The Unsorted BBS Collection/thegreatunsorted.tar/thegreatunsorted/texts/txtfiles_misc/vamp11.faq

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A Psychological Theory of Vampirism


From:  Quantum Mechanic ([e-mail])

I started working on a theory when I first joined the list and
electronically met the likes of Cat, Black Eagle  and others who are
either real vampires or seem have had real experiences with them.  Now
I'm one of those scientific types who don't believe in the
supernatural so my first reaction was skepticism.  However, I joined
this list because of my romantic streak which  really wanted to
believe in the existence of vampires in all their supernatural glory.
So I discussed this with a friend who has a degree in psychology.  The
question was: is it possible that there can be real, supernatural,
blood drinking, classical vampires?  We came up with the following
theory:

Just as magic can be interpreted as science which is too advanced for
us to understand, so the supernatural can be interpreted as psychology
we don't fully understand yet.  Using Carl Jung's theory of a
collective unconscious, and Joseph Campbell's theory of a mythology
common to all man we derived that vampirism must be a form of
possession by an archetype.  Before I explain this, I'm going to go
over some of Jung's and Campbell's terminology as well as their
philosophy as I understand it.  This is so that you all know where I'm
coming from when show why I think this theory works.

Now in Jung's psychology, there is the self (your self, my self
etc...) which has two sides (sort of like yin and yang) the conscious
mind or ego and it's opposite, the shade (unconscious mind) or tap
into the collective unconscious.  The unconscious is the part of the
mind which is the repository and source of all our emotional,
intuitive thinking.  In Jung's theory, while our egos remain separate,
our unconscious minds are linked into what he termed the collective
unconscious.   This is the place where we get our dreams, our
strongest primal beliefs, and our symbolism from.  In their work and
case studies, both Jung and Campbell made the discovery that there are
common themes and symbols in psychology and myths from person to
person and people to people.  Jung called these symbols or themes
archetypes.

According to Joseph Campbell, most religions of the world contain some
belief that a person can get possessed by a spirit or daemon for good
or evil or just because it's natural to do this sometimes.  According
to Carl Jung most of us in everyday life are possessed by a spirit
known as the ego (our *own* spirit if you will.)  Most of the time
when we are dreaming, we are possessed by our shade.  Then there are
the times when we are possessed equally by both sides:  for example
when we act on impulse or intuition and turn out to be right.  There
are also times when we are thoroughly possessed by the collective
unconscious in one area of thinking while simultaneously being
possessed by the ego in another area of thinking.  Lucid dreaming for
example where our state of consciousness is possessed by our shade,
but our awareness within this possession has been possessed by the ego
or conscious mind.  In our dreams we take on many different roles as
part of the possession and even if we don't, the other characters in
our dreams represent aspects of our selves.  So what ever archetypes
they represent, we are partially possessed by during the dream state.

This is theoretically possible in waking life as well.  It operates
mildly in everyone's lives.  For example the mature college student
who goes home for the holidays, once steeped in family life, starts
acting like she did back in high-school when she lived with her
parents even though she'd never act like that in her dorm at school.
In this case the college student becomes possessed by the family's
local collective unconscious idea that she has a certain place and is
expected to occupy it at all times.  This is why it's so hard for most
young people to break out of that pattern and relate to their parents
and familial elders as equals and friends.

In some of Jung's case studies, there were patients who had, it
seemed, been possessed by daemons or other archetypal fantastic
creatures.  These were people who either believed themselves to be
someone they weren't, like an historical figure, or and animal or an
elf, or a god etc...  This is not always unhealthy according to
Campbell.  There are many cultures where the use of temporary
possession is considered very important to spiritual growth and
healing.  The key word here is temporary or at least the concept that
it is possible to come back to reality when one chooses.  It's not
considered healthy either to be constantly possessed by a given
archetype of the collective unconscious, or be constantly possessed by
ego.  Unfortunately most of our society is in the latter state of
mind.

How does this lead up to the existence of vampires?  Here's what I
think.  Because there seems to be some version of a vampire myth in
every culture, it is logical to assume that the vampire is an
archetype.  Now everyone's personality is different because everyone's
ego is a little different and likewise everyone has a different set of
archetypes they primarily tap into out of the collective unconscious.
In other words everyone's shade personality is a little different from
everyone else's.  I suppose it is safe to assume that the shade
personality of nearly everyone on the list has a large component of
the vampire archetype.  We all tap into that aspect of the collective
unconscious.  And of course we all have our differences too.  For
example, large components of Firefly's and Cat's shades include the
feline archetype, whereas I identify more with the dragon archetype
and Kiwi and Black Eagle have an avian archetypes.

