Psychic Vampires: How to Spot and Protect Yourself from Them

The term “psychic vampire” casts light on the phenomenon that some have called “Society’s most sophisticated and undetectable predator”. The psychic vampire operates on an energetic and spiritual level, while most of us operate in the physical and mundane world. If we are not educated to it, we could ignore or miss subtle indicators that one of these predators is near. In fact, it is only recently being recognized as a real problem, with real solutions. 

At the outset, in order to understand the why of the psychic vampire, we must understand the roots of the condition, and to further understand psychic vampire protection.

The psychic vampire is to be pitied and deserves compassion but does NOT deserve the life force they steal from others in order to keep their own energy levels up. The typical childhood of a person that grows into a psychic vampire is one of misery, being told that they are a litany of things that are negative and most likely untrue. Via this process, perhaps unknowingly, the parents or parental figures erode the self-image, self-esteem and stunt the character of the child who grows to feed on the energy of others. 

The psychic vampire is the ultimate chameleon; they blend in, they walk in step with us, they seem to anticipate our needs, wants or mood. The subtle dynamic at play here in the dance between the psychic vampire and those they victimize, is that they mirror and the victim projects. What does this mean? In psychology, the term projection is used to describe how people “project” onto others; in terms of psychic vampires, they will behave in ways that make it seem that they are in tune with us (known as mirroring); they seem to know what to say, and when to say it. They are adept at using our own mannerisms to lower our guard. Good people tend to assume that others are good too. When we assume someone we are interacting with is “good,” because we are good, this is projection, in very rudimentary terms. 

Therefore, before we get into the remedy, let us give due diligence to the cause – the creation of the psychic vampire, for these are beings to be pitied (oddly enough, true pity tends to enrage a psychic vampire). As difficult as it can be to extract ourselves from the tentacles of a psychic vampire, we must also consider how difficult it must be to actually be one… please keep this in mind as we proceed. We are not here to judge, only to dissect and understand a condition that is more and more prevalent, we certainly see it in our psychic work. We share to empower and uplift those who were lost for a solution in trying to find a way to employ protection against psychic vampires. 

Victims of the psychic vampire can suffer various depths of energy loss, from fatigue, lack of energy and motivation all the way to deep depression, anxiety and physical illness or disease. These things begin in the spirit, where we are subject to energetic assault (the beginnings of which can be so subtle, we typically don’t have any idea until we are suffering greatly). If the psychic vampire does not meet with resistance, it can be assumed they are free to continue, as they say, “silence is consent.”

When we are under a constant drain of our life force, we become low on energy ourselves, forcing us to step up production, which also drains us!  This can cause our overall protection level to drop, making us vulnerable to spiritual and physical ailment.  A similar thing happens on the physical level with stress which lowers the immune system response.  If we are dealing with a psychic vampire, this cycle repeats, and we find ourselves in the same boat over and over again, which eventually spirals, and the victim can become very depleted if they do not remove themselves from the situation. The real danger of this is not only do the psychic vampire types drain one’s life force, but they also dump their toxic psychic waste onto the victim. This is why we feel heavy and drained at the same time. It is often baffling to the victim, as the energy thief is still a mirror, leaving them undetectable as they reflect the goodness of the victim back at them. 

The psychic vampire can be difficult to identify, unless we know what we are looking for. 

In the first section, we highlighted the characteristics in terms of description and effects. Here we focus on some tactics psychic vampires employ, how to “test” psychic vampires you may already know, and how to spot and avoid the psychic vampire going forward.

Let us examine some types of psychic vampire tactics:

The Marketing Department: Also called the grooming stage, where the psychic vampire has not yet begun to steal energy. They will mirror your behavior now.  In itself mirroring is not inherently bad (we all do it).  At low levels and to be clear, without an energy stealing agenda, mirroring is harmless. When the psychic vampire uses the mirror technique, it is to deflect from the fact that they are a masked intruder. Most of us don’t see ourselves as victims – even in the midst of attack we sometimes don’t recognize it, until we are already suffering, or we figure it out. Once the psychic vampire knows how to please the victim, they will use it for favor and leverage. This brings us to the next stage.

The Personal Shopper: If the Marketing Department has done its job successfully, once the psychic vampire is accepted within your space, the façade will begin to crumble. At this time the psychic vampire may deploy what we like to call the Personal Shopper tactic. They may suddenly have an urge to go out and replace your “ratty old robe” or suddenly you’ve got a new television in the living room, and so on. It is about buying your attention/affection/gratitude, which can later be morphed into a guilt trip in the middle of an argument. Accept these gifts with this in mind, turn them down if you are aware of and trying to remove a psychic vampire from your life. They will use them against you later, in order to get you to “realize” something. This is a favorite tactic of the psychic energy vampire.

The Judge, Jury and Chief Critic: One of the final stages, and usually where the victim who is oblivious to this person’s real agenda, may suddenly “wake up” and find themselves in a position of judgement by the psychic vampire. They may be made to feel unworthy, unlovable, disagreeable, crazy (gaslighting is a favorite technique) and hopeless. This is a very sad picture, and is avoidable, which is why we use such a dramatic description. If it has taken this long to recognize their peril, the victim is very likely, by now, suffering many symptoms. 

