European vampire stories are of Slavic origin.

Slavic vampires

In Slavic beliefs, the causes of vampirism could be the birth of a fetus in a watery shell (“shirt”), with teeth or a tail, conception on certain days, “wrong” death, excommunication and incorrect funeral rituals. To prevent a dead person from becoming a vampire, a crucifix should be placed in the coffin, an object should be placed under the chin to prevent the body from eating the funeral shroud, clothes should be nailed to the walls of the coffin for the same reason, sawdust should be placed in the coffin (the vampire wakes up in the evening and must count each a grain of this sawdust, which takes the whole evening, so that he will die when dawn comes), or pierce the body with thorns or stakes. With the stakes, the idea was to drive the stake through the vampire into the ground, thus pinning the body to the ground. Some people chose to bury potential vampires with braids over their necks, so that the dead would decapitate themselves if they started to rise.

Evidence that there is a vampire in the area includes death cattle, sheep, relatives or neighbors, an exhumed body that appears to be alive with grown nails or hair, a body swollen like a drum, or blood on the mouth paired with a ruddy face.

Vampires, like other legendary Slavic monsters, were afraid of garlic and loved to count grains, sawdust, etc. Vampires could be destroyed by stakes, decapitation (Kashubs placed their heads between their feet), burning, repeating the funeral service, sprinkling the body with holy water, or a rite of exorcism.

In January 2005, rumors emerged that someone had bitten several people in Birmingham, England. Then rumors appeared about a vampire wandering around the area. However, local police claimed that no such crimes were reported. Apparently this incident was an urban legend.

In 2006, Costas Efthimiou and Sohang Gandhi published a paper that used geometric progression to try to debunk the feeding habits of vampires, arguing that if every feeding of a vampire produces another vampire, then it is only a matter of time before the entire population of the Earth will consist of vampires, or when vampires become extinct. However, the idea of ​​a vampire's victim becoming a vampire does not appear throughout vampire folklore, and is not generally accepted among modern vampire believers.

Natural phenomenon that spread belief in vampires

Pathology and vampirism

Vampirism in folklore was usually associated with a series of deaths due to unspecified or mysterious illnesses, usually within the same family or small community. The epidemic character is evident in the classic cases of Peter Plogozowitz and Arnold Paole, as well as in the case of Mercy Brown and in New England vampire superstitions generally, when a specific disease, tuberculosis, was associated with outbreaks of vampirism (see above).

In 1725, Michael Ranft, in his book De masticatione mortuorum in tumulis, made the first attempt to explain the belief in vampires in a natural way. He says that in the event of the death of each peasant, someone else (most likely a person who had some relationship with the deceased) who saw or touched the corpse eventually died either from the same disease or from the insane delirium caused by just by the sight of the deceased. These dying people said that the deceased appeared to them and tortured them in various ways. Other people in this village dug up the corpse to see what it was doing. Ranft gave the following explanation when talking about the case of Peter Plogozowitz: “This brave man died a sudden, violent death. This death, whatever it was, may have triggered the survivors to have the visions they had after his death. The sudden death created anxiety in the family circle. Anxiety was paired with grief. Grief brings melancholy. Melancholy causes sleepless nights and painful dreams. These dreams weakened the body and spirit until the disease eventually led to death.”

Some modern scientists argue that stories about vampires may have been influenced by a rare disease called porphyria. This disease spoils the blood by interfering with the reproduction of heme. It was thought that porphyria was most common in the small villages of Transylvania (about 1000 years ago) where inbreeding may have occurred. They say that if it weren’t for this “vampire disease”, there would be no myths about Dracula or other blood-drinking, light-fearing and fanged characters. Based on almost all the symptoms, a patient suffering from an advanced form of porphyria is a typical vampire, and they were able to find its cause and describe the course of the disease only in the second half of the 20th century, which was preceded by a merciless centuries-long fight against ghouls: from 1520 to 1630 (110 years) in France alone executed more than 30 thousand people recognized as werewolves. It turns out that the wider and deeper Catholicism spread, the more mercilessly they treated the sick.

It is believed that this rare form of genetic pathology affects one person out of 200 thousand (according to other sources, out of 100 thousand), and if it is detected in one of the parents, then in 25% of cases the child also becomes ill with it. The disease is also believed to be a consequence of incest. In medicine, about 80 cases of acute congenital porphyria have been described, when the disease was incurable. Erythropoietic porphyria (Gunther's disease) is characterized by the fact that the body cannot produce the main component of the blood - red cells, which in turn is reflected in a deficiency of oxygen and iron in the blood. Pigment metabolism is disrupted in the blood and tissues, and under the influence of solar ultraviolet radiation or ultraviolet rays, the breakdown of hemoglobin begins. Moreover, during the course of the disease, the tendons become deformed, which in extreme cases leads to curling of the fingers.

With porphyria, the non-protein part of hemoglobin - heme - turns into a toxic substance that corrodes subcutaneous tissue. The skin begins to turn brown, becomes thinner and cracks when exposed to sunlight, so patients develop scars and ulcers over time. Ulcers and inflammation damage the cartilage - the nose and ears, deforming them. Coupled with ulcerated eyelids and curled fingers, this is incredibly disfiguring. Contraindicated for patients sunlight which brings them unbearable suffering. The skin around the lips and gums dries out and tightens, causing the incisors to become exposed to the gums, creating a grinning effect. Another symptom is porphyrin deposits on the teeth, which may turn red or reddish-brown. In addition, patients' skin becomes very pale, during the day they feel a loss of strength and lethargy, which is replaced by a more active lifestyle at night. It must be repeated that all these symptoms are characteristic only of the later stages of the disease; in addition, there are many other, less terrifying forms. As mentioned above, the disease was practically incurable until the second half of the 20th century. There is information that in the Middle Ages, patients were supposedly treated with fresh blood in order to replenish the deficiency of red cells, which, of course, is incredible, since consuming blood “orally” in such cases is useless. Porphyria sufferers could not eat garlic because the sulfonic acid released by garlic increases the damage caused by the disease. Porphyria disease can also be caused artificially, through the use of certain chemicals and poisons.

Some forms of porphyria are associated with neurological symptoms that can cause psychiatric disorders. However, the assumption that porphyria sufferers crave heme from human blood or that consuming blood can reduce the symptoms of porphyria is based on a serious misunderstanding of the disease.

Corpses swell because gases from decomposition collect in the torso, and blood tries to leave the body. This gives the body a “plump,” “fattened,” and “ruddy” appearance—changes that are most noticeable if the person was pale and thin during life. In the case of Arnold Paole, the exhumed corpse of an old woman, according to neighbors, looked more well-fed and healthy than she was in life. It should be noted that folklore records almost always note that a suspected vampirist has ruddy or dark skin, rather than the pale skin of vampires from movies and books. Darkening of the skin is also caused by decomposition.

