A Few Words Of Warning About Having Spells Cast

Magic spells improperly cast and it doesn't matter what kind white magic, black magic, ancient christian magic, cabala, santeria, voodoo, satanism, witchcraft, kabala, necromancy, even tarot cards, Ouija boards (witch boards), and other forms of divination, if it is incorrectly cast can impair a persons logical thought and intelligence, any efforts to solve the problem naturally are futile. One can feel very depressed nightmares, insomnia. Chest hurts for no reasons feels tight and restricted throat close's, hard to breathe, and you feel a tightness of the throat. You may feel a presence watching you, or sense something around you, or being followed wherever you go. You feel you can achieve more in your professional life. Have a lack of enthusiasm, or desire to live and rise in life. You are continuously worried and stressed, never at peace, unable to relax, be happy, and lead a normal life. It ruins the life of a person by destroying many aspects of a persons life sudden loss of wealth and prosperity, unexpected problems in business or profession. It can cause violent quarrels or fights in family, break-up of a relationship, or marriage, prolonged illness undiagnosed health troubles. Its common to lose happiness and have mental problems, uncharacteristic and abnormal behavior, miscarriages, inability to enjoy sex or have children, without any deficiency, and unnatural deaths in the family in strange circumstances. The effects can destroy a person over time affects the circumstances and future prospects of a person. It can destroy his or her life depriving him or her of true happiness, and one is unable to fulfil one's desires and get what one wants in life. Not having the mental energy to fight back or get out of the bad situation one is in. Over time black magic becomes more severe, and dangerous it can and will spread like a cancer through all aspects of a persons life.

Effects of White Magic Spells and Black Magic Spells

White magic spells and black magic spells improperly cast ruins the life of a person by destroying many aspects of it, including, Sudden loss of wealth or prosperity. It's common that when you have unexpected problems in business-related matters or your profession that a curse or hex spell has been cast against you. You can have violent quarrels or fights in the family or with your friends. Make you get divorced, end a relationship. It can cause prolonged health issues with no known diagnosis. Ruin any peace and happiness that you have in your life. It Can make a person behave abnormally and give them mental problems. Be the source of miscarriages. Have a lack of sex drive. Have children without any known medical deficiency. Family members die of a sudden unnatural or strange death. It can deprive you of being truly happy in your life. One is unable to fulfil one's desires and get what one wants in life. Lack of mental energy to fight back or get out of the bad situation that a person is in, over time black magic becomes more severe and dangerous it will spread like a cancer through all aspects of a person's life.

Ghosts

A ghost is an alleged non-corporeal manifestation of a dead person(or, sometimes, an animal or a vehicle). It is generally claimed to be a manifestation of the spirit, or soul of a person which has remained on earth after death. According to some beliefs, It may be the character of a person after his or her death, and not directly tied to the soul or spirit. Many cultures throughout the world carry stories about poltergeists, though they frequently disagree as to what they are and whether they are just figments of imagination or a part of reality. There is much debate on whether they are spirits of deceased people or a naturally-occurring phenomenon. Some people believe that ghostly images and sounds occur as a result of the natural environment "playing back" past events in a manner similar to that of a tape recorder. The east and the west both share some fundamental beliefs about them. They may wander around places they frequented when they were living or where they died. Such places are known as "haunted"; the rounds they go on are known as "haunting's" They often wear the sort of clothing in which they would have been seen when alive.

Signs That You May Have A Ghost

If you have any or all of the signs listed below of infestation, and you are feeling overly tired or depressed, wanting to keep your drapes and shades drawn and be in the dark, and you are feeling withdrawn and tired all the time, with no-good reason, you could be having your energy being sapped by an attention craving poltergeist.

• People in the house are having bad dreams.
• You hear footsteps, taps on the walls or voices.
• Objects mysteriously disappear only to return later (generally shoes, or jewelry)
• Pets react to something others can't see.
• A dog might be growling at thin air or its hackles may rise.
• Pets may refuse to go in a particular room.
• Electrical appliances and light's turn on or off by themselves.
• Tap water turns on or off and toilets flush by themselves.
• Doors open and close with unseen hands.
• Unexplained cold drafts or cold spots can be felt.
• Small children talk to people who are not there.
• Seeing unexplained shadows, usually out of the corner of your eye. Sometimes the shadows take on a vaguely human shape.
• Feeling as though you're being watched when no one is there.
• Feelings of being touched or something brushing past a gentle poke, push, or nudge.
• Noticeable changes in temperature (Cold spots are most often reported)
• Unexplained smells such as distinctive perfume, foul odors, an electric smell, that have no explainable source.
• Bed covers moved off you (sometimes jerked right off you)
• Touches (light pat on the back, the touch will be warm, never cold)
• Phone rings
• Strange animal behavior a dog, cat or other pet behaves strangely.
• Dogs may bark at something unseen, cower without apparent reason or refuse to enter a room they normally do.
• Cats may seem to be "watching" something cross a room.
• Animals have sharper senses than humans, And close attention should be paid to how an animal act's.
• Moving or levitating objects (severe psychokinetic phenomena) dinner plates sliding across the table; pictures flying off walls; doors slamming shut with great force; furniture sliding across the floor.
• Physical assault scratches, slaps and hard shoves. This kind of personal assault is rare, But it does happen. Other physical evidence unexplained writing on paper or walls; hand prints and footprints.
• Apparition's physical manifestation of a spirit or entity. These phenomena are also very rare and can take many forms: human-shaped mists or forming mists of some indistinguishable shape; transparent human forms that disappear quickly; and most rarely, human forms that look as real and solid as any living person, but that disappear into a room or even while being viewed.
• Noticeable changes in temperature (Cold spots are most often reported)

