The real vampire: About Polidori´s vampire

Is the vampire we all know an energy vampire?

The vampire we all know is an archetype, he corresponds to the figure of the noble, educated, wealthy (or so it seems), and refined vampire who is dressed like a prince and possesses various powers such as the ability to transform into animals or hypnotize his victims. He is the charismatic and attractive vampire who seduces before feeding, who forms a bond with his victim before sucking him dry. This vampire is known as the “literary vampire” or “romantic vampire”. Before the literary vampire, the folkloric vampire of Eastern Europe could be described as a living dead, a “zombie” who attacked his neighbors and especially his own family.

The literary vampire originated on the same stormy night as the famous Frankenstein, the summer of 1816 in the infamous Villa Diodati. Lord Byron, Percy Shelley, Mary Shelley, and John W. Polidori, read horror stories while sheltering from the weather, set by the gloomy scenery of the villa, wine, and laudanum. That night they challenged each other to write stories as terrifying as those in the tales, so Polidori wrote “The Vampire”.

Lord Byron inspires Polidori's Vampire, and this is a recognized fact. In his work, he portrays the vampire as a character of the nobility who frequents the drawing rooms and surrounds himself with high society. This innovation in his vampire characterization served as inspiration for numerous later works, many authors of the time also wrote stories about vampires, with Bram Stocker's “Dracula” being the most popular. Later, the adaptations and versions of the literary vampire to the cinema would be innumerable.

Polidori was not a writer, but he aspired to become one in Byron's company, so he had accepted to be his physician, naively believing that he would be validating him. But Byron, at this time one of the greatest poets in England, never considered him an equal nor a friend, but rather a subordinate whom he constantly ridiculed and tormented. Thus, Polidori, resenting the rejection, wrote "The Vampire" as a sort of revenge. The Vampire becomes a satire on the public persona of Byron, whose bad reputation led to his exile from England.

Lord Byron's life before the creation of this story was that of a celebrity, acclaimed and deified because of his undeniable talent, quickly reaching the pinnacle of fame and then plummeting because of his scandalous social life. Lord Byron, from a noble family, represented the extravagant manners of the decadent aristocracy, was charming and good-looking, and had an admirable tongue, that is, a great ability to speak, a virtue that was, of course, only a reflection of his genius as a poet and writer.

In the novel “The Vampire”, Polidori deploys all his bitterness against Byron, and when he describes the vampire, he speaks of Byron as someone who; “possessed quirks and peculiarities that were appreciated by people beyond his social position or talent” he possessed a charisma capable of attracting others whether they were men or women. This magnetism eclipsed anyone he came across. The vampire or Byron, according to Polidori, was a monster who manipulated the people around him to involve them in all kinds of vices and perversion, these people then fell into a spiral of destruction that eventually led them to death or madness.

Byron himself claimed to be haunted by a terrible curse; to have ruined the lives of almost all his lovers, friends, and acquaintances, some because they had fallen into disgrace, others because they had ended up prematurely dead.

Polidori's fate was no different. He conceived the novel as a rebuke of Byron, and at the same time as a cry of despair, for in it, he announced his disgrace. Being associated with Byron, the novel caused a great stir and immediate success that turned against him. Polidori is accused of plagiarism (although Byron himself publicly denies his authorship) and there was little he could do about it, so the first editions bore Byron's name indelibly. This seals the tragedy of Polidori, who commits suicide at the age of 25, unaware of the success of his novel, in what seemed a form of escape from his gambling and drinking debts.

Polidori's vampire created the modern archetype of the vampire, but this monster drew inspiration from the perversity of a real person. The fact that the villain is a vampire is almost accidental. Polidori portrays a character who appears charming and interesting, but whose real intentions are to take advantage of others. This vampire establishes vampiric relationships before becoming a bloodsucker.

The vampire has been defined as one who feeds on the life energy of another to survive. Blood represents vital energy or life; metaphorically speaking, life is absorbed or drained. So, when we speak of the vampire, we think of a blood-sucking monster. But 'vampire' also refers to someone who drains others' energy with their behavior.

Lavey coined the term "psychic vampire" to define a person who lacks emotional or spiritual strength and drains the life energy of others to survive. The vampire does not live a life of its own, so it seeks to parasite or occupy the lives of its victims. The vampire is undead: a way of saying it is neither alive nor dead. It feeds on others because it is empty. It has nothing (good) to give, but it takes or drains the life energy represented by blood.

