The Ultimate Vampire Resource and Directory

Science has recently demonstrated that the apparently obvious difference between sleep and wakefulness is far more fuzzy and ill-defined than we ever thought. It is possible to be partly asleep and partly awake in any one of a number of 'near sleep experiences'. It is even possible that parts of our brains may be asleep while others are awake. It is now thought likely that only when 'most' of our brain is asleep do we actually become unconscious. It is likely that we regularly shuffle between different states ranging from fully alert to deep sleep throughout the day and night. Strange experiences are reported by people in intermediate states between sleep and wakefulness which may explain many paranormal reports.



Near sleep experiences are important in understanding many paranormal reports because they produce bizarre experiences, often with apparently paranormal elements, in which dreams appear real. They are also important because they happen to 'normal', healthy people who have no history of illnesses or disorders. These hallucinatory episodes are called REM intrusions - REM is rapid eye movement associated with dreaming. REM intrusion is an episode where elements of dreams are overlaid on observed 'reality', making the experience appear utterly real, because the subject is partly awake and partly dreaming. Hallucinatory content can be visual, auditory or both. There are so many connections between these various types of experience, both in effect and cause, that it is justified to lump them together.



Paul Chambers wrote an excellent article on these, and other phenomena, back in 1999. This articles is intended as an update taking into account new scientific research since then.



Hypnagogia



This is a state that can occur when going to sleep or waking (this latter stage is sometimes distinguished as hypnopompic). During a hypnagogic episode, dream-like elements can intrude into a view of the real world, like a hallucination. See here for more details..



Sleep paralysis



If you have ever woken from sleep to find yourself paralysed, you have probably experienced sleep paralysis which is thought to have affected around 40% of people at least once. As if being paralysed wasn't disturbing enough, some people experience hallucinatory hypnagogic imagery at the same time. Hallucinatory sleep paralysis usually lasts longer than common sleep paralysis, up to around 8 minutes. Some people with sleep paralysis may experience an OOBE (see below). See here for more details.



Microsleep and sleep deprivation



When people are sleep-deprived, as many are these days with busy lives, they can be subject to microsleep. These are periods of a second or two, up to minutes, when someone is not responsive despite often having has their eyes open. It can be difficult to detect both for the experiencer and anyone watching them. During these periods, the experiencer will miss any sensory input. Someone doing a monotonous task, like driving, can also get microsleep. Microsleep is most frequent at times of day when the experiencer would normally be asleep.



For example, if someone was sleep deprived by attending a ghost vigil, they might microsleep during the latter parts of the night. If something in the room changed during a microsleep, they might not notice it happening and assume it had happened paranormally. An object might appear to 'jump' from one place to another when, in reality, it simply fell normally.



People vary enormously in their ability to cope with sleep deprivation. It is now thought possible that, when sleep deprived, parts of our brains may go 'off line' temporarily while we are apparently awake. In this condition we become forgetful or daydream, both of which could result in reports of apparent paranormal activity.



Microsleep with REM



A few people experience brief dream states during microsleep episodes - microsleep with REM - MWR. This could be related to hypnogogia and it may be indicative of a sleep disorder. Either way, it could produce paranormal reports even though the witness appears, and believes themselves to be, fully awake and alert.



One witness reports both 'normal' microsleep episodes (without REM) and MWRs. The latter often happen when reading, watching TV or doing something not requiring active participation, such as watching scenery on a journey. Usually, they go 'somewhere else' ie. into a dream state located somewhere completely different from their actual location. This could explain some alien abduction experiences where people report being yanked out of their normal life and taken somewhere else, albeit briefly. Alternatively, some MWR episodes involve a 'continuation' of the real place where the witness actually is but with something happening that does not occur in reality (see here for an example). This could explain some ghost experiences if the witness sees a human figure, for instance, against a real background. As soon as the witness comes out of the MWR, the figure, or anything else produced by the REM state, will vanish, reinforcing the impression it is paranormal. These latter MWRs feel completely real at the time, like hypnagogia.



It should be emphasised that MWRs are rare but, nevertheless, they could explain some brief but extraordinary experiences that happen when a witness is apparently wide awake. However, another point is that people with MWRs may realise they have had one when they wake up, in which case they may not interpret their experience as paranormal.



