Psychic Self-Protection – What You Need to Know

I’ve held off writing about spiritual self-protection for a long time, because I didn’t want to write about dark entities, demons or anything else that may come to mind when you read the words ‘self-protection’.

The very fact that you might need to protect yourself in psychic development sounds bad, doesn’t it?  But, this article isn’t designed to frighten, and there isn’t much to be scared of anyway, in my view. I wish I had known that several years ago, when I was exploring psychic development.

Instead I used to be so fearful of the spirit world – worried about being startled or attacked by spirits and unsure of how protected I was when I was doing psychic work.

Negative Spirits?

Psychic self-protection, for me is mainly about protecting yourself from unwanted energies like random ghosts and earthbound spirits, so that you don’t waste any time on channeling them, and so that you don’t feel drained or affected negatively by them. But earthbound spirits are not necessarily dark or negative. So this article is not so much about protecting yourself from ‘the dark’. It’s more about protecting yourself from channeling disembodied spirits that probably don’t have a higher perspective than you, so that you can focus on channeling the entities that do – your Higher self, Guardian Angels and Spirit Guides.

The Dark Realm

My experience of the psychic realm is so far removed from the idea of dark entities and demons.  Over the course of several years, I read books by well-known authors which teach you how to avoid demons and dark entities and I ended up scared stiff and paranoid – it did me no good at all.

Over time, I have come to believe that certain ‘spiritual’ issues such as dark entities attacking us, are actually psychological gremlins (i.e. our own creations, borne of fear and anxiety, projected outwards and taking shape in our minds as a dark entity.)

I also believe that what seem to be dark entities might instead be earthbound spirits who are appearing to be much more fearsome than they actually are.

Earthbound spirits (when they attach to a person’s aura) drain energy slightly and echo our negative emotions, but they don’t put thoughts in our heads or victimize us in any way.  They’re stuck and lost – not evil or twisted.

The Importance of a High Vibration

Having a high vibration is important, but it’s MAINLY important at the moment of tuning in to get psychic guidance – not so much when you’re just going about your business and not really having anything to do with spiritual guidance.

How to Raise your Vibration Temporarily

One of the best ways to raise your vibration temporarily for tuning in psychically is to involve the Divine in your tuning in process.  Involving the Divine means calling on God or an Archangel (such as Michael, Gabriel or Raphael).  You could also call on an Ascended Master (like Ganesh, Jesus, Mother Mary, Krishna, St. Francis, Quan Yin or Buddha.)  Preferably you would do this in conjunction with a breathing exercise.

In the Intuitive Awakening Course, I teach students to involve the Divine in their ‘tuning in’ process.

Positioning your awareness at the Divine level through an exercise like this, is the best way I know of to ward off unwanted energies.

The Second Best Protection Tool

The second best tool for psychic self-protection that I know of: being more selective about whom you channel.

Don’t open yourself up to channel just any old entity.  Ideally, you want to be channeling ONLY your Spirit Guides, Higher self, Guardian angels (and other entities who are with you on your journey through life, at the choosing of your soul.)

If you’re channeling a being and you’re not sure who it is, I’d recommend you stop, and find someone who can teach you, or give you some tips on how to channel the right sources of guidance, like your Higher self and Spirit Guides.  Otherwise, you may find that you’re channeling an earthbound spirit who has much less of a perspective on your life than you do.

Who Needs Psychic Protection the Most?

Empaths and natural intuitives need psychic protection from earthbound spirits the most because they already have very open and porous energy fields, even before they do psychic development.  Psychic development work opens them up even further, so psychic protection is especially important for such people.

An empath is a person who has the ability to explore what it is like to be another person, energetically speaking.  Empaths are effectively putting themselves into other peoples’ shoes, and they can often come back into their own consciousness with unwanted astral garbage from another person’s experience.  Even if an empath is of a very high vibration, they may still be picking up unwanted energies all the time.

What Doesn’t Work?

Here are some tools for psychic protection I’ve tried that didn’t work:

Smudging with Sage

This clears your space by making earthbound spirits flee.  But it doesn’t offer any permanent protection unless you do it every day.

