Can Vampires Fly?

by Hassan Raza
(Pakistan)

Question:
Can vampires fly like bats?

Answer:
There are many vampire stories that involve flying, and some of those include the vampire changing from humanoid form into bat form. The most popular of these stories, of course, is Bram Stoker's "Dracula", where the famous Count cemented the combination of the vampire and the bat into the minds of millions.

Of course, Dracula was not the first or the last story involving the vampire-to-bat transformation. The mythology of vampires reaches far, far back into the history of many cultures, including Europe. When Spanish explorers, familiar with vampire legends, reached Mexico and Central America, they saw a bat that behaved unlike any other they had ever seen before. It drank blood. Of course, we know this as the "vampire bat", named so after the vampire legends its feeding behavior mimicked.

This is truly where the connection of vampires and bats was born. Later, authors used this connection as a plot device, but prior to the discovery of the vampire bat by Europeans, there were no known myths that incorporated the two.

Knowing this, I would have to say it is highly unlikely that vampires do indeed transform into bats.

That said, there may be reason to believe that some possess the power to fly, or the power to shapeshift. It is believed that vampires become more powerful over time. Those who manage to stay alive for a very long time may be able to develop extreme powers that younger vampires could not possibly possess. We're talking thousands of years old, not hundreds.

Younger vampires may be able to develop lower-level powers upon transformation from human to vampire, but these are typically limited to things like mind-reading and prophetic visions. Flying, shapeshifting, and higher-level powers can only be obtained from well over one thousand years of post-human life - and then only to vampires who have a strong connection to the dark spiritual forces.

-Mike