Genesis of the Vampire

The word vampire in the English language was borrowed (perhaps via French vampyre) from German wampyr, in turn borrowed in early 18th century from Serbian вампир/vampir or, according to some sources, from Hungarian vámpír. The Serbian and Hungarian forms have parallels in virtually all Slavic languages: Bulgarian вампир (vampir), вапир (vapir) or въпир (vəpir), Croatian vampir, Czech and Slovak upír, Polish wąpierz and (perhaps East Slavic-influenced) upiór, Russian упырь (upyr'), Belarussian упiр (upyr), Ukrainian упирь (upir' ), from Old Russian упирь (upir'). The etymology is uncertain. Among the proposed proto-Slavic forms are ǫpyr and ǫpir. The Slavic word might, like its possible Russian cognate netopyr ("bat"), come from the Proto-Indo-European root for "to fly". Another theory has it that the Slavic word comes from a Turkic word denoting an evil supernatural entity (cf. Kazan Tatar ubyr "witch"). This theory has now become obsolete, but has recently been embraced by one Polish scholar. The word Upir as a term for vampire is found for the first time in written form in 1047 in a letter to a Novgorodian prince referring to him as "Upir Lichyj" (Wicked Vampire or Foul Vampire).

Tales of the undead craving blood are ancient and found in nearly every culture around the world. Vampire-like spirits called the Lilu are mentioned in early Babylonian demonology, and the bloodsucking Akhkharu even earlier in the Sumerian mythology. These female demons were said to roam during the hours of darkness, hunting and killing newborn babies and pregnant women. One of these demons, named Lilitu, was later adapted into Jewish demonology as Lilith. Lilitu/Lilith is sometimes called the mother of all vampires.

In India, tales of the Vetalas, ghoul-like beings that inhabit corpses, are found in old Sanskrit folklore. A prominent story tells of King Vikramāditya and his nightly quests to capture an elusive Vetala. The stories of the Vetala have been compiled in the book Baital Pachisi.

The Ancient Egyptian goddess Sekhmet in one myth became full of bloodlust after slaughtering humans and was only sated after drinking alcohol coloured as blood.

In Homer's Odyssey, the shades that Odysseus meets on his journey to the underworld are lured to the blood of freshly sacrificed rams, a fact that Odysseus uses to his advantage to summon the shade of Tiresias. Roman tales describe the strix, a nocturnal bird that fed on human flesh and blood. The Roman strix is the source of the Romanian vampire, the Strigoi and the Albanian Shtriga, which also show Slavic influence.

In early Slavic folklore, a vampire drank blood, was afraid of (but could not be killed by) silver and could be dealt with by cutting off its head or by putting a wooden stake into its heart.

Medieval historians and chroniclers Walter Map and William of Newburgh recorded the earliest English stories of vampires in the twelfth century.

Many vampire legends also bear similarities to legends and religious beliefs regarding succubi or incubi.

The Oxford English Dictionary dates the first appearance of the word vampire in English from 1734, in a travelogue titled Travels of Three English Gentlemen published in the Harleian Miscellany in 1745. Vampires had already been discussed in German literature. After Austria gained control of northern Serbia and Oltenia in 1718, officials noted the local practice of exhuming bodies and "killing vampires." These reports, prepared between 1725 and 1732, received widespread publicity.

The English term could have been derived via French vampyre from the German wampyr, in turn thought to be derived in the early eighteenth century from the Serbian вампир/vampir. The Serbian form has parallels in virtually all Slavic languages: Bulgarian вампир (vampir), Czech and Slovak upír, Polish wąpierz, and (perhaps East Slavic-influenced) upiór, Russian упырь (upyr'), Belarusian упыр (upyr), Ukrainian упирь (upir'), from Old Russian упирь (upir'). Many of these languages have also borrowed forms such as "vampir/wampyr" subsequently from the West; these are distinct from the original local words for the creature. The exact etymology is unclear.

The first recorded use of the Old Russian form Упирь (Upir) is commonly believed to be in a document dated 6555 (1047 AD). It is a colophon in a manuscript of the Book of Psalms written by a priest who transcribed the book from Glagolitic into Cyrillic for the Novgorodian Prince Vladimir Yaroslavovich. The priest writes that his name is "Upir' Likhyi" (Упирь Лихый), which means "Foul Vampire".

Another early use of the Old Russian word is in the anti-pagan treatise Word of Saint Grigoriy, dated variously from the eleventh to the thirteenth centuries, where pagan worship of upyri is reported.

Upon discovery, a vampire can be exorcised by cremation, decapitation, exposure to sunlight and impalation with a stake through its heart. The vampire’s powers are many and varied. They can remain undead indefinitely unless exorcised in a specific manner. They can assume animal shapes and some have been thought to control the elements locally. Metamorphosis into mist is not unknown either. They can intrude upon sleeping persons’ dreams and mesmerise their prey. Their infectious bite may eventually result in the death of their victims, a small number of whom will likewise become undead upon apparent expiry. Vampires, despite their manifold supernatural abilities, are nevertheless not invulnerable. They leave the confines of where the corporeal shell resides only between sunset and sunrise. They cannot cross running water save at the slack or the flood of the tide. They fear and shrink from the sign of the cross, the crucifix and, above all, from the Host, the Body of God. Holy water will burn them as some scorching acid and they flee from the fragrance of most incense, particularly frankincense. Certain trees and herbs are hateful to them, especially whitethorn, or buckthorn. They are also curiously allergic to garlic. The pungent herb Allium Sativum (wild variety: Allium Vineal) is deemed to be effective as a vampire repellent. In 450 BC, Herodotus, the Greek historian, in Euterpe: Concerning the History of Europe, remarks about an inscription inside the Cheops pyramid at Gisa, built circa 2900 BC, that attests to the value of garlic’s arcane properties. It was invariably employed to ward off evil spirits, and still is.