White Candles

This is a psychic protection ‘tool’ beloved of unscrupulous practitioners who offer to remove a curse for you (that you never really had) in return for a lot of cash.  Part of the therapy for removing the curse often seems to be lighting a white candle.  But white candles offer no more protection against unwanted energies than your lucky underpants do.

Psychic Shields

Psychic shields are like band-aids.  They sometimes work, and when they do, they’re a temporary measure. Ideally, you’d want to have control over your own energetic boundaries so that you don’t need a psychic shield. The best type of psychic protection in my view involves strengthening your energy field and personal boundaries, rather than using shields.

Sea Salt

Taking a bath with sea salt in it is excellent for clearing a hyperactive state, but it does nothing for stopping unwanted energies coming into your space.

Meet Anna

Hi, I’m Anna Sayce! My purpose here on this website is to provide practical techniques and information to help empaths to understand, and fix the root of their energetic overwhelm & also to help sensitives to embrace and develop their intuitive gifts. I believe that developing our spiritual & intuitive side is very powerful and allows us to improve our own lives, and if we wish, even make the world a better place for others. Discover more >

22 Comments

  1. Frances

    I used to be SO concerned about this too when I first started delving into the psychic realm and developing my abilities. I still do psychic protection from time to time but I’m not obsessed about it. Great article!

    I can’t wait for your professional intuitive course in the Summer!

  2. Nathan

    OK, I don’t want to scare anyone, but choosing who to channel and calling for help from God sometimes isn’t enough.

    Technically, there are astral critters and almost demonic entities that are nothing more than parasites – and they drain life energies. Sorry, but not every spirit is lost, some spirits aren’t spirits at all, they’re like animals, parasites looking for pray, and they can suck the life out of you – and it’s not a metaphor.

    Indeed, the methods Anna describes are mostly temporary. The best defense you might have against astral entities and psychic attacks as well (we leave in a world where psychic vampirism and black magick is quite popular, and heck – it works, only too well) is a disciplined mind. And disciplined mind is a mind without subconscious wholes in your psychic defenses. Your tolerance and acceptance towards negative actions is a whole in your defenses, allowing the entities and people to attack you. Your fear against possible attacks is also dangerous. Your negative mind patterns – broken heart, fear of being poor, even blocked creativity, all of this blocks your connection with higher power (God), thus lowering your psychic defenses.

    Let’s not scare people, but also, let’s not hide the truth that sometimes you can be kicked in your back, and it can be very dangerous kick.

  3. Kenya

    Anna,

    I definitely agree with what you said in regards to this. I have experienced both sides (The dark as people call it) and that was most definitely at a time when i first started my spiritual development (before letting go of fears and baggage) and all of my fears were magnified.

    After learning and trusting higher self and my guides, I came to realize that there is nothing to fear whatsoever, which has caused nothing but better experiences, balance and a clearer head of what is really taking place. And I am still learning…but when I focused on (what seemed like an attack)…it just got worse and worse.

    So now I just focus on growth and realize (just like you said), that their is no good or bad, it is just astral debris (that when not clear), may take shape of your worst fears and deep-rooted emotions.

    Thank you for this insightful post 😉

  4. Justin

    Anna,

    There are many good points here and I have done the smudging and salt baths as well. Like you said it is only temporary.

    I DIDN’T KNOW I was an empath until I got older though.

  5. Lindsay

    Psychic Protection Week — that’s great! 😉 What color ribbon will we all wear on the lapel of our jackets?

    I’ve been doing a lot of readings lately and find myself more exhausted than ever. I can’t figure out if this is because I’m not protecting myself enough, or because I’m sick. Or both? It’s hard to tell!

  6. Susan

    Thank you Anna for this article. I have recently become aware that my young son is being visited by spirits at night, and they’re scaring him. I met a woman who will be teaching him about what is happening, and what he can do to protect himself from unwanted visitors. He is also very sensitive to people’s feelings, and needs to learn how to shield himself from their negativity.

    I am so glad I found your website- it was one of those “coincidences” that I found it just when I found out I am clairsentient. Keep up the great work.

