Do vampires really exist: evidence, medical facts. Do vampires exist: myths, facts and evidence

14.09.2019

During the Renaissance, the existence of vampires was thought about when there was an unexpected spike in deaths in one area. After romanticizing the image of vampires, interest in them grew into a cult. You will be surprised, in real life, they are officially recognized.

Ghouls in history

Vampires have become one of the most popular types of evil spirits in the plots of films, songs, poems and paintings. These creatures are credited with terrible deeds, and in legends it is very difficult to distinguish truth from fiction.

Anyone who decides to commit suicide or goes against church canons can become a bloodsucker.

There is a belief - if at the funeral a black cat jumps over the coffin, or the deceased's eyes open slightly, then the deceased will turn into a vampire. Noticing something strange, they put garlic or hawthorn twigs in the grave.

In the 21st century, at the beginning of the 2000s, the African Republic of Malawi was engulfed in an epidemic of vampirism. Local residents threw stones at several dozen people who were suspected of bloodsucking. And the authorities were accused of collusion with vampires.
In 2004, Tom Pere's parents, fearing that their son would become a bloodsucker, dug up a grave and burned his heart.

The first publication on the existence of vampires was in 1975. It said that death by bite occurs due to poisoning with cadaveric poison. And the visits of the dead to visit their relatives are caused by the hallucinations of impressionable people. Now in any country there is a belief in vampires, only they are called differently.

List of common castes of our time:

In America they are called Tlahuelpuchi, during the day they are people, at night they are blood-sucking bats.
The Australian creatures Yara-mo-yaha-hu have long limbs with suction cups with which they drink blood.
In Romania, Vorkalak, a vampire dog.
The Chinese believe in a vampire fox; girls who have died from beatings and violence become it.
Japan is home to Kappa, drowned children who feed on the blood of bathers.
India is inhabited by immortal Rakshasas, who take on any form.

Scientific research is based on two opposing views of blood-drinking creatures.

First- vampires are unreal, and legends are built on frightening folk tales. Based on biology and medicine, the symptoms are refuted. The "incorruptibility" of the body can be caused by the specific composition of the soil, the unnatural postures of the dead are explained by the punishment of ancient times - burial alive.

Second- the myth of the existence of vampires was based on a genetic disease - Porphyria. In the patient's body, blood cells are not formed, which leads to a lack of iron, due to this, the skin becomes pale and prone to sunburn. People with porphyria do not perceive the smell of garlic; the acid in it negatively affects a weak body. More often, the disease is a consequence of family marriages. Incest was mostly recorded on the territory of Transylvania, where the legends about Dracula originated.

There is Renfield syndrome. This is a mental disorder when the patient drinks the blood of animals and even humans. Some of the serial killers suffer from this disease.

Vampire science claims to exist in the real world, but does not define who they are. Some researchers believe that these are the deceased who have undergone gene mutations or have been bitten by an animal vampire. Features are inherited.

Other vampyrologists claim that the followers of the "blood-eating" ritual became vampires. For example, the ancient Aztecs believed that by eating human blood, you become immortal.

It is believed that vampires are people who have made a deal with the devil for eternal life, which must be fed with blood.

Scientist Stefan Kaplan began searching for evidence of the existence of vampires in 1974. He established a center for the study of blood-drinking creatures in New York. According to the researcher, he found a large number of living vampires, who appeared to be ordinary people.

What conclusions did Kaplan make:

They really exist in our world.
Fear of the sun can be overcome with goggles and cream.
Nails and fangs are not suspicious.
The thirst for blood is not strong, one shot several times a week is enough.
They are not aggressive and can create happy families. Friends, understanding, supply them with blood.
Bloodsuckers can drink animal blood, but it tastes differently.

The environment considers them mentally unhealthy, but the scientist claims that thirst is a physiological, not a mental problem. Do not treat them as wild, aggressive creatures.

Vampire tales are very old and have become part of folklore. It is the mystery that surrounds them that more and more kindles their interest. To believe whether there are certain creatures that feed on blood, everyone should choose.

Nowadays, the fascination with vampires has become quite popular. Many movies and TV shows instill in the public interest in these. Often many people ask themselves if vampires exist in real life. Many do not attach e

this phenomenon has no meaning, thinking that these are just fairy tales. However, there is matter in the world that is quite dark and black, which is capable of doubting any skeptical arguments. Well, if vampires exist in real life, what do they look like? Are they really that dangerous for the average person? Let's try to sort out all these issues.