In a decomposing corpse, blood may be seen flowing from the mouth and nose, which may give the impression that the corpse is a vampire who recently drank blood. If a stake is driven into the body, the body may begin to bleed and accumulated gases will begin to leave the body. A groan may be heard when gases begin to pass past the vocal cords, or a characteristic sound when gases exit through the anus. Official reports on the case of Peter Plogozowitz speak of "other wild signs which I will not mention out of the highest respect."

After death, the skin and gums lose fluid and shrink, exposing some of the hair, nails and teeth, even those that were hidden in the jaw. This creates the illusion that hair, nails and teeth have grown back. At a certain stage, the nails fall off, the skin comes off, as in the report of the Plogozowitz case - the emerging skin and nails were perceived as “new skin” and “new nails”. Finally, as the body decomposes, it begins to move and contort, adding to the illusion that the corpse has moved.

Vampire bats

Bram Stoker's Dracula was the most full description vampire in popular fiction until the 20th century. It portrayed vampirism as a disease (contagious demonic possession) with overtones of sex, blood and death, touching a sensitive chord in Victorian Europe when tuberculosis and syphilis were common. Stoker's writings were later adopted in many later works. Vampires have proven to be a rich theme for films. In modern popular culture, Anne Rice book series, games "Castlevania", manga "Hellsing", created by manga artist Kota Hirano, and such cult television series as "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" And "Angel" were particularly successful and influential. Numerous role-playing games include vampires. In the fictional universe of World of Darkness, vampires are one of the main characters.

On November 13, 2009, a Russian translation of the book “THE STRAIN” by the famous director Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan, which tells about vampirism as a viral epidemic, was released. The virus is transmitted by a small blood worm, which does not require a bite. When bitten, a physiological transformation occurs in the bitten person - a sting (transformed tongue) grows in the throat, the lungs shrink, the excretory and digestive system, the arterial and venous circulatory systems merge together.

The original concept of vampires is found in Peter Watts's work "False Blindness". There, vampires are a side genetic branch of humanity that disappeared and was subsequently restored with the help of genetic engineering. It is curious that vampires’ rejection of crosses and, in general, any cruciform objects, even window frames and cross-shaped slots on screw heads, is also explained by “genetic immunity.” To avoid shock and epileptic seizures, Watts' vampires are forced to take drugs called "anti-Euclidean".

see also

Notes

1. See the etymological dictionaries of M. Vasmer (vol. 4, p. 165), P. Ya. Chernykh (vol. 1, pp. 133-134), A. Brückner (pp. 594-595, 597, 605).
2. A certain “priest Oupir Lihyi” is known, who rewrote the book of the prophets in Novgorod in 1047.
3. Borrowed at the beginning of the 18th century, see Deutsches Wörterbuch von Jacob Grimm und Wilhelm Grimm. 16 Bde. (in 32 Teilbänden). Leipzig: S. Hirzel, 1854-1960. (German).
4. See Trésor de la Langue Française informatisé (French) or Dauzat, Albert, 1938. Dictionnaire étymologique. Librairie Larousse.
5. According to some sources, from Serbian. vampire, see Merriam Webster Online Dictionary, for others from Hungarian, see Online Etymology Dictionary.
6. Raymond T. McNally In Search of Dracula. - 1994. - P. 117. - ISBN ISBN 0-395-65783-0
7. monstropedia.org
8. Glišić, Milovan, “Posle devedeset godina” ( Ninety Years Later)
9. Spence, Lewis. "An Encyclopaedia of Occultism". Published by University Books, Inc., 1960.
10. Jaramillo Londoño, Agustin: Testamento del paisa. Medellin. Editorial Bedout, 1967.
11. Introvigne, Massimo. 1997. Satanism Scares and Vampirism from the 18th Century to the Contemporary Anti-Cult Movement. A paper presented at the World Dracula Congress, Los Angeles 1997. . Retrieved June 17, 2006.
12. Sledzik, Paul S. and Nicholas Bellantoni. 1994. Bioarchaeological and Biocultural Evidence for the New England Vampire Folk Belief. In The American Journal of Physical Anthropology No. 94. (A table of historic vampire accounts) . Retrieved June 14, 2006.
13. Bell, Michael E. Interview with a REAL Vampire Stalker. SeacoastNH.com. Retrieved June 14, 2006.
14. ""Vampires" strike Malawi villages", Raphael Tenthani, BBC News, December 23
15. “Romanian villagers decry police investigation into vampire slaying”, Matthew Schofield, Knight Ridder Newspapers, March 24

Many researchers debate the origin of the word "vampire". Some say it comes from the Hungarian word “vampir”, others say it comes from the Turkish “upyr”, meaning “witch”. Some argue that this word came to us from the ancient Greek language and meant “to drink.” There is also a Serbian version - "bamiiup" or Serbo-Croatian - "pirate". IN different cultures There are different words denoting the concept of “vampire,” and this suggests that this image has long been embedded in the human consciousness almost everywhere.
Groups of vampires are also called by different names: brood, pack, gathering, clan, and so on.

The most famous vampire of all time was Count Dracula, who quoted a line from Deuteronomy (the fifth book of the Old Testament): “Blood is life.”
One way to protect against vampires is to throw seeds (usually mustard) outside the doors or cover the windows with nets from the outside. According to this belief, vampires stopped to count the number of seeds or network cells. During this time, dawn came, and the vampires were forced to retreat.
Prehistoric stone monuments, called “dolmens,” were erected over the graves of the dead. Anthropologists suggest that they were erected to prevent dead bodies from rising from their graves and becoming vampires.

There is a rare disease called “porphyria” (also called “vampire” disease or “Dracula” disease). It exhibits symptoms described in vampire books, such as increased sensitivity to sunlight and, sometimes, severe hairiness. In severe cases, the patient's teeth become covered with reddish-brown stains, and gradually the patient may go crazy.
There is documented evidence that some people have been accused of being vampires. People who suffered from hematodipsia, a disease consisting of sexual thirst for blood, and hemeralopia, or day blindness, were mistaken for vampires. Anemia (anemia) was often considered a symptom of nighttime vampire attacks.

Considered a “real” vampire, the Hungarian Countess Elisabeth Bathory (1560-1614), who was accused of devouring the flesh of tortured girls and bathing in their blood to preserve her youth, was, by all accounts, a very attractive woman.

