Cel Nemortul : The Vampire, Outside of Contemporary Fiction

Monday, January 20, 2020

Can the supernatural possibly exist outside of fables, fiction, and the imagination?

Yes. Fiction and folklore are two different things. You can't prove the existence of supernatural phenomena with scientific reasoning because the very definition of the word supernatural literally means wholly beyond or outside of nature and physics. The laws of physics did not always exist, neither did time. When the universe was young, most things we consider to be a concrete tenet of quantum mechanics today were not yet fully defined. Do you really think that there aren't forces (including sentient entities) in the universe and perhaps even on this very earth which transcend such laws and boundaries?

There is only one sure way to prove that the supernatural exists without relying on religious faith: by personal experience. You have to experience such a phenomenon yourself. You can't place it under a microscope, you can't run tests on it, you can't measure it. You have to see, feel, smell, and hear it, or you must rely on Faith.

Do demons/ malevolent entities or fallen angels exist?

Demons exist, but proving their existence is complicated for at least two reasons. Firstly, their body is incorporeal which means that they do not produce any physical evidence. They can inhabit the body of another creature but this only produces evidence of that body's existence, not the demon's. The second problem is that a demon is extremely violent. The reason a hunter can talk about his encounter with a grizzly or a tiger is because he was equipped to survive it. There are very few weapons that can be used against a demon that is determined to crush the life out of your soul. Those who survive such attacks are often so bent out of shape that they lose all credibility.

The statement in the bible, "For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places" is about the layers of authority and power in the generally, unseen, spiritual realm, the realm that lasts longer and is more influential over the world of man, woman and child, than the vast majority of mankind suspects.

The verse is from the New Testament book Ephesians 6:12 and provides the believer, and even the unbeliever if he or she dare, a logical reason for putting down the sword and stopping all destructive action against other human beings, and instead work to provide every unbeliever with knowledge of the Christ, the plan in Father God's heart from before the beginning for The Creator himself to pay the spiritual, metaphysical, philosophical, mental, emotional and physical price for what man decided to do to remove himself from his initial state of intimacy with God.

There are continuous wars and skirmishes taking place directly between the fallen ones and the ones that remain true to God. These strategic battles are taking place all over the Earth even as I write this, and have a direct impact on the affairs of mankind. To not understand this is to think that the short time of discovery we have had through the invention of means to see things microscopically and things that are large and far away as well, has somehow invalidated this other reality; but frankly, that is so human, to continue to think that we are the focal point of all of Creation and that what we can pick up on even with our inventions has more merit than certain other fundamental truths.

Do vampires exist?

“There was a shepherd of the village of Blow, near the town of Kadam, in Bohemia, who appeared during some time, and called certain persons, who never failed to die within eight days after. The peasants of Blow took up the body of this shepherd, and fixed it in the ground with a stake which they drove through it.

This man, when in that condition, derided them for what they made him suffer, and told them they were very good to give him thus a stick to defend himself from the dogs. The same night he got up again, and by his presence alarmed several persons, and strangled more amongst them than he had hitherto done. Afterwards, they delivered him into the hands of the executioner, who put him in a cart to carry him beyond the village and there burn him. This corpse howled like a madman, and moved his feet and hands as if alive. And when they again pierced him through with stakes he uttered very loud cries but did not die, even when pierced through the heart, lung, and thigh, and a great quantity of bright vermilion blood flowed from him. At last he was consumed, and this execution put an end to the appearance and hauntings of this spectre.” Report by Augustine Calmet

"The vampire is the antithesis of life. It is a filthy parody of the redeeming blood of Christ. It can only bring death, misery, and worse: the contamination of the soul."

—Seán Manchester, Bishop of Glastonbury

"I feel like science and religion are like a Möbius strip. When you dig deep enough into religion, you find science to explain it, and when you dig deep enough and long enough into science you find things that are unexplained."

—Guillermo del Toro

"Vampires issue forth from their graves in the night, attack people sleeping quietly in their beds, suck out all the blood from their bodies and destroy them. They beset men, women and children alike, sparing neither age nor sex. Those who are under the fatal malignity of their influence complain of suffocation and a total deficiency of spirits, after which they soon expire. Some who, when at the point of death, have been asked if they can tell what is causing their decease, reply that such and such persons, lately dead, have risen from the tomb to torment and torture them."

