1924 Problem of the Vampire Ralph Shirley

# The Problem of the Vampire

Notes Of The Month

Is The Belief In Vampires Justifiable?

MODERN scientific discovery on the one hand, and the investigations in connection with psychic phenomena on the other, have rendered credible to-day many ancient records which were, until recently, dismissed as legendary romance. The point may be raised, in this connection, whether the phenomena observed at materializing seances and in particular the discovery of the peculiar properties of ectoplasm, will not open the door to a reconsideration of the long-rejected belief in vampires. It may, indeed, be argued that we hear nothing of vampires nowadays, and that if there were vampires in the past we should surely still meet with them, if only rarely and at long intervals.

## Author

Shirley, Ralph (1865-1946)

Leading British pioneer in the publication of occult and mystical literature. Ralph Shirley was born at Oxford, England, December 30, 1865, of aristocratic stock, brother of the eleventh Earl Ferrers and a direct descendant of Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex. He was educated at Winchester and New College, Oxford University.

For more than three decades (1892-1925) he was director of William Rider & Son, the foremost British publishers of literature dealing with occultism, mysticism, New Thought, astrology, psychical research, and related subjects. Rider's authors included Éliphas Lévi, Arthur Edward Waite, Hereward Carrington, and Franz Hartmann in addition to many others who became legendary in the field.

In 1905, Shirley founded the Occult Review, which he edited for 21 years. It included contributions from the leading occultists of the time and set a high standard of both popular and scholarly occultism. Shirley also became vice president of the International Institute for Psychic Investigation, for whom he edited Ernesto Bozzano's important study Discarnate Influence in Human Life (1938).

It was in the pages of the Occult Review that Shirley published the important firsthand experiences of Oliver Fox (pseudonym of Hugh G. Callaway ) on astral projection and out-of-the-body travel from April to May 1920. Shirley also published other pioneer writings on the subject, including his own book The Mystery of the Human Double: The Case for Astral Projection (1938; reprinted University Books, 1965).

Shirley had a special interest in astrology and had edited The Horoscope (under the pseudonym Rollo Ireton). From 1943 to 1944 he was chairman of the Spiritualist journal Light, but suffered from failing health and was obliged to retire. He also published a pamphlet The Angel Warriors at Mons (1915) reviewing the legends that accumulated around Arthur Machen's famous short story The Bowmen. He died December 29, 1946.

https://www.encyclopedia.com/science/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/shirley-ralph-1865-1946

## Text

The Problem of the Vampire

Notes Of The Month

Is The Belief In Vampires Justifiable?

MODERN scientific discovery on the one hand, and the investigations in connection with psychic phenomena on the other, have rendered credible to-day many ancient records which were, until recently, dismissed as legendary romance. The point may be raised, in this connection, whether the phenomena observed at materializing seances and in particular the discovery of the peculiar properties of ectoplasm, will not open the door to a reconsideration of the long-rejected belief in vampires. It may, indeed, be argued that we hear nothing of vampires nowadays, and that if there were vampires in the past we should surely still meet with them, if only rarely and at long intervals.

In speaking of vampires, I am not, of course, referring to the generally admitted belief in the power of one person to vampirize another by draining his or her vitality in normal conditions of association either through frequent social intercourse, or more effectually through two people sleeping in the same bed, one of whom is lacking in the vitality of which the other possesses an abundance. This belief would be admitted, it may be presumed, by most medical men at the present day. What I allude to is the supposed existence of the living-dead in the tomb the vampire, that is, as it is defined in Webster’s Dictionary, as “a blood-sucking ghost or reanimated body of a dead person'- a soul or reanimated body of a dead person believed to come from the grave and wander about by night sucking the blood of persons asleep, thereby causing their death.” \*

**Early References To The Vampires.**

Bram Stoker’s novel, Dracula, has popularized this Superstition, if indeed it is merely superstition, and it must be at once admitted that a vampire exercising the activities ascribed by the novelist to Dracula has no parallel even in the weirdest legends of the Slavonic races. We are again confronted with a difficulty, or at least a problem, which calls for explanation, in the fact that the vampire tradition and the records in support of it hail in such a preponderant degree from the Slavonic world. Why, it may be asked, should we not meet with the same phenomenon with the same frequency elsewhere? We do indeed meet with it occasionally, even as far back as in the records of Chaldea and Assyria, and the Romans were familiar with it, for the word lamia in the Latin dictionary admittedly corresponds to the modern English vampire. Perhaps the part of the world where such phenomena are least heard of or met with is India, and it is a remarkable fact in this connection, that the custom of cremation here is very general, and all vampire lore is agreed in asserting that the destruction of the body by fire is an effectual preventive of the dangers alleged to be consequent on the roaming of the living-dead in search of their prey. To drive a stake through the body of a vampire has been generally held to be sufficient to stop these predatory excursions, but cases are cited in which this has failed, and in which it was not until the body was actually consumed by fire that the trouble ceased.