Entities

Entities: Often, in the beginning, these are confused with ghosts. They make noises, project voices, move things, However there is never a pleasant smell with these - even in the beginning. They leave a calling card of an odor not unlike rotten eggs. In addition to all the characteristics above, you can also have any or all of the following:

Signs That You May Have An Entity

• Bed covers jerked off - usually violently.
• Physical damage - slaps, hard pinches, scratches and punches. In rare cases -sexual assault.
• Knocks or taps in groups of 3
• Scratches in the walls that sound like animals.
• Animal noises at night when there are no animals around (dogs fighting, birds screeching or strange sounding birds singing)
• Materialization of Black forms usually either a man or a dog. Normally accompanied by a foul odor. These forms have no features they look like a solid shadow. They can remain dormant for many, many years and can suddenly be drawn forward to active duty if there is a general atmosphere of arguments and tension within a family. The Entity will first center on one person in the home, and this person may think they are losing their mind. That is precisely what the entity wants - the more stressed it can make you the more anxious energy it can draw off of you, thus becoming stronger. The person who tends to become withdrawn or depressed in stressful situations is their ideal candidate.

Vampires

Vampires (sometimes vampyres) are mythological or folkloric creatures believed to be the re-animated corpses of human beings who subsist on human or animal blood, as well as fairies. In folklore, the term usually refers to the blood-sucking humans of Eastern European myths and legends, but it is often extended to cover similar legendary creatures from other regions and cultures. The characteristics of vampires vary widely between these different traditions. Some cultures also have stories of non-human vampires, including real animals such as bats, dogs, and spiders, and mythical creatures such as the chupacabra. Vampires are a frequent subject of fictional books and films, although fictional vampires are often attributed traits distinct from those of folkloric vampires. The term vampire is also used to refer to mythical or fictional creatures that act as predatory parasites, draining power, energy, or life from unwilling victims. Creatures who act in this manner are often considered part of the vampire archetype, even if they do not consume blood. Vampirism is the practice of drinking blood from a person or animal. In folklore and popular culture, the term refers to a belief that one can gain supernatural powers by drinking human blood. The historical practice of vampirism can generally be considered a more specific and less commonly occurring form of cannibalism. The consumption of another's blood (or flesh) has been used as a tactic of psychological warfare intended to terrorize the enemy, and can be used to reflect various spiritual beliefs. In zoology and botany, the term vampirism is used in reference to leeches, mosquitos, mistletoe, vampire bats, and other organisms that subsist on the bodily fluids of others.

Etymology

The English word vampire was borrowed (perhaps via French vampyre) from German Vampir, in turn borrowed in early 18th century from Serbian; vampir, or, according to some sources, from Hungarian vámpír. The Serbian and Hungarian forms have some parallels in some Slavic languages. The Bosnian Lampir which was the name of the oldest recorded vampire Meho Lampir. Bulgarian (vampir), Macedonia (vampir), (vapir) Polish(vəpir), Czech. Previous links with the Slovak upír, and (perhaps East Slavic-influenced) upiór, Russian(upyr' ), Belarussian (upyr), Ukrainian (upir' ), from Old Russian (upir' ) the etymology remains uncertain.[7] Among the proposed proto-Slavic forms are *ǫpyrь and *ǫpir ь.The Slavic word might, like its possible Russian cognate netopyr' ("bat"), come from the Proto-Indo-European root for "to fly". Earlier theories had it that the Slavic word comes from a Turkic word denoting an evil supernatural entity (cf. Kazan Tatar ubyr "witch"). This theory has since been proved obsolete. The first recorded use of the word 'Vampire' was from Austrian-controlled Serbia in reports prepared by Austrian police officials between 1725 and 1732 investigating reports of a citizen arising from the dead to attack villagers. The original term Upir', from whence "vampire" was derived, is found for the first time in written form in 1047 A.D. in a letter written by a Novgorodian Eastern Orthodox Christian priest to then-Prince Vladimir (later, Vladimir II) referring to himself as (Father Upir' Likhyj). This can be read online in the original Russian. The meaning of both words is still strongly in dispute.

Vampire Analogies In Ancient Cultures

Tales of the dead craving blood are found in nearly every culture around the world, including some of the most ancient ones. Vampire-like spirits called the Lilu are mentioned in early Babylonian demonology, and the bloodsucking Akhkharu even earlier in the Sumerian mythology. These female demons were said to roam during the hours of darkness, hunting and killing newborn babies and pregnant women. One of these demons, named Lilitu, was later adapted into Jewish demonology as Lilith. The vetala, like the bat, is associated with hanging upside down on trees found in cremation grounds and cemeteries The vetala, like the bat, is associated with hanging upside down on trees found in cremation grounds and cemeteries In India, tales of the Vetalas, ghoul-like beings that inhabit corpses, are found in old Sanskrit folklore. A prominent story tells of King Vikramaditya and his nightly quests to capture an elusive Vetala. The stories of the Vetala have been compiled in the book Baital Pachisi. The vetala is an undead, who like the bat associated with modern day vampire, is associated with hanging upside down on trees found in cremation grounds and cemeteries. The hopping corpse is an equivalent of the vampire in Chinese tradition; however, it consumes the victim's life essence rather than blood. The Ancient egyptian goddess Sekhmet in one myth became full of bloodlust after slaughtering humans and was only sated after drinking alcohol colored as blood. The strix, a nocturnal bird that fed on human flesh and blood is mentioned in Roman tales. The Romanian word for vampires, strigoi, is derived from the word, and so is the name of the Albanian Shtriga, but the myths about those creatures show mainly Slavic influence. As an example of the existence and prominence of similar legends at later times, it can be noted that 12th century English historians and chroniclers Walter Map and William of Newburgh recorded accounts of revenants that arguably bear some resemblance to East European vampires. The vampire myth as we know it is most strongly rooted in East European and above all Slavic folklore (dealt with more thoroughly in the next section), where vampires were revenants accused of killing people, often by drinking blood, but also by throttling, or sitting on them and preventing breathing. A vampire could be destroyed by cutting off its head, by driving a wooden stake into its heart, or by burning the corpse.

