26 September 2010

locavore vampires

Looks like a very slow news day at the online SMH as it is running not one but two items on people who think that they are vampires.

One indicates that -
MORPHEUS knew he was a vampire from the age of three.

''When all the other kids wanted to be Luke Skywalker, I wanted to be Dracula,'' he said.

Morpheus, 34, a law student from Bronte who does not want his identity revealed, believes drinking blood will prepare him for a better afterlife. "I don't believe my body is immortal but I believe my soul is", he said.

"I believe that by drinking blood, I imprint my consciousness, so that in the next life I will remember who I am now."

He first tasted blood in primary school, having bitten a fellow student in a fight.

"It almost tasted like I had done that before", said Morpheus, although he now exclusively drinks the blood of women with whom he is romantically involved.
The 'imprinted on my consciousness' meme will go down a treat at World Futures. That journal has been happy to publish items claiming a hard basis for reincarnation, precognition and other nonsense that would delight Madame Blavatsky and other spiritualists, so perhaps we can look forward to an article from Morpheus on vampire science. Perhaps vampires - undead and using haemoglobin as a sort of USB - explain Ervin Laszlo's claims regarding "Communication with entities that are no longer living in the familiar form in this world but are alive nonetheless". (Such claims - unlike bats in the scholarly belfry - will not fly in the High Court but let us not allow legal realism to get in the way.)

Perhaps, of course, his desire for anonymity - it's such a shame that 'vampires' always have to camp it up with a moniker such as Morpheus - is attributable to the tale being a wind up rather than from fear Cardinal Pell will send a Dominican or two round to his coffin with a hickory-wood stake and a gallon of holy water. Is he indeed a law student?

Elsewhere in this blog I've been naughty, so very naughty, and asked why - if claims of levitation and materialisation are true - sundry gurus seem to restrict themselves to travel by Rolls-Royce or the first class cabin on major airlines, rather than just floating off into the aether and thereby avoiding the hassle of security checking at the airport. The item on Morpheus reports that -
Despite the resurgence of vampire tales in popular culture, Morpheus said it had not translated into an increase in ranks.

"I'm quite lonely; I used to have a circle of people but most of them moved to Melbourne - Sydney really doesn't have any vampires left", he said.
Poor dear. Life's tough when you are a vampire. If he is indeed undead rather than a dude with a tiresome taste in S&M can't he just flap his leathery wings and visit the other undead in Melbourne? Do vampires (or just kiddies who think that being a Goth or an Emo is so passe) have to be locavores?

He announces that "I'm more than happy to teach anyone who is interested about vampirism". Perhaps he's just happy to oblige a bored journo with a rather silly story. Law students and their wacky sense of humour.

Elsewhere the SMH reports that
VAMPIRES - and not just the pretty kind featured on big and small screens - are seeking fresh blood. ...

Researchers say the internet has provided a church for disparate individuals and groups across the globe to meet and cement new spiritual belief systems around traditionally "dark" mythical forces such as vampires and werewolves.

The University of Western Sydney's Adam Possamai, author of Sociology of Religion for Generations X and Y, has plotted the rise of "hyper-real" religions drawing on popular culture.

"People are becoming inspired by the characteristics of the vampire and see them as a source of fulfilling their potential and inner abilities", Associate Professor Possamai said.

Researcher Danielle Kirby used the "Otherkin", who meet in an online forum and believe they are partially or entirely non-human, to examine the phenomenon. In her paper, she found about 800 members of the Otherkin network, including those who identified as dragons, elves, vampires, fairies and angels. The internet had helped concentrate their underlying broadly neo-pagan beliefs, she said.

The online and secretive nature of many self-described vampires - some who profess to drink blood, others who consume "psychic energy" - make it difficult to pin down numbers but believers say there could be 300 in Australia.
Is there a difference between hyper-real and plain damn silly?