Vampires

Continuing on the Halloween theme, this week we are exploring the world of vampires. This post does superficially stray from massage and bodywork as it deals with how to keep ourselves energetically safe from those that would harm us . These attacks can have a tremendous impact on our physical health though and are something we all deal with to various degrees, so I thought it was more than a fair topic. Plus it was a fun to unpack all the not so hidden symbolism.

Of all the supernatural villains who haunt our collective cultural story vampires tap deepest into my primordial fear of being consumed. I see zombies in their klutzy hunt for brains mocking the mindless rat race of modern life. Ghosts as our nervous system inability to let painful memories die. Werewolves represent our repressed animal nature. Vampires are something other, something darker than where our thoughts can go. They represent something that preys off us in some unknowable way. Predators observe their prey. They study their habits and learn their vulnerabilities. Curiosity about a predator is a dangerous trait. The only thing a zebra has to know about a lion is, to fear her. To inquire more is to risk great danger.

What do we know about vampires though? What practical wisdom can we glean from this cultural mythos?

They feed on our blood, our life force. Blood allows an economy of chemical exchanges between almost all the cells in our body, without which we would simply not be. More than that blood allow a subtle but palpable communication between people. Our heart emits and receives electromagnetic information constantly syncing itself up to the energy around it. At the same time it is communicating directly with our brain and endocrine system to influence our emotions. Blood is the connective tissue that allows our body to communicate chemically with itself and to communicate emotionally with those proximal to us. When new age folks talk of people’s energy, it is this phenomenon they are explaining in elementary terms. It's why we are happy around happy people and angry around angry people. This is what vampires feed off of.

The iconic vampire attack is a two-prong assault to the carotid artery.* The vampire bites into its victim when feeding, creating a wound between the brain and visceral organs, or mind and body. There are many ways to quantify what constitutes trauma. What I think all trauma has in common, no matter how it's induced is it tears our consciousness away from our body. Our consciousness becomes trapped in the biologic circumstances of a horrible event. We lose the ability to move on from the pain and let our body reset itself. Muscle tissue is wired with nerves and is often where we hold our pain. The Physical and psychological are always integrated. To relieve mental pain we often need to call attention to the part of our body that been guarded since the trauma. Conversely to let muscles release sometimes we have to (safely) relive a traumatic event and experience the emotions we were unable to express at the time. We all have some degree of trauma locking us into patterns that are no longer useful. This can happen at different intensity levels from the life-debilitating to the minor but persistent psychological blemishes that limit our ability to be our best selves.

Vampirism is contagious. Once bitten by a vampire we too can turn into a vampire. It's easy to turn cold after we been energetically drained. There is an idea that if we kill the head vampire all other vampires will go back to being human. I find this to be just a trick of the vampire. If we spend our lives looking for the first jerk, the one responsible for creating all the other jerks we will waste our lives. There is no head vampire. Every vampire has an excuse, someone that made them vampiric. Every vampire has to be dealt with individually. Idealistic revolutionaries who seek to cleanse the world of evil have a habit of becoming infected with the same thought patterns of the dictators they behead.

So how do we spot these not so nice neighbors? One way is to pay attention to reflexions. Vampires do not have a reflection, which is to say they can’t reflect or look inward. Since they lack introspection, the ability to see themselves, they remain young or immature. If we're not careful we can easily be dragged into their drama and drained of our life energy.

We can be safe from vampires though. As pointed out in many movies vampires cannot enter our homes unless we invite them in, unless we allow them to cross our threshold. When we compromise our boundaries we permit them in our lives. Vampires true to their aristocratic lineage tend to obey this edicate. We need to consent to be their victims. They can be sneaky though. A smart vampire will not begin this negotiation by trying to get us to violate our core beliefs. No, they will get us to slowly chip away at our lesser values when we are vulnerable to such temptation. It is necessary to have our values challenge or we will never grow. Not everyone who questions our edges is parasitic but if we choose to renegotiate our boundaries we should be the one who determines how they will be reestablished.

Vampires do not like Crucifixes. Most of the popular imagery of vampires comes from eastern European folk traditions, although there are many cultures around the world that have vampiric archetypes. Christianity has been an influence in eastern Europe for hundreds of years so much of its art and stories have a Christian perspective. If we look past the surface of this though, crosses are a symbol some use to express the idea of God. What Is God, but a higher purpose, whatever that means to you; whatever the driving force that inspires your life. Anything that reminds us of the big picture, our mission whatever that is will keep us on guard from forces that sap our energy.

How do we release a person from vampire consciousness? Sunlight kills vampires. If we can shine light on the part of their personality that is dark to them our friend may shed their bloodsucking ways. Of course, this process can be devastating to them. That's why the other effective way to kill a vampire is to steak ( break) their heart. When trying to help a vampire we risk causing them immeasurable pain.

So is vampirism is on the rise? Screens are consuming more and more of our attention. The monetization of this attention may be just part of the digestive process of a force that is feeding off our consciousness. Political ideologies are begging to be let in our homes. Our anxiety-inducing media is heavily sponsored by pharmaceutical companies who profit or feed off our collective fears. But I suspect vampires are not any more prevalent now they been historically. Vampires are very old yet they can easily seduce us with their youthful appearance. They change with the times to avoid being recognized, but if we are mindful we can avoid these spiritual mosquitoes.

Anthony Bruni

* I ’m assuming vampire prefer oxygenated blood hence the carotid artery and not the jugular vein. I may be wrong about the culinary habits of this mythical creature.