Cult Mentality in the Vampyre Community

Nova Nacht
Jun 16
13 min read

Content Warning: This is a bit more serious than my usual standard publications. This serves as a cautionary when looking into the VC, whether you are new or have been around for a long time.

What is a cult really?

The definition of cult gets thrown around like crazy without knowing what a cult is. Since around the time of the 19th century to the 20th century, the word cult has been modified to mean a devotion of some sort. This could be a movement and/or ideology. This isn't quite where cult gained its negative connotations. The satanic panic is what started up this negative connotation and severely escalated to what it is in the 20th century, as cults are a hot topic on various platforms, especially YouTube. This is when the definition was forever changed to be a fear-inducing word that immediately makes people question groups and organizations on their intentions, especially if they are spirituality-based. I would say for the past 10 years, it has been a go-to word for anyone who doesn't understand an ideology and/or doesn't agree with a group of people's ideology.

I hate to break it to you, but the word “Cult” is short for “culture.” This has been found throughout various cultures. So let me break it down. It started with the French term “Culte” in the 14th century-17th century, defined as a devotion of some sort, and followed by the Latin term “Cultus” meaning culture and/or to cultivate. These terms died out and were revived in the 17th century, and were roughly combined in the Victorian era, now defining Cult as “a devotion and attention to a person or thing”.

“Cult is a term which, as we value exactness, we can ill do without, seeing how completely religion has lost its original signification.” [Fitzedward Hall, "Modern English," 1873]

“Cult. An organized group of people, religious or not, with whom you disagree.” [Hugh Rawson, "Wicked Words," 1993]

“A cult is typically defined as a social group united by extreme devotion to a particular person, idea, or cause. Modern applications of the term usually refer to fringe organizations that use coercive control, psychological manipulation, and authoritarian structures to exploit members and restrict their autonomy. “ [Google, 2026].

Cult is a spectrum

I propose to you that Cult or “Culture” is a spectrum; you have a group of people who have morally good and/or bad ideologies, that is depending on where you fall on such a spectrum. These people have cultivated a community of sorts of likeminded individuals and now bytheir combined efforts are creating and establishing new things to support one another. Now with this thought process in mind. Let's think of what this can fall under. Here is a list of groups that fall into this category.

Spiritual Groups

This includes your Christians, your satanists, your Mormons, your pagans, your witchy folks, therians, spiritual-leaning vampyres, etc. It does not matter what these groups promote, nor how you feel about these groups. By definition, they are considered a cult as they are all rooted in culture, whether it's a subculture or not.

Political Groups

This is the political orientation that you may or may not fall under in ANY nation. You are a group of individuals who collectively come together under an ideology and support a “side” or politician. For some, you may even tattoo this political figure on your forehead. Or even start hexing the left or the right side just because you don't agree with their political ideologies.

Fandoms

A group of people who cultivate or share ideologies of something they like to even idolize that thing. This could be a sports team, a favorite show, a band, etc. Sometimes fandoms will worship the idols by making an altar, wearing merch, etc.

What is the dangerous part of the Cult spectrum?

Well, first we need to understand what makes a cult dangerous and the signs you may be in the dangerous part of the cult spectrum.

What makes a cult dangerous?

A cult can be dangerous when it has control over its members, manipulates their thoughts or emotions, stifles independent thinking, isolates, or pressures members into obedience at the expense of their bodily autonomy. All of these characteristics have been a recipe for disaster. Look into the mason family cult, The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, NXIVM (The Smallville Cult), etc. You will notice a repetitive history of abuse of its members, whether it is for labor or sexual extortion. In a lot of cases, the manipulation is so bad that the leader will take their members and themselves in a mass suicide, this is often referred to as a suicide pact and is often seen in religious cults.

“Under his orders, large vats of a poisonous concoction were prepared. Cyanide had been mixed into a flavoured drink, which Jones described as holy water. He then instructed his followers that, at his signal, they must all drink it together while remembering God.” [Diksha Modi., 2025]

Signs you are in a cult

Elitist/Superiority Complex: The Leader/Organization tends to believe they are above everyone; this often has been depicted as “The chosen one”. In other cases, this individual or organization will take their titles and expect that everyone respects and obeys them. They walk around like they own the place and that everyone should know their name. This trait here is what fuels the rest of the bullet points.
The True Way: The Leader/Organization preaches to teach the full truth and the only way of things.
Filteration/Banning of knowledge: The Leader/Organization will ban or filter information that challenges their beliefs that they preach. This is not counting harmful/unethical information that may be out there, but the line can be very blurred and requires context. This is where the whole “This group of people's beliefs is evil because they believe in this, and we are above that, and WE are the good guys” mindset comes in.
Exploitation of Fear: The Leader/Organization threatens that you will be removed, ostracized, harmed, or even claim you won't go to heaven if you do not obey their customs.
Isolation: The Leader/Organization will groom you into isolation, whether it is from family, friends, support groups, or even by other members. Here are common lines they may use on you:

“They just don’t like me/we, and that's why they are telling you these things. But you have seen we aren't like what they claim.”

