14 DAY TRIAL // There is a tendency to reject vampirism by associating it to fictional movies and books, even though vampiric habits are part of everyday life. Take, for example, the case of the Christian religion, where the practice of communion translates into receiving the blood and flesh of Christ. Or, think of blood brothers, which is when “best buddies” superficially cut themselves on the finger or in the palm of the hand, and then mix their blood by pressing the wounded regions together.
More specifically, try to picture giving someone a hickey, meaning sucking on their neck until blood comes to the surface. Save for the scary factor, don't these things make us vampires to some degree or another? However, if this is not thrilling enough for you, you should know that there are individuals that really feed on blood, but rarely more than an ounce (less than 30 grams) per week, and only with the expressed consent of the “victim.”
This is a result of the dependency of the so-called Renfield's syndrome (the character from Bram Stoker's “Dracula” who used to feed on flies), which means that not drinking blood affects the well-being of a vampire, both physical and mental. Medicine does not accept this by any means (in fact, the “disease” was actually invented as a joke), and strongly warns everybody on the safety issues it implies. But as Merticus (which is his vampire name actually) from Atlanta says, “We make every effort to educate ourselves on safe feeding methods, basic anatomy and physiology, first aid, sterilization, disease prevention, and safer sex practices. We thoroughly screen donors for both physical and mental health conditions and concerns, as well as advocate [for] frequent updates in testing.”
Still, the largest part of vampires is not as spectacular as one might expect, in that they feed through different methods. In fact, they look just like regular people, on whose energy (prana) they prey. This “pranic” form relies on drawing energy from another person, which affects the victim very little, if at all. “Vampirism – for 99% of us – doesn't mean that we're immortal, that we pop out of a coffin,” says Seraphim, a student in computer science from a Californian college. Although he is very open about his vampiric traits, he states that there are many lawyers, doctors or other important people who keep their vampirism to themselves.