Folk Beliefs In Vampires

It seems that until the 19th century, vampires in Europe were thought to be hideous monsters from the grave. They were usually believed to rise from the bodies of suicide victims, criminals, or evil sorcerers, though in some cases an initial vampire thus "born of sin" could pass his vampirism onto his innocent victims. In other cases, however, a victim of a cruel, untimely, or violent death was susceptible to becoming a vampire. Most of Romanian vampire folk beliefs (except Strigoi) and European vampire stories have Slavic origins.

Slavic Vampires

In Slavic beliefs, causes of vampirism included being born with a caul, teeth, or tail, being conceived on certain days, "irregular" death, excommunication, and improper burial rituals. Preventive measures included placing a crucifix in the coffin, placing blocks under the chin to prevent the body from eating the shroud, nailing clothes to coffin walls for the same reason, putting sawdust in the coffin (the vampire awakens in the evening and must count each grain of sawdust, which takes up the entire evening, so he will die when at dawn) or piercing the body with thorns or stakes. In the case of stakes, the general idea was to pierce through the vampire and into the ground below, pinning the body down. Certain people would bury those believed to be potential vampires with scythes above their necks, so the dead would decapitate themselves as they rose. Evidence that a vampire was at work in the neighborhood included death of cattle, sheep, relatives, or neighbors, an exhumed body being in a lifelike state with new growth of the fingernails or hair, a body swelled up like a drum, or blood on the mouth coupled with a ruddy complexion. Vampires, like other Slavic legendary monsters, were afraid of garlic and liked counting grain, sawdust, etc. Vampires could be destroyed by staking, decapitation (the Kashubs placed the head between the feet), burning, repeating the funeral service, sprinkling holy water on the body, or exorcism.The most famous Serbian vampire was Sava Savanovic, famous from a folklore-inspired novel of Milovan Glišic.In the Old Russian anti-pagan work Word of Saint Grigoriy (written in the 11th-12th century), it is claimed that polytheistic Russians made sacrifices to vampires.

Romanian Vampires

Tales of vampiric entities were also found among the ancient Romans and the Romanized inhabitants of eastern Europe, Romanians (known as Vlachs in historical context). Romania is surrounded by Slavic countries, so it is not surprising that Romanian and Slavic vampires are similar. Romanian vampires are called Strigoi, based on the ancient Greek term strix for screech owl, which also came to mean demon or witch. There are different types of Strigoi. Live Strigoi are live witches who will become vampires after death. They can send out their souls at night to meet with other witches or with Strigoi, which are reanimated bodies that return to suck the blood of family, livestock, and neighbors. Other types of vampires in Romanian folklore include Moroi and Pricolici. According to Romanian tradition, a myriad of ways are presented as to bringing about a vampire. A person born with a caul, an extra nipple, extra hair, who was born too early, whose mother had a black cat cross her path, who was born with a tail or who was born out of wedlock was doomed to become a vampire; as was one who died an unnatural death, or died before baptism, as was the seventh child in a family (presuming all of his or her previous siblings were of the same sex), as well as the child of a pregnant woman who did not eat salt or who was looked at by a vampire or a witch. Moreover, being bitten by a vampire meant certain condemnation to a vampiric existence after death. The Vârcolac, which is sometimes mentioned in Romanian folklore, was more closely related to a mythological wolf that could devour the sun and moon (similar to Skoll and Hati in Norse mythology), and later became connected with werewolves rather than vampires. (A person afflicted with lycanthropy could turn into a dog, pig, or wolf.) The vampire was usually first noticed when it attacked family and livestock, or threw things around in the house. Vampires, along with witches, were believed to be most active on the Eve of St George's Day (April 22 Julian, May 4 Gregorian calendar), the night when all forms of evil were supposed to be abroad. St George's Day is still celebrated in Europe. A vampire in the grave could be discerned by holes in the earth, an undecomposed corpse with a red face, or having one foot in the corner of the coffin. Living vampires were identified by distributing garlic in church and seeing who did not eat it. Graves were often opened three years after the death of a child, five years after the death of a young person, or seven years after the death of an adult to check for vampirism. Measures to prevent a person from becoming a vampire included removing the caul from a newborn and destroying it before the baby could eat any of it, careful preparation of dead bodies, including preventing animals from passing over the corpse, placing a thorny branch of wild rose in the grave, and placing garlic on windows and rubbing it on cattle, especially on St George's and St Andrew's day.To destroy a vampire, a stake was driven through the body, followed by decapitation and placing garlic in the mouth. By the 19th century, one would also shoot a bullet through the coffin. For resistant cases, the body was dismembered and the pieces burned, mixed with water, and given to family members as a cure.

