pesky revenants revealed

pesky revenants revealed

Charlotte Montagne, in Vampires, the complete guide to vampire mythology, centers the origins of vampires, at least modern views of their origins, in Eastern Europe.  As noted by numerous authors, the origin of vampires is strongly associated with the belief in revenants; people who have come back from the dead.  Often just a nuisance, revenants could be mischievous and bring disease.  At some point, revenants or vampires became associated with bats.  In general, as humans grow old their appearance changes, with larger ears, sunken and bony faces and arms, leathery skin, facial warts, and such; in short, hags.  Perhaps the similarly unappealing facial and skeletal features of bats have played some role in linking bats with vampires.  More importantly, most bats sleep in caves, that is, inside the Great Earth Mother-- in crypts.  Thus bats, like revenants, exemplify a kind of coming out from the grave.  In addition, bats come alive only when darkness falls, the same time that we are aware of ghosts and revenants.  When sleeping, bats wrap themselves in a shroud (their wings), not so far removed from the wrappings and simple coffins of earlier times.  Thus, bats became a symbol of existing after death; a non-Christian notion of rebirth grounded in pagan, animalistic beliefs.  Bats come out at night when our own eyes fail us, and are generally silent, avoiding our hearing. They are easily able to brush across our hair or face without any warning. Ghostly, to be sure.  Thus, bats fit into beliefs about revenants as frightening nuisances that won’t stay in their graves.  The connotations of the original words used to describe vampires are unclear though one, disputed, line of thought suggests ‘witch’.  The modern word vampire (vampyr, etc.) appears only in the 1700’s, and at this time additional characteristics of vampires become salient as discussed below. Before that we primarily have pesky revenants.

Questions such as whether vampires actively avoid sunlight, would be damaged by it, miss the fact that theydo only come out at night, therefore do avoid bright light.  Certainly to see their animal avatar, a bat, flying about during daylight is a pretty sure sign that the bat is sick. The hope that “the light” might destroy the fiends comes from a different set of myths, ones about possible ‘therapeutics’.  Today we recognize that many humans, for example some autistics, are startled and annoyed by bright light and often avoid it, but we don’t expect them to burst into flames or crumble into ashes.  That is beyond present-day credulity.  Overall, then, revenants, subsequently vampires, won’t stay in their graves and make a nuisance of themselves.

paw in claw, forever?

and no shape-shifters or zombies, please

In modern literature it is rare to find vampires without werewolves close at hand.  They both very strongly capture the essence of our fears.  But what characteristic of vampires and werewolves led them to be grouped together? Has this always been the case?  Trying to answer this question will lead us to some of the strongest arguments that the rabies virus is a central factor in understanding, in realising, rage.  In order to answer why these two creatures are so closely intertwined we can compile a list of reported characteristics.  Surprisingly, although vampires and werewolves are presently almost always discussed together, their origins have almost nothing in common.  Only the similarities of certain behaviors and outcomes tie them together; similarities that will lead us directly to rage, rabidity, and rabies.  Perhaps it is the vast differences in the origins and presumed roles of these two species that have led most modern sagas, Twilight, Underworld, Becoming Human, to mention a few, to present them as enemies.  By themselves, humans are no match against vampires or werewolves.  The only realistic contest is for these two extra-ordinary creatures to vie with each other.

Some narratives regarding vampires and werewolves extend to shape-shifters, generally referred to as lycans, humans who can change into animals through will and ritual.  We will only very briefly touch on these notions here.  In the present investigation, werewolves and vampires are solely a result of an uncontrollable change of humans into animal-like behavior, not the conscious action of presumptive lycans.  We ground our investigation in those scenarios that natural biology can accomplish and forego the incredulous.  It is intriguing enough to uncover what biological vampires and werewolves can do without invoking mystical ones.  There will be enough left unexplained to fuel the supernatural anew for those who feel the need for it. 

