The Myth of Pure Evil

Is evil a real if hidden force?

A natural bias towards empathy has resulted in an almost universal identification of evil from the victim's perspective. Few if any perpetrators ever do an "evil" deed without good reason - from their viewpoint. Very, very few groups or individuals "name themselves in positive affirmation of evil. Most of them regard themselves as good people who are trying to defend themselves and their group against the forces of evil."

Our society in the West has, quite literally, an investment in perpetuating the myth of an evil force. Without it, movies and writing would be less interesting because evil villains represent in some powerful manner the way many people perceive the world.

It was interesting point that evil in the early part of the 20th century tended to be represented as werewolves, mummies, witches and invaders from outer space. Hitchcock's Psycho in 1960 marked the introduction of the human villain and the relegation of the spine-chilling monster to cheap horror movies and sci-fi.

A feature of recent written and screen fiction is the villain who appears to be motivated by an apparent enjoyment of hurting their victims. Sadism has become of the essence of the contemporary evil person. Thus, it is not enough to perform harmful acts. The truly evil villains derive pleasure from inflicting harm.

Religion is "…probably the best place to learn how people think of evil" because of the way religious people tend to view good. It appears that religions world-wide have come to similar conclusions about the nature of evil - that it does not exist by itself, but emerges as the opposite of what is termed good.

Another strand is to perceive human evil in terms of bad upbringing. From Freud to the present day, psychologists and sociologists have done battle in their disciplines with limited success. "The final victory of the good is not in sight. Not by a long shot", writes Baumeister.

The myth of evil is perpetuated by the means we use to teach our children about the nature of reality. The fairy tales and stories of the past have been largely supplanted by the TV cartoon. Both portray "…stark and simple battles between the forces of good and evil … villains have no clear reason for their attacks. They seem to be evil for evil's sake, and they have been so all along. They are sadistic …" It may be that such portraits of evil succeed because that's how children's minds work in earlier stages of development.

Nevertheless, this simplistic view of evil persists into adulthood, extended into more complicated but essentially unchanged perceptions rather than being transformed into something closer to reality.

Another source of the modern image of evil is a "popular paramilitary culture" which can be traced back to Clint Eastwood and Dirty Harry. In such depictions the ideal North American culture is pitched against a form of evil so pure that it can be conquered only by counterbalancing violence. It gets sexual joy from killing, desires the destruction of the American way of life and is most often personified in the foreigner who is unable to control himself - in contrast to the cool, detached rectitude of home-grown defenders. These stories are "…simple allegories of battle between those who have self-control and those who lack it …"

There are eight characteristics comprising the myth of pure evil:

1. It involves the deliberate infliction of harm on people;
2. Gratuitous pleasure is the motivation for inflicting harm;
3. The victims of evil are innocent and essentially harmless;
4. Evil people are outsiders, not part of the group;
5. Evil is as old as creation.
6. Evil promotes chaos conflict and thus pits itself against good order and peace;
7. Evil people are driven by egotism;
8. Evil people can't control themselves, especially when they get angry.

Nevertheless, the question presents itself: Why should anyone adopt evil means when ordinary "good" means are available? Why beat up an old woman for her purse when it's possible to earn the money? Research and history indicate the following:

• Evil means are perceived as quicker and easier - attractive reasons for some people;
• Legitimate means may appear difficult or impossible - like getting a job in difficult times or if one belongs to a group which is discriminated against;
• Effectiveness is a factor. Crime may seem less risky than long term ventures;
• It can be more exciting, producing a high which contrasts with daily drudgery;
• If legitimate authority is weak or absent, evil actions may have little or no downside.

Despite evidence which indicates that there are large and successful groups of criminals in all societies, it seems clear that evil does not pay. In all its common instrumental forms - robbery, organised crime and drugs, political murder, government repression and torture, warfare and the like - gains are short-lived and quickly dissipated.

But evil means do pay in one respect: they are effective in creating suffering and, if judiciously and effectively applied, are "…a useful and effective way to establish dominance over another person or to defeat another person's dominance over you. In simple terms, violence is a tool for taking power."

Over the centuries the debate in Western societies has been fierce: do ends justify means? Is it possible to achieve good through evil? Baumeister's study is conclusive. "Idealism leads to evil primarily because good, desirable ends provide justification for violent or oppressive means. Evil is not likely to result when people firmly believe that ends do not justify means. If they evaluate their methods by the same lofty standards by which they judge their goals and purposes, evil will be held in check".

Example after example demonstrate that ideology demands that we perceive the enemy as evil. It is license to hate. How do idealists - particularly Christians idealists whose ideal person said "Love your enemies" - avoid feeling guilty when they harm others either directly or by underhand means?

Idealists are most convinced that they are opposing evil when their victims closely resemble the myth of pure evil. The famous studies by Stanley Milgram on authority and obedience in 1975 yielded one less-recognised result. A crucial factor in persuading people to give apparently painful electric shocks to subjects was "…the presence of a fellow human being assuring them that their actions were justified and, indeed, were their duty".