Roma Vampire Beliefs

Even today, Roma frequently feature in vampire fiction and film, no doubt influenced by Bram Stoker's book, Dracula, in which the Szgany Roma served Dracula, carrying his boxes of earth and guarding him. Traditional Romani beliefs include the idea that the dead soul enters a world similar to ours except that there is no death. The soul stays around next to the body and sometimes wants to come back. The Roma legends of the living dead added to and enriched the vampire legends of Hungary, Romania, and Slavic lands. The ancient home of the Roma, India, has many vampire figures. The Bhut or Prét is the soul of a man who died an untimely death. It wanders around animating dead bodies at night and attacks the living like a ghoul. In northern India could be found the BrahmarakShasa, a vampire-like creature with a head encircled by intestines and a skull from which it drank blood. Vetala and pishacha are some other creatures who resemble vampires in some form. Since Hinduism believes in reincarnation of the soul after death, it is supposed that upon leading an unholy or immoral life, sin or suicide, the soul reincarnates into such kinds of evil spirits. This kind of reincarnation does not arise out of birth from a womb, etc., but is achieved directly, and such evil spirits' fate is pre-determined as to how they shall achieve liberation from that yoni, and re-enter the world of mortal flesh through next incarnation.The most famous Indian deity associated with blood drinking is Kali, who has fangs, wears a garland of corpses or skulls and has four arms. Her temples are near the cremation grounds. She and the goddess Durga battled the demon Raktabija who could reproduce himself from each drop of blood spilled. Kali drank all his blood so none was spilled, thereby winning the battle and killing Raktabija. Sara, or the Black goddess, is the form in which Kali survived among Roma. Some Roma have a belief that the three Marys from the New Testament went to France and baptized a gypsy called Sara. They still hold a ceremony each May 24 in the French village where this is supposed to have occurred. Some refer to their Black goddess as "Black Cally" or "Black Kali".One form of vampire in Romani folklore is called a mullo (one who is dead). This vampire is believed to return and do malicious things and/or suck the blood of a person (usually a relative who had caused their death, or hadn't properly observed the burial ceremonies, or who kept the deceased's possessions instead of destroying them as was proper).Female vampires could return, lead a normal life and even marry but would exhaust the husband. Anyone who had a hideous appearance, was missing a finger, or had appendages similar to those of an animal, etc., was believed to be a vampire. If a person died unseen, he would become a vampire; likewise if a corpse swelled before burial. Plants or dogs, cats, or even agricultural tools could become vampires. Pumpkins or melons kept in the house too long would start to move, make noises or show blood. To get rid of a vampire people would hire a Dhampir (the son of a vampire and his widow) or a Moroi to detect the vampire. To ward off vampires, Gypsies drove steel or iron needles into a corpse's heart and placed bits of steel in the mouth, over the eyes, ears and between the fingers at the time of burial. They also placed hawthorn in the corpse's sock or drove a hawthorn stake through the legs. Further measures included driving stakes into the grave, pouring boiling water over it, decapitating the corpse, or burning it. According to the late Serbian ethnologist Tatomir Vukanovic, Roma people in Kosovo believed that vampires were invisible to most people. However, they could be seen "by a twin brother and sister born on a Saturday who wear their drawers and shirts inside out." Likewise, a settlement could be protected from a vampire "by finding a twin brother and sister born on a Saturday and making them wear their shirts and drawers inside out (cf previous section). This pair could see the vampire out of doors at night, but immediately after it saw them it would have to flee, head over heels."

Some Common Traits Of Vampires In Folklore

It is difficult to make a unified description of the folkloric vampire, because its properties vary widely between different cultures.The appearance of the European folkloric vampire contained mostly features by which one was supposed to tell a vampiric corpse from a normal one, when the grave of a suspected vampire was opened. The vampire has a "healthy" appearance and ruddy skin, he is often plump, his nails and hair have grown and, above all, he/she is not in the least decomposed.The most usual ways to destroy the vampire are driving a wooden stake through the heart, decapitation, and incinerating the body completely. Ways to prevent a suspected vampire from rising from the grave in the first place include burying it upside-down, severing the tendons at the knees, or placing poppy seeds on the ground at the grave site of a presumed vampire in order to keep the vampire occupied all night counting. Chinese narratives about vampires also state that if a vampire comes across a sack of rice, s/he will have to count all of the grains. There are similar myths recorded on the Indian Subcontinent. South American tales of witches and other sorts of evil or mischievous spirits or beings have a similar aspect to it.Apotropaics, i.e. objects intended to inhibit or ward off vampires (as well as other evil supernatural creatures), include garlic (confined mostly to European legends),sunlight, a branch of wild rose, the hawthorn plant, and all things sacred (e.g., holy water, a crucifix, a rosary, a star of David) or an Aloe vera plant hung backwards behind the door or near it, in South American superstition. This weakness on the part of the vampire varies depending on the tale. In stories of other regions, other plants of holy or mystical properties sometimes have similar effects. In Eastern vampiric legends, vampires are often similarly warded by holy devices such as Shinto seals. Vampires are sometimes considered to be shape-shifters not limited to the common bat stereotype put out by cartoons and movies. Rather, a multitude of animals are available such as wolves, rats, moths, spiders and many more. Vampires in European folklore are said to cast no shadow and have no reflection. This may be tied to folklore regarding the vampire's lack of a soul. Some traditions hold that a vampire cannot enter a house unless he or she is invited in. Christian tradition holds that they cannot enter a church or holy place, as they are servants of the devil.

18th Century Vampire Controversy

During the 18th century there was a major vampire scare in Eastern Europe. Even government officials frequently got dragged into the hunting and staking of vampires. It all started with an outbreak of alleged "vampire" attacks in East Prussia in 1721 and in the Habsburg Monarchy from 1725 to 1734. Two famous cases (and first to be fully recorded by authorities) involved Peter Plogojowitz and Arnold Paole from Serbia. As the story goes, Plogojowitz died at the age of 62, but came back a couple of times after his death asking his son for food. When the son refused, he was found dead the next day. Soon Plogojowitz returned and attacked some neighbors who died from loss of blood.In the other famous case, Arnold Paole, an ex-soldier turned farmer who had allegedly been attacked by a vampire years before, died while haying. After his death, people began to die, and it was believed by everyone that Paole had returned to prey on the neighbours. These two incidents were extremely well documented. Government officials examined the cases and the bodies, wrote them up in reports, and books were published afterwards of the Paole case and distributed around Europe. The controversy raged for a generation. The problem was exacerbated by rural epidemics of so-claimed vampire attacks, with locals digging up bodies. Many scholars said vampires did not exist, and attributed reports to premature burial, or rabies. Nonetheless, Dom Augustine Calmet, a well-respected French theologian and scholar, put together a carefully thought out treatise in 1746, which was at least ambiguous concerning the existence of vampires, if not admitting it explicitly. He amassed reports of vampire incidents and numerous readers, including both a critical Voltaire and supportive demonologists, interpreted the treatise as claiming that vampires exist. According to some recent research, and judging from the second edition of the work in 1751, Calmet was actually somewhat skeptical towards the vampire concept as a whole. He did acknowledge that parts of the reports, such as the preservation of corpses, might be true.[15] Whatever his personal convictions were, Calmet's apparent support for vampire belief had considerable influence on other scholars at the time. Eventually, Empress Maria Theresa of Austria sent her personal physician, Gerhard van Swieten, to investigate. He concluded that vampires do not exist, and the Empress passed laws prohibiting the opening of graves and desecration of bodies. This was the end of the vampire epidemics. By then, though, many knew about vampires, and soon authors would adopt and adapt the concept of vampire, making it known to the general public.