Fundamentals of the concept

There are different interpretations of the word "vampire". Some talk about the animal nature of creatures that feed on blood, some point to a supernatural component. According to ancient beliefs, vampires are demonic beings of a lower level. Many believed that due to their fear of the light, they lived in their coffins until dark. It was believed that night for them was a great time to hunt people, because they ate exclusively human blood. To kill this creature, according to, again, legends, it will take a stake or

But all this does not answer the question of whether vampires exist in real life. According to all the same beliefs of the ancient peoples, only a person who died a cruel violent death became a vampire. That is why they represented

be evil and vengeful spirits, capable of sucking all the blood from the victim. If suspicions of vampirism fell on any deceased person, one should immediately calm him down by excavating the body.

If the remains looked as if the man had not died at all, but was in deep sleep, then there was no doubt about his involvement in night hikes. To get rid of the remains, it was necessary to first pierce the heart and then burn them.

Vampires in our time

Ancient beliefs have not lost their strength until now. But still, the question remains as to whether vampires exist in real life. Remember at least everyone knows whose image became the progenitor of all vampires in the world. It is noteworthy that Vlad Tepes, who was the prototype of the main vampire, is a historical and real figure. He lived in Transylvania and was incredibly cruel and bloodthirsty. However, clear evidence of his vampire

the snake was never presented. Therefore, the creation of the image of Count Dracula is entirely on the writer's conscience.

Now, in the era of massive globalization, the Internet is replete with reports that vampires exist in real life. Photos of such creatures are unusual and even scary. However, how true these facts are is also an open question. The only scientifically proven thing is the existence of energy vampires. Such people do not suck blood out of a person, but energy. Surely each of you met with an acute feeling of fatigue or emptiness after communicating with a certain person. They often act without realizing it. All this happens because their own energy field is full of holes, like a sieve, so they have no choice but to draw energy from others.

Whether vampires exist in real life is a rather controversial question. Believe it or not the facts that are constantly being presented, it is up to you to decide. Only one thing is clear: all legends and myths could not be based on empty space.

Nowadays, books and films about vampires, their life and their interaction with ordinary people have become very popular. After reading a book or watching a movie, teenagers often wonder - do vampires exist in our time? Where did they come from at all, where was the first mention of them, and do such cults threaten us with anything? Today we will find out the opinion of one scientist, as well as consider a couple of important aspects of this hobby.

To begin with, we suggest that you familiarize yourself with a video recorded from an American television channel, which raises the issue of vampire hobby among teenagers. What could be dangerous in this?

Where did the vampires come from in terms of history? Do they really exist?
Vampires are mythological or folkloric scum. They are undead that feed on human and / or animal blood. They are also a frequent subject of films or fiction, although fiction vampires have acquired some differences from mythological vampires (see Characteristics of fiction vampires). In folklore, the term is usually used in relation to a blood-sucking creature from Eastern European legends, but similar creatures from other countries and cultures are often called vampires. The characteristics of a vampire vary greatly in different traditions. Some cultures have stories of non-human vampires such as bats, dogs, and spiders.

Popular beliefs about vampires
It seems that before the 19th century, vampires in Europe were described as horrific monsters from the grave. Vampires were usually suicides, criminals, or evil sorcerers, although in some cases a "spawn of sin" that became a vampire could transfer its vampirism to innocent victims. However, sometimes the victim of a cruel, untimely or violent death could become a vampire. Most Romanian vampire beliefs (with the exception of the Strigoi) and European vampire stories are of Slavic origin. A vampire can be killed by driving a stake or something silver (bullet, dagger) into the heart or burned.

Slavic vampires
In Slavic beliefs, the causes of vampirism could be the birth of a fetus in a watery shell ("shirt"), with teeth or a tail, conception on certain days, "wrong" death, excommunication and wrong funeral rituals. To prevent the dead from becoming a vampire, one should put a crucifix in a coffin, place an object under the chin to prevent the body from eating a burial shroud, nail clothes to the walls of the coffin for the same reason, put sawdust in the coffin (the vampire wakes up in the evening and must count each a grain of that sawdust, which takes a whole evening so that he will die when dawn comes), or pierce the body with thorns or stakes. In the case of the stakes, the basic idea was to drive the stake through the vampire into the ground, thus nailing the body to the ground. Some people preferred to bury would-be vampires with scythes over their necks so that the dead would decapitate themselves if they began to rise.
Evidence of a vampire in the vicinity includes the death of cattle, sheep, relatives or neighbors, an exhumed body that appears to be alive with regrown nails or hair, a body swollen like a drum, or blood on its mouth paired with a ruddy face.

