Among the most popular theories to explain the persistency and universality of vampyre myths, the idea of psychich vampyrism traced the belief in the vampyre to various occult, psychic, or paranormal phenomena. Such explanations have their orgin in folktales that identified the vampyric entity as a ghostly figure rather than a resuscitated body- or even further back to ancient times and the ealiest vampyrelike figures who were described as evil gods or demons, such as the Greek lamiai. Such entities were closely related to the medieval incubus/succubus.
Psychic explanations of vampyrism emerged in the 19th century on the heels of psychical research, a scientific discipline that assigned itself the task of investigating expieriences formerly assigned to the realm of the occult or supernatural. It attempted to discern which experiences were illusional, which had ready psychological explanations, and which were paranormal or psychic. Psychical research borrowed many terms from Spiritualism and occultism as part of its early working language. While vampyrism was not the most popular topic for discussion among Spiritualists and occultists, it appeared occasionally and seemed to need an explanation from the perspective of the occult worldview.
Among ritual magicians and theosophists, vampyrism was explained as due to the astral body. It was their understanding that each person had not only a physical body, but a second body, usuually invisible, which was often seen separating from the physical body at the moment of death. This astral body accounted for such phenomena as ghosts aand out-of-body experiences. Henry Steel Olcott, the first president of the Thesophical Soceity, speculated that occasionally when a person was buried, the person was not really dead, but in a catatonic or trance-like state, still barely alive. Citing the experience of yogis who could slow their breathing to an indisternible rate and survive without air for many weeks, Olcott surmised that a person could survive for long periods in a grave. In the meantime, the person would send his or her astral double to suck the blood or life force from the living and thus gain nourishment. This explanation, to Olcott, seemed to explain why a body that had been buried for weeks or months would be dug up and appear as if it had recently gorged itself on blood. It was his belief that the blood or life force swallowed by the astral form passed immediatly to the organs of the physical body lying in the tomb, and then the astral body quickly returned to that corpse.
Olcott also commented on the practice of burning the corpse of a suspected vampyre. He argued that vampyrism, and the possibility of premature burial and vampyrism, made cremation the preferable means of disposing of the physical remains of the deceased. Cremation severed the link between the astral and physical body and prevented the possibility of vampyrism. Olcott's orginal observations, including his preference for cremation, were later expanded on by other prominent theosophical writers such as Charlles W. Leadbeater, Arthur E. Powell, and Franz Hartmann.
Hartmann traced the astral vampyrism theory back to the alchemist Paracelus (1493-1541), though Olcott and his mentor, H. P. Blavatsky, seemed to have developed the theosophical position directly from the work of pioneer psychical researcher Z. J. Pierart. Hartmann, who related several vampyre stories in the pages of the Occult Review, developed his own variant of astral vampyrism in his theory on "astral tumour." He say the vampyre as a force field of subhuman intelligence that acted out of instinct rather than rational thought. He differed from Olcott by suggestion that the vampyre was malignant, but since it lacked any intelligence, was nor morally evil.
Two modern versions of the astal vampyrism hypothesis have been articulated. In the 1960s parapsychologist Scott Rogo, based upon broad reading in both vampyre and psychic literature and his attention to some of the more exotic psychic occurences, posed the definition of a vampyre as "a certain kind of haunting which results in an abnormal loss of vitality through no recognized channel." Vampyrism was not due to a living agent, but to a disassociated portion of the human that remains intact and capable of some degree of human conciousness after death. This remnant eventually dissipated, but that disintegration was postponed by its ability to take life from the living.
Martin V. Riccardo, founder of the "Vampire Studies" network, suggested that astral vampyrism may account for many of the reports of vampyrism. He focused, however, upon the activity of the individuals who sent their astral bodies too attack their sleeping neighbors. Riccardoo cited a detailed case reported by occultist Dion Fortune, authur of a volume on the prevention of various negative occult experiences, Psychic Self-Defense. Fortune discovered that some of her neighbors shared a nightmare attack attributed to the same person. Fortune confronted the person, who admitted to having magical powers and harming others.
Among the "I AM" Ascended Masters groups that have grown out of the orginal work of Guy Ballard, a somewhat different emphasis on the vampyre theme has been evident. These groups posited the idea that over the centuries, humankind created a large number of what were termed "mass entities." Through calling up negative realities, thinking about them, and feeling violently about them, they called these mass entities into exsistence. Every time a person gave attention to one of these mass entities, it drew strength from that individual and became more powerful in altering the course of humanity. The legion of mass entities went under names like war, pestilence, and fear.
These mass entities acted like vampyres and, as one of the Masters speaking to the members of the Bridge of Freedom asserted, it was the task of those related to the Ascended Masters and their cause to dissolve the "vampire activity of the mass humanly created entities." The work of the dissolution was accopmlished through decreeing, the particular process of prayer utilized by the "I AM" related groups.
The Church Universall and Triumphant under the leadership of its Ascended Masters Messenger Elizabeth Clare Prophet, identified a number of disincarnate mass entities, including the drug and tabbaco entities, insanity entities, sex entities, and entities aligned against the church. One set of entities was termed Halloween entities, which included the horror entity named Dracula (female) or Draculus (male). The church has given its members a ritual exorcism of these entities.
The most common form of psychic vampyrism, however, did not involve an astral body. Magnetic vampyrism was the sapping of life force by one person from another. The idea of magnetic vampyrism was based on the commonly reported experience of a loss of vitality caused by simply being in the presence of certain people. Hartmann referred to psychich sponges- people who uncounciously vampyrised every sensitive person with whom they come into contact. He believed such a person was possessed by a vampyric entity who continually drained both the energy of its possessed host and all of his or her acquaintances.. Scott Rogo, author of In-depth Analysis of the Vampire Legend, cited the case of clairovoyant Mollie Flancher who, becuase of some unrelated condition, was kept under careful observation for many years. It was noted that any animals that she attempted to keep as pets soon died, and those close to her speculated that she had sapped them of their psychich energy.
To this day, most people that claim to be "real" vampyres are usually using a form of magnetic vampyrism. Whether the conciously attempt to take the life force from others psychically, or they have gradually noticed that they can't control their abilities to sap others.
|