The term psychic (emotional or energy) vampire is not a clinical term or diagnosis, it is a concept used by psychologists and authors to describe the behaviors and attitudes that these people display towards others.  Real vampires are certainly not monsters or the living dead, they are generally people who suffer from personality disorders, have unresolved trauma, or were victims of abuse or neglect and therefore tend to develop energy vampire attitudes.

Energy vampires can be easily identified according to Judith Orloff ‘Relationships are always an exchange of energy’ You recognize that you are in a vampire relationship because you only give and the other receives, there is no reciprocity. This applies to all known types of energy vampires, the best known being the narcissistic personality vampire, but they all have characteristics in common as listed below:

*The energy vampire is egocentric; redirects all attention to him/herself.

*He is charismatic and charming; he is more sympathetic, kinder, or more cheerful than others. Praises and compliments you.

*It is brilliant and witty; It seems to possess virtues and talents that others do not have.

*It is a seducer; it attracts people to the point of ‘hypnotizing’ them with their way of speaking or with their looks.

The energy vampire may appear as a victim to manipulate, or as someone of superior talent to impress. Energy vampires may believe that rules do not apply to them because they are special. They take advantage of others for their interests. They may feel entitled to do whatever they want, but their lack of empathy hurts those close to them, sometimes to the point of destroying their lives.

What seems to be common to the real vampire and the literary vampire is its charisma, its ability to instill love and affection, and its capacity to seduce. Somehow this makes them hard to kill, unlike other monsters. Arguably, its charisma is its most powerful weapon (apart from its fangs). But it is not only its ability to attract, but it also exploits the weakness of its victims by knowing how to recognize in them a tendency or a weakness. The vampire knows how to conquer (not only the sense of romantic love) and thus creates a bond that is difficult to break. The vampire becomes so dear and essential to the victim that it is painful to decide to abandon them, or metaphorically to ‘put a stake through their heart’.

But was Lord Byron an energy vampire? Reading his biography one can find clues that fit the description of an energy vampire. He is said to have been abused as a child, and this seems to have influenced his tumultuous sex life. His personality sketch abounds with details that reveal his vampiric charisma, some of his acquaintances agree that he was a dangerous person, but not all agree that Lord Byron was completely evil. No human being can be completely evil or fit the different prototypes of energy vampires, but it is safe to say that at least one person is known to fit the profile of an energy vampire.

The literary vampire only exists in novels and films as a metaphor for the real vampire that lives among us.  It is the human being who discovers himself as the vampire who drains the life (or blood) of others to fill his emptiness. You have probably come across one of these vampires, maybe you are being drained by one right now, or maybe you are a real vampire yourself. Did you recognize the vampire in others or yourself?

Bibliography

-              Polidori, J. (1819). The vampire, a tale. Global Grey ebooks.

-              McCarthy, F. (2002). Byron: Life and Legend. Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

-              McDonald, D.C. (1991). Poor Polidori. University of Toronto Press.

-              Lavey. A. (1969). The Satanic Bible. William Morrow Paperbacks.

-              Bernstein, A. J. (2001). Emotional vampires. Mc Graw-Hill.

-              https://drjudithorloff.com/what-is-an-energy-vampire/

The Werewolf Part 1: A Philosophical View on the Werewolf or The Origins of the Werewolf

The werewolf was born in the yearning of primitive man who sought to obtain the powers of the wolf to survive. To transform himself into a wolf, the primitive dressed in the wolf's skin, used ointments and hallucinogenic drinks during ceremonies and ritual initiations invoking the wolf in his mind and body. The primitive man conjured the wolf to become a wolf, we speak of a physical and symbolic transformation that could only occur by renouncing humanity.

Viking warriors induced their transformation through a strange ointment to become feared fierce warriors, but did they become animals? Their inner transformation made them feel like real beasts, and their fellows also feared their fierceness in battle. The wolf as a totem is a symbol of power and primitive man sought to obtain beast-like powers.

Shamans and sorcerers could transform themselves into beasts, it was said that they unfolded and that their double was an animal that inflicted goodness or evil on people. When the animal died, man also met the same fate, Nahual was his transforming ability and his double, the double that all men are said to possess. That is why it is said that every man has an animal double, a beastly double, but when did the wolf become the other half of man?

In the Bibliotheca of Pseudo-Apollodorus, we find the definitive myth of the werewolf, as it was interpreted and retold many times by different authors of antiquity. According to the myth, the one who turned into a wolf was a man named Lycaon, king of Arcadia. He was said to be a great king, although he had barbaric customs such as performing human sacrifices and practicing cannibalism. A major insult was to murder all strangers and visitors who came to the city, violating the sacred law of Greece.

