The Ultimate Vampire Resource and Directory

We all have worked for money or for free. We get involved in the daily grind, with the majority working long hours -9 to 5- with some handling more than one job. With relevant qualifications, we go in search of work, hoping for a good pay. Then, there are the people with almost no qualification, working their way up the ladder- a slow and tedious process- staying in the same place for years. Apart from working for money, there are those who delve into their hobbies whole-heartedly. They become their hobbies after spending years authoring books, articles, and stories, usually after several years of research.

My questions: What makes someone a trustworthy source of information? Does he/She have to have the papers to prove his/her credibility?

What makes someone a Professional? What makes someone an Expert? How does one get such a label?

We call lawyers, doctors, teachers, and even trainers subject-matter experts. I have heard an employer calling a 23 year old a subject-matter expert when that person had only trained students for a short duration of time.

Is there such a thing called a Vampirologist? Is such a person to be considered an Expert? Or is there a great level of trust given to such a person that makes him/her reliable? What if such a person does not receive any income for the work done?

What are your views on this topic?

When it comes to subjects that have a vast sweeping, undetermined classification then it is less likely that one could present themselves as an expert. However they may be able to subclass themselves in one area of the field. Example a person well versed in Folk Lore.

Agreed.If a subject is well grounded one can be an expert in it,providing said person has the experience and training.But you cannot have an expert on Occultism,magic and vampires.These topics have way too many factual "holes" and incorporate too much conflicting information

Most notably a common denominator of self proclaimed experts in the occult, supernatural, or metaphysical is the desire to have a best seller, or a seminar circuit. While experts in established fields publish there research, and studies in peer review journals.


a good case to look at is the Eric Pryor case, through his misrepresenting himself as a High Priest, then he had a miraculous conversion to Christianity. Look at the shit storm he stirred.

http://holysmoke.org/wicca/pryor01.htm

While there are some people more educated in subcategories of these topics even they (the honest ones) won't claim to be the final word.

Yes, that is true. If one actually bothered to look up the common dictionary fir the word 'expert', he/She would find:

"expert [ˈɛkspɜːt]
n
a person who has extensive skill or knowledge in a particular field
adj
1. skilful or knowledgeable
2. of, involving, or done by an expert an expert job
[from Latin expertus known by experience, from experīrī to test; see experience]

ex•pert (ˈɛk spɜrt; adj. also ɪkˈspɜrt)
n.
1. a person who has special skill or knowledge in a particular field.
adj.
2. possessing special skill or knowledge.
3. pertaining to or characteristic of an expert: expert advice..."

It all points to Experience. None of the definitions sought to include, within its scope, qualifications. Where would one draw the line?

Pryor may have been exposed to be unethical. Issue of trust?

That implies research. So the expert in a subclass of a field is only as credible as the sources that they used.

An expert is someone who knows more and more about less and less...

Extremely tricky subject, the truth is a Professional you can trust and rely upon is now a very rare beast. Look to the old reliable folks.

In days gone by Doctors and Lawyer and even some Politicians were the ones we "the people" could rely upon.

Nowadays not so.

Doctors will feed your child or grandmother any manner of drugs for a cut of the profit. You only have to look at the "Johnson+Johnson, the family company" fined 2 Billion for feeding unproven dodgy drugs and bribing Doctors to do so.
Bankers used to be trustworthy but many are now coke snorting gamblers, much the same as their business partners in the media.
The only ones left are the poorly paid "Old School"Teachers, Nurses and Police who joined for the right reasons, not for profit Folks.

You will never find these Good people heading up organizations, they are at the bottom, trying to make a difference. And in the words of the AVATAR the death and corruption through money of the backbone of middle England, well, this... this is sad. Sadder still, it is a Global phenomenon.

Beware of labels. Coming from the so-called professional class myself, I would suggest strict scrutiny.

a professional label is earned through years formal education, doctor, lawyers, accountant etc. A degree is awarded then one sits for a multi- day test.