For the purpose of discussion, I'm going to use Firefly and Cat as
examples since their shades are similar.  Firefly has only allowed
herself to be possessed to the extent that she can write
compassionately and realistically about feline vampires.  Cat, on the
other hand has totally immersed her identity into the archetype so
that she is now entirely possessed by it.  She is another example like
the lucid dreamer of a person who is totally possessed by her shade in
one area, in this case her physical identity, and at the same time
possessed by her conscious ego in the area of awareness rendering her
a suave and sophisticated, intelligent vampire rather than a revenant.

People who are possessed by their shade often undergo significant
physical changes during the possession.  This can explain why someone
possessed by the vampire archetype would genuinely be dependent on
blood for survival and why their body could fight off any diseases
incurred while drinking it.  This also explains the growth of fangs,
the over sensitivity to sunlight as well as an allergy to garlic, the
appearance of not aging or aging more slowly and the ability to heal
her self and others.

People who are possessed also have great presence and subtle hypnotic
influence over others since they are directly linked to the collective
unconscious.  This can explain the famous vampiric charisma and
hypnotic powers.  It also explains how the possession can be passed
on.  The vampire induces the strong belief in the person they intend
to turn that this is for real and therefor is successful in bringing
the turnee over to the shade side of being.  As for reflecting in
mirrors:  It's easy enough for the vampire herself to be convinced
that she doesn't reflect and because of the subtle unconscious
influence she has over the minds of those around her they wouldn't see
her reflection either.  Holy symbols might have an effect just as was
discussed before on the list.  Strong belief on the part of the
potential victim would by it's very nature (derived from the
collective unconscious) be an effective weapon against such a vampire.

Copyright 1991 Toni Benjamin
Quantum Mechanic
[e-mail]
Charter Member:  SOAS


Date: Tue, 15 Oct 1991 21:55:41 -0400
From: Barbara Weitbrecht <IRMSS100@SIVM>
Subject:Quantum Mechanic's Jungian vampires

Research Systems, OIRM
357-4248

I just read Quantum Mechanic's impressive explanation of vampirism in
terms of Jungian psychology.  Bravo!  This theory (possession by an
archetype) could apply to other supernatural beings as well, such as
werewolves and other shape-shifters.

I'm not qualified to comment on QM's theory in its own terms (Jungian
psychology is not one of my strong points) but I would like to offer
another analogy from my own fields, computer programming and
organismal biology.

This node (as you can tell from its name, SIVM), uses the VM operating
system.  VM stands for 'virtual machine'.  If you ignore the fact that
there is really only one CPU and we're just taking turns with it, you
can visualize VM as being many little 'virtual machines' sharing one
big physical machine.  Each user works with his own virtual machine,
under the illusion that the entire mainframe is at his disposal.

There are also 'disconnected machines' -- virtual machines working
away by themselves without human supervision.  I believe the analogous
critter on UNIX is called a 'daemon', an appropriate choice of words
as you shall see.

Well, from what I have read about human brain function, I'm pretty
sure that our physical brains are inhabited by lots of little virtual
minds.  Some take care of simple tasks like detecting moving edges in
the visual field.

Some take care of motor details so we can walk without thinking about
which muscles to use.  And some (set speculation on) are in charge of
the unconscious.  Only the virtual mind that has charge of 'the
microphone of consciousness' (not my phrase, but a nice one) is
perceived as 'me'.  But just because they aren't hogging the
microphone doesn't mean that those other minds aren't thinking.
Occasionally they present us with their conclusions, and we say 'Aha!'

If you indulge in creative pursuits you'll know exactly what I mean.
Did you ever have an idea and think, 'Whoa!  Where did *that* come
from?'  And who is in charge of choreographing your dreams, if it's
not one of your virtual minds?  Do you really think they're coming
from outside your brain?  Ever wonder why you snap to attention when
someone says your name, even though you were concentrating on
something else?  *You* may have been concentrating, but *someone* was
listening.

And what better way to explain multiple personalities than to suppose
that something has gone wrong with the usual assignment of chores, and
some of those other minds are grabbing the microphone?  Almost every
disease is caused by a normal process that has become defective.  The
defects just expose 'the man behind the curtain' who was there all
along.