—John Heinrich Zopfius (Dissertation on Serbian Vampires, 1733)

"The best definition I can give of a vampire is a living, mischievous and murderous dead body. A living dead body! The words are idle, contradictory, incomprehensible, but so are vampires."

—Scoffern (Stray Leaves of Science and Folk Lore)

The vampire, vampír, wampyr, or vampyre, also known as the Romanian strigoi, is a preternatural being originating in folklore across Serbia and the Balkans in the early fourteenth century. In Romanian mythology the strigoi are believed to be troubled spirits that are said to have risen from the grave. They are attributed with the abilities to transform into an animal, become invisible, and to gain vitality from the blood of their victims. In modern fiction and speculation vampirism has been associated with some form of disease, whether it be a fictional disease or a real life ailment.¹

The vampire legend has equally diverse geographic and cultural origins, as one can see by the many unique names these cultures have associated with vampiric creatures. In Russian there are the terms upir and upyr. In Albanian there is the shtriga. In Greek alone there are the ghello, drakos, drakaena, lamia, vrykolakes, brykilakas, barbarlakos, borborlakos, and the bourdoulakos. From Sanskrit come the terms katakhanoso and baital. In Poland dwelled the upiory, in Germany the bltsauger, in China the giang shi, and in pre-Columbian Peru the canchus and the pumapmicuc. Vikings believed in draugr which are very similar to vampires. In Africa there is the bloodsucking apelike abonsam. The Manananggal is a vampire-like mythical creature native to the Philippines, a malevolent, man-eating and blood-sucking monster or witch. In Jewish folklore there is the striya which are almost identical to the strigoi legend. In Semitic lore there are also Estries and Lilin (Children of Lilith).

Do Vampires exist? The answer to this question largely depends on how people understand what a Vampire is. Unfortunately, the vast majority of people are only familiar with the Vampire of popular culture. Only fragments of what a Vampire truly is, is ever promoted through popular culture. Here are two dictionary examples defining what a Vampire is according to contemporary standards:

Vampire – a corpse supposed, in European folklore, to leave its grave at night to drink the blood of the living by biting their necks with long pointed canine teeth. (Oxford Dictionary)

Vampire – (folklore) a corpse that rises at night to drink the blood of the living; a blood-sucking ghost; a soul of a dead person superstitiously believed to come from the grave and wander about by night sucking the blood of persons asleep, thus causing their death. (Webster’s Dictionary)

Horst defines a vampire as "a dead body which continues to live in the grave, which it leaves, however, by night for the purpose of sucking the blood of the living, whereby it is nourished and preserved in good condition, instead of becoming decomposed like other dead bodies." Such definitions are not entirely incorrect, but they only describe something based on contemporary and secular standards, and not the actual folklore itself. It should be noted that such standards also dismiss the existence of Vampires, especially in those definitions making use of terms such as “folklore” and “superstitiously.” Overall, the Vampire is defined according to a set of myths or legends, rather than to reality.

Vampire phenomenon includes other characteristics and circumstances of which the contemporary definitions lack. More importantly, these other details are excluded from popular culture. Certainly, there is much more that can be said to help answer the question whether such creatures exist or not. The Catholic Paranormal Research Society’s interest in this particular subject is owed to the fact that a variety of paranormal phenomena occur due to demonic activity. The Church believes in the existence of demons, and has noted demonic manifestations occurring in various ways. Knowing this, demonic manifestations may include Vampirism. This may be demonstrated by means of comparing cases of Vampirism to the experiences and wisdom of the Church.

Why should Vampirism be any different from any other paranormal occurrence owed to demons? Some examples of ghost phenomena do include revenants (ghosts of a corporeal nature). The Patristic evidence reveals that ghost phenomena does not regularly occur as a result of the spirits of the dead, but as a result of demons imitating the dead. It becomes easy to recognize how demons use a persona other than their own in order to achieve their evil intentions. The Vampire can be easily recognized to yet another persona utilized by demons. Unfortunately, contemporary definitions do not define the Vampire as a demonic manifestation.

