h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Oh brother where do I start. First of all Vlad Dracula (Dracula is as close to a family name as he has) was a real figure. He was the Voivode of an area of whats now modern Romania known as Wallachia (Moldavia was never his although relatives of his ruled there during his reign). He was a political leader and a warrior not simply a military leader. He's also influenced other things aside from Stoker. For one Machiavelli's ideas of the Prince (which incidently is a possible translation of Voivode) are extremely similar to Vlad's style of rulership and Machiavelli would easily have had access to information about him. Also Nicholai Chouchescu was obsessed with Drqacula formally declaring 1976 the year of Dracula and choosing to order the helecopter taking him out of the country after he was deposed to head for Tirgoviste (Dracula's capital city). Dracula was no vampire although he did on occasion consume the blood of his enemies (probably becuase in the warrior traditions of Europe doing so could give you that enemies strength). He was called a wampyr in a german text during is own life time but most historians believe it meant blood thirsty not blood drinker (as in violent).

As to vampires first Lilith was the first wife of Adam and the connection between her and vampires is tenuous at best. IN most kabbalastic texts she is a demon and a consort of the devil. The oldest recorded vampire story is probably older then this (as Lilith began with kabbalah more then the bible). Babylon, Summeria and to some extent Egypt had stories of vampire like creatures.

Also who ever said vampires haven't been conected to demon possession was very far off. There is an old poem (I don't recall the culture it came from) about vampires that describe them as "demons full of violence carelessly shedding blood." Also in many culture (notably Christian Europe) vampires were believed to be corpses reanimated by demons not the original spirit. Also the Chinese Chaing shih is an exmaple of a vampire like creature that is a demonicly possessed body.

To the original question are vampires real well yes but not in the way you might think. For starters drop every thing Anne Rice ever said about vampires. Aside from her lack of literary talent she is pretty much ignorant of the legends of vampires (she was interested in the figure of the vampire as a psychological symbol not a mythic figure of course she ignored the symbolism of vampires from any historical source as well). If you go back to the old lore you can figure out what vampires really are. They walk through walls, are occasionally seen to move about while there body lies buried in the grave and feed on life energy more properly then blood (Stoker invented the idea of vampires feeding from the neck in folk lore they usually fed from the center of thehest also some vampires never even left their grave they simply caused disease and plague by force of will). Also in most traditions you either choose to become a vampire or become one because of your evil deeds (the excomunicated, witches, murderers, people cursed). All combined (especially after factoring in modern accounts of vampire in both the US and Europe) its reasonably likely we're talking about some type of spirit. Cold spots have long been associated with hauntings but they don't actually represent a change in temperature. Spirits require energy to manifest in the physical world. They can get it a couple ways but one of the most common is to draw energy from the people around them. Several modern occultists (Konstantinos and John Michael Greer most notably) have theorized that some ghosts learn to use this energy to sustain there own damaged energy patterns (most human spirit hauntings fade over time and become less and less active) as a way of staying planted in this world. Demons are also prone to use human energy (particularly emotional) both to power their activities and for pleasure. ITs also remotely possible (if unlikely) that demons occasionally possess corpses which may account for a few of the stories as well but I find that unlikely.