A short history of the concept of Psychic Vampyrism15:31 Jun 04 2011
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http://www.realvampirenews.com/2011/06/modern-vampyre-history/
A short history of the concept of Psychic Vampyrism
Vampyres, or Vampires, we all know what they are – right? We all know what the folklore, mythology and folktales tell us, undead revenants that rise from their graves to drink the blood of the living to live (or un-live) on – right? At least that’s the historical concept.
The classic tales of the draining of their victims to death, or just far enough to become, in their turn, undead denizens of the night; thralls to the master vampyre, to the one who created them; juicy, salacious tales that thrilled generations and titillated the imagination of socially-straight jacketed men and women in the 19th century. This much we all know.
It is unknown how many vampyres there are in the world today but it is conjectured, simply from the weight of representation on modern message boards and chat-sites that the psychic, Psi or Psy, vampyre outweighs those who claim affinity with the cultural concept of a vampyre so when and how did the Psi-vampyre come to such prominence? Where did the schism between the hell-spawned, purely evil, blood lusting undead and the new age energy vampyre come from.
Within the community of “energy” vamps there are subtle differences drawn between the terms Psy(chic) and Psi(onic) but for the purposes of the history of such it makes no difference, the only “difference” we need recognize is the fact that the purely Psi/Psy does not consume blood whereas the Sang(uinarian) does. The basic difference between the two is the difference between black and white.
Sanguinarians require the consumption of blood to, by their own reports, remain vital and healthy. The Psi/Psy, similarly by their own reports, require energy to consume in order that they remain vibrant and healthy. Whether one or the other is right is an insoluble argument but an argument that will be going on long after I’m dead unless somebody makes an incredible and startling discovery in the next forty years.
Or, will there still be self-identified vampyres by then? We all know there are three constants in this life, death, taxes and change.
Vampyrism pre 1840
The history of vampyrism dates back to the earliest civilizations that spread from the Indus Valley region into the so-called Fertile Crescent of the Middle East. Cultural and religious tales, even from those pre-civilisation times carried with them accounts of vampyric creatures and spirits. As the growth of civilization took on impetus and began to spread so did the tales of the undead. Every culture in the world has vampyres in either its mythology or its superstition. Vampyres were the food of camp-fire tales, the tales that kept children in bed at night and the vampyres themselves were the scapegoats when disasters such as plagues befell a people. The earliest identifiable vampyric deity was Yama, the Tibetan God of Death, whom it was said consumed the blood of the living to survive.
So, prior to 1840 it was all about the blood. The predation on humans to attack them and drink their blood while they were alive was the hallmark of the vampyre.
As late as 1828 the case of Peter Plogojowitz of Kisolova in Austrian occupied Serbia, became a grave mystery for the people of the area. A number of people reported that, in a dream, they had been visited by Plogojowitz, following his death, who had bitten them on the neck and sucked blood from them. Nine persons reportedly succumbed to this mysterious illness during the following week and died.
The chief magistrate sent a report of the deaths to the commander of the Imperial forces and the commander responded by visiting the village himself to oversee the exhumation of the recently deceased. Allegedly, the remains of Plogojowitz himself posed a real problem for them – he appeared to be in a trance-like state and breathing gently. His eyes were open, his flesh appeared plump and showed none of the expected signs of post-mortem deterioration, and he had a ruddy complexion. His hair and nails appeared to have grown and fresh skin was discovered just below the scarfskin. Most importantly, his mouth was smeared with fresh blood. The commander quickly concluded that the corpse was a vampyre and the executioner that had accompanied him to Kisolova drove a stake through the body. Blood gushed from the wound and the orifices of the body.
So, were the nine dead victims crazy, or were they the victims of a real vampyre in the classical sense of the word?
Pre 1840 psychic vampyrism
“In folklore traced back to medieval legend, a succubus (plural succubi) is a female demon appearing in dreams who takes the form of a human woman in order to seduce men, usually through sexual intercourse. The male counterpart is the incubus. Religious traditions hold that repeated intercourse with a succubus may result in the deterioration of health or even death.” [1]
This concept may have had an even earlier mythological referent in the tales of The Sirens. In Greek mythology, the Sirens were three dangerous bird-women, portrayed as seductresses who lured nearby sailors with their enchanting music and voices to shipwreck on the rocky coast of their island.
Certainly, by today’s understanding of the word “vampyrism”, the Succubus/Incubus would apparently qualify as a vampyric act; namely the draining of a person’s life giving force or energy to the point of severe illness or even death. Specifically, however, these were demons; they were not regarded as vampyres within the framework of reference of the times.