Exorcism does not "kill" the demonic agent. It rids the supernatural predatory wraith from our sphere or dimension. The corporeal host obviously returns to its true state and is no longer plagued by the apparent supernatural ability to manifest as though it were living. During the exorcism the corporeal shell returns to earthly time as the demonic entity is expelled.

Evil tends to need to be invited when it enters a portal into our hemisphere. This does not necessarily require a full-blown evocation, or the raising of demons per se. It is relatively easy to release evil into the world for evil is not merely a lack of something, but an effective agent, a living spiritual being, perverted and perverting; a terrible reality: mysterious and frightening. The problem arises when attempting to cast such evil out of our world. This is significantly more difficult than inviting it in.

When disinterred the abnormal condition of the corpse will be a sure mark of whether it is a vampire or not. Such bodies do not suffer decomposition after burial. They do not fall to dust. Generally described as being exceedingly gaunt and lean with a hideous countenance, the vampire, when he has satiated his lust for warm human blood, will appear horribly puffed and bloated, as though he were some filthy leech, gorged and replete to bursting. The lips are often markedly full and drawn back to reveal sharp teeth, gleaming white against a frame stained with slab gouts of blood. The foul offal from the previous night's feast. The gaping mouth, stained and foul with blood, might reveal glutinous trickles that have spilled on to the lawn shrouding and linen cerements. The form is therefore discovered gorged and stinking with the life-force blood of others. The eyes are sometimes closed; more frequently open, glazed, fixed, and glaring fiercely. The corpse will nevertheless seem composed as if in a profound sleep. The stench of the charnel where these undead repose is oftentimes so terrible and fetid that the sickening odour can effect the senses of an observer for possibly months afterwards. Epidemics of this unspeakable evil have resulted in entire graves being discovered soaked and saturated with squelching blood. Such an epidemic plagued south east Europe and reached England's shores in the early part of the 18th century. It is believed that this is where the Highgate contamination has its origins.

It was necessary to tell the full story, even though this was not an easy decision, due to the overwhelming public interest in the case, but I really now feel the subject has been exhausted and all there is to say about it has been said. It has also exhausted me after decades of television and radio interviews, film documentaries and related projects concentrating on this one topic. There will always be people seeking to cash in and exploit my work for their own ends. Many, of course, will be too young to remember the happenings at Highgate. That notwithstanding, my book The Highgate Vampire is optioned for cinematic treatment, but that is not something I can elaborate upon here.

I am willing to quietly and privately set the record straight where need be, but I gave my final interview about this case to the broadcast media some years ago and have no intention of returning to the topic despite persistent requests from television and radio programmes for me to do so almost every week. I still make contributions on unrelated matters, but this subject of intense public fascination — in some cases obsession — concerning the events at Highgate Cemetery is not something I have an appetite to return to any longer. Having said that, my memoir in its unexpurgated form mentions the case in a proper and fitting context to the rest of my life. I have no plans to have this document published, however; now or ever.

Unimaginable horrors were experienced by folk at the time of the contagion and these I feel are best not evoked. They should be left undisturbed. The reality that I and others, most now sadly deceased, experienced all those many years ago no longer exists, and next to the hunger to experience the supernatural, albeit in this case at its most maleficent and deadly, there is perhaps no stronger hunger than to forget.

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Nota Bene:  You can order The Highgate Vampire by clicking on the image above.

When a "Vampire" is Not a Vampire

"I love vampires, and know a handful both in mortal life and spirits."

The Vampyre Society claimed to be "a private and exclusive Society of real vampires and their disciples. They sought others like them and those few who desire to "become like us," adding: "vampirism is not a cult of death but one of life and overcoming death. To live forever and to never die." Elsewhere it declares: "We are not psychic vampires, sanguinary vampires (blood-drinkers), 'lifestyle vampires,' or those who use the persona of the vampire as a spiritual tradition, or as a mask or path to personal power. We are vampires." And: "Although immortal, vampires are still human and have a respect for life. They are not murderers or the criminally insane who prey upon the living. No one loves life and shuns death more than vampires." They frequently quote from works of fiction, fantasy and, unsurprisingly, the Satanist Aleister Crowley, but these people are not any of the things they claim to be. They are not immortal. They are not vampires. They are, in essence, vampiroids.

Vampiroids are not 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 dead body that issues forth from its tomb in the night to quaff the warm blood of the living, whereby it is nourished and preserved? Vampiroids, therefore, cannot be re-animated corpses with an awful supernatural 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. But it is not even as simple as that because there are various categories of vampiroid, ranging from harmless poseurs to dangerous psychopaths. The former may be benign, but the latter are 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, eg the UK’s David Austen, a self-confessed Satanist and sexual deviant of many years, to ultra-vampiroids like America’s Rod Ferrell, who committed two gruesome murders and was on death row. Both have belonged to vampiroid clubs.

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 play 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 vampiroid 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, eg Carole Bohanan, ex-president of the now defunct UK Vampyre Society (see image at the top of the page) that was based in Croydon. 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. Rod Ferrell convinced several teenagers to drink his blood and join a vampiroid group in Florida, USA. “On the night of 26th November 1996, after hours of devil worshipping and drinking each other’s blood, five members of the cult ~ including Heather [Wendorf] and Ferrell ~ drove to her parents’ house in Eustis, Florida. … Ferrell bludgeoned her parents to death. … Detectives raided her bedroom and found drawings of demons, a video of Interview with the Vampire and handwritten letters revealing how she loved to drink blood before sex. In one she told a friend that Ferrell was her saviour.” (The Sun, 5th March 1998).

