Philadelphia is an American metropolis with a thriving vampire community. But out of all the real vampires in the area, P. Rob Royal singled me out for a project about--of course--vampires. I wanted to share our (Facebook) correspondence with you.
P. Rob Royal June 17 at 7:18pm
Hello,
My name is Rob Royal and I'm an executive producer here at Channel 6. I'd like to talk to you about vampires. I need to get smarter about them. I would like to get a copy of your handbook. Can yo please call me at 484-664-8603.
Emilie Conroy June 17 at 10:49pm
I would be more than happy to help you to the fullest extent that I can, but as my schedule is so busy I prefer to use messaging or e-mail for communications. Let me give you the basics.
I am the elected Matriarch of the Order of Maidenfear, an international network of real vampires. This weekend we are celebrating our fortieth anniversary with an event we call the Ruby Solstice. Much of the vampire community participates in organized groups such as ours.
Additionally, I am the director and webmistress of Vampgeist Creative Media at http://www.vampgeist.com/ . Our main task has been to help people in the community and people outside the community find each other and successfully navigate media opportunities and traps. If you visit the website you will find a lot of information, all of which is freely available.
The Hybrid Vampire Handbook is available athttp://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/the-hybrid-vampire-handbook/2756708 . At the moment I'm contracted for several other real vampire book projects, including a conversational narrative about my personal experiences, a history of our Order, tales from the Vampgeist project, and a workbook in energy or pranic vampirism.
The world of the real vampire is multifaceted and always changing. It's been my experience that people find real vampirism even more interesting than the vampirism of film and fang. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me.
P. Rob Royal June 17 at 11:31pm
Thank you for responding to my message.
I have been reading information on the various websites you suggested since this afternoon. I have not been able to see a copy of the Hybrid Vampire Handbook, but we would like to read it.
I'm working with reporter Brian Taff to produce a report on vampires in our area.
As I'm sure you are aware, there is a renewed facination with vampires. Our network has a new TV show beginning and the newest Twighlight movie opens next week. But we're looking to give viewers insight into real vampire communities. Would you allow us to attend part of the Ruby Solstice? We would also need to interview someone about the vampire community. Could you do that video interview?
I've read some of your messages detailing what you do and don't do as a vampire ... kind of letters to educate people outside your community. I would really appreciate the opportunity to let our crew attend part of this weekend's event. We have attended and recorded Wiccan ceremonies in the past and have been very respectful.
You can respond via facebook or my email address: rob.royal@abc.com
Thank you again.
Emilie Conroy June 18 at 12:25am
Let me get back to you. I think I can provide what you're seeking, or if not I can point you in the direction of someone who does.
Unfortunately Ruby Solstice is a closed event, mainly to protect those in our group who do not wish to go public with their vampire lifestyles. I've been out in the open since 1988, and would have no trouble giving you a thorough and interesting interview--so long as no one is expecting Morticia Addams complete with fangs, cape, and a wooden coffin filled with the ground of my homeland!
I'm more aware of the pop vampire than I care to be, but it's all part of the package I suppose. For example, I have gotten e-mail addressed to the famous names in vampire fiction--Edward Cullen, Lestat, Celine from "Underworld", and the rest of the gang. That is, there are people who expect me to put them in contact with one of these characters, since I have the connections and whatnot. Sometimes I think a real vampire's biggest headache is the vampire fan!
Keep in touch, and take care!
P. Rob Royal June 18 at 12:47am
I thank you again for being willing to help.
Unfortunately for me, I'm trying to broadcast a report within the next couple of days. If at all possible, I would like to interview you tomorrow evening. You can reach me anyway that works for you ... facebook, email or my cell phone. Good night.
Emilie Conroy June 18 at 1:13pm
I have to apologize. You had originally written I "I'd like to talk to you about vampires. I need to get smarter about them", and so I believed you were planning to take the time to research. I didn't realize how important rushing this story was. That being the case, I really can't do more than I've already offered.
