Sanguinarian Vampires

First let me say that I am a psychic vampire and my knowledge of blood vampires is limited to what I have learned from meeting other sang vampires. I would certainly love for any of our blood vampires here to contribute more to this page.

Sanguinarian simply means blood vampire. Blood vampires aquire what they need from human blood and sometimes animal blood. Most sang vampires use willing donors who are usually checked out to make sure they are in good health. It is certainly a wise thing to keep from spreading diseases. As I said before, vampires are not immortal or invulnerable.

From what I've learned many sangs believe that they are born vampires from traceable bloodlines. I have also met some that say that they were turned into vampires by another vampire but there is great debate in the vampire community as to whether this is really possible. It is an issue that I hope we will discuss on the message boards with our sanguinarian members.

There is also a debate as to what a blood vampire needs from blood. Is is proteins in blood, the life force energy within it, or something else contained within blood? I can't answer this one with certainty but my personal opinion is that it is the lifeforce energy contained within it. The most basic thing required for life is that people have a certain amount of blood in their bodies......without it, there is no life. Psychic vampires require energy and I believe that the blood vampire does as well but must take it from the physical drinking of blood. As blood will renew itself, for example when you donate blood, so does lifeforce energy. So the taking of blood will not do real harm as long as it is small amounts

The Life of a Sanguinarian

What is a Sanguinarian, you ask? Well, Sanguinarian is a term that was developed by Amy Krieytaz, owner of the Vampiric People's Resource Page, to describe those of us that have an affection and need for blood. A Sanguinarian is a Human Living Vampire, or HLV. We are people who have a biological need to ingest blood. We are human. We don't look any different from anyone else (except for those of us that are very fair complected due to sun-allergy.) We have jobs, families, children, regular friends, parents, and everything else that a non-sanguinarian has.

There are many concepts about why we have this need, compulsion or tendency.

Our own concepts range from a biological need to a spiritual need. Biologically we may need the blood to enhance our own deficiency in certain minerals, vitamins, cells or blood supply. Psychically it's possible that we need energy from other sources outside ourselves, because we have a deficiency in that area, possibly not able to provide our own, and we gain this energy from blood. Psychologically it could satisfy us with the closeness it provides, a merging, so to speak. Spiritually it's possible that we use it to gain prana, or spiritual energy or power from it.

We have no special supernatural powers (other than a heightened awareness of those around us, and heightened senses which makes life more acute) unless we choose to develop them within ourselves, just like an average person. We are not immortal (although some will try to disagree with me on this, that is just a fantasy.) We get ill, we weep, we bleed, we are born, and finally we die just like any other person. Our lives are not glamorous. There are only small portions of our kind who have chosen to live their lives completely as one would consider a "true vampire" (as in the movies.) Most of us look like your next-door neighbor we might BE your next-door neighbor and you'd never know. We go to Parent-Teacher meetings, raise our children, take care of our families, and the majority of us are not wealthy. We are normal, everyday persons. We eat we use the bathroom you get the jist!

Sarasvati describes it best:

"'Blood vampires' those self-defined HLV's whose main tendency is a compulsion, or need, to consume blood ... Blood vampires feel a physical craving to consume blood, and most do so on a regular basis ... Some blood vampires describe a life-long fascination with blood and blood-drinking, while others experienced an abrupt awakening of blood-craving which they may or may not be able to trace to a certain event"

"Blood-craving HLV's tend to regard their need for blood as a liability, sometimes an extremely severe one."

There is a big difference between categories of blood-drinking HLVs.

I'd like to start with the teenagers in this category. Teenagers have it rough during this time in their lives. They are going through hormonal changes, and they are becoming aware of who they are as people, defining themselves, and where they fit in with society. Some teenagers, who are extremely intelligent, creative, or have something that causes them to be different from other teenagers, have it a lot harder. They can be withdrawn from their peers, ostracized, tortured, or just not fit in somehow and be singled out because of it. Some of these kids are romanticists and dreamers; it's easier to deal with the pain and confusion by escaping from it. This escapism can take the form of playing any of the popular "Role Playing" games one of which is "Vampire the Masquerade" (by White Wolf) or by reading modern Gothic novels (for example, anything by Anne Rice or Chelsey Quinn Yarboro.) In some of these kids, it's possible that the concept of being all powerful and in control of their lives is a much better reality than feeling helpless and out of control. THESE are the teenagers who can be easily seduced by the fantasy of actually being a "Vampire."