OOBE



Out of the body experiences (OOBEs or OBEs) are often seen as paranormal (such as astral projection). However, recent advances in neuroscience are providing an alternative explanation. OOBEs are most often experienced during the near sleep period when waking, particularly if dreaming. Some people get OOBEs while experiencing sleep paralysis.



In a typical OOBE, the subject will find themselves apparently floating outside their body. They often find themselves near the ceiling of the room they are in, looking down on their own body. Naturally, this experience has often been seen as a sort of astral body floating free of the physical one. It is also often part of an NDE or near death experience (see below). It is estimated that 5% of healthy people experience at least one OOBE in their lifetime.



Recent research has shown that there is a part of the brain, called the temporoparietal junction (TPJ) which, if it temporarily behaves unusually for any reason (such as from reduced blood pressure), can lead to OOBEs. The job of the TPJ is to give us an impression of our physical bodies in space, where we end and the 'rest of the world' begins. Since we don't possess motion sensors all over our body, this is an important job without which we would have no sense of how big we are. The TPJ uses sensory information from sight, touch, 'balance' (from the inner ear) and so to create the spatial body image.



It is possible to fool our brains about where our body is fairly easily, giving rise to some strange effects. In the 'rubber hand illusion', for instance, a subject's hand is hidden from view while a rubber one is placed in front of them. If the rubber hand and the subject's real hand are then gently stroked simultaneously, it feels to the subject as though the rubber hand is their own.



An even more interesting experiment can reproduce a full OOBE. Subjects wear a 'virtual reality' head mounted display that shows a TV image of their body from behind. When someone strokes their body, which they can see in their display, they feel as if they are going into the 'body' on the screen. Similar later experiments have induced subjects to experience seeing their own bodies as if from above, the classic OBE.



Whether any OOBEs are paranormal is now down solely to whether they can produce information that could not possibly have been available any other way. It is not enough for someone having an OOBE to report what happened in the room where they were lying because this information could have been deduced by sounds heard during the experience or visual impressions of the room gained while conscious before the experience. Even the viewpoint from the ceiling is not beyond the power of our brains to construct. All sorts of weird viewpoints are constructed during dreams so they could easily be used during similar OOBEs.



Sleep disorders



Though hypnagogia, sleep paralysis, microsleep and OOBE can be experienced by anyone who is perfectly fit and healthy, they could also be symptoms of a sleep disorder or other medical condition. If anyone having these experiences is concerned in any way, they should seek medical advice.



There are various sleep disorders that can produce symptoms similar to or including near sleep experiences. These include narcolepsy, parasomnia, hypersomnia and so on, which are beyond the scope of this article.



NDEs



It has been suggested by some scientists that the striking parallels between OOBEs and NDEs may be more than coincidence. It has been proposed that NDEs may be a particular kind of OOBE that occurs in time of crisis. When our bodies are in a crisis state, near death, they release chemicals that damp down our fear and pain response. This may account for the feeling of euphoria commonly reported in NDEs rather than the fear that often characterises hallucinatory sleep paralysis, for instance.



During NDEs, recordings of brain rhythms with EEGs (electroencephalographs) show flat lines ie. no activity. However, EEGs only record waves from the topmost layers of the brain and REM originates deep inside the brain. Research is ongoing to test these ideas.



Anomalous reports while near sleep



Many reports of anomalous phenomena, like ghosts or alien abductions, involve the witness either about to go to sleep or waking from it (often in bed). It is difficult to eliminate near sleep experiences as the most likely cause of such reports. Often there are odd factors which reinforce the subjective nature of such reports. Not only are bright lights and loud noises (in alien abductions, for instance) not noticed by others in the house but not even by partners sleeping the same bed, who typically remain asleep! Similarly strange, witnesses may simply go back to sleep after their weird experience when, had it been objectively real, that might seem the last thing they would be likely to do. Also, paralysis is frequently reported in alien abduction experiences.



As well as near sleep experiences, some reports from witnesses in bed may be false awakening dreams. Many people have such dreams where they may get up in the normal way, have breakfast and so on, only to later waken for real, feeling disorientated. Such dreams can involve also involve bizarre imagery, including that typical of anomalous phenomena reports.



