Thanks to the Irish writer Bram Stoker, the mystical image of Count Dracula, a medieval aristocrat who became a vampire due to unhappy love, has existed in popular culture for more than a century. The emergence of such a romantic hero at one time made a lot of noise in the genre of horror literature and led to the emergence of a stable cliché in relation to vampires. At the word "vampire" the overwhelming majority comes to mind the image of Stoker's Dracula with all the inherent and so familiar cliches: a pale old man in a black and red cloak, with huge fangs and pale skin. Some at the same time still remember that he can turn into a bat.
Associations of this kind can only say that Stoker managed to create a magnificent and memorable type; his hero, although he represents the “evil” side, is very charismatic and cannot but arouse interest. But did this image have anything to do with "real" vampires? Of course not!
And, it seems, with vampires everything is simple and clear: the dead rising from the graves, drinking the blood of the living; the standard image of one of the representatives of "evil spirits" in the mind of the layman. However, there is one interesting point: there are only two phenomena in the world that are present in all cultures and in all ethnic groups (even those that have already disappeared). The first is the Flood, the second is the vampires. And if with the first everything is more or less simple: a group of survivors after some grandiose flood wrote their story of the flood, then it is much more difficult to explain the presence of vampirism. And the point is not even that the legends about vampires exist "out of time", that is, they are present practically throughout the entire time period of the existence of our civilization. The main problem is that the descriptions of their actions, and sometimes their appearance, coincide in the statements of any nationality.
As you know, there is no smoke without fire. Therefore, such a similarity of images haunts the researchers of this phenomenon. Belief in vampires still exists today, and no matter how strange adults look, carrying aspen stakes and pistols with silver bullets in the trunks of their cars with the utmost seriousness, the very fact of such an approach to the problem raises many questions.
The first documented fact of the investigation into the atrocities of vampires after death was the ancient Egyptian description of the death of the senior scribe Nub-It under one of the pharaohs of the VI dynasty. After Nub-It died, he was supposed to be embalmed and placed in the family tomb, however, this was not done, since four people who were to start embalming were found dead, and the scribe's body itself disappeared. Within two weeks, about a dozen corpses were found in the vicinity of his house, almost completely bled, with characteristic wounds on the neck. Finally, using an ambush, they managed to find the trail of the killer - it turned out to be the same "dead" Nub-It; for a long time it was not possible to kill him - the arrows and darts of the guard, it seemed, did not harm him, however, one of the guards was still able to cut off his head.
There will be many more similar descriptions, their chronology and geography will cover all possible times and places. And although the peak of these nightmares will be in the Middle Ages, some cases will occur in the 20th century! For example, Andrei Korovin was detained by the police in the Altai village of Topchikha in 1930. After relatively weak pressure from the investigator, he said, not without boasting, that he had killed about a dozen people and consumed their blood. Then he provided information confirming all these murders - the place, time and circumstances of his "hunt". There were three more in the remand prison with him in the cell; one morning they could not wake them up - Korovin killed them and drank their blood.
The investigation and the judges were shocked by Korovin's actions; Well, no wonder - around socialism, industrialization and godlessness, and here, here you are - a living vampire. After investigating the mental state of Korovin, and it became clear that he was sane, he was sentenced to death. And during the execution, something very mystical happened: the first bullet tore apart Korovin's head, but he remained alive. Moreover, the pistol was jammed and the criminal had to be finished off with a saber.
A year later, a similar incident occurred in German Westphalia. Someone Peter Kürten was “playing naughty” there. However, unlike Korovin, he was a complete psychopath. Sadist, rapist, bestiality and … a vampire! On his account there were only 69 proven victims, most of whom were blood-drunk.
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What was the reason for such a desire to "drink" the blood of the victims? Most researchers are inclined to believe that a rather rare disease called porphyria was to blame. Some doctors even call it "vampire disease." With porphyria, the structure of the blood is disturbed, first of all, the synthesis of hemoglobin. In the center of the hemoglobin molecule is an iron atom; in patients with porphyria, it is absent, and without this atom, the blood is unable to carry oxygen.
But the most interesting thing is that this disease is hereditary and leads to mental disorders. Approximately 60% of the identified "vampires" have porphyria either explicitly, or in remission, or have ancestors with this disease. The most amazing thing is that patients feel the need to feed on blood. How the addiction to blood appears, as food, in this situation, remains a mystery. Indeed, according to modern concepts, our parasympathetic nervous system (controlling the body) is in no way connected with the sympathetic (in which consciousness is located).
On the other hand, who knows, perhaps the study of the phenomenon of vampirism will help reveal those connections between the sympathetic and parasympathetic systems that are unknown to modern science. The prospects that open up in this case are truly fantastic: a person will theoretically be able to control the work of his organs. Time will tell whether it will be good or bad.