Vampires, like the rest of the "evil spirits" of Slavic folklore, were afraid of garlic and loved to count grains, sawdust, etc. Vampires could be destroyed with a stake, decapitation (the Kashubians put their heads between their feet), burning, repetition of the funeral service, spraying the body holy water (or exorcism, a rite of exorcism).
The name of the Serbian vampire Sava Savanović was introduced to the general public by Milovan Glišić in his novel “Posle devedeset godina”, “Ninety Years Later”. Another "Danube vampire" Mikhailo Katic became famous thanks to his ancient family, which once belonged to the "Order of the Dragon" (the father of Dracula was also there), and also thanks to his habit of charming women and drinking blood from them after their complete submission his. Presumably born in the 15th century, but the date of death is unknown. According to one version, he still wanders somewhere restless.

In the old Russian anti-pagan work the Word of St. Gregory (written in the XI-XII century), it is stated that the Russian pagans made sacrifices to vampires.

Romanian vampires
Legends of vampiric creatures were also found among the ancient Romans and among the Romanized inhabitants of Eastern Europe, the Romanians (known as the Wallachians in a historical context). Romania is surrounded by Slavic countries, so it's no surprise that Romanian and Slavic vampires are similar. Romanian vampires are called strigoi, from the ancient Greek term strix, meaning a screaming owl, which also came to mean a demon or witch.
There are different types of strigoi. Living Strigoi are living witches who become vampires after death. At night, they can send their souls to meet other witches or strigoi, who are living bodies that return to suck the blood of their family members, livestock, and neighbors. Other types of vampires in Romanian folklore include Moroi and pranksters.

Those born in a “shirt”, with an extra nipple, extra hair, born too early, born to a mother who was crossed by a black cat, born with a tail, illegitimate children, as well as those who died an unnatural death or died before baptism were doomed to become vampires, as well like the seventh child of the same sex in the family, the child of a pregnant woman who did not eat salt or who was looked at by a vampire or witch. Moreover, being bitten by a vampire meant an undeniable sentence to a vampire existence after death.

Vârcolac, which is sometimes mentioned in Romanian folklore, refers more to the mythical wolf that could devour the sun and the moon (just like Skoll and Hati in Norse mythology), and later became more associated with werewolves than with vampires. (A person suffering from lycanthropy could turn into a dog, a pig, or a wolf.)
The vampire was commonly seen attacking family and livestock, or throwing things around the house. It was believed that vampires, along with witches, were most active on the eve of St George's Day (April 22 Julian, May 6 Gregorian), the night when all kinds of evil emerge from their lair. St. George's Day is still celebrated in Europe.

A vampire in a grave could be recognized by holes in the ground, an undecomposed corpse with a red face, or if one of the feet was in the corner of the coffin. Living vampires were identified by handing out garlic in church and observing those who did not eat it. The graves were often opened three years after the death of a child, five years after the death of a young man, and seven years after the death of an adult, to test the deceased for vampirism.

Measures to help prevent turning into a vampire included removing the newborn's "shirt" and destroying it before the infant could eat even a small part of it, carefully preparing for the burial of dead bodies, including preventing animals from stepping over the corpse. Sometimes they put a thorny stem of a wild rose in the grave, and to protect themselves from the vampire, they put garlic on the windows and rub the cattle with garlic, especially on the day of St. George and St. Andrew.
To destroy the vampire, they decapitated him, put garlic in his mouth, and then drove a stake into his body. By the 19th century, some were also shooting the coffin with a bullet. If the bullet did not pass through, the body was dismembered, the parts burned, mixed with water, and given to family members as medicine.

Gypsy beliefs in vampires
Even today, gypsies are given special attention in vampire fiction books and films, no doubt influenced by Bram Stoker's Dracula, in which the gypsies served Dracula by carrying and guarding Dracula's boxes.