The concept of psychic vampyrism was spawned of a much later movement, the spiritualist movement that swept over whole countries in the latter half of the nineteenth century.
The Spiritualist Movement
Spiritualism is a term used to describe the religious movement that started in the 19th Century (also known as Modern Spiritualism or Modern American Spiritualism). It was founded in part on the writings of the 18th Century Swedish mystic Emanuel Swedenborg and the teachings and hypnotism techniques of Franz Mesmer. It is monotheistic, postulating a belief in God similar to Christianity, but its distinguishing feature is belief that spirits of the dead can be contacted, either by individuals or by gifted or trained mediums.
It developed in the United States and reached its peak growth in membership from the 1840s to the 1920s, especially in English-language countries. By 1897, it was said to have more than eight million followers in the United States and Europe, mostly drawn from the middle and upper classes. Women were particularly attracted to the movement, because it gave them important roles as mediums and trance lecturers. It flourished for a half century without canonical texts or formal organization, attaining cohesion by periodicals, tours by trance lecturers, camp meetings and the missionary activities of accomplished mediums.
In the years following the sensation that greeted the séances conducted by the Fox sisters in the late 1840’s, demonstrations of mediumship (especially séances, automatic writing and the use of a Ouija board) proved to be a profitable venture, and soon became popular forms of entertainment and spiritual catharsis. By the late 1880’s, the credibility of the informal movement weakened, due to accusations of fraud among mediums, and formal Spiritualist organizations began to appear. It is currently practiced primarily through various denominational Spiritualist Churches in the United States and United Kingdom. [2]
In 1858, in France, Z.J. Piérart a psychical researcher on vampyrism and professor at the College of Maubeuge founded a spiritualist journal, La Revue Spiritualiste. His rejection of popular reincarnation theory (Spiritism) led him directly to his consideration of vampyrism. He became interested in the possibility of psychic attack and in a series of articles he proposed a theory of psychic vampyrism, suggesting that vampyres were the astral bodies of either incarcerated or deceased individuals that were revitalizing themselves on the living.
Initially, he proposed the idea that the astral body was forcefully ejected from the body of a person buried alive and that it vampyrised the living to nourish the body in the grave or tomb. Piérart’s work pioneered modern psychical concern with the phenomena of vampyrism and catalysed discussion and consideration of the possibility of a paranormal draining of an individual by a spiritual agent.
At one time, Piérart was secretary to Baron du Potet and in 1858, when he founded the Spiritualist journal La Revue Spiritualiste it was to engage Allan Kardec’s journal La Revue Spirite in debate. Eventually Kardec’s journal was popular enough to overwhelm La Revue Spiritualiste, which was discontinued in the 1860s. It was revived in 1870 under the title Concile de la Libre Pensée, but in 1873 it was suppressed under pressure brought to bear by church authorities. [3]
Colonel Henry Steel Olcott (August 2, 1832 – February 17, 1907) was an American military officer, journalist, and lawyer and, from 1874, his spiritual growth and development, alongside Helena Petrovna Blavatsky and other spiritual leaders would lead to the founding of the Theosophical Society in New York, in 1875. Olcott financially supported the earliest years of the Theosophical Society and was acting President while Blavatsky served as the Society’s Secretary.
Olcott speculated that occasionally when a person was buried they may not be dead but in a catatonic or trance-like state, barely alive. Furthermore, he surmised that a person could survive for long periods in their grave by sending out their astral double to drain the blood, or “life force” from the living to remain nourished.
The 20th Century and beyond
Violet Mary Firth Evans (6 December 1890 – 8 January 1946), was a British occultist and author. Better known by her pseudonym as Dion Fortune, she was inspired by her family motto “Deo, non fortuna” (“by God, not fate”). Born in Bryn-y-Bia in Llandudno, Wales, she grew up in a household where Christian Science was rigorously practiced.
Reporting visions of Atlantis as early as age four and the developing of psychic abilities during her twentieth year, she suffered a nervous breakdown and, following her recovery she found herself drawn to the occult. She joined the Theosophical Society and attended courses in psychology and psycho-analysis at the University of London ultimately becoming a lay psychotherapist at the Medico-Psychological Clinic in Brunswick Square.
Her first magical mentor was the occultist and Freemason Theodore Moriarty, and in 1919 she was initiated into the London Temple of the Alpha et Omega before transferring to the Stella Matutina order.[4]
In 1930 Dion Fortune published one of her more popular works, Psychic Self Defence. This book came from her own experiences in her occult work. Fortune had also witnessed various instances of psychic attack which she was called on to interrupt. Among the elements of a psychic attack, she noted, was “vampirism” that left the victim in a state of nervous exhaustion, and a wasting state.”
