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How much outside influence played a role in your interpretation of vampirism or the supernatural , ect. Had it been a change of times , influenced my modern writings and the like or does it truly come from within?

WEll...if I went by the movies and the fiction out there...I would run screaming into the night. Ironic as it is, I HATE blood and gore movies and so forth. But for me..
it was the inner pull to the darker side of me. This is a way to express that darkness without really hurting anyone including myself.

My family was always spiritual and interested in the occult.My Mum' side of the family having interests in energy healing and magicks.But did not get to know my parents as adults and so I do not know if they had any belief in vampirism.
But I did have some influence from the outside of course.For me , there was always something tugging at my soul, so to speak.Something that just was there, but I did not know what it was.Just a general unrest of the spirit as a child and as an adult until I met my awakener.
Then the lightbulb went off*grins*

For me, most of what I knew was from reading and from movies... and then once I joined vr, it was the database... and learning what I can.

it was the draw of the darkness that made me become what i am today. and yeah i think it was the out side world of movies and such that made us understand this the way we do now

I've always been attracted to the darker and hidden side of things, but really I think it was the open-mindedness of my family that allowed me to embrace it.

I have always been intererested in the darkness, and found this as a way to join with my friends and find others out there that shared the same thoughts as I. Success VR. Success...

even as a child I was drawn to the darker side of things for me I think it does come from within

Letting movies and that such influence you would pull u in the opposite direction. They use blood and gore and all the nasties to sell movies. They make vampires out to be these evil things.

I have noticed that my interpretations--personal as the title implies--have influenced modern writing, without help from me. I have had my beliefs for a very long time, and it is pure happiness to see them in print. It gives me a feeling of vindication and acceptance.

Interpertation depends on what you yourself believe in or feel. It was to be based on something. A starting point of soem kind.

A lot of people are influenced by the media there is so much out there about vampires and other dark things that kids now are looking at it and wanting to be like that. Others I think have had it in them all the time

by the time I was in the fourth grade I had already read over a hundred books. I think my open mindedness comes from this, and my natural feelings.

We are all influanced by outside sources in one way or another. We take the information we gather and mix it with our own expiriances thus creating our truth, our reality as it were. We all have an inate "understanding" of things for example killing for no reason is wrong, taking with out cause is wrong etc. but other than these universal truths we form our opinions by what we peceive.

For me, when I was growing up I have felt it within myself. As I grew older by watching movies, reading and experiencing things for myself, it truly makes a person wonder what more can there be that we have not even touched, experienced or even know about.

I've been reading about vampires since I was a kid and from so many different sources. It's really hard to say what has shaped my opinion most. Dreams, films, historical accounts, the list goes on and on.

for me the attraction comes from within because i have never really cared what other people think anyway

in the beginning, it was hollywood. movies drew me in and i jus wished for it to be true. dark things were never scary to me. it wasnt till i grew older and began learning about sub cultures and lifestyles that i was really able to grasp the meaning of things. and to really be able to define what a vampire is to me.

I first became interested in vamps when I was a child...I saw Frank Langella in Dracula and that is where I first had some inkling that I might like blood play due to my response...I was a child and I felt like a freak...I read alot of literature and it wasn't til I found Anne Rice did I recognize the sensuous imagery that I had searched for in previous adaptations of vampires...

comes from within

i know about vampires thanks to movies, so you can say that most of it is thanks to what we see, cuz if not, we will never even know about them, books, tv, video games, you pic, is what give 80% of this people they taste for vampires, from there, they start to say that they just are, bull shit, they get it out of somewere.

Yea, I think pretty much everyone here found out about vampires through books and movies. I'm sure it's safe to say that. It has undoubtedly changed my perceptions on what a vampire is.

Outside sources gave it a name..The rest came along the way and though it took me a little while to admit to myself that these symptoms fall under Vampirism, I understand now what I am.
Just as a disease, you can have all the symptoms, you can die from it (or not die as the case may be) and you can refuse to call it what it is...but that doesn't change the outcome

Well the stories of vampires, witches and werewolves have always facinated me due to the fact that I want to create new myths and legends... the common day beliefs of most normal people are so archaic and need updating

I do not let societies View on Vamprism take affect on the life style my Maker has instilled in me

most of what I knew was from reading and from movies.

The things i've learned wher from occult books and horror type novels and movies..Best of the three where the occult books good place to find really good information...

Movies and the thought that there must be something else to the norm.........

Ever since i was little i've always been into vampires, ghosts, werewolves, etc...When i was lil the house we had was haunted by a lil girl...when strange things started happening my mum went & started looking up the history of the house & found out that previous owner had experienced simular things going on...she then found out that about 120years before we had the house it belonged to a young lady Marie who had a daughter Elizabeth aged 4, Marie had a job as a working girl & use to have clients over...when she did, she'd lock lizzie (as i came to know her) in the bathroom with cookies or sweets...one day she was locked in there but her mother forgot to take the water out of the bath & lizzie ended up drowning...my mum told me that i use to have tea parties, with her & that lizzie use to let me out of my cott as there was no way i could do it!! i've always had a....dont know what you'd call it but some say a connection with the dead...like dreams or sense when things were not normal...dont know if thats true but i do sense things like deju vu, presences' etc...i never knew what it ment, then i went to a tarot/spiritual reader & she told me...it freaked me out at first but then i kinda got use to it...its kinda kool tho!

Has anyone else had things like this and if so, have you ever done anything about it...like medium or spirit talker!?