Vampire legends may be based on the existence of a real person - Vlad of Wallachia, who is also known as Vlad the Impaler (1431-1476). He had a habit of nailing people's hats to their heads, flaying them alive and impaling them on stakes. He also liked to dip his bread in the blood of his enemies. His name Vlad means "son of the dragon or Dracula." Although Vlad the Impaler was killed in 1476, his tomb is said to be empty.

In China, vampires were called "shiang shi" (corpse jumpers) and were believed to have red eyes and curled claws. It was believed that they became highly sexually aroused at the sight of women and attacked them. As they mature, they grow long white hair and can also transform into wolves.

While both vampires and zombies are "back from the dead", there is a difference between them depending on the mythology in which they originated. For example, zombies, whose image is based on African myths, have a lower IQ than vampires, prefer brains and flesh to blood, are not afraid of garlic, are reflected in the mirror, move slowly due to muscle decay, and are not necessarily afraid of fire or sunlight .

The first vampire film may have been No. 5. In 1922, the silent black and white film Nosferatu was made by director Friedrich Murnau. However, Todd Brown's Dracula has become the quintessential vampire in literature and film. He was a sexy, tuxedo-clad aristocrat played by Bela Lugosi.
Vampires have power over the animal world and can turn into a bat, rat, owl, moth, fox or wolf.

In 2009, the skull of a 16th-century woman was found among the remains of plague victims with a stone jammed in her jaw. In those days, people suspected of being vampires had a stone or brick placed in their mouth after death to prevent them from feeding on the bodies of other plague victims or attacking the living. Female vampires were also blamed for the spread of the bubonic plague in Europe.

Bram Stoker's novel Dracula (1897) had a huge influence on vampire mythology and has never lost its popularity. Some researchers believe that this is a purely Christian allegory; others believe it contains veiled psychic and sexual anxieties of the Victorian period.
According to some beliefs, if someone is bitten by a vampire, they will need to drink the dissolved ashes of the burned vampire. To prevent vampires from attacking, a person must bake bread with vampire blood and eat it.
Thresholds have historically always had significant symbolic value, and a vampire could not cross them unless invited by his master. The connection between threshold and vampires is like the concept of complicity and permission, that is, once evil has been allowed into a home or soul, it can return at any time.

Before the advent of Christianity, vampires were repelled with garlic, hawthorn branches, rowan berries (later crosses were made from rowan wood), scattered seeds, fire, iron, bells, mint and roosters. Suspected vampires were beheaded with shovels before burial and buried at road intersections. It was also common for the body of a person believed to be a vampire to be buried face down, so that he would bury himself even deeper.

After the introduction of Christianity, methods to repel vampires began to include holy water, crucifixes, and communion baked goods. These methods were usually not lethal to vampires, and their effectiveness depended on the person's faith.

Garlic, a traditional vampire repellent, has been used for protection for over 2,000 years. The ancient Egyptians believed that garlic was a gift from the gods, Roman legionaries believed it gave them courage, sailors believed it protected them from shipwrecks, and German miners thought it would save them from evil spirits living underground. In some cultures, garlic was worn under the clothes of newlyweds and was also believed to protect against many diseases.

Blood-sucking humanoids: fact or fiction? We are looking for documentary facts confirming the existence of vampires.

Perhaps there is no more famous supernatural being than a vampire. A huge cultural layer of humanity is devoted directly to this topic.

Origin of the term

Vampire (from the Old Slavonic vipyr) is a dead person who sleeps during the day and awakens from the grave in the dead of night in order to quench his thirst for blood.

Girls imagine him like this

The most popular vampire is Count Vlad Dracula. A truly legendary vampire from foggy Transylvania. The story received stunning success after the publication of the novel “Dracula” by Bram Stoker in 1897.

The Gothic novel tells the story of the mysterious Count Dracula, who lies lifeless all day, but goes out on a bloody hunt in the dead of night. Many people have heard about this, but not everyone knows that the story is based on a real person. The real Count Vlad Dracula lived 400 years before the novel about him was published.

Historians say that Dracula was not a vampire in the truest sense of the word. But his monstrous cruelty and sadism gained such fame that rumors spread about him as a blood-sucking fiend of hell. We can only guess who he really was.

Qualities and appearance of a vampire

Handsome Vampire (found only in Hollywood)

Belongs to the undead class and looks the part. Distinctive feature is immortality, but there are special methods by which you can finally put an end to the bloodsucker.

Since it is not alive, it is not affected by such an important biological mechanism as aging.

Vampires' breath is foul. According to various sources, the complexion can be red or snow-white. The eyes are always bright red. Physical strength and speed far exceed human capabilities.

It is believed that vampires are able to transform into a bat form and then back into a human form. Bats often attack and bite people, so their connection to vampires may be nothing more than a myth based on these attacks. There is information about the ability to transform into almost any animal and even insect.

Bloodsuckers are credited with the ability to send nightmares to people, cause droughts and other natural disasters.

The peculiarity of a vampire's teeth is its elongated fangs, which are designed to pierce the victim's neck.

Real vampire

If vampires exist, then it remains a mystery how they manage to overcome a grave densely covered with earth and not damage it in any way.

An explanation could be the presence of superpowers such as deportation or the ability to pass through walls. At the same time, they are not able to enter the church even through an ordinary open door.

We were unable to find any historical or mythological information about the existence of good vampires.

How do they become vampires?

According to beliefs, an “unclean” dead person could become a vampire, for example, someone who died a violent death, a murderer or a suicide. However, it is clarified that there is not a single guaranteed method of becoming a vampire. Anyone bitten by a vampire can become a ghoul themselves after death.

A person who is bitten by a vampire becomes a vampire himself after death. Abbot Calmet “Treatise on the Apparitions of Spirits” 1968

People who are anathematized (excommunicated from the church), werewolves and occultists are also at risk. However, a restless soul can become stuck on the border of two worlds, not only in the form of a vampire, but also in the form of other entities such as a ghost.

Vampire Protection

The undead fear sunlight like fire

We have collected here all the methods for eliminating a vampire, in case you happen to meet him.

Vampires are unable to tolerate strong odors, which is why a plant like garlic has become a great assistant in the fight against vampires. People covered windows and doors with them so that a vampire could not enter the house and, just in case, hung garlic around their necks. If there was a risk that the deceased could become a vampire, then an incision was made in the liver of the deceased and cloves of garlic were placed there.

A vampire is a dark, evil spirit. This means that all the methods that people used in the fight against the fiends of hell work for him: holy water, the cross and silver.

An aspen stake in the heart is a classic. But to be on the safe side, vampire killers also carried out decapitation followed by complete burning of the body.

IN Eastern Europe the dead were buried with sickles at their necks, which was supposed to cut off the head of the living dead if he even tried to get up.