Vampiroid leaders such as Ferrell are extremely controlling and, in the view of many, evil. Judge Jerry Locket, sentencing Ferrell to die in the electric chair, told him: “There is genuine evil in the world. There is a dark side and a light side competing in each of us and there is little doubt on which side you went.” A UK example of ultra-vampiroidism would be the vampiroid cult leader Wayne Phelps of Dorset who lured and defiled schoolgirls across Britain in satanic ceremonies. He made his members sign “death pacts” where they swore upon their own blood to sacrifice their own lives, if need be, for the cult. Phelps “slashed a rusty razor blade into his own chest [imitating Stoker’s Count Dracula] - then forced a 15-year-old sex slave to feed on his blood. As crazed followers bowed at his feet and clapped with joy the twisted devil worshipper brutally thrust his schoolgirl victim’s lips deep into the gushing wound, in the shape of an inverted crucifix.” (News of the World, 17th November 1996).

Anton LaVey: founder of the Church of Satan

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 The Vampire Hunter’s Handbook. There is also a chapter in The Highgate Vampire titled Vampires, Vampiroids and Satanists. 

Marilyn Manson

On 7th June 2000 the small Italian town of Chiavenna was rocked by the discovery of a gruesome murder in one of its quiet back lanes. The blood-soaked victim, who had been struck with rocks and smashed against a wall before being stabbed nineteen times, was later identified as Sister Maria Laura, the much-loved Mother Superior of the local convent. The brutality of the killing shocked townspeople, and attracted widespread media attention: and with no obvious motive for the murder, rumours soon started to fly. Satanic signs and slogans were found nearby and the killing was blamed on devil worshippers striking a blow against the Catholic Church. However, on 28th June 2000 three popular teenage girls were arrested. They were vampiroidic fans of the depraved “entertainer” Marilyn Manson, a member of the Church of Satan, whose lyrics are too blasphemous, hate-filled and obscene to quote here. At first the girls’ attitude was arrogant and cold. They refused to speak to the police. But when they eventually began to speak it became apparent that their appalling crime was a premeditated act. Milena, one of the girls, admitted that they had met outside the church one night and cut their hands, drinking the blood while they pledged an oath of eternal loyalty to each other. “We decided to go for a nun,” Veronica, another of the three girls, told her interrogators, “because she was the opposite of us. We believe in Satan.” The third girl is named Ambra. They beat the nun into unconsciousness with a tile and by beating her head against a stone wall. When that failed, they took out knives and stabbed her to death. But throughout her ordeal, Sister Maria Laura had prayed for her attackers, and promised them that God would forgive them even as she did herself. Armed with these confessions, the carabinieri searched the girls’ homes and found diaries testifying to their obsession with Satanism, and with the lyrics of the degenerate performer and singer Marilyn Manson who cashed-in on the tragedy when touring Italy in February 2001. Manson said: “If having your own opinion makes you evil, then I am evil. … All I say is don’t feel guilty for having emotions like lust, greed and hate - because you are going to have them.” On 9th August 2001 Ambra had the case against her dismissed on the grounds of diminished responsibility, and was sentenced to three years’ rehabilitation. The other two girls, Milena and Veronica, were found guilty of first degree murder and were each sentenced to eight years and six months. There is a move in Chiavenna to have Sister Maria Laura, who had taught in the town for more than thirty years, beatified.

Manuela Ruda                  Daniel Ruda

A German woman accused of taking part in the ritual killing of a friend says she became a Satanist in Britain. Manuela Ruda and her husband Daniel Ruda were tried for the murder of former workmate Frank Hackert at their flat in Witten, Germany. They say they killed him on orders from the Devil. She told a court in Bochum, Germany, that she got a taste for vampirism and the occult while in London and Scotland. German police said that any evidence pointing to other possible crimes or a satanic ring in Britain will be sent to the relevant authorities. Mr Hackert, who was 33, was hacked to death with a machete before his head was crushed with a sledgehammer. He had sixty-six knife wounds to his body. They then carved a satanic pentagram into the victim’s stomach and dumped his body in a silk-lined oak coffin which Manuela usually slept in. They also slit Mr Hackert’s veins to drink his blood. When police broke into the flat, they found the body beneath a banner saying, “Satan lives.” They also found imitation human skulls, and, of course, the coffin. Born into a working class family, Manuela dropped out of school at fourteen and later tried to kill herself with an overdose. She said she had been introduced to ultra-vampiroidism while working at a club in north London. On her return to Germany, she started to mix with people who frequented graveyards at night. “We’d have a perfectly normal chat and drink some blood,” she said.

Manuela, 23, whose head was partly shaven to reveal tattoos of an upside down crucifix and a target, told the court about drinking blood from volunteers contacted via the internet. She said: "I was in England and Scotland, met people and vampires [sic] in London. We went out at night, to cemeteries, in ruins and in the woods. We drank blood together, from willing donors. I had implanted pegs put in - the teeth which were pulled out were replaced with fangs. I also slept on graves and even allowed myself to be buried in a grave to test the feeling. I signed over my soul to Satan two-and-a-half years ago." The couple denied responsibility for killing Mr Hackert in July 2001, on the grounds that Satan had influenced their actions, although they both admitted to carrying out the gruesome act itself.

The couple showed no remorse in court and provoked outrage by rolling their eyes maniacally, making gestures, and grinning at journalists. As sentence was passed on 31st January 2002, in the court at Bochum, near Dusseldorf, the pair laughed aloud, casting mocking glances at their victim’s tearful mother. Daniel, 26, was ordered to be incarcerated for fifteen years and Manuela for thirteen years in secure mental prisons. This is the second big Satanism case in Germany in recent times. One of the couple’s idols is Hendrik Moebus, who in 1993, aged 17, strangled a classmate because he was “bothering” Moebus’ group, the Children of Satan. Experts estimate that 7,000 people, the majority adolescents, engage in satanic rituals in Germany. However, many more do so in the UK and USA.