To show that a report from a witness near sleep was truly objective would require there to be multiple witnesses to the phenomenon or some physical evidence that it had occurred. Otherwise it is virtually impossible to eliminate near sleep phenomena from such cases.



OOBEs when NOT near sleep



Not all OOBEs happen when the subject is near to sleep. Occasionally people can see their surroundings as if from a different viewpoint to the usual 'behind the eyes'. Witnesses do not necessarily see their own bodies. Such 'mini-OOBE's can be triggered by various circumstances. Here is one witness statement:



" I was just walking along when I happened to look down at the brick pathway underfoot. It suddenly appeared to me to be very close, as if I was floating just above it rather than looking from normal walking head height! The illusion quickly broke and I walked off, bemused. "



This mini-OOBE seems to have been triggered by a loss of a sense of depth caused by the highly uniform brick pattern which took up the entire field of view. Subsequent attempts to deliberately reproduce this experience at the same spot have failed. This suggests that knowing what might happen actually inhibits it!



Similar weird experiences have been reported in other situations where judging depth suddenly becomes difficult, such as walking down a motionless escalator. The striped pattern of the metal stairs may be the cause but there is also a weird effect from our brains expecting the stairs to move (see here).



False awakenings



Technically this a a sleep, rather than near-sleep, experience but it can be difficult to tell apart. Someone dreams that they wake up and may do many things before later really waking up (or have a repeat awakening dream). These dreams can be vivid and appear very real even though they contain things that are often wrong, like the surroundings or what happens, compared to a real life awakening.



Some ghost or alien reports may be false awakenings. In particular, there is the inability to wake up other potential witnesses to strange events and the lack of any tangible trace of things that supposedly happened during the 'experience'. Witnesses may also notice things 'wrong' during such 'experiences', such as furniture not in its usual position.



Hypnagogia can also resemble a false awakening.



© Maurice Townsend 2010

COMMENTS

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dabbler
05:51 Dec 13 2013

I wish more people would read this.

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There comes a time when the mind takes a higher plane of knowledge but can never prove how it got there.





Albert Einstein

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPIBRNDrw20

According to occultist Dion Fortune, an astral vampire is created when a powerful magickal worker refuses to submit to the "second death", or death of the astral shell. This astral shell is essentially the same vessel one projects when engaging in astral travel, and according the Fortune's views, it naturally expires a short while after the physical body dies. If somehow the astral shell is sustained past the death of the physical body, then it behaves much like a ghost. In order to maintain this half-life, however, the astral shell requires vital energy -- hence its identification as an astral vampire.

Some modern occultists are inclined to believe that these cast-off astral bodies have no inherent sentience, although they may react to currents and tides of energy. For Dion Fortune, however, these astral vampires were not only sentient, they were also a source of deep malevolence. She likened astral vampires to the vampires of folklore, suggesting that these hungry ghosts were the truth behind the myths.

Writers like Paul Barber and Katherine Ramsland have suggested that early vampire beliefs resulted from an incomplete understanding of how the body decays after death. Certainly there are ample records detailing how distraught villagers resorted to exhuming corpses in search of vampires. When a corpse reaches a certain state of decay, it can look as if liquid blood is seeping from its mouth, suggesting a vampire that has recently fed. However, this theory presumes that villagers were digging up corpses first and connecting them with vampires later -- but a belief in vampires preceded any widespread exhumations. According to Dion Fortune's theory, vampires came first and bloody corpses were only convenient culprits, dug up after the fact. Rather than corpses rising from their graves, Fortune felt that the dead lingered in the form of astral vampires, feeding upon friends and relatives in order to perpetuate their earth-bound state. Those who were being attacked turned to the cemetery only after recognizing the energy of the being responsible, and realizing that this was someone recently dead.

There may be some truth to Fortune's assertions. It's interesting to note that the majority of reported attacks that hail from the vampire heartland of Eastern Europe do not describe the supposed vampire as a risen corpse. On the contrary, the vampire behaves much more like a spirit, covering great distances as if by flight, entering locked rooms and buildings as if sieving through the walls. One of the most famous cases of vampire folklore involves a former soldier named Arnold Paole. Paole himself believed he had been attacked by a vampire while he was in the service. Paole's vampire attack came at night, and sounds much like the kind of nightmarish visitation others might call a Hag attack.

