The Highgate Vampire: 'The Truth'

Dark Detective said:
are we to think that vampirism is akin to a sore throat or a bit of a sniffle? :D
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Of course, one wouldn't CONSCIOUSLY make a choice to
be a vampire, would one? ;)

TVgeek
 
Dark Detective said:
Very interesting, Andro, particularly when vampire hunting and exorcism is supposed to involve only Christian paraphenalia.

As for anti-bacterial properties, are we to think that vampirism is akin to a sore throat or a bit of a sniffle? :D
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And crosses as potent sun symbols, etc.

As to vampirism as a sort of disease. Bram Stoker's, book, Dracula was supposedly, influenced by the horrors of syphillis.

FW. Murnau's Nosferatu (1922), equates Nosferatu, the vampire's infestation of the harbour town of Bremen as a pestilence, or plague, complete with rats. To push the analogy, it was made shortly after the First World War and the Great Influenza Epidemic that followed, close on it's heels.

In the nineteen thirties, the Universal film, Dracula, played by Bela Lugosi, seems to have been inspired, at least partially, by another kind of plague, that of political extremism, of both left and right, in far off Europe. The new world of America, being infected by the undead ideas and philosophy of an ancient and decadent continent?

In the nineteen eighties, the Anne Rice books, about the sexy, and sexually ambiguous, vampire, Lestat were published and became popular as the horrors of the AIDS epidemic waxed on.

With Buffy the Vampire Slayer, both AIDS and drug addiction are dealt with by analogy and metaphor.

(Japan has Godzilla, but that's another story.)
 
Way back at the beginning of the nineteenth century, Byron acted as inspiration for Dr John Polidori's Vampyre. By the middle of the Victorian period, it had become the stuff of `Penny Dreadfuls,' with such shocking serials as Varney the Vampire or, the Feast of Blood.

The whole aristocratic, undead parasite thing was a strong theme, right through the nineteenth century and into the twentieth. Gothic trappings and all. Most successfully spoofed, out of the very many vampire spoofs of the mid to late twentieth century, by Roman Polanski in, Dance of the Vampires (1967).

As the power of the old aristocracy, handed down by inheritance, faded, the emphasis changed. Dracula had a castle a title and a pedigree. He had history. Modern vampires frequent shopping malls and drive beat up chevy's. What's going on?

My theory is simple. The West no longer has need of an undead aristocracy. They have finally been staked and superceded. As far as the rest of the world is concerned. We, of the prosperous west are the vampiristic, blood-sucking, parasites. Our very lifestyle has become a pestilence.

They're already here!
 
Sex and Death: Eros an Thanatos

And finally, the interest in vampirism has grown throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries to become the very stuff of Super Soap in the twenty first because of the subconscious mind's two major pre-occupations. Sex and Death.

Buffy has it in spades and even manages to add Shopping as a bonus. :cool:

The ups and downs of the vampire revolution can be plotted against the ups and downs of the sexual revolution with a fair degree of success. e.g the sudden upsurge at the beginning of the nineteen sixties, with the Hammer vampire flicks, as the sexual revolution took off, with the pill. Then the slump in the seventies as the novelty and danger element wore off. Hammer horror was replaced, for all too short a time, by Carry On style, slapstick sex comedies.:madeyes:

The resurgence of interest in vampire erotiscism could almost have been predicted in the nineteen eighties, thanks to AIDS.

Even today, the kind of sexual freedom experienced in the late Nineteen Sixties and Seventies (when everything STD could be cured by a good dose of penicillin), is unfortunately, a distant memory. More a fantasy, for most modern teens and young adults, than the semi-humorous shenanigans of violence, horror and black leather S&M erotiscism to be seen in your average late season Buffy.:(
 
Piercing Scream

Piercing the Darkness by Katherine Ramsland is an account of modern vampire cults and all manner of vampirism, from psychic to razor blades and tourniquets.

Well worth checking out.

I should add, along with Annasdottir, that I have experience psychic vampires of the type she described so well. Some people just drain you of energy. Avoid same. I'm interested to learn that a ritual spell warded her off, too. Might help me next time.

