Saffron Howden & Alicia Wood - Sydney Morning Herald
September 26, 2010
VAMPIRES - and not just the pretty kind featured on big and small screens - are seeking fresh blood.
So much so they have caught the eye of academics and social trend trackers, taking their research beyond the Twilight books and films and the television series True Blood and on to the internet.
Researchers say the internet has provided a church for disparate individuals and groups across the globe to meet and cement new spiritual belief systems around traditionally ''dark'' mythical forces such as vampires and werewolves.
The University of Western Sydney's Adam Possamai, author of Sociology of Religion for Generations X and Y, has plotted the rise of ''hyper-real'' religions drawing on popular culture.
''People are becoming inspired by the characteristics of the vampire and see them as a source of fulfilling their potential and inner abilities,'' Associate Professor Possamai said.
Researcher Danielle Kirby used the ''Otherkin'', who meet in an online forum and believe they are partially or entirely non-human, to examine the phenomenon. In her paper, she found about 800 members of the Otherkin network, including those who identified as dragons, elves, vampires, fairies and angels. The internet had helped concentrate their underlying broadly neo-pagan beliefs, she said.
The online and secretive nature of many self-described vampires - some who profess to drink blood, others who consume ''psychic energy'' - make it difficult to pin down numbers but believers say there could be 300 in Australia.
In an article in Australasian Policing last year, Queensland scholar David Keyworth listed contemporary examples of ''vampire'' crimes - a Welsh teenager who murdered an elderly woman whose heart was removed, a 1989 Brisbane riverbank throat-cutting involving the drinking of blood, and a Kentucky teenage vampire clan who cut each other to drink blood. There was even an unofficial psychiatric disorder called Renfield's Syndrome involving drinking blood for sexual pleasure.
Australian College of General Practitioners president Chris Mitchell warned yesterday vampiric pursuits were a health hazard due to ''the potential transmission of blood-borne diseases''.
Melbourne vampire Kriss Poison, 31, who stays on the right side of the law but not the bright side of life, drinks her husband's blood: ''When you love a person you can take from them, and they can take from me.'' She can't imagine being any other way: ''I've always lived on the dark side.''
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Psychic Vampires
Interesting read at paranormal Magazine..
You may not believe in the hackneyed blood-sucking monsters of the movies, but is it possible that some people have the power to drain other people not of blood but of psychic energy? How many of us have met people who have left us feeling unaccountably drained, tired and nervous? If you’ve ever had a sudden feeling of exhaustion come over you in a public place, maybe a Psychic Vampire was standing right behind you!
In Paranormal Magazine Issue 52 (October 2010), we hear from many self-styled Psychic Vampires who claim to have this power. But are they, as they themselves, claim, victims of a strange biology or, as others fear, malevolent parasites? Or is it all just a fantasy?
Other strong articles this issue include a piece on people who have allegedly been killed by monsters; an eerie report on a recent investigation into a spooky hotel; and an article on Britain’s haunted airfields.
In addition, Dr Leo Ruickbie completes his history of the Devil, bringing His Satanic Majesty into the present day, and describes his own attendance at a Black Mass. We also explore the grotesque use of human body parts in both black and white magic and a striking article details the strange encounters with weird beings that have taken place in school playgrounds – sometimes pursued by the kids!
As always, Paranormal Magazine includes round-ups of sightings and news stories from around the world and its regular features such as My Biggest Fright and Popular Haunts.
Thursday, September 23, 2010
Real Vampires Sought
Name:: Jen
Age & Sex:: 26/female
Location:: NYC
E-Mail:: vampires122854@gmail.com
Question:: Hello,
My name is Jen and I am with a production company in NYC. I came across your
website in my research on real Vampires and I was hoping to be able to get more
information. Right now we are in the very early stages of research for a
potential show about Vampires. We are hoping to be able to speak with real
Vampires so we can respect the culture and get the most accurate information
possible. We were hoping someone would be able to help us find members of the
community who would consider sharing their stories with us, even just over the
phone, as we continue our research. We are hoping to speak to some of the
Vampire community very shortly. We want to be able to have the most accurate
information and we want to be respecful of the Vampire community.
I would appreciate anything you could do to point us in the right direction and
help us find people willing to share their stories with us.
Thank you for your time.
