The Order of Maidenfear--A Brief History

Maidenfear...perhaps it sounds a bit frightening and yet somehow alluring at the same time. It is an idea that captures--at least in part--the essence of that which is vampire. "Maidenfear" is a literary device meant to convey the nerves of a new virgin bride going to the marriage bed for the first time...or really the giddy anxiety of anybody about to taste love for the first time. The Order was so named in 1970 after this romantic idea of mixing pleasure with fear of the unknown.

What is a vampire? There exists an entity of living energy all around us and in the universe. This energy is both alive itself and imbues all things with life of one degree or another. A vampire is an adept at energy play, an adept at tapping into this living energy for self-benefit. For some this is achieved through drinking blood, for others it is a matter of psychic living energy. A vampire knows how to take what energy they want and need and use it for their own purposes.

Over the years the vampires of the Order of Maidenfear have discovered many kinds of vamprism which overlap and compliment each other into a larger vampiric practice. Vampirism is the practice of one, or all of these devices, or of something entirely different, in order to make a circuit between ourselves and the object of energy, be it a donor or the living force of a wind gust.

The Order was founded in the practice of pranic vampirism. What is pranic? The word comes from the Sanskrit prana, meaning lifeforce. The pranic vampire is a creature who absorbs the energies of the living world--a creature of energy play. Blood is most often associated with vampires, and is of course a strong source of prana. But there are other ways of being a pranic vampire too, methods that involve the mind and mental ability.

Maidenfear does not claim to have the only true vampire way. The secrets you find will be secrets hidden within yourself. We do not claim exclusivity to the term "pranic". Vampires are a free breed, and the Order of Maidenfear supports this independence by offering a gentle society for those of a like mind.
If it seems difficult to be a vampire in this day and age, imagine how things were for our founder, Anne de Molay (1930-2002). She claimed descent from the infamous last Grand Master of the Knights Templar, Jacques de Molay, and all documentation supports her claim that Anne de Molay was in fact her birth name.
In an era of horror film schlock, Anne investigated the archetype of the vampire and came to the conclusion that vampirism was a very real interaction with life energy that could benefit the practitioner. Having shared her vision, Anne was able to form a group of like minds and established the Order of Maidenfear in 1966.

Why "Maidenfear"? Why use a word with no obvious associations with vampirism to communicate the Order's existence to the world? Anne wrote, "I came upon this term, and for some reason it struck me deep, it resonated within me. What a perfect concept, the nervous excitement of fear and desire captured in a single word. For me, this word was so replete with energy itself that I could see nothing else but to apply it in my own form of vampirism."

In 1970, Anne inherited a generous amount of money after the passing of her father. She was about to turn 40, she was a history teacher, she had decided against having a family, and her one absorbing passion was the Order of Maidenfear. Anne invested in the future of her Order by buying a large Victorian house in Philadelphia, the building that became House Maidenfear. Dedicated to Anne's vision of the vampiric life, vampires from the city and the Eastern seaboard came to live in House Maidenfear.

In council on the Summer Solstice of 1970, the Maidenfear vampires wrote and approved the Maidenfear Entente, a document which would be the constitution of Order operations. Additionally, a special shrine to the universal guiding force, called Raven, opened within the house. For the next twenty years, House Maidenfear and the Order operated in relative obscurity. After all, this was not a philosophy that everyone was ready to hear. Like minds found and joined the order.

Anne de Molay was the first Grand Master and remained in that position until 1987.

What Is Vampgeist?

Vampgeist is where fact meets fascination and the real vampire is reimagined.

Vampgeist is the brainchild of individuals who are active leaders in the real vampire community. Vampgeist itself exists to serve the community, to serve those outside the community, and to serve people's endless curiosity about vampires. Vampgeist is its own community, an independent entity that welcomes everyone.

There is no one truth that explains away the personal philosophies of everyone who calls themselves vampire, but Vampgeist aims to explore and share a few truths. Vampgeist is not about cosmetic fangs or aesthetic sensationalism, but rather about thought, deed, and experience.

