Real life Vampires, Discuss!!

So really this is just a random topic that came to my mind last night when I was watching a special on Tyra (yes I watch Tyra XD) about real Vampires.

I'm sure some of you have heard of this guy, but probably not everyone, so I'll explain.

There is this man who lives in Nevada named Don Henrie, also known as The Vampire Don. He had his teeth expended and filed to look like a vampires, he sleeps in a coffin, he drinks blood (from willing donors), and even has what some people consider to be super natural abilities (he has a super sensitive sense of smell and can bench press 450 lbs with his legs). What I gathered from the show is that he is in some sort of group and everyone in it considers him The Vampire King or simply "The Emperor" . Apparently this guy has had studies on him (courtesy of National Geographic) and doctors can't really find any explicable reason as to why he is like this.

Also, just to add more to the topic, they say there are three kinds of Vampires:
Sanguinarian (Blood drinkers), Psychic (feed off of energy from other people), and Hybrid (They drink blood and feed off of energy).

The show I had last night had a few people from this vampire group who were either considered hyprid (as Don is) or Psychic.

Obviously a "real" Vampire isn't something we don't just stumble across every day and even if someone does consider them self a Vampire, half the time its just playing around because someone has a huge fascination with Vampires.


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Also before we get into this because I COULD see it as something that could go offhand, this doesn't have anything to do with your morals or religious beliefs. Its just simply, what do you think of the topic of real Vampires? Do you think they exist or do you think these people are considered extremists?

I think of it as kinda like saying "Do you believe in Ghosts?" because some people feel a very strong presence about Ghosts but others simply don't believe. Sometimes people just don't even know what to think about them. So how do you feel about supernatural beings in real life such as these Vampires or ghosts?

i have read a topic about real vampires ages ago... I don't know how it is called in enlgish but there REALLY is a disease that is called "vampire syndrom" or something like that. Such people have extremely white skin, they are afraid of sun becasue their eyes are very sensitive i am not sure about their teeth and blood love. There were more symphtoms that made them "vampires" but i really can't remember more. There are no a lot of people that have this disease (maybe 50 people in world, but not more).

Do you know Elizabeth Bathory? She was from hungarian Bathors family which lived in middle ages. There were several princes of Transylvania and King of Poland/duke of Lithuania (he helped to found my university lol xD) from this family... but it is not that important... the most famous person in this family was Elizabeth Bathory. She was a serial killer, she killed more than 600 young ladies in order to drink their blood or to take a bath of their blood. So, we actually can call her a Dracula and some people claim that SHE is the real Dracula. she is called "Blood Countess"... she was convicted and bricked in her room and she dead 4 years later. Trust me, it is not only a legend.

talking about supernatural beings... i don't think vampires are supernatural. They are not ghosts, they are vampires. Elizabeth wasn't supernatural but people call her a "vampire"

I gotta say... some people really do take themselves too seriously.
I remember a program of a guy who was like this in the UK. its literally impossible to consume blood like that as a human. Your body will just eject it.

I know this because a friend of mine told me of another friend who had stitches in his mouth just kept like fiddling with them, like you would if something was bothering you in your mouth. Little did he realize this made his wound bleed and he just swallowed the blood without thinking. He did this for about a day, then, he was sat watching a film and just looked down and he had literally wet himself in blood. His body just took away the need to urinate and just expelled the blood. It really is impossible to consume blood.

AS for psychic vampires, I believe this, but they're not literally "Vampires" - They're people who really take it out of you when they are around you. like people who are really hyper or really depressive and you feel like crap after they've left.... Thats a psychic vampire to me...

You probably mean porphyria.

I'm rather facinated by real-life vampires and have been some time now (maybe 4-5 years). Not much to say about it but I have a ot of respect for these people.

I believe in Lestat!!!!

Much better.

HEY!

Ok... I believe in both of them cause... what would Lestat be without Louis?

edit: And Louis wouldn't be without Lestat XD

Pffft, he'd been able to live out his emo life in peace without Lestat.