Zombies will also be left to others.  Their behavior may take some clues from a particular form of rabies, so-called dumb or paralytic rabies, but, for the most part they do not inform about our own urges.  More telling is that many modern zombie stories invoke infection as the agency for turning people into zombies. Still, the zombie is presently only a victim, dumb as dumb can be. Its motivations, its emotions, are dead ("Warm Bodies" notwithstanding) .  Until their condition becomes cyclical, like our emotions, they don’t help us deal with our own inner lives.

– vampires and werewolves, kindred soul-losers?

– vampires and werewolves, kindred soul-losers?

There has been much written about werewolves and vampires.  At present it is hard to find a movie, book, or TV show that does not focus on or at least allude to such creatures.  However, their origins are difficult to follow.  Much of the lore of the intertwining of humans and animals occurred during prehistory, that is, prior to written records.  The notions began with animistic or pantheistic theologies in which all creatures were assumed to have some level of human-like understanding and behavior.  These oral traditions gave way over many centuries to written accounts.  Unfortunately these written accounts were authored by people who were neither familiar with nor believed the myths.  We are left with tales written down by learned scholars and clergy with definite preconceptions to uphold rather than a necessarily accurate record of the myths themselves.  The earliest writings were not meant for consumption by common people but rather for royal record-keeping and theological teachings; meant only to explain the myths as remnants of pagan, demonic beliefs and to instruct scholars and clergy on how to guide the common people in divesting themselves of those erroneous beliefs.  This basically turned earlier spiritual beliefs and activities on their head relegating them from local spirits largely dealt with in one's own home to distant authority figures not there when you needed them.  

The monotheistic religions were earth-shattering by giving humans dominion over nature; in one philosophical/theological leap wiping out all fairies, sprites, and spirits.  However, they didn't tell people how to take control over nature, nor how to appease it without using the old rites and spells.  The many individual observations and facts about nature did not conform to a monotheistic worldview except intellectually.  They were individual events that were disjointed.  Yet, on a day-to-day basis the populace needed to deal with the uncertainties of nature in real time.  Therefore they held on to some of the older stories and secretly continued the rituals that had always gotten them through their daily fears.  While many of the myths were being intellectually or theologically debunked by disaffected scholars, some portions remained in oral traditions. 

Once the printing press (circa 1440 AD) made laic treatises and fiction available for a wider range of readers, vampires and werewolves became the subject of popular fiction.  Stories of uncontrollable passion always capture the attention of readers and no creatures convey this better than vampires and werewolves, in large part because humans can be turned into them.  These new thrillers had to capture the imagination of the reader, i.e. had to sell, and so more earthy characteristics were brought forth, many that scholarly and pious authors had not committed to ink, at best had only alluded toward.  These traits had a basis in the oral traditions and therefore these fictions became a sort of a written record for the old myths.  Yet, by this time animistic theologies had been largely discarded and the oral traditions were known as fairy tales, generally meaning tales to instruct little children.  Much was left to be explained anew in this new fiction, and it was, using the language and interests of the times. 

In effect, the legends and myths were rewritten again and again according to the needs and interests of the writers, not those of the original story-tellers.  This makes it difficult to discern origins from more recent additions. Moreover, the pantheistic, animistic beliefs of our more distant ancestors were never a single world-view, just all the disparate experiences of people encountering the world around them.  And yet shining, darkly, through all of the stories about vampires and werewolves is the irreconcilable polar opposition between civilized behavior and uncontrolled rage and passion.  It is easy to assign ideas about vampires and werewolves to the wild imaginations of uneducated people.  But even the most amazing hallucinations, the wildest dreams, have some basis in real experience.  Moreover, we are personally still very much aware of the conflict between uncivilized rage and civilized behavior.  Since the myths, the experiences, of our ancestors, and ourselves, have been rewritten/reimagined multiple times, we must take care not to overplay any particular detail in any one of these stories.  Details found in only one or a few stories may relate to a very specific time, place, and/or incident that would be difficult for us to confirm.  Still, we can look for a common wellspring from which the myths, the fairly tales, and modern stories come and analyze them to understand how humans think and feel.  