You do not need to count yourself as a real vampire to interact with Vampgeist--in fact, one of Vampgeist's main purposes is to be accessible to the general public as well as the media.

The website and online interface is new, but Vampgeist as an entity has existed for several years. Our interest in all things media has brought us online where we believe we will be able to supply information and assistance to a wide range of individuals. The driving factor for this endeavor is the concept of the vampire as being an archetype in the collective subconcious human mind--that is, where people are, there too will be vampires.
Vampgeist supports the activities of the "RVC", the real vampire community, and everyone it touches. You do not need to accept the possiblity of real vampires to reap benefits from this site, but we do hope that you will enter with an open mind. Vampgeist also supports the "FVC" or the Free Vampire Community.

Paradoxically, this would be anyone identifying with the vampire but prefering to be solitary. But in truth, Vampgeist is a site for everyone, a place of all things vampire, where the curious and the involved can come for more information and assistance.

We are media professionals aiming to monitor any and all mention of anything vampire as well as to provide other media outlets (researchers, producers, journalists) with accurate and quality information about the real vampire community and about what the real vampire community is not.

What is the operating idea? What is it we plan to offer those who come a seeking?

We are seeking to better understand ourselves through the vampire archetype. This archetype has been found in virtually every human culture around the world.

Vampgeist aims to describe a system of vampiric practice that can be understood by society in general.

While the origins of Vampgeist and its creators lie with the vampire Order of Maidenfear, Vampgeist operates independently of Maidenfear or any other vampire group.

Vampgeist operates independently of the real vampire community and of society at large. In this way, we serve both through information and education.

Vampgeist will assert that our paradigm is but one of many in the vampire community.

Vampgeist seeks to represent the real vampire community with respect and dignity.

Vampgeist is here to provide information to people outside of the community about the phenomenon of real vampirism. If you think people aren't perennially interested in vampires, ask someone.
Vampgeist hopes to provide timely and relevant warnings and cautions against media traps.
Vampgeist will mediate access to the real vampire community for those seeking to learn or satisfy their curiosity.
Vampgeist can provide provisionary legal advice to individuals who feel that their essential rights are being threatened.
Vampgeist exists to protect individuals from media predators and exploitation.
Vampgeist will produce quality non-fiction articles and press releases independently and at the request of Client-Members.
Vampgeist is a SERVICE, not an Order or a Court.
How can we do this? We are media professionals, with experience in print and broadcast journalism. Our basic tenet is that being a vampire is fascinating enough without needing to dress the part or throw in some stereotypical imagery

Meet The Founder

Let me begin with an assurance.  If in all my years of activity with the vampire community I had ever seen anything outright harmful, destructive, or otherwise detrimental...if I had not found that many of the ideas and concepts and philosophies have at least some sound grounding in logic, reason, and reality...if I had not discovered the metaphysical power and purpose of the vampire through my own experiences...I would not be writing this now.

I am here as one representative and one voice of the vampire community precisely because it works for me.  Sure, it probably sounds insane, and I don't bear a grudge against anyone who just can't swallow the idea of real vampirism and all of its attributes.  How could I bear a grudge when once upon a time I was in the same place?  What happened is that my mind was open and I began to hear thoughts that actually made practical sense.  If a metaphysical approach means working with energy, and that energy was the essential living energy of the universe (what one might even call divine), then how was that stream of real vampirism any different from what people call religion or spirituality?
I've simplified it here, but my point is that I was not seduced by promises of immortality or a hunger for blood or what have you.  The thoughts of minds that had gone before me captured my own mind and imagination, and my path as a vampire had begun.

I have been involved with the real vampire community since 1985. I am looking to continue working for the community, especially by bringing in my professional assets in the media and in publishing. Additionally, I am open to mentoring individuals who feel the pull of the vampire, but aren't entirely certain what they are.