Jen
Age & Sex:: 26/female
Location:: NYC
E-Mail:: vampires122854@gmail.com
Question:: Hello,
My name is Jen and I am with a production company in NYC. I came across your
website in my research on real Vampires and I was hoping to be able to get more
information. Right now we are in the very early stages of research for a
potential show about Vampires. We are hoping to be able to speak with real
Vampires so we can respect the culture and get the most accurate information
possible. We were hoping someone would be able to help us find members of the
community who would consider sharing their stories with us, even just over the
phone, as we continue our research. We are hoping to speak to some of the
Vampire community very shortly. We want to be able to have the most accurate
information and we want to be respecful of the Vampire community.
I would appreciate anything you could do to point us in the right direction and
help us find people willing to share their stories with us.
Thank you for your time.
Jen
Monday, September 20, 2010
Senfield Looking For Vampires
I'm writing on behalf of Jerry Seinfeld's new NBC series, "The Marriage Ref" - the comedy show where we present a couple with a quirky argument and a celebrity panel figures out who's right and who's wrong. As we move into our second season, Jerry Seinfeld has been coming up with some specific types of issues to look for, and one of them happens to be Vampires.
Whatever the vampiric issue is, we would love to hear about it. Please call me at your earliest convenience at 646-275-2201.
Couples who wind up being chosen for the show are given an all-expenses-paid trip to New York, the opportunity to meet Jerry Seinfeld, and a generous prize package (last year was a week-long cruise).
I know this sounds a bit strange, but believe it or not, this is how some of the best TV couples are found!
Thanks so much. I look forward to hearing from you.
Evan
-----------------------------
Evan Altshuler
Associate Casting Producer
"The Marriage Ref" on NBC
evan@themarriageref.tv
Whatever the vampiric issue is, we would love to hear about it. Please call me at your earliest convenience at 646-275-2201.
Couples who wind up being chosen for the show are given an all-expenses-paid trip to New York, the opportunity to meet Jerry Seinfeld, and a generous prize package (last year was a week-long cruise).
I know this sounds a bit strange, but believe it or not, this is how some of the best TV couples are found!
Thanks so much. I look forward to hearing from you.
Evan
-----------------------------
Evan Altshuler
Associate Casting Producer
"The Marriage Ref" on NBC
evan@themarriageref.tv
Friday, September 17, 2010
Projects In Progress
The Vampgeist site is always fluid, always adapting and changing. At the moment we're working on a few additions. Some are new, some have been bandied around before.
The Vampgeist Forum - How long have we been screwing around with this one? We did have a community on Ning until that service decided to charge for hosting. Now we're looking at the ProBoard format everyone seems to be familiar with to provide a place for community and discussion.
Ask A Vampire - Everything you ever wanted to know about vampires--real and legendary--but had no idea it was even possible is right at Vampgeist's Ask A Vampire. Using a blog and interactive e-mail, Ask A Vampire is a collective effort on the part of a group of real vampires representing a diversity of thoughts and opinions. Here for your education we present Vampgeist as real vampires active in the vampire community. We are sociologists, folklorists, psychologists, historians, and more. We are, of course, only part of a greater community, and as such offer only part of a greater truth. But what knowledge we have is at your disposal, and may help you on a journey of discovery of your own.
Vampire Awakening - We know who you are. Confused. Scared. Painfully aware of how much unlike the others you seem to be. You think thoughts and dream dreams beyond what everyone around you can appreciate. Everything seems to be off-color, everything strikes you as if from a different spectrum. And inside, you feel something. What it is, you're not sure. But it's there, craving, yearning, longing to break free and be...what? We know because we've all been where you are now. Once upon a time we too were seeking and experimenting--and we still are, of course. But we were among the very lucky. We had individuals--real vampires--who saw what was vampire in us and were willing to be our guides and our mentors. Most importantly, they were our friends and our kindred. They were part of a long and continuing tradition of developing the vampire within and acclimating new vampires to their senses--a tradition we want to continue here. Whether you're male, female, or undefined, whether you're thirteen or eighty three, you yourself might be in a stage of wondering and questioning. Only you can know whether this is a road you want to explore--whether your own inner vampire is rising to the surface. If you decide to explore, Vampire Awakening is here for you. Our premise is simple. You can establish contact with a group of real vampires who will answer your specific questions and otherwise offer mentoring and experience as you sort out what you are and what you are not. No one will be turned away and no one will need to worry about asking questions in a public forum. We will try our best to help you understand and feel confident.
