1908 Vampires by Franz Hartmann

Author[]

Hartmann was an associate of Helena Blavatsky and was Chairman of the Board of Control of the Theosophical Society Adyar. He collaborated with the mystic Carl Kellner. He published the journals Lotusblüthen (1893-1900) and Neue Lotusblüten (1908-1913). He wrote articles on yoga and popularized the subject within Germany.

He has been described as "one of the most important theosophical writers of his time". His works include several books on esoteric studies and biographies of Jakob Böhme and Paracelsus. He translated the Bhagavad Gita into German and was the editor of the journal Lotusblüten. He was at one time a co-worker of Helena Blavatsky at Adyar. In 1896 he founded a German Theosophical Society. He also supported the Guido-von-List-Society (Guido-von-List-Gesellschaft).

According to Theodor Reuss he was one of the original founders of the magical order that would later be known as Ordo Templi Orientis, along with Reuss and Carl Kellner.

Text[]

VAMPIRES

By Franz Hartmann, M.D.

A CLASS of phenomena which has given rise to many strange and horrible occurrences is that of vampirism, or the preying upon the vitality of a person and abstracting from him nervous force. This kind of vampirism we meet every day and are ourselves often subjected to it. We often meet people whose very presence draws upon our strength and causes fatigue. Sensitive, hysterical or mediumistic persons always vampirize each other. To magnetize, hypnotize or influence a person is a kind of obsession ; to absorb the thought, magnetism or influence of another is a kind of vampirism, and there are persons who can live entirely upon the vitality of others.

1. I have already mentioned in a previous paper on "Metathesis” in the Occult Review the case of the “wonder girl" at Radein, who for seven years lived without food or drink, being nevertheless in good health. Instead of taking food she withdrew vitality from the children that were brought to her for the purpose of receiving her blessing. Some of these children sickened, some wasted away and died. She did not do this consciously and willingly; for she was a very pious person and, owing to her long fasting, even considered a saint. Many other persons of that kind are known in history ; accounts of such sometimes appear in the papers, but they are soon hushed up, because our scientists cannot explain them ; their science being still only superficially acquainted with certain natural laws. Still, popular opinion claims that it is not healthy for young children to sleep with old people in their beds, and medical science silently approves of this view.

2. In the Bible it is claimed that when David grew old, a young girl was given to him to supply him with vitality, and not very many years ago certain institutions, based upon this principle, were existing in France. Young girls were supplied to old men or women as bedfellows. Usually the old person (after having had to submit to certain precautionary measures) had to sleep between two girls, a fair-haired and a dark one ; for which privilege he had to pay a certain sum. All of these girls soon lost vitality; some of them died; and these establishments were finally closed by order of the police.

This is called "Vampirism among the living”; but there is another kind of vampirism; namely, vampirism exercised by black magic, or sorcery, and the vampirism of the grave. Of vampirism exercised by witchcraft, the following may serve as an instance :—

3. A miller at V----- hired a young man to labour in his mill. The boy was healthy and strong ; but after a while he began to look pale and emaciated, and his strength grew less from day to day. The miller asked him about his ailment; but the boy pretended not to know. At last, however, he confessed to him that every night near midnight something heavy, of the shape of a large-sized egg, was pressing upon his breast, causing a distressing nightmare, and rendering him unable to breathe or to move. The miller thereupon watched at the bedside of the boy, and made him promise to give him a certain sign when he felt the presence of the vampire. The boy gave the sign, and the miller grasped with both hands that egg-shaped thing, which, although being invisible, seemed to the touch as if it were made of gelatine. He carried it to the chimney and threw it into the fire, and the boy, after that time, was troubled no more. This story has been told to me by a relative who lived at the said mill when this occurrence took place.

The following is an extract from one of the numerous letters concerning such subjects which I often receive :—

Vienna,

April 23, 1907.

Dear Sir,—

Permit me to ask your advice in regard to the following mysterious case: A woman in my neighbourhood, a widow, is the mother of four children, of whom the two oldest ones are twins. One of these, a beautiful girl, is fearfully troubled by what seems to me a mysterious invisible something, which almost every night presses upon her breast, drawing the vitality out of her, the body of the child growing cold and rigid as a corpse. The vampire, or whatever it may be called, announces its coming by raps, moving of furniture and noises of various kinds. I may say that a year ago, shortly before the trouble began, the mother of the child had to dismiss a thieving servant woman, whereupon that woman pronounced a curse, and said she would be revenged upon the child. The child was taken to the hospital, where they said it was “hysteria” ; but they could do no good. While she was at the hospital the noises at the Vienna, residence continued, and the mother received pinches, which caused swellings that remained visible for several days. Thanking you in advance for your answer,

Yours Sincerely,

E----- S-----

There are two obstacles in the way of understanding the nature of such cases; namely, the ignorance of the fact that vitality is not a product of the cellular activity of the natural body; but, on the contrary, the vitality of the body is a manifestation of the activity of life, which is a power as universal as magnetism or electricity; and, furthermore, there is the ignorance of the fact that this power can be attracted and employed, unconsciously by the majority of people and consciously by those who are acquainted with its laws. I am often asked to advise some remedy against the influence of black magic or vampirism, and I know of no other than to restore the health of the body, and to render it thus impermeable to such influences. In regard to counteracting such influences, magic powers can be counteracted only by “magic,” i.e. spiritual power. The best remedy, therefore, is the power of the true faith; namely, confidence in one's own divine self, by means of which a protective “astral" shell is formed around us, through which no evil influence can penetrate. By this means we may protect ourselves and even another, if we surround him with our aura. This power, however, is at the present time not in everybody’s possession ; those who can drive out demons are now as rarely to be found as at the time of Jesus of Nazareth; and it will probably be some time before the healing by the power of the Holy Spirit will become generally practiced by the medical fraternity as a whole.

The vampires of the grave belong to another order ; but such cases seem to be at present a very rare occurrence in civilized countries. They constitute a disgusting subject, which hardly needs to be discussed in this paper. Some such cases, where the astral body of the dead kept the physical body in the grave in a state of preservation by supplying it with vitality obtained by vampirizing the living, are reported in Blavatsky's Isis Unveiled. I myself have no experience in this line.

Issue Info[]

The Occult Review
Vol. 7 No. 5, May 1908
Article Title: Vampires
By Franz Hartmann
Publisher: William Rider and Son, Ltd.; Rider & Co.
Editor: Ralph Shirley
Pages: 256-258

Citations[]

APA: Hartmann, F. (1908, May). Vampires. The Occult Review , 7(5), 256–258. http://iapsop.com/archive/materials/occult_review/occult_review_v7_n5_may_1908.pdf.
MLA: Hartmann, Franz. “Vampires.” The Occult Review , May 1908, pp. 256–258, iapsop.com/archive/materials/occult_review/occult_review_v7_n5_may_1908.pdf. Accessed 6 Feb. 2021.
Chicago: Hartmann, Franz. “Vampires.” The Occult Review 7, no. 5, May 1908. http://iapsop.com/archive/materials/occult_review/occult_review_v7_n5_may_1908.pdf.
Harvard: Hartmann, F. (1908) “Vampires,” The Occult Review , 7(5), May, 256–258, available: http://iapsop.com/archive/materials/occult_review/occult_review_v7_n5_may_1908.pdf [accessed 6 Feb 2021].

Read Online / Download[]

http://iapsop.com/archive/materials/occult_review/occult_review_v7_n5_may_1908.pdf

Notes[]

I was only able to find the Domestic Edition in the Foreign Edition you’ll find the article in Vol 7, June 1908
Not online in book form, at least at the time this page was created.