The explanation of the phenomenon from the psychic point of view is given, by the celebrated French spiritualist, Pierart, who flourished about the middle of last Century, as follows: As long as the astral form is not entirely liberated from the body there is a liability that it may be forced b y magnetic attraction to re-enter it.

Sometimes it will be only half-way out when the corpse, which presents the appearance of death, is buried. In such cases the terrified astral soul re-enters its casket, and possesses. then one of two things happens: the person buried either writhes in the agony of suffocation, or, if he has been grossly material, becomes a vampire. The bi-corporeal life then begins. The ethereal form can go where it pleases, and as long as it does not break the link connecting it with the body can wander visible or invisible and feed on its victims. It then transmits the results of the suction by some mysterious invisible cord of Connection to the body, thus a id in g it to perpetuate the state of catalepsy.

* \* Quoted in Vampires and Vampirism . By Dudley Wright. Second and enlarged edition. William Rider & Son, Ltd., 8 Paternoster Row, London, E.C.4. 5s. net.

**The Escape Of The Fluidic Body.**

The vampire, in the legendary records with regard to it, usually takes physical form, and it may be asked how it is possible for this to be transmitted from the grave to the outer air. This involves presumably an admission of the possibility of the disintegration and reintegration of the physical body. Can we look to the phenomena observed in connection with ectoplasm as an adequate explanation of this ? It is noteworthy in any case that a number of records state that where vampirism had taken place there were !discovered in the grave two or three holes about the size of a man’s finger, penetrating beneath the soil, and it was argued that where these were to be found a body with all the marks of vampirism would be discovered within the grave. It is assumed that it is through these apertures that the fluidic body of the vampire escapes from the tomb. It is stated in all the records that when the grave of a vampire is opened the body is found wholly without decay, and as fresh and rosy as it had been in life. In one case, at a village called Kisolva, in Lower Hungary, a certain Peter Plogojovitz appeared after he had been buried ten weeks, and is stated to have killed nine persons within eight days. The inhabitants threatened to leave the village unless the corpse was dug up and burned. Accordingly the Commandant at Gradisca went with a priest from the same town and had the grave opened. The body was found entire and undecayed. The hair and beard had grown, and the old nails had fallen off and new ones come in their place. Quite fresh blood was found in the mouth, and when a stake was driven through the breast fresh blood poured forth from the wound, and also from the mouth and nose. This was in 1720, and a report of the case was sent to the Emperor. After this the body was cremated, and thenceforward the village was left in peace.

**A Weird Story.**

The following record was given by Dr. Franz Hartmann, and relates to a youth hired by a miller to labour in his mill. The story was told to Dr. Hartmann by a relative who was living at the mill in question when the occurrence took place. The youth hired by the miller was healthy and strong when first engaged, but by and by he began to look pale and emaciated, and his strength grew less from day to day. The miller inquired about his health, and eventually the boy confessed to him that every night towards midnight something heavy in the shape of a large sized egg pressed upon his breast, causing a distressing nightmare and rendering him unable to breathe or move. In consequence of this confession the miller agreed to watch by the bedside of the boy, and made him promise to give a signal when he felt the Presence of the vampire. On the night in question, while the miller was watching beside his bed, the boy gave the sign arranged, and the miller, putting out his hands, grasped the egg-shaped thing, which, although invisible to him, felt to his touch as if it were made of gelatine. He thereupon carried it to the chimney and threw it into the fire, after which the boy was no more troubled. The description given here is certainly very suggestive of ectoplasmic substance, and it will be noted that the incident is a comparatively recent one. It may be doubted, indeed, in spite of the lack of records, whether vampirism in one form or another is quite as absent from the conditions of modern civilization as is commonly supposed.