New England

During the late 18th and 19th centuries the belief in vampires was widespread in parts of New England, particularly in Rhode Island and Eastern Connecticut. In this region there are many documented cases of families disinterring loved ones and removing their hearts in the belief that the deceased was a vampire who was responsible for sickness and death in the family (although the word "vampire" was never used to describe him/her). The deadly tuberculosis, or "consumption" as it was known at the time, was believed to be caused by nightly visitations on the part of a dead family member (who had died of consumption him/herself). The most famous (and latest recorded) case is that of nineteen year old Mercy Brown who died in Exeter, Rhode Island in 1892. Her father, assisted by the family physician, removed her from her tomb two months after her death. Her heart was cut out then burnt to ashes. An account of this incident was found among the papers of Bram Stoker and the story closely resembles the events in his classic novel, Dracula.

Modern Belief In Vampires

Belief in vampires persists to this day. While some cultures preserve their original traditions about the immortal, most modern-day believers are more influenced by the fictional image of the vampire as it occurs in films and literature.In the 1970s, there were rumors (spread by the local press) that a vampire haunted High gate Cemetery in London. Amateur vampire hunters flocked in large numbers in the cemetery. Several books have been written about the case, notably by Sean Manchester, a local man who was among the first to suggest the existence of the "High gate Vampire" and who later claimed to have exorcised and destroyed a whole nest of vampires in the area. In the modern folklore of Puerto Rico and Mexico, the chupacabra (goat-sucker) is said to be a creature that feeds upon the flesh or drinks the blood of domesticated animals, leading some to consider it a kind of vampire. The "chupacabra hysteria" was frequently associated with deep economic and political crises, particularly during the mid-1990s. During late 2002 and early 2003, hysteria about alleged attacks of vampires swept through the African country of Malawi. Mobs stoned one individual to death and attacked at least four others, including Governor Eric Chiwaya, based on the belief that the government was colluding with vampires.In Romania during February of 2004, several relatives of the late Toma Petre feared that he had become a vampire. They dug up his corpse, tore out his heart, burned it, and mixed the ashes with water in order to drink it. In January 2005, rumors began to circulate that an attacker had bitten a number of people in Birmingham, England, fueling concerns about a vampire roaming the streets. However, local police stated that no such crime had been reported. This case appears to be an urban legend.In 2006, Costas Efthimiou and Sohang Gandhi published a piece that uses geometric progression to attempt to disprove the feeding habits of vampires, stating that, if each vampire's nourishment depended on making even one other person a vampire, it would only be a matter of years before the Earth's entire population was among the undead or vampires died out (compare matrix scheme). However, this notion that a vampire's victims must themselves become vampires does not appear in all vampire folklore, and is not universally accepted by modern vampire believers. This theory also assumes that a single bite turns the victim into a vampire, which is not generally the case in most vampire lore.

Natural phenomena that propagate the belief in vampires

Pathology And Vampirism

Folkloric vampirism has typically been associated with a series of deaths due to unidentifiable or mysterious illnesses, usually within the same family or the same small community. The "epidemic pattern" is obvious in the classical cases of Peter Plogojowitz and Arnold Paole, and even more so in the case of Mercy Brown and in the vampire beliefs of New England generally, where a specific disease, tuberculosis, was associated with outbreaks of vampirism (see above).In his book, De masticatione mortuorum in tumulis (1725), Michaël Ranft makes a first attempt to explain folk's belief in vampires in a natural way. He says that, in the event of the death of every villager, some other person or people - much probably a person related to the first dead - who saw or touched the corpse, would eventually die either of some disease related to exposure to the corpse or of a frenetic delirium caused by the panic of only seeing the corpse. These dying people would say that the dead man had appeared to them and tortured them in many ways. The other people in the village would exhume the corpse to see what it had been doing. He gives the following explAnation when talking about the case of Peter Plogojowitz: "This brave man perished by a sudden or violent death. This death, whatever it is, can provoke in the survivors the visions they had after his death. Sudden death gives rise to inquietude in the familiar circle. Inquietude has sorrow as a companion. Sorrow brings melancholy. Melancholy engenders restless nights and tormenting dreams. These dreams enfeeble body and spirit until illness overcomes and, eventually, death."Some modern scholars have argued that vampire stories may have been influenced by a rare illness called porphyria. The disease is a blood disorder that disrupts the production of haem. Porphyria was thought to be more common than elsewhere in small Transylvanian villages (roughly 1000 years ago) where inbreeding probably occurred. The haem group, found in every blood cell in the human body, is excited by electrons, but in a controlled fashion. However, the haem groups in porphyria sufferers causes uncontrollable tissue, bone and skin damage, made worse when the person comes into contact with sunlight. This would have given the porphyria sufferer a very pallid skin color, with teeth that appear larger than normal, due to the porphyria damaging the gum tissue and causing it to recede. Of course these people would have been very anemic, and thus drinking (animal) blood would have been a traditional treatment for anemia. Certain forms of porphyria are associated with neurological symptoms, which can create psychiatric disorders. However, suggestions that porphyria sufferers crave the heme in human blood, or that the consumption of blood might ease the symptoms of porphyria, are based on a severe misunderstanding of the disease. There is no evidence to suggest that porphyria had anything to do with the development of vampire folklore. Another disease that has been linked with vampire folklore is rabies. People suffering from this disease would avoid sunlight and looking into mirrors and would froth at the mouth. This froth could sometimes be red in color and resemble blood. However, like porphyria, there is little evidence to suggest that rabies was the inspiration for the original vampire legends. Some psychologists in modern times recognize a disorder called clinical vampirism (or Renfield Syndrome, from Dracula's insect-eating henchman, Renfield, in the novel by Bram Stoker) in which the victim is obsessed with drinking blood, either from animals or humans. There have been a number of murderers who performed seemingly vampiric rituals upon their victims. Serial killers Peter Kurten and Richard Trenton Chase were both called "vampires" in the tabloids after they were discovered drinking the blood of the people they murdered.

