From Issue # 16 COSMIC CONNECTIONS - The Newsletter of the Cosmic Society of Paranormal Investigation
While we usually think of the vampire as a fictional being, the popularity of this figure often reveals a great deal about ourselves.
The vampire image can evoke dark passions and forbidden desires. In a strange way, the vampire provides a fantasy outlet that allows people to get in touch with their deepest inner feelings. The full intensity of these emotions is often expressed in dreams and fantasies where vampires may signify hidden yearnings for power, surrender, rebellion, romance, and other secret desires.
Sometimes the barriers between fantasy and reality are not always clear. Centuries ago a belief spread in Eastern Europe that the dead could return to prey upon the living. Over time this terrifying superstition evolved in human imagination into a dark, romantic fantasy. Vampires became suave and amorous figures, suggesting the ardor of forbidden passion. Today many think of vampires as pure fiction, a human invention without substance. When we see these creatures in movies, they often have no reflection. This implies that vampires are just illusions we have created, and have no basis in our true reality. The dream-like vampire may lack a reflection, but by reflecting on this being we may perceive a mirror image of our own human desires and fears.
What lies behind the pale skin and penetrating eyes of the vampire? Why have so many people become so enthralled with these creatures of the night? In recent years there have been a growing number of devoted enthusiasts who endlessly thirst for vampires in novels, movies and other outlets. Some people even want to join their ranks. Clearly, this exotic nocturnal being can hold an uncanny grip on the hearts and minds of some individuals.
To unearth the source of the vampire’s mythic power, we need to descend into the murky shadows of the subconscious. I decided that the realm of dreams and fantasies would be the best source to uncover the vampire’s secrets. Over a period of six years, I collected dreams and fantasies that people sent me about vampires. From this material, a picture emerged revealing the full allure of the vampire in all its unearthly glory.
In my book Liquid Dreams of Vampires, I present my findings, along with the wild and bizarre accounts I assembled. I learned that the popularity of the vampire is not based on any one single aspect. The appeal comes from many different elements that people are drawn to. There are so many dimensions to the vampire’s image that it provides an all purpose fantasy outlet.
Many picture the vampire as a romantic figure, a mysterious stranger who dwells in the world of candles, moonlight, and gothic surroundings. There are those who want to be captivated and overwhelmed by the animal magnetism of this otherworldly seducer. Elements of power and surrender often play a role. The intimacy of the vampire’s kiss can be desired as something special, beyond any encounter with a mere mortal.
Fear is commonly associated with the vampire, but this sense of fear is often mingled with a strange compelling attraction. Some people are drawn to what is dangerous and forbidden, and the vampire can represent all the dark desires in the human soul. Blood itself suggests the powers of life and spirit, even though the tasting of blood is a great taboo. The vampire offers excitement and radical new alternatives. Those who dream and fantasize about the undead can create an imaginary escape from the drabness of ordinary life.
On another level, the vampire has the qualities of the dark rebel, the outcast, the ultimate opponent of the established order and the daylight world. Trapped in a half- world between the living and the dead, the vampire carries the tragic qualities of an outsider who does not fit in, a situation that many people can identify with. There is also the allure of immortality, the ultimate protest against death. At the same time, the vampire is tied to all the trappings of death, even to the point of sleeping in a coffin. In a sense the vampire is the embodiment of death and its mysteries; it is the return of death in the flesh.
For some individuals the vampire image is so strong that they cannot always tell when the dreams end and reality begins and vampire dreams and fantasies have even been known to intrude into waking reality. Some people have had vivid dreams of the undead, and then awakened to find bite marks, blood stains, and even cases of the appearance of a vampire from the dream later being seen in the person’s everyday life. Vampires often represent the dark side of human emotions, and have become very common in dreams as an expression of repressed desires and feelings. Vampires may be found in dreams of passion, power, surrender, romance, fear, violence, and forbidden love. Individuals have contacted me about experiences in which physical effects remained after a vampire dream, and there are cases in which people have seen realistic visions of vampires standing at their bedside late at night, and in their waking lives as well for example one man believes he saw a group of vampires on the streets of Montreal who tried to communicate with him telepathically. A woman in Texas thinks she saw a vampire fly past an office window. A woman in Indiana had an affair with a man she believes was a vampire. He seemed to have a hypnotic power over people, his body was ice cold, she could detect no heartbeat, and she found bite marks on her body after being with him. They describe how their lives have been drastically changed by these meetings.