“They are jealous of what we have.”

“You won't be treated this well by others. You are getting this title, this power, and I am even taking you on a trip.”

“It is God's way.”

“This group/organization wronged us; therefore, you are banned from associating with them.”

“If they really cared about you, they would support this.”

“They don't want you to have your true potential.”

“We are your true family, not all family is by blood.”

“You have so much potential to be wasting on this organization/rank.”

“I can make you be more than what you are.”

“I can provide you with knowledge, and that knowledge is something they are responsible enough to have, unlike you. You are special.”

Notice how very common these lines are and are often used outside of the context of cult mentality. Could be used in an abusive relationship or even just for general support. That is why this manipulation tactic is so successful, as often times it is used at your lowest, and that is how they can rip you from your support groups.
Financial Abuse: This is a very thin line, as there is a difference between funding an organization vs being coerced to fund or funding an organization under the guise of supporting the group while the funds are moving elsewhere. Some abusive cults will claim you need to pay into their organization because god said so, while others may have you pay them in order to unlock secret knowledge or climb the ranks. In more unknown cases, there are confidentiality agreements in some of these dangerous cults in order to keep these secrets from getting out. If the confidentiality agreement is broken, it can cost you thousands of dollars.
Compulsory Mannerisms: The Leader/Organization will require you to dress or act a certain way within and outside of Organizational activities. There is a huge difference between a standardization of an organization and wanting to keep members in certain attire during events or organization activities, vs forcing them to cut their hair, wear dresses all the time, get tattoos, and stay away from specific people of beliefs outside of these organizational activities/events. This is one of the obvious forms of your bodily autonomy being stripped from you.

Why do Cults work?

People are biologically wired with a tribal mentality to find like-minded individuals for survival and growth. This is exactly how cultures are formed hence why I mentioned before the etymology of the word “cult” being derived from the word “culture”.

The brain's tribal nature stems from the importance of social behavior for human survival and evolution, as explained by Teyssandier N. (2008).

Back then, this tribal mentality served as a purpose to find allies we can work together to be able to survive the next storm. While nowadays, from what I can see, all sorts of subcultures are created with like-minded individuals to support one another, depending on the kind of support that is needed. Symbolism within communities is not only an identity marker but serves more as a way these communities can show pride of their history.

Research demonstrates the significant impact of group identity on brain function. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies reveal that symbols associated with our groups, like team logos or political emblems, activate reward centers in the brain. A study conducted at UCLA observed increased activity in the ventral striatum and ventromedial prefrontal cortex, regions associated with reward and value processing. These findings suggest that the brain perceives group identity as rewarding and valuable, shedding light on the neural mechanisms of tribalism. Additionally, the release of oxytocin and vasopressin affects sensory information processing, enhancing social recognition memory and further linking group identity to pleasurable and rewarding experiences [Dluzen et al., 1998].

Such Pride has bred political movement groups, fandoms, religious communities, identity groups, etc. But unfortunately, being the humans that we are, pride isn't always a good thing and very much can cloud your judgement, creating the “It's them vs Us” mentality. Which does decently reflect the above statement I made regarding how the current evolution of the word “Cult” has been used on a group of people they don't agree with. This mentality has been studied by Molenberghs, P., & Louis to not always be violent, but it can be very much so.

The reviewed studies show that there is not a single brain area or system responsible for ingroup biases. Depending on the bias (e.g., perceptual vs. empathic bias) and the modalities (e.g., faces vs. words) implicated, different neural networks might be involved. We predict that combining multiple types of biases will lead to stronger antisocial behavior against the outgroup. For example, a perceptual bias in relation to action observation (e.g., an offensive foul during a sports game) by an ingroup member might result in seeing the action in a more favorable light than the same action performed by an outgroup member. This perceptual bias alone might not lead to violence between the two teams. However, if this perceptual ingroup bias is combined with biases in affective empathy and mentalizing, together with perceptions of threat to ingroup safety or schadenfreude for the suffering of an outgroup member, it is likely that all these biases together lead to violence between the two teams. [Molenberghs, P., & Louis, W. R. 2018]

How can this relate to the Vampyre Community?

You may or may not have already seen or experienced such characteristics within the vampyre community. Some spaces are being run by questionable leaderships. I am not saying that the Vampyre Community is an evil cult. Though I must clarify there are bad actors within this community that has done some or all of the above-mentioned earlier. This is not the blog where I drag people's names through the dirt and start a fight among various spaces. The point of this blog is to be more mindful of which spaces you are in and who you support. There are some people in the VC who either walk around with a superiority complex or have darker intentions beneath their leadership facade. Or they may be people who hide behind a screen, acting like they are here to help the entire community, but have ill intent and do not practice what they preach the most about.