Finding "Vampires" In Graves

When the coffin of an alleged vampire was opened, people sometimes found that the cadaver did not look as they thought a normal corpse should. This was often taken to be evidence of vampirism. However, corpses decompose at different speeds depending on temperature and soil composition, and some of the signs of decomposition are not widely known. This has led vampire hunters to mistakenly conclude that a dead body had not decomposed at all, or, ironically, to interpret signs of decomposition as signs of continued life. Corpses swell as gases from decomposition accumulate in the torso and blood tries to escape the body. This causes the body to look "plump", "well-fed" and "ruddy" - changes that are all the more striking if the person was pale or thin in life. In the Arnold Paole case, an old woman's exhumed corpse was judged by her neighbors to look more plump and healthy than she had ever looked in life. It should be noted that folkloric accounts almost universally represent the alleged vampire as having ruddy or dark skin, not the pale skin of vampires in literature and film. Darkening of the skin is also caused by decomposition. Blood can often be seen emAnating from nose and mouth of a decomposing corpse, which could give the impression that the corpse was a vampire who had recently been drinking blood. The staking of a swollen, decomposing body could cause the body to bleed and also force the accumulated gases to escape the body. This could produce a groan when the gases moved past the vocal chords, or a sound reminiscent of flatus when they passed through the anus. The official reporting on the Peter Plogojowitz case speaks of "other wild signs which I pass by out of high respect". After death, the skin and gums lose fluids and contract, exposing the roots of the hair, nails, and teeth, even teeth that were concealed in the jaw. This can produce the illusion that the hair, nails, and teeth have grown. At a certain stage, the nails fall off and the skin peels away, as reported in the Plogojowitz case - the dermis and nail beds emerging underneath were interpreted as "new skin" and "new nails". Finally, decomposition also causes the body to shift or contort itself, adding to the illusion that the corpse has been active after death. Also medicine was not very advanced in the past so many people were in fact buried alive. In some cases people reported sounds from a specific coffin and then later it was dug up and fingernail marks were on the inside of the lid where the person had tried to escape. In other cases the person would hit their heads/noses/faces and it would appear that they had been "feeding".

Vampire Bats

Bats have become an integral part of the traditional vampire only recently, although many cultures have stories about them. In Europe, bats and owls were long associated with the supernatural, mainly because they were night creatures. Conversely, the Gypsies thought them lucky and wore charms made of bat bones. In English heraldic tradition, a bat means "Awareness of the powers of darkness and chaos". In South America, Camazotz was a bat god of the caves living in the Bathhouse of the Underworld. The three species of actual vampire bats are all endemic to Latin America, and there is no evidence to suggest that they had any Old World relatives within human memory. It is therefore extremely unlikely that the folkloric vampire represents a distorted presentation or memory of the bat. During the 16th century the Spanish conquistadors first came into contact with vampire bats and recognized the similarity between the feeding habits of the bats and those of their legendary vampires. The bats were named after the folkloric vampire rather than vice versa; the Oxford English Dictionary records the folkloric use in English from 1734 and the zoological not until 1774. It wasn't long before vampire bats were adapted into fictional tales, and they have become one of the more important vampire associations in popular culture.

Ouija Boards

Ouija sometimes [wee-gee or wee-juh]) is the belief that one can receive messages during a séance through the Ouija board (also called spirit board) and planchette. The fingers of the participants are placed on the planchette which then moves about a board covered with numbers, letters and symbols so as to spell out messages. Ouija is a trademark for a talking board currently sold by Milton Bradley. While the word is not a generalized trademark, it has become a trademark which is often used generically to refer to any talking board.

Etymology

The term "Ouija" is derived from the French "oui" (for "yes") and the German/Dutch "ja" (also for "yes"). An alternative story suggests the name was revealed to inventor Charles Kennard during a Ouija seance and was claimed to be an Ancient egyptian word meaning "good luck." It has also been suggested the word was inspired by the name of the Moroccan city Oujda. Despite its common usage, "Ouija" is a registered trademark (but the term "Ouija Board" has been abandoned as a registered trademark.

History

According to some sources, the first historical mention of something resembling a Ouija board is found in China around 1200 BC, a divination method known as Fu Ji. Other sources claim that according to a French historical account of the philosopher Pythagoras, in 540BC his sect would conduct seances at "a mystic table, moving on wheels, moved towards signs, which the philosopher and his pupil, Philolaus, interpreted to the audience as being revelations supposedly from an unseen world. However, other sources call both claims into dispute, claiming that Fu Ji is spirit writing, not the use of a spirit board, and that there is no record of Pythagoras or his students actually having used this method of achieving oracles or divinations. In addition, the claim of ancient Greek use is called into doubt by questions of historical accuracy, as Philolaus was never the pupil of Pythagoras, and indeed was born roughly twenty-five years after Pythagoras's death.

