Barry Lamb is the chair of philosophy at Vassar College and the host of the podcast,

Hi-Fi Nation.

I found a vampire researcher. His name is John Edgar Browning, and he's so into studying vampires

that he decided to let one suck his blood.

Could you describe the experience to me?

Sure.

John Edgar Browning.

It was a little difficult for me because I'm a chmaphob, basically a person who is

afraid of sharp objects.

I was like, okay, I'll let you do it.

He took an area from the upper back because it typically doesn't scar very easily and it's out of view,

washes his hands, wears gloves.

He uses a sterile scalpel after he cleans the area and then makes a very small prick or two and then squeezes the skin around it

and the blood begins to come out a little bit. It was just deep enough to where it would

draw the blood. He sucks on it, squeezes more, sucks on it again, and did that for five or eight

minutes.

John is talking about real vampires, or people.

They're all over the world who feel a very strong, physiological need to consume raw blood from humans or animals.

And they have to do this regularly or they don't feel right.

Initially, they don't realize they have this problem.

They just know that they can't eat healthily or do enough to make themselves healthy.

This is just after puberty.

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