Seeing this Zeus wanted to visit him. Lycaon realizing this, invites him to dinner and amid his audacity, decides to play a terrible joke on him and serve him human flesh for dinner. Enraged Zeus throws lightning bolts, sets fire to the place and, of course, decides to administer justice by turning Lycaon into a wolf, because Lycaon already had bestial habits, he is only transformed into the beast he already was.

The werewolf according to Greek mythology is he who has let his animal side prevail, he is he who has let himself be seduced by bestiality, he is he who has given free rein to violence, for whatever reason. The werewolf is he who has turned away from the gods and the world of men. Plato takes up the myth of Lycaon as a werewolf to illustrate in his political theory the figure of the tyrant.

Tyranny is characterized by the rule of a single individual who wields absolute power, ignores laws, and rules arbitrarily. As a tyrant, this beastly man does not hesitate to shed the blood of his enemies to maintain power. A tyrant, according to Plato, does not find a way to fully satisfy his passions and gives himself up to madness. This man finds himself a prisoner of his desires and will do anything to satisfy them. The tyrant is a slave, who is a prisoner of his passions.

However, the tyrants of ancient Greece were not always viewed negatively; the people supported some as popular figures and liberators of oppressive regimes. On the contrary, tyranny and the figure of the tyrant will later, in the Latin tradition and then among modern and contemporary thinkers, represent an opposition to democracy and the legitimately constituted government that observes the law. In these instances, tyranny is equated with absolutism, dictatorship, and totalitarianism. The tyrant is a solitary figure who rules for his own benefit and in an oppressive manner, comes to power by force, and uses force while in office.

For Plato the man who becomes a wolf has lost his rationality, he is a creature of chaos. In the sense of the myth, the werewolf is a barbarian who belongs more to the world of the wild, not to the civilized world of the polis, his ways are those of a wild beast, not those of a man.

If the wolf belongs to the world of wilderness, what is wilderness? The wild is a place that man has not intervened, it is the place where that which is inhospitable to man survives and which constitutes a home for animals, their sanctuary. It can be the jungle, a forest, a desert, or the deep sea. The wilderness is the realm of nature and all the living beings it houses. Man does not belong there, man has created his own home based on his way of being, a hybrid, a rational animal. His world is the world of the rational, he belongs there. Therefore, the werewolf is an alienated, an outsider, an exile. He can no longer belong to the rational world (political, human), he can only live alone, away from other men in the world of the wild.

Aristotle, who describes man as a social animal, since man can only live well within a society, says that a beast is also the man who is outside society: The man who likes solitude is either a beast or a god, for he who lives outside society is called a beast.

In this way, the werewolf is configured as a man who, because of his violent and barbaric nature, cannot coexist with his fellow men. However, every man carries a beast within, as much as he cannot separate himself from his bestial past. Man is a being who is half divine since he participates in the divine intelligence of the gods, and at the same time he is half animal since he participates in the animal nature; man wants to elevate himself like a god, but at the same time he is dragged down by the animal instincts.

When the philosopher Thomas Hobbes alludes to Pausanias' phrase "lupus est homo homini" "A man is a wolf to man," he is speaking of the fact that man carries within him a wild beast, which is very much his own. However, violence in man has purposes beyond mere survival.

Man, attacks to defend himself, but also out of pride and greed. Hobbes, within the framework of the social contract theory, justifies the necessary figure of an absolute power that controls a pack of men, half man, half beast. This figure will provide them with shelter and the needed safety to live, but to do so, the man-beasts will yield their power of violence to the Leviathan.

His immediate opponent, the philosopher John Locke, stated that men did not have to grant absolute power to a ruler, men agree on the conformation of a society where the leaders are elected to fulfill a function within the state. Men are not beasts; they are rational beings who agree on a society of liberties and duties where the laws are the reflection of what is good and by reason.

To live in a civil society, man must make a pact. Anyone who does not belong to civil society, that is, who does not follow the rules and laws that make it up, is in a state of nature or a primitive state. He is outside society and is therefore a beast.

To combat Hobbes' idea of an absolute power that must control the whole state, Locke argues that the opposite of civil society is a society that has no laws and is ruled by an absolute king or prince. This society is based on force (force is the law of the beasts), people do not obey the law but fear, remember that among animal groups the law of the strongest prevails and this one becomes the leader of the herd, therefore this community belongs more to the world of the beasts and the territory of the wild.

Primitive man was close to nature and lived with the beasts, so he wanted to be like the wolf, seeing this as something that could help him survive. In the world before civilization, the werewolf was not seen as something barbaric, bestial, or evil. The werewolf becomes morally reprehensible when the tribe becomes a community, that is when primitive man becomes civilized.