Moving beyond dictionaries and their brief definitions, there are numerous books exploring Vampirism. Such texts only provide a secular perspective. Some books even explore Vampirism through occult philosophies and theories. Some even describe the Vampire strictly as a mythical creature, while promoting the belief in “psychic vampires.” These books do not satisfy what a Vampire is. Most contemporary texts on the subject of Vampires serve to promote disbelief.

Definitions alone do not validate the existence of Vampires, but such definitions are owed to human experiences. Despite this aspect of language, modern day society attempts to set certain experiences aside as superstition. Today, there are practically no well known experiences that can attest to how a society defines Vampires as a reality. At various times throughout human history, the Vampire was defined through very real experiences. How something like the Vampire has been reduced to primitive superstition is owed to how contemporary definitions fail to include the broader range of details provided through humanities experiences. At one time, Vampirism was defined as a demonic manifestation. Today such a definition is at best an ambivalent implication to any modern day definition provided. Therefore, to answer the question presented at the outset of the article it becomes necessary to define Vampirism in a relevant way – namely, through some contemporary experiences, which do not reduce the Vampire to myth and legend.

"And through the fire stood before me a pale horse, and he who sat atop him carried a scythe. And I saw since he had risen, they too shall rise. And from him, and through him."

Most scholars agree that in England Paul Ricaut first defined vampire in 1679 in State of the Greek and Armenian Churches as “a pretended demon, said to delight in sucking human blood, and to animate the bodies of dead persons, which when dug up, are said to be found florid and full of blood.”

In the original folklore vampires are repelled by crosses, garlic, iron, and can not cross a line of seeds, salt, and running water. Vampires appeared much differently in folklore than they ever do in popular culture. Folkloric vampires have ruddy or dark skin, bloated body, blood seeping through the mouth, long nails and grown hair, red glowing eyes, supernaturally strong teeth, and a smell of decay. According to folklore, Vampires traditionally slept in their graves and hunted at night, they would first feed on the blood of their whole family and once it had killed them all, the vampire start to feed on other people in its community and spreads its curse to others and turn them into vampires as well. Folklore vampires were said to possess the power of shape shifting into many different shapes, including animals and even mist, spread diseases (which killed the victim and turned them into a vampire), great strength and agility (but only strong enough to overpower victims), and were said to be sexually insatiable.

The Vampire (cadaveribus sanguisugis)

...The creature as defined by Reverend Seán Manchester and Montague Summers.

Vampirism is a case of unnatural phenomena where demonic and predatory entities manifest themselves and take possession of a recently expired corpse, thereby reanimating the lifeless body and granting it profound supernatural aspects. A vampirized corpse can be refered to as the entity's corporeal form. Due to it's demonic agency, this corporeal form is incorruptible, appearing only a few days deceased, even several centuries after it's expiry.

The entity, appearing in this accursed form, issues forth from within the confines of its earthly grave by preternatural means to drain life essence from the living (presumably through the oral consumption of blood), whereby the corporeal aspect is seemingly nourished and preserved with new vitality and fresh energy. Therefore the vampire is at once neither truly a living creature nor simply a reanimated body, but instead possesses a far more complex and paradoxical nature. The corporeal form's supernatural aspect enables it to metamorphose; that is to change form. This is typically into a variety of animals such as wolves, dogs, barn owls, rats, toads etc... though rarely if ever into any kind of bat. They can also disperse into mist/fog and even into a swarm of small animals.

The smallest drop of blood can be employed by a demonic entity, and in the case of the vampire, it enables the corporeal form to perpetuate all the terrible powers and qualities attributed to them. Manifestation via the blood is the undead’s means of metamorphosis into a form often indistiguishable from a corpse. Since the undead do not exist in time — they dwell in what is described as "anti-time" - they will cast no shadow, nor will their reflection be seen in a mirror or water’s surface.

The corpse is highly dexterous and extremely reslilient, able to scale vertical surfaces, levitate, and seemingly pass through solid matter.

Metamorphosis

The corporeal form, through its demonic agency, does have the supernatural ability to dematerialise and rematerialise outside the parameters of its tomb. This is extended to all manner of metamorphosis, as described in The Highgate Vampire: The Infernal World of the Undead. So it can "assume other likenesses," and retain more than just the spectral appearance of an apparition when it returns to the corporeal from something else, whatever that something else might be.

Nonetheless, forms of vampirism can occur without the manifestation having a corporeal presence. When it does have a tangible form it would be regarded by vampirologists as a traditional vampire case.