This is the story of how I have arrived at this point without getting into dull Dickensian description or some morass of pointless self-promotion.  Let me begin by saying I was raised in a philosophically open family. My family encouraged me to use my mind and my imagination, to explore and discover. There was no such thing as taboo. Now I can look back and see where the roots of my vampirism are in my own upbringing. I was raised to be open and aware, and so I have continued to be.

My "awakening", as it were, happened on August 6, 1985--the fortieth anniversary of the dropping of the atom bomb on Hiroshima. Actually, that was the day when months of self-examination and reflection crystallized for me. I was not yet 14 years old. I hadn't known the words "empathic" or "psionic" and consequently could not have used them to describe what I had been experiencing. I knew I was living with a different and heightened set of senses, and that the whole of me hungered and yearned for something I couldn't identify.

I had come into the sphere of House Maidenfear, a vampire sanctuary, months before through initiated friends that seemed to really understand what I was experiencing. On that day, the puzzle pieces of my thoughts clicked into place. I too was a vampire. I decided that I would never deny that aspect of me--in fact, I could never deny it. I would embrace vampirism and my existence as a vampire.

For the following four years I spent a great deal of time at House Maidenfear, learning and developing my own abilities. My own initiation was in 1989, once I turned 18. However, I had to take the Maidenfear Way and my own life as a vampire on an adventure. I moved away to college, where I studied history and linguistics and became an expert vampire researcher. I was able to enhance that skill in graduate school in Florida. Wherever I went, I made connections with the local vampire communities. I came home to House Maidenfear in 2001 and I was elected to my current station in 2003.

I came to call myself Sappho after a thorough reading of her poetry. Her words have such an ability to wrench deep emotional energy that I came to regard her as something of a vampire herself.

I'm known affectionately as the "Vampire Philosophe" for the amount of time I've spent in the more cerebral aspects of the vampire existence. Here are a few of my thoughts.

There exists an entity of living energy all around us and in the universe. I mean that this energy is both alive itself and imbues all things with life of one degree or another. A vampire is an adept at energy play, an adept at tapping into this living energy for self-benefit. For some this is achieved through drinking blood, for others it is a matter of psychic living energy. A vampire knows how to take what energy they want and need and use it for their own purposes.

I believe we as vampires are at an exciting time in our history. At no other point in the history of the world have circumstances been so ripe for us to fully express ourselves and be true to what we are. My commitment to the vampire community is to help us achieve our greatest potential.
In the 1960's, there was a woman here in Philadelphia who was taking a second, third, and fourth look at the idea of the vampire. We all knew her as Anne de Molay, although whether she was an actual descendant of Jacques de Molay, the last Grand Master of the Knights Templar, remains something of a mystery (for one thing I don't think old Jacques had any descendants, but whatever). Her theory was that it wasn't the blood that vampires needed, but rather what was IN the blood--living energy, which she called prana.

In an era of horror film schlock, Anne investigated the archetype of the vampire and came to the conclusion that vampirism was a very real interaction with life energy that could benefit the practitioner. Having shared her vision, Anne was able to form a group of like minds and established the Order of Maidenfear in 1966.

Why "Maidenfear"? Why use a word with no obvious associations with vampirism to communicate the Order's existence to the world? Anne wrote, "I came upon this term, and for some reason it struck me deep, it resonated within me. What a perfect concept, the nervous excitement of fear and desire captured in a single word. For me, this word was so replete with energy itself that I could see nothing else but to apply it in my own form of vampirism."
In 1970, Anne inherited a generous amount of money after the passing of her father. She was about to turn 40, she was a history teacher, she had decided against having a family, and her one absorbing passion was the Order of Maidenfear. Anne invested in the future of her Order by buying a large Victorian house in Philadelphia, the building that became House Maidenfear. Dedicated to Anne's vision of the vampiric life, vampires from the city and the Eastern seaboard came to live in House Maidenfear.