Getting an inherently secretive community to open up about its activities is hard enough. Best of luck working with a tight time constraint.
I'm looking forward (in a macabre masochistic way) to seeing what these guys do manage to produce. Sure, it was an opportunity to talk about the vampire community as we know it, but I'm pretty sure anything I said would have been mangled and the whole thing turned into a one-ring circus. Sigh.
(2016 postscript--nothing ever materialized)
Showing posts with label Advisories. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Advisories. Show all posts
Thursday, October 13, 2016
Wednesday, October 12, 2016
Words to the Wise
The power of the vampire is yours. You don’t need someone else to give it to you. This is where the Vampnots enter.
This may come as a huge shock to you. I mean it. I’m talking a surprise of giant proportions here. But hey, I have to tell you. It’s just too important for me to omit. Are you ready? Breathe deep now. Here it comes. Don’t write in telling me I didn’t warn you. This is it.
You can’t trust everybody you meet in the vampire community.
Of course you already know this. I’m sure you’ve experienced the delightful hypocrisy and delusion that are also part of the vampire community for yourself. But I want to make a point and address the matter here, because I believe it’s an important issue, especially when we’re speaking of newcomers to the community who may fall prey to pretty words and well-woven doctrines (which I suppose includes this rant, technically, so you’ll need to decide where this falls for yourself).
Can you trust me? I can’t answer that. You’ll have to decide for yourself.
These are my Vampnots, collected over my years in the vampire community. You could call them travel advisories for the vampiric world. Some may seem to be common sense, but has been said, common sense is not so common. I certainly don’t want to see any of you end up in a bad place when maybe a few words from me might have kept you safe. Remember that no path is sound for a fool.
A real, true, honest vampire will never offer to turn, make, or awaken you. Even if you ask a vampire to give you your own vampire being, you’ll hopefully be brushed off like a bug. I say hopefully, because there lurks unscrupulous individuals just versed enough in the vampire community to lure you in with promises of becoming a vampire. This is how you can lose lots of money if you’re lucky, and even your life if you’re not so lucky. Please tread carefully.
Stay away from groups that demand allegiance to anyone but yourself. I don’t mean you can’t give your allegiance if it’s your choice and you want to. I mean when absolute and unquestioning obedience to a group (or worse–to individuals in the group) are requirements for membership, you may want to think twice. Vampires are fundamentally independent beings. Ideally we owe nothing to anyone but ourselves, even should we choose further involvement. It’s my conviction that anyone who doesn’t recognize this fundamental trait is somehow missing something essential in vampirism.
In connection with the above commentary, I suggest you run any group you are thinking of joining through the Advanced Bonewits Cult Danger Evaluation Frame. This is the best test of its kind I’ve found.
Vampirism is not a fetish. Well, okay, maybe sometimes people will play vampire as part of sexual fantasies. But that is not what I’m talking about here. We vampires don’t mean to imply a bloody good time in the bedroom (or wherever).
Watch out for outlandish claims. For instance, someone who claims to drink an eight ounce glass of human blood five times a day is either pulling your leg or robbing a bloodbank. Myself, I’d hope they were lying. My other favorite is, “I’m a full-blooded vampire”.
That’s nice. So they didn’t come from the SPCA? Is it like leaded or unleaded gasoline?
My friend Phobos has had a philosophy regarding anyone claiming to be immortal. “Let them prove it.” No one yet has been willing to jump off the roof to demonstrate their immortality. Until we actually see it, we’re going to stick to the knowledge that we are mortal…physically anyway. Nobody’s debating the idea of reincarnation (what I call serial immortality) or the idea that so long as you’re living, you don’t really know you’re going to die except from the buzzkills around you.
There are no demon wars raging, at least not on any plane of reality I’ve been able to survey. I wish this blurred line between live action role playing games and real vampirism would go away.