Traditional gypsy beliefs include the idea that the soul of the deceased enters a world similar to ours, except that there is no death there. The soul remains close to the body and sometimes wants to return. Gypsy legends of the living dead have enriched the legends of vampires in Hungary, Romania and the Slavic lands.

The ancestral home of the gypsies, India, has many vampire personalities. Bhut or Pret is the soul of a person who died an untimely death. At night, she wanders around the living dead bodies and attacks the living, like a vampire. In northern India, according to legends, the BrahmarākŞhasa, a vampire-like creature with a head capped with guts and a skull from which it drank blood, can be found, according to legends. Vetala and pishacha are slightly different creatures, but in some form they resemble vampires. Since Hinduism believes in the transmigration of souls after death, it is believed that through leading a vicious or dissolute life, as well as through sin and suicide, the soul is reincarnated into a similar type of evil spirits. This reincarnation is not determined at birth, etc., but is “earned” directly during life, and the fate of such an evil spirit is predetermined by the fact that they must achieve liberation from this yoni and re-enter the world of mortal flesh at the next reincarnation.

The most famous Indian deity associated with drinking blood is Kali, who has fangs, wears garlands of corpses or skulls, and has four arms. Her temples are located near the land where cremation is carried out. She and the goddess Durga fought the demon Raktabija, who could multiply with every drop of blood spilled. Kali drank all his blood so that not a drop was spilled, thus winning the battle and killing Raktabija.
Interestingly, the name Kali is an appendix to the officially unrecognized gypsy saint Sara. According to legend, the gypsy Sara served the Virgin Mary and Mary Magdalene and landed with them on the coast of France. The Gypsies still hold the ceremony on the night of May 25 in the very French village where the event is believed to have taken place. Since the sanctuary of Sara Kali is underground, the locals have long been suspicious of the night worship of the "gypsy saint", and among the versions they put forward were the involvement of the cult of Sara Kali in Satanism and the vampire orgies organized by the gypsies.

Vampires in gypsy folklore are often referred to simply as mullo (dead). It is believed that the vampire returns and does evil things and / or drinks someone else's blood (usually relatives who caused them death or did not observe the proper funeral ceremony, or who preserved the property of the deceased instead of destroying it as required by custom). Female vampires can come back, lead a normal life and even get married, but they will exhaust the husband.

In general, in gypsy legends, vampires are distinguished by an increased sexual appetite.
Anyone who had an unusual appearance, for example, someone who was missing a finger or had appendages typical of animals, had a cleft lip or cleft palate, bright blue eyes, etc., could become a vampire. If no one saw how a person died, then the deceased became a vampire; just as if the corpse was swollen before it was buried. Plants, dogs, cats, and even farming tools could become vampires. If a pumpkin or melon is kept in the house for too long, it will begin to move, make noise, or blood will appear on it.

To protect themselves from the vampire, the gypsies inserted steel needles into the heart of the corpse or put pieces of steel in its mouth, eyes, ears, and between the fingers during burial. They also put a hawthorn in the sock of a corpse, or drove stakes from a hawthorn into the legs. Further measures were driving stakes into the grave, spilling boiling water over it, beheading the corpse or burning it.

According to the late Serbian ethnologist Tatomir Vukanović ((Tatomir Vukanović)), gypsies from Kosovo believed that vampires were invisible to most people. However, they could be seen "by a brother and sister, who are twins, were born on Saturday and donned their underpants and shirts tops." So the settlement could be protected from vampires if such twins were found. This couple could see a vampire on the street at night, but immediately after the vampire sees them, he will have to run away.

Some common features of vampires in folklore
It is difficult to make a general description of the folklore vampire, as its characteristics are very different from different cultures.
A vampire is a relatively immortal creature, you can kill him, but he does not age. Vampires are mentioned in various works of European folklore, whose age is more than 1000 years. The vampire is a supernatural being and possesses physical strength that is many times greater than that of a person, not to mention supernatural abilities.

