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While many argue that the reference to vampirism in history is, in fact, merely the product of inadequate education, overactive imagination, and superstition, it cannot be argued that nearly every culture on the planet harbors some myth of an undead creature who feeds on the blood and/or flesh of the living. In Romania, it is the strigoi, a demon-inhabited human who roams the countryside seeking wayward (and unreligious) wanderers from whom to feed. In anceint Aztec societies, the Cihuateteo was a vampiric woman, half-god and half-mortal, who wandered the planet feeding on stranded or untended infants. And in Egyptian Wanderer lore (gypsies in slang terminology), the mullo is literally "a dead person" who returns to reak havoc on its survivors and, of course, to drink the blood of the living.

Since there is no argument that many cultures have a reference to the vampire and that it is, in fact, a Jungian archetype, one must ask the questions: where do these ideas of vampires come from, and, if vampires exist in all cultures, does it not follow logic that there are vampires among us today? To first examine the foundation of the vampire in our present reality, we must look to the myths and lore that surround them. Every myth is rooted in fact, whether that fact has been exploited and manipulated to create a sensationalized version of the truth or not. If we can suss out the myths, we may be able to determine the source of the myths and validate the existence of vampires by today's standards. As this article is being written in a Western country, let us begin our search within the Christian Bible.

One cannot argue that the Christian Bible supports the concept of returning from the dead. The son of God, Christ, is said to have risen after three days confined to his tomb. While it is not argued that Christ was undead, this reference certainly purports the possibility of people rising from the dead. And Christ was not the only one to do so. Myriad individuals seem to rise and fall from death in the Bible. Among them? Lazarus. Lazarus was a poor beggar who dies and is ressurected by Christ to return to life. Another example of the idea that one can die and return from death.

Prior to the advent of the "new testament" version of the Bible, there existed (and exists) a version of the bible specific to orthodox Judaism which purports further validation that vampires may, indeed, exist. First, left out of the traditional version of Genesis, the Hebrew myth of Lilith suggests

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