I'm also attacked now and then from afar, in what Crowley would have called magical attacks but which I ascribe to, for lack of a better term, the Horla, or Prankster Other. Imp of the Perverse. What happens is, I and often others in my family as well feel oppressed from outside ourselves, both depressed and also pressured, put upon, somehow attacked. It lasts for a few days to a week, then lifts, and is not predictable. Often ritual magick helps, but just as often it doesn't. No rhyme or reason.

We have considered the possibility that it's someone malign who is actively casting spells or wishing us harm. That's quite possible, we know so many xtians. lol
 
[The stuff about the RHG photo, mistakenly posted on here, has now been moved to that thread.]
 
"The fact that one of Manchester's books showed a shot of an early Dick Smith horror makeup (from a TV adaptation of " The Picture of Dorian Gray, if I remember right) presented as a genuine vampire, should ring alarm bells, methinks" -(posted by johnnyboy)
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In actual fact this image appeared on page 142 of the 1985 (British Occult Society edition of The Highgate Vampire. The caption beneath the picture reads! "A representation of the Vampire in its final moments of dissolution."

Does Johnnyboy not know the difference between "presentation" and "representation"? There was no attempt to pass this representation off as the actual vampire itself, a phograph of which is published on page 98 of the same edition.

When the current edition was published by Gothic Press in 1991, more real pictures of the vampire were included. All these photographs have been Broadcast on British television and the negative film has been thoroughly examined.
 
Originally posted by Herne the Hunter
Does Johnnyboy not know the difference between "presentation" and "representation"?
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Yes thanks.

There was no attempt to pass this representation off as the actual vampire itself, a phograph of which is published on page 98 of the same edition.
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The source could've been credited in the text a bit clearer then, though, to be honest, I did read it a long time ago, when I was a dodgy goth and more interested in this sort of thing than I am now. The point I was trying to make is that its easy enough to take publicity photos and screen grabs and pass them off as the real thing, and, until I see positive proof otherwise, the alleged picture of the vampire decaying does look to me like a doctored still from Zombie Flesh Eaters. Thats all I'm going to say on the matter. I may not know much about the Bish and the vamp, but I do know my Z-grade horror movies!
 
"The point I was trying to make is that it is easy enough to take publicity photos and screen grabs and pass them off as the real thing, and until I see positive proof otherwise the alleged picture of the vampire decaying does look to me like a doctored still from Zombie Fles Eaters. Thats all I'm going to say on the matter. I may not know much about the Bish and the vamp, but I do know my z-grade horror movies!"(posted by Johnnyboy)
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The strip of 35mm negative film has been examined by three independent television companies in the 1990s who were satisfied that the pictures had not been tampered with in any way. The pictures identified and presented as the Highgate Vampire in the book of the same name most definately is no "a doctored still from Zombie Flesh Eaters". Anyone who has a still from that film is invited to post it, or a link to it, so that comparisons may be made.


Johnnyboy is clutching at straws.
 
Curious similarities but by no means proof.

:) (hope the attachment works)

Although i have had 3 independant experts confirm that a photograph of a doctored photograph would be impossible to detect. ;)

EDIT: After several complaints and the usual threats of legal action over copyright infringement from Sean Manchester, we've decided to pull this image. Please do not attempt to repost it - doing so will result in your removal from this message board.
Mark Pilkington
 
Disagree

The comparison jog shows plainly that the pictues do NOT match, as the one on the right does not align with the one on the left. Note that everything on the left seems either higher or lower than the points of comparison on the right.

[deleted]
 
Re: Piercing Scream

FraterLibre said:
I should add, along with Annasdottir, that I have experience psychic vampires of the type she described so well. Some people just drain you of energy. Avoid same. I'm interested to learn that a ritual spell warded her off, too. Might help me next time.

