by Amy Krieytaz
Last updated 10/16/98. Last major revision 10/16/98. Copyright © 1998 Amy Krieytaz. All rights reserved.
Today's aggregate of real-life vampirism websites, message boards, E-lists, IRC channels, and the people who frequent them began in earnest at the end of 1997.
Before then, there were a few isolated informational websites, plus a few AOL-only forums and chatrooms. Non-AOL vampiric people sought each other in vampire fiction fan forums, plus a few "real vampire" forums like the now-defunct Order of Darkness which were dominated by blatant posers, plus a few classified ad sites like the Vampire White Pages.
By the summer of 1997, there were lots of personal homepages of people claiming to be vampires, but most of them looked pretty fanciful. Friends of mine joked about 400-year-olds who still live in their mother's basement. And there were lots and lots and lots of websites for Vampire: the Masquerade roleplayers.
That summer, Sanguinarius set up her Vampire Support Page website, whose message board and IRC channel were to become the most popular meeting-places of the "vampire community" during most of 1998. To the best of my knowledge, the term "vampire community" was coined by Sangi on her "Statements of Purpose" page in 1997. But the community did not form immediately.
During the fall of 1997, Sangi's message board was dominated not by real-life vampires but by people begging to be turned -- which wasn't surprising, given that Sangi originally defined "vampirism" as including "the potential for an indefinite lifespan." When I asked Sangi whether she knew of any proof of this, she said she didn't, and she modified her wording accordingly. She gradually became skeptical of the idea, previously common in some real-vampire circles, that vampires have extraordinary lifespans. (See Claims of extreme longevity in my Tentative conclusions article.)
Another very popular site, known then as the Real Vampires Home Page, was put on the web by Inanna Arthen (Vyrdolak) at around the same time Sangi's site first appeared. Vyrdolak Because Vyrdolak's site was so influential, I have critiqued her ideas extensively on my own site. But, to put all my disagreements into perspective, I should mention that lots of people found her site to be very informative and helpful. Furthermore, Vyrdolak is one of the few people in the community with much knowledge of the history of other subcultures and is thus a valuable leader, in my opinion. Although her theories have been used by some to justify an exclusive definition of the "vampire community," she herself has generally advocated a community including everyone who identifies as a "vampire." In its original incarnation (summer 1997 to summer 1998), Vyrdolak's site was best known for its "Real Vampires Traits Checklist," which was criticized sharply by some as a diagnostic tool, but praised by many others as a detailed description of the majority of "real vampires." Also, as far as I can tell, Vyrdolak was the first person on the web to articulate the idea that "real vampires" need blood primarily as a source of pranic energy, and that there is no essential difference between blood-drinking vampires and psychic vampires. In the summer of 1997, the fragile beginnings of the community were to be found mainly at the Vampirism Research Institute (VRI), whose message base archives are still available. But the site's owner, Liriel McMahon, was not a self-described vampire herself and was skeptical of the claim that a craving for blood could be anything other than psychosomatic. There is a chapter about Liriel in the book Something in the Blood by Jeff Guinn (1996). The VRI vampires moved most of their discussions to Namadie Z. Talck's Hall of Memories message board, which became a major gathering-place of online vampires for a while at the end of 1997, though it subsequently ceased to play a central role. In its heyday, it was the first web-based message board where discussion was dominated by real-life vampires, although there were a few fairly obvious posers too. I myself started posting messages at this point. At the beginning of 1998, most of the action took place on the message boards at Sangi's site and AngelBitMe's Vampire Information & Education Website. Discussions revolved around vampires comparing notes on their physical symptoms and personal quirks, with the aim of finding out what they had in common. It was discovered, for example, that many of the participants suffered from migraine headaches. Sangi had originally set up her site for "vampires" in her own sense of the word, non-psivamp blood-needers. But her own kind of vampires were a small minority among those who posted on her board. The majority were psivamps or blood/psi vamps, some of whom had successfully substituted psi-feeding for blood feeding. Sangi was at first reluctant to expand her definition of "vampire" to include anything other than a person with a physical craving/need to drink blood. She felt better about it when the terms "blood feeder," "blood needer," and "sanguinarian" were coined to distinguish blood-needing vampires from psivamps. Most of the online vampires had a concept of "real vampirism" strongly influenced by Vyrdolak's site, although Vyrdolak herself