"Real Vampires"-how can this be anything but a contradiction in terms? We all know about vampires. Stock characters of fiction, guaranteed box-office draws, the media vampire has been familiar to us since childhood. Generally speaking, our blood-suckers appear with a tongue planted firmly in one toothy cheek-from Bela Lugosi hamming it up in the 1950's, to last summer's teenage "vamp" movies, to Count Chocula breakfast cereal, the media seldom treat the vampire as truly fearsome. The stereotyped vampire traits are familiar to any child: vampires have big fangs, sleep in coffins, are instantly incinerated by sunlight, and are best dispatched by a stake through the heart. But the most important "fact" that we all know of course is that there are no such things.
Vampires - Succubi
I received an email, a while back asking me if I was disregarding Succubi as vampires or thinking the idea too far-fetched to even mention it. The fact is I just didn't really research the subject and couldn't write about something I didn"t know. Still today, I do not know much about it, but I will be using what little information I could gather on the Internet to talk about these creatures. Hope not to offend anyone with my lack of knowledge!
Myth vs. Reality
What are some of the stories you've heard about vampires? Surely, in this day and age, there isn't a person out there who hasn't heard of, or read about Dracula. Yes, that undead, night prowling count of over-told powers and unlimited appeal has caused quite a stir. And perpetuated the frightening myths that can make reality hard to live in.
Blood and Body Fluid Precautions
What are blood and body fluid precautions?
Blood and body fluid precautions (universal precautions) are recommendations designed to prevent the transmission of HIV, hepatitis B virus (HBV), hepatitis C virus (HCV), and other diseases while administering first aid or other health care. These precautions treat all blood and body fluids as potentially infectious for diseases that are transmitted in the blood (blood-borne pathogens).
Blood and body fluid precautions apply to blood and other body fluids that contain visible traces of blood, semen, and vaginal fluids. They also apply to tissues and other body fluids, such as from around the brain or spinal cord (cerebrospinal fluid), around a joint space (synovial fluid), in the lungs (pleural fluid), in the lining of the abdomen and pelvis (peritoneal fluid), around the heart (pericardial fluid), and amniotic fluid that surrounds a fetus.
Blood and body fluid precautions (universal precautions) are recommendations designed to prevent the transmission of HIV, hepatitis B virus (HBV), hepatitis C virus (HCV), and other diseases while administering first aid or other health care. These precautions treat all blood and body fluids as potentially infectious for diseases that are transmitted in the blood (blood-borne pathogens).
Blood and body fluid precautions apply to blood and other body fluids that contain visible traces of blood, semen, and vaginal fluids. They also apply to tissues and other body fluids, such as from around the brain or spinal cord (cerebrospinal fluid), around a joint space (synovial fluid), in the lungs (pleural fluid), in the lining of the abdomen and pelvis (peritoneal fluid), around the heart (pericardial fluid), and amniotic fluid that surrounds a fetus.
Vampires in Myth and History
Vampire myths go back thousands of years and occur in almost every culture around the world. Their variety is almost endless; from red eyed monsters with green or pink hair in China to the Greek Lamia which has the upper body of a woman and the lower body of a winged serpent; from vampire foxes in Japan to a head with trailing entrails known as the Penanggalang in Malaysia.
However, the vampires we are familiar with today, although mutated by fiction and film, are largely based on Eastern European myths. The vampire myths of Europe originated in the far East, and were transported from places like China, Tibet and India with the trade caravans along the silk route to the Mediterranean. Here they spread out along the Black Sea coast to Greece, the Balkans and of course the Carpathian mountains, including Hungary and Transylvania.
However, the vampires we are familiar with today, although mutated by fiction and film, are largely based on Eastern European myths. The vampire myths of Europe originated in the far East, and were transported from places like China, Tibet and India with the trade caravans along the silk route to the Mediterranean. Here they spread out along the Black Sea coast to Greece, the Balkans and of course the Carpathian mountains, including Hungary and Transylvania.
Phlebotomy: The Ancient Art of Bloodletting
The practice of bloodletting seemed logical when the foundation of all medical treatment was based on the four body humors: blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile. Health was thought to be restored by purging, starving, vomiting or bloodletting.
The art of bloodletting was flourishing well before Hippocrates in the fifth century B.C. By the middle ages, both surgeons and barbers were specializing in this bloody practice. Barbers advertised with a red (for blood) and white (for tourniquet) striped pole. The pole itself represented the stick squeezed by the patient to dilate the veins.
The art of bloodletting was flourishing well before Hippocrates in the fifth century B.C. By the middle ages, both surgeons and barbers were specializing in this bloody practice. Barbers advertised with a red (for blood) and white (for tourniquet) striped pole. The pole itself represented the stick squeezed by the patient to dilate the veins.
Psychic vampires - Warding off their attacks
Some people are acutely aware when a psychic vampire is feeding from them but do not know how to stop it from happening. Mainly because this is not a subject they teach in self-defense classes. I just could see this, can't you? ~chuckles~
Psi-vamps - The feeding process
If feeding is pretty well known for sanguinarius vampires, the process for psychic vampires still stays a perfect mystery for most. What happens, what do they feed on, how do we know we are being fed on? How to defend ourselves against these attacks? So many questions because this is a subject not often explored. I researched the subject some and hope to have come with some answers at last.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)