I think I was naturally drawn to darkness even as a child. I watched scary vampire movies, but they didn't really terrify me. On the contrary, the movies only made me want to explore this mystery further. I had my own ideas about vampirism from the beginning, but I can imagine they got mixed up with other vampire stories since I think it's impossible not to be influenced by the outside world.

I guess we all have the outside influences that affect what we do and think, maybe some moreso than others

oh believe me ive read my share of books and watched my share of movies about vampires. Most of which i don't actually believe. Some of it might be true but the way they are depicted in movies and fiction books are they are monsters. I myself believe they are beautiful mysterious creatures.

I'd have to agree with Chameleon.

However, I believe I would go a step further to say that my views on vampirism are wholly shaped by fiction. As in, I see vampirism as totally fictional. Granted, much of the vampire mythos has been created through exaggeration of reality, from Vlad the Impaler, to people accidentally buried alive, and various other things in between. I see people who act as or claim to be vampires in one of several categories. One being those who simply dress as such, for fun, fashion, or anything of the sort. Next are those who role-play. Third, while technically a part of the second group in my eyes, I think fall into their own category, are those who believe they are vampires. I view these as either desperate for attention, delusional and unable to differentiate between fictional and reality, or suffering from a more serious mental illness.

However, what I consider somewhat of an exception to these are what many call psychic vamprisim. I dislike using the term vamprisim to describe it, however, as it really shares little with the vampires of fiction. I see it as energy manipulation, and even at that, more of a subconscious focus for things our minds are capable of that most never even begin to imagine. Many aspects of religious belief, such as magic, prayer, and miracles, also fall into the same category.

childhood experiences, movies, books, etc

who and what I am comes from many views of what we are! some are from Father Vincent of Clan Sabertooth as well as Todds of the synod and my family.

oddly enough, my family actively tried to discourage my interest in vampirism and the occult and ghosts, etc. I was raised in a Christian family, still consider myself one, but I also allow for the fact that there are other things He may have created besides what the general public considers acceptable...
The bulk of my interpretations came from books, but my very first exposure to vampirism was Dark Shadows of all things at the age of 5- I was absloutely devoted after that...
These days vampirism seems to have become more a "fashion" depending on what movie or book is out at the moment-

I first started to turn to the 'dark side' from external sources.

When I was a young teen my mother and I moved out from my grandfather's house and in with her boyfriend. He was a bit abusive.

I tried meditating, and sometimes that helped me find peace, but sometimes it didn't. I ended up becoming "vampiric" as a way to express my dislike of my situation. I ended up finding a bf of my own a year or so later and moved in with him.

That situation ended up being a bad one as well.

I am a much happier person now, 8 years after it all, but it has still left a dark side in me.

well I have always been a vampire,but watching movies and reading books when I was younger did sway my views alot of course they have changed a lot since I was a kiddie

Well I always thought the movies were over the top and fantasy, so I figured that Vampires were really just people that drank blood, no teeth, no supernatural abilities just drank blood. I always thought vampires were just a story, but I have learnt that somethings are close to fiction and somethings far from reality.

You cant help but get some influence from something somewhere. Weither you realize it or not, in the back of ur mind your thinking about it...

In my case it is an influence of all three.

I had vampire like tendences from a very young age. Before I was told about them. For some it is born within them and for others it is learned.

i dont let anyone pressure me into wat i feel or how i think about things, my beliefs and feelings are that....MINE. I dont allow ppl to push there feelings onto me wether it is someone online, a movie or a book even wats on tv. I have an open mind and i use it, i judge things on wat i see and feel NOT by wat i am told

I was influenced a lot by the hollywood perception of vampirism.... but I too have a darkside that pulled me into really wanting to learn more about what is myth and what is truth...

well initially i got attracted towards it by reading some books but oflate since i joined vr my vision became more clear.

Only personal experience has affected my knowledge and interpretation of the supernatural.

Well,

I was influenced by movies it gave the whole thing a romantic, yet, fantastical bend to vampirism.
It became attractive.
I guess I also liked the way a woman Is wooed by the Handsome vampire, or the thoughts of Eternal love and rising again to find her.. and make her immortal, for their love to be entwined, for all possible eternity.
Nowadays, I see vampirism as completely Different & split in a multitude of facets. this has come from personal experience, What I have read-up on them and having a few folks on here, share their concepts on what it is like BEING a true-vampire.

For me it all comes from within, it's kinda complicated to much to write infact but when I say vampires have played a part in my life from a young age I'm refering to being a child of 5, to young to read about them and most certantly to young to have anyone explain them to me it's all rather confusing and to cut a long story short for me it's from with.

I've always been a vampire, but I might never known how to address this and feed myself had I not found support online. Prior to finding groups for "real" vampires online, I only knew about mythical/fictional vampires.

I knew they were mythical/fictional but they were the limit of my understanding. What can I say but YAY for the the Internet?

I had a lot of influence that came from a movie called (Kindrid The Imbraced).

I would say its a combation of all.... hollywood, friends, info, within.

Research, books, other people, etc. I've tried to steer clear of the perceptions of vampires shown in movies.

For my part, I never really fitted in with the "normal" crowd. Until I met some people who where liked minded. So putting 1 and 1 together, I'm here.

as for me... all i can is that it all comes from within myself... wicked kisses and blessed be, darla

it comes from with in

My attitudes on the supernatural changed from sceptic to believer in a Pagan religion class taught at the Unitarian Universalist church in New Orleans. It was taught by three very learned and wise witches. They opened my eyes. I have been a practicing with since then.

As much as I love listening to people's' sides of things, I'm more of a facts kind of girl. The problem is, vampires and werewolves etc are mainly just based on interpretations. No REAL facts truly exists.