did not participate actively on the message boards until later. Her site's admirers included AngelBitMe and Sojourner Indigo, a psychic healer respected by many in the community. In January 1998, I set up my own website, which I at first called the Vampire Research Resource Page. Also in January, an influential Psychic Vampires website came to the community's attention. Its owner played a leading role in the community until August 1998, when he abruptly disappeared and took his site down completely for a while, then gave an incomplete and out-of-date mirror site to a friend of his. In February 1998, "Prince Verthaine" posted an ad on the Vampire Classifieds message board saying he was Prince of his city and wanted to confer with other Princes, "lifestylers not gamers." Sangi and others immediately assumed he was a poser and flamed him accordingly. How DARE he claim not to be a "gamer," while at the same time claiming to be something straight out of (horror of horrors!) Vampire: the Masquerade! Did he seriously expect us to believe there existed vampire "Princes"? But I noticed that the word "lifestyler" didn't sound very poserish. I had run into this word back in the 1980's, in the New York S&M scene, where it referred to people who lived in full-time consensual "owner/slave" relationships, as distinct from those for whom BDSM was just erotic play. I wasn't sure what "lifestyler" meant in a vampire context, but it sounded unpretentiously modern and not at all spooky. I guessed -- correctly -- that it referred to an alternative-lifestyle subculture which drew inspiration from V:tM and which might or might not involve real-life vampirism too. I figured that it probably involved alternative extended families modeled on the V:tM clans, and that "Prince" was merely Verthaine's title in some organization. I also guessed -- again correctly -- that the E-list of the Coven Organization might be a good place to find someone to enlighten us about Vampyre lifestylers. I didn't know much about the Coven Organization except that it had something to do with New York's Vampyre club scene, an outgrowth of the Goth scene, which I'd never gotten into because I dislike going to places with earsplittingly loud music of any kind, and besides I'm not a clothes horse. Rev. Ralph Osiris, head of the Coven Organization, posted a long message on the Vampire Classifieds message board. He and I succeeded in making peace between Sangi and Verthaine, who then set up a website explaining what Vampyre Lifestylers are and what he meant by calling himself a "Prince." Sangi revised her Statements of Purpose to define the "vampire community" as consisting of blood-drinkers, psychic/energy vampires, and Vampyre lifestylers. She also added: "Within the larger vampire community, to create a community of blood-needers and other kinds of blood-drinkers; to provide education on technique and safety; and to increase communication and understanding among the different kinds of blood-drinkers." Left to their own devices, sanguinarians have a tendency to think of themselves as the only "real vampires," and to think of all others -- including psychic vampires, blood fetishists, and Vampyre lifestylers -- as "posers and wannabees." But psychic vampires (blood-drinking or otherwise) constitute the vast majority of the online "real vampire" scene. Hence, for those sanguinarians who spend any significant amount of time online, the idea that psivamps aren't "real vampires" quickly becomes untenable. Besides, most online sanguinarians are very polite most of the time and do not want to hurt anyone's feelings. At the present time, most people in the online vampiric community define "real vampires" as including sanguinarians, psychic vampires, and the large overlap between these two groups. During most of 1998, quite a few people, primarily psivamps, were averse even to the idea of distinguishing between "blood vampires" and "psychic vampires," arguing that they are fundamentally one and the same thing. (See Blood-drinking and psychic vampires on my Tentative Conclusions page.) When I first began exploring the online "real vampire" scene in late 1997, I saw no reason to object to the idea that sanguinarians and psivamps are "real vampires" whereas blood fetishists aren't. I, a currently-inactive blood fetishist, have never liked the idea of calling myself a vampire anyhow. And I was not yet fully aware of myself as an energy hungerer. So, I saw myself as just a friendly outsider, providing information and resources on my website in exchange for the satisfaction of my own curiosity. However, as of February/March 1998, I began to feel that the whole idea that non-blood-drinking psychic vampires have more in common with sanguinarians than do other kinds of blood-drinkers is absurd. Some of the sanguinarians I had been in contact with felt likewise, and were annoyed by the efforts of many psychic vampires to convince them that sanguinarians too are really "psychic vampires by nature" and should learn how to "psi-feed." All blood-drinkers have certain things in common, such as a need to learn safe techniques of bloodletting. All blood-drinkers face essentially the same social stigma, regardless of their reasons for drinking blood. Furthermore, I