In council on the Summer Solstice of 1970, the Maidenfear vampires wrote and approved the Maidenfear Entente, a document which would be the constitution of Order operations. For the next twenty years, House Maidenfear and the Order operated in relative obscurity. After all, this was not a philosophy that everyone was ready to hear. Like minds found and joined the order.

Anne de Molay was the first Grand Master and remained in that position until 1987. Myself I've been "Grand Master" since 2003, except that I changed the title to "Matriarch".

I come bumbling in around 1985, guided by Maidenfear vampires who helped me understand what was going on within myself (and in reality I came to the conclusion myself and they were there to support me). I was lucky to have Anne as a guide and a friend until her passing in 2003. But my point is that there was no Internet at the time. We kept in contact with each other the old fashioned way--snail mail or telephone. There weren't any publishers willing to snatch up anything about a real vampire community. If we wanted to come together, we had to work at it. And forget mentioning vampirism to anyone outside of the group!

Was it harder to be a vampire in my starting days than it is now? I think it might have been. We had to have strength and determination to see it through. But if we triumphed--when we triumphed--the experience made all the hassle worth the effort.

And so I don't know if this makes me any more or less real than any other vampire, but this is my heritage and my legacy.

The Creed of the Kindred

 

I am vampire.

I kneel before no other creature. I am an intelligent animal who has retained my animal intelligence.

This flesh of mine is a gift in which I revel in passion and ecstasy, but my lot in the convoluted universal matrix is to exist as a creature of energy. I thrive on the energy of the cosmos around me. That energy exists in many forms. It exists in lifeblood, in psychic forces, in the angry hurling of lightning bolts from cloud to cloud.

This diversity manifests on the earth in the many different and legitimate breeds of vampire which share the world with mortal humans. Knowing my lineage, I seek to mate my personal energy with that of magic and nature as a vital part of my existence. Pounding surf, rustling crisp leaves, magical ritual-all of these empower me, and I take what is offered or what I have made for myself.

As a vampire, I am a natural being part of the natural universe. I am not confined to this plane or this dimension. I am a cosmic being of fluctuating energy. The matter that makes my flesh and flows through my body drifted down from the stars over millennia. My sight and my vision are necessarily wider and broader. Life, death, what are these to me? They dance as close as hungry lovers. This is no two-sided mortal coin but one great continuum.

The impetus of eternity, then, is the power of the vampire. It is my power, and I claim that power for myself.

The Pranic Principle

You may have heard the expression "Zeitgeist" which literally breaks into Zeit (time, era, an age) and Geist (spirit). But instead of being the spirit of an age, Vampgeist is the spirit of the vampire--who we are, what we're seeking, what we're doing.  It's very real and it's happening right now.  Vampgeist is living energy, it is lifeforce.  It is PRANA. 

 

Literally and figuratively, everything starts with prana.

The word comes from the Sanskrit prana, meaning lifeforce or living energy.  Prana not only is in everything, but it IS everything, from what we call the forces of nature to the power that keeps our blood flowing.  It is all energy.

We were introduced to vampirism as energy play, or pranic manipulation.  The pranic vampire is a creature who absorbs the energies of the living world--a creature of energy play. Blood is most often associated with vampires, and is of course a strong source of prana. But there are other ways of being a pranic vampire too, methods that involve the mind and mental ability.

 

Let us look at what we mean by "vampire". We're not talking about ghouls, revenants, or other creatures from folklore. We're not talking about immortals walking around preying on the innocent. To us, a vampire is an individual who understands and indulges in energy play and exchange.

 

Science, specifically Physics, inadvertently supports the pranic principle.  The universe and everything in it contains energy, and it's not a big stretch to call that energy prana.  That energy cannot be destroyed, only changed, or manipulated.

 

We ourselves are beings of energy.  Our energy and the energy of the universe are the same energy.  The Vampgeist concept of vampirism is the practice of plugging ourselves back into the pranic matrix of the universe and engaging in energy play.  Vampirism is working with energy according to will.  There is never any energy drain, because what is taken and handled is replaced--remember the energy cannot be destroyed idea?

