Dabbler, before I place a post in direct regard to your post here in the forum;
Please accept this virtual handshake as you have once again put an intellectual and compelling point to ponder out here.
Regardless of the tread(s), it is this type of “old school VR purpose and post” that keeps even those who doubt around and learning, reading and wondering, researching and evaluating. Thank you,
Guidacarta Di Nerezza
While it is far below me to spread the false ideologies of the vast majority in hopes it will sell someone on who or what a vampyre / vampire is or isn’t; there are cultures throughout historical record who do and have practiced ‘blood rites - rights’ in a very general and generic term.
Not all, in fact, few have ever been declared “vampire / vampyre” as an identity to their culture as a whole. I.e.: The facts are in as far as the Mayan and Inca cultures, which both had blood sacrifice. In both, the taking or ingesting of the sacrificial blood; be it of the human or animal would be by definition a vampire / vampyre trait or acknowledgement at the very least. The fact these practices where part of the whole of the culture based in modern view or thought as (religion, faith, belief) gives their use and application of the rights an embodied empowerment or strength.
Note here that there is no mention of turning into anything, growing of fangs, hanging upside-down in a cave creating vampire / vampyre guano or anything remotely close to those more modern fantasy’s created by outstanding authors and movie directors.
India has long been another place where culture or cultural practice has left a marker or two of many tribes, bands or peoples who have taken part in blood rites - rights. Not to mention periods of history ranging from Aboriginal to Scandinavian and even Native American. (The list does go on, but not here. For more specific’s please use websites and search engines such as: http://www.nationalgeographic.com or http://www.google.com and search records and achieves on blood rites -rights, cultural religions, beliefs and practices and alike. While these articles and papers may or may not have exactly what one is looking for, they do open doors to further ones knowledge.)
As a personal thought, and not to be misunderstood as a documented fact, it has been a theory of mine that the nomadic movements of the human species carried and further adapted a version of a general acceptance from their direct roots or origin.
Some will claim there is no scientific proof of a vampyre / vampire. This too is another controversy due to semantics rather than acceptance. Some will say, specific to science, that a vampire / vampyre “must” have a blood need. In my humble opinion, this is not an accurate portrayal. As I understand it, it has never been shown that a “real” vampire / vampyre require the blood of a human being to continue an existence. It becomes a matter of choice, practice and participation. (On that note, for those who do “let” or are planning to: Please keep in mind vampires / vampyres are not and have not ever been immortal in the same body or shell. We can and do die. Those who let should know their donors personal history as diseases such as HIV, AIDES and Hepatitis can and will affect you, possibly profoundly. There is NO substitute for precaution and safety.)
Some in the sciences will end their view by claiming a vitamin or mineral deficiency of some kind or other. While others will involve the sciences of psychology and state that the need or desire to be vampire / vampyre is solely within the personal opinion of the individual. Few will take into consideration the whole of the person who is or is not vampire /vampyre and accept the simplest truth they share: That is he or she simply is what he or she claims to be without isolating a specific gene or atom within our physiology. (Somehow, even in an educated mind I don’t see finding the “V” or Vampire / Vampyre chromosome like we have done with the “K” chromosome in identifying race base or genealogy…but I could be wrong!)
Sometimes a good series of questions such as your opens such a diversity of theory, opinion and thought that it actually does create its own set of circumstances. In this case, I’d say you’ve done just that! Again, Excellent and Thought Provoking!
To surmise my own two cents worth: A poser / fake vampire / vampyre is anyone who claims to be just that without accepting the truth of another’s view that they are in fact what they claim to be. This goes for those who let and don’t, PSI included. And to what level or degree one is or is not ‘real’ is solely dependant upon his or her own set of acceptances, truths and understandings.