Young Vampires Society - We've heard from many vampires and seekers of about eighteen and younger that there just isn't any resource tailored to their special needs and concerns. Well, we've listened, and we're doing something about that.
The Vampgeist Forum - How long have we been screwing around with this one? We did have a community on Ning until that service decided to charge for hosting. Now we're looking at the ProBoard format everyone seems to be familiar with to provide a place for community and discussion.
Ask A Vampire - Everything you ever wanted to know about vampires--real and legendary--but had no idea it was even possible is right at Vampgeist's Ask A Vampire. Using a blog and interactive e-mail, Ask A Vampire is a collective effort on the part of a group of real vampires representing a diversity of thoughts and opinions. Here for your education we present Vampgeist as real vampires active in the vampire community. We are sociologists, folklorists, psychologists, historians, and more. We are, of course, only part of a greater community, and as such offer only part of a greater truth. But what knowledge we have is at your disposal, and may help you on a journey of discovery of your own.
Vampire Awakening - We know who you are. Confused. Scared. Painfully aware of how much unlike the others you seem to be. You think thoughts and dream dreams beyond what everyone around you can appreciate. Everything seems to be off-color, everything strikes you as if from a different spectrum. And inside, you feel something. What it is, you're not sure. But it's there, craving, yearning, longing to break free and be...what? We know because we've all been where you are now. Once upon a time we too were seeking and experimenting--and we still are, of course. But we were among the very lucky. We had individuals--real vampires--who saw what was vampire in us and were willing to be our guides and our mentors. Most importantly, they were our friends and our kindred. They were part of a long and continuing tradition of developing the vampire within and acclimating new vampires to their senses--a tradition we want to continue here. Whether you're male, female, or undefined, whether you're thirteen or eighty three, you yourself might be in a stage of wondering and questioning. Only you can know whether this is a road you want to explore--whether your own inner vampire is rising to the surface. If you decide to explore, Vampire Awakening is here for you. Our premise is simple. You can establish contact with a group of real vampires who will answer your specific questions and otherwise offer mentoring and experience as you sort out what you are and what you are not. No one will be turned away and no one will need to worry about asking questions in a public forum. We will try our best to help you understand and feel confident.
Young Vampires Society - We've heard from many vampires and seekers of about eighteen and younger that there just isn't any resource tailored to their special needs and concerns. Well, we've listened, and we're doing something about that.
Welcome to the Voice of Vampgeist!
To begin this new and latest effort to keep a Vampgeist blog, we're going to do a little walking through the past to establish who we are, why this blog is here, and why an open forum for news and communication is indeed a good idea.
So what the heck is Vampgeist Creative Media? Well, Vampgeist isn't here to promote pre-fab ideas or tired stereotypes. We're here for new ides, new information, new ways of looking at the world. This blog is here to tell you what's going on at Vampgeist. Our website at http://www.vampgeist.com has been online for almost two years and has already greeted more than a million visitors. In fact, our raison d'etre comes to us through communications with vampire-kin on the Internet. They began as suggestions, and then we realized we were in a unique position to make these features happen. Nothing falls on deaf ears here.
Vampgeist is by no means the first vampire website, but it may very well be the first of its kind. Here we aim to bring real vampires of all persuasions together with the curious and the seeking together with the interested together with anyone else who feels the tug of the vampire. We're not here to correct media images, but instead to launch entirely new interpretations that may satisfy information-hungry individuals.
As we say elsewhere, the vampire archetype is common to virtually every human culture around the world and is as old as humanity itself. Here is a mystery that seduces and perplexes, that maintains an absolute grip on our imaginations. Enjoying and investigating that mystery is what Vampgeist is all about.
We have gotten some questions about the design of the site--namely that it's not especially vampiric (vampiric being laden with blood, fangs, and ankhs, we suppose). Well, as you can probably guess, that was the idea. How many black sites do you really want? Isn't blood red something of a stereotype? There is also the matter of our starting point--energy. What color is energy? We could have gone for the standard, except that Vampgeist itself is not standard. Hopefully this has shed a little light on the subject. Our novelty is that we're not novelties at all but folks who don't need props to be interesting. Our ambition is to show that while vampires can look like regular people, we have a shared experience that is so amazing we don't need the smoke and mirrors.