Witch Hunters and the Inquisition

In the Middle Ages, a real hunt for vampires broke out in Europe. Guided by rather dubious beliefs, the Inquisition killed many innocent souls.

For example, checking with a horse. People believed that a horse with a virgin rider would never cross the grave of a vampire. Yes, a dead person doesn’t care what they do to him. But it got to the point that a living person suspected of vampirism was placed in the grave. And then his fate was decided by the horse.

The Inquisition killed thousands of absolutely innocent people, but perhaps it also saved us from otherworldly evil?

Any failed burial was considered a vampire's lair. After the exhumation of the deceased, the degree of decomposition was assessed. The better preserved he is, the more likely he is to be considered a vampire. Because of this, persecution of the relatives of the deceased could begin.

Mystic stories

I'm sure most people reading this article consider vampires to be nothing more than a relic of medieval witch hunts. However, we do have some chilling and possibly true stories about vampires.

Vampire Hunter Gear

One day, a man unfamiliar to the soldier sat down at the table with them, which terribly frightened everyone present, but no one dared to drive him away.

It turned out that this man was the father of the owner of the estate. The horror of the situation is that he died 10 years ago. The next day, the owner of the estate himself died.

Upon returning to the garrison, the soldier told this story to the commander, who did not take this situation with skepticism and ordered a thorough investigation of what happened. Having dug up the body, the soldiers discovered that the person buried 10 years ago looked as if he had just been buried. And blood literally: “like that of a living person.” The dead man's head was cut off and burned.

If this story had been passed down simply from mouth to mouth, like some kind of tale, then we would not have any doubts about its fictitiousness. But the circumstances of this case were carefully documented in the report by not the least person, Count Cabrera.

Maybe it was a coma or a lethargic sleep? Or is it still a fact of the existence of vampires in real life?

Do you think that stories about ghouls are a thing of the past? Montague Summers, a Catholic cleric and writer, studied the occult and paranormal phenomena in the 20th century.

Among other things, he recorded information about people practically contemporary to us who had an uncontrollable craving for human blood. Summers documented the story of a young French girl drinking blood from fresh wounds and an Italian mafioso drinking the blood of his victims.

The living American woman does not hide her passion for human blood. She openly states that she needs a glass of fresh blood like oxygen every day.

We are not killers at all, we only thirst for blood. During the meal, I make a slight incision in the “donor’s” body and suck the blood very carefully so as not to cut off the vein. There's something in the blood. Kane Presley (female vampire)

What's wrong with these people? A genetic disease, a psychiatric disorder, or maybe there were real vampires in their family?

In culture and art

The strange romanticization of the image of ghouls has given rise to countless films and songs on this topic.

Movies

• An Academy of vampires
• Vampire girl (TV series)
• Vampire Knight (anime)
• Interview with a Vampire
• President Lincoln: Vampire Hunter
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV series)
• Rosario + Vampire (anime)
• Vampire Hickey (trash comedy)
• Family of Vampires
• School of Vampires (cartoon)
• Ball of the Vampires (musical)
• Twilight
• My nanny is a vampire
• Little vampire (cartoon)
• Vampire's Kiss
• The story of a vampire
• Dark Shadows
• My Boyfriend is a Vampire (TV series)
• Night of the Vampires
• Van Helsing
• From dusk to dawn

Computer games

• Legacy Of Kain
• Vampire: The Masquerade – Redemption
• Nocturne
• Nosferatu: The Wrath of Malachi
• Dracula: Resurrection
• Prince of Darkness
• Skyrim

Music

• Gas Strip - Vampire's Bite
• The King and the Fool - Confessions of a Vampire
• Nautilus Pompilius - Gentle Vampire
• Aria - Vampire
• Picnic – Night
• Picnic – Only for the Vampire in Love

Documentary about vampires

A vampire(aka ghoul, Strigoi, Moroi, varcolac And vrykolak) - a type of undead, blood-sucking corpse. An extremely popular creature in Hollywood films, horror and gothic literature. What is the secret of the vampire cult, which has unfolded in a wide variety of media?

Mythological beginning

A typical vampire before glamorization

There were many reasons why a person might turn into a vampire after death. Such a fate awaited sorcerers, witches and warlocks, victims of curses, and most importantly, those who themselves died from a vampire attack. Sometimes all those who died an unnatural death became vampires: those who were violently killed, drunkards and, of course, suicides. Moreover, it is worth noting - at least according to Slavic concepts, vampires... weren't immortal. Any so-called “hostage dead” (which included vampires, mermaids, and whoever not) existed as undead exactly as long as they would have lived earthly life if they had not died an unnatural death. These same beliefs contain and justify other vampire qualities: since all the “hostage dead” were considered slaves of evil spirits during their non-life, it is not surprising that they were hostile to people and could not enter the house without an invitation - the brownie, being seedy, but still a true evil spirit, he stood higher in the demonic hierarchy than a vampire.

There were also many known ways to protect against a vampire. Among them are the standard ones - holy symbols, daylight, flowing water, silver and, of course, an aspen stake. But there were also original ones folk remedies fighting these folk vampires. Gypsies, for example, believed that a vampire was very attached to his socks, and if they were thrown into the river, the vampire would climb after them and drown himself. There was also a belief that he should be buried at a crossroads, because there he gets lost and doesn’t know where to go, or that a handful of grains makes him obsessively want to sit down and count all the grains.

Doctors' opinion

There are illnesses in real life that may have contributed to the vampire myth. The first of these is porphyria, a genetic disease that was often found in small villages with a poor gene pool and frequent incest. With this disease, a person's skin begins to deform under the influence of sunlight, forcing the patient to a nocturnal lifestyle and making him an outcast due to the deformity. In addition, the disease causes nervous disorders and psychoses, as well as metabolic disorders (it is assumed that some patients may be drawn to raw meat or blood).

Another disease - rabies - is contagious and is still well known. You can get it from sick wolves or bats(as well as from foxes, hedgehogs and domestic animals), it spreads through a bite, which is 100% fatal in the absence of vaccination. A patient with rabies also experiences damage to the nervous system and psychosis, including aggressiveness and fear of water and mirrors.

In addition, the appearance of the myth about vampires could have prompted the peasants to appear due to the lack of knowledge about posthumous changes occurring in the body. As a corpse begins to decompose, the gums and fingertips may dry out, causing the illusion of lengthening teeth and nails. Therefore, if superstitious peasants, digging up someone’s grave, saw these changes there, they could decide: “Aha, what teeth and claws he has grown in the coffin! Like a vampire!"