 

What's the benefit?  Why bother to learn this practice?  While it's true this pranic vampirism takes an investment of time and effort, the results can astound you.  Sharpen your mind, increase your perception, heal yourself more quickly, help someone you care about with a gift of prana, and step up to become a citizen of the universe.

Statement of Purpose

There are already more real vampire sites and projects on line than any online explorer could visit in their lifetime.  All right, maybe that's an exagerration, but there are still a lot of sites out there.

 

So what is Vampgeist?  What is the operating idea?  What is it we plan to offer those who come a seeking?

 

In short, it goes something like this.

 

First and foremost, we are seeking to better understand ourselves through the vampire archetype.  This archetype has been found in virtually every human culture around the world.

 

Vampgeist aims to describe a system of vampiric practice that can be understood by society in general.

 

While the origins of Vampgeist and its creators lie with the vampire Order of Maidenfear, Vampgeist operates independently of Maidenfear or any other vampire group. 

 

Vampgeist operates independently of the real vampire community and of society at large.  In this way, we serve both through information and education.

 

Vampgeist will assert that our paradigm is but one of many in the vampire community.

Vampgeist seeks to represent the real vampire community with respect and dignity.

Vampgeist is here to provide information to people outside of the community about the phenomenon of real vampirism.  If you think people aren't perennially interested in vampires, ask someone.

Vampgeist hopes to provide timely and relevant warnings and cautions against media traps and disambiguations.

Vampgeist will mediate access to the real vampire community for those seeking to learn or satisfy their curiosity.

Vampgeist can provide provisionary legal advice to individuals who feel that their essential rights are being threatened.

Vampgeist exists to protect individuals from media predators and exploitation.

Vampgeist will produce quality non-fiction articles and press releases independently and at the request of Client-Members.

Vampgeist is a SERVICE, not an Order or a Court.

How can we do this?  We are media professionals, with experience in print and broadcast journalism.  Our basic tenet is that being a vampire is fascinating enough without needing to dress the part or throw in some stereotypical imagery.

Please feel free to contact us for clarification of any of the above or if you have questions about Vampgeist's services.

A Loaded Word

Let's face it.  "Vampire" is a loaded word.  It seems to be one of several visceral words in the English language, words so powerful as to engender a reaction just by speaking them.  But let's take a closer look.

VAMPIRE

Etymology: French, from German Vampir, from Serbian vampir

Date: 1732

1: the reanimated body of a dead person believed to come from the grave at night and suck the blood of persons asleep

2: one who lives by preying on others

Well, all right, if you insist on frolicking in folklore and Saturday horror movie matinees.  Vampgeist prefers a different definition.

VAMPIRE

There exists an entity of living energy all around us and in the universe. This energy is both alive itself and imbues all things with life of one degree or another. A vampire is an adept at energy play, an adept at tapping into this living energy for self-benefit. A vampire knows how to take what energy they want and need and use it for their own purposes.

At Vampgeist, we are especially interested in the vampire archetype.  Our studies over the years have brought us to conclude that some variation or variety of the vampire exists in the common lore of human beings around the world.  In brief, this suggests that the vampire is an archetype we all have in common as humans, or perhaps it is further evidence to suggest a collective subconcious mind.  Whatever the case may be, the vampire has been humanity's companion since the earliest days.  Recent interest in the vampire--fictional and real--indicates that the vampire will be with us for a long time to come.

But let's go back to the vampire as a common archetype among humans.  Suddenly there is much more involved than Hollywood schlock, gothic fashion, and darkness.  The vampire and the human need each other.  What would happen to the collective subconcious mind if the vampire had never been?  What if it disappeared?  And why is it there in the first place?  If we study the vampire, we are also studying a keystone in the human experience.

Simply put, vampires move us.  Whether in horror or fascination or sexual excitement, we can't help the lure of the vampire.  This is why Vampgeist exists.  This is a transition place, a realm between worlds where questions can be answered and impressions expressed.  Our relevance is the relevance of the non-waking mind on human thought.