**A Lover's Return From The Grave.**

Although we are not to-day familiar with the Slavonic type of vampire that sucks the blood of its victims, producing death in two or three days’ time, strange cases come to light occasionally where people are the victims, by their own confession, of something of a very similar nature, the vampire in these cases being an entity in human form who indulges in intercourse with some one of the opposite sex. Such cases are to-day, generally speaking, promptly consigned to one of our lunatic asylums and do not reach the public ear. I happened, however, quite recently to hear of an instance of the kind. The victim had been engaged to a young man, the family, on account of the man’s antecedents, not approving of the engagement, but not being actively hostile. The man died suddenly, and the girl was prostrated with grief. Shortly after, however, she recovered her normal cheerfulness, and somewhat later confessed to her mother that she was visited by her former lover in his physical form. She subsequently became engaged to another man, but owing to threats, as she said, of her deceased lover, the engagement was broken off. The last time I heard of the young lady in question she was stated to be consumptive. Naturally, these things do not get into the papers, and obviously the ordinary medical man will put down instances of the kind as pure hallucination. Still, if we have any belief in the philosophy of the occultist, they are bound to give us pause, and make us hesitate before saying that vampirism is entirely a thing of the past. Some curious phenomena in connection with ectoplasmic emanations are recorded by Miss Scatcherd in a Symposium recently published by Messrs. G. P. Putnam’s Sons, entitled Survival\* Miss Scatcherd gives certain of her own experiences, which suggest the partial re-materialization of the dead by the utilization of the material substance of the living.

* \* Survival. By Various Authors. Edited by Sir James Marchant, K.B.E., LLD. Putnams, London and New York. 7s. 6d. net.

**A Gruesome Experience.**

I saw ectoplasm [she says] in solid form for the first time when looking for rooms in the neighbourhood of Russell Square. My friend, many years older than myself, was tired. She wore a black velvet cloak, and was sitting on a high chair, so that her mantle hung in long folds to the ground, while the light from the large Windows fell full on her face.

Suddenly I observed, on her left side, just above the waist, a patch of cloudy white substance, becoming bigger and denser as I watched its uncanny growth. Meanwhile, I was discussing terms with the landlady, a frail little woman, when a look of terror came into her eyes. She, too, was staring transfixed at the globular mass of white substance on my companion’s black mantle. For out of it looked a living face, normal in size— a man’s face with rolling eyes and a leering grin that made one’s blood run cold. When I mentally ordered him away, he grinned defiantly, Fearing to startle my friend, I took the landlady aside and asked what was the matter. She burst into tears.

“Oh, miss! did you not see him? He was my first. He’s come like this several times, and has never forgiven me for marrying again.”

“What do you mean?” I asked again, very severely.

“Oh!” she wailed. "You must have seen his wicked face glaring at us from your friend’s cloak, and now you will not take the rooms!"

Such things can obviously only be possible where the person in question has the natural qualifications of a materializing medium, even though he or she may be quite unaware of these natural powers. Needless to say, the ordinary public will receive records of the kind with entire skepticism. I think it must be admitted that whether or not vampirism is an exploded Superstition, it is in fact no more incredible than the phenomena of the materializing séance where physical forms are built up and disintegrated again in a few minutes of time. It may be contended that the phenomena of vampirism argue a certain knowledge of black magic on the part of the vampire, and to the absence of this at the present time may be attributed the rarity of such incidents. If, it may be argued, the deceased person has no knowledge of possibilities of the kind while on earth, it is unlikely that he will acquire it during the early part of his sojourn on the other side. After this, it is to be presumed, the possibility of such misuse of the physical body will have passed away.

**The French Viscount**

An account is given by Miss Middleton, in her Another Grey Ghost Book\* of a French viscount who survived the Revolution and became a vampire after his death, in Order to get level with the friends of the new Order of things. When the revolutionary movement had ebbed out, he took advantage of the disturbed state of the country to make away with  his old retainers and workpeople one by one. Such drastic methods could not fail to meet with reprisal, and he himself in due course met his death by assassination at the hands of the peasantry. Not long after the viscount was laid in his grave an appalling number of young children died in the neighbourhood, all of these bearing the marks of vampirism on their throats. The existence of vampirism was not admitted by the French authorities, and nothing was done in the matter.