discovered that I had a lot in common on a deep emotional level with several of the sanguinarians I'd been in contact with. (Some would argue that the deep commonalities really mean that we are all unconscious/latent/potential psivamps or other kinds of energy-hungerers. MAYBE, but we don't KNOW this.) In early April 1998, I began to set up my Blood-Drinkers' Resource Page. Soon afterward, I began to realize that I had some important things in common with psivamps too. In mid-April, I was identified as an unconscious "psivamp" by a few experienced psivamps in IRC chat, who told me I had a "vamp energy signature" -- and also that I was "hungry" and pulling on my fellow chatters. In fact, as I had already become aware, I am an energy-hungerer who needs a regular intake of nonpersonal "dark" energy. But, until the night of that IRC chat, I had thought of this as something completely different from psychic vampirism, the need to take energy from people. As it turned out, at least a few of my online "psivamp" acquaintances also feed from nonpersonal sources as well as, and to a greater extent than, from people. I still do not feel that I can accurately be called a "psivamp." But it soon became clear to me that all energy hungerers, including psivamps, do have a lot in common. At the very least, we have a lot of the same practical problems in common and can benefit by learning from each other. Those who specifically need people's energy face ethical dilemmas that nonpersonal energy hungerers do not. But psivamps and other energy hungerers have similar needs in terms of psychic development. Instead of an undifferentiated "real vampire" community which includes psychic vampires and sanguinarians but excludes other kinds of blood-drinkers and energy-hungerers, it makes far more sense to have two distinct though overlapping communities of "blood-drinkers" and "energy-hungerers," both of which together, along with Vampyre lifestylers, would constitute an inclusive vampiric community. Blood-drinkers and energy-hungerers have very different needs in terms of mutual support. In my opinion, a forum for blood-drinkers should welcome all kinds of blood-drinkers, regardless of kind or degree of need/desire for blood. In reality, there is no hard-and-fast line between sanguinarians and blood fetishists. Attempting to draw such a line only encourages people to lie themselves and others about how badly they need blood, just so they can fit in with the in-crowd. Similarly, I would encourage the already-existing psivamp forums to expand their focus to "Psychic vampires and other energy hungerers." Not only are there a lot of commonalities and overlap between psivamps and nonpersonal energy-hungerers; but, it seems to me, it can be hard to tell where a newly-awakened "psivamp" lies along the spectrum. It seems to me that all newly-awakened "psivamps" should be encouraged to explore the possibility that they can feed from sources other than people, and should not be made to feel that they will lose their place in the community if they discover that their needs can indeed be satisfied by nonpersonal sources. Conversely, nonpersonal energy-hungerers should not look down on psivamps as just unevolved energy-hungerers. Many energy-hungerers -- probably the majority, I would guess -- really do need people's energy, specifically, though many can satisfy at least part of their needs with nonpersonal sources. So far, there haven't been many deliberate efforts to exclude nonpersonal energy-hungerers. Whereas a number of people have explicitly stated that "blood fetishists are not vampires," most people in the community have never heard of nonpersonal energy-hungerers. I know of at least two NPEH's who have been quietly accepted in the community as "psivamps" all along and who have played a leading role in the community, though they are technically not psivamps in the sense of needing energy from people. (Both of them were full-fledged psivamps at some point in their lives but evolved into NPEH's.) Nevertheless, at least one psivamp has wondered whether she was still welcome in the community when she temporarily went through a phase of needing energy from nonpersonal sources only. And it did not occur to me, until I was recognized as a "psivamp" in IRC, that psivamps and NPEH's are essentially similar. Hence I would like to encourage "psivamp" resources to explicitly welcome energy-hungerers in general, as well as psivamps proper. During most of 1998, some prominent people in the vampiric community regarded any distinction whatsoever between sanguinarians and psychic vampires as "divisive." However, I argued that the distinction ultimately serves a greater unity. It seemed to me that both natural subgroups -- blood-drinkers and energy-hungerers -- were being kept artificially small by the undifferentiated "real vampire" concept. Certainly this is true on the blood-drinkers' end, as it clearly divides some kinds of blood-drinkers from others. And I suspect (though I cannot be sure) that if psivamps and other energy-hungerers were to do more outreach in the larger occult scene, rather than primarily to people who happen to be doing a web search on the word "vampire," they would find a lot more psivamps/energy-hungerers