Vampire

Vampires are mythological or folkloric beings who subsist by feeding on the life essence (generally in the form of blood) of living creatures, regardless of whether they are undead or a living person/being. In the Theosophical literature this mythological concept is used symbolically to refer to people that in one way or the other absorb people's vitality.

Mme. Blavatsky wrote:

The “vampire” theory can hardly be a superstition altogether. Throughout all Europe, in Germany, Styria, Moldavia, Servia, France and Russia, those bodies of the deceased who are believed to have become vampires, have special exorcismal rites established for them by their respective Churches. Both the Greek and Latin religions think it beneficent to have such bodies dug out and transfixed to the earth by a pole of aspen-tree wood.

Embodied vampires

In answering the question "What is the rationale of 'Vampirism'?" H. P. Blavatsky answered:

[It is] the involuntary transmission of a portion of one’s vitality, or life-essence, by a kind of occult osmosis from one person to another—the latter being endowed, or afflicted rather, with such vampirizing faculty. . . . [This] is a blind and mechanical process, generally produced without the knowledge of either the absorber, or the vampirized party. It is conscious or unconscious black magic, as the case may be. For in the case of trained adepts and sorcerers, the process is produced consciously and with the guidance of the Will. In both cases the agent of transmission is a magnetic and attractive faculty, terrestrial and physiological in its results, yet generated and produced on the four-dimensional plane—the realm of atoms.

As an example of this, Mme. Blavatsky pointed to Mme. Frederica Hauffe, who was known as the "Seeress of Prevost":

The seeress was very plainly a magnetic vampire, who absorbed by drawing to herself the life of those who were strong enough to spare her their vitality in the shape of volatilized blood. Dr. Kerner remarks that these persons were all more or less affected by this forcible loss.

The "volatilized blood" refers to the animal vitality (kama-prana) that maintains the physical body alive, as can be gathered from the following quote:

The circulation of Life, Prâna, through the Body is by way of the Blood. It is the vital Principle in us, Prânic rather than Prâna, and is closely allied to [[Kāma|Kâma] and to the Linga-Sharîra. The essence of the Blood is Kâma, penetrated by Prâna, which is universal on this plane. When Kâma leaves the Blood it congeals.

C. W. Leadbeater explained the phenomenon of "vampirism" in a more detailed way. According to him, due to a lack of elasticity in their Liṅga-śarīra (etheric body), some people act as "a gigantic sponge, always ready to absorb any amount of specialised vitality which it can obtain". They are sometimes called "unconscious vampires" because they do not do this as a conscious and willful act:

Again, there are many people who are unconscious vampires; without being in the least aware of it, they draw out vitality from those who are near them, so that if one sits and talks to such an one for a little while, one feels utterly exhausted and incapable of useful work. If such a person were helped by the strength which he draws from his healthier friends, one might at last regard it as an act of charity to allow him to deplete one; but the fact is that these unfortunate people are themselves incapable of retaining what they take, so that they gain nothing from the transaction, while their hapless victims lose health and strength.

Regarding to how they can be helped, C. W. Leadbeater wrote:

The only thing that can really be done to help a confirmed unconscious vampire is to supply the vitality for which he craves in strictly limited quantities, while endeavouring, by mesmeric action, to restore the elasticity of the etheric double, so that the perpetual suction and corresponding leakage shall no longer take place. Such a leakage invariably flows through every pore of the body on account of this lack of etheric elasticity-- not through a sort of tear or wound in the etheric body, as some students have supposed; indeed, the idea of anything in the nature of a permanent tear or wound is incompatible with the conditions of etheric matter and the constitution of the etheric double.

As to the protection against them, he says that to create "A strong [etheric] shell is one way of guarding oneself against such vampirism, and there are many people for whom at present it may be the only way open".

Disembodied vampires

There is also another phenomena described as "vampirism" by Theosophical authors that does not involve embodied people. In her Theosophical Glossary, Mme. Blavatsky refers to the Russian folklore on vampires, the "vurdalak" (вурдалак):

Voordalak (Slav.). A vampire; a corpse informed by its lower principles, and maintaining a kind of semi-life in itself by raising itself during the night from the grave, fascinating its living victims and sucking out their blood.

In a footnote to the article "Notes on Modern Egyptian Theosophy" she states the vurdalaks "are the Vampire shells, the Elementaries who live a posthumous life at the expense of their living victims". Elementaries and Shells are two kinds of vampires; they are not physical beings but what common folklore would call "spirits".