Rumour, however, was busy, and it was said that, at a later date, while the tomb was being repaired nine more cases occurred in a single week. These stories reached the ears of the grandson of the original viscount, who consulted a priest with a view to laying his ancestor’s ghost, and it was decided to open the tomb. On this being done, every coffin in the vault was found to have rotted away except that of the old viscount, which, after seventy-two years, was perfectly sound and strong. The lid was then removed and the body found fresh and free from decomposition. The face was flushed and there was blood in the heart and chest, the skin also being soft and natural. The body was thereupon removed from the coffin and a whitethorn driven through the heart of the corpse, with the result that blood and water gushed forth, and the corpse groaned and screamed. After this the remains were burned, whereupon the epidemic of infant mortality ceased.

This, like other records of the kind, makes a very serious demand on the credulity of the reader. To be asked to believe that a corpse which had been buried upwards of seventy years could have groaned and screamed is, it must be admitted, a fall order! And the trouble is that in the case of a number of these vampire stories confirmatory evidence is lacking. They impress us rather by their multiplicity and similarity than by the convincing character of any particular narrative, and we are naturally  frequently suspicious that we are in the region of romance rather than of actual fact. In any case it is probably necessary to allow a pretty generous margin for imaginative detail.

* \* London: Eveleigh Nash.

**Does The Vampire's Body Leave The Tomb?**

I have referred to the phenomena of ectoplasm and the materializing séance in Connection with vampires. These clearly have a bearing on the matter; but in neither case do we find any parallel to the escape of a body that has been enclosed in a tomb, and we may ask ourselves whether if there is any truth in vampirism, the body  actually dematerializes, and then reintegrates out of the tomb, or whether another body is built up by the vampire independently of the body which remains behind in the grave. If the latter is the case, we must assume that the body in question is built up by the methods adopted at a materializing séance, i.e. with the aid of a medium or mediums. There is a third hypothesis. We may assume that in the case of vampirism the etheric body of the vampire remains intact and that he withdraws ectoplasmic material from his own body in the tomb, which enables him to build up a physical form externally with further aid from the person or persons whom he vampirizes. This perhaps seems the most plausible hypothesis of the three.

**The Story Of Philinnion And Machates.**

Some further light is shed on this matter by what is perhaps the most extraordinary record of all in this connection, the account given of the visits of the Greek lady, Philinnion, to her lover, Machates. The date of this story, the fourth Century B.C., some time during the reign of Philip II of Macedon, the father of Alexander the Great, might not unnaturally give rise to skepticism ; but the retort is very full and detailed, the incident having caused a great Sensation at the time, and a report of it was sent by Hipparchus, a resident and possibly an official, at Amphipolis, in Macedonia, the city in which the incident occurred, to Arrhidaeus, a son of king Philip and half-brother to Alexander the Great.

The parents were in a good social position, and Philinnion, their daughter, who was in love with Machates, was compelled against her will to marry Craterus, who subsequently became one of Alexander the Great’s generals. Philinnion died, apparently broken-hearted, six months after the marriage. The incidents narrated took place another six months later. Philinnion, according to the record, appeared in her physical form to Machates in his bedroom, and visited him on several successive nights. On one of these occasions Philinnion’s old nurse noticed a lamp in the room and recognized Philinnion, who was sitting on the bedside, and told the parents. The mother was sceptical but eventually took Machates to task on the matter. He admitted the truth of what was said, but evidently had not believed that his lover was dead. In Order to confirm the story he showed a gold ring which Philinnion had given him, and which apparently had been buried with her in her tomb, and also a beit which she had left behind. The parents, having now been informed of the state of the case, arranged to come and see their daughter the following night. They, too, could not believe that she was dead and threw themselves upon her with cries of joy. Philinnion. However, reproached them, exclaiming, “Father and mother, cruel indeed have ye been in that ye grudged my living with the stranger for three days in my father’s house, for it brought harm to no one. But ye shall pay for your meddling with sorrow. I must return to the place appointed for me, though I came not hither without the will of Heaven.” After speaking thus she feil dead and her body lay stretched upon the bed. In consequence of the Sensation caused by this incident the family vault was opened. On examination it was seen that the other bodies were lying as they had been placed at their burial, but on the bier where Philinnion’s body had lain was found only the iron ring which had belonged to her lover, and the gilt drinking cup that Machates had given to her on the first day of their meeting.

"I Must Return To The Place Appointed For Me.”