who have no interest whatsoever in drinking blood. (Note, however, that the majority of occultists are not energy hungerers. Most occult practitioners do draw and use external energies for particular purposes, but do not need to consume them just to be able to function in day-to-day life.) By mid-spring 1998, several non-psivamp sanguinarians I spoke to were already weary of the fact that, whenever sanguinarians and psivamps got together to discuss their alleged common concerns, the psivamps nearly always dominated the conversation, both because psivamps tend to have more forceful personalities and because the topic of psi-vampirism is a lot more complicated. The blood vamps could not relate to this topic and thus felt increasingly left out. They also felt patronized, sensing that a lot of psivamps thought of blood vamps as just unevolved psivamps. And the blood vamps were troubled by their own inability to judge the frequent allegations of psychic attacks in IRC. However, throughout the spring and summer, their frustrations were almost never voiced publicly, except indirectly via me here on this page. Obviously, there was a need for forums focussed specifically on blood-drinkers. At the end of August 1998, Sanguinarius set up her second message board, Bloody Minded: A Message Board for Blood Drinkers, the only such forum I know of which is nonerotic in focus and primarily for sanguinarians but welcomes all kinds of blood-drinkers. In September 1998, the consensus that psivamps and sanguinarians are essentially alike finally began to fall apart. When Sangi set up her Bloody Minded message board, the frustrations of the blood vamps finally exploded into the public arena, both on Bloody Minded itself and on Sangi's original "Vampire Community Message Board" (which has subsequently been re-named the "Vampiric Community Message Board." Unfortunately, instead of voicing their frustrations clearly, some blood vamps made remarks about how psivamps had "infiltrated and taken over" the community that had grown up around Sangi's site, and there was some temporary reversion to the notion that only sanguinarians and not psivamps are "real vampires." (Sangi subsequently explained the latter as a reaction against the idea that all "real vampires" are really psivamps by nature.) A lot of psivamps felt deeply hurt by the sudden and (to them) utterly unexpected burst of hostility toward psivamps. Unfortunately, the psivamps too have been reluctant to voice their feelings in public, and thus the misunderstandings haven't yet gotten resolved. In only a few weeks, a lot of psivamps went from an attitude of total and undifferentiated "vampire community" unity to a largely silent desire for complete separation from the blood vamps. (A few psivamps have even speculated, privately, that "psi-null" sanguinarians aren't "real vampires" but are just deluded -- as, likewise, some "psi-null" sanguinarians have speculated that psivamps are just deluded.) In a September 26 message on Sangi's Vampiric Community Message Board titled "A Statement to the Community at Large (long)," Inanna Arthen (Vyrdolak) conceded that "I guess you do fit into 'categories' after all." Previously, she had been the arch-opponent of the very idea of categorizing "real vampires" as blood vamps, psivamps, etc., and her statements had often been quoted or paraphrased (with or without crediting her) by other proponents of an undifferentiated "real vampire" concept. In her September 26 message, Vyrdolak concluded further that "The strenuous efforts of some of us to unite vampire-oriented people under some sort of overreaching aegis (with categories, without categories, with labels, without labels, with gamers, without gamers...) has, like a gigantic rubberband, snapped and scattered in many directions." Others have voiced similar opinions privately. I disagree. Given the large and very real overlap between blood vamps and psivamps, it is unlikely that the community has permanently fallen apart, as some people believe. What was shattered was the idea of unity based on grand theories of how all "real vampires" are all alike, with consequent exclusion of blood fetishists and NPEH's from the theoretical basis of unity. Hopefully, we are in transition toward a community which will genuinely accept diversity rather than trying to explain it away, and in which people will form subgroups based on real common concerns rather than on definitions of "real vampire." The breaking apart of the "real vampire" consensus was an absolutely necessary first step in such a transition; it's too bad that such a nasty blow-up was required to accomplish it. I propose the term "vampiric person" to refer to all people who are naturally a part of the vampiric community, regardless of whether they fit into the narrower, not-so-natural subgroup known now as "real vampires." Likewise, I propose replacing the term "vampire community" with "vampiric community." Not only do blood-drinkers and energy-hungerers have very different needs in terms of mutual support, but they also have very different political needs and vulnerabilities. Blood-drinkers, of all kinds, are ripe grist for sensationalistic news stories and a very likely witchhunt target. Hence quite a few