I have also collected personal accounts of those who act out their fantasies by becoming living vampires, becoming so enamored with the living undead, they sometimes take on the lifestyle of these creatures by wearing black, avoiding sunlight, wearing permanent fangs, feeling strong attraction to blood, and the aforementioned sleeping in coffins.
Once we raise the cloak of the vampire to see what dwells behind the image, we find a vast array of dark passions, primal urges and secret desires. It is all laid bare in Liquid Dreams of Vampires. In the process I examine the whole cultural history of this otherworldly predator, from the ancient tales to the influence of the gothic literature, modern fiction, and the media. I explore the very nature of dreams and their close connections to the origin of vampire beliefs. The vampire is an intriguing figure of countless dimensions, and as such will remain a subject of eternal fascination.
Why does the vampire have this strange grip on the human heart and imagination? Explore the mysteries behind the dark curtain of the undead, and decide for yourself where the reality lies.
Excerpts from Liquid Dreams of Vampires by Martin V. Riccardo, pages
182-3:
There are remarkable cases of people being awakened to see
what have been called “crisis apparitions.” Parapsychologist Louisa
E. Rhine collected reports of this kind. One case involved a woman
in California who said she awoke at about midnight in a cold sweat, and
sensed she was not alone in her bedroom. The woman stated, “Suddenly
about six or eight feet directly in front of my bed I saw the darndest
thing I’d ever seen, and I was scared out of my wits.. It was a greenish
grey whitish foamy substance—and then I knew somehow it was the spirit
of my husband. And yet how could it be, when he was alive in New
York?” She learned the next day that he had drowned in the East River
at about the time she had her experience. There are many reports
of this kind in works that document psychic experiences and apparitions.
While these cases are not
scientific evidence and may have alternative
explanations, they do suggest the possibility that the newly dead can make
an appearance to those lying in their beds at night.
A recurring dream has had a profound effect on the life of Rebecca Converse, who lives in Florida. In the dream she is in another era, and is the lover of someone who looks like Vlad Tepes, the Romanian warlord of the fifteenth century who was also know as Dracula. She is lying on a bed in the dream when an arrow flies into her room putting out a candle there. She relights the candle and finds a paper attached to the arrow. What she reads on the paper upsets her. She goes downstairs and confronts the man who seems to be Vlad Tepes. He responds angrily and pounds on the table. She then runs upstairs and jumps from a high window. She feels herself falling down the side of a mountain, and her body finally comes to rest at the edge of a river. Everything in the dream seems sharp and real, as if she is actually experiencing it, and she wakes up screaming in terror. In the dream she is speaking a foreign language. She understands it when she is dreaming, but not when she recalls the dream after awakening. She has been having the same dream, often twice a week, for more than two decades, since she was six or seven years old. Whatever part of the dream she is experiencing, it is always exactly the same.
In recent years Rebecca has learned that there is an old Romanian
story about Vlad Tepes that perfectly fits what she experiences in the
dream. When the Turks were about to storm his castle, the story says
someone did shoot an arrow with a message to warn him. The arrow
put out a a candle, and the message was read by Vlad’s lover in the castle.
This woman then related the dire warning to Vlad, but he was unmoved.
Unwilling to be taken captive by the Turks, she jumped from a high point
in the castle to her death at the river Arges below. When Rebecca
first saw the film Bram Stoker’s Dracula, she had to leave the theater
after the first few minutes. She was overwhelmed by the similarities
to her dream when she saw the scene in which Dracula’s wife jumps from
the castle toward the river after reading a note attached to an arrow.
Rebecca has also occasionally had vivid dreams in which she witnessed people
being impaled, a favorite torture technique of Vlad Tepes. Since
she was a child she has felt an awe and attraction toward Dracula. Especially
the historical Dracula.
About the Author
Martin V. Riccardo has been researching, lecturing and writing about
vampires since 1977. He is a behavioral hypnotist and the author
of Vampires Unearthed, The Lure of the Vampire, and Mystical Consciousness
( used as text in several college philosophy courses). He is the
director of Vampire Studies, devoted to collecting and sharing information
on the subject. He founded the Ghost Research Society in 1981 and
hosted the Midwest Ghost Expo for six years. He lectures on many
subjects including reincarnation and ancient Egypt and holds a
Bachelors Degree from the University of Illinois. Mr. Riccardo has been
seen on and quoted in, Sightings, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, Fate
Magazine and numerous other forums. For information call (708) 749-7697.
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