The possibility of human beings better understanding ourselves through the vampire--if that's not reason enough to move ahead, what is?

"Vampgeist?"

Is it catching? Should I be scared? Can I bring my mother? You may have heard the expression "Zeitgeist" which literally breaks into Zeit (time, era, an age) and Geist (spirit). But instead of being the spirit of an age, Vampgeist is the spirit of the vampire--who we are, what we're seeking, what we're doing.  It's very real and it's happening right now.   More importantly, Vampgeist has been coined as a term which is more or less synonymous with prana or lifeforce.  The only difference is that Vampgeist is this living energy as it pertains to the vampire and to vampiric practice.  In other words, it's subject-specific.

 

You may already be aware of what is called the OVC or the online vampire community.  Vampgeist exists in part to serve the members of this community, but it is not part of said community.  Vampgeist is independent of all ties and influences as it operates as a mediating entity between vampires of whatever community and the world beyond.

 

We are adamant about not bringing any biases or baggage with us when we are working for Vampgeist.  There is no favored few and no disreputable dregs--we are working on a level playing field.  We're checking personal gripes at the door.  Impossible?  Perhaps.  But still it's a worthwhile goal.

 

The individuals and groups and entities that have come together for this project have decided to be called the Vampgeist Cabal.  Of course the word "cabal" has a sinister life of its own, but we believe it seems to suit our subject matter better than "group" or "team" or, dogs forbid, "community".

 

The Vampgeist Cabal

 

Director 

 Sappho Wolf

 

Associate Directors

Brandon Gallagher, Philip Guevara, Seth Lachaise,

Marilys Mars, and Independence Quick

 

Associates

The Order of Maidenfear

The Order of Boismorganne

The Order of Soredamor

The Court of the Ka Ba

Hyaline Court

Adder House

Saturn House

Ouroboros House

The Knights of Morpheus

The Vampire Follies

The Beloved Dead

 

Edward Cullen's Answering Service

The Totally Unofficial Edward Cullen Answering Service

Vampgeist Creative Media

Philadelphia, PA 19149

Dear Utterly Overheated Twilight Fan:

Yours is roughly the ten thousandth letter our office has received asking for details or contact information for the vampire of the moment, Edward Cullen from the Twilight series.  We have been asked everything from what is his personal cell phone number to whether is he accepting wedding proposals and almost anything you can imagine in between.

Normally we work to promote communication between our visitors and our clients.  But in this case, I hate to break it to you.  It just isn't going to work.  Why?

1) Edward Cullen is not a client of Vampgeist.  The leading cause of this would be

2) Edward Cullen is a fictitious character and does not actually exist outside page and screen.

We're not kidding when we say that there are lots of people--mostly teenage girls--who would give anything to just breathe the same air as Edward Cullen.  I've heard over and over again, "I want to marry Edward Cullen!  I'm GOING to marry Edward Cullen!"  Er, well, no, you're not.

Ol' Eddie-Puss isn't the first fictitious vampire we've been asked to contact--Lestat, Sookie Stackhouse, Celine, any of the Lost Boys, and the Comte de Saint-Germain are a few others.

Well, we can't put you in contact with vampires who just don't exist in what we assume is the experience of the real world.  However, if you're determined to invite Edward Cullen to prom (or whatever), allow us to direct you to the site of Edward's creatrix, Stephenie Meyer.

The Official Website of Stephenie Meyer

UPDATE: I don't think there's any stopping this fan folly.  With the release of "Eclipse" on June 30, I found that my mail load for Eddie Cullen was ten times as much as it's been.  Many of these messages were written by Twilight fans who had sent in overheated letters of desperation to the vampire of the moment at least once before (and my friends thought I was crazy for digging Lestat--at least I knew he was fictional).  Oh well.  To get snarky against a tsunami is to fight a losing battle.  Keep them coming, then, and I'll keep trying to help you direct your energies in a more useful way.