One of the ways we can test someone who may be a psychic vampire is to observe them when together with a group of people. In this situation, the psychic vampire will morph and change according to who they are interacting with, like a chameleon. There are several types of psychic vampires, but the methodology they follow is the same, as described above.

Another more personal test we can conduct is to set firm boundaries with a person we suspect is a type of psychic vampire. Boundaries infuriate such people, and this is particularly true if you have not had boundaries to protect your space. Boundaries in terms of defending oneself against all types of psychic vampire, means that we are creating an energetic “moat” which will act as a deterrent as well as a fortifying measure. Boundaries are a part of being a healthy human, we need boundaries to determine our space, and to determine where we end and where others begin. The psychic vampire is the enemy of boundaries. Be aware that you can’t simply erect a boundary and expect it to work. You have to enforce the boundary, over and over again, because those who encountered no boundary before, will more often than not, try to test the efficacy of the new boundary. They will try repeatedly, therefore we must enforce them repeatedly. At first this will be tedious, but after a time, those who tested your boundaries and found them standing firm, will no longer test them. Instead you will find that respect for the boundary will replace the constant pushing against it.

We experience various symptoms when we encounter and are interacting with a psychic vampire. The goal of the psychic vampire is to find a rich energy source, to then syphon off energy from that source without depleting it entirely. When we catch on and end the relationship, the psychic vampire will usually try to continue interacting with us.  This is an ongoing attack and is obvious to us because the relationship is, at this point, usually ending.  

Psychic Vampires and Empaths

The psychic vampire and empaths are locked in this cycle more than any other. This is because those of us with empathic souls are usually sensitive, compassionate and kind. The empath is not typically conscious of the way they absorb energy, they are best described as a type of psychic and emotional sponge, where they are able to absorb enormous amounts of energy from others. This makes them the polar opposite to the psychic vampire. The trouble is that if an empath is unaware, they will likely project their goodness onto the psychic vampire, and the cycle continues.

If we find that we feel heavy, tired, grumpy or out of sorts at the end of the day, this could be a normal day. But if this happens over and over, we need to look at possible other influences. The psychic vampire meaning to ignore our boundaries will present in several ways, and can be literally anyone in our circle, workplace or family. The variables are so many that it is not easy to form protection from psychic vampires, unless we look through the lens of objective analysis and if we are willing to admit that some of those people we know, and love, may be psychic vampires. 

Developing a Plan of Action 

To form protection we need a firm understanding of what we are dealing with, and a plan of action. Now that we know what psychic vampires are, and how to identify them, we can move on to a plan of action. We discussed boundaries earlier, and we revisit them here because this is the number one defense against this type of predator. Is it a surprise to learn that many psychic vampires do not even know that they are such beings? It shouldn’t be, they are operating on an energetic level, therefore also a deeply instinctual and subconscious level. Bearing this in mind, and assuming that we have erected healthy boundaries that we are prepared to enforce. How do we now protect ourselves further? 

Protection against psychic vampires starts with knowing yourself; if you are grounded and centered and know who you are, what you think, where you stand and why you’re here you have none of the qualities that a psychic vampire is looking for. They thrive in an environment where they can play hero, they will look for people with soft hearts, empathic souls, and vibrant life force. Therefore, our goal, in ultimate defense and protection against psychic vampires, is to better know ourselves. Once we are secure in ourselves, it takes a lot more to shake us, to make us lower our guard, or our boundaries. Psychic vampires are not new, but society has not recognized the phenomena until very recently. It is up to us to fend the psychic vampire off.

Let’s recap:

We learned that psychic vampires are more prevalent today, and how they are created. We learned what a sad state a psychic vampire is in, perpetually, unless they take steps to change their ways. This is extremely difficult to accomplish, as they have been syphoning energy for most of their lives, and they have no idea how to cultivate a normal psyche, for the most part. Therefore, the solution lies with us, the ordinary beings that need to protect against psychic vampires. 

Learn more about the psychological definition of projection, this will give you a good idea of how to recognize when you are projecting, or when others are projecting onto you. The mirroring technique is more subtle, but it can be easily detected when we know what to look for. Therefore, educating ourselves is key. If we are already being gaslighted by a psychic vampire, we were not able to detect them at earlier stages of their game.

The best way to fight the shadow, in any of its many forms, is to march directly toward it, shining your light. The Shadow cannot endure the Light; it flees. Every time. By shining the light of consciousness on the issue of psychic vampirism, we are taking powerful action. We are making the unconscious, conscious. This is where real freedom lies, for us in the present and our future ancestors. By taking responsibility for our own darkness, we can heal the world. This is what happens in the spiritual realm when we encounter these beings, and take action to address not only their presence in our lives, but the why of our attracting them to our reality; to what purpose do we create these relationships (if we believe that we create our own reality)? 

If you are reading this, and you have additional questions, or perhaps you have trouble discerning if you have dealt with, are dealing with or recovering from interaction with a psychic vampire, we are here to assist and help clarify – if you wonder if you are exhibiting these behaviors, and want to find a solution, our trusted psychic advisors are here to assist you in this too. As we pointed out at the start of this article, psychic vampirism is a condition borne of a miserable environment growing up, and patterns of programming that can affect us for not just this lifetime but can be carried through to the next if the issue remains unresolved. As the wise sage, and pioneering psychologist, Dr Carl Gustav Jung said, “That which we do not bring into our lives as consciousness appears in our lives as Fate.”