I have frequently used the phrase “psychic vampire,” or “energy vampire” to describe a person who extracts energy from others in order to survive in their world.
We have all heard of vampires, who feed on the blood of others. The psychic vampire feeds on the energy of others. However it is not normally a conscious endeavor.
In my book “Narcissism, The Web of Illusion” I talk about narcissistic action really being an “unconscious” behavior. The perpetrator is not normally aware of how his actions are affecting others. On the contrary, the perpetrator often feels he is the one being victimized. Narcissistic people are frequently energy vampires.
How does one know when his/her energy is being harvested? It is really quite simple. Just be aware of how you feel around different people. Start making mental notes. Some people will leave you feeling happy, energized, or nurtured. Others will leave you feeling drained, tired, depressed, angry or confused in some way.
If the person who leaves you feeling tired and drained has this affect on you most of the time than they are likely an energy vampire. You may enter the interaction or conversation feeling good about something and during the course of the conversation you are transformed into feeling bad. For example: Say you just got a big promotion at work and you are really excited. You go home from work and you are high with excitement and share the good news with your partner. He listens to you talk about your promotion and then says something like “Good for you! Hey did you take my blue water bottle this morning?”
O.K. his words weren’t obviously cruel or condemning. He even said “good for you!” But somehow you feel that you haven’t been heard and that he doesn’t really share in your excitement. In fact it seems more that he could care less. You feel a plummet in your energy and suddenly you are not feeling very excited anymore. You may respond by saying “No I haven’t seen your blue bottle!” And…he goes on to focus on the bottle asking you if you are sure you didn’t take it because you have a habit of taking his stuff, etc.
The celebration of your promotion at work was cut very short. In fact if you want to celebrate at all you will need to call a friend who actually cares about you and your good news. But by now you may not feel much like celebrating. You may feel that your promotion really isn’t that big of a deal after all. Especially since the person closest to you doesn’t seem to think it is.
Whenever you feel a sudden plummet of your energy whether from a friend, an acquaintance, a co-worker or a spouse or partner, you may be dealing with a psychic energy vampire.
A psychic vampire is not necessarily a psychic person but rather someone who preys on the psychic energy field around a person.
I am very sensitive and read energy quite easily now. But in the past, I didn’t know enough about this sensitivity to be able to interpret what was going on with me and why I often felt drained when around a lot of people, or certain people especially. Now I am pretty aware of what is going on around me and know when to leave a room or a situation.
I meet a lot of psychic vampires who appear to be just normal people going about their business. But here is what I notice. These type of people seem to want something from me. I notice the conversations tend to be one sided where they are doing all the talking and I am doing all the listening. There is no true interaction. If I try to relate or share something about myself pertaining to the conversation, I feel as if I am not at all heard. My contribution is passed up as they continue their conversation as if I haven’t said a word.
When I ask myself what the intention of these people might be I see they are looking for admiration, approval, positive feedback, are trying to sell me something or get me to believe something. If I begin to feel annoyed, drained, or tired, I immediately excuse myself and leave the conversation.
In healthy relationships we feed each other. We share energy. One of us might be feeling down and the other can encourage us and say things to support us which can bring us up. Other times we are the ones helping and encouraging the other. It is a give and take energy exchange that is mutually beneficial. However with energy vampires, there is no give and take, only take. They don’t have any energy in their own reserves to give.
A psychic vampire or energy vampire is an emotionally and spiritually depleted individual. He doesn’t have an inner life and is not spiritually connected to life. He has spent his life extracting energy from the outside instead of learning how to go within and cultivate his own inner garden.
Think of the human body and its need for vitamins and minerals. Our bodies have the ability to manufacture most of what we need from within if given the right nutrients and building blocks. But let’s say a person eats nothing but junk food and then takes a lot of vitamins. He is relying on this external substance to feed him instead of feeding his body healthy substances that build his body on a cellular level. If he truly wanted to be healthy he would learn that he needed to cleanse out all the toxins that have been accumulating from years of bad eating and then begin taking in high nutrient dense foods to rebuild his body.
It is much the same with a psychic vampire except the food we are speaking of is energy. An emotionally and spiritually healthy individual will plug directly into the source of life in order to restore himself energetically and spiritually. He might do this through prayer, meditation, yoga, spending time in nature, sitting quietly, studying either on an individual level or with a group, or talking to someone like a counselor, a minister or a wise friend. These practices have a way of restoring our energy and helping us to learn more about ourselves and our connection to life.