Corsets, capes, dental-quality fangs, red talon fingernails–ladies and gentlemen, these are not what makes a vampire. Have you ever tried to frost a cake without having a cake? You end up with a mess of frosting. What you do with your outside doesn’t make you any more or less of a vampire. Constrict your waist to sixteen inches or get “SANG” tattooed on your schlong–you’re not a greater vampire than the person standing next to you in sweats and work boots.
You might also want to consider the following.
No one is going to teach you a rote form of vampirism. You must learn it through your own experiences.
Learn what you can. Choose what does and does not suit you.
You will not be made an immortal.
You will not grow overlarge canine teeth (fangs).
You do not need to sleep in a coffin (unless you want to).
You’re not going to suddenly possess any kind of super powers, unless you count the ability to play with energy which in and of itself might be considered a super power.
You’re not going to be immune from disease, although you may find yourself becoming a stronger person physically as well as mentally.
Walking in the steps of the vampire is not going to give you instant sex appeal or improve your social status. These are things mostly empowered by personality.
You will most likely feel more in control of yourself and your surroundings.
You may experience a dramatic increase in confidence.
You may come to understand how thought becomes deed in very real terms.
This may come as a huge shock to you. I mean it. I’m talking a surprise of giant proportions here. But hey, I have to tell you. It’s just too important for me to omit. Are you ready? Breathe deep now. Here it comes. Don’t write in telling me I didn’t warn you. This is it.
You can’t trust everybody you meet in the vampire community.
Of course you already know this. I’m sure you’ve experienced the delightful hypocrisy and delusion that are also part of the vampire community for yourself. But I want to make a point and address the matter here, because I believe it’s an important issue, especially when we’re speaking of newcomers to the community who may fall prey to pretty words and well-woven doctrines (which I suppose includes this rant, technically, so you’ll need to decide where this falls for yourself).
Can you trust me? I can’t answer that. You’ll have to decide for yourself.
These are my Vampnots, collected over my years in the vampire community. You could call them travel advisories for the vampiric world. Some may seem to be common sense, but has been said, common sense is not so common. I certainly don’t want to see any of you end up in a bad place when maybe a few words from me might have kept you safe. Remember that no path is sound for a fool.
A real, true, honest vampire will never offer to turn, make, or awaken you. Even if you ask a vampire to give you your own vampire being, you’ll hopefully be brushed off like a bug. I say hopefully, because there lurks unscrupulous individuals just versed enough in the vampire community to lure you in with promises of becoming a vampire. This is how you can lose lots of money if you’re lucky, and even your life if you’re not so lucky. Please tread carefully.
Stay away from groups that demand allegiance to anyone but yourself. I don’t mean you can’t give your allegiance if it’s your choice and you want to. I mean when absolute and unquestioning obedience to a group (or worse–to individuals in the group) are requirements for membership, you may want to think twice. Vampires are fundamentally independent beings. Ideally we owe nothing to anyone but ourselves, even should we choose further involvement. It’s my conviction that anyone who doesn’t recognize this fundamental trait is somehow missing something essential in vampirism.
In connection with the above commentary, I suggest you run any group you are thinking of joining through the Advanced Bonewits Cult Danger Evaluation Frame. This is the best test of its kind I’ve found.
Vampirism is not a fetish. Well, okay, maybe sometimes people will play vampire as part of sexual fantasies. But that is not what I’m talking about here. We vampires don’t mean to imply a bloody good time in the bedroom (or wherever).
Watch out for outlandish claims. For instance, someone who claims to drink an eight ounce glass of human blood five times a day is either pulling your leg or robbing a bloodbank. Myself, I’d hope they were lying. My other favorite is, “I’m a full-blooded vampire”.
That’s nice. So they didn’t come from the SPCA? Is it like leaded or unleaded gasoline?
My friend Phobos has had a philosophy regarding anyone claiming to be immortal. “Let them prove it.” No one yet has been willing to jump off the roof to demonstrate their immortality. Until we actually see it, we’re going to stick to the knowledge that we are mortal…physically anyway. Nobody’s debating the idea of reincarnation (what I call serial immortality) or the idea that so long as you’re living, you don’t really know you’re going to die except from the buzzkills around you.
