Vampires seek tolerance, understanding from others

[deacongray]

Vampires seek tolerance, understanding from others

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By Christopher Quinn
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Being a vampire is boring compared to the young, beautiful and powerful bloodsuckers appearing weekly on TV and movie screens.

Merticus, an organizer of the 4-year-old Atlanta Vampire Alliance, said vampires are mostly like anyone else.

"We could be the model-train group down the street from you," he said.

Except the model-train group depends on electricity as a power source. Atlanta vampires believe they drain energy from people and some, yes, drink a bit of human blood to get the boost they need.

Merticus, who declines to give his real name, and alliance members claim they are different, physically or psychologically. They draw energy to feel good and stay healthy, and they absorb it psychically from close contact with "donors" or from drinking a tablespoon of blood from them maybe once a week. They do not claim mythic powers such as immortality, and the screen depictions are often off-putting to members.

For instance, the vampires from the Twilight Saga, the luridly romantic novel and movies for young adults, have skin that sparkles in sunlight.

"That doesn't sit too well with us," Merticus said by phone.

Sounds weird? That is why Merticus, a politically active small business owner in Atlanta, and the eleven other members of his group do not talk to outsiders about their alternate identities. They fear losing jobs, discrimination or shunning. Few vampires have come out like the lady who posed for photos in a T-shirt and jeans for the Washington Post in 2008.

"The only thing I objected to in the article is that we were painted as boring," Merticus said dryly.

Vampire groups have been around for decades, but the pop culture obsession fueled by the Twilight phenomenon (85 million novels sold worldwide) and two current TV series, are giving them a boost in interest. The Atlanta group's unique visitors to its Web site at http://www.atlantavampirealliance.com/ jumped from about 16,000 in 2007 to about 28,000 so far in 2009.

Scholars have watched them for years.

Joseph Laycock, a former Atlantan finishing his doctorate in religion and society at Boston University, discovered that the Atlantans sent out a 1,000-question survey to more than 900 self-identified vampires called the Advanced Vampirism & Energy Work Research Survey, through Suscitatio Enterprises, a corporation formed by Merticus and others for the survey. Laycock contacted Merticus to study what they reported about themselves. He won their trust, spent time in the community, then wrote and presented a paper on vampires as a self-identifying group to the American Academy of Religion two years ago.

"So I gave this paper and just thought people would think it would be weird and that would be the end of it," Laycock said. "Two [academic] journals approached me and said they wanted to approach the piece and Praeger [soon to be his publisher] approached me, and they knew something I didn't about this thing called Twilight."

Laycock's resulting sociological tome, "Vampires Today: the Truth About Modern Vampirism" has earned him nonstop interviews between Halloween and the premiere of the next Twilight movie, "New Moon," on Friday.

Even TV psychologist Dr. Phil McGraw called.

"He said he was doing a show about teenagers biting each other. I said, ‘Dr. Phil, have you ever heard of hickeys?'" Laycock quipped.

Laycock's book shows vampires are teenagers and grandmothers, stay-at-home moms and professionals. Most blend in with appearance and behavior, and are no more dangerous than any other group, though some vampires get into "the lifestyle" and wear fake fangs and Gothic dress. That may or may not draw attention depending on location, he said.

"If you go to Los Angeles, no one even cares if you are a vampire," Laycock said.

Katherine Ramsland, a professor of forensic psychology at DeSales University in Pennsylvania interviewed and studied vampires nearly a decade ago. She finds reasons for their self-identification in needs other than physical.

"Most people are attracted to it because of its power and mystery and mystique and the way it gives them a whole new identity," she said. "It’s a lot more interesting to most of us than our own identities."

"I have never ever heard of one going to a physician or scientist to say please prove this so I can support my claim with objective methods," she said.

Merticus said the survey was a start to answering doubts like Ramsland's. The survey shows vampires report higher incidences of depression, asthma, migraines and other physical ailments. He would love for genetic testing to take place to look for scientific explanations for their differences.

In the meantime, "The only thing I would ask is tolerance," he said.

[Alterra Von Feuers]

I do like Mericus' stand on vampirism, including both Sang and psi types with refreshing candor.

[The Madame X]

I was equally and pleasantly surprised. And happy to see that the article was not overly angled toward sensationalism.
Kudos!

[LadyDarkAdora]

very nicely done indeed.