A modern writer describes a night-time visitation that could easily be mistaken for a centuries-old report of a vampire attack. Konstantinos, in Vampires: the Occult Truth, recounts how a friend woke one night to see a strange form hovering above her. She experienced all the classic symptoms of a night terror, particularly the paralysis, pressure, and sense of dread. The thing she saw hovering in the air above her resembled a serpent, and yet it also reminded her of an elderly woman of her acquaintance. This serpent with a woman's face continued to hover above her, and it seemed as if it drained the very life from her. Tired and shaken in the morning, she ultimately sought Konstantinos' help in protecting herself from further attack. The only difference between this report and something hailing from the seventeenth century is the fact that the old woman playing the part of vampire was still very much alive.

Vampires and Dreamwalking

When I first read Dion Fortune's description of astral vampires in Psychic Self Defense, I experienced a feeling of dread. I recognized many of the things she was describing -- not because I had been attacked by astral vampires but because I often functioned like one myself. After reading all of her material on astral vampires, there was no denying the parallels. Even the way astral vampires would take energy by visiting victims in their sleep sounded suspiciously like dreamwalking, an art I had been using for years to feed.

There were only two jarring facts that salved my conscience. First, Fortune saw astral vampires as universally malevolent. In her own words, the kind of magickal workers who sought to perpetuate themselves after physical death were black magicians of the darkest sort. Secondly, astral vampires were, by definition, not alive as we understood that word. Their physical bodies were dead, and what remained was a disembodied force. Near death experiences as a child aside, I was quite alive, and I very obviously still had a physical body. Because of these rather noteworthy differences, I clung to the hope that my suspicions were wrong. A letter from a friend would dash that hope but bring a new understanding.

Martin V. Riccardo is the founder of Vampire Studies. A native of Chicago, Riccardo has been writing and lecturing about vampires since the 1970s. In the early nineties, while I was doing a great deal of my own research, Marty was corresponding with people in the burgeoning vampire scene as part of the preliminary work for his book, Liquid Dreams of Vampires. Although I didn't exactly fit the bill as someone who fantasized about vampires, Marty and I still maintained a correspondence because of our mutual interests.

Marty was one of the first people I discussed my vampirism with openly. Early in the nineties, we exchanged a series of letters, comparing our ideas about vampirism and feeding. In one of these letters, Marty casually asked about astral vampirism. Did I feed astrally? he wanted to know. The discussion that ensued made me revisit Dion Fortune's work on astral vampires with dreamwalking in mind.

When I dreamwalked to someone, I did not feel like I was astrally projecting, but what was it like on their end of things? We've already seen that, at least under certain circumstances, dreamwalking can elide into something very close to astral projection. It doesn't seem to happen each and every time, but especially if the target is awake, the dreamwalker's presence may manifest outside of the realm of dreams. What if there is a kind of presence that can be sensed even when the dreamwalker is only in contact with the target internally? What happens when the target wakes up, but the dreamwalker is still there? What does that person feel -- or see?







The Living Dead

In the thirties, Dion Fortune identified an astral vampire as the remnant of someone already dead. She draws clear lines between these bodiless predators and the undead of European folklore. Konstantinos recounts a clear case of astral vampirism -- but the "spirit" in question belonged to a living woman. Living vampires, when encountered in a non-physical state, are completely indistinguishable from dead ones. This is one time when a modern vampire's claim of being the "living dead" rings all too true.

When we send ourselves out to dreamwalk, we occasionally also interact with the physical world. Whatever part of our non-physical selves this aspect might be, it functions like a ghost. When it is interacting with something in the physical world, it can be perceived like a ghost. And if it looks like a duck, and it quacks like a duck...then it can be battled magickally like any other unwanted and invasive ghost.

In my book, Psychic Dreamwalking, I mention having my best friend ward my room to keep me inside. What I did not mention was the fact that he used the same kinds of wards that he would have used against any other spirit. Normally, one sets up such wards in a room to keep unwanted spirits from getting in. All Jason did was switch things around a bit so unwanted spirits couldn't get out.