All Christians, and indeed all religious people, need to pay attention to this important aspect of evil. For what is the case when "God" has been invoked as the assurance of rectitude? Surely nothing less than absolute justification for what is really absolute evil.

It would not stretch the point too far to propose that the more certain a Christian is that he or she has access to absolute, unique truth about reality, the more likely it is that others can become a justifiable target for abuse or violence. In direct contrast are those with a frame of mind which is sceptical, open and questing. Perhaps this explains the apparent ease with which certain groups of Christians use disparaging, vicious language to vilify their brothers and sisters in the faith.

Another reason for ongoing evil is the discontinuity effect, a "…pattern by which a group tends to be more extreme than the sum of its individual members". The effect is strengthened when, despite the highest goals, the "…group becomes an end, a positive value, in itself". Then, to protect the group whether at a high level like the Papacy or at the low end like the congregation, "…what is good for the group becomes right, almost regardless of whether it has any clear positive link to the group's original goals". Then the outsider, the apostate, mustbe killed.

Perhaps the most compelling, even startling conclusion about the roots of evil relates to that part of the myth of pure evil which supposes that evil people enjoy inflicting harm. Not only do the vast majority of perpetrators suffer terrible emotional trauma but most of those called to inflict suffering on others - whether gang members, soldiers or fraudsters - seek to avoid it at all costs. Did you know, for instance, that some 25% of Allied soldiers in Word War II could not aim to kill?

What is true, however, remains distressing - even if it contributes nothing to the myth of evil. And that is that hurting others can be enjoyed by a small minority of those who inflict such harm, perhaps 5 percent or so. The enjoyment is, however, only "…gradually discovered over a period of time involving multiple episodes of dominating or hurting others" during which normal empathic responses are extinguished.

Vampires of Medicine

Paul Barber in his book Vampires, Burial and Death has described that belief in vampires resulted from people of pre-industrial societies attempting to explain the natural, but to them inexplicable, process of death and decomposition People sometimes suspected vampirism when a cadaver did not look as they thought a normal corpse should when disinterred. However, rates of decomposition vary depending on temperature and soil composition, and many of the signs are little known. This has led vampire hunters to mistakenly conclude that a dead body had not decomposed at all, or, ironically, to interpret signs of decomposition as signs of continued life.[ Corpses swell as gases from decomposition accumulate in the torso and the increased pressure forces blood to ooze from the nose and mouth. This causes the body to look "plump," "well-fed," and "ruddy"—changes that are all the more striking if the person was pale or thin in life. In the Arnold Paole case, an old woman's exhumed corpse was judged by her neighbours to look more plump and healthy than she had ever looked in life. The exuding blood gave the impression that the corpse had recently been engaging in vampiric activity. Darkening of the skin is also caused by decomposition. The staking of a swollen, decomposing body could cause the body to bleed and force the accumulated gases to escape the body. This could produce a groan-like sound when the gases moved past the vocal cords, or a sound reminiscent of flatulence when they passed through the anus. The official reporting on the Peter Plogojowitz case speaks of "other wild signs which I pass by out of high respect".
After death, the skin and gums lose fluids and contract, exposing the roots of the hair, nails, and teeth, even teeth that were concealed in the jaw. This can produce the illusion that the hair, nails, and teeth have grown. At a certain stage, the nails fall off and the skin peels away, as reported in the Plogojowitz case—the dermis and nail beds emerging underneath were interpreted as "new skin" and "new nails".

It has also been hypothesized that vampire legends were influenced by individuals being buried alive because of shortcomings in then-current medical knowledge. In some cases in which people reported sounds emanating from a specific coffin, it was later dug up and fingernail marks were discovered on the inside from the victim trying to escape. In other cases the person would hit their heads, noses or faces and it would appear that they had been "feeding." A problem with this theory is the question of how people presumably buried alive managed to stay alive for any extended period without food, water or fresh air. An alternate explanation for noise is the bubbling of escaping gases from natural decomposition of bodies. Another likely cause of disordered tombs is grave robbing.

Folkloric vampirism has been associated with clusters of deaths from unidentifiable or mysterious illnesses, usually within the same family or the same small community. The epidemic allusion is obvious in the classical cases of Peter Plogojowitz and Arnold Paole, and even more so in the case of Mercy Brown and in the vampire beliefs of New England generally, where a specific disease, tuberculosis, was associated with outbreaks of vampirism. As with the pneumonic form of bubonic plague, it was associated with breakdown of lung tissue which would cause blood to appear at the lips.

