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There is a lot of history, myth, and folklore surrounding vampires, from the Bram Stoker novel Dracula and the 1922 silent film, "Nosferatu," to the 1985 movie "Fright Night" and Anne Rice's 1976 novel, Interview With A Vampire. What many are unaware of is that today there are those who consider themselves vampires, and there is a real vampire underground in this country and in Europe. But these vampires are not turning into bats. These present-day vampires are people who may not consider themselves totally human, believing that they were born a vampire, or that they became one through some kind of initiation involving blood-drinking and/or sex. The vampire persona may be also taken on as a form of personal expression, or to indicate feeling set apart from society. What is true is that this subculture is totally outside mainstream culture, and is more a rejection of that culture's values than a rebellion against it.
Vampires sometimes prefer the spelling, "vampyre," to distinguish it from fictional and stereotyped vampires. Sometimes they are referred to as the Kindred. There are those who do not like the vampire term, and may prefer a name like Dark Angel.
The vampire subculture covers a range of beliefs and practices. Those involved may:
-Limit their involvement to role-playing games and to fantasy
-Gather at Goth or similar clubs on the weekends
-Be attracted to and involved in erotic practices associated with some forms of vampirism
-Be drawn to the occultic, dark side of vampirism
-Believe they can gain special powers through blood-drinking
-Be in a group or "clan" with others
-Identify themselves as a vampire based on their own personal criteria
Since the movement is (sub)culture-driven and leaderless, there is no set of consistent beliefs; there is dispute as to what a vampire really is. The vampire is revered by various people as a romantic hero, as a rebel, as a master of dark powers, as a predator, as an outcast, or as an immortal. Some claim blood-drinking must be a part of it, while others assert that drinking blood is the province of vampire wannabes, and that the true vampire does not need blood but instead feeds off the psychic energy of others. Others may believe that being a vampire is the ultimate in individuality and can do what they want. Those seriously involved may practice one or more of the following: blood-drinking, sleeping in coffins, avoiding daylight, performing occult rituals, taking drugs, wearing fangs or having incisors sharpened, and engaging in unusual sexual practices.
Roots and Influences
The Goth Culture: Many consider contemporary vampire subculture to be a subset of the Goth culture, a movement embracing the romanticism of darkness and the outcast persona, for the vampire sees himself as the outcast of an uncaring society as well as its reflection. Most Goths, it is important to note, are NOT in the vampire subculture. The Goth movement arose out of the punk subculture in the late 1970's, mainly through music, and as a statement against what was seen as the oppressive, materialistic, and superficial values of mainstream society. Those who identify with the Goth movement wear almost exclusively black clothing; sometimes dye their hair black; may enjoy ‘dark' literature such as Lovecraft, Stephen King, Anne Rice, and others; may wear silver chains or have several body piercings; and may paint their fingernails black. [Note: There are those who dress like this who are not Goth or vampiric].
Often creative people, they enjoy intellectual discussions and may not identify with any particular religious belief system, sometimes presenting themselves as agnostics. Teen Goths are more likely to be into the occult, Wicca, or some other form of alternative spirituality. Many Goths feel that they do not fit into mainstream society and may have experienced some form of social or familial isolation or rejection. Despite their dark fashion, Goths are usually gentle people with artistic and literary tastes. Sometimes their deliberate off-putting look is either a test to see who will accept them for who they really are, or is a way to continue an isolation they are used to. Violence is not a mark of this culture.
The vampire underground reflects many of these traits of Goth culture. Those taking on the vampire persona may not only wear black, but sometimes wear jewelry with symbols such as the ankh, long capes with hoods, and make their faces pale with white make-up. As a social movement connected to Goth worldviews, the vampire subculture is believed to mirror the predatory nature of a society whose technology and corporate power have eroded intimacy and cast out those who do not submit to its dehumanization. In this sense, society's dehumanization is mocked by the figure of the vampire, who himself is not considered human.
Vampire: The Masquerade: One of the influences on the vampire underground, aside from Anne Rice's novels, is the vampire game, Vampire: The Masquerade, a live action role-playing game (LARP) which allows individuals to act out the role of a vampire within the context of a complex strategy game. Players choose to belong to one of seven clans with names such as Nosferatu, Tremere, Gangrel, and others, each with their own characteristics. Each player chooses certain traits and attributes, some of which include occult powers. In the game's introduction, it describes a world where predators, both human and vampire, rule: "Your characters do not exist in a vacuum. Rather, they reside in a world that exists in our imaginations, a place known as the World of Darkness. It is the proverbial Hell in which your character lives and suffers. Your vampiric character lives to hunting and feed. Never again will she see the light of day. The world is a Gothic-Punk nightmare, a frightening, surreal version of our own world....Packs of street thugs prowl urban jungles. Bureaucratic sharks stalk the oceans of politics and business.....ancient vampires vie for control of mortals and immortals."
In its fantasy aspect, the vampire scene offers intimate connections to those alienated from society or family, providing a deep social and emotional bond through the games and role-playing.
Many who consider themselves vampires think there is something in their blood that makes them a vampire, a non-human. They believe they have been born a vampire, or they are initiated as one. They may or may not be involved in occult practices. They often gather in Goth clubs or other clubs catering to those in the vampire underground. A psychologist researching the vampire scene stated that such clubs attract "Goths, psychics, pagans, role-players, witches, real vampyres, fetish vamps, wizards, werewolves," and those associated with vampires, "shifters," [shapeshifters]. Some claim the vampire is solitary; others claim they work in clans. One vampire states that vampires are "beyond the law. Human, but not human.....a powerful being that understands human realities, but lives in a place beyond human limitation. The vampire actualizes the so-called dark half."