Analyses of the fairy tales and the myths they touch upon has been the subject of many books; too many to reference here. Some with the intent to discredit, some to confirm, some just to document.  And they keep coming.  Clearly the many grand attempts to disprove or to prove have not yet succeeded in resonating with all of us, all of the time.  So, we will look at these reviews and their data and using a different approach to let us appreciate and reconcile what we must believe.

initial exposure

- initial exposure

Let’s begin with the epitome of rage, vampires and werewolves. It is enjoyable to be frightened by them from the security of our favorite chair or a movie theater seat surrounded by friends.  These wild creatures allow us to experience our inner rage, to feel both the wonderful power and the horror of rage unleashed.  And, in most stories civilized behavior wins out over the demonic forces, even though the protagonists may have to briefly embrace their own inner wolf to defeat the demons.  Yet these tales are short releases, brief respites from the occurrence of real rage.  While they let us succumb to it, join with it for some period of time, they serve mainly to remind us that we are supposed to be civilized, social beings who do not give in to dark powers.  Rarely do they show us how to understand or deal with rage in our daily lives; we just get through it.  It is time to revisit the stories, the myths, and our own inner urges and see whether a path to understanding, to treatment when necessary, is available.

The literature regarding werewolves and vampires and such is too large and too diverse to examine in detail here, so only a small portion will be mentioned and just a few of the most extensive works referred to, without detailed citation.  The majority of the existing literature has taken a theological or philosophical position.  The authors try to prove or disprove the existence of such creatures, and whether they are abominations or are objects of intrigue.  Montague Summers’ The Werewolf in Lore and Legend published in 1933 is a vast compendium of earlier records.  It is recent enough that it is presented in concepts at least slightly comprehensible to 21^st century thought. Yet reading it requires a strong comprehension of Latin, Greek, German, Olde English, and other languages, thereby greatly limiting its audience.  More recent books, in particular Charlotte Montague’s Vampires (2010), aim to compile a complete guide to the mythology of vampires (with some references to werewolves) in 21^st century terms and embracing the new wave of interest in these wild and powerful creatures. 

These compendiums are interesting to read.  What is very clear, however, is that vampires and werewolves comprise a wide variety of characteristics and ideas that do not coalesce into any single story.  These reviews make it clear that it would be fruitless to try to cobble together all the different ideas into one story.  And yet there are many overlapping and recurrent images that indicate that there is a commonality, not based on philosophical or theological theorems, but in real life.  So, rather than trying to create a Frankenstein by attempting to knit together disparate accounts, guessing, we will view these records by comparing them with a specific biological mechanism that we can examine with modern diagnostic tools.  We will determine how much of the tales or werewolves and vampires can be accounted for directly by this mechanism, and then we can evaluate whether remaining accounts have the characteristics of combinations of historical notions.  Therefore, we begin our own investigation by claiming outright that the effects of the rabies virus on humans and other mammals can, and do, account for the specific manifestations of werewolves and vampires.  Answering the question of whether supernatural beings and forces exist is simply thrown over by the question of the meaning of vampiric and werewolf-like behavior in humans.  This is the real excitement; to understand more about ourselves, even to accept that some surprising, even frightening, behaviors are normal!  The enticement of the recent literature involving vampires and werewolves is their humanity, their struggle to become human, that is, our own struggle to recover from our inner monsters.  Becoming human, adult, is what we all try do every day!  Civilization and civilized behavior are, to a large extent, an attempt to bring some behaviors under our conscious, voluntary control. 

One of the wonders of rabies, as we will see, is that it does not damage or even reorganize our nervous system in order to produce the seemingly bizarre, abnormal behavior associated with infection.  Rabies simply takes advantage of standard, prepotent scripts in our behavioral repertoire and enhances some to its own advantage. For the rabies virus (as for vampires) that selfish advantage is to complete the biological imperative to reproduce.  Rabies virus can only survive if it turns another person into a host for the virus, i.e., into another rabid creature.  Rabies can only be transferred by introducing infected saliva from one rabid person/animal into the body of another, that is, by biting them.  The image of turning a new victim is a perfectly apt description of how rabies survives and spreads. 

