吸血鬼與鬧鬼的秘密

你有沒有想過，為什么生活中總離不開幽靈、鬼怪、吸血鬼這類話題？為什么吸血鬼題材的文學作品和影視作品長盛不衰？一直以來，關于靈異現象的解釋五花八門，且有增無減。在“鬧鬼”的萬圣節到來之際，我們來聽聽科學家的看法吧。

The Roots of 1）Vampires and Ghosts

Host A： Halloween’s nearly upon us. It’s time for 2）ghouls and ghosts and going round peoples’ houses and getting sweets.

Host B： We’re talking about vampires， 3）presumably that stems from a rather different sort of historical narrative. Can you tell us a bit about where vampires come from？

Deborah Hyde （Vampire Expert）： The modern perspective on vampires， it’s thought that it’s two things. It’s a kind of a 4）scapegoating mechanism in the context of people being 5）panicky because there’s been 6）epidemic death. And the second thing is their misunderstanding about the normal processes of 7）decomposition. And it’s very easy for us to be all 8）pompous and say， “Well， of course， this happens and that happens，” but we can observe these things in a safe context. And in historical times you would bury a body very， very quickly for the simple reason that it was a source of 9）contagion， so the fact that， for example， 10）rigor mortis wears off and a body becomes flexible again， or that not all bodies decompose at the same rate， or that the 11）viscera can appear to be fresh even after a while in the grave， would all mislead people into thinking that there was some more life left in the body where it wasn’t.

The vampire epidemic， as it was called at the time， in fact probably was a result of 12）Slavic 13）folklore originating in kind of like the 9th or 10th centuries. It’s very， very 14）primal folklore， but it suddenly hit the West after the 15）Ottoman Empire receded. So we had a Western government administering people who were previously under a different government， and these 16）lurid stories， that the governments misunderstood， or the doctors on the site misunderstood， were incredibly popular pamphlets and paperbacks， and that’s how the story got out.

Host A： One of the interesting things I find about this is that the people will genuinely believe that particular things have happened to them， or they’ll believe stories that they’ve heard from sort of “trusted others.” What other explanations have scientists come up with？

Chris French （Psychologist）： I mean， apart from the small minority of hoaxes， the vast majority of claims of ghosts， specifically ghostly encounters， are probably down to sincere misinterpretations of naturally-occurring events. I mean you look at the kind of literature on this， and there’s some very， very 17）obscure explanations for things that most people would never come up with， you know. You might hear some strange noise， and it turns out to be 18）beetles ticking in the woodwork， or， that are rats in the loft， or all kinds of possibilities. And just because people can’t think of an explanation doesn’t mean there isn’t one. But once you’ve got the idea that your house is 19）haunted， then even very 20）mundane ordinary things， like you can’t find your keys；“Hah， the ghosts moved them！” No， you’ve just forgotten where you’ve put them. That’s all it is. And as I say， you also get these kind of 21）anomalous psychological experiences. I mean， we all have that feeling sometimes that “Is someone behind us？”， or， you know， you find that context isn’t really important. If people walk round a building that they are told has...there’d been 22）paranormal activity there， they’ll report more of those experiences， even if it’s just not true. The mere suggestion is enough for people to start noticing changes in temperature， or even imagining those things. So all those kind of factors come in as well.

Host B： Human beings are also 23）prone to finding meaning in thing. We want to find meanings， we want to create narratives， and we can do so even where they’re not there. So， if you ask a child to come up with a story about a polar bear in a white coat， he will come up with a why-based explanation instead of a how-based explanation， and coming up with a howbased explanation needs a lot of training. You’ve got to be educated into that. That it was a natural human way of thinking. So， if something will happen， we’ll pick out the bits that we want， then we’ll create a narrative， and that narrative will be based on the fact that there is something in the environment， whether you can directly 24）perceive it or not， that has 25）intention.

主持人甲：萬圣節臨近，又到了各路食尸鬼和眾幽靈挨家挨戶索要糖果的時候了。

主持人乙：我們正在談論吸血鬼。吸血鬼的說法可能有很不一樣的歷史淵源。你能不能跟我們說說，吸血鬼是怎么來的？

德博拉·海德（吸血鬼研究專家）：從現代的角度看吸血鬼，它有兩個方面。一是流行病導致人大批死亡，引發恐慌，吸血鬼成了替罪羊。二是當時人們對尸體分解腐爛這個正常過程缺乏了解。今天我們處于安全環境下，當然可以自負地說：“哦，當然了，這個、那個情況會相繼發生。”而在歷史上，人們會非常迅速地掩埋尸體。原因很簡單，尸體就是疾病的傳染源。但之后會出現一些現象：比如在尸僵緩解消失后，尸體會重新變軟，可屈可直；或者不同尸體腐爛的速度不同；或者即使尸體已經埋在墳墓里一段時間，其內臟看起來還很新鮮等。這些現象都會讓人產生一些誤解，以為尸身里還有生命，其實不然。

當時把吸血鬼看成是疾病傳播的元兇，事實上可能源自九、十世紀的斯拉夫民間傳說。那是非常非常原始的民間傳說，但在奧斯曼帝國衰落后，它突然傳到了西方。由于此前被持不同理念的政府統治的人民如今處于西方政府治下，而政府對事情的誤讀，或者說現場醫生的誤解，都導致這些可怕的故事傳說成了人氣甚高的宣傳資料。……