The first undisputed use of the talking boards came with the Spiritualism movement in The United States in the mid-19th century. Methods of divination at that time used various ways to spell out messages, including swinging a pendulum over a plate that had letters around the edge or using an entire table to indicate letters drawn on the floor. Often used was a small wooden tablet supported on casters. This tablet, called a planchette, was affixed with a pencil that would write out messages in a fashion similar to automatic writing. These methods may predate modern Spiritualism. U.S. Patent D056,449. Design patent for toys (D21/813) which was filed May 26, 1920. Issued Oct 26, 1920. Patentee was Clifford H. McGlasson. U.S. Patent D056,449 . Design patent for toys (D21/813) which was filed May 26, 1920. Issued Oct 26, 1920. Patentee was Clifford H. McGlasson.

During the late 1800s, planchettes were widely sold as a novelty. The businessmen Elijah Bond and Charles Kennard had the idea to patent a planchette sold with a board on which the alphabet was printed. The patentees filed on May 28, 1890 for patent protection and thus had invented the first Ouija board. Issue date on the patent was February 10, 1891. They received U.S. Patent 446,054. Bond was an attorney and was an inventor of other objects in addition to this device. An employee of Kennard, William Fuld took over the talking board production and in 1901, he started production of his own boards under the name "Ouija". The Fuld name would become synonymous with the Ouija board, as Fuld reinvented its history, claiming that he himself had invented it. Countless talking boards from Fuld's competitors flooded the market and all these boards enjoyed a heyday from the 1920s through the 1960s. Fuld sued many companies over the "Ouija" name and concept right up until his death in 1927. In 1966, Fuld's estate sold the entire business to Parker Brothers, who continues to hold all trademarks and patents. About 10 brands of talking boards are sold today under various names.

Consequences And Dangers Of Using Divination

The use of divination in a sense may seem harmless in the fact that it does not involve the worship of deities. However, in another sense, it is very much a religion (or some would say obsession) when it becomes a practice or activity that someone is completely devoted to. At some point, it can take on cultish or occultish aspects. In fact, there are many people who place the above forms of divination in the same category as other occult fortune-telling techniques such as the ouija board, astrology, crystal balls, palmistry, and tea leaves. Of course, some maintain that the above types of divination are just harmless fun. So where is the harm in using divination? If those who use tarot cards are not worshipping Satan and are not conjuring up evil spirits or sacrificing virgins, how can divination possibly be a danger to anyone? Oddly enough the danger of divination is admitted within the ranks of occultists and practitioners of the art themselves. divination is extremely dangerous to use, and can let in demons, and malevolent spirits, and other entities into your life, unless proper protective cleansing, banishing, and protection spells are cast prior, and after using any divination methods.

Tongue Stones

Tongue stones are stones that refer small meteorites, actual lightning struck stones, odd stones, or unearthed artifacts, that are used in divination.

Witch Bottle

The witch bottle is a very old spell device. Its purpose is to draw in and trap evil and negative energy directed at its owner. Folk magic contends that the witch bottle protects against evil spirits and magical attack, and counteracts spells cast by witches.

A traditional witch bottle is a small flask, about 3 inches high, created from blue or green glass. Larger and rounder witch bottles, up to 9 inches high, were known as Greybeard's, Bellarmines, or Bartmanns. Bellarmines were named after a particularly fearsome Catholic Inquisitor, Robert Bellarmine, who persecuted Protestants and, in consequence, was labeled as a demon by his victims. Greybeard's and Bellarmines were not made of glass, but of brown or gray stoneware that was glazed with salt and embossed with severe bearded faces designed to scare off evil.

A witch, cunning man or woman, would prepare the witch's bottle. Historically, the witch's bottle contained the victim's (the person who believed they had a spell put on them, for example) urine, hair or nail clippings, or red thread from sprite traps. In recent years, the witch's bottle has taken on a nicer tone, filled with rosemary, needles and pins, and red wine. Historically and currently, the bottle is then buried at the farthest corner of the property, beneath the house hearth, or placed in an inconspicuous spot in the house. It is believed that after being buried, the bottle captures evil which is impaled on the pins and needles, drowned by the wine, and sent away by the rosemary.

Sometimes seawater or earth are used instead. Other types of Witch-bottles may contain sand, stones, knotted threads, feathers, shells, herbs, flowers, salt, vinegar, oil, coins, or ashes. A similar magical deceive is the "lemon and pins" charm.

Another variation is within the disposal of the bottle. Some witch's bottles were thrown into a fire and when they exploded, the spell was broken or the witch supposedly killed.

This form of "bottled spell" dates back hundreds of years, and were prevalent in Elizabethan England - especially Anglia, where superstitions and belief in witches were strong. The bottles were most often found buried under the fireplace, under the floor, and plastered inside walls.

The Witch-bottle was believed to be active as long as the bottle remained hidden and unbroken. People did go though a lot of trouble in hiding their Witch-bottles - those buried underneath fireplaces have been found only after the rest of the building has been torn down or otherwise disappeared. The origins of this tradition have been dated at least to the 1500s. In ancient times the bottles were made of stone and originally contained rusty nails, urine, thorns, hair, menstrual blood, and pieces of glass, wood, and bone.

Warning If You Have Been Exposed To The Above Type Of Occult Magic, Or Divination

If you have at any time in your life been exposed to bibliomancy, carromancy, cartomancy, tarot cards, dactylomancy, pyromancy, hydromancy, incantations, ouija boards, tongue stones, witch bottles, and protective, cleansing spells, and banishing were not cast prior to, and after the items were used you need to contact us to have cleansing, banishing, and protection spells cast for you.