In 1985 biochemist David Dolphin proposed a link between the rare blood disorder porphyria and vampire folklore. Noting that the condition is treated by intravenous haem, he suggested that the consumption of large amounts of blood may result in haem being transported somehow across the stomach wall and into the bloodstream. Thus vampires were merely sufferers of porphyria seeking to replace haem and alleviate their symptoms. The theory has been rebuffed medically as suggestions that porphyria sufferers crave the haem in human blood, or that the consumption of blood might ease the symptoms of porphyria, are based on a misunderstanding of the disease. Furthermore, Dolphin was noted to have confused fictional (bloodsucking) vampires with those of folklore, many of whom were not noted to drink blood. Similarly, a parallel is made between sensitivity to sunlight by sufferers, yet this was associated with fictional and not folkloric vampires. In any case, Dolphin did not go on to publish his work more widely. Despite being dismissed by experts, the link gained media attention and entered popular modern folklore.

Rabies has been linked with vampire folklore. Dr Juan Gómez-Alonso, a neurologist at Xeral Hospital in Vigo, Spain, examined this possibility in a report in Neurology. The susceptibility to garlic and light could be due to hypersensitivity, which is a symptom of rabies. The disease can also affect portions of the brain that could lead to disturbance of normal sleep patterns (thus becoming nocturnal) and hypersexuality. Legend once said a man was not rabid if he could look at his own reflection (an allusion to the legend that vampires have no reflection). Wolves and bats, which are often associated with vampires, can be carriers of rabies. The disease can also lead to a drive to bite others and to a bloody frothing at the mouth.
In his 1931 treatise On the Nightmare, Welsh psychoanalyst Ernest Jones noted that vampires are symbolic of several unconscious drives and defence mechanisms. Love, guilt, and hate are emotions that fuel the idea of the return of the dead to the grave. Desiring a reunion with loved ones, mourners may project the idea that the recently dead must in return yearn the same. From this arises the belief that folkloric vampires and revenants visit relatives, particularly their spouses, first. However in cases where there was unconscious guilt associated with the relationship, the wish for reunion may be subverted by anxiety. This may lead to repression, which Freud had linked with the development of morbid dread. Jones surmised in this case the original wish of a (sexual) reunion may be drastically changed: desire is replaced by fear; love is replaced by sadism, and the object or loved one is replaced by an unknown entity. The sexual aspect may or may not be present. Some modern critics have proposed a simpler theory: people identify with immortal vampires because by so doing they overcome, or at least temporarily escape from, their fear of dying.
The innate sexuality of bloodsucking can be seen in its intrinsic connection with cannibalism and folkloric one with incubus-like behaviour. Many legends report various beings draining other fluids from victims, an unconscious association with semen being obvious. Finally Jones notes that when more normal aspects of sexuality are repressed, regressed forms may be expressed, in particular sadism; he felt that oral sadism is integral in vampiric behaviour.

If you still don't believe in the psychology and physiology of the Vampires, religion is the word for you to follow.

Coming next in the line of blogs aimed to explain the supernatural in terms of Medical Science is "The Cry of Werewolf".

Lets talk about 2010:01:01 Lunar Eclipse.

Usually one hears about women and their connection to the moon. The average 28-day cycle of a woman's menses is the same as the 28 and bit day cycle of the moon. The Greek word 'mens' is the root word for moon, menstruation, month and mental. Historically women's "moon time" occurred during the new moon or the full moon. If menses occurred during the new moon, this meant that by the full moon women would be at the height of their fertility cycle. Often at this time there is a heightening of the libido in women which is natural, after all this is the best time for procreation. Of course in Victorian times this would be viewed as 'Lunacy'.

Conversely the same would be said for a women experiencing her menses at the time of the full moon. PMS and fluctuating hormones were unknown and most women who suffered from these symptoms were considered mentally imbalanced and hysterical. The word Hysteric means pertaining to the womb.

But what about men? How does the moon affect them? Does it affect them or is the moon and its cycles a women's only event? There are dozens of treatment options for women suffereing from PMS and other 'moon time' symptoms such as moodiness, anxiety, hormone imbalances, but does one ever see a herbal blend for a man's moon time? To some the idea seems silly, and definitely not Manly, yet men have hormones too. Men are just as likely to have fluctuating hormones as women are.

Recently I've begun to look into this idea. I spoke with a gentleman who noticed that during full moons he changes. Not into a Hairy Wolf beast, but rather he found that he was more anxious, felt it was harder to concentrate, his creativity level dropped and he felt distracted and uncomfortable for no apparent reason. The only common theme to his feelings was that they happened during the few days preceding and the days marking the full moon.

These symptoms are remarkably similar to what some women experience during PMS (whether it's a full moon or not) and usually equated to hormones fluxes. Women have it lucky, we can be cranky and blame it on hormones, we can cry and no one laughs at us. If a man were to snap at is wife, or cry when Shelby dies in Steel Magnolia's and then tried to blame it on his hormones he'd be laughed at. Society needs to start reevaluating this double standard and like the old Victorians stop overlooking a vital key to men's and women's health.