In 2002, 17-year-old art student Mathew Hardman sent ripples of revulsion through society for the horrific murder of 90-year-old widow Mabel Leyshon in Wales, United Kingdom. Obsessed with vampires, the teenager cut out his victim’s heart and drank her blood from a saucepan, in a bizarre bid to become an undead. This disgusting act of ultra-vampiroidism shocked the quiet Welsh community in which it occurred.

Sinister cults attract people from every belief system and from all social classes. No group is immune. Most cults have arisen since the late 1960s. Since the 1980s, however, vampiroid cults have flourished and continue to do so. Many hundreds of people have been lured by their false promises of fulfilliment. The reality is emptiness, isolation, manipulation, discord, lies and hatred. Cult members undergo a profound change. Family and friends witness a change for the worse, but cult victims are programmed to feel good about the change. They are no longer able to critically evaluate to the degree that was possible prior to recruitment into their new lifestyle. Tell-tale signs may include sudden drastic personality transformations; appearing distant (as trance states are common); seeming detached; being withdrawn and secretive; appearing to be cold or emotionless to family and friends; physical deterioration and a loss of critical ability.

Vampires, Psychic Vampires and Werewolves

The intended victim of a real vampire might fall under its malignant influence, but it would not be possible for someone to "change" into one while still alive. Enjoyable though Francis Ford Coppola's Dracula (1992) might be as a cinematic experience, it is not a faithful retelling of Stoker's novel and, even if it had been, Bram Stoker's original Dracula is not a faithful account of real vampirism. That notwithstanding, there are elements in both film and book, mostly the latter, which ring true.

The soul of an afflicted person who assumes death following the predations of a demonic entity is an interesting one which I discuss in my concise vampirological guide, The Vampire Hunter's Handbook (Gothic Press, 1997). I describe the undead as a fundamentally malevolent and parasitic force which manifests in corporeal form; a bloodsucking androgyne with foul appetites, and the most abhorrent and feared of all that dwells in the malign supernatural underworld.

To attribute human desires and personalities onto such a creature is a mistake, but it has been debated for centuries by clergy, especially demonologists, as to what exactly happens to the soul of an undead.

The undead state is not, nor can it be, true death. Equally, it is not true life. It is a twilight condition between life and death from which there is only one release. Through exorcism the tormented soul is released to find the peace of death, and the demonic aspect is cast out to a nether region. Therefore, the demonic polluter cannot be destroyed, only sent back from whence it came. The host corpse will return to its natural state, all superntaural effect having gone, and appear as it should in death.

Not everyone will agree with me. Some subscribe to the view that vampiric spectres merely masquerade as the deceased, and that the soul of the victim is not involved. This is an easier option for demonologists to adopt, and perhaps a more comfortable one theologically to explain, but I speak from personal experience and while the predatory wraith might very well assume different metamorphoses, it has the power to manifest as a corporeal form that is as tangible as you and I. William of Malmesbury in the tweflth century tells of evil men returning to walk the world after they had "died" and been interred. He credited this ability to the Devil who caused the corpse's reanimantion and vitality beyond the grave. The significance of blood cannot be underestimated for the soul has its abode in the blood as long as life lasts. In Leviticus 17: 14, the soul is identified with the blood, as it is in Genesis 9: 4; Deuteronomy 12: 23. This is what makes the revenant a vampire.

Individuals who seem to drain the energy of those around them have probably been experienced by many people, myself included, but here we are employing the word "vampire" as an adjective.

Experiencing such energy-drainers is nowhere near the same as a predatory demonic entity masquerading as a dead person, and/or taking corporeal form; though I recall an old lady who ran an antiquarian bookshop in north London many years ago telling me about her encounter with Aleister Crowley. She told me that as he passed her on the shop's stairs she immediately felt very faint and became nauseous. Was this Crowley draining her of energy? Or was it his extraordinary notoriety effecting how she felt? She claimed the former. I suspect the latter. But we will never know.

So-called "psychic vampires," or "psi-vampyres" as they sometimes like to call themselves, claim to lack an adequate energy system, and this inadequacy compels them to feed upon and tap into the energy and vitality of other unsuspecting host victims. This allegedly results in a temporary surge of energy in the "psychic vampire" and a serious loss of physical and mental energy for the "prey."

Victims attacked by "psychic vampires" have reported to have felt depleted both mentally and emotionally. The more unfortunate victims suffer from a prolonged loss of energy and permanent damage to their general health and vitality. In certain severe cases it is claimed the prey might even suffer from very serious illness after having such an encounter. I cannot say I have witnessed anything of this sort. That notwithstanding, I have been aware of a small number of people who appear to be draining on one's energy when in their presence. Yet I suspect we have all experienced this at some time without necessarily attributing it to "psychic vampirism."

The Vampire Research Society has an interest in werewolfism and has investigated suspected cases in the British Isles and France, but it is impossible to know how common the affliction might be in such places as America and parts of Europe generally. This is largely because the lycanthrope/werewolf can fall under a number of different categories, some of them medical, and quite apart from the vampire. I met a woman in Highgate in the 1980s who believed she was turning into a werewolf, but actually suffered from an extreme form of lupus syndrome, which is a chronic inflammatory disease that occurs when the body's immune system attacks its own tissues and organs (auto-immunity). Inflammation caused by lupus syndrome can affect many different body systems, including joints, skin, kidneys, blood cells, heart, and lungs. It occurs more frequently in women than in men, although the reasons for this are unknown. Four types of the condition exist — systemic lupus erythematosus, discoid lupus erythematosus, drug-induced lupus erythematosus and neo-natal lupus syndrome. Of these, systemic lupus erythematosus is the most common and serious form of lupus syndrome. These are medical conditions and not werewolfism.

