Vampires: The Occult Truth (Llewellyn Truth About Series) [Paperback]

Konstantinos (Author)

Book Description

Series: Llewellyn Truth About Series | Publication Date: September 8, 2002

Discover the strange world of the undead and the proof that creatures of the night exist when you read Vampires by Konstantinos.

The facts about vampires are stranger than anything you may have read, heard, or imagined before. In Vampires you'll learn the truth about the undead. It rips away the myth and exposes the habits and lifestyles of these beings.

Vampires reveals the occult truths about these creatures including actual first-person encounters with vampires of all types—the ancient undead of folklore, contemporary mortal blood drinkers, and the most dangerous creatures of all: psychic vampires who intentionally drain the life force from their victims.

- Learn about the four types of vampires
- Read about vampire legends from around the world
- Discover vampires from history, including:
    - Arnold Paole of Serbia
    - Peter Plogojowitz and the Count de Cabreras of Hungary
    - The vampire of Croglin Grange, Cumberland, England
    - Countess Elizabeth Bathory, responsible for up to 650 deaths
    - Gilles de Rais
    - Fritz Haarman, of Germany, from ninety years ago
    - John Haigh of Yorkshire, England, from just before WWII
    - And of course, the real Vlad Dracula
- Present-day blood drinkers
- How to protect yourself from vampires

Included are letters from contemporary vampires. You will be shocked and surprised as you discover what these people are really like. Besides learning about the psychic vampire that unintentionally drains you of your energy as well as the intentional psychic vampire, you'll learn rituals for protection and methods to avoid falling into their clutches.

Vampires finally reveals the truth about the undead. You will be fascinated when you discover who they were and what they are now, and you'll be grateful when you learn how to protect yourself from them. This is not a book of fantasy and imagination, but of science, history, and spirituality.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Feeling drained? Perhaps you are the unwitting victim of a psychic vampire. Want to know more? In this his second book, Konstantinos explores the folklore surrounding the blood-drinking vampire and, more importantly, exposes the threat of 20th century vampires which feed on psychic energy. I found this amalgam of stories from the past with Konstantinos' experiences in the present appealing to both the folklorist and the occultist sides of my curiosity. Konstantinos' theories will be considered controversial by many, but I don't feel that they can be summarily dismissed.

From the Publisher

When I first saw the title of Konstantinos' manuscript, Vampires, I was rather hesitant to even look at it. The scientific side of me was quite doubtful. After all, vampires are fiction, aren't they?

No. They're not.

Konstantinos presents undeniable proof that vampires existed...and still exist today. He reveals the history of vampires throughout the world. Virtually every culture has records and myths of them. He then reveals historic vampires.

Vampires discusses the four types of vampires that walk this earth. You'll learn how to identify them and discover what they do. Vampires also gives you explicit instructions on how to protect yourself from vampiric attacks.

If you are a doubter, as I was, this book is a must. The facts become clear: vampires are a literal reality. You will read letters from real vampires who tell what their lives are actually like. This is more exciting than any fictional interview with a vampire because it is real!

Whether you believe in vampires or are a doubter, Vampires is a must!

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Llewellyn Publications; 1st edition (September 8, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1567183808
• ISBN-13: 978-1567183801
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (43 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #47,432 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

42 of 47 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Occult Lover's Delight, February 17, 2000

By 

Michael Zimmerman (Roanoke, Virginia, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Vampires: The Occult Truth (Llewellyn Truth About Series) (Paperback)

I have read many non-fiction books about vampires, and this is by far the best. Konstantinos gives you a look back at the history of vampires and gives you an idea of what to believe. The greatest part of this book is in the chapter where the author reveals letters he has received from alleged vampires. According to one anonymous vampire, "We are real, we are many, we are forever....". That is my favorite quote from the book. He also informs you on how to ward off vampire attacks. I have never seen so much thorough and informative information before in a book based on the occult. This book slightly describes, but also eliminates, myth from the vampire legend. This book destroys the typical "Hollywood" vampire. From the moment I received this book, on Christmas, I couldn't put it down, not for a second. He also interviews vampire encounters, and he brings up the important point that since the first city was built, vampire legends have existed. This book was obviously, heavily researched. I have no bad points to emphasize about this book. It is perfectly detailed, discriptive, and informative from start to finish. In conclusion, I doubt you will find a more complete book on the possibility of vampires existing than this. It has already become a favorite book of mine.