And it worked. On me. The spirit.

If our dreamwalking selves function like ghosts, then we have to accept that dreamwalking involves a little bit of risk. Sufficient Will can conquer quite a lot of things, but a mountain of defenses can eventually erode one's desire to continue the battle, even if it fails to overcome one's Will. Approached as a spirit, a dreamwalking vampire -- and likely any other dreamwalker -- can very easily be kept at bay. Wards, shields, and other techniques can help protect individuals who have been targeted for a dreamwalk.

The only thing that might counteract this on the vampire's side are deeply established, emotional links. As covered in the Codex, links are the easiest focus to follow when targeting a person for a dreamwalk. One of the ease of links is that they are not just lingering energetic connections. They have an emotional element as well. As long as the target person, on some level, wants to be connected to the vampire -- even if this desire is purely subconscious -- the vampire can sneak in through the links. They're like an open invitation, a door that is left slightly ajar, just in case the desired party visits in the night.

No amount of warding in the world will keep a vampire out if those links remain active, even on the most subliminal level. The only way to close that door is to resolve the emotional entanglement. If the person on the other end of the link can manage this, then the door doesn't simply slam shut: it ceases to exist.

Edgar Allen Poe has an extremly well written poem about how I see things. Namely that one is responsible for his or her own destiny and his or her own happines. Instead of posting the poem I will write down a conversation between demons concerning this very topic:



The demons of the verse were having a meeting, concerning the supremacy the humans were gaining over their world. One demon called Tumi stood up and said;

-It's the will of the creator and we cannot stop it. Soon enough the humans will have complete supremacy over their world-

The other demons started to mumble and whisper too eachother. Then an other demon said;

-Are you claiming that the creator is a force of good then-

The demon Tumi replied;

-No, the creator belongs to another set of opposites beyond good and evil. However we must find a way to keep the human threat down, a way to make their dominion of their world unbearable. Or even impossible!-

All the demons now stood up on their feet and clapped their hands and stomp with their hoofs. Cheering at the clearity of this demon that was suggesting to imposse their nefarious way on the humans. The demon Tumi once again demanded the floor, for eventhough they are demons they had procedures that need to be followed.

-I suggest fellow demons, that we keep happiness away from the humans!-

Now the floor fell quiet and like in one of those cheesy movies a silent clap began. It builded up louder and louder. The demon Tumi had literary risen hell on its feet.

-But how are we to accomplish this great task-

A demon asked, another demon replied;

-We can take happiness find the highest mountain and put it there-

The demon Tumi replied;

-Haven't you noticed how strong the humans are getting. Sooner or later some douche-bag is going to climb the hightes peek in the world, find happiness and bring it down to the rest.

Another demon jumped up and said;

-We can hide it at the bottom of the deepest sea!-

The demon Tumi replied;

-Haven't you noticed how clever the human bastards are getting. You just know they are going to invent som kind of machine able to submerge into the ocean, and then someone will find happiness and bring up from the sea and then it will be in the hands of humans once again-

Then another demon said;

-Lets hide it on the furthest reaches of space-

To this the demon Tumi replied;

-Haven't you seen their mathematical and engineering abilities, the humans will just build a telescope powerful enough to see where we hid happiness and then tell everyone about it-

This went on for hours, demons comming up with suggestions and Tumi or some other demon shutting them down. While all of this was happening one demon in the background was quiet. During the whole meeting, this demon was just watching, or that was the impression this demon gave. Then this seemly uninterested and quiet demon demanded the floor.

-Fellow demons, I've got it. Lets hide happiness within the humans themselves.-

The demons where confused, they all started to mumble once again.

-I STILL HAVE THE FLOOR!-

The demon yelled

-You have failed to study the one flaw the creator gave the humans, their vanity and need for external validation. They may conquer the whole vers, invent machines that would make the impossible possible. However they will never think to look for happiness within themselves. Their vanity and foolishness will not allow them to do so-

And thus the demon hid happiness within all humans.

The moral of the story is that our happiness is in our hands. However, we are too busy pleasing others, arguing with eachother, we do not see what we have when we have it. Gras is always greener on the other side, such are the things that will keep us from ruling our verse.



I borrowed this off someone I liked it so much