Cinematic vampires - modern

William "Spike" Pratt from the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The black cloak became the leather jacket of a German submariner, but the brutal mug and fangs remained

It soon became clear that Dracula was not the only undead vampire, and even with all sorts of spin-offs like the black Blackula, the tired franchise could not be revived. But other vampires also appeared in the movies. In the film The Lost Boys, there were reckless vampire bikers who terrorized a small town and dragged a young newcomer into their unholy activities. In Near Dark, we were told the story of a wandering gang of vampires moving along the dusty roads of provincial America and attacking people - and again there was a boy who almost became a vampire, but found a way to heal. And, of course, in the film adaptation of Anne Rice’s famous novel “Interview with the Vampire” we are once again presented with romantic, cultured and tasteful bloodsuckers - the reflective Louis, the reckless Lestat and the pseudo-baby Claudia, dissatisfied with her existence.

Modern Gothic

Vampire gangsters of the "World of Darkness"

Speaking of Anne Rice: she wrote a whole series of novels with the same characters, in the volumes of which, along with Lestat and Louis, the progenitor of vampires Akasha and no less than the devil Memnoch appear. Rice's novels had a huge influence on how vampires were portrayed in the late 20th century. modern world. In the image and likeness of the secret vampire society depicted by her, designers from the company of tabletop role-playing games White Wolf created the Camarilla - one of the organizations of the World of Darkness (which, in addition to the pretentious Lestat Toreadors, also included Brujah bikers and Gangrel tramps copied from The Lost Boys by analogy with “Almost Total Darkness” and the already familiar clumsy, rat-like Nosferatu). In principle, “White Wolves” said everything that could be said about modern vampires, and then there are only two ways left: to ape them, as the author of the “Secret City” series Panov did with his Masans, or to be too original , as did Stephenie Meyer, cursed by many gothic lovers, the creator of vampire terminators with acidic blood, shimmering with sparkles in the light.

Vampires of different nations

In addition to the Slavic-Romanian classics, there were also myths and legends from other countries about creatures similar to vampires.

• European- it’s not just the Slavs and Romanians who are undead vampires!
  • Strjiga And Bosorka- vampire-like witches from Eastern European folklore. Unlike undead vampires, they are quite alive, but no less dangerous. There is magic (witches), and bloodlust, and werewolves. After death they turn into ordinary vampires. Adjacent to them is the Portuguese Brooks- also a vampire witch, who, moreover, is only affected by faith and prayer - neither light nor silver can take her.
  • Nachzerer- German vampire. Doesn't come out of the coffin, but instead eats his own shroud, thus drawing out vitality with relatives. As soon as he finishes the shroud, he will turn into an ordinary loitering vampire.
  • Draugr- a common German vampire, but especially popular and famous in Scandinavia. Everything is according to the canon - origin from uninveterate and unburied dead (some stories even tell that draugr fight with ordinary undead for places in cemeteries), blood drinking, nocturnal lifestyle, superpowers, even the descriptions largely coincide.
  • Alps- another Germanic type of vampire who is immune to sunlight.
  • Ravk- Finnish (Sami and Permyak) vampire. A rather stereotyped sorcerer who has risen from the dead and is not averse to eating his living fellow villagers. Killed by piercing the heart with an iron knitting needle.
  • Lamia And empusa- Greek female demons-bloodsuckers. They are often carriers of frankly inhuman features, such as snake scales or donkey legs.
• Asian
  • Turkic uber, wubar, uvir, Yuer- evil bloodsucking spirits with werewolf abilities. Yuyor is also the specifically restless soul of a sinner.
  • Jiang-shi- Chinese "jumping" vampires. A characteristic method of movement is in the likeness of the dead bouncing on a funeral palanquin.
  • Berbalang And penanggalan- Filipino vampire-like creatures. The first is a monster who, under the guise of a beautiful woman, enters into marriages with living people. The second is a blood-sucking head with intestines trailing behind it.

Typical vampire

So, what is the typical, average modern vampire?

• Outwardly, he is either ominously attractive (aristocratic pallor, slender figure, refined facial features) or, on the contrary, scary and terrible (noticeable cadaveric changes, protruding fangs and ears, unnecessarily sharp facial features and unhealthy thinness, etc.). Vampire girls, as a rule, are emphatically fanservicey (Carmilla, Gella, Lucy - name one Not a pretty vampire!), the men are half and half: the insidious seducer Dracula and the suffering hero-lover Edward are handsome, and the bloodthirsty predator Orlok is a monster.
• He may have an aristocratic appearance and manners, or, on the contrary, he may look like a punk or biker. Depends on age - when exactly he became a vampire. The question arises: where are all the old vampire commoners? Probably accumulated wealth over centuries of unlife and learned to imitate the habits of aristocrats?
• If he is old and aristocratic, he lives in a castle in the middle of forests and swamps, or at least in a gloomy mansion in an elite area. If he is young and arrogant, he lives in an 18-meter apartment in Santa Monica with tightly curtained windows.
• Leads a purely nocturnal lifestyle. During the day it hides, because it burns from sunlight (or at least loses all its strength).
• It feeds exclusively on the blood or at least the life force of its victims. Some are indiscriminate in their tastes and are able to drink anything, even from rats, even from a blood transfusion station. Some are picky, and only serve them the blood of young virgins (level 80 challenge: play a Ventrue with a penchant for the blood of virgins in the US setting of the 1970s).
• He lives until he is put to rest. If he doesn’t let himself be put to rest, he lives at least forever.
• If they clumsily try to put him to rest, he exhibits strong regeneration.
• Possesses superpowers: hypnosis, the ability to command certain animals (rats, ravens, wolves) and lower-order evil spirits, superhuman strength and the ability to transform into a bat, wolf or fog are often mentioned. Achtung: Perhaps the implication was not that being a vampire itself gives you superpowers, but that a vampire had more time to study magic than a mortal, and many of them were magicians in life.