These kids are NOT vampires. And one has to watch out for and take care of these misguided teens, lest they get themselves into a dangerous situation by believing themselves to be something they are not ultra-powerful, invincible, immortal. Many adults will take advantage of them, in their deluded, innocent, vulnerable state. Nowthere ARE teenagers who DO come out as Sangunarians. This need or desire for blood usually hits them at their puberty. They have no idea what to do with this desire, like they have no idea what to do with their hormones, at that stage. Many of them will also fall into the "fantasy vampire" themes, for a while. But their interest is MORE than just a passing phase, and is based on more than simply a need to gain control over their lives, feel a sense of self-worth or empowerment, or to fit in. These few kids eventually find their way through the fantasy and into the adult world of Human Living Vampires.

Another category that needs to be addressed early on in this essay is what Sarasvati rightly names the "Psychotic Vampire".

The psychotic "vampire" is a person with a severe psychotic illness, who believes themselves to either be a vampire, or who uses vampiric traits in their lust for cruelty.

Most Psychotic Vampires are the people who end up in the many diverse books and essays on "vampirism", as an example of what or who vampires are. While these mentally ill people may display a lust for blood, they are in no way True vampires. They are mentally ill persons, usually with abusive histories, who are not unlike Ted Bundy or Charles Manson, they just have an obsession with blood, and/or a delusion of being a vampire.

Sarasvati describes them thus:

"A psychotic vampire is a person who has a sociopathic mental illness that leads him (they are almost invariably male) to behave like a vampire, and sometimes to actually self-identify as one. In most cases, this identification is with folkloric/fictional vampires such as Dracula, Anne Rice's characters or the vampires in role-playing games. But more usually, psychotic vampires are simply obsessed with blood and will commit brutal crimes without remorse in order to see, taste, and feel it. They may also take on some of the trappings of Vamp[I]re Lifestylers by wearing capes, sleeping in coffins, filling their homes with skulls, bones, and souvenirs stolen from cemeteries, and so on, but they should not be confused with true Lifestylers."

These are people that impressionable persons should explicitly be aware of. They will be wherever groupings of persons who are into the vampiric or Gothic lifestyles tend to gather on the internet, in clubs, in religious groups, in vampiric groups. If you are new to the lifestyle, or are new to an area, it is simply common sense NOT to go any place by yourself, without a trusted friend, and with anyone you do not know. Do not allow yourself to be alone with ANYONE you do not know. Trust your gut-feelings about people you are usually right. Take any normal, maybe even further cautions that you would normally take when dealing with new people or a new environment. Don't walk around the streets around a club alone. Predators tend to lurk there, waiting for vulnerable victims. Just because YOU may be a vampire, does not mean that you are invulnerable to other predators! And remember what your mother taught you don't take "candy" from strangers!

Speaking of this topic, I would like to add that everything I've written here is from my own experiences, observations and beliefs. Not every vampire has the same views that I have. I tend to be a careful person, by nature. It's what's kept me alive in many sticky situations. Some vampires will even disagree with my views and that's fine. Everyone is different. Don't take what ANYONE (even myself) says as Law. Do your own research. Study from many people. Listen to your own heart. You are the only one who truly has your own answers.

The next category of vampires is average HLVs.

Most of the HLVs that I have met and/or talked to have one thing in common. They are good, normal folks, and come from all walks of life. Some are professors, some work in the social fields or in medicine, some are artists or musicians, still others are simply working class people. How do they appear?

Well, some look like professors, some look like social workers, some look like doctors or nurses, some are gothic, some live their lives like the traditional American concept of the Vampire are getting what I'm getting at?

There is NO WAY to tell if someone is a vampire, blood, psychic or otherwise. Most vampires keep their lifestyle to themselves, or maybe sharing it with a few close friends. Otherwise, there are a few clubs specifically for vampires, in many major cities. However fun these may be, my previous warning standsand a lot of these clubs are also patronized by vampire wanna-bees, and people who like to think they're "vampire hunters" (I love Buffy, too, but PLEASE!) These so-called "vampire hunters" COULD form some danger, if only from their delusional nature, so stay precautious. Then there are the "blood-donors". DO NOT EVER EVER EVER drink from a stranger, under ANY circumstances. I will cover this in my next article on Feeding. Let's just say, for now, AIDS and Hepatitis would be no fun. And the last thing will be running into people who want you to "change them" (they have read too much Bram Stoker, Anne Rice and such.) Laugh at them, be kind to them, let them down easily and walk quickly away