The last twelve months have brought an incredible number of requests for help either from media enterprises seeking information on real vampires or from real vampires who are seeking more information on the projects they are invited to join. This was one of the primary functions of Vampgeist from the beginning, so to see this service being used and actually helping others out is immensely satisfying.
We began by compiling "Who's Vamping The Vampires?", an expository piece on the media workers who have been posting requests for real vampires to come out and audition or share information or otherwise share the vampire existence. Most of these are bogus, and those that represent real interests seem to be out to exploit "crazy people who think they're vampires". Any real vampire can become a media client of Vampgeist free of charge. We serve as mediators between the vampire and whatever media outlet has contacted them. Through our own channels and contacts we research the contact and the project or company they claim to be working for to see if the matter is legitimate. To this end, we would like to thank MTV Networks Entertainment Group for being so helpful to us, no matter how many times we've had to contact them about a "project" being developed for their networks. More people have been invited to participate in a reality series by someone claiming to be from MTV than anywhere else.
So now you know a little about us and what we're doing. We invite you to send in any relevant news or posted media inquiries to vampgeist@vampgeist.com and we'll make sure to post it. Meanwhile, we're shuffling through our daily piles of e-mail (and actual postal mail, ye gods!) to do our part in keeping the World Wide Weird from becoming the Bottomless Pit of Ignorance and Regret!
So what the heck is Vampgeist Creative Media? Well, Vampgeist isn't here to promote pre-fab ideas or tired stereotypes. We're here for new ides, new information, new ways of looking at the world. This blog is here to tell you what's going on at Vampgeist. Our website at http://www.vampgeist.com has been online for almost two years and has already greeted more than a million visitors. In fact, our raison d'etre comes to us through communications with vampire-kin on the Internet. They began as suggestions, and then we realized we were in a unique position to make these features happen. Nothing falls on deaf ears here.
Vampgeist is by no means the first vampire website, but it may very well be the first of its kind. Here we aim to bring real vampires of all persuasions together with the curious and the seeking together with the interested together with anyone else who feels the tug of the vampire. We're not here to correct media images, but instead to launch entirely new interpretations that may satisfy information-hungry individuals.
As we say elsewhere, the vampire archetype is common to virtually every human culture around the world and is as old as humanity itself. Here is a mystery that seduces and perplexes, that maintains an absolute grip on our imaginations. Enjoying and investigating that mystery is what Vampgeist is all about.
We have gotten some questions about the design of the site--namely that it's not especially vampiric (vampiric being laden with blood, fangs, and ankhs, we suppose). Well, as you can probably guess, that was the idea. How many black sites do you really want? Isn't blood red something of a stereotype? There is also the matter of our starting point--energy. What color is energy? We could have gone for the standard, except that Vampgeist itself is not standard. Hopefully this has shed a little light on the subject. Our novelty is that we're not novelties at all but folks who don't need props to be interesting. Our ambition is to show that while vampires can look like regular people, we have a shared experience that is so amazing we don't need the smoke and mirrors.
The last twelve months have brought an incredible number of requests for help either from media enterprises seeking information on real vampires or from real vampires who are seeking more information on the projects they are invited to join. This was one of the primary functions of Vampgeist from the beginning, so to see this service being used and actually helping others out is immensely satisfying.
We began by compiling "Who's Vamping The Vampires?", an expository piece on the media workers who have been posting requests for real vampires to come out and audition or share information or otherwise share the vampire existence. Most of these are bogus, and those that represent real interests seem to be out to exploit "crazy people who think they're vampires". Any real vampire can become a media client of Vampgeist free of charge. We serve as mediators between the vampire and whatever media outlet has contacted them. Through our own channels and contacts we research the contact and the project or company they claim to be working for to see if the matter is legitimate. To this end, we would like to thank MTV Networks Entertainment Group for being so helpful to us, no matter how many times we've had to contact them about a "project" being developed for their networks. More people have been invited to participate in a reality series by someone claiming to be from MTV than anywhere else.
So now you know a little about us and what we're doing. We invite you to send in any relevant news or posted media inquiries to vampgeist@vampgeist.com and we'll make sure to post it. Meanwhile, we're shuffling through our daily piles of e-mail (and actual postal mail, ye gods!) to do our part in keeping the World Wide Weird from becoming the Bottomless Pit of Ignorance and Regret!
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