  7. ChannelingMyself

    Interesting points, I guess I still remain skeptical about the whole idea of negative spirits somehow “attaching” themselves to you. Since channeling isn’t an exact science I don’t know how anyone could prove spiritual interference or, like you mentioned, your own psyche.

  8. Anna

    Thanks Frances! I can’t wait for my course to be finished too 🙂

  9. Anna

    Hi Nathan,

    I don’t agree that negative entities come looking for people at random to target us. I don’t advocate watching our backs all the time out of fear. I don’t believe in negative entities.

    I’ve been experimenting with psychic protection for ten years, doing earthbound spirit release for four and the idea that negative beings habitually come looking for people, to prey on us like wild animals doesn’t fit with the things I’ve experienced and seen in practice with hundreds of clients.

    In my experience, it’s a psychological condition. I do not believe that perceived negative being attacks are spiritual. I think they are psychological – the manifestation of some kind of illness, whether it’s physical or mental. I had swine flu last year and had some pretty awful nightmares and hallucinations, involving evil creatures coming to get me. At the time it seemed so real to me. We can also experience a sense of being attacked by something evil during sleep paralysis episodes, which are not uncommon and often mistaken for spiritual experiences.

    While I was ill with flu, I could have told myself it was an entity preying on me while I was weak, but instead I believe I had a really high fever, and that affects the brain. When I got well again, I was fine.

    I think to experience psychic attacks often, you have to be pretty focused on the dark (avoiding it, outwitting it, fearing it) in order to see evidence of it, like a psychological self fulfilling prophecy. From what I’ve seen and experienced, it’s like the more you are scared of it, the more it appears to come after you. Those who focus on personal power, peace and on the Divine as part of their spiritual experience simply do not experience that.

  10. Nathan

    Anna,

    What can I say – I’m happy that you haven’t encountered the Dark Side of the Force yet :).

    For years I’ve been playing with black magick, dark arts and psychic vampirism, because of this today I’m little more sensitive to evil than most psychics. I know what to look for – and when you don’t know, you can’t perceive attachments and astral critters – it’s almost like most psychics and sensitives are blind to low vibrations.

    But when you know what to look for, you can see that many people these days have attachments, meaning astral critters feeding upon them. Psychic vampirism isn’t rare, as well. I’m not saying that we should be scared all the time, I’m saying that we have created ourselves a kind of civilization that is like huge food source for the beings from astral planes.

    People who live happy life, who pursuit spiritual growth, who prefer positive thinking, they’re fine. That’s what we should all be doing. But look around the world around you – people live in stress, they’re afraid of everything, they also carry negative patterns from previous incarnations, not mentioning negative patterns taught by their parents, teachers and friends. They go to places of negative energies – restaurants, shopping centres, fast food. In places like this, astral beings seeks food – just like we do so. They seek those who are psychically and spiritually weak, and they attach to them.

    Even spiritual development can’t save from this – because most people who seek spiritual growth forget that the first step is to clear their intention. Negative intentions are magnets for low vibration energies.

    It doesn’t mean that a lot of our fears and so called “psychic attacks” isn’t just our psychological effect. Of course there’s a lot of psychology working here. But psychological and emotional problems are also gateways for more serious problems, problems rarely psychics and energy workers like to see. An effect of more modern approach to esoteric arts. There’s serious astral dynamics going on beyond the veil, which cannot be refered to as just “psychological effect” because it’s something more.

    When you know what to look for, you might be surprised. I’ll say this – if your techniques work for you, then continue your work. A lot of astral attachments can be broken by working with psychological anchors. But the fact is – astral planes are filled with many beings – good and bad, goodlooking and ugly, angelic and demonic. Not all of them are just products of our imagination. And some of them can be really nasty.

    I remember that kid – he was so eager to summon ghosts. He wasn’t afraid of them, he just wanted to prove they don’t exist at all. There was no psychological factor like “oh, I’m so afraid”, on the contrary, he was so skeptical that most psychics would say he’s closed to any energetic influence. A perfect defense, some might say. Yet the two entities feeding from him I sensed didn’t care if he believe or not…

  11. Anna

    Hi Nathan,

    When a client I’m reading for believes they’re being psychically attacked, when I have a look, it’s usