by Rebecca Taylor at thefastertimes.com

Imagination, the catalyst for both science and religion, allows us to make sense of life and death. If vampires are the offspring of imagination, it begs the question: Why would we imagine such beings into existence?

Before we had a scientific understanding of mortality, this is what we knew: We were born from the blood of our mothers’, and we died from the loss of our own. When an animal is hurt, it compulsively licks the blood from its wounds.

If blood is the key to life and death, it is not hard to imagine how the vampire was dreamt into existence. If we drink blood, the vessel of life, it follows that we will live forever. Allow imagination to take this idea a step further, damning those that drink (Deuteronomy 12:23: Only be sure that thou eat not the blood: for the blood is the life; and thou mayest not eat the life with the flesh.) and a monster is born.

Yet it has been recently reported that a group of neo-vampires have “evolved” and risen above their blood drinking ways. We have seen fictional accounts of this on True Blood–Vampire Bill loves his synthetic blood substitute–but the vampires of Tampa Bay, FL have taken this above and beyond the kitsch. According to St. Petersburg Times staff writer Alexandra Zayas, who spent months among Tampa Bay’s vampire population, “vampires can also psychic or pranic feed, sucking the energy directly from the auras of others, or they can ambient feed on the collective excitement of high energy places like dance clubs.”

Read the full article here

She goes on to talk about other influences in pop culture. It’s very interesting to see the interconnection of blood in folklore  and entertainment.

What did you think?