Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #87993 in Books
• Published on: 1996-07-31
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 208 pages

Customer Reviews

very readable guide to the vampire legend.
As a guide to the vampire legend in folklore, and the history of some real-life "vampires" then I recommend this as a good starting-point. I found it very readable, and it was refreshing that he didn't seem remotely impressed by people who try to claim to be immortal blood-drinkers, which meant that the book wasn't clogged up with fantasists trying desperately to impress us that they're "different" somehow. The people who do claim to be mortal blood-drinkers are handled with sensitivity and restraint, and their case-histories make for fascinating reading.

The author cuts through all the tosh that has grown up around the vampire legend in recent decades, thanks to Hollywood, Anne Rice etc, and makes it clear that the original vampires of ancient folklore were not suave aristocrats in capes, but grotesque graveyard ghouls. He highlights how there are vampire legends in ancient folklore from all over the world, and describes some of the more famous historical "vampires", such as Vlad the Impaler and Elizabeth Bathory. Unfortunately he doesn't go into much detailed analysis of these people, but there are other books on the market for readers who want to go into that further (I can recommend any of Colin Wilson's true crime books). I will take exception to him including Haigh, the British acid-bath murderer of the 1940s, in amongst the historical vampires. It is largely accepted that Haigh only bragged about drinking his victims' blood to try and escape the hangman on an insanity plea. (It didn't work).

The book is rounded off with a section on psychic vampires, people who, either deliberately or unintentionally, drain other people's emotional energy. This is a fascinating area, as I think most of us have come across people like that at some time or another. The author though tries to tie it in with the common phenomenon of sleep paralysis, and the night hag visitations, and I didn't find this terribly convincing. Nevertheless, this book is highly recommended for anyone interested in the vampire legend.

Excellent book! (for Occultists)
As you can tell from the five-star-ranking I gave to this book, I think it's really a remarkably good book. Divided into four parts (Immortal blood-drinkers, mortal blood-drinkers, unconscious psychic vampires and conscious psychic vampires), it shows a rationality and believability you wouldn't normally expect from a "vampire book". However a *little* esoteric and/or occult knowledge is helpful understanding especially the part about defense against attacks from psychic vampires, i. e. you shouldn't be utterly allergic to the concept of aurae, astral travel and such. Therefore, this book is perfect for occultists, people interested in esoterics and goths of the a-little-more-serious kind - of these, everyone should have it! - , though simply "somewhat weird" to the rest. By the way, the style of writing is quite understandable to people not speaking english as a native tongue, too.

Non believers, steer clear!
When i started reading this book, it was purely to find out more about the subject. I had no beliefs for or against, and hoped to gain more of an insight into Vampires.
This book is sloppily written - you are constantly told that you will come back to things later, but often this is not for a long time with no prior reference.
The book contains, amongst explananations, a collection of stories, and although the autor tries to explain them, he is obviously explaining from a believers viewpoint, and if you do not hold that view then it is very difficult to even contemplate believing what he is saying. There also seems to be much contradiction in the points that are made, further enhancing skepticism!
One final point that i want to make is that the majority of this book is NOT about the "classic" vampire as portrayed in films and tv, although these are touched on in places, but the book is more about "psychic vampires". These psychic vampires are not really what I, and im sure many others would class as a vampire, and as such, i find the title a little misleading.
All in all, it was a mildly interesting read which has not at all helped my beliefs in vampires, so if you are a non-believer, perhaps skeptical, i would advise staying clear and finding a better book!