The appearance of a European vampire consists largely of the features by which it can be distinguished from an ordinary corpse, one has only to open the grave of a suspected vampire. The vampire has a healthy appearance and ruddy skin (possibly pale), he is often chubby, he has regrown hair and nails, and on top of that, he is completely undecomposed.
The most common ways to destroy a vampire is to drive an aspen stake into its heart, behead it, and completely incinerate its body. To prevent someone who could become a vampire from rising from the grave, the body was buried upside down, the tendons in the knees were cut, or poppy seeds were placed on the supposed vampire's grave ground to make him count them all night. Chinese vampire tales also state that if a vampire stumbles upon a bag of rice on his way, he / she will count all the grains. Similar myths are recorded on the Indian Peninsula. South American tales of witches and other types of evil or malevolent spirits and creatures also speak of a similar disposition in their heroes. There are cases when people suspected of vampirism were buried face down, and a large brick or stone was pushed into their mouths. Such remains were discovered in 2009 by an Italian-American group of archaeologists in the historic center of Venice. Remains of a supposed vampire with a brick driven into his mouth.

Items that protect against vampires (as well as against other supernatural beings) were garlic (more characteristic of European legends), sunlight, a stem of a wild rose, hawthorn and all sacred things (cross, holy water, crucifix, rosary, Star of David etc.), as well as an aloe hanging outside or near a door, according to South American superstition. In eastern legends, sacred things such as the Shinto seal were often protected from vampires.

It is sometimes believed that vampires can change shape, not limited to the common stereotype of a bat from movies and cartoons. Vampires could transform into wolves, rats, moths, spiders, snakes, owls, ravens, and many others. Vampires from European legends do not cast shadows and do not have reflections. Perhaps this is due to the lack of a soul of the vampire.

It is believed that a vampire cannot enter a house without an invitation. In particular, this is mentioned in the novels by S. Lukyanenko "Night Watch" and "Day Watch", Stephen King's "Lot", the series "The Vampire Diaries", "Buffy the Vampire Slayer", "Angel", "True Blood" and the anime series "The Departed" (Shiki). And also in the films "The Fate of Salem", "Let Me In" and "Night of Fear".
In the Christian tradition, vampires cannot enter a church or other sacred place, as they are servants of the devil.

The vampire controversy in the 18th century
In the 18th century, there was a serious vampire scare in Eastern Europe. Even government employees were drawn into the vampire hunt.

It all started with an outbreak of complaints about vampire attacks in East Prussia in 1721 and in the Habsburg monarchy from 1725 to 1734. Two notable (and first fully documented by the authorities) cases involved Peter Plogojowitz and Arnold Paole of Serbia. According to history, Blagojevich died at 62, but returned a couple of times after his death, asking for food from his son. The son refused and was found dead the next day. Blagojevich soon returned and attacked some of the neighbors who died of blood loss.
In another famous case, Arnold Paole, a former soldier-turned-farmer allegedly attacked by a vampire a few years ago, died during haymaking. After his death, people began to die and everyone believed that it was Paole who was hunting the neighbors.

These two incidents have been very well documented. Civil servants examined the cases and bodies, described them in reports and after the Paole case, books were published that spread throughout Europe. The controversy raged on for a generation. The problem was exacerbated by the village epidemic of the so-called vampire attacks, and the locals began to dig graves. Many scholars have argued that vampires do not exist, and have cited rabies and premature burial.

Nevertheless, Antoine Augustine Calmet, a respected French theologian and scientist, collected all the information and in 1746 reflected it in a treatise, in which, if not confirming the existence of vampires, then at least admitting it. He has collected reports of vampire incidents and numerous readers, including both the critical Voltaire and his fellow demonologists, have taken the treatise as a claim that vampires exist. According to some modern research, and judging by the second edition of the work in 1751, Calmet was somewhat skeptical of the idea of vampires as such. He admitted that some parts of the report, such as the preservation of corpses, could be true. Whatever Kalme's personal beliefs were, his explicit support for the belief in vampires had a significant impact on other scientists at the time.

Eventually, the Austrian Empress Maria Theresa sent her personal doctor, Gerhard van Swieten, to investigate the matter. He concluded that vampires did not exist, and the Empress passed a law prohibiting the opening of graves and desecration of bodies. This was the end of the vampire epidemic. Although by this time many knew about vampires, and soon the authors of fiction adopted and adapted the idea of vampires, making it known to most people.

New england
In the 18th and 19th centuries, the belief in the rumor about vampires reached not only the ears of the King of England, but also spread throughout New England, in particular to Rhode Island and Eastern Connecticut. In these areas, there are many documented cases of families dug up those they previously loved and took out hearts from corpses, believing that the deceased was a vampire responsible for illness and death in the family (although the word "vampire" was never used to describe him / her). It was believed that the nocturnal visits of those who died from fatal tuberculosis (or "consumption" as it was called in those days) to their family members became the cause of the disease. The most famous (and last recorded) case was that of nineteen-year-old Mercy Brown, who died in Exeter, USA in 1892. Her father, assisted by the family doctor, pulled her out of the tomb two months after her death. Her heart was cut and burned to ash. A record of this incident was found among Bram Stoker's papers, and the story bears a close resemblance to the events in his classic novel, Dracula.