Some people with lupus syndrome also have problems with their blood clotting too quickly. These people have anti-phospholipid antibody syndrome, lupus anti-coagulant or anti-cardiolipin. The condition is managed with blood thinner like coumadin or wafarin and must be carefully monitored. Lupus erythematosus is a connective tissue disease. There is also a mental illness called lycanthropy in which a patient believes he or she is, or has transformed into, an animal and behaves accordingly. This is sometimes referred to as clinical lycanthropy to distinguish it from its folkloric counterpart where the person has the apparent ability or power of a human being to undergo transformation into a wolf, or to gain wolf-like characteristics.

The term lycanthropy comes from the Greek lykánthropos (λυκάνθρωπος): λύκος, lýkos ("wolf") plus άνθρωπος, ánthrōpos ("human"). It is sometimes used generically for any transformation of a human into animal form, though the precise term for that is technically therianthropy. The werewolf may be regarded as a man or woman who, either of his or her own will through the black arts, is able to assume the hideous appetite, ferocity, cunning, and other qualities of the wolf; so that he or she will attack human beings in the same way as a wild animal. There are recorded instances where the person has taken on a wolf-like appearance. Werewolfism can be hereditary, or acquired through a demonic agency, but, unlike the vampire, werewolves are living persons either afflicted, or self-afflicted, with the malady that sometimes results in an apparent transformation. Vampires, on the other hand, are demonic entities in apparent corporeal form which manifest at night to feed of the blood of the living whereby their material appearance is maintained and indeed nourished. Whereas werewolves are people who assume a wolf-form and wolf-like behaviour.

The lycanthrope werewolf should not be confused with the voluntary werewolf, under whom for this consideration any form of apparent shape-shifting may be included. An essential prerequisite is a pact, formal or tacit, with a demonic agency. Such metamorphosis as that examplified in the voluntary werewolf can only be wrought by engagement in the dark arts. Shapeshifting is certainly not uncommon where demonic agencies are involved, and I have encountered this phenomenon in the course of my research and investigations.

Shadow Beings and Shapeshifting

While a number of witnesses believe that shadow beings act as benevolent guardians watching over us, just as many witnesses have no doubt they are demonic. Some believe shadow beings to be ghosts, but the many stories received and compiled convince others that these beings are a type of inter-dimensional phenomenon from which apparition is only one sub-category. Serious research into this paranormal (and possibly psychological) genre will paint a clearer understanding of the nature and make-up of these dark mysterious images. One thing you can be certain of is that the experience is real enough to those who encounter this strange phenomena.

Shadow-like creatures of modern folklore are attested by many witnesses who claim dark forms, seen mostly in peripheral vision, appearing like flitting phantoms in cloaks, hoods and sometimes hats. Reports of shadow beings are not dissimilar in many ways to sightings of ghosts.

Shadow beings are typically described as black humanoid silhouettes with no discernible mouths, noses or facial expressions, child-sized humanoids, or shapeless masses that sometimes change to human like form and featuring eyes that are either glowing or not apparent. Movement is said to be quick and disjointed, and some stories describe the visible outline of a cloak, and sometimes a wide-brimmed hat.

Images seen in peripheral areas of vision can be caused by pareidolia, a condition in which the brain incorrectly interprets random patterns of light/shadow or texture as being familiar patterns such as faces and human forms. The same condition can also be observed in macular vision in low light conditions, or when viewing a complex but random image. A common example would be perceiving a shadow, thrown by an item of furniture in a darkened room, as being a person. Hypnagogia, also known as "waking-sleep," a physiological condition in which a person is part-way between sleeping and waking, can also account for such perceptions. During hypnagogia, a person can be conscious and aware of their environment, but also in a dream-like state where they can perceive images from their subconscious. People experiencing waking-sleep commonly report the sensation of lights or shadows moving around them, as well as other visual hallucinations. A feeling of dread is also a sensation that occurs when experiencing hypnagogia. Hypnagogia is sometimes known as faces in the dark phenomenon because those who experience this state commonly report seeing faces while experiencing waking-sleep. Similar hypotheses have been put forward linking this condition to a number of other apparent paranormal experiences, including alien abductions, paranormal nocturnal visitations, and religious experiences such as contact with angels or demons.

My own view is that the experience could be any of the above. I am always struck how the aliens in popular culture, sometimes called "greys," frequently resemble depictions of demons in past ages; especially medieval paintings. I do not believe in alien abductions or aliens walking among us. I do, on the other hand, know that demons sometimes invade our environment and sometimes attempt to interfere in our lives; even to the point of possession.

Shapeshifting is a common theme in mythology and folklore, as well as in science fiction and fantasy. In its broadest sense, it is when a being undergoes a transformation. Commonly the transformation is purposeful, and not a curse or spell. In some folklore once the shapeshifter transformed, it began to get harder and harder to change back to ones original form. Vampires and werewolves are somewhat similar. Vampires, in older pieces of mythology and folklore, were thought to be able to transform into a wolf or a bat, thus giving the vampire bat its name. Most shapeshifters change into an animal. They were believed to only be able to change into an animal, or person that they had seen.

