Some writers of vampirism in recent years have theorized that perhaps some persons who were falsely accused of vampirism in acient times may have actually suffered from a medical disorder known today as Porphyria. The bodies of people with this condition cannot produce the correct amount of red blood cells. Supposedly this disorder could produce systems which ignorant people during the dark ages might have concluded to be a case of vampirism. Needless to say, people with this disease do not become vampires, the porphyria theoryappears to be an attempt to explain the irrational beliefs of the ignorant.  Another disorder which could cause people in olden days to suspect a case of vampirism was extreme anemia. In this event, the patient is low on red blood cells and hemoglobin. Such a severe condition could make the patients skin appear pale - clearly a sign of a vampire to the uninformed mind. Catalepsy is yet another medical condition which could have been mistaken for vampirism. In this disorder the patient suffers a form of temporary paralysis and appears dead. It is quite possible that some people historically were actually buried alive while suffering from catalepsy. A person in this state has the ability to hear and has vision, but it is impossible to move a muscle, and the individual could certainly not call for help. I fthis person came out of the paralytic state after a premature buriel, the resulting confusion with vampirism would be obvious. Imagine witnessing a "corpse" struggling to free itself from a fresh grave or a coffin. anyone unfamiliar with catalepsy would immediatly fear for his life and claim he had seen a vampire rising from the dead. whatever the case may be, whether vampires were actual supernatural beings or legends based on some non-related facts or pure fabrications of fantasy, ignorance, and axiety mixed with superstition, the popular image of the vampire will reflect the sign of the times. How we view the vampire at any given point in our human history may be a test for our society, revealing more about us then about the vampire...