Vampires and Vampiroids

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The only blood suckers I have dealt with were people who had a demonic compulsion to drink blood. I have had to deal with lost souls that died violent deaths, but they couldn't possibly drink blood. Are you dealing with sorcerers & shamans soul traveling to harass people? - Tim Temple (Order of St Patrick)

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There exists two possibilities which exist for the phenomenon written about since time immemorial. One is a predatory demonic wraith which masquerades as a dead person exhibiting supernatural abilities that include metamorphosis. The other possibility is a person afflicted by demonic possession close to death who seemingly expires while in truth is held in a twilight state. This person does not belong to God's true dead and is awaiting release from the condition which will free their tormented soul so that it can find the peace of death.
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Dear Bishop Manchester, Do "good" vampires that do not kill humans but drink blood from bloodbanks or only hunt animals, like those in the "Twilight" films or the series "True Blood" exist in real life? Blessed regards, Anders Bøthun Kristiansen, Norway.

The fictional vampires portrayed in the films you describe do not exist. However, there are people who emulate such portrayals who drink blood and claim to drain energy. They are known as vampiroids, but are not real vampires. Some actually believe themselves to be vampires. They are not. How could they be when the definition of a vampire, upon examination, is revealed to be a manifestation which issues forth from its tomb in the night to quaff the blood of the living? Vampiroids, therefore, cannot be supernatural beings with an awful existence beyond the grave. People who either believe themselves to be vampires, or want to become vampires and affect what they construe to be vampiristic lifestyles, even when this is taken to extremes, are invariably vampiroids. There are various categories of vampiroid, ranging from harmless poseurs to dangerous psychopaths. The former may be benign, but the latter are more than capable of murder. Thus the vampiroid is not a supernatural being, but a human who embraces what he or she assumes to be a lifestyle commensurate with vampirism as largely depicted in fictional films and literature. Whereas the true vampire partakes of the dark natures and possesses the terrible qualities of both apparition and demon, assuming the form of a dead body to suck the blood of the living. Vampiroids identify with the imagery of the vampire and become totally seduced by its mythology, having almost no regard for what is fact and what is fantasy. The more extreme examples of vampiroidism, known as ultra-vampiroids, have no problem with the fact that in reality vampires are biocidal and destroy all life-forms. Hence, within the supra-individual level of the psyche, they respond utterly to the vampire archetype.

Despite the very high percentage of relatively harmless poseurs in most vampiroid clubs, there can nevertheless occasionally be found a small number of extreme types. These can vary in levels of psychotic behaviour from proto-vampiroids to ultra-vampiroids.

By no means are all vampiroids enmeshed in diabolism and murder. In fact, the majority are definitely not. However, the clubs produce literature that feeds certain beliefs and obsessions. These undoubtedly compromise the dynamics of any benign vampiroid philosophy, such as it can be deduced from those within these groups. The crude and splenetic expression of their views points to an irrational pathological prejudice rather than a coherent philosophy. Some of this prejudice is similar to malefic occultism with an anti-Christian bias. Personality problems obviously plays a part in the opinions expressed by many, but vampiroidism per se is no freak display of Gothic Romanticism at its most decadent. It is, in fact, anti-Gothic and anti-Romantic. At its cutting edge its raw materials are concepts usually allied to destructive beliefs and an acute ethnocentric identification with the archetype in forms that are mostly allegorical.

Anti-social behaviour is nonetheless evinced in acts of blood-letting and mutilation, blood-drinking and, occasionally, profanity towards sacred things, especially Christian images. Tribalism and morbidity play an enormous role, despite the fact that most vampiroids are frequently found to be introverted loners. It is the epiphenomenon of the vampire cult and spans a quite wide spectrum, but the fundamental ingredients of blood, death, fear and evil remain constant. However, even mimetic-vampiroids frequently evince narcissistic personality disorders as well as schizotypal disorders. These relatively harmless representatives of the subculture display imitative “vampire” behaviour indicative of theatrical posturing. Ultra-vampiroids, thankfully very much fewer in number than their mimetic counterparts at the other end of the spectrum, often belong to extremist sects who espouse diabolism and vary in their degree of fanaticism.

To make this vampiroidic spectrum more comprehensible certain specialist terms need to be understood:

Aetiology: the study of the causes of illnesses and diseases, including vampiroidism.

Anomie: an acute sense of meaningless and loss of identity usually precipitated by personal upheavals.

Archetype: a symbol or myth whose affective power lies in the resonance it has within the supra-individual level of the psyche. Vampiroids respond to the vampire ethos.

Biocidal: tending to the destruction of all life-forms, human or non-human. The vampire is biocidal.

Diachronic: analysing phenomena, including vampiroidism, in a way which represents their chronological development and historical particularity.

Epiphenomenon: the side product of a more fundamental reality.

Ethnocentrism: placing one’s own kind at the centre of all value judgements.

Faustian: expressing the myth of Faust who was driven to make a pact with the devil in order to transcend ordinary human experience. Vampiroids are exceptionally Faustian.

Fissiparous: tending constantly to divide up into smaller groups. Most vampiroid clubs have shown this tendency which has resulted in a proliferation of mainly small groups, rather than a monolithic force.

Immanentisation: making something into an intrinsic part of historical time. Vampiroidism is largely an international phenomenon of the last dozen or so years. They feel that now is their time.

Mimetic-Vampiroidism: purely imitative vampire behaviour, usually based on fantasy exploitation films etc.

Para-Vampiroidism: a form of vampiroidism that adopts the external trappings of the cult while rejecting its ethnocentric pathology as evinced in diabolism and blood-drinking.

Philo-Vampiroidism: predisposed to become a fellow-traveller or supporter of the vampiroid subculture.

Proto-Vampiroidism: a form of paligenetic ultra-vampiroidism that lacks any subtlety whatsoever.

Ultra-Vampiroidism: a form incompatible with mimetic and para-vampiroidism that is highly dangerous.

Little can be learned by studying the propaganda of vampiroid literature because, like its diabolical counterpart, it misrepresents the facts and offers false promises. Claims made by such groups are frequently absurd, but it is on such absurdities that they rely to attract members to their cult. Some might initially feel a sense of “belonging” and “purpose” when they enter these groups, but it does not last, just as the groups themselves do not last but break-up and proliferate with the exception of a tiny handful.

Vampiroid Syndrome and Ultra-Vampiroidism are each afforded a chapter in my vampirological guide ~ The Vampire Hunter’s Handbook. There is also a chapter in The Highgate Vampire titled "Vampires, Vampiroids and Satanists" that makes a clear distinction between “an accursed body which cannot rest in the kindly earth” and those who “want to emulate the undead … [as] more and more misguided individuals … live vampiric lifestyles ~ some with the ambition of ultimately becoming undead when their earthly existence expires.”

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