There are no demon wars raging, at least not on any plane of reality I’ve been able to survey. I wish this blurred line between live action role playing games and real vampirism would go away.
Corsets, capes, dental-quality fangs, red talon fingernails–ladies and gentlemen, these are not what makes a vampire. Have you ever tried to frost a cake without having a cake? You end up with a mess of frosting. What you do with your outside doesn’t make you any more or less of a vampire. Constrict your waist to sixteen inches or get “SANG” tattooed on your schlong–you’re not a greater vampire than the person standing next to you in sweats and work boots.
You might also want to consider the following.
No one is going to teach you a rote form of vampirism. You must learn it through your own experiences.
Learn what you can. Choose what does and does not suit you.
You will not be made an immortal.
You will not grow overlarge canine teeth (fangs).
You do not need to sleep in a coffin (unless you want to).
You’re not going to suddenly possess any kind of super powers, unless you count the ability to play with energy which in and of itself might be considered a super power.
You’re not going to be immune from disease, although you may find yourself becoming a stronger person physically as well as mentally.
Walking in the steps of the vampire is not going to give you instant sex appeal or improve your social status. These are things mostly empowered by personality.
You will most likely feel more in control of yourself and your surroundings.
You may experience a dramatic increase in confidence.
You may come to understand how thought becomes deed in very real terms.
Advisory--Real Vampires Wanted
Not even vampires are safe when the creeps decide to come out of the woodwork.
One Vampgeist client became our client after the following events. She received an e-mail. Some huge network or another was seeking “real vampires” to be featured in a series “showing the truth about modern vampirism”. Interested real vampires were told to show up at a local television studio at a given time for an audition.
Well, our client squealed in enthusiasm. Imagine! National television! I suppose we can all understand how this might be heady stuff, heady enough to not wonder how the e-mail address had been attained or the solid logistics of the production. She put on her vampire best as requested and went off to audition.
The “studio” was a loft apartment, but this didn’t dissuade hundreds of “real vampires” from going after their moment. A line of potential talent lined up down the hall, down the stairwell, and outside into the cold January morning. Our client waited patiently for her turn with the “producers”, and then finally was ushered into the loft with a swish of the assistant’s hand.
Our client remembers how she had to tell herself that she was new to the whole TV thing, that maybe this was how it was done. She didn’t have the time to reflect more because one of the three male “producers” started laughing at her. “You’re precious,” he said, coming towards her, scrutinizing her body. “Doll, we want real vampires.”
“But I am a real vampire,” she insisted.
Now the other two men joined the third. “Look at you. You’re too damn fat to be a real vampire.”
Her jaw dropped. She is a thin woman and always has been. “What the hell does that have to do with being a vampire?”
But they weren’t about to answer her. They showed her the exit, making certain she didn’t speak to anyone else waiting in line.
All of this transpired as the result of a plague of e-mail invitations to participate in television shows and other media outlets that has been infecting the mailboxes of members of the real vampire community. If there has been a legitimate project–something setting out to explain rather than exploit–it has been buried under invitations to make talk shows more interesting and teasers about possible reality series.
If there were one or two of these making the rounds, this advisory might not be necessary. But it has become something of an epidemic. What’s worse is that these invitations appeal to a certain sense of vanity that we probably all feel to some degree. Being on national television is appealing, but that’s not the likely end to a real vampire’s encounter. Exploitation, abuse, mockery of the real vampire to increase an audience–these are the ultimate products of these projects, when there is actually a project at all.
The answer to this problem is in all of our hands. We must protect ourselves and venture forward wisely. Vampgeist has compiled these rules for safe conduct among media teasers.
1) Go with your gut. If you get a bad feeling, delete the message.
2) Recruiters for legitimate media outlets may use a canvassing method to announce a project, but they will still remain professional in their e-mail. Check to see if there is clearly a name and other contact data, as well as the outlet they claim to be representing. Do a web search for further verification.