I previously wrote a blog about the various Biases in the Vampyre Community. I mentioned Authority Bias being a very dangerous bias to have within any community, especially the VC. https://www.projectvampyre.org/post/understanding-biases-within-the-vampyre-community

Authority Bias

When you have built some form of liking or connection to someone who has some form of power or influence and they have gained your trust you immediately take their words as fact even if this person has no way of backing up what they have said you trust them. This is how social cult followings develop and is why you need to question everything as stated in one Luna_Sy’s blogs

This is a very easy bias to fall into, especially if you belong to a house that has an authority figure. This also stems down to new Vampyre community members doing research over the VC and comes across the more popular vamp influencers and contributors. They may use the Vampyre book as a rule book on how they should live their life. They will let these influencers' opinions alter their own so they can fit into the community. This is why I still have my fair share of disdain for some of the current people in power. They don’t realize how much their words shape the VC. But what also cannot be ignored are the people who blindly follow. (This is not going into the more manipulative factors that some of these figures may participate in) [Lady Nova., 2025]

Apparently, this was quite the controversial take that I feel like ALL leadership figures should somewhat agree with, not get offended by. It is not the first time that I have been very open about my concerns about how some leaders are in the VC.

VC Shock Value Videos

Media greatly alters the outside perception of the VC, depending on what is trending, the public eye may see the community as harmless, while other trends make the community look like an evil cult.

There have been a lot of YouTube videos that have been trending across various social media (Mostly Youtube and Instagram) pertaining to the VC. Most have been titled as “Vampire Cults” or “Real Life Vampires.” This trend has been growing since 2025. True crime/conspiracy theorists have been covering the more so “VC Cult” aspect of the community, while youtubers Like Kaz Rowe and Strange Aeons have been making community docu-studies explaining what the VC is about. Some YouTubers do a great job taking their biases out of the video, while some do drag the community through the dirt to the point they call the community as a whole an evil cult. Now I am not talking about the YouTubers who have been bringing allegations to light here. I am talking about some YouTubers who not only label us as an evil cult, but VC MEMBERS are participating in these videos and using shock value as ways to gain clout as they spread misinformation about the community. Which to many have found these shock value videos embarrassing and offensive. Some comments by the vampyre community are:

“I thought we got too old for this but here we are again” [Anonymous Commenter]

“Shoutout to the VC for repeatedly making me embarrassed as fuck to be an American.” [Anonymous Commenter]

Dangerous spaces within the VC

Throughout our VC history, there have been some spaces within the community that have been called cults as there may have been countless allegations being stacked, and some evidence here and there to back it up. Yet nothing happens to these spaces/bad actors, and the world keeps spinning, and people go back to worrying about the next VC event that is being hosted. It is a bit disappointing when you word it like that. But it really isnt that simple, Its the fact that some of these VC leaders are so good with PR, shutting stuff down within their spaces and their higher circles. People don't really come forward due to being afraid of what might happen to them. The ones who do come out to bring awareness, members of these “Vampyre Cults” harass them privately via email, DM’s, or even in person. As we have seen countless times within and outside of the vampyre community. Cancel culture doesnt exactly work, even moreso for the people who are the highest on the totem pole.

If you have read any of the characteristics of a dangerous cult I spoke about earlier in this article, I am sure for some of you these characteristics are unfortunately relatable, and I am sorry that you have experienced that within the vampyre community.

Is the entire VC a dangerous cult?

No, I wouldn't say the entire VC is a dangerous cult, I have explained this many times to new people or people outside of this community. This community can very much be a safe haven for those new to the world of vampyres. But there are those few bad actors that gives the community a bad name. This is just like any other community. The Vampyre Community is a wonderful space that has so many various identities from different generations. When you study the history of the VC, you see the rise and fall of some communities. Some communities fall because their leader “retires” from the VC. Or the community falls because they were participating in one or many of the characteristics I listed above.

What can we do as a community?

Well, first, I ask you to put down your stakes and torches, and process. This is not a means to just start and go, calling all VC spaces a cult just because you don't agree with how their organizations are being run. Not only that, but not everyone believes cult is a spectrum or understands that the original definition of cult used to mean culture. The word cult is very much derogatory nowadays.

Once you have processed this article, you must know I am not here calling out any specific communities or leaders. Nor am I saying it's cool to start calling random spaces a cult just because you don't like them; that goes pretty much against everything I have been preaching about. Now that we have done that processing. We as a community should yes continue growing the VC in a direction that is a safe haven for all vampyres. But we must not false avdvertise the community. I think if we are open about there being bad actors within the VC, new people can be on their guard before entering different VC spaces. Time after time, I have seen people claim the VC is this wonderful and safe place for vampyres and donors alike. While yes, that can be true at times but it is not always the truth. I feel it is my responsibility as owner of a VC space to make this fact known.

We as a community should once again be cautious of leaders in power, don't be out right disrespectful and hateful towards them. Just be cautious about how they represent themselves and, most importantly, you.