There has been a creature around the world for a long time. One that has been feared for centuries. A story that has been told for many generations. Many theories and myths have been written about this particular creature. But what exactly is true about the creature of the night with sharp fangs? Are they truly afraid of garlic and is the sun their death sentence? Or is it all been a fantasy, creeping in people’s mind to never open their door when the moon rises in the sky? Even though we still talk about it to this day, many people do not believe in their existence anymore.
But there are two questions I want to answer in this article: what exactly do we know about them and how alive are they? Let’s talk about vampires.
What are vampires?
What exactly are vampires (also known as vampyres)? In every tale, vampires are described differently. Most stories view vampires as immortal creatures that are undead – they rise from the death – and have a lot of characteristics such as fangs, long nails and a sensitivity to sunlight (Hefferon, z.d.). Though there are different descriptions, they all have one thing in common: they drink the blood of a living being which makes them a dangerous predator. Due to this fact, people were scared to ever meet a vampire. Though, they were often described as unnaturally beautiful to lure others (The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2024). The first mention of a vampire was in Old Russian in A.D. 1047, while the creature was blamed for things as diseases. But it wasn’t until the eighteenth century, 1725 to 1755 (known as the ‘Great Vampire Epidemic’), that the stories got popular (Stepanic, 2021).
Do vampires particularly need blood for survival or is just a desire? A question with an unsure answer. Some might say they need it for antibiotics (Why Would Vampires Require Human Blood?, z.d.) and others might say that blood is life – a sentence that is a description of blood in the popular book of Bram Stoker, called ‘Dracula’. According to Foster-Kruczek and Pugh (2023), there could be a difference between a ‘mythical vampire’ that desires blood for their own goals and a ‘clinical vampire’ that drinks blood to create a bond.
The uncertainty behind vampire myths is immense. However, we do know that the theories around vampires have a truth in it. Porphyria, a metabolic disease, could be a reason for the beliefs in vampirism. In the body of the patient with porphyria, there is a lack of an enzyme that normally makes hemoglobin that is essential for binding with oxygen. Because of this, the body can transport less oxygen what could cause shortness of breath, fatigue and paleness (MDL Fonds, 2025). The last one is a concept that is associated with vampires, so this could be a logic, scientific explanation of how the myths started around diseases. That could also mean that vampirism is a kind of mutation in the human body.
Characteristics
What have all those characteristics, such as garlic, mirrors and sunlight got to do with vampires? In the more modern myths of vampires, around the nineteenth century when Bram Stoker published his book called ‘Dracula’, we have a ton of fictional explanations. For example vampires are undead, so they must be unholy. That means that they have a fear for crucifixes. There are also more biological arguments of these details about vampires. For example, the gums could recede of teeth, which causes them to look like fangs. Or that garlic is a natural antibiotic with a sulfur content. The vampire could feel ‘sick’ due to the strong smell and taste of garlic (Hefferon, z.d.). These biological explanations have a connection with porphyria. Patients of porphyria often have skin problems that the sun causes. It could leave marks on the body. It would seem that the patient is ‘weakened’ by the sun (MDL Fonds, 2025) and vampires are also known to be weakened by the sun (Hefferon, z.d.). These specific details could be crucial to how we know the vampire today. But to be realistic, there is a high chance that most of these characteristics are fiction.
How can humans turn into a vampire?
There are multiple methods on how a human can turn into a vampire. The most common method is a vampire biting a human. If the human survives the bite, they could get the saliva of the vampire into their blood, causing a transformation. Another possibility: a human drinking the blood of a vampire. In some stories this creates a slave-master bond between the human and the vampire. The human turns into a vampire, while they are bound to the vampire they drank of (Publishers, 2023).
Another method is blood exchange. The vampire and the human make a cut on their skin and mix their blood together (Publishers, 2023).
How did humans kill so-called vampires?
Now that we know more about vampires, let’s see how humans reacted on vampires – or humans they thought were vampires. When human bodies have been discovered under (cold) circumstances, they saw that the bodies were in perfect condition. Now we know that the bacteria that normally break down the human body don’t work as well under cold conditions as normal, but in the past it seemed strange and they had only one conclusion: this must be a blood-drinking creature. To make sure these vampires wouldn’t revive after the death again, humans put a wooden stake through their heart or in other cases rip their heart out and burn it until it is nothing more than dust (Zapata, 2024b).
Other methods they could use were fire, decapitation or crucifixes and Christian implements, such as holy water (Eldridge, 2024).
Are vampires alive?
So, the question that remains: are vampires alive? Well, here’s my own theory. To be able to kill a creature, they have to be alive first. So, the answer on the question would be a yes. In order to kill them, they have to be alive, so they are technically alive. Nevertheless, stories tend to give the detail that vampires are ‘undead’ creatures. They don’t have a beating heart. They are in the middle of being alive and being dead. In that case, the answer on the question would be a no.
It merely depends on which legend you focus on. If you think about the folklore vampire, the vampire that people believed in, then I think they were just innocent humans. If you look at the vampires in movies, they are not alive.
Furthermore, the question on this spectrum does not have a simple answer that is correct.
Lastly, we took a dive into the stories of vampires. There are so many facts about them and yet it is a mystery to know which of them are true. The possibilities are endless. But now, I have a question for you: like I said before, there was a time humans feared vampires. Do you fear them or would you like to meet them?
Sources
Eldridge, A. (2024, 20 december). Vampire | Characteristics, history, powers, folklore, & Facts. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/vampire Consulted on 15-01-2025
Foster-Kruczek, N., & Pugh, C. (2023). Blood Is Life. Life Is Blood: The Psychology of Vampirism. In Springer eBooks (pp. 1–17). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-82301-6_78-1 Consulted on 15-01-2025
Hefferon, M. (z.d.). Vampire myths originated with a real blood disorder. The Conversation. https://theconversation.com/vampire-myths-originated-with-a-real-blood-disorder-140830 Consulted on 15-01-2025
MDL Fonds. (2025, 5 januari). Porfyrie | MDL Fonds. https://www.mdlfonds.nl/chronische-ziekten/porfyrie/ Consulted on 15-01-2025
Publishers, S. (2023, 10 mei). How Does a Vampire Turn Someone? SmokeyMystery. https://smokeymystery.com/how-does-a-vampire-turn-someone/ Consulted on 15-01-2025
Stepanic, S. (2021, 26 oktober). More “disease” than “Dracula”: how the vampire myth was born. Big Think. https://bigthink.com/high-culture/history-of-vampires/#:~:text=During%20the%20so-called%20Great%20Vampire%20Epidemic%2C%20from%20roughly,blamed%2C%20and%20vampire%20hysteria%20spread%20throughout%20the%20region. Consulted on 15-01-2025
The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. (2024, 29 november). Gothic novel | Definition, Elements, Authors, Examples, Meaning, & Facts. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/art/Gothic-novel Consulted on 15-01-2025
Why would vampires require human blood? (z.d.). Worldbuilding Stack Exchange. https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/202726/why-would-vampires-require-human-blood Consulted on 15-01-2025 Zapata, C. (2024b, juni 25). Vampires: Real Origins, Legends & Stories | HISTORY. HISTORY. https://www.history.com/topics/folklore/vampire-history Consulted on 15-01-2025