Advisory--Vampires Wanted

Not even vampires are safe when the creeps decide to come out of the woodwork.

One Vampgeist client became our client after the following events.  She received an e-mail.  Some huge network or another was seeking "real vampires" to be featured in a series "showing the truth about modern vampirism".  Interested real vampires were told to show up at a local television studio at a given time for an audition.

Well, our client squealed in enthusiasm.  Imagine!  National television!  I suppose we can all understand how this might be heady stuff, heady enough to not wonder how the e-mail address had been attained or the solid logistics of the production.  She put on her vampire best as requested and went off to audition.

The "studio" was a loft apartment, but this didn't dissuade hundreds of "real vampires" from going after their moment.  A line of potential talent lined up down the hall, down the stairwell, and outside into the cold January morning.  Our client waited patiently for her turn with the "producers", and then finally was ushered into the loft with a swish of the assistant's hand.

Our client remembers how she had to tell herself that she was new to the whole TV thing, that maybe this was how it was done.  She didn't have the time to reflect more because one of the three male "producers" started laughing at her.  "You're precious," he said, coming towards her, scrutinizing her body.  "Doll, we want real vampires."

"But I am a real vampire," she insisted.

Now the other two men joined the third.  "Look at you.  You're too damn fat to be a real vampire."

Her jaw dropped.  She is a thin woman and always has been.  "What the hell does that have to do with being a vampire?"

But they weren't about to answer her.  They showed her the exit, making certain she didn't speak to anyone else waiting in line.

All of this transpired as the result of a plague of e-mail invitations to participate in television shows and other media outlets that has been infecting the mailboxes of members of the real vampire community.  If there has been a legitimate project--something setting out to explain rather than exploit--it has been buried under invitations to make talk shows more interesting and teasers about possible reality series.

If there were one or two of these making the rounds, this advisory might not be necessary.  But it has become something of an epidemic.  What's worse is that these invitations appeal to a certain sense of vanity that we probably all feel to some degree.  Being on national television is appealing, but that's not the likely end to a real vampire's encounter.  Exploitation, abuse, mockery of the real vampire to increase an audience--these are the ultimate products of these projects, when there is actually a project at all.

The answer to this problem is in all of our hands.  We must protect ourselves and venture forward wisely.  Vampgeist has compiled these rules for safe conduct among media teasers.

1) Go with your gut.  If you get a bad feeling, delete the message.

2) Recruiters for legitimate media outlets may use a canvassing method to announce a project, but they will still remain professional in their e-mail.  Check to see if there is clearly a name and other contact data, as well as the outlet they claim to be representing.  Do a web search for further verification.  

3) Check the spelling, grammar, and syntax of the message.  This is not elitist so much as another check for professionalism.

4) Ask questions.  A professional will be expecting it, and will also find the time to answer.

5) Do not give out too much information, especially personal information, on your first attempt at contact.  They need to establish a kind of trust and reciprocity with you first.

6) Remember that THEY are seeking YOU out because your knowledge may be a valuable commodity.

7) No one is going to think any less of you if you just delete the message and move on with your activities.  Televised appearances have nothing to do with being a real vampire.

At Vampgeist we have staff who are checking out potential media contacts and projects.  We offer this service to anyone in the real vampire community free of charge.  Our safety and our integrity as a community are too important to be compromised by people seeking to make us look a little less than sane.