3) Check the spelling, grammar, and syntax of the message. This is not elitist so much as another check for professionalism.
4) Ask questions. A professional will be expecting it, and will also find the time to answer.
5) Do not give out too much information, especially personal information, on your first attempt at contact. They need to establish a kind of trust and reciprocity with you first.
6) Remember that THEY are seeking YOU out because your knowledge may be a valuable commodity.
7) No one is going to think any less of you if you just delete the message and move on with your activities. Televised appearances have nothing to do with being a real vampire.
At Vampgeist we have staff who are checking out potential media contacts and projects. We offer this service to anyone in the real vampire community free of charge. Our safety and our integrity as a community are too important to be compromised by people seeking to make us look a little less than sane.
One Vampgeist client became our client after the following events. She received an e-mail. Some huge network or another was seeking “real vampires” to be featured in a series “showing the truth about modern vampirism”. Interested real vampires were told to show up at a local television studio at a given time for an audition.
Well, our client squealed in enthusiasm. Imagine! National television! I suppose we can all understand how this might be heady stuff, heady enough to not wonder how the e-mail address had been attained or the solid logistics of the production. She put on her vampire best as requested and went off to audition.
The “studio” was a loft apartment, but this didn’t dissuade hundreds of “real vampires” from going after their moment. A line of potential talent lined up down the hall, down the stairwell, and outside into the cold January morning. Our client waited patiently for her turn with the “producers”, and then finally was ushered into the loft with a swish of the assistant’s hand.
Our client remembers how she had to tell herself that she was new to the whole TV thing, that maybe this was how it was done. She didn’t have the time to reflect more because one of the three male “producers” started laughing at her. “You’re precious,” he said, coming towards her, scrutinizing her body. “Doll, we want real vampires.”
“But I am a real vampire,” she insisted.
Now the other two men joined the third. “Look at you. You’re too damn fat to be a real vampire.”
Her jaw dropped. She is a thin woman and always has been. “What the hell does that have to do with being a vampire?”
But they weren’t about to answer her. They showed her the exit, making certain she didn’t speak to anyone else waiting in line.
All of this transpired as the result of a plague of e-mail invitations to participate in television shows and other media outlets that has been infecting the mailboxes of members of the real vampire community. If there has been a legitimate project–something setting out to explain rather than exploit–it has been buried under invitations to make talk shows more interesting and teasers about possible reality series.
If there were one or two of these making the rounds, this advisory might not be necessary. But it has become something of an epidemic. What’s worse is that these invitations appeal to a certain sense of vanity that we probably all feel to some degree. Being on national television is appealing, but that’s not the likely end to a real vampire’s encounter. Exploitation, abuse, mockery of the real vampire to increase an audience–these are the ultimate products of these projects, when there is actually a project at all.
The answer to this problem is in all of our hands. We must protect ourselves and venture forward wisely. Vampgeist has compiled these rules for safe conduct among media teasers.
1) Go with your gut. If you get a bad feeling, delete the message.
2) Recruiters for legitimate media outlets may use a canvassing method to announce a project, but they will still remain professional in their e-mail. Check to see if there is clearly a name and other contact data, as well as the outlet they claim to be representing. Do a web search for further verification.
3) Check the spelling, grammar, and syntax of the message. This is not elitist so much as another check for professionalism.
4) Ask questions. A professional will be expecting it, and will also find the time to answer.
5) Do not give out too much information, especially personal information, on your first attempt at contact. They need to establish a kind of trust and reciprocity with you first.
6) Remember that THEY are seeking YOU out because your knowledge may be a valuable commodity.
7) No one is going to think any less of you if you just delete the message and move on with your activities. Televised appearances have nothing to do with being a real vampire.
At Vampgeist we have staff who are checking out potential media contacts and projects. We offer this service to anyone in the real vampire community free of charge. Our safety and our integrity as a community are too important to be compromised by people seeking to make us look a little less than sane.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)