I'm also attacked now and then from afar, in what Crowley would have called magical attacks but which I ascribe to, for lack of a better term, the Horla, or Prankster Other. Imp of the Perverse. What happens is, I and often others in my family as well feel oppressed from outside ourselves, both depressed and also pressured, put upon, somehow attacked. It lasts for a few days to a week, then lifts, and is not predictable. Often ritual magick helps, but just as often it doesn't. No rhyme or reason.
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Is that any more or less rational than anything His Royal Highness the Great Bishop Manchester has claimed?
 
Ahhh right Frater

Perhaps I should have explained a little. The suggestion is that Manchester was the vampire, the comparison is only in features not in images. ;)
 
Hmm...

Just had a thought. Whilst I'm firmly of the opinion that the 'vampire picture' isn't the Bish himself, the similarities may suggest that it is a model that was taken from a cast of his face.

This may also explain the similarities to the Fulci zombies. They may have been made using a similar modeling technique and materials.

This could explain the similarities to both Manchester and to the Zombie Flesh Eaters pictures, no?
 
Typical

You're such a generous lot.

A) I had no idea that was a picture of Bishop Manchester, a persona I have never seen, despite having wrangled with the loon in this forum.

B) I was pointing out that the points of comparison in fact didn't match up, which they don't, so aside from belaboring the obvious in my ignorance, I wasn't making any grand conclusions, especially not that Manchester = Highgate Vampire.

C) What I know about the Highgate Vampire I learned in this thread. I gather it was something of a tabloid ten-day wonder in Blighty.

D) No one here is in any position to assess my rationality, especially not based on experiences which they obviously cannot recognize as fairly common, tant pis.

E) [deleted]

F) How sad it is to see such a fervent debunker reduced to defending such a loon, simply to get a wee dig in at monstrous and threatening me.
 
Herne the Hunter said:
The strip of 35mm negative film has been examined by three independent television companies in the 1990s who were satisfied that the pictures had not been tampered with in any way.
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Which leaves us with the possibility of a pure, unadulterated, un-tampered-with image of something mocked up? Simply because it's a genuine film/photograph of something doesn't make the thing it's of genuine.
 
Agreed

Ioethe - I agree completely, and it's obviously a mockup, there being no supernaturalisms such as vamipres.
 
Re: Typical

FraterLibre said:
D) No one here is in any position to assess my rationality, especially not based on experiences which they obviously cannot recognize as fairly common, tant pis.

E) If [deleted]?

F) How sad it is to see such a fervent debunker reduced to defending such a loon, simply to get a wee dig in at monstrous and threatening me.
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I am not assessing your rationality, just pointing out what appears, to me, to be an hypocrisy. From my painful readings of Manchester's website I understand that he also is of the opinion that there are such things as spiritual vampires - with sypmtoms mcuh similar to those you attest to. [edited]

"Fervent debunker" - thank you. Not that I am - but thank you anyway. I never thought that pointing out hypocrisy in a statement made me a debunker. I have not made any mention of my personal opinions of credulity on both yours and manchester's statements. My use of the word "rational" was not a statment of what I feel to be right - but rather refers to those things outside of what society considers to be normal. For what its worth, I do believe in such things as psychic attacks and do not believe in physical vampires. But I do not understand why someone who can believe in such "outlandish" (i.e. outside of the norm) things can condemn someone else for the reason of making equally outlandish claims.
 
Has anyone noticed that any thread even tagentially related to Bishop Manchester always degrades into bickering and flaming?

First the Bishop wasn't here, now Exorcistate isn't here, but this boring and crappy subject won't stay down. Jeesh.

Somebody put a stake in this monster. Please.
 
Quite true.

Thread staked. And some posts edited, because insulting members not in a position to answer back is bad sportsmanship.
 
i have no idea if this is the right place to post this....

if anybody can tell me where i could find the fortean times article on the highgate vampire that would be great. either its not on the site anymore or i'm being a dumbass. the Search does not seem to be yielding aany results either

many thanks

michael
 
Yith, hold tight M8, we're gonna have this thread whipped from under us. :lol:
 
thanks fellas very much appreciated

theythian you can be as facetious all you like i'm not offended :eek:
 
...any minute now... ;)
 
Blimey - they're slow off the mark this time!

We're usually knee deep in flame wars and writs by now, aren't we? :lol:
 
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