Comments on: Scientific Reasons to Believe in Vampires, Werewolves & Zombies

By: Dan

Dan — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 22:19:38 +0000

Since no readers seemed to have noticed and Mental_floss didn’t mention it , I feel compelled to point out that this article first appeared on the site last year around Halloween. The print magazine version you’re looking at here is missing whole paragraphs of material and the original acknowledges 1) that there are several types of poryphyria and symptoms can be episodic and 2) that werewolf and werebeast myths predate the 18th century and popped up in various disconnected geographies.

http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/19790

By: Inanna Arthen

Inanna Arthen — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 00:37:58 +0000

The modern age has a mania for this speculative mental fluff, but all “rational explanations for vampire beliefs” totally miss the mark. Vampire beliefs are culture-specific and arose when flaps of paranormal phenomena were filtered through a specific cultural worldview informed by orthodox Christianity. The “rational explanations” tend to “explain” traits of vampires in *fiction* that never existed in folklore beliefs. As Mira points out, Dr. Dolphin’s porphyria argument has been resoundingly debunked (but he’s still lecturing on it!). It’s better to understand past cultures than to rationalize them.

By: Mira Geffner

Mira Geffner — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 21:43:18 +0000

Re: porphyria, this very real and potentially life-threatening disease does not parallel the vampire myth very closely, and fortunately Prof. Dolphin’s speculations have been pretty thoroughly debunked by medicine. Light sensitivity and mental symptoms are usually found in different types of porphyria (there are eight). And the mental symptoms are episodic â€” they resolve when attacks, are treated. Please visit the American Porphyria Foundation website for more information from medical researchers in the porphyrias.

By: Sarah

Sarah — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 19:47:44 +0000

I would highly recommend the podcast or article from Howstuffworks/stuffyoushouldknow about zombies.

By: CJ

CJ — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 18:26:19 +0000

Wo wo wo…Are you telling me that teen wolf isnt a true story? My day is ruined! Anybody else think Bobby Finstock is the man?

By: Zelda

Zelda — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 03:21:47 +0000

I dunno, the only evidence of zombies being from 2006?
I am not saying that there are *true* zombies, however, Hatian lore often mention zobmiesm.
And there is the whole lack of salt thing.

By: Andrew Pollack

Andrew Pollack — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 02:56:55 +0000

… I’m surprised by the rabies tie in. That much more closely matches the modern zombie thing than old world vampire stories. Until only really recently, vampires were hideous monsters who slowly sapped the life from young healthy people in the night — until the modern homo-erotic authors vampire thing, then the teen soft porn author variety took over.

The better model to match for vampires is actually tuberculosis. There have been a number of really good research papers on that in fact.

By: Beth

Beth — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 01:32:56 +0000

I took a Biochem class last year and my professor briefly mentioned some other similarities between porphyria and vampirism.
Sometimes the teeth of people with porphyria glow red under an ultraviolet light.
He also said that it is thought that people suffering from this disease crave the heme in blood, though this is not proven.

By: Dan

Dan — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 23:54:34 +0000

Really? Someone couldn’t be bothered to read a whole blog post before commenting on it? I might just die of shock.

By: the creature

the creature — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 22:26:35 +0000

Drat, sorry, didn’t read second paragraph. D’oh.

nevermind…