blood-drinkers -- especially in New York -- are already feeling a need to go public and combat media stereotypes, judging by some posts on the Coven E-list in Spring 1998. Even Sangi, who lives in the Bible Belt, has always included this aim in her Statements of Purpose. On the other hand, most people have never heard of psychic vampires. To the extent that the general public is aware that psychic vampirism exists, it is usually thought of as just a thoroughly unspectacular and unglamorous personality disorder, not anything the National Enquirer would be interested in. Psivamps are not likely to be singled out as a witchhunt target any time in the near future, except perhaps as one small part of a general witchhunt against anything having to do with the occult. However, many psivamps fear that they would be a target of witchhunts, or worse, if information about psychic vampirism were more widely available. Hence they feel that it is neither necessary nor desirable to educate the general public about psychic vampirism. Not even all non-psivamp sanguinarians support the idea of the vampiric community going public. But some do support it, whereas the online psivamps almost unanimously oppose the idea. Hence it would probably be best for all parties concerned if psychic vampires and other energy hungerers were to remain a largely hidden/ignored group, overlapping with a more visible community of blood-drinkers. Although there probably isn't any need to educate the general public about psychic vampirism at the present time, there is a need to educate occultists who are already aware of its existence. I've heard stories about psivamps being magically "bound" by well-meaning Wiccans to stop them from feeding. In other words, to starve them. There is a need to teach the occult scene that (1) psivamps need to feed from humans; they have no choice in the matter; but (2) psivamps can choose to feed ethically. For more about the ethics of psi-feeding, see Religious, spiritual, and occult organizations on my spirituality page. I believe that vampiric people, especially blood-drinkers, will be facing a witchhunt fairly soon, as their existence becomes more widely known. The tabloids and televangelists need a fresh new target, now that the "Satanic Ritual Abuse" scares of the past couple of decades have gotten old, tired, and discredited. Vampire role-playing gamers have already been the target of mass media sensationalism. It is only a matter of time before such sensationalism catches up with real-life vampiric people too. See, for example, the following collections of articles at the Vampirism Research Institute: Regarding the "Murray Vampire Cult" assoicated in the news with the Florida "Vampire" killings, see also: Regarding another Kentucky "vampire cult," see a collection of news articles about the Liillelid murders. Any witchhunt against vampiric people will probably focus primarily on blood-drinkers, and especially those blood-drinkers who are also Vampyre lifestylers (thus a visible target). Non-blood-drinking psychic vampires would likely be at most a secondary target, since most people haven't yet heard of psivamps and are far more likely to freak out about blood-drinking. (This is true even though one can argue that, in the long run, it will be much harder for psivamps than for blood-drinkers to gain social acceptance.) Furthermore, blood fetishists would probably be at least as much of a target of an anti-"vampire" witchhunt as sanguinarians are, since the general public isn't likely to care about such fine points as how badly and in what manner you have to need blood in order to qualify as a "vampire." If anything, blood fetishists might be even more of a target than sanguinarians, due to our culture's erotophobia. Any witchhunt against vampiric people will likely also have an array of secondary targets, including BDSMers, vampire fiction fans. RPGers, Satanists and other occultists, and the Goth/Industrial scene. (If psychic vampires are targeted at all, it would likely be as a subcategory of occultists.) Just as the vast majority of people harmed by the anti-Satanist witchhunts of the past couple of decades weren't Satanists or even occultists, so too an anti-vampire witchhunt would probably harm lots of other people besides vampiric people themselves. In the event of an anti-vampire witchhunt, blood-drinkers themselves will not, in all likelihood, be public enough or organized enough to fight back. Hence, the only way they could fight back would be by forming alliances with the secondary targets, some of which are more public and in a good position to fight back. An example is the organization Elite Goths Against Discrimination (EGAD). There is now a fairly public Vampyre lifestyle and club scene, though it is not yet big enough or organized enough to constitute a political force. If any sector of the "vampire" scene is big enough to fight back, it is probably the much-despised RPGers. Hence, those real-life vampiric people who want to fight effectively against a witchhunt will need to ditch their tendency to blame RPGers for "making us look bad." (There are a few bad apples in every bunch. RPGers as a whole should not be blamed for the antics of a few, any more than sanguinarians