Modern beliefs in vampires
The belief in vampires still exists. While some cultures have retained their original beliefs in the undead, most modern believers are influenced by the artistic portrayal of the vampire in films and literature.

In the 1970s, there were rumors (spread by the local press) of a vampire hunting in Highgate Cemetery in London. Adult vampire hunters thronged the graveyard in large numbers. Among the several books describing this incident are those of Sean Manchester, a local who was one of the first to speculate on the existence of the Vampire of Highgate and who claimed to have driven out and destroyed every vampire nest in the area.

In modern folklore in Puerto Rico and Mexico, the chupacabra is considered a creature that feeds on the flesh or drinks the blood of domestic animals. This gives reason to consider her as another type of vampire. "Chupacabra hysteria" has often been associated with deep economic and political crises, particularly in the mid-1990s.

In late 2002 and early 2003, hysteria over so-called vampire attacks spread throughout the African country of Malawi. The mob stoned one to death and attacked at least four others, including Governor Eric Chiwaya, based on the belief that the government was in cahoots with the vampires.

In Romania in February 2004, some relatives of the late Toma Petre feared that he had become a vampire. They pulled out his corpse, ripped out his heart, burned it and mixed the ashes with water to drink later. In January 2005, rumors surfaced that someone had bitten several people in Birmingham, England. Then there were rumors of a vampire wandering around the area. However, local police claimed that no such crimes were reported. Apparently this incident was an urban legend.

In 2006, the American mathematical physicist Costas J. Efthimiou (Ph.D. in mathematical physics, assistant professor at the University of Central Florida), along with his student Sohang Gandhi, published an article that used geometric progression to try to expose the eating habits of vampires, arguing that if every feeding of a vampire gives rise to another vampire, then it is only a matter of time before the entire population of the Earth will be made up of vampires, or when vampires will die out. However, the idea that the victim of a vampire becomes a vampire itself does not appear in all vampire folklore, and is not generally accepted among modern people who believe in vampires.

Natural phenomenon that spread the belief in vampires
Vampirism in folklore has usually been associated with a series of deaths due to vague or mysterious diseases, usually in the same family or in one small community. The epidemic character is evident in the classic cases of Peter Plogozhowitz and Arnold Paole, as well as in the case of Mercy Brown and in the vampire superstitions of New England in general, when a specific disease, tuberculosis, was associated with outbreaks of vampirism (see above).
In 1725, Michaël Ranft, in his book De masticatione mortuorum in tumulis, first attempted to explain beliefs in vampires in a natural way. He says that in the event of the death of each peasant, someone else (most likely a person who had any relationship with the deceased) who saw or touched the corpse, in the end, died either from the same disease or from the insane delirium caused by just the sight of the deceased.

These dying people said that the deceased appeared to them and tortured them in various ways. Other people in this village dug up the corpse to see what it was doing. Ranft gave the following explanation when he spoke about the case of Peter Plogorzowitz: “This brave man died a sudden violent death. This death, whatever it may be, could provoke in the survivors the visions they had after his death. The sudden death caused anxiety in the family circle. Anxiety was paired with sorrow. Sorrow brings melancholy. Melancholy causes sleepless nights and painful dreams. These dreams weakened the body and spirit until the disease eventually led to death. "

Some modern scholars argue that the vampire stories may have been influenced by a rare disease called porphyria. This disease spoils the blood by disrupting the production of heme. It was believed that porphyria was most common in small villages in Transylvania (about 1000 years ago) where closely related breeding may have taken place. They say that if it were not for this "disease of vampires" - there would be no myths about Dracula, or about other blood-drinking, light-fearing and fanged characters. For almost all the symptoms, the patient suffering from an advanced form of porphyria is a typical vampire, and they were able to find its cause and describe the course of the disease only in the second half of the 20th century, which was preceded by a merciless centuries-old struggle with ghouls: from 1520 to 1630 (110 years) in France alone executed more than 30 thousand people recognized as werewolves.