Dormancy

A vampire must return to it's grave or coffin somewhere near dawn. Once reinterred and in deathly repose it becomes inactive and enters an exanimate and corpse-like state, only to reanimate with the coming of the late afternoon.

Appearance and attributes

A vampire is generally described as being exceedingly gaunt and lean with a hideous countenance and eyes wherein are glinting the red fires of perdition. The skin is sallow, perhaps with but a slight greenish or bluish tinge. The canines appear notably sharp and the nails are always curved and crooked, often well nigh the length of a bird's claw, the quicks dirty and foul with clots of black blood. The mouth is gaping and oftentimes fixed into a vulpine snarl. It's breath is unbearably fetid and rank with corruption, the stench of charnel. However, when the creature has satiated it's lust for warm human blood the body becomes horribly puffed and bloated, the skin appearing quite florid and somewhat swollen as though engorged and suffused with the vital fluid.

They are anatomically identical to us because they are human corpses reanimated by a spectral and demonic force, not a separate species, nor are they in any way related to bats contary to popular culture, but rather a defilement and corruption of humanity and life itself. Vampirism is an unnatural and macabre state of biological and metaphysical stasis; continued posthumous life, while still partway within the icy grip death. A paradox wholly unto itself, the vampire can neither be counted among the living nor the dead.

Do they need an invitation?

No, vampires do not need to be invited into one's home. However it is useful to know that they can’t cross salt. Likewise they can’t cross running water (unless the tide ebbs) and they seem to have a hard time getting through a barricade of thorny brambles, even despite their knack for leaving their graves without disturbing it, dispersing into a trail of mist/fog, scaling nearly any obstacle, and squeezing through the tightest of places (leading to the folkloric belief that vampires didn’t have bones). You would probally want to board up your windows though, as vampires seem to have no problem passing right through glass window panes as if it were air.

Are they repelled by crosses?

The crucifix symbol itself is utterly abhorred by them, and indeed all forms of evil. The object and what it is made of does not possess any power, yet it is so strongly symbolic of the triumph of good over evil that it alone repels evil and whatever is an emissary of evil. However, when employed by a person the intent and faith of the person employing it is paramount. This might seem like a paradox. Christian items and holy places utterly repel evil people who oftentimes delight in their sacrilege. Likewise supernatural evil shuns these holy items.

Becoming a vampire

Vampires are, of course, demonic. In certain circumstances (though these are few and far between) those who recieve frequent visitations from the undead and expire as a result due to loss of blood will themselves be at risk of becoming undead in their turn. This does not occur where the person is in a state of grace; where any mortal sin that stains their soul has been absolved. And by no means are the great majority of victims destined to return as undead. It would seem that those who become undead in this way are fewer than might be imagined. This nevertheless remains an enigma where probable candidates are those who have led a life of more than ordinary immorality and unbridled wickedness; where the individual has possessed a surfeit of selfish passions, evil ambitions and cruelty. Such undead, however, are thought to be those who have delighted in blood and devoted themselves during their life to the practice of diabolism and the black arts. Thus an undead is more likely to result from exceedingly base and cruel actions; especially where devil worship and devotion to the black arts has occurred.

¹[My other post: Cel Nemortul : The Vampire, Outside of Contemporary Fiction]

Sources :

Tuesday, January 14, 2020

Monday, November 25, 2019

The Unscience of the Vampyr

However, I believe that vampires (if such creatures do exist) are corpses reanimated by a spectral force, and thus is in no way the person they once were in life, as the soul of that person has moved on. This leaves it's body completely vulnerable to manifestation and corpses could well be a more attractive target for demonic entities looking to cause pain and suffering. After all, from the perspective of such a twisted, baleful, and sadistic being, what is more amusing than to use a person's deceased loved one to cause harm to an entire household, and subsequently an entire village? When a demon possesses a living person they feed on their soul and vitality in order to further fuel their agency. Yet that still begs the question, why blood? Why not just psychically drain that energy? Perhaps a somewhat obscure passage of folklore from the middle ages might give us some insight :

The witches' teat was a raised bump somewhere on a witch's body. It is often depicted as having a wart-like appearance. Apotropaic marks, made to keep witches out of buildings, are also referred to as witches' marks. The witches' teat is associated with the feeding of witches' imps or familiars (demons); the witch's familiar supposedly aided the witch in her magic in exchange for nourishment (blood) from sacrificial animals or from the witch's teat[cite].