Vampgeisticon

When we're talking about a concept that is as fluid and as fantastic as the vampire, we really need to define our terms upfront.  We've already outlined our definition of vampire.  For the sake of clarity, here are some more words we use and what we mean by them in this instance. ADVISORY An advisory is an announcement with the intent to warn or otherwise make readers aware.  When an advisory is posted to this site, it means that there has been sufficient evidence to consider a given situation as a threat. AUDIENCE These are the people you want to get yourself across to, whether in writing or another form of media.  There really is nothing so valuable as an interested audience. COMMUNITY A group of individuals united by a common interest is a community. CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY This academic field is really what Vampgeist is all about.  A fuller definition is here reposted rom Wikipedia. Cultural anthropology is one of four or five fields of anthropology (the holistic study of humanity). It is the branch of anthropology that examines culture as a meaningful scientific concept. Cultural anthropologists study cultural variation among humans, collect observations, usually through participant observation called fieldwork and examine the impact of global economic and political processes on local cultural realities. One of the earliest articulations of the anthropological meaning of the term "culture" came from Sir Edward Tylor who writes on the first page of his 1897 book: “Culture, or civilization, taken in its broad, ethnographic sense, is that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society.” The term "civilization" later gave way to definitions by V. Gordon Childe, with culture forming an umbrella term and civilization becoming a particular kind of culture. The anthropological concept of "culture" reflects in part a reaction against earlier Western discourses based on an opposition between "culture" and "nature", according to which some human beings lived in a "state of nature". Anthropologists have argued that culture is "human nature," and that all people have a capacity to classify experiences, encode classifications symbolically (i.e. inlanguage), and teach such abstractions to others. Since humans acquire culture through the learning processes of enculturation and socialization, people living in different places or different circumstances develop different cultures. Anthropologists have also pointed out that through culture people can adapt to their environment in non-genetic ways, so people living in different environments will often have different cultures. Much of anthropological theory has originated in an appreciation of and interest in the tension between the local (particular cultures) and the global (a universal human nature, or the web of connections between people in distinct places/circumstances). The rise of cultural anthropology occurred within the context of the late 19th century, when questions regarding which cultures were "primitive" and which were "civilized" occupied the minds of not only Marx and Freud, but many others. Colonialism and its processes increasingly brought European thinkers in contact, directly or indirectly with "primitive others." The relative status of various humans, some of whom had modern advanced cultures that included engines and telegraphs, while others lacked anything but face-to-face communication techniques and still lived a Paleolithic lifestyle, was of interest to the first generation of cultural anthropologists. Parallel with the rise of cultural anthropology in the United States, social anthropology, in which sociality is the central concept and which focuses on the study of social statuses and roles, groups, institutions, and the relations among them, developed as an academic discipline in Britain. An umbrella term socio-cultural anthropology makes reference to both cultural and social anthropology traditions. EDUCATION The process of attaining knowledge of both a practical and esoteric nature hopefully leads to better awareness and understanding. MEDIA For our purposes, a medium is that by which we gather our knowledge of the world around us.  The media refers to the relay of information from a source to an individual. RESOURCE Hopefully, this would be a trustworthy and honest repository of information that can be accessed by individuals. SEEKER We are all seekers.  Here, we will use "seeker" to differentiate from "vampire", the latter being self-described as such. At the moment we are undertaking an enthusiastic public relations campaign both with vampire groups and sites and with various media outlets (US, soon to go global).   We are also interested in showing that real vampirism doesn't have to be a masquerade and can be based in some very solid philosophy and experience.  We'll update the site as needed.

Vampgeist Mission Statement

Why Vampgeist?  Here's why.

1) Vampgeist has been founded on the idea that the vampire archetype is a crucial figure in the collective mentality of the human race.  This is supported by extensive research that has shown how the vampire and vampire-like beings exist in the folklore of virtually every human culture.

2) Vampgeist asks what the global presence of the vampire indicate about humanity.

3) Vampgeist presents the modern real vampire community as the heir to ancient lore and legend.  Mindfully or otherwise, the members of the community are keeping the vampire archetype vibrant and evolving.

4) Vampgeist recognizes the media as the modern equivalent of epic poetry or cave paintings.  It is how ideas are communicated for discussion and enrichment.

5) Vampgeist exists to help real vampires have a beneficial interface with the media, which includes discerning valid media projects from those seeking to exploit the "fabulous" nature of real vampires.

These fundamental principles are more fully developed throughout the site.