Mental disorder

There have been a number of murderers who performed seemingly vampiric rituals upon their victims. Serial killers Peter Kurten and Richard Trenton Chase were both called “vampires” in the tabloids after they were discovered drinking the blood of the people they murdered. Similarly, in 1932, an unsolved murder case in Stockholm, Sweden was nicknamed the … Read more

Sleep paralysis

Symptoms Sleep paralysis is a condition in which someone, most often lying in a supine position, about to drop off to sleep, or just upon waking from sleep realizes that s/he is unable to move, or speak, or cry out. This may last a few seconds or several moments, occasionally longer. People frequently report feeling … Read more

Genetics

Chinese researchers have discovered “the vampire gene”, which gives mosquitoes their thirst for blood. The vampire gene is technically known as trypsin-like serine protease, or Tryp-SPc, said Wu Dongdong, a PhD candidate and lead author of a paper on the subject published in Molecular Biology and Evolution. Tryp-SPc “makes mosquitoes capable of digesting blood faster … Read more

Natural-born vampires

Frequently people become revenants through no fault of their own, as when they are conceived during a holy period, according to the Church calendar, or when they are the illegitimate offspring of illegitimate parents. Indeed, in Romania it is reported that merely being the seventh child in a family is apt to cause one to … Read more

How to become a vampire

Hollywood has focused the propagation of vampirism through the vampire bite or vampire kiss. However,  the prevalent mythological routes are usually a sort of curse or predestination. The bite The most common and sure-fire method of becoming a vampire is to die from a vampire bite. The sanguinary bite (or “kiss“) of a vampire is … Read more

Paranormal

The common experience of out-of-the-body travel or astral projection has sometimes been associated with visits to other individuals, as well as contacts with frightening elementals on the astral plane. Some occultists appear to have mastered techniques by which they can astrally project, and visit their victims while asleep and drain their vitality from them. During … Read more

Psychology

In his 1931 treatise On the Nightmare, Ernest Jones noted that vampires are symbolic of several unconscious drives and defense mechanisms. Emotions such as love, guilt, and hate fuel the idea of the return of the dead to the grave. Desiring a reunion with loved ones, mourners may project the idea that the recently dead … Read more

Medical conditions

Many humans have been accused of being vampires over the centuries due to the fact that their physical characteristics resembled the traits of these blood-sucking monsters. However, modern science has since shed some light on the vampire myth, highlighting three medical conditions that may well explain why some unfortunate souls were mistaken for these dark … Read more