From this Fortune propounded an occult perspective on vampirism. She suggested that masters of the occult had the ability to separate their psychic self from their physical body and attach themselves to others and drain the host’s energy. Such persons would then begin to, unconsciously, drain the energy from those around them.
Fortune wrote:
“We live in the midst of invisible forces whose effects alone we perceive. We move among invisible forms whose actions we very often do not perceive at all, though we may be profoundly affected by them.”
Anne de Molay. In 1966, in Philadelphia, Anne de Molay established the Order of Maidenfear. Quite possibly the oldest or one of the oldest, vampyre houses in the world.
The present Matriarch of the Order of Maidenfear writes:
“In the 1960’s, there was a woman here in Philadelphia who was taking a second, third, and fourth look at the idea of the vampire. We all knew her as Anne de Molay, although whether she was an actual descendant of Jacques de Molay, the last Grand Master of the Knights Templar, remains something of a mystery (for one thing I don’t think old Jacques had any descendants, but whatever). Her theory was that it wasn’t the blood that vampires needed, but rather what was IN the blood–living energy, which she called prana.
In an era of horror film schlock, Anne investigated the archetype of the vampire and came to the conclusion that vampirism was a very real interaction with life energy that could benefit the practitioner. Having shared her vision, Anne was able to form a group of like minds and established the Order of Maidenfear in 1966.”
In 1970, by virtue of an inheritance from her father, Anne invested in the future of her Order by buying a large Victorian house in Philadelphia, the building that became House Maidenfear and a place where vampyres from the city and the Eastern seaboard came to live and learn in a true communal order.
Anne de Molay was the first Grand Master of the Order until 1987 and she remained a key figure in the Order until her passing in 2003. Today the Order is represented online by The Order of Maidenfear and Vampgeist website and also at The Order of Maidenfear Online Portal
Michelle Belanger and The Psychic Vampire Codex
In 2004 one of the single most important works in the matter of the psychic vampire The Psychic Vampire Codex – A manual of magick and energy work was published by Weiser Books in the United States.
Author Michelle Belanger had been deeply involved with the offline vampyre community since the early nineteen-nineties and had previously edited and published the Gothic literary magazine Shadowdance.
The book itself is part historical and, in the main, the Codex itself. Whether just coming into your own as a psychic vampyre, or whether seeking a refresher on energy work as a psy/psi vamp, the book provides clear and comprehensive material to work with and learn from.
Storm Constantine, author of the Wraeththu Trilogy, writes of the book: “A fascinating and informative glimpse beneath the cloak of the real vampires who walk amongst us. Michelle Belanger gives a frank and honest account of what it’s like to be a psychic vampire – an individual who feeds upon the vital energy of others.”
It can be seen then that the concept of Psychic vampyrism had its seeds sown at least as early as medieval times but was accorded a demonic slant until the birth of the Spiritualist movement in the 1840’s. With the worldwide interest that the movement spurned the idea that a psychic practitioner could engage a living person and drain their energy gained ground and it was these theories that gave rise to the popular modern concept of the psi/psy vampyre. These days, despite the ever present disagreements between the different disciplines, psi/psy vampirism is a strong and influential factor in the world of the modern vampyre.
There are several very good sources of information available on the matter, perhaps the easiest to access are the online sources. Among the online vampyre community today there is a great deal of exchange of members, a great deal of “traffic” between groups and so the mix between psi/psy and sanguine vampyres is great indeed. For that reason it is often difficult to discern where the best information on psy/psi vampyrism is to be found.
A starting point or two would probably be:
Michelle Belanger’s House Kheperu , Psychic Vampire.org and the Psionic Central forum at Smoke & Mirrors
Two important points to keep in mind about utilizing energy are;
Firstly, that it is in everything, all around us and saturates our environment, that it is a constant influence on everything.
Secondly, Psychic, and/or Psi, vampyres are those who can take, use and convert energy in the same fashion as any other energy worker can.
1] Wikipedia.org http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Succubus
2] Witchcraft and Witches.com
3] Rogo, Scott. “In-depth Analysis of the Vampire Legend.” Fate 21, no. 9 (September 1968): 77.
4] Occult Underground.com
Other resources and references:
Belanger, Michelle A. The Psychic Vampire Codex – A manual of magick and energy work. Weiser Books, 2004.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiritualism_%28disambiguation%29
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiritualism
http://www25.uua.org/uuhs/duub/articles/spiritualism.html
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