With a psychic vampire, he doesn’t really go within. He has spent most of his life running from himself and is cut off from the true self within. He may be very accomplished and intelligent on a physical level. He may be very attractive and take good physical care of himself. These are things that contribute to his over all “outer appearance.” But within he is an empty shell. There is no real substance there. He is shallow.
The longer we are in relationship with a psychic vampire the more we recognize just how shallow he/she is. The more we search for the depth in the person, the more we realize we are dealing with a puddle rather than a lake. There really is no depth.
It is in the depths of a person we find the human spirit. We find our deepest qualities, our deepest thoughts and feelings, hopes and dreams. The phrase “Know Thyself” means to take the journey within and explore the depths of our own being on an emotional and spiritual level. The greater we “know thyself” the greater our capacity to “know others.” If we avoid knowing ourselves, we also avoid truly knowing anyone else. We relate to people simply on the level of appearances, rather than truth and things are not always as they appear to be.
If all the “energy” of our being is in the depths of who we are, then it would make sense that someone, without depth, would need to extract from the depths of others. We get our life force energy from being truly alive and connected to the source of life. This is where we draw our energy from. This is why spiritual retreat is necessary for the restoration of the human spirit.
So if you’ve been “vamped” or otherwise had your energy drained through a relationship with a psychic energy vampire, it is time to disconnect the psychic chords that are allowing him to feed upon your energy and go to work restoring yourself through spiritual practice, right eating, and exercise.
An energy vampire has no real power in your life. He extracted your energy because you didn’t know any better at the time. You allowed it! Now that you are aware you can prevent it from happening simply by refusing to give him your energy and pulling your energy back once you realize you are being drained.
How We Give Psychic Vampires our Energy
We give our energy to a psychic vampire by allowing ourselves to be controlled on some level. We allow ourselves to be controlled by fear, by a desire to please, by a need for approval, and even through anger, pain and rejection. When we are angry at someone we give them a very large piece of our energy. Our energy is focused on the person we are angry at. When we feel dumped, humiliated, rejected or hurt by a relationship we also tend to give our energy to that person through our constant obsession or focus on them.
In abusive relationships we are constantly surrendering our energy and power in order to avoid conflict or further abuse. We suppress our voice, our energy and our personal power which is much the same as handing it over to the other person. We tolerate disrespect, dishonor, criticism, disapproval and a whole host of poor treatment. Each time we experience our abusers disapproval we tend to feel that piece of our energy being extracted. We feel more and more powerless and the abuser feels more and more powerful.
The only way for us to get our energy and power back is to stop giving it away and remove ourselves from disrespectful and abusive environments. We have to love and respect ourselves enough to say “NO MORE!”
Once we are on our own again, it is important to turn the focus of our lives back on ourselves and not our abuser. As I said before we continue to give our energy, on a psychic level, through obsessive focus on the past or on our abuser. Although it can be a great challenge NOT to focus on our abuser this really needs to be what we strive for.
The reason we tend to look backward so much and even become obsessed with what our abuser is doing now, is that he still has a piece of us and we want that piece back. Our illusionary nature believes that we miss that person, miss what we had, wish there could be a way for it to all work out, but I believe there is much more beneath the surface. I believe we don’t miss that person, we miss what he took from us.
When we have separated from the person who has been extracting our life-force energy we must, at all costs, bring our focus back to ourselves and do everything within our ability to restore ourselves to health on all levels, mental, emotional, physical and spiritual. This is how we will heal and restore our energy.
Remember, when you are connected to the source of life, you can draw energy directly from the light. Once you have stopped leaking your energy to the past, you can fill your reserves again and get on with your life in a much more empowered way.
We can become more empowered once we get ourselves back from a situation that extracts our energy because we learn not to allow that again. We learn how to protect ourselves and we are able to see the signs when someone is extracting our energy and leave the situation much sooner.
I come from a dysfunctional family. I am the youngest of 3 children. My parents were both alcoholics, especially my mother. My older brother is the middle child, he is a malignant narcissist. My sister is oldest, a good person but also a control freak.
Fast forward to today, I take care of my mom who is 80 and in poor health. My father died last year after Five year battle witg Alzheimers. I cared for him as well until I had to put him in a nursing home. My mom has always been negative, but has become severely depressed since my Dad died. She increasingly drives me to anger, because she drains me instantly. Anything and everything I do is met with backhanded complements or vailed criticism. I am left depressed, angry and totally spent. I have realized my mom, like my brother is a psychic emotional vampire. I know have grown to resent her and loath her. The first sight of her each ,morning ruins me for the day. What can I do?