It has apparently been believed that demons (or familiars) have a particular liking of blood, especially our blood. Blood may even be a key component which allows them to continue their demonic attachment or possession. Or perhaps they, for whatever godforsaken reason, are just morbidly obsessed with blood. Demons are most powerful in blood sacrifices or activities that involve blood like murder, suicide, torture and self-abuse and abuse of animals and other people. An example is the practice of “cutting”. The person cuts parts of their body to relieve the tension or guilt in their life or maybe because a demon desires the activity. “Cutting” may have psychological factors but there is a thin line between psychology and the demonic[cite].

Since both the folkloric and religious connection between demons and the consumption of blood—or otherwise the use thereof—has been established it becomes more clear that if vampyres do indeed exist (also providing that God and Christianity also exist, which I personally believe to be the case, disagree as you may) then it would be clear that such creatures are of a purely demonic and decidedly non human nature, simply choosing the bodies of the deceased as a medium with which to carry out their nefarious deeds. Since the body is dead and there is no resistance from it's former inhabitant this form of possession would give them far more control and freedom over the corporeal form, thus the propensity to change shape, vanish, or turn into mist could potentially be observed. Due to the fact that demonic entities are psychic and also due to the fact that most people who become vampyres lead a life of sin as a human and were thus vulnerable to demonic attachments, it is not surprising that the revenant in question would be capable of flawlessly imitating the personage of the deceased due to it's intimate knowledge of that individual, and thus able to draw closer to it's victims: the deceased's relatives and everyone that person had once known or cared about in life.

It is true that the vampyr does not sleep, well not exactly. Rather it undergoes a repeating cycle of death (or rather exanimation : the ceasing of all activity) and reanimation. It takes considerable energy to maintain a state of perpetual undeath, and since the body is dead and therefore can't sleep the vampyr conserves it's energy by shutting down completely. For reasons unknown the creature is irrevocably bound to the site in which it was interned upon death, whether it be a sepulcher, mausoleum, burial site, or during times of plague a mass grave. While in their exanimate state they are said to have a peculiar watchfulness about them, as though being intimately aware of what's going on around the corporeal form.

Note : In vampirology the corpse, which acts as the mobile center of demonic agency, is sometimes referred to as the corporeal form.

Therefore if all this be the case then that could also mean that vampirism is, in essence, the antithesis of the glorious resurrection of Christ and a perversion of Biblical scripture of the most terrifying and abhorrent kind. This is perhaps why, in Romanian folklore, it takes three days for the vampire to reanimate, as it took Christ three days to resurrect in his true glorified form. It could also be the source of the whole blood drinking thing as the symbolic drinking of the blood of Christ is a common and prevalent theme in Christianity. It is also likely that the corporeal form is preserved in much the same way that the bodies of saints are preserved, that is, through a phenomenon known as incorruptibility.

Appearance :

"A vampire that has not satiated sufficiently does not appear any different to that of a corpse just a few days old. The skin is grayish in tone and appears gaunt and somewhat livid. Even though death has taken place long before, there will be no decay, no trace of corruption or decomposition, but rather it will remain largely intact and pliable but ice cold to the touch."

The vampire will appear much the same as it did in life with the exception of being still very dead, and are thereby disgusting and putrid even given the corpse's remarkably undecayed state. The skin is sallow, parchment-like, beneath which there tends to be a faint bluish or greenish tinge with some perhaps some lividity and even early formation of Tardieu spots. The stages of decomposition never seem to advance beyond this point. When sufficiently fed the creature is often described as appearing plump and of a clear complexion. The skin is ruddy, purplish, or dark in colour due to the recent quaffing of blood. Blood was often seen seeping from the mouth and nose when one was seen in its shroud or coffin. They appear gorged and are stinking with blood. Their eyes appear glazed, yellow around the edges with blood red centres. The eyes are baleful and glint with bottomless malice and within those two infernal orbs is set the red fire of perdition. Their mouth is cruel, mocking, and hungry looking, the sclera, teeth, and nails are all yellowed and repulsive in appearance and after each feeding crimson blood is seen trickling out the ears, nose, and mouth. The vampire's own blood is a deoxygenated black color and is partially congealed. When a vampire feeds it is suffused with fresh blood which is a vibrant red. The great leech feeds in such quantity that blood is forced out the orifices.