Ways to fight

• Classic - an aspen stake in the heart. According to legend, the choice of tree is connected with the fact that Judas hanged himself on an aspen tree.
  • Warning: This will only paralyze some people. Therefore, to be sure, carry out the ritual to the end: cut off the head and stuff your mouth with garlic. The Germans, especially the Scandinavians and Northern Germans, generally advise not to drive a stake, but to cut off the head and put it on his ass.
  • In some versions, the stake did not kill the vampire, but secured it in the grave. In this case, you need to pierce the vampire lying face down in the back - in order to cause maximum inconvenience when trying to get out.
• Classic #2: Scare him away with a cross or hide in a church. According to some anti-science experts, a party card and the Lenin Room are also suitable. Blessed weapons and holy water will also work.
  • Attention - often this method only works in the hands of fanatics and righteous people, and those who treat religion as magic will be killed by the vampire with special cynicism for blasphemy.
• Classic #3: To spot a vampire, hold a mirror up to him. You can also look into the camera. No optical instruments will detect it. Oddly enough, bespectacled people can see vampires perfectly. Warning: Doesn't work for everyone.
• Classic #4: Breathe on it after chewing some garlic first. Scared off? Oh, it was your neighbor... It is clear that in its pure form it is somehow strange to fight a powerful individual with the help of an agricultural crop, then things like “garlic essence” are used.
• Classic #5: Use silver if it's a light metal.
• Classic No. 6: set a werewolf on a ghoul: according to popular belief, their bites do not heal, and even the signature vampire regeneration is not a barrier to this. But be careful with this method - in some beliefs, a vampire is higher than a werewolf in the hierarchy of evil spirits and can easily defeat a werewolf, and then send him to the soul of an unlucky fighter against evil spirits.
• Classic No. 7: preventive option. Just don't let him in. According to popular belief, a vampire will not enter a house without an invitation. As an option - invite a ghoul into the house, lock it with a bolt and sell the house to a new owner who has not invited any vampires to his place - maybe the bloodsucker will die from this.
• Modern No. 1: more trunks. Whether he has regeneration there or not, it will not save him from KPVT, which tears any meat into pieces. A shotgun to the head is also bad news, Smiling Jack won't let you lie.
• Modern No. 2: Flamethrower and other ways to burn a ghoul to hell. At worst, a can of hairspray with a lighter will do. Vampires are afraid of fire and burn well.
• Modern No. 3: ultraviolet lamp. It works the same way as sunlight. Attention: if you live in the World of Darkness, then this tool will work for you only if you are a Technocracy operator. Otherwise, the vampire will simply laugh at you, and he will be right.
• Punk (more precisely, folk-punk): dirty blood. “He turned green, he vomited all the crosses./He, poor fellow, almost died for the second time,/He was vomiting, he greedily swallowed air with his mouth,/And, from a medical point of view, he was very bad.” However, in a less parodic version, many settings have means of making one's blood unpleasant or even dangerous to vampires. In some places these are special potions, and in some places they are drugs or even regular alcohol. A radical way: to become some other undead, besides a vampire: when you try to consume that black-brown liquid that is still left inside you, the vampire will definitely throw off its hooves or at least continue to spit for a long time. Radical way number 2: become a cyborg. Vampires capable of consuming machine oils and refrigerants are not known to unnatural science.

Spread of vampirism

According to the classics, any person bitten to death by a vampire becomes a vampire himself. But this, after simple calculations, raises doubts: where then vampire apocalypse? Therefore, a number of authors, in order to limit the number of ghouls, complicate the process of becoming a vampire. For example, after sucking the victim, the vampire must let her taste his own blood: only then will it work.

An alternative option (used, for example, in The Elder Scrolls): vampirism is highly contagious, but the original bite has three days to recover, the method of treatment is generally known. Therefore, you can only become a vampire voluntarily.

Alternative option-2: vampirism is not transmitted by a bite at all, but one becomes a vampire in some other way. For example, as a result of a deal with dark forces (you give us a soul, we give you a posthumous transformation into a vampire), a curse or a necromagic ritual that can be performed by a vampire sorcerer, a lich, a living and breathing necromancer, and so on,

Alternative option-3: you can only be born a vampire, like a magician in Harry Potter. In this case, vampires will not be like the undead, but a completely living race of intelligent predators. Here, however, there are exceptions: for example, among the Romanians, famous experts in vampire science, an old and seasoned vampire elder can temporarily revive his body, seduce a mortal woman with the help of psionics and give birth to half-vampire children with her, who after death will become real ghouls . What the vampire girls do in this case, history is silent.

Gradation of vampire power

In most cases, the toughness of vampires depends on age: the older the vampire, the stronger and scarier he is. In some worlds where vampires have a certain first ancestor (for example, Cain in the same World of Darkness), the number of generations between the first ancestor and the first bitten also plays a role: the fewer stomachs lie between the first bitten and the first ancestor, the cooler the vampire he will turn out to be. Often both gradations are combined: for example, in the game Vampire: the Masquerade - Bloodlines, the main character belongs to the relatively elite 8th generation (the same as Prince Lacroix), but he, like a newly converted vampire, is bullied, fooled and manipulated in vain by those who are older (even the seemingly good-natured Laughing Jack is an elder of the seemingly lower 10th generation - actually, already the 11th-12th generation is not an elder at all, and from the 13th the weak-blooded vampires generally begin).

In other worlds (like the Conjugate Spheres or the Nasuverse), there is a gradation of subspecies of vampires, divided into higher and lower. For example, a special race of completely immortal and flawless vampires can be called the highest, somewhere in the middle there are ordinary undead human vampires a la Dracula, and at the very bottom there are zombie-like vampires-ghouls or ghouls. Alternatively, ordinary “Hollywood” vampires can be called higher, and the more bestial subspecies can be considered lower.

Dhampirs and other half-vampires

In some worlds, it is possible for a vampire to interbreed with a human, the result is usually called a "dhampir". In folklore it was believed that they are no different from ordinary people, except for the ability to see and feel vampires, which was used by numerous scammers, and the fact that they were guaranteed to become vampires after death, which is described by legends. However, in modern times, a dhampir can enjoy a number of the benefits of vampirism without suffering from its disadvantages.

First, a dhampir may or may not drink blood. Or he may have this opportunity, but with each consumption of blood he becomes more and more like a true vampire, until sooner or later he becomes one (as compensation - an increase in vampire abilities). More often, however, the opposite is true: dhampirs who abstain from such a diet become more effective and tough vampire hunters.

Secondly, a dhampir is alive, or is closer to living than to dead. He most likely is not afraid of sunlight, or not to the same extent as a vampire. And other vampire vulnerabilities apply to him to a lesser extent or not at all.

The identifier of dhampirs in popular culture is Blade, the hero of the 1970s comic book series of the same name. Non-standard dhampirs are found in the World of Darkness: there they can be generated only by the weakest of the vampires, who themselves are half alive (others simply do not have the corresponding organs), and the dhampirs themselves differ little from people in abilities.

In addition to dhampirs, there are also other half-vampires or sub-vampires.