In this record we find that not only had the body of Philinnion actually left the tomb, but that she had transferred from it a gold ring which was presented to her lover, and had also taken back to the tomb an iron ring and a gilt drinking cup which Machates had given her. In the upshot, Machates committed suicide.

Hipparchus, in concluding the story, writes to his correspondent:

"If you think it right I should give the king (i.e. Philip) an account of all this, let me know, and I will send some of those who gave me the various details.” The narrative is obviously of all the greater interest, in that relatives and friends of people of such great historical note as Philip and Alexander of Macedon are mixed up in it. It is clear, too, that the incident created a great Sensation in the locality, for, as Hipparchus observes, ”the whole event was of great importance, and absolutely past belief.” It appears also that various propitiatory rites were performed, and the temples reconsecrated, so that the “pollution” might be removed from the neighbourhood. As for Philinnion, it was ordered that her body should be reinterred outside the boundaries of the city.

**Remarkable Points In The Narrative.**

A full account of this remarkable case was given by me in the Occult Review for February, 1913. It can also be found in a book entitled Greek and Roman Ghost Stories, published by B. H. Blackwell, of Oxford. Mrs. Crowe, in her Night Side of Nature, tells the story, but very inaccurately, giving the wrong date, and referring it to the times of the Emperor Hadrian. It seems, in spite of the early date of this narrative, impossible to put it aside as pure romance, and if the details are to be accepted, we have here a case of a girl who would, according to modern nomenclature, be described as a Vampire, actually leaving her tomb in physical form. In her case, at least, if we may accept the narrative, complete disintegration and reintegration of the body must have taken place. We are bound also to ask, must it not also have taken place in the case of the drinking cup, which could hardly have otherwise been transferred to the vault? One may question, however, as this appears so very incredible, whether by any possibility the living-dead Philinnion might not have found some normal means of egress from the tomb. There is no recorded evidence to show whether or not the vault appeared to have been tampered with. Some who may be prepared to accept thiss extraordinary story face value doubtless prefer to adopt this hypothesis.

**What Are The Limits Of The Possible?**

One hesitates to accept any record of so strange and startling a character as this ; but it is hard to suppose that Hipparchus would have written a fairy story of such an incredible kind to his friend, the King’s son, and we have also to take into account the opening of the tomb, which must have been a matter of common knowledge, no less than the purification of the temples. It must, it seems, be admitted that our knowledge of biology is still so slight that the dividing line between the possible and impossible even now, in this twentieth Century, eludes us at every turn.

D.D.

## Publication History

* The Occult Review
* Title: The Problem of the Vampire
* By: Ralph Shirley
* NOTES OF THE MONTH By the Editor
* EDITED BY RALPH SHIRLEY
* Vol. XL DECEMBER 1924 No. 6
* Publisher: LONDON : WILLIAM RIDER AND SON, LTD.
* Pages (text): 319-327
* Pages (pdf): 5-13

## Links

Main Source:

Note: Downloadable PDF on the website is listed as as Occult Review V40 N5 Nov 1924

http://iapsop.com/archive/materials/occult\_review/occult\_review\_v40\_n6\_dec\_1924.pdf

## Citations

**APA:** Shirley, R. (1924, December). The Problem of the Vampire. The Occult Review, 40(6), 319–327. http://iapsop.com/archive/materials/occult\_review/occult\_review\_v40\_n6\_dec\_1924.pdf.

**MLA:** Shirley, Ralph. “The Problem of the Vampire.” The Occult Review, Dec. 1924, pp. 319–327, iapsop.com/archive/materials/occult\_review/occult\_review\_v40\_n6\_dec\_1924.pdf. Accessed 24 Feb. 2021.

**Chicago:** Shirley, Ralph. “The Problem of the Vampire.” The Occult Review 40, no. 6, December 1924. http://iapsop.com/archive/materials/occult\_review/occult\_review\_v40\_n6\_dec\_1924.pdf.

**Harvard:** Shirley, R. (1924) “The Problem of the Vampire,” The Occult Review, December, pp. 319–327. Available at: http://iapsop.com/archive/materials/occult\_review/occult\_review\_v40\_n6\_dec\_1924.pdf (Accessed: February 24, 2021).

**Vancouver:** Shirley R. The Problem of the Vampire. The Occult Review [Internet]. 1924Dec [cited 2021Feb24];40(6):319–27. Available from: http://iapsop.com/archive/materials/occult\_review/occult\_review\_v40\_n6\_dec\_1924.pdf