Dracula Lives by Philip Russo, Monster World Magazine

Dracula Lives by Philip Russo,

Are there such things as Vampires and Draculas?

Vampires:

Astral forms living at the expense of persons from whom they draw vitality and strength. They may be either the astral bodies of living persons, or of such that have died, but which still cling to their physical bodies buried in the grave, attempting to supply them with nutriment dawn from reg living, and thereby to prolong their own existence. Such cases are especially well known in the southeast of Europe--Moldavia, Serbia, Russia, and in Vourdalak. (the above explanation appeared in a dictionary of Magical Terms from the year 1527)

Bela Lugosi didn't have an exclusive right to Vampirism; nor did Bram Stoker, the author of Dracula.

Vampires have been with us since the ancient Babylonian culture---time, and again they have surfaced, through the ages, to menace man. In the writing of the great physician and occultist Theophrastus Paracelsus of Hohenheim, we are treated to the invasion of vampirism through love and suicide.

''A young man killed himself on account of his passion for a married lady. The woman loved him but did not encourage his advances on account of her marital obligations. After his death, his astral form became attracted to her, and, as she was of a Mediumistic temperament, he found the necessary conditions to become partly materialized It required a long-continued effort of her will, and a course of treatment, until she finally freed her soul of the vampire.''

Everyone is familiar with the well-documented Dracula of the Middle Ages, especially Marshal Giles de Rais of France, and Vlad the IV, a prince of Wallachia. In de Rais' case, it has been confirmed that over a ten-year period, the Baron killed over 200 young children after committing sexual perversions on them. Many see him as the devil, but his story exudes a bizarre mixture of blood and charm as he repents in the courtroom “for his horrendous crimes. The handsome, wealthy young nobleman was hanged with his accomplices, and his dying moments brought floods of tears from the very parents of the children he murdered. In Gilles de Rais, an inexplicable frenzy impelled him from victim to victim; always the object eluded him.

And what of Vlad, sometimes called Dracula? Well, history records him as the darkest, bloodiest, the cruelest entity ever to occupy a human body.” “The real Dracula, Vlad the IV of Wallach. In the 15th century, he impaled over 40,000people on long pointed stakes. If anyone complained of the smell he would impale him on a higher pale than the others, so the visitor would not be offended by the odor.

His specialty was impaling his victims on long pointed wooden stakes. It is as "Vlad the Impaler '' that he is best known. He revealed in the agonies ``of his prisoners, whom he subjected to that cruel death; and when a guest expressed disdain at the odor emanating from the victim, the evil prince immediately ordered the execution of his visitor on a higher pole than others so “that the smell would not offend him. His other aberrations were also maniacal in nature: he'd slit the bellies of his pregnant mistresses, or set fire to a hall full of sick poor people to get rid of them. Slavic lore has it that the demon Vlad was killed fighting the Turks. And before he was buried, they chopped off his head. Ironically, and in the best Dracula tradition, when the crypt was opened in 1931, his body was gone, probably removed soon after his death by monks who feared desecration of their burial ground. Vampires are not restricted to the male sex. In fact, more cases of female vampires have emerged, especially around the turn of the century . . .”

“The year, 1916. The place, Bombay, India. Summer, unbearably hot in the overcrowded city. Wealthy maharajahs and supporting English gentry moved into plush hillside mansions seeking relief from the oppressive heat and humidity. Among these elite escapes was a pretty young English widow. Not more than thirty years old, with a snow-white complexion and beautiful features. Her husband, a major in the British army, had been killed during the first days of World War I. She was without children or relatives.”

“Among India's upper classes, there was a popular habit ... of throwing extravagant parties running into the early hours of the morning. One night, after attending such a party, the young widow and a woman companion were traveling home in a ricksha. Suddenly a rickshaw in front of them crashed into an embankment seriously injuring several people.” “The two women pulled over and went to see if they could be of any help. The scene was very “bloody.… Suddenly the young widow, for no apparent reason, jumped on top of the man most seriously injured. She then began sucking the blood from his open wounds. Her companion was shocked.”

“Horrified spectators rushed to help her pull the widow free of the injured man. By then she was in a state of frenzy. Embarrassed, her mouth and face smeared with blood, the young woman was carried off to a hospital. Later, after being released, she explained her need for human blood. As a child, she was very weak. The family physician placed her on a diet of raw meat with the hope of strengthening her frail body. While in England, she had no problem obtaining her raw meat supply. But once in India, she was forced to ration her daily intake, sometimes going without meat for weeks at a time. The sight of the bleeding victim drove her into a psychotic state. She died two months later.

Recently, a San Francisco newspaper ran the following ad: "Are you a vampire?/Replies confidential / write this paper..." The paper was the San Francisco Chronicle, and the man who wanted answers was Prof. Leonard Wolf. Amazingly enough, there were responses. One letter said: "Dear Sir: Yes, I am a vampire. I have been for two years." Another said: "Dear Sir: I am a vampire. What can I do for you?" The shortest was: "Dear Sir: NO!" But one reply was serious, and Prof. Wolf met with San Francisco's only genuine vampire. "One day a friend phoned," Wolf recalls, "and asked if I still wanted to meet a vampire. It turned out that the 22-year-old vampire named Alex had been turned on to blood-drinking by some acquaintances while on a drug trip. Shortly afterward, he went to Tijuana and got married, but the bride did not share his proclivity towards bloodsucking and left him the next day. However, Alex was able to find plenty of males and females who are on blood trips. It "turns him on," and he says that whether “or not to engage in it is a matter for passion to decide. Alex says that a lot of people are on a masochistic kick. 'They have to do it in some dark corner, and the darkest corner they can find is me.'"

Prof. Wolf feels that we are in the midst of a vampire craze, but how long it will continue is an open question. He teaches a course on Dracula at San Francisco State University and has published a book, "A Dream of Dracula: In Search of the Living Dead". He placed the ad in the paper to find out what responses might occur.

He classifies the vampire as the highest monster of all (above ghouls, Wolfman, etc.). Furthermore, he's a man most like us because he has a will. But what does he choose? Evil... He chooses eternal life outside of God's protection; he represents man's hidden desires. What he drinks is the soul, and that's the test of evil. These creatures have no soul. The vampire has animal vitality and lawlessness, fusing many of the things a man would like to be. He's the most vivid reminder of the worst aspects of our society. Prof. Wolf says, "we are now in the post-post-post-romantic era, and the epochs in which the vampire emerges fascinate me. The middle of “The middle of the 18th century, the early 19th, late 19th, and our own age, all have seen its resurgence. All of these times experience suddenly shifting attitudes about values, about God, and sex. These cultural shifts produce the vampire as an object of interest for culture. One thing is for sure. This whole thing will exist as long as human beings feel isolated from their culture, and it will get worse.

"As it resurges, it gets bigger and bigger. As long as there is alienation, as long as society has no deep creative outlets to offer, particularly to young people, the only way to feel alive is in the grip of some terrific force; and the Satanic power has that vitality. Everyone takes reason for granted, and because the machine is so extraordinarily inhuman, people distrust reason. What I am hoping is that through books like my own, we can bring reason and passion back together." We hope he makes it. Don't you? ...

By Philip Russo, From Monster World Magazine Vol-1 No-1, Issue: March 1975

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