• Ghouls (World of Darkness). Half-vampires, half-humans, which are obtained if a person drinks the blood of a vampire. They acquire some vampiric abilities and become faithful daytime representatives of their “donors.”
• Half-vampires of the Red College (Dresden Files) - obtained whenever a Red College vampire converts a person. The victim has a reduced range of vampire abilities, coupled with a thirst for blood, but metaphysically she remains human. After the first murder and blood drinking, he mutates into a full-fledged vampire - a demonic half-undead (the real soul, apparently, goes straight to the next world, and something like an evil ghost remains in the body).
• “At the hour when the moon rises” - a sub-vampire is the result of the expulsion of a demon from a vampire or, in an isolated case, the result of the forced conversion of a person into a vampire (usually they do not survive after this even as an undead). An artificial sub-vampire fights in the ranks of the “black team”, repentant and undergone exorcism former vampire- in the partisan detachment of heroes.
• FREAKS (Hellsing) - artificial sub-vampires created from people with the help of Doc's surgery at the base of Mina Harker. They are weaker than many true vampires, but due to the fact that most FREAKS were created from professional military personnel - SS soldiers, they are extremely unpleasant and dangerous enemies, capable of causing a lot of hemorrhoids even to the highest vampires.
• Zombie vampires. In some settings, not all people make full-fledged vampires. For example, in Hellsing, such are obtained only from virgins and virgins of the sex, opposite sex turned vampire; From all the rest come zombies, who are again called ghouls. In Deadlands, the already familiar Nosferatu are lower, semi-intelligent sub-vampires, much more common than higher vampires.

Non-standard vampires

Literature

• “Child of Light” by Kazakov - strict inversion: vampire- main character it flies out to hunt during the day, when the sun rises, and drinks the blood of creatures of darkness that cannot stand daylight and sleep during the day.
• “Dresden Files” - local ghouls are divided into Colleges (similar to the Councils of Magicians and the Fairy Courts). The Black College are typical undead vampires with all the advantages and disadvantages described in Dracula; it is hinted that instead of a soul, in their dead bodies sits an evil ghost of an original personality who does not participate in the vampire’s unlife and calmly hangs out in the next world. The Red College are vampire monsters: they feed on blood, but are not real dead people, and in general the most important Reds are the gods of the Mayan-Aztec pantheon, and their souls seem to be the same as those of the Blacks. And finally, the White College, copied from gypsy vampires, are energy vampires that feed on negative emotions: fear, despair or lust, they reproduce naturally and receive strength from Hunger, like two peas in a pod similar to the VtM Beast, their souls are human. There is also the Jade College, but nothing is known about them except that they live somewhere in Asia. And ghouls, who are intelligent but evil cannibal monsters and often serve as hired soldiers for vampires for food.
• "Monday begins on Saturday" Br. The Strugatskys are vampire ghouls only in name. “The ghoul is the blood-sucking undead of folk tales. Can not be. In reality, ghouls (ghouls, vampires) are magicians who, for one reason or another, have taken the path of abstract evil. The original remedy against them is an aspen stake and bullets cast from native silver. In the text, the word “ghoul” is used everywhere in a figurative sense.” (Afterword). This is a comment from Privalov himself - that “it doesn’t happen.” And in the text, the vivarium caretaker appears - the ghoul Alfred, who, as signals were received, drinks at work not tea. Although it's called reformed a ghoul - it is possible that he really is a former magician who has left the path of abstract evil.
• "The Witcher Saga" (books and video games) - high vampires. For them, human blood is akin to alcohol or drugs (there are complete abstinents - such as Geralt’s friend Regis - but there are also “drunken” vampires), it is almost impossible to destroy them (only a relative or an extremely powerful magician can kill - and a simple witcher has nothing to catch), have complete regeneration (even a severed head is not a reason for death, it will just take much longer to recover), are not afraid of light, garlic, silver, or even fire (if the fire is not strong enough to melt stones). In addition to these invulnerable creatures, there are also a huge number of weaker species that are already quite accessible to destruction by witchers: intelligent, but vulnerable to witcher swords, katakana, brux, alps, nosferata and muli - a kind of transitional link between higher and lower vampires. As well as lower vampires - ekimmas, fleders and garkains.
• “Twilight” - local vampires are hard as stone, they don’t care about the sun, silver and shrines. You can kill them if you tear them into pieces and burn all the remains. Moreover, the blood is caustic and toxic, like that of an Alien. Do you already understand why fans of the gothic genre consider this series of novels to be hellish trash?
• “The Dark Tower” - vampires are vulnerable to shrines and the power of faith; they tolerate sunlight, even though they don’t like it. These creatures are servants of the Red and are divided into three types:
  • Vampires of the first type - the so-called. "higher" vampires. In terms of abilities and weaknesses, they are similar to Stoker’s Dracula, but they are not former people, but creatures of Prim. The antagonist of the novel “Salimov's Lot” Barlow is just one of these. Ancient, strong and powerful creatures, obsessed with a thirst for blood, which they can control to a certain extent. It is highly not recommended to be friends with them - they can still break loose, as the assistant of the above-mentioned Barlow Straker learned the hard way. Barlow later even regretted this action, but could not restrain himself. The most ancient high vampires are all overgrown with fangs and tufts of fur, which is why they try not to show themselves in public.
  • Vampires of the second type are undead, formed from the victims of vampires of the first type. They have more weaknesses (for example, higher vampires are afraid only of the true faith, and ordinary ones - specifically holy symbols), and fewer strengths, plus they are under the control of the higher vampire who converted them. This is exactly what Barlow’s subordinates are like in the same “Salim’s Lot”. In contrast to the bloodthirsty, but not devoid of any humanity, vampires of the first type are complete sociopaths, completely absorbed in the thirst for blood and have no hesitation at all in manipulating former loved ones for this purpose. People who drink them also become vampires of the second type, but those who are simply bitten can be reborn into the third type of vampires.
  • Vampires of the third type are conditionally living creatures that look like people, and also drink and eat - although they also need blood drinking. To recognize them, mystical powers are needed. The body of the killed “inferior” crumbles into dust, although the clothes remain.
• "I'm a legend!" Richard Matheson. A hybrid of the zombie apocalypse and vampires. Vampirism is a disease that makes most of those infected with it look like blood-thirsty zombies; rare exceptions manage to retain their sanity. In the end, the exceptions find a way to unite and, at the very least, build a vampire civilization, simultaneously managing to get rid of the thirst for blood.

TV serials

• "Stargate: Atlantis" - Wraiths. By all rights, such jian-shi in the setting of science fiction come from another galaxy. They suck out life energy. They don’t know a damn thing about religious symbols, because they are a highly developed race, have physical super-strength, regeneration, are killed exclusively by spraying into atoms... well, okay, a couple of bursts from automatic weapons should also work, but at least an anti-personnel mine is better.

Cartoons

• "Count Duckula" - the main character, a vampire duck, is a vegetarian and does not drink blood at all. All because during the ritual of his resurrection, the servants confused a bottle of blood with a bottle of ketchup.
• Wakfu - Count Vampiro sucks not the blood, but the shadow of the victim (and, apparently, the soul along with it). Moreover, he was made into a vampire by a ring with a demon (or rather, demoness) sitting inside.
• "Adventure Time" - the vampire queen Marceline sucks not blood, but the color red from various objects.
• "The Adventures of Buzz Lightyear of the All-Star Team" - NOS-4-A2, a robot vampire. Sucks energy from robots.