The most important aspect of shape-shifting, thematically, is whether the transformation is voluntary. Circe transforms intruders to her island into swine, whereas Ged, in A Wizard of Earthsea, becomes a hawk to escape an evil wizard's stronghold. A werewolf's transformation, driven by internal forces, is as hideous as that which Circe enforces, and when Minerva transforms Cornix into a crow, Ovid put into Cornix's mouth that "the virgin goddess feels pity for a virgin and she helped me" because her new form enabled her to escape rape at Neptune's hands. When a form is taken on involuntarily, the thematic effect is one of confinement and restraint; the person is bound to the new form. In extreme cases, such as petrifaction, the character is entirely disabled. Voluntary forms, on the other hand, are means of escape and liberation; even when the form is not undertaken to effect a literal escape, the abilities specific to the form, or the disguise afforded by it, allow the character to act in a manner previously impossible.

Shapeshifting, or metamorphosis, is a phenomenon most familiar to the nether region of vampires.

The Battle Between Good and Evil

I have carried out multifarious exorcisms of demonic contamination down the years; some undoubtedly vampiric and I am still consulted by priests in other denominations due to the unique sub-category of vampirology within demonology being no longer part of their training and syllabus. More often I am contacted by clergy and laity where a suspected contagion arises. Whilst demonic interference is frequently unearthed, classical vampirism less often rears its head. Forms of vampirism can occur without the manifestation having an apparent corporeal presence. When it does have a tangible form it would be regarded by vampirologists as a traditional or classical case.

There are obvious reasons why I would not want to reveal just how many have been encountered by me and my colleagues. It is, of course, more than the recorded encounters and exorcisms in the published account of the Highgate investigation. The scourge of this unearthly phenomenon is by no means vanquished. It presents itself as a manifestation of that demonic legion referred to in Ephesians 6: 12 which we are required to resist in every way we can. This is the struggle that ensued at Highgate all those years ago. It is a permanent struggle for those of us called to cast out such evil.

Avoiding wherever possible the media in all its forms to ensure confidentiality to those who need help and whose help and co-operation is sought has allowed the ministry for dealing with such demonic molestation to become increasingly effective over the decades. Suffice that a world famous case was written about over the last four and a half decades where media intrusion was impossible to prevent. Countless film documentaries have been made about it and there have been televised dramatisations. There would have been no justification in repeating the unavoidable process of media co-operation applicable in the Highgate case over and again. By not discussing subsequent cases and by not exposing private people to a limelight they would certainly not welcome, my colleagues and I have been able to continue to operate with a reputation which precedes us for keeping confidences and not compromising people and places. Decades after that first case was both reported and sensationalised by the media, I am still being asked to discuss it. While remaining open to debating the topic privately, I avoid the particular when it comes to unpublicised incidents and cases; having resolved not to allow investigations in the wake of Highgate to become similarly blighted.

Father David C. Trosch states: "Only Catholic priests who are both legally and morally ordained and are faithful to the teachings of Sacred Scripture, as validly understood through the legitimate moral authority of the Church, and who remain spiritually sound should attempt an exorcism."

In Mark 16: 17, Jesus Christ states: "Believers will drive out demons in My name."

Our Lord confronted Satan in the wilderness. He also cast out demons during His ministry on Earth. Indeed, these comprise the majority of His miracles in the Synoptic Gospels.

How can a Christian, therefore, not recognise the real existence of the Devil and his legion of demons if Christ did and, moreover, instructed us to cast out demons in His name?

The One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church in its traditional manifestation fully accepts such existence and consequently the requirement of exorcism. This embraces the traditional wing of such denominations as Anglo-Catholicism, Roman Catholicism, Old Catholicism, Eastern Catholicism, Western and Eastern Orthodoxy.

To exorcise means to deliver a person from the presence or influence of evil spirits. That the Devil, within the limits allowed by God, has retained a certain power over men even after the coming of Christ is clearly testified by Holy Scripture and the history of the Church. Jesus drove out demons from the possessed and He bestowed this power upon His apostles and disciples. In the early times of the Christian era many lay persons possessed this power as a charism.

It is in harmony with reason and faith to assume that the Devil has greater power over the unbaptised in consequence of original sin. For this reason, at a very early date, exorcisms were performed repeatedly over the catechumens in preparation for baptism. To perform these exorcisms and, in general, to exorcise persons possessed by or under the influence of evil spirits exorcists were ordained.

The rite speaks of exorcists as spiritual physicians endowed with the power of healing. This may also refer to bodily afflictions caused by the Devil; once the influence of the Devil is broken by the exorcism, the affliction ceases. 

The other duties of the exorcist stood in close relation to this principal function of the Order of the Exorcistate. According to the usual interpretation of the instruction read to the ordinands, he was to direct persons under exorcism, and for that reason barred from Holy Communion, when to withdraw. Furthermore, it was his duty at sacred functions to administer the water for the washing of hands to the officiating priest. The latter ceremony symbolises purification from sin, hence a banishing of the influence of the evil spirits; it was fitting, therefore, to assign this duty to the exorcist.

A a solemn and effective exorcism can be found in the Rituale Romanum.

Unless you are familiar and comfortable with Latin, I would recommend the vernacular for exorcism prayers and rituals.

I am of an opinion founded on experience that vampires (demonic predatory entities) are a real and present danger. The best defence against such supernatural evil is one's Faith. Vampires absorb blood (the abode of the soul) in a way that enables the wraith to manifest in tangible form, thereby appearing as an accursed body which issues forth from within the confines of its earthly grave by supernatural means to drain the essence of life from the living whereby the corporeal aspect is seemingly nourished and preserved with new vitality and fresh energy. This corporeal form can nevertheless metamorphose; that is to say shape-shift. There are antidotes and repellents to guard against vampiric interference or attack. These I identify in my concise vampirological guide The Vampire Hunter's Handbook, which is only available in the English language. However, I would suggest the presence of a crucifix, holy water and the burning of incense.