When resting in their coffin whole person is composed as if in a profound sleep. Sometimes the eyes are closed; more frequently open, glazed, fixed and glaring fiercely. The lips which will be markedly full and red, drawn back from the teeth which appear uncharacteristically sharp and somewhat protruding. Often the gaping mouth is stained and foul with great gouts of blood, which trickles down from the corners on to the lawn shroudings and linen cerements.

Other traits may include lividity, dark veins, slightly pointed ears, unusually sharp teeth (though not necessarily fangs), marked recession of the gum line and nailbeds, curved and jagged nails which tend to be dark and discolored, and a slightly receding upper lip. After each feeding the vampire becomes bloated, seemingly engorged like a tick, with blood cascading out of all or most orifices. The skin becomes grotesquely flushed in complexion and may appear moist or sticky. Vampires are commonly seen wearing nothing but the shrouds in which they where buried, now dirty and tattered with a large savage tear in the cloth at the mouth from which to feed. Another characteristic of the undead is their odd and disturbing way of exhaling breath, as described in the testimony of Jure Grando's wife when her deceased husband sexually assaulted her.

Another feature is the glowing red eyes, perhaps something similar to tapetum lucidum, or something caused by it's supernatural condition.

Powers/Abilities :

Incorruptibility (via demonic intervention)
- Supernatural Embalming
- Putrefactive Resistance
- Liquefactive Resistance
- Decay Reversal
- Regenerative Activation (postmortem body-healing)

Potent Healing Abilities
Putrescent Stench
Pestilence Manipulation
Rodent Manipulation
Weather Manipulation
Fog Generation
Umbrageous Teleportation
Shadow Submergence
Blood Empowerment
Night Empowerment
Cemetery Empowerment
Cemetery Lordship
Exanimation
Coffin Sleeping
Necromancy and Dark magic
Vampirization
Overshadowing/ Body Hijacking
Atmokinesis
Shapeshifting
- Therianthropy
- Dispersion (ie. mist or fog, flock of crows, swarm of bats/ rats)
- Glamour Spell/Human Disguise
Transvection
Wallcrawling
Invisibility

Vampire Weaknesses:

Blessed Silver - Vampires are weakened by blessed silver
Holywater - Holywater burns their skin on contact.
Running water -Vampires are unable to cross running water without human help (ie. being ferried across by a human).
Decapitation - Cutting off their head is said to kill or at least severely inhibit them.
Staking - Being staked through the heart prevents them from reanimating
Heart removal - Removing the heart, cutting it in half, and then burning it is a common method of disposing a vampire.
Vervain - Vervain is believed to ward off vampires.
Holy Objects - Blessed objects and symbols of Christianity, especially the cross, are greatly effective against vampires.
Salt - Vampires cannot cross a circle of salt, especially salt blessed by a priest.
Exorcism - Since vampires are demonic they can be expelled via exorcism, although the person doing the exorcism usually has to be proficient in exorcism rites and ordained by the church.
Incineration - Incineration of the corporeal form is the best method of destroying a vampire. This is best done only after staking and carrying out an exorcism.
Garlic - Vampires hate garlic. This can possibly be attributed to an allergic or chemical reaction rather than anything supernatural. It's possible that they have a highly enhanced sense of smell which could very well account for this. However garlic is not always the most effective deterrent.

Non-Weaknesses and debunked myths :

A simple stake to the heart will simply not do
Are not people, restless or damned souls, or anything like that. They are pure evil.
Any sign of weakness, immorality, hesitation, or lack of faith will give the creature the upper hand
Has a capacity for simply finding another host (unless banished to hell in an exorcism)
Is extremely elusive and also extremely resilient
Holy objects are less effective when one's faith is not absolutely firm and unyielding.
Are not in anyway connected to any species of bat
Do not need to be invited in (this is true for demons, it is Christ who asks for an invitation. The demons will try to invade whether you want them to or not).

The romanticized and fictitious vampire :

The monstrous and fictitious vampire :

The vampire featured on www.fvza.org :

The folkloric vampire in all it's macabre glory :