Comics

• Homestuck: The alien equivalent of vampires is the "rainbow-drinking" trolls. They glow like a light bulb, unlike their fellow non-vampires, they love sunlight. Rainbow drinkers can only be female jadebloods - a consequence of the troll caste system.
• “Marvel” - the vampire Morlun sucks not the blood, but the energy of the totem animal.

Energetic vampire– a person who “pumps” energy from other people. In the modern world, every person has heard and at least once encountered so-called energy vampires. They differ from “real” vampires in that they do not drink bodily blood, but our energy, and “suck out” the soul. For such feeding, they need to find a victim and communicate with her.

Communicating with a trusting “donor”, ​​an energy vampire feeds on his energy, takes it for himself, that is, appropriates it. Each of you can remember that sometimes, after a conversation or meeting with some acquaintances, you feel like someone has squeezed you out, depriving you of vital juices, you experience fatigue, apathy, and a bad mood.

Signs

Here are some signs that your energy is “leaving” and that there is a person in your environment who is taking it away:

• you are constantly visited by a feeling of anxiety, a feeling of heaviness;
• your physical condition is not normal;
• constant headaches, especially when a human vampire is nearby;
• nausea;
• insomnia (or other sleep disorders), and if sleep does occur, then you are tormented by nightmares;
• stomach upsets;
• obsession with a certain person, some thing;
• frequent nervous breakdowns;
• capriciousness, tearfulness.

Kinds

There are several varieties of such “absorbers of our energy.” Let's start with the first type - the so-called monthly vampirism. Lunar vampires whine non-stop, complain about “this unbearable life”, something constantly hurts them, they always have a lot of problems, they see everything in black and white and certainly want to shift the burden of their problems onto you. After a conversation with an energy vampire, you immediately feel tired, lose strength, and feel like a “squeezed lemon.”

And your interlocutor, the “energy vampire,” on the contrary, feels a surge of new strength, an upsurge, he feels better, his mood improves. He literally flies on wings, which cannot be said about his victim. Of course, energy vampires should not be confused with those who sometimes need moral support - such people should be pitied and sympathized with. You should be wary of those who tirelessly, almost daily, complain to you and, like a magnet, attract various problems to themselves. Some people, although subconsciously, really like to suffer, to have a bunch of problems, so that later they will certainly retell them and shift them onto the shoulders of others. This is how they feed and replenish their energy, taking yours. To get rid of the negative influence of such acquaintances, you should stop communicating with them, or reduce them to an absolute minimum - the further away the “vampire” is, the safer it is for you. But what to do when one of your friends, or even worse, relatives, is an energy vampire? In this case, you cannot avoid communication, and therefore influence, unless you learn to abstract from other people’s problems and perceive information detachedly, simply as a fact, without passing it through your heart, through yourself. The second type of vampirism is solar. Solar energy vampires take energy from the victim, unbalancing the person. These are brawlers-provocateurs who love to create scandals, quarrels and showdowns in in public places. They may, for example, push you in public transport or step on your foot. When a quarrel arises, vampires receive the desired energy. These individuals are most afraid when victims do not pay attention to them and remain calm. Usually a vampire makes three attempts to upset your mental balance, and if he does not succeed, then it can become bad for himself, because he spent his energy, but did not receive someone else’s. Another method of energy vampirism is touch, that is, when a person touches you, clearly not with good intentions.

People say that this is what witches do: even in church they can come up to you and stand, touching you unnoticed, thereby taking your energy for themselves. By the way, almost all sectarians are energy vampires.

Fighting methods

Methods of dealing with energy vampires are varied. You can replenish stolen energy with herbal infusions, teas, meditation, or simply by communicating with positive, optimistic people. To protect yourself from vampirism, also use the following tips.

As soon as you notice a negative impact on yourself and feel the energy leaving somewhere in your body, take a deep breath. Breathing is a great way to concentrate. Focus on your breathing and tell yourself that you know what is happening to you and you can handle it. We should remember our own strengths, which we can easily lose. As soon as a negatively charged person appears on the horizon, we instantly feel a loss of strength and pressure on us.

If we can focus on breathing, or distract ourselves and imagine a vibrant sunset, or conjure up a landscape with a beautiful view from a mountain peak, then the pressure on us will go away, and the depression will disappear. Use your own energy to counteract the vampire. Create in your imagination a protective white light around you, a kind of energy shield. Many people use the principle “I’m in the pipe and can’t hear anything.” You will hear the vampire's complaints about “evil fate”, and feel his attempts to get close to your energy, but he will no longer be able to reach you. Thus, you have created a kind of intermediate zone where the negative influence disappears.

Set your own boundaries. By being able to construct an abstract boundary, you will also, in a certain way, be able to protect yourself. Draw an imaginary line between you and the energy vampire. It will also help cover your biofield when you connect thumb with an index finger on each hand (forming a ring), thus blocking access to your energy. Never convince a vampire that your beliefs are right! Always stay neutral!

If someone tries to “touch” your nerves, provoke you to “boil,” you need to try not to react. Remember the “I’m in the pipe” principle.

A few more effective techniques

There are many ways to combat the strange phenomenon of energy eaters, following which you will protect yourself from negative influences.

Let's name some effective techniques:

1. Limit your time communicating with energy vampires (or better yet, exclude them altogether). The less time you are together, the less of your “good” energy you will lose.

2. Learn to stop a conversation with a vampire (for example: “I only have ten minutes to talk to you,” or “I’m late for the bus”).

3. Remain calm and dispassionate when dealing with an energy vampire. Don't let negative energy consume you.

4. Refrain from trying to help the vampire or solve his problems.

5. Try to move away from the energy vampire more often.

6. Limit eye contact. The “look through” rule works very well here - look not into the eyes, but at the bridge of the nose. 7. Avoid being in close contact with energy vampires (elevators, cars, etc.). Here negative energy has every chance of “catching you.”

8. Clearly define and protect your own space from energy vampires.

9. Tell vampires that you are uncomfortable discussing certain people or circumstances (that you are not a big fan of gossip).

10. Protect yourself and your boundaries! Your time, positive and kind energy, your own reserves of strength are priceless and should be reliably protected from energy eaters.

We hope that the above methods of protection will be useful to those who, for any reason, are exposed to the influence of energy vampires. You may not even realize that you communicate with them every day. Then look around - there is still a lot in the world that you had no idea about before!