Innocent III (Pope from 8 January 1198 until his death on 16 July 1216) sanctioned the publication of a treatise on how to make the discovery of vampires and thus elimate them. The authorative teaching of the Fourth Lateran Council under Innocent III in 1215 dogmatically lays down: "Diabolus enim et alii daemones a Deo quidem natura creati sunt boni, sed ipsi per se facti mali." A massive gathering of fifteen hundred prelates listened to his decrees and passed them. Innocent III ruled the world in tranquil majesty for close on twenty years. 

Copies of the treatise held in the Vampire Research Society archive are in Latin. I am unaware of an English translation. Though extracts might possibly be found in some academic works on the topic by other authors.

Bear in mind that the Slavic word "vampire" was not in use until a much later century, so reports referred to incubi, succubi, revenants and such creatures of the night that nevertheless meet with vampire criteria.

There is no biblical support to the idea that demons can attach themselves to physical objects. This belief is part of occultic systems found in animistic cultures and, of course, among those who practice magic.

Some say that verses such as Acts 19: 19, where former magicians burned their magic books, prove that objects can have demons. But the passage does not say that. It is more likely that these new believers were burning their magic books to prevent the spread of lies and to show that they had now become believers in Jesus.

The Bible records stories of demons afflicting or possessing unbelieving people. But they are no stories of demons being in or attached to objects, and the Bible does not warn us about demons attaching themselves to objects. Occult practices may attract evil spirits, and, since certain objects are used in those practices, it might seem that the demons are attracted to the objects; however, this does not mean the demons are in the objects. It is the occult activity itself that attracts them. When people who have been involved in sorcery come to Christ, they are often advised to get rid of their magic/occult books and objects, not because the objects have demons in them, but because the books and objects would be a source for future temptation.

Believers in Christ are not to fear demons, although we are to be vigilant and alert for their temptations (1 Peter 5: 8). The key is submission to God and walking in the truth of Christ daily: “Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you” (James 4: 7). Those who have put their faith in Christ have nothing to fear, as the apostle John explained, “You, dear children, are from God and have overcome [Satan and his false prophets], because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world” (1 John 4: 4)

Consecrated and/or blessed objects such as crucifixes and holy relics especially cannot be contaminated by demons and indeed repel them as an antidote.

Media Misrepresentation Forty-Four Years On

CHAT #44 (30 October 2014, pages 48-49)

Forty-four years since the Highgate Vampire case went public - and they were still getting it wrong!

I really cannot understand why Chat magazine has to mention me when it gets so much wrong. Natasha Wynarczyk did not contact me and certainly did not quote accurately from my book The Highgate Vampire (which, of course, she does not identify), assuming, that is, she has ever read it in the first place. Unfortunately, wrong attributions and unnecessary inaccuracies permeate her article in a widely read magazine from start to finish.

I am accused of "decrying" Farrant's "expertise" which is palpable nonsense. What expertise, one might wonder? Farrant once claimed to be a witch and is nowadays an atheist on the outside while inside every bit the Luciferian. I am a traditionalist and have always held strong Christian beliefs. As we each subscribe to entirely different belief systems, his modus operandi and mine are entirely different. He does not believe in the existence of vampires, something he makes very clear on his website and in interviews he has given down the years. Yet now he has become a "vampire expert."

There is a picture of a crucifix and stake, captioned "Tools of the trade -vampire hunting kit," which are part of a vast collection of accoutrements held by me. The Stock Photo archive would have identified this fact, but Chat magazine did not for some mysterious reason. Thus the stake and crucifix image is published alongside and across an image of Farrant who is captioned "vampire expert" when he is nothing of the sort and, moreover, does not claim any expertise in the subject.

Dates and descriptions of alleged incidents and facts are all over the place in Natasha Wynarczyk's sensationalist article, rendering it no more than entertainment for Hallowe'en, albeit misinforming readers of what really occurred, and little else. I would much prefer that any future reference to me by the media be omitted, but we know that is not going to happen. I understand it would be a little difficult in view of the fact that I am the person who led the investigation into the case and exorcised the predatory entity in the 1970s (not mentioned, of course, in Wynarczyk's article). The bottom line is that I steer clear of publicity, whereas the other fellow does not. Quite the opposite. In fact, he seeks it out at every available opportunity. Hence Chat is content to cobble together whatever they can lay their hands on without a care for what is on public record as actually transpiring, resulting in the shambles we end up with in Natasha Wynarczyk's unresearched article.

In May of the same year, Chat magazine had published yet another article featuring Farrant as a "vampire hunter," this time adding the oleaginous figure of self-styled "ghost hunter" Mickey Gocool to the mix. Gocool has a history of fawning over Farrant in the most obsequious manner imaginable.

Wampyr, Wallachia, West Cemetery and Weirdness

"On Friday, 27 February 1970, the front page headline of the Hampstead and Highgate Express asked does a vampire walk in Highgate? There would be no going back. The die had been cast." (Seán Manchester, The Highgate Vampire, Gothic Press, page 70).

The banner headline "Does a wampyr walk in Highgate?" appeared across the front page of Hampstead and Highgate's most prestigious newspaper in February 1970. The editor, Gerry Isaaman, had written the piece after meeting privately with me. He allowed himself to get slightly carried away by introducing the journalistic embellishment "King Vampire of the Undead" - a term I did not employ, as stated on page 72 of The Vampire Hunter's Handbook, but what else did the editor get wrong that day? Apparently more than you might imagine!

After warning that a vampire might be active in Highgate Cemetery, the article goes on to correctly describe me as a photographer (I had run a photographic studio throughout the previous decade) and the president of the British Occult Society (a position I held from 21 June 1967 to 8 August 1988 when the BOS was formally dissolved). I am quoted accurately enough until reference is made to a King Vampire of the Undead which is not attributed to me in actual quotes but attributed nonetheless.