A person can be labeled an expert w/o a formal degree. For example someone through hands on experience can be classified as an expert. Example; an automobile mechanic. A person through training and experience may be classified as an expert in a court of law for a particular purpose.

Your vampirologist would probably fall into the years of reading and study. Such a person might have a degree. The degree could be in anything. To my knowledge no one has been labeled an expert on vampires in a court of law. At least not in the United States.

There is the very real possibility that the owner of this website, Cancer, knows more about vampires than most other people on the planet. Why? Go review his purpose in setting up the site. His statements suggest that he has long studied the subject.


One last thing, don't get to wrapped up in money. The pursuit of money can be detrimental to one's spiritual growth. This I know.

There is a marked difference between the term "expert" and "professional;" these are not at all synonymous terms. An expert is someone with claimed superior knowledge and experience in a particular field or subject while a "professional" is simply someone who gets paid to act in a particular field. And while a professional can be an expert and an expert a professional, yet there are many professionals who are not true experts and many experts who get paid not a penny.

Additionally, the term "expert" can be either an opinion popularized by the general public or an honorable and deserved assessment given by legitimately acknowledged experts to another likewise so deserving. There are many charlatans and con-men/women who claim to be experts who most certainly are not, despite their reputations among the gullible of so being.

And absolutely NEITHER appellation carries with it any inherent claim to legitimacy of their statements or conclusions. As with any and all conclusions reached and "facts" declared, it is NEVER the "messenger" of such that matters, regardless of popularity or reputation, as much as the legitimacy of the "message."

Therefore... in all matters of importance one must be responsible for determining the truth or error of the "message" for oneself rather than blindly accepting such based solely on the reputation of the "messenger" as either and "expert" or "professional."

... and then there are those rare individuals who, devoid of any popular acclaim as "experts" or "professionals" and through only their own personal dedication to study and the discovery of greater truths than those currently accepted... sometimes discover previously unknown truths far greater than those proclaimed by "experts" or "professionals."

When Newton, Galileo, Einstein, and others of truly scientific mindset and acumen discovered previously unknown facts and theories, they were soundly and universally rejected by the "experts" and "professionals" of their day... yet their "message" proved accurate and stood with or without their names attached. And it was THAT fact that has made their names eternal... while the names of the "experts" and "professionals" who rejected, mocked and even persecuted them are largely if not completely unknown to history.

Again... regardless of reputation by others, it is always the validity of the "message" that is always of far greater importance than the "messenger."

Occult, vampirism, and paganism are too vast, undocumented, and unexplored to possibly have an expert on all of it, someone might be an expert in the small portion that they've been practicing for years but that's about it

A professional is a psychic or teacher of a category or sub category mentioned above that people trust and are willing to give money to because they believe their information is correct and will benefit them

There was an episode of South Park where Stan was just using logic and predictability but people insisted he was psychic and paid him so in that sense he was a professional psychic even though he had no knowledge or experience about the topic

I'm not so much impressed by degrees and titles. I have read things written by so called PhDs which I found questionable and totally speculative over the years. At times when someone comes up with something different with the same degree their work gets panned because the "majority" don't agree. New ideas get stifled by those that believe in the old, what they consider documented ideas. In the area of the paranormal or occult, which means unknown, that is just what it is, unknown to the best of our knowledge.

I'm an older person and have read so many ideas about occult topics with so called experts totally in contradiction. Now I believe what I have researched for myself and come to a point where I think I have found out an acceptable truth or I keep in mind various tying together factors. Let me tell you many people believe in things that have no basis in fact and they would fight you tooth and nail if you contradict them. Many things I read about on the forum I studied years ago and have forgotten in detail.

Vampirologist is not an academic title. It is one that is used these days to identify someone who has a lot of knowledge on the topic from personal researches or books they may have written. They don't necessarily have a degree but could in some form of mythological studies but not specifically concerning vampires. Sometimes they refer to Michelle Belanger as a Vampirologist. She knows a lot about many things but just because she knows what some write doesn't make it fact. Konstantinos is one that writes a lot on occult topics and vampires. I don't know how he researches and gets his ideas. I know him casually having been introduced to him online from a friend who is from New Orleans. Seems like a nice person. He hangs with the vampire community in that town off and on. I don't know what started this word being used but I can bet it was coined by someone in the media.