There is disagreement as to who is a vampire, since the culture attracts diverse types: those who are into cutting themselves or into drinking blood for some kind of sexual or addictive satisfaction; the mentally confused; those with clinical vampirism marked by a compulsion for blood-drinking; those who dislike the sun; and those who believe they are born a vampire. As in the modern Neopagan movements, there is no authority to decide the standards or definitions. One researcher offered his definition of a vampire as someone who has a physical need for blood. Another researcher found vampirism connected to Satanism or perverse sexual appetites, but also stated that he found that many self-professed vampires had been physically abused as children or horribly neglected. Vampirism can also be about breaking the taboos of society, sexual and otherwise.
Additionally, many vampires and vampire groups are secretive and are difficult, if not impossible, to investigate. In this respect, it is not unlike Satanism, whose high degree of secrecy prevents a clear or consistent understanding of its practices and practitioners.
The Vampire As Outcast: Anne Rice's novels romanticized the vampire as a sort of existential anti-hero. No longer an evil creature, the vampire became the misunderstood victim caught in circumstances beyond his control, a slave to his passions and to his need for human blood. The best thing about the film, "Interview with a Vampire," based on Anne Rice's novel, opines one vampire, is that "the lifestyle of the vampire is not presented as a facet of evil, but rather as an inevitable quirk of nature....A vampire feeds because it's hungry." The vampire's need to maintain immortality through drinking blood, his inability to be in the sun, his strange eroticism, his life on the outskirts of society as the outsider, all became a symbol for those who see themselves as the outsiders or social outcasts of society.
As technology increased, it gave rise to a nostalgia for feelings and intimate contact. According to the author of one fictional account of a vampire, tellingly named Nothing, vampires reflect the Goths who feel they are nothing, "just society's cast-off trash."
The Vampire As Predator: In The Masquerade, the vampire is not so much romantic as a beast, perhaps representing the bestial elements of humanity: "What does it mean to be a vampire?....Vampires are not humans with fangs, they are monsters masquerading as humans. Just as a vampire stalks humans, a vampire lives in fear of the Beast within himself."
Although these descriptions are within the context of a fantasy game, in some case fantasy spills over into reality. In one of the more horrific crimes committed by those claiming to be vampires, two murders were committed by a teen vampire group, led by a 17-year-old boy, himself the son of a woman who considered herself a vampire. Before the murders, some of the teens drank each other's blood.19 Roderick Ferrell, the group's leader, was sentenced to death in February, 1998, warning teens not to follow "his path," and telling reporters after his sentencing that he still considered himself a vampire, but no longer believed he was immortal or gets "special powers" from drinking blood.
The criminal vampire, however, is the exception. Although there are violent strains amongst some vampire groups, this is not the norm.
Sometimes, those who wield power at the top are considered the true vampires. The director of the Vampire Research Institute in Seattle, a one-woman operation, told the author of one book that society has the corporate vampire, such as Bill Gates, who "feeds off the work of others." This view of society as the true vampire was expressed in the title of the Smashing Pumpkins' popular 1990's rock song, "Bullets With Butterfly Wings."
Psychic Vampires: Many believe that there are those who can extract or weaken the "psychic energy" of a person. Those who hold to this view believe that the person who does this is a vampire because he/she is draining another of their aura, vitality, or emotional, physical or psychological energy. The psychic vampire may do this with psychic powers, by going out-of-body, or by sending an attacking thought-form to the victim. Some in the vampire subculture think that drinking blood is done only by vampire wannabes, that true vampires "feed from a soul."
Vampire Theology: Steve Jackson Games was given the rights to two books adapting White Wolf's Vampire: The Masquerade and produced the book and guide to a game, Vampire, The Masquerade Companion. Throughout the book, the vampires are referred to as the "Children of Caine" or as "Cainites," in the belief that vampires are descendants of the Biblical Caine, and cursed with a blood thirst. One clan, the Followers of Set, is described as having begun "seven thousand years ago, when the children of Caine first began to allow their herds to form civilizations," and an elder of this group named Sutekh came to be worshipped as "a god of night and darkness," eventually calling himself Set. The mission of this clan is corruption, to "subvert and destroy whatever is good, noble, safe or beautiful within both Kindred and mortal society." One group of vampires described in the game, the Sabbat, the archenemies of Masquerade's Camarilla clan, may follow different "Paths of Enlightenment," which may include hedonism, bloody rituals, serving demons, or survival of the fittest.
An organization called The Temple, in Lacey, Washington, published the Vampire Bible which includes "The Vampire Creed." Part of this creed states, "I am a vampire. I worship my ego and I worship my life, for I am the only God that is. I exalt my rational mind and hold no belief that is in defiance of reason. I realize there is no heaven as there is no hell, and I view death as the destroyer of life. I am a vampire. Bow down before me." One true-life vampire claimed that his clan goes back to a time "near Genesis," and that "to sin is to forgive, forgiveness is salvation, therefore salvation is the ultimate sin." It should be recognized that these ideas are not universally held among vampires.
There is no coherent or consistent ideology in this subculture. One may find vampires who practice or believe in agnosticism, sorcery, various occult beliefs, reincarnation, or a mixture of these. Most vampires reflect the same attitude as Goths, that everyone has a right to their own beliefs.
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