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent book! (for Occultists), November 26, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Vampires: The Occult Truth (Llewellyn Truth About Series) (Paperback)

As you can tell from the five-star-ranking I gave to this book, I think it's really a remarkably good book. Divided into four parts (Immortal blood-drinkers, mortal blood-drinkers, unconscious psychic vampires and conscious psychic vampires), it shows a rationality and believability you wouldn't normally expect from a "vampire book". However a *little* esoteric and/or occult knowledge is helpful understanding especially the part about defense against attacks from psychic vampires, i. e. you shouldn't be utterly allergic to the concept of aurae, astral travel and such. Therefore, this book is perfect for occultists, people interested in esoterics and goths of the a-little-more-serious kind - of these, everyone should have it! - , though simply "somewhat weird" to the rest. By the way, the style of writing is quite understandable to people not speaking english as a native tongue, too.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Mostly very sweet, but a few things bothered me, June 23, 2006

By 

Stefan Isaksson "www.stefanisaksson.se" (Malmoe, Sweden) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Vampires: The Occult Truth (Llewellyn Truth About Series) (Paperback)

Konstantinos' book Vampires is mostly an interesting, easy to read, and well-written introduction to the phenomenon known as vampires; where they're from, what famous individuals from history who have inspired the modern view of vampires, how different the belief in vampires looked in different parts of the world, and so on.

Konstantinos, who for over fifteen years have researched the occult and written several books about most matters concerning the world of goth and the occult, manages to create a (mostly) pleasing mix of scepticism and belief, especially when it comes to historical tales about alleged "real" vampires where he thorough and informative explains how folklore easily can distort stories and how things that back in the days were taken as genuine evidence for the existence of vampires today turn out to be quite invalid.

But this scepticism doesn't last throughout the entire book. As soon as he gets to the section about psychic vampires - that is, vampires that prefer feeding on human energy instead of human blood - the perspective changes in an instant. From being both skeptical and critical in his approach Konstantinos now becomes a complete believer, as he starts talking about nightly attack by psychic vampires, a phenomenon that contains every single element from the phenomenon known as sleep paralysis (being incapable of movement, occurring right before waking up or going to sleep, a feeling of slight pressure on the chest, the notion that someone else is in the room, and so on). Obviously Konstantinos and his readers has every "right" in the world to believe in this, but it's quite surprising that he doesn't even mention the possibility that these nightly attacks are nothing but a very natural phenomenon which most people experience sometime during a lifetime.

This complete lack of scepticism took me by surprise, since he up till then had been critical about everything else he writes about. Yes, it's true that the book is mostly written for people who believe in the existence of magic and the supernatural - which becomes especially apparent at the end of the book - but still, approaching this section, like the rest of the book, with a critical mind wouldn't destroy Konstantinos' "occult reputation" (as far as I'm concerned, anyway), so it puzzles me as to why he writes the way he does.

And also, Konstantinos does have quite annoying tendency to keep telling the reader that future chapters and sections will deal with, and time and again he does this. Sure, this way of writing works excellent and can be very useful, but only to a certain extent, and after a while it usefulness simply transforms into something that you just don't want to be reminded of. Perhaps it's just me, but I couldn't help but to find this method extremely irritating in the long run.

However, Vampires is in the end a book for everyone, skeptics and believers alike, since Konstantinos makes sure to remind the reader that even something as strange as the supernatural deserves to be taken seriously. And this is, of course, very true. You might not agree with some of his ideas, but so what? Many people do, and this alone makes the field a valid one to study. Still, it wouldn't surprise me of he finds his largest audience among the ones inclined to believe in those exact things the established scientific community considers to be pure nonsense.

That didn't matter much to me though, because I still had a good time reading it, and I managed to learn something new in the process.