I do believe there are some professionals out there but its who you trust willing to spend the money and waste the time with them,

There is a difference between expert and professional the expert is someone i would trust to lets say repair my car or my roof, but a professional is someone i might seek advice from like a Doctor, but the person who just says they are is probably not, we can all read up on a subject but it doesnt make us a expert or a professional i have done a lot of research on a particular subject but does i make me a expert no it doesnt.

blackbelt makes a good point.I speak five languages,but I'm by no means an "language expert".I am better than some people and I'm very critical,but I'm no expert

Professional...Mmm. Will let a regular Joe Cut you open at the operation room of a Hospital? Probably no. The label professional is when someone has the abilities, due to a tremendous time hitting the books and practice. After a professional is the word, expert. I am a professional in what I do, and most of the time, I do, not for the money, but, to keep someone, unknown to me, alive.

I say forget labels and titles and just try to pick up information where you can. There really is no guarantee that it would be %100 accurate anyway asmany ppeople who where considered geniuses or experts had theories that where at one point to be considered "fact" that were only to be proven false and untrue later on. So honestly does anyone really deserve a title such as that??? My opinion.... no.

A professional is someone who gets paid to do the work they do. For instance, if you drive a U-Haul to move from one house to another house, you are not a professional driver. However, a semi-truck driver is a professional driver. And many truck drivers never went to a truck driving school or gained any kind of a degree.

The same could be said of wrestlers. Olympic wrestlers don't get paid for what they do. Thus, they are considered amateur wrestlers. Professional wrestlers are referred to as "professionals" because they get paid to do what they do.

An expert?

I have never seen or heard of any diploma or degree that would convince me to qualify anyone as an expert in anything. Of course, this is just my opinion.

This is an excellent question. I come from a so called professional background, and the only thing I think that sets me apart, and permits me to call myself a professional is the years of schooling and examinations. However, I've worked along side many people who don't have a college education, yet they would be considered professionals in my book because of their years of service. With that being said, I think we can expand the definition of professional outside of lawyer/doctor to include those who have been at their jobs for 20+ years.

Even if I call myself a professional, I don't dare call myself an expert. An expert, in my opinion, is someone who has extensive knowledge in a subject area. You can ask an expert any question on the subject and they will have an answer. They do not need to open a book and research the matter. This person doesn't need to be a professional, they could be someone that never finished the 7th grade, but they have a collective knowledge that far surpassing that of the average person.

Determining trustworthiness is a harder standard. You ask if they need to have papers to prove his/her credibility, and I am not sure that is a requirement, but it is one that helps me determine if the person knows what they are talking about. I personally believe the person must have some type of documentation, be it journal publications, books, or manuals. Something tangible that can be reviewed and inspected, and compared to others in that field of subject. The materials don't have to be expansive, but substantive in nature. Secondly, I believe they should be used as an expert repeatedly, and able to provide references to others who have sought out their expertise. (Their references also must give them positive feedback, specific to the person's knowledge base not their personality.) Thirdly, their opinion must be reliable. This goes back to having publications and positive feedback, In my opinion if they are not reliable, then they are not trustworthy.

I believe these labels aren't freely given out, or at least they shouldn't be freely given out. People earn them, through education, life experience and the passage of time. Does a person need to earn an income to garner the title of professional and expert, yes and no. Professionals tend to work, and work hard, and earn something for their services, however experts don't have to earn an income. Generally speaking, all the experts I have ever used in my life were paid, but I am sure there are plenty of experts that don't accept a fee for services (albeit I don't have proof).


As for Vampirologist, I am at a lost. I am sure (as someone else already stated) you could give the creator of this website that tittle, and with his vast history studying vampirism, you could call him an expert.