Elementaries

According to the Theosophical teachings those who are killed or die suddenly in an accident, if strongly attached to the earthly life and its passions, may become disembodied psychic vampires or elementaries. In one of The Mahatma Letters to A. P. Sinnett the Mahatma K.H. wrote:

If sinful and sensual they wander about — (not shells, for their connection with their two higher principles is not quite broken) — until their death-hour comes. Cut off in the full flush of earthly passions which bind them to familiar scenes, they are enticed by the opportunities which mediums afford, to gratify them vicariously. They are the Pisachas, the Incubi, and Succubi of mediaeval times. The demons of thirst, gluttony, lust and avarice, — elementaries of intensified craft, wickedness and cruelty; provoking their victims to horrid crimes, and revelling in their commission! They not only ruin their victims, but these psychic vampires, borne along by the torrent of their hellish impulses, at last, at the fixed close of their natural period of life — they are carried out of the earth's aura into regions where for ages they endure exquisite suffering and end with entire destruction.

Mme. Blavatsky added:

If there is still a magnetic relation existing between the vampire (elementary) and its buried physical body, it will return to the grave. If there is no such relation, it will follow other attractions.
It craves for a body, and if it cannot find a human body, it may be attracted to that of an animal. The gospel account of the swine into which Jesus drove the “evil spirits” may be a fable in its historical application, but it is a truth, not only a possibility, with reference to many such parallel cases.

Shells

Another kind of psychic vampire are the "shells". Mme. Blavatsky wrote:

The three higher principles, grouped into one, merge into the state of Devachan . . . and the eidolon of the ex-Personality is left alone in its new abode. Here, the pale copy of the man that was, vegetates for a period of time, the duration of which is variable and according to the element of materiality which is left in it, and which is determined by the past life of the defunct. Bereft as it is of its higher mind, spirit and physical senses, if left alone to its own senseless devices, it will gradually fade out and disintegrate. But, if forcibly drawn back into the terrestrial sphere whether by the passionate desires and appeals of the surviving friends or by regular necromantic practices-one of the most pernicious of which is mediumship--the “spook” may prevail for a period greatly exceeding the span of the natural life of its body. Once the Kamarupa has learnt the way back to living human bodies, it becomes a vampire, feeding on the vitality of those who are so anxious for its company. In India these eidolons are called Pisâchas, and are much dreaded, as already explained elsewhere.

Bereft as it is of its higher mind, spirit and physical senses, if left alone to its own senseless devices, it will gradually fade out and disintegrate. But, if forcibly drawn back into the terrestrial sphere whether by the passionate desires and appeals of the surviving friends or by regular necromantic practices-one of the most pernicious of which is mediumship--the “spook” may prevail for a period greatly exceeding the span of the natural life of its body. Once the Kamarupa has learnt the way back to living human bodies, it becomes a vampire, feeding on the vitality of those who are so anxious for its company. In India these eidolons are called Pisâchas, and are much dreaded.

The Vampire shells may feed from the vitality in people and animals, or directly absorb the non-physical emanations from spilled blood:

Nothing likes to starve: each body as well as each principle has a powerful attraction and craving for those elements which are necessary for its subsistence. The principles of lust, gluttony, envy, avarice, revenge, intemperance, etc., will rush blindly to the place to which they are attracted and where their craving can be temporarily gratified;––either directly as in the case of vampires by imbibing the emanations of fresh blood, or indirectly by establishing magnetic relations with sensitive persons (mediums), whose inclinations correspond with their own.

Vampires and Séances

One reason why the Theosophical literature discourage participation in séances is because they attract different kind of entities, among them psychic vampires:

Student.—Why are visitors at a séance often extremely and unaccountably tired next day?

Sage.—Among other reasons, because mediums absorb the vitality for the use of the “spooks,” and often vile vampire elementaries are present.
Student.—What are some of the dangers at séances?

Sage.—The scenes visible—in the Astral—at séances are horrible, inasmuch as these “spirits”—bhuts—precipitate themselves upon sitters and mediums alike; and as there is no séance without having present some or many bad elementaries—half dead human beings,—there is much vampirising going on. These things fall upon the people like a cloud or a big octopus, and disappear within them as if sucked in by a sponge. That is one reason why it is not well to attend them in general.

Online resources

Articles

Theosophical journals have printed many articles about vampirism. the Union Index of Theosophical Periodicals lists 39 articles about this subject.

• Vampire by H. S. Olcott