It is believed that one person out of 200 thousand (according to other sources, out of 100 thousand) suffers from this rare form of gene pathology, and if it is recorded in one of the parents, then in 25% of cases the child also gets sick with it. It is also believed that the disease is a consequence of incest. In medicine, there are about 80 cases of acute congenital porphyria, when the disease was incurable. Erythropoietic porphyria (Gunther's disease) is characterized by the fact that the body cannot produce the main component of blood - red cells, which in turn affects the deficiency of oxygen and iron in the blood. In the blood and tissues, pigment metabolism is disturbed, and under the influence of solar ultraviolet radiation or ultraviolet rays, the breakdown of hemoglobin begins. Moreover, in the course of the disease, tendons are deformed, which in extreme manifestations leads to twisting.

With porphyria, the non-protein part of hemoglobin - heme - turns into a toxic substance that eats away at the subcutaneous tissue. The skin begins to acquire a brown tint, it becomes thinner and bursts from exposure to sunlight, therefore, in patients with time, the skin becomes covered with scars and ulcers. Ulcers and inflammations damage the cartilage - the nose and ears, deforming them. Coupled with ulcerated eyelids and twisted fingers, this is incredibly disfiguring. Patients are contraindicated in sunlight, which brings them unbearable suffering.

The skin around the lips and gums dries out and tightens, resulting in the incisors being exposed to the gums, creating a grin effect. Another symptom is porphyrin deposits on the teeth, which can turn red or reddish brown. In addition, the patients' skin becomes very pale, in the daytime they feel a lack of strength and lethargy, which is replaced by a more mobile lifestyle at night. It must be repeated that all these symptoms are characteristic only for the later stages of the disease, in addition, there are many other, less terrifying forms of it. As mentioned above, the disease was practically incurable until the second half of the 20th century.

There is evidence that in the Middle Ages, allegedly, patients were treated with fresh blood in order to replenish the deficit of red cells, which, of course, is incredible, since it is useless to consume blood "orally" in such cases. Porphyria sufferers could not eat garlic, as the sulfonic acid secreted by garlic exacerbates the damage caused by the disease. Porphyria disease can also be caused artificially, through the use of certain chemicals and poisons.

Some forms of porphyria are associated with neurological symptoms that can cause mental health problems. However, the suggestion that porphyria sufferers crave heme from human blood, or that blood consumption can reduce the symptoms of porphyria, is based on a serious misunderstanding of the disease.

Rabies is another disease associated with vampire folklore. Sufferers avoid sunlight and do not look in mirrors, and there is frothy saliva near their mouths. Sometimes this saliva can be red and resemble blood. However, as with porphyria, there is no evidence to suggest that rabies may have inspired vampire legends. Some modern psychologists distinguish a disorder called clinical vampirism (or Renfield syndrome, after the insect-eating henchman of Dracula from Bram Stoker's novel) in which the victim is obsessed with drinking the blood of humans or animals.

There were several assassins who performed vampire-like rituals on their victims. Serial killers Peter Kurten, who terrorized the vicinity of Düsseldorf (sometimes called the German Jack the Ripper), lay in wait for his victims on country roads, killed them and drank their blood, and Richard Trenton Chase in The tabloid press was called vampires after they were found drinking the blood of the people they killed. There were other cases of vampirism: in 1974, 24-year-old Walter Locke was caught, kidnapping 30-year-old electrician Helmut May, he bit a vein in his arm and drank a cup of blood. In the same year, the police in England even received an order to patrol cemeteries and to capture such subjects. Prior to this, in 1971, there was a judicial precedent related to the manifestation of vampirism, in one of the towns of North Wales, a local magistrate issued a court order prohibiting the farm worker Alan Drake from drinking blood.

Search for vampires in the graves
When the coffin of a suspect in vampirism was opened, it was sometimes found that the corpse looked unusual. This was often taken as proof of vampirism. However, corpses decompose at different rates depending on temperature and soil composition, and some signs of decomposition are not widely known. This led vampire hunters to falsely conclude that the corpse did not decompose at all, or to interpret signs of decomposition as signs of continued life.

Corpses swell as gases from decomposition collect in the trunk, and blood tries to leave the body. This gives the body a "plump", "fat" and "ruddy" appearance - changes that are most noticeable if a person was pale and thin during life. In the case of Arnold Paole, the exhumed corpse of the old woman, according to neighbors, looked more plump and healthier than she was during her lifetime. It should be noted that folklore records almost always indicate that a vampiric suspect has ruddy or dark skin. Darkening of the skin is also caused by decomposition.

