Why Vampires?
A Guest Post by Lorelei Bell
What is it that attracts us to this blood-feasting stranger that
wanders the night? Why do we continue to perpetuate it? Possibly it is
the delicious shiver we feel when we read about our heroine facing
that dark, handsome stranger. We imagine her succumbing to his thirst.
We may imagine ourselves in this roll and play it over and over in our
heads and become the victim in this erotic fantasy: the stranger with
marble-white skin, jet-black hair, unyielding dark eyes and strong
arms, the desire for his kiss and finally the orgasmic spasm that
accompanies it. Yes, it has masochistic undertones, but that's what
thralls us, I guess.
Down through time, the human imagination has created fantastic beings,
solely for the thrill factor. We are no different today. But none is
quite like the dark and erotic creature known as the vampire. I'm sure
many of you out there have wondered where the myths may have come
from. Every nation, and nationality has some sort of vampire lore. So,
you have to wonder, is there something to it? Of course the concept
has been exploited by Hollywood for generations, and now there is
quite the glut on TV and books. But this is all fiction. Don't you
just wonder if there might be fact behind this whole “do vampires
exist?” question.
Well, there might be something to it. Lately, the “real” human
vampires are slowly coming out of the closet—and I'm not trying to be
cheeky here. If you've caught something on a TV special, or have just
heard about it, and wonder if there's anything to it, I too have been
on the prowl trying to find the “truth” through the few decades I've
written my fantasies out. I may have found a few items to titillate
the curiosity further.
My personal thought is that the reality is so very secret that those
who are “real” vampires has been allowed the myths to perpetuate, and
we authors may do as we please and no one is really hurt. It's all
make believe, after all.
Or . . . is it? This is what has come to the surface.
There are two types of “real” human vampires. There are the psychic
(PSI) vampires and the sanguinarians (those who do drink human blood
from a willing donor).
PSI vampires are those who need the life energy, or emotional energy
from people that they feed from. They have found a way to tap the
energy from the emotions of people. In most cases it doesn't require
touching, and in many cases large groups of people tend to be easier
to tap this energy from—usually from a party, or maybe a concert,
where feelings of elation and happiness exist. A vampire would never
feed from anger, or any negative emotions. Feeding by physical contact
is much easier, obviously. And this may be where the lore has come
from because they will feed from any place on the body that forms a
hollow, like the hollow at the base of your throat, or in your
shoulder—I wondered where the idea of feeding from the neck came from.
Normally most PSI vampires will feed with their right hand and drain
with their palm. Not terribly erotic, is it?
I've also delved into the sanguinarians. Blood—human blood is a real
high to the sanguinarians. It acts like a narcotic on the brain. It
has come to my attention that those people who are psychics naturally
have a higher amount of something called adrenaline, also known as
epinephrine. This would explain why they are a very different sort.
Those people who have this epinephrine, and who are not powerful
psychics, are considered schizophrenics—they can't help this condition
and in some cases it's a very real need. Plenty of such unusual
stories abound in history about them. Consider the more famous cases
of blood drinkers such as Elizabeth Bathory, and many, many others.
Werewolf, or lycanthrope may also be a subdivision of the same thing,
mainly because blood is also involved.
The bottom line is, there is something to the lore. We simply want to
romanticize the truth and we, as writers seem to be doing a pretty
good job of it. Hopefully I have not frightened you too much with the
real vampire's addiction. Learning more about the reasons behind it
has helped me write about my vampires with more of an understanding
for their needs and how they might go about attaining them.
Lorelei Bell is author of Vampire Ascending,
and soon to be released, Vampire's Trill.
http://vampireascending.copperhillmedia.com/
http://loreleismuse-lorelei.blogspot.com