Yeah but his emo life would have ended ages ago....

i say the 2 of them are emo cos both are just as self absorbed as each other

Lestat isn't emo... maybe a lil bit narcissistic (not to mention his Oedipus complex issues...) but not emo

i don't really like vampires. i just don't find any element of it to be interesting, which is kind of annoynig because everyone thinks they are the best and they keep recycling the same imagery over and over... like, why?!

lol.. i guess i'm more of a "serial killer blood gore blood gore action" kind of guy??

I watched the Tyra Show to last night!!!!
That Don Henrie guy is hot.....uhhhhggghh.......
All I can say is.......



DROOOOLLLL.....

He looks ridiculous and cliche

What imagery are you talking about? Goth? Dracula? Vampire films? Anne Rice's vampires?

I don't think so!!!!
Maybe it is because I have been goth for 10+ years now and those men appeal to me.

If non cliche vampires are your thing, try......


Hahaha....

That's just a matter of opinion. (And I really don't think Blade is Izumi's type either XD).

I'm still waiting to see someone who claims to be a "real" vampire without dressing like a stereotyped goth/vampire.

Also, I used to be goth and have been for over 10 years too (started in the mid 90) and to me those people who claim to be vampires and the gothic subculture are two separate things.

Like I said earlier, my interest in vampires started when I was just a kid and I wasn't a goth back then (obviously). I started to get into the goth subculture mainly cause I liked the style and music (darkwave, ebm, industrial) not because I liked vampires.

Don used to be pretty popular in the vampire community, but apparently he's very looked down upon these days. I've heard rather bad things about him, like how he's a liar and a manipulator, that kind of stuff... :( And that's the most flattering pic I've seen of him. From other pics I've seen, he's not good looking at all.

I really don't know how to describe my feelings on real life vampires. It seems kind of fun, but at the same time I find it ridiculous, like they take their fantasy overboard, like Furries.

On top of that, vampires don't seem cool to me anymore. What ever happened to the scary ones like Nosferatu? -_-

@Astral: I've heard of her! McFarlane Toys even made a figure of her. Vlad was also part of that volume as well!

I agree, I was just saying that my taste in men (vampire or not) is influenced by my involvement in the goth subculture.

My favorite vampire is.....
BLOODRAYNE!

idk i guess it just doesn't appeal to me.

that don guy looks like he has had LOTS of plastic surgery.

Haha! For once in the forum history... me and you agree lol XDDDDDDD

*high five*

Completely agreed!!
I kinda think of Don Henrie as a bit of a taboo.
I don't know...as engaging as he might seem at first, the more he talks the more I feel like hes just getting out of hand with his own interests. Perhaps because theres so much criticism with "going too far" with one's interests now days, I think of it as strange, but at the same time I find historical "vampires" (Vlad Tepes and Elizabeth Bathory for example) so much more stimulating. On top of that, like you I find the older fictional Vampires to be the most interesting and original.

I have to admit though, there are still some modern Vampires I enjoy (Twilight series is my guilty pleasure, don't be a playa hater XD). On the other hand, I much prefer older vampires as well such as Nosferatu. I kinda like the traditional stuff because well...it doesn't stray away so much from the original ideal of a vampire. Some of the modern stuff in my opinion just goes too far and meshes vampires up so much that I don't even know how the characters can even be considered Vampires anymore.

The saying goes for me, if you take away one ingredient from a cake, it can still be considered a cake. However after you change up so many ingredients in a cake it is no longer a cake.

Astral Romance> Yes I've also heard of Elizabeth Bathory! I had to read the story "The Blood Countess" for my Gothic and Horror literature class a couple weeks ago. Some of the stuff she did was shocking, but all the same, I have to admit it was interesting. I also watched a documentary about Elizabeth Bathory that randomly came on TV not long ago. The ending of her life seemed rather sad to me. Researchers claimed that towards the end of her life she had cancer and couldn't do so much and people started condemning her even more of her appearance (from her illness).

Been interested in vampires since childhood, when back in school we read some of the old classic tales. And a bit about Vlad Tepes and Elizabeth Bathory.
Didn't help some years later that I discovered the world of Vampire: The Masquerade, which I really like. :P
But mostly I'm interested in the old ones.

Apart from that, do I believe in "real" vampires?
Psychic ones, sure. Heck, some people I've met might even be considered such vampires. <_<

Never heard of this Don guy though.