So what does this have to do with vampires?  If you have a tap into
the collective unconscious, some physical/informational structure must
be doing the tapping.  (My prejudice, but effects usually have causes
when the effects are larger than the quantum uncertainty.)  So suppose
I do, indeed, have a virtual mind that is tapping an archetype,
specifically the vampire archetype, and suppose that virtual mind
grabs the microphone of consciousness -- suddenly I, meaning whatever
is animating my physical body -- sincerely believes that it is a
vampire.  Just another multiple personality disorder?  Partly -- but
since this *is* a tap to the collective unconscious, my thoughts will
influence other people's perceptions too.  So they will 'see' me
vanish from mirrors, or fly, or dissolve into a mist.

So intensive long-term therapy might cure vampires (fluff attack!
fluff attack!) in the same way the multiple personalities can be
integrated.  Whether the vampire would want to be cured is another
story.

Mentally healthy folks like us can keep our vampiric personalities
under control by role-playing on the list, or gaming, or fluff-
writing.  But since we're just sharing the microphone, not handing it
over, the supernatural aspects of the vampiric persona are absent or
weakened.  But if the vampire really gained control -- well, just
think what yogis and martial artists can do with their bodies, or what
is possible under hypnosis, which are only partial surrenders of the
self.  If a vampire could do only these things, wouldn't you be
impressed?  If the vampire were even stronger, *and* hypnotically
controlled your perceptions of itself by affecting your unconscious,
you would be convinced it was really a supernatural being.  At least I
would.

Date:     Tue, 15 Oct 1991 22:44:06 BST
From:     Charles Keith-Stanley <[e-mail]>
Subject:  Quantum Mechanic's note of Tue, 15 Oct 1991 03:06:02 -0700

Gentlebeings, I don't intend to quote extensively from Q.M.'s sterling
post on the relationships between Jungian psychology and Vampyrism. I
do wish to amplify and expound on a few segments, however. At one
point, Q.M. said:

 Using Carl Jung's theory of a collective unconscious, and
 Joseph Campbell's theory of a mythology common to all man we derived
 that vampirism must be a form of possession by an archetype. </DL>

I'd like to add another voice to the chorus. Idries Shah, in his
collection of ethnic stories called 'World Tales', describes a 'world
tale' as a story or fable which appears in widely disparate cultures
or historical eras, one which travels across great distances without
apparent effort. As an example of this phenomenon, many cultures have
a fable wherein the gods, angry with their creation, destroy the world
in a flood; only one family survives this disaster, through various
means, to repopulate the world. Judaeo-Christians recognise the story
of Noah, but a similar legend is found elsewhere. Other easily
identifiable stories (Cinderella, for one) can be found in different
cultures.

Shah opines that these tales are spread by itinerant storytellers who
shift the cultural details to fit the audience, yet leave the
essential core more or less intact. These stories appeal so widely
because they describe one or another of the fundamental human
viewpoints, or that they relate historical events from the pre-
literate (if not pre-cultural) days. The flood tale may be a magnified
version of a local disaster which wiped out a city or region save for
a few scattered survivors; it might also endeavour to explain why, in
the face of human wickedness, the gods don't wipe us out and start
again (they already did and promised not to again). Cinderella in her
guises says how a meek heart and kind disposition overcomes adversity.

(As a personal sidebar, Your Humble Werewolf applied Shah's theory to
Norse legends, Milton's 'Paradise Lost', Tolkein's _Silmarillion_ and
Revelations 7:12 when he delivered the homily for his examination as
Lay Reader. And he didn't use notes or hide behind the pulpit...)

But I digress -- the point here is that since so many cultures have
legends of the Vampyre, the Werewolf, the Spirit, it seems reasonable
that this too is also a 'world tale' which attempts to address an
essential question:

What might happen if you could cheat Death?

I don't wish to offer this as a counter-proposal to Q.M.'s ideas of
Jungian archetypes. Rather as an additional talking point to explain
how or why the archetype may have come about.

(Again a personal sidebar: I'm familiar with the concept of being
possessed by one's shade. It happens to me under certain circumstances
which I shan't describe further. Trust me. I also accept from personal
experience the idea of being possessed by a collective unconscious or
shared fantasy. This also has happened to me, somewhat recently.)

To conclude, I believe the basis for the Vampyre having become part of
what Jung calls the collective unconscious could be that it was
already a 'world tale'; that perhaps when such tales achieve even
greater currency or power, they are somehow caught up into fundamental
human culture.

Thank you, Quantum Mechanic, for bringing this topic into discussion.

Howlingly yours,

The Werewolf of London      |  Geniuses and supergeniuses always make their
(Ow-oooooooooooooooo!)      |  own rules on sex as on everything else; they
Principal Researcher, SOAS  |  do not accept the monkey customs of their
[e-mail] |  lessers.-- R. Heinlein, 'Friday'</PRE>