Ouija Boards

Ouija sometimes [wee-gee or wee-juh]) is the belief that one can receive messages during a seance through the Ouija board (also called spirit board) and planchette. The fingers of the participants are placed on the planchette which then moves about a board covered with numbers, letters and symbols so as to spell out messages. Ouija is a trademark for a talking board currently sold by Milton Bradley. While the word is not a generalized trademark, it has become a trademark which is often used generically to refer to any talking board.

There are people, who really do see Ouija boards and other forms of divination as mere "games." Some tell me, "I used a Ouija board and nothing happened to me!" Whenever someone says this, I ask them a simple question: "How do you know?" We've already stated that these spirits are liars, and we know that they are vastly more intelligent than even the most brilliant humans. We know they are invisible and can be directly revealed to us only through some supernatural revelation by God. Under the right circumstances, they could choose to reveal themselves, but would only do so if they determined that would do more harm and damage than keeping themselves invisible and to the untrained, undetectable. I say this not to frighten people who have innocently divined in the past. Rather, it is a warning to those who might be tempted to treat divination as a game. Just because the diviner has not seen sensational signs of demonic involvement does not mean that all is well.

If you or someone you know has been involved in divination, or has been in contact with an evil spirit, what should you do?

People are often scared that they may have allowed unwelcome demonic visitors into their lives by dabbling with practices outlined above. What should people do if they have either innocently or intentionally contacted demons by divining? What if no contact has been indicated even though divination has occurred?

If you have never engaged in any of these kinds of activities, thank God. Do not experiment with them, even for fun or out of curiosity not even once. Remember that you do not have to believe in evil spirits for them to seriously harm you. If a child touches a hot stove the pain is surely felt, regardless of what the child knew or believed beforehand.

When I talk to people about Ouija boards and other kinds of divination, I often find a fair number who have tried it at least once. Among these I also find those who have dabbled in these practices more often. "What should I do?" they ask. Here are several practical suggestions:

1. Don't assume that you haven't contacted the spiritual world just because there's no tangible evidence of activity. Demons will work quietly as long as it's to their advantage. If people aren't aware of a demon's presence, it can work much more easily.
2. Stop all divination immediately and get any partners or friends with whom you've done these things to stop, too. The sooner the divination ceases, the less potential for harm to all involved and the sooner any damage that has occurred can be repaired.
3. Contact us to have cleansing, banishing, and protection spells cast.

Consequences And Dangers Of Using An Ouija Board

Many anecdotal stories regarding the consequences of using Ouija boards exist in modern culture. Although Ouija boards are viewed by some to be a simple toy, there are people who believe they can be harmful, including Edgar Cayce, who called them "dangerous." Believers warn that evil demons pretend to be cooperative ghosts in order to trick players into becoming spiritually possessed. Others believe the Quija Board or 'Talking Board' is a passage way for the devil/satan to come into our world. something that most people are familiar with is the exorcist which was about a girl (linda blair) that was possessed and it was based on a true story. the boy that was possessed was finally successfully exorcised in the alexian brothers hospital in St. Louis, Missouri in the spring of 1949.

Some practitioners claim to have had bad experiences related to the use of talking boards by being haunted by "demons," seeing apparitions of spirits, and hearing voices after using them. A few paranormal researchers, such as John Zaffis, claim that the majority of the worst cases of so-called demon harassment and possession are caused by the use of Ouija boards. The American demonologists Ed and Lorraine Warren, stated that "Ouija boards are just as dangerous as drugs." They further state that "seances and Ouija boards and other occult paraphernalia are dangerous because 'evil spirits' often disguise themselves as your loved ones, and take over your life."

In 1944, occultist Manly P. Hall, the founder of the Philosophical Research Society and an early authority on the occult in the 20th century, stated in Horizon magazine that, "during the last 20-25 years I have had considerable personal experience with persons who have complicated their lives through dabbling with the Ouija board. Out of every hundred such cases, at least 95 are worse off for the experience." He went on to say that, "I know of broken homes, estranged families, and even suicides that can be traced directly to this source."

Some Christians hold the belief that using a Ouija board allows communication with demons, which they say is Biblically forbidden as a form of divination. Some people who claim to have been oppressed by evil spirits after using a board say that they could only get rid of these problems after Christian deliverance. Some Christians believe that no dead person's soul can be summoned, and that the only summoned spirits are demons who are trying to harm humans.

As early as 1924, Harry Houdini wrote that five people from Carrito, California were driven insane by using a board. That same year, Dr. Carl Wickland in his book stated that "the serious problem of alienation and mental derangement attending ignorant psychic experiments was first brought to my attention by cases of several persons whose seemingly harmless experiences with automatic writing and the Ouija board resulted in such wild insanity that commitment to asylums was necessitated."

The former medical director of the State Insane Asylum of New Jersey, Dr. Curry, stated that the Ouija board was a "dangerous factor" in unbalancing the mind and believed that if their popularity persisted insane asylums would be filled with people who used them.

Decades later, in 1965, parapsychologist Martin Ebon in his book Satan Trap: Dangers of the Occult, states that "it all may start harmlessly enough, perhaps with a Ouija board," which will, "bring startling information... establishing credibility or identifying itself as someone who is dead. It is common that people... as having been 'chosen' for a special task." He continues, "Quite often the Ouija turns vulgar, abusive or threatening. It grows demanding and hostile, and sitters may find themselves using the board compulsively, as if 'possessed' by a spirit, or hearing voices that control or command them."

In her 1971 autobiography, the psychic Susy Smith said, "Warn people away from Ouija and automatic writing. I experienced many of the worst problems of such involvement. Had I been forewarned by reading that such efforts might cause one to run the risk of being mentally disturbed, I might have been more wary."

Additionally, the late Roman Catholic priest Malachi Martin believed talking boards are dangerous and claimed that by using these devices a person opens themselves to demonic oppression or possession, topics upon which Martin spoke and wrote extensively for many years.