Do you guys think Mana is a psychic vampire? He sure loves to bring up his fans giving him energy in his blog before his concerts. :P

ahahhaa *high 5*

I think Mana is a Turkwise vamp.
He absorbs all things turkwise.

yes, i heard about Elizabeth Bathory! and her story was for real, she's one of the most famous serial killers ever, i think she inspired Joseph Sheridan's Carmilla, she was all a vampire, elegant, selfish, miserly and all that, her case is something really fascinant!!!!

I heard about that in Biology last year. When our teacher taught us about porphyria, it really made a lot of sense. I found it fascinating too, how medical conditions such as that can spark legends and myths.

As for real life vampires, I'm very doubtful about that. I would say most are extremists, who have somewhere along the line convinced themselves that they MUST be vampires. I'm just the kind of person that needs proof or evidence before I believe in it. I can't completely trust something unless I know it's real. You know what I mean right? :P I'm not saying they aren't real, I'm just saying I don't know if they are.

But vampires are a cool thing to think about. It would be cool if there were actually vampires. =)

I agree with what Manic said and I also find in interesting how some medical conditions gave birth various myths like porphyria and hypertrichosis which is also called "werewolf syndrome".

Cases of people being buried alive also contributed to certain myths. This reminds me of a more familiar way of saying undertaker in French - "croque-mort" which literally means "bite the dead". It is said that a few years (or should I say a few centuries ago) the undertaker had to bite the toe of the deceased to make sure they were really dead before burying them.

As for vampires, there's something that kinda bugs me. Why is it if you mention you believe vampires might exists most people will automatically think you're a wierdo while it is (to some extant) socially acceptable to believe in aliens and ghost? And I would personally prefer to meet a vampire than an alien. Yeah the vampire might kill me but at least I won't end up with an anal probe XD.

Yeah, the vampire will seduce you and suck your blood, but the alien will abduct you and experiment on you, doing god knows what to you. XD

hehehe
I know a couple of folklore things too.

"Dead Ringer" - I think its Romanian, but during medieval times, they would bury the dead with bells attached to the coffins, and hang the bells from the grave stones, if the bell were to ring it meant that somebody was buried alive. If they were saved and the village didn't know, after they were seen they would become knowing as a "dead ringer" of the deceased. Thus being taboo, and believed to be the undead.

Blood drinking in Ireland was really common during the potato famine. People would drain blood from the neck of cattle and mix oatmeal or turnip/cabbage roots and were then baked to make "Relish Cakes". The hunger in some areas resulted in people drinking directly from cattle if the crops had failed, to get whatever nourishment they could.

In Wales, the Gwrach y Rhibyn is something like a vampire legend.

We have a few cool legends here and a lot of them are a mix or catholic religion and native myths. The most popular is probably the Chasse-galerie. (Has nothing to do with vampires but it's quite cool).

But most of our myths and legends here find their roots in Europe like "feux follets" or will-o'-the-wisp and "loups-garous" or werewolves. As you can see we also share a lot with cajun culture.

("Cajun" comes from the word Acadian refering to people from Acadia - which included parts of eastern Quebec, the Maritime provinces, and modern-day New England - it became "cajun" in Louisiana after people from that region got deported there by the British. And even though we live miles apart their French sounds a lot like ours. I have a lot of respect for them - like )Zachary Richard an artist from Louisiana who sings in French. And btw the flag you see at the beginning of the vid that looks a bit like like an Italian flag put the wrong was is a Patriotes flag.)

/off topic rant

personally i don't believe in ghosts (maybe aliens, but just maybe...) neither in witches or vampires, it's hard for me to think there's another sort of immortal race over there that feeds with blood... i love vampires and i wish they would exist only if they are like the vampire writers have make us believe they are (sexy, elegant, wealthy, young and all that :rolleyes: ) but if you thought about Vlad Tepes... he wasn't really much attractive at all, anyway the empale thing souds kinda erothic if you leave yr beast side came out... but if you think about politics... empaling people just because they're not like you it's something... mmm... extremist for me xD

now that i'm thinking, for me, talking about the existance of vampires, it's like talk about the existence of fairies, mermaids or elphes... i think they're just creations of someone's mind and exist only in an altern universe not in our world.