Are Vampires Real

"Vampires are mythological or folkloric beings who subsist by feeding on the life essence (generally in the form of blood) of living creatures, regardless of whether they are undead or a living person." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/vampire).

This definition may be fine for you, and the general public, but there are people who believe vampires exist. Is this a fair definition for them? No, absolutely not. It would be like defining God as a made up idea. A majority of the world's population believe in some type of God or higher power, so this definition would not be acceptable. So, what about the small percentage of people who believe vampires exist? Isn't this definition a little harsh?

The idea of vampirism has been around for centuries, but as with anything else, ideas and characteristics change throughout time. They have looked like rotting bodies and on the other extreme, sexy, seductive, handsome, etc. The first book to show vampires as smart, sexy, etc. was John Polidori's "The Vampyre." Just as influential on the portrayal of vampires today is Bram Stoker's "Dracula." If you look at some popular television shows and many movies, the vampires are good looking, smart, and there is something mysterious about them that attracts us to them. Look at Stephan and Damon Salvatore from "The Vampire Diaries", (my favorite show I must add!), they are good examples of this.

I could go on and on forever about the influences of the portrayal of modern vampires, etc. But, I guess the real question is: Do vampires exist? I will list a few examples and some research that I have completed and then you can draw your own conclusion.

In 2002 to early 2003, there were vampire sightings and experiences in an African country called Malawi. The residents here said that the vampires were men carrying flashlights and syringes. According to them, they would drug them with sleeping gas and use syringes to extract their blood. Citizens of Malawi became paranoid and scared, leading to attacks on some men and resulting in at least one death. Three Catholic priests and their governor were atacked. THe governor's explination for all of this was that it's an underdeveloped third world country. He said that the citizens are so uneducated that they would believe anything.

Another example was Fritz Haarman. The media came up with the name The Vampire of Hanover. They called him this because he would eat through his victims' throats to the point where they were almost decapitated. Not only that, but he would sometimes eat some of their bodies. Some people claim that he sold human meat on the black market.

There are a lot of other examples too, but I am just going to stop at these two. There were also groups who were in charge of doing research for the vampirism vaccine and who were supposed to get rid of the vampire population. While doing my research, I came across a group called The Federal Vampire and Zombie agency. There are some people who believe this is real, and some who do not. The site is run by Dr. Hugos Pecos. On this site, he shows reports of cases from the agency. One talked about an opium hideout where some chinese vampires resided. They didn't have any way to get on the inside to find out what was going on, so they hired a Chinese man from the specific location of these vampires. Not long after joining, he was able to lead them to the hideout. The place was sealed off and smoke was pumped into the vampire infested area. This caused vampires to come out onto the street and they were immediately destroyed. Agents went into the area and killed many more vampires. The only reason they were able to go in and kill them so easily was because they were doing opium, causing them to move more slowly and to lessen their senses. (www.fvza.org). There was another report claiming that president Harding was also killed by a vampire, but the government covered this up by stating he died from food poisoning and eventually claimed that it wasn't food poisoning, it was a stroke. According to the report, a professional on vampirism was called in and told everyone that the president had been bitten by a vampire. As a result, they gave him Cyanide to put him out of his misery.

It is even said that the government was trying to come up with a vaccine for vampirism, but failed for some time. Five years after starting, they came up with a working vaccine. The first success story was that of Joe Valdez, a mechanic.

This all sounds scientific enough, but there's controversy about whether any of this is true or not. The number one argument from people saying it isn't true is the disclaimer found on the webpage. "This site is fictional and is for entertainment puposes only. We are not affiliated with the U.S. government in any way."

I supposed this makes sense, because I highly doubt any official top secret documents about vampires or zombies would be leaked out to the general public. Is that to say that there never was some branch of the government that worked on the research of vampires and zombies? No, but we will never really know the answer to this.

I could go on and on with more arguments, examples, etc. I am going to cut this one short. In the end, I really haven't come up with any conclusions on what I believe to be true. I never believed that vampires, ghosts, zombies, etc. existed because I have never personally experienced anything. However, there are people I know who believe in these things, so, I am being open-minded and doing my own research to come up with my own conclusions.