A decomposing corpse can see blood flowing from the mouth and nose, which can give the impression that the corpse is a vampire that has recently drank blood. If you drive a stake into the body, the body may begin to bleed, and the accumulated gases will begin to leave the body. A moan may be heard when gases begin to pass by the vocal cords or a characteristic sound when gases pass through the anus. Official reports on the case of Peter Plogozowitz speak of "other wild signs that I will not mention because of the highest respect."

After death, the skin and gums lose fluid and shrink, exposing some of the hair, nails and teeth, even those that were hidden in the jaw. This creates the illusion that the hair, nails and teeth have grown back. At a certain stage, the nails fall off, the skin comes off, as was the case in the Plogorzowitz case report - the emerging skin and nails were perceived as "new skin" and "new nails". Finally, as it decomposes, the body begins to move and bend, adding the illusion that the corpse was moving.

Vampires have gone a thorny path from a bloodthirsty corpse who got out of the grave to one that is not much different from a human. Of course, this only applies to fictional stories. Whether vampires really exist, evidence has been trying to find for more than one hundred years. Many peoples have preserved legends about mysterious and terrible creatures who drink the blood of their victims. Let's try to figure out what are the chances of meeting a ghoul these days.

Vampires - do they exist in real life

The stories of the bloodthirsty dead originate in the first half of the 18th century, when there was an official investigation into the mystical posthumous activities of two Serbs - Petar Blagojevic and Arnold Paole. Vampires during their lifetime were quite decent people, but when they died, they immediately set off to pursue the living in order to drink all their blood. These and other stories were found and recorded by the Italian priest Calme on behalf of the Pope, who wished to learn more about the nature of vampires. What is the evidence of the existence of blood-sucking corpses?

Known animals, insects and plants, food for which is the liquid of other creatures. They do not have a mystical origin, but vampire bats get close to sleeping mammals to feast on their blood, the sundew digests insects inadvertently caught on its leaves, mosquitoes and leeches need no introduction.

Porphyria disease is a real basis for legends about vampire people. This is a genetic pathology, one of the reasons for which was closely related marriages. Such incidents were not uncommon in the secluded villages of Transylvania about 1000 years ago. Under the influence of the disease, the production of the non-protein component of hemoglobin is disrupted. This critically affects the entire state of the body, which begins to be afraid of sunlight. Among the symptoms of porphyria are the familiar signs of a vampire:

The skin of the lips and around the mouth dries up, exposing the gums. It turns out the typical grin of a ghoul.
The substance porphyrin also imparts a corresponding bloody color to such a smile.
Scars and ulcers appear on the body due to thinning of the skin.
Cartilage tissue (nose and ears) is damaged, fingers curled up.
Sufferers cannot show themselves in the sun: ultraviolet light causes the breakdown of hemoglobin.
Today, about 1 in 200,000 people on the planet suffers from this rare genetic disease. Add to this medieval superstition and the image of a bloodthirsty vampire is ready. However, a person in this state deserves sympathy and causes fear only by appearance.

Do vampires really exist?

Let's leave aside the patients with porphyria and look for bloodsuckers in other groups. There is a whole subculture of vampires. These are people who dress appropriately, and sometimes go to the dentist for the creation of real canines. They fall into two large groups:

Sanguinarians drink blood (of course, not from the arteries of abducted people) and practice unusual sexual practices, which makes this branch akin to BDSM culture.
Psychic vampires act out nutrition with vital energy.

In 1997, the “Black Veil” code of conduct was created, which each member of the group must adhere to when communicating with outsiders. Some of the representatives believe in their immortality, expressed through reincarnation, or call themselves mediums.

There are also known people who simply need blood. They call themselves "real vampires" and belong to the corresponding associations. They are far from the Gothic style, doing charity work and working in ordinary workplaces.

Whether vampires exist in our time is difficult to say. On the one hand - on the other - the subculture of strange people, generated by the legends of blood-sucking ghouls. Let the readers decide for themselves whether the given evidence deserves the right to authority. But what about the stories of the attacks of bloodthirsty corpses, which ended after the imperishable corpse was pierced with an aspen stake?