vampires and werewolves

[unicorn80]

if we have natural things like tigers and elephants, why not have supernatural things like vampires and werewolves. Does anyone think that the myths behind them may have some sort of truth ? ? ?

[elginred]

I remember watching a documentary about a disease that can cause vampire like characteristics, and the theory was that vampires did exists, but they weren't sinister beings that turned into bats and drank blood etc.

Think this may have been what they were talking about (bit about bats and werewolves near the bottom

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porphyria

[123everton]

No.

[juliacornwal]

Porphyria was what King George 111 suffered from. It's notable by the strange cola coloured urine output, and it causes bouts of madness brought on by the extreme fear of not recognising the closely familar, but I don't think anyone ever thought porphyria sufferers were vampires!

[adrenochrome]

Lycanthropy is an illness which creates unnatural hair growth, like a werewolf, and their are people who have eaten human organs and drank blood due to physical and mental illnesses. These, however, are extremely rare.
Traditionally, history is written by the winners, and they justify acts of aggression by claiming that their opponents were barbaric and evil. The Romans claimed that the Carthaginians ate babies, as a justification for the Punic Wars, according to Tacitus and Cicero.
The truth regarding Vampires (in particular) is that the Roman Catholic church wanted to portray non Roman Catholic Christians as Devil Worshippers, hence their association with Romany Gypsies, whose faith comes from Jesus' time and have been persecuted by the RC church for millenia.
If you visit www.mylot.com, you will find two articles I have written (same user name) about Gothic novels and European literature by non Catholic authors about the Romanies and Vampires etc., notably Bram Stokers 'Dracula' and Victor Hugos 'Hunchback of Notre Dame'. You may find them interesting and informative.