An important residence in Highgate somehow manages to transform into a different house in London's West End. For house "in the West End" one should substitute Ashurst House, which once stood at the western end of the site now occupied by Highgate Cemetery, as was explained by me. I told the editor at the time that Ashurst House was sold and leased to a succession of tenants of whom one was a mysterious gentleman from the Continent who arrived in the wake of the vampire epidemic that had its origins in south-east Europe. This is not quite the same as what was reported and, of course, does not have anything like the same sensationalist impact as "King Vampire from Wallachia" which Draculesque adornment the newspaper clearly preferred.

There then follows reference to a group of Satanists attempting to "resurrect the King Vampire." This time the reference to a King Vampire is included in quotes even though the term was not uttered by me.

A sample of completed membership forms.

Next we are misinformed that the British Occult Society had "no formal membership" but instead corresponded with "50 to 100 interested people." In fact, the BOS had a formal membership of over three hundred people with at least one hundred actively involved in research and investigation.

Then we learn that the British Occult Society "believes in countering magic by magic" when all that was said is that the supernatural will not submit to scientific methods to measure and prove its existence.

The newspaper correctly states that some BOS members had "spent nights in Highgate Cemetery" which was obviously for the purpose of observing the strange nocturnal goings-on in the place as had been reported by people in the previous decade and was still being reported up to the time of the article.

Readers are then offered in quotes "the traditional and approved manner" by which folk must rid themselves of this hideous pestilence without it being properly clarified that this is how clergy dealt with the problem in centuries past and was not on the agenda as far as the British Occult Society/Vampire Research Society was concerned with regard to Highgate Cemetery.

That Montague Summers' books bore some influence on my understanding of vampirism is mentioned in tandem with the suggestion that Bram Stoker's novel is based on fact. That Stoker was influenced by genuine cases and read about real vampires before writing Dracula is not in doubt, but the clumsy journalism of the Hampstead and Highgate Express clouds what is trying to be conveyed in the pursuit (presumably) of economising on words for the sake of space.

Finally, we come to a quote attributed to "one of Britain's busiest exorcists, the Rev John Neil-Smith" (Gerry Isaaman couldn't even get the exorcist's name right - it was actually Christopher Neil-Smith) by attributing to him the following: "I believe the whole idea of vampires is probably a novelistic embellishment." He said nothing of the sort.

The Reverend Christopher Neil-Smith (1920-1995) was an Anglican priest, originally from Hampstead, most celebrated for his practice of exorcism and his paranormal interests.[1] Reverend Neil-Smith believed that evil is an external reality and should be treated as such rather than as an abstract concept. A vicar at St Saviour's Anglican Church at Eton Road in Hampstead, London, he had performed more than three thousand exorcisms in Britain since 1949. In 1972, the Bishop of London authorised him to exorcise demons according to his own judgement.[2] Two years earlier, he was misquoted in the Hampstead and Highgate Express, 27 February 1970, saying that vampires are "probably a novelistic embellishment," but, as subsequently pointed out by muself, Reverend Neil-Smith claimed to have actually exorcised vampires, as confirmed in a book written by Daniel Farson and Angus Hall which records:

"Yet not far from Highgate Cemetery lives a man who takes reports of vampirism seriously. The Reverend Christopher Neil-Smith is a leading British exorcist and writer on exorcism. He can cite several examples of people who have come to him for help in connection with vampirism. 'The one that particularly strikes me is that of a woman who showed me the marks on her wrists which appeared at night, where blood had definitely been taken. And there was no apparent reason why this should have occurred. They were marks like those of an animal. Something like scratching.' He denies this might have been done by the woman herself. She came to him when she felt her blood was being sucked away, and after he performed an exorcism the marks disappeared. Another person who came from South America 'had a similar phenomenon, as if an animal had sucked away his blood and attacked him at night.' Again, the Reverend Neil-Smith could find no obvious explanation. There is a third case of a man who, after his brother died, had the strange feeling that his lifeblood was being slowly sucked away from him. 'There seems to be evidence this was so,' says Neil-Smith. 'He was a perfectly normal person before, but after the brother's death he felt his life was being sucked away from him as if the spirit of his brother was feeding on him. When the exorcism was performed he felt a release and new life, as if new blood ran in his veins.' Neil-Smith rules out the possibility of a simple psychological explanation for this, such as a feeling of guilt by the survivor toward his brother. 'There was no disharmony between them. In fact he wasn't clear for some time that it (the vampire) was his brother.' The clergyman describes a vampire as 'half animal, half human,' and firmly refutes the suggestion that such things are all in the mind. 'I think that's a very naive interpretation,' he says. 'All the evidence points to the contrary'." [6]

The Reverend Christopher Neil-Smith, contrary to editor Gerry Isaaman's false attribution of 27 February 1970 in a local Hampstead newspaper, concluded that there really are such a things as vampires.

References:

1. a b Beeson, Trevor (2006). "The Reverend Christopher Neil-Smith". Priests And Prelates: The Daily Telegraph Clerical Obituaries. Continuum International Publishing Group. ISBN 0826481000.

2. Sands, Kathleen R. Demon possession in Elizabethan England. Praeger Publishers. "At around the same time, Father Christopher Neil-Smith, an Anglican priest, received a standing license from the Bishop of London authorizing him to exorcise freely according to his own judgment." 

3. Neil-Smith, Christopher. Praying for daylight: God through modern eyes. P. Smith.

4. Cramer, Marc. The devil within. W.H. Allen. "with the noted exorcist, the Rev. Christopher Neil-Smith, author of an anecdotal book entitled The Exorcist and the Possessed."

5. Spence, Lewis. Encyclopedia of Occultism and Parapsychology.Kessinger Publishing.

6. Mysterious Monsters (Aldus Books, 1978) by Daniel Farson and Angus Hall.