as a whole should be blamed for the murders committed by Fritz Haarman, Peter Kurten, and John George Haigh.) To form an alliance with the secondary targets, it will also be necessary to overcome those secondary targets' similar tendency to scapegoat real vampires for "making us look bad." One of the worst aspects of any witchhunt is mutual scapegoating by the witchhunt's assorted primary and secondary targets. Education against mutual scapegoating must begin NOW. By the time the witchhunt strikes, it will be too late. It is probably not wise for the vampiric community to reach out to the general public in a big way at the present time. However, it's time for some strong networking with closely-related subcultures and relevant political activist groups, e.g. the ACLU. Within the online vampiric community, different people have different feelings about the idea of vampiric people forming or becoming part of a "social movement" to combat witchhunts. At the present time, most just want to build a small network/"community," not a political movement. Many are afraid of the idea of a political movement and feel that too much publicity can only lead to harm. Yet, even among those who are most terrified of politics, quite a few do have a strong gut attraction to the idea of vampires forming a social/political movement -- as evidenced by the popularity of Sanguinarius's "Vam-Pride" logo, a variation on the Pink Triangle used by gays to commemorate the Nazi mass-slaughter of gays (who were required to wear pink triangles sewn on their garments in Nazi concentration camps). In my opinion, the adoption of this symbol is a major political faux pas, since it will be taken by many gay activists (especially Jewish gay activists) trivializing the Holocaust, thereby alienating key potential allies. But it does indicate to me that some sort of vampire-related political movement is an almost-inevitable future development. And I hope it indicates a willingness to learn some truly worthwhile lessons from the gay community. I myself am not advocating that either blood-drinkers or psychic vampires should go public in a big way at the present time, nor do I myself intend to provoke a witchhunt by calling attention to vampiric people in any big way. Both blood-drinkers and psychic vampires are currently in the fragile beginning stages of community-building. To attempt to build a political movement at this time would be grossly premature. But it will eventually become necessary, and we should start thinking ahead now. Some people in the online vampiric community have mistakenly credited me with originating the idea of "vampires as a social movement." Not true at all. Sanguinarius was advocating it in her Statements of Purpose long before I arrived on the scene in late 1997. Nor is the idea original with Sangi. For example, the expression "coming out of the coffin," a phrase obviously inspired by the gay movement's "coming out of the closet," was used by at least one of the interviewees in Something in the Blood by Jeff Guinn (1996). Here are some websites of people claiming to be vampire hunters: Following are some message boards which welcome vampire hunters: Frankly, most of these people sound like tellers of tall tales, not to be taken seriously. But I can't help wondering whether some of these tall tales might be a cover for someone truly dangerous. If anyone has any background info on any of these people, please let me know. There are also people who claim to be killer vampires, and who likewise sound like tellers of tall tales: I have mixed feelings about listing the above websites. However, alleged vampire hunters and alleged killer vampires are two categories of people whom the vampiric community does need to keep an eye on. And Sanguinarius and I both agreed that it would probably be less of an ego-boost to them to be listed on my site than to be listed on Sangi's site or on any other "realvamp"-owned site. So, I hereby volunteer this page as a central repository for such info. If you own a vampire-oriented website, especially one dealing with real-life blood-drinkers and bloodletting techniques, there's one simple measure that will go a long way toward helping you protect yourself: Keep kids off your site! Register your site with various makers of Internet blocking software. Online vampiric people disagree as to whether it is desirable to deny children access to realvamp sites. On the E-list of the New York-based Coven Organization), the majority opinion seems to be that it is cruel to deny accurate information to kids (especially to kids who may, themselves, be real-life vampires in whatever sense). Others, especially outside New York, feel that it is more important to avoid provoking a witchhunt by irate parents. Under construction. More about this later. (This site is registered with SurfWatch, although its webmistress lives in New York.) Comments? Please write to Amy Krieytaz, akrieytaz@hotmail.com. Thank you. Back to:
2. Blood-drinkers, energy-hungerers, and the vampiric community
3. Blood-drinkers, energy-hungerers, and educating the public
4. Social movements and the likely forthcoming witchhunt
5. Vampire hunters and purported killer vampires
6. Real-life vampire websites and children