Prologue - rabidity

It was a comfortably cool night, perfect for wandering through the woods. As he padded along well-worn trails, he drew into himself, increasingly uncaring whether he was alone or with companions.  In the dark, he felt alert, almost nervous, but for no reason he could yet detect. His senses seemed immensely heightened, yet he had little awareness of his surroundings. Reaching an edge of the forest, he was suddenly seared by bright light above him.  He recoiled into the shadows, the light seeming to burn him.  For a moment he knew it was just the full moon, but it was too late.  He was turning, again. He could almost feel the bullet-shaped invaders in his brain, killing off all socialized behavior, letting loose a deep, essential part of his being.

His muscles started to tense, aching to be released. He wanted to run. Run until running was the only thing. Without direction, his feet carried him to places he normally wouldn’t - shouldn’t - go.  Out of the woods; to a fence.  It was another’s domain, not his. Who dared to bar his way, demanding him give way!  He sensed a presence on the other side; warm, full-blooded. A threat? Food? A yearning?  It didn’t matter; it just had to be dealt with. So, he ran toward it, his emotions escalating into rage.  He was aware of his change. He knew it was not him, but it was him. Fully turned now.  Saliva foamed up, more than his mouth could contain. But it hurt so much to swallow – when had that started? He just had to let it slaver out, dripping from between his now bared teeth. His muscles, so taut, so energized, could leap in endless bounds - easily over the pitiful attempt at restriction, that fence - to put down his… prey.  

He was upon it, sinking teeth deep into muscles and arteries, scratching with nails (or were they claws?). It was over quickly, blood everywhere. His murderous saliva mixed with its blood. The thing might be dead, it might not be. That didn’t matter. He felt some pleasure at successfully passing on his power, but mainly felt continued rage.  He ran again.  There were more weak creatures that needed to incur his rabidity.

Rage! Rabidity!  Was it a werewolf, a vampire?  A dog or human infected with the lethal rabies virus?  Or a human exhibiting intermittent explosive behavior? The goal of this blog is to explore how and why these questions intertwine.

tragedy again

Rage is a natural part of human behavior.  It often occurs when we are faced with an insidious, invisible enemy.  The patient in Maryland who just died (reported 13 MAR 2013) following a kidney transplant, a transplant that harbored rabies virus, is certainly reason to rage against nature.  How can this happen?  How can it occur in this age of modern medical miracles?!  Others can talk about better screening of organ donors, better screening of transplant material.  That’s all necessary and good.  That doesn't help the present sorrow.  

This case does highlight several important aspects of rabies.  First, if rabies is not caught before it enters (infects) the central nervous system (CNS), there is no treatment.  The Milwaukee protocol aside – it’s potential seems harder to reproduce than expected – there is simply no treatment -- no hope -- after the deadly virus enters the CNS.  For the other people who received material from the same organ donor, and who seem presently healthy, the “Pasteur vaccine” may still be able to glom onto and expel any viruses residing in them.  It is a very effective prophylactic treatment, and we can well hope it will successfully protect those people.  [I put Pasteur vaccine in quotations because Louis Pasteur and coworkers developed the first vaccine, but there have been multiple rounds of significant improvement since then.]

The person who died received the transplant well over a year ago, but only recently developed the symptoms of actual infection.  This highlights that exposure to rabies is NOT infection.  That rabies can only infect neurons, and that it must penetrate into the CNS to produce infection.  Following exposure, the virus simply floats around the body until it finds the unique receptor that will internalize it into the small number of CNS neurons that are in contact with the periphery of the body.  During this interim period, the virus does not infect cells, it does not reproduce, it is not in some latent form.  It is simply being pushed and pulled around in extracellular spaces until it happens across its target protein.  This interim period is not the result of slow migration through peripheral nerves transporting the virus into the CNS.  We’re talking years!  In the present case, well over a year.  And one case of a four year interim period between exposure and infection has been documented.  No axonal/intraneuronal transport mechanism is that slow.

Again, this recent tragedy highlights that we don’t know the receptor that the rabies virus binds to in order to gain access to the CNS!  As a virus that has been recorded, railed against, from the earliest days of humanity’s ability to write, this is nothing short of unbelievable - unforgivable.  And since we don’t know the receptor that takes it into the brain, which is likely the receptor that allows it to be passed from neuron to neuron and to turn victims into monsters as they are dying, we have no idea of how to block its behavioral and lethal effects.  Surely, this cannot be allowed to continue.  The means to discover this receptor are well in hand; they just require the $$$$ and wherewithal to carry out the necessary studies.  I hope that some good can come of this new tragedy and the effort to contain this monster can begin in earnest.

Rabidity: legend and reality

Rabidity: legend and reality

Rage! Rabidity!  Was that a werewolf, a vampire?  A dog or human infected with the lethal rabies virus?  Or a human exhibiting intermittent explosive behavior? The goal of this blog/book is to explore how and why these questions intertwine. We will search through various conceptions and images of rage and find that our understanding is still severely constrained by a lack of information regarding its natural biology.  Presently we find solace and therapeutic release from unbidden rampages via tales of vampires and werewolves, or by placing blame on (untreatable) psychiatric disorders.  In either case, we are relegating commonplace feelings and actions to an abyss beyond our comprehension, into the realm of supernatural forces or the dark recesses of the human mind.   

In order to realize what rage is, we must discover its biological underpinnings, even if we find we can only partially explain it.  Rage must not continue as a haven for supernatural and mystical forces beyond our power to direct.  It cannot continue as part of a laundry list of psychiatric terms that describe unconsciously directed antisocial behavior, but give us no avenue to treat it when it becomes uncontrollable. And it cannot carry on without a model with which we can study it, able to control when it begins and ends.  Our investigation will compel us to view rage and rabidity, through its primary advocate, the rabies virus, as critical questions for understanding our own most basic behavior and some of our most enjoyed myths and legends.

Rage is an essential part of life.  Defensive rage protects animals and their young from imminent predation.  It can bring out a strength and ferocity that seem, well, superhuman.  Rage, as excessive force, is often directed less at a specific target than at the world in general. It is gauged to deter the worst possible threat before the true severity of the threat can be determined. Tantrums, that can include hitting and even biting, are pretty common in toddlers.  However, these overt behaviors are strenuously drummed out of standard human behavior.  They can be dangerous to life and to civil interactions, and they abrogate rational, civilized discussion and compromise.  If we did not conquer our rage, it would lead to untold fighting -- even more than the world endures already.  And yet, feelings and actions of rage frequently try to break out from our bonds of civility, forcing us to fight back their overt expression.  And then we wonder where they came from, how they so easily overpower us without warning.  It’s as if we’ve been taken over by ‘others’.  The power of rage, frenzy, passion, etc. is well-accepted and understood to be uncontrollable. Indeed, crimes of passion, i.e. rage, can be used as a defendant's excuse for committing a crime - sudden anger or heartbreak - to eliminate premeditation. The result is to lessen the provable homicide to manslaughter with no death penalty and limited prison terms. A jury may even acquit the impassioned defendant. Although most of us can suppress our rage much of the time, some seem unable to do so; some may even use its appearance to their social advantage.  Therapists talk about intermittent explosive disorder, conduct disorder, and other terms.  Most of us just know to avoid people who have “short fuses”, “hair trigger tempers”, are prone to road rage.  Others may ascribe such behavior to vampires and werewolves, humans who have been turned into creatures of fury and passion. 

It is time to bring together as many of these conceptions as we can.  We must look for a biological, testable commonality that will allow us to accept the rage within us, understand why it exists and where it resides within our beings, and to find meaningful ways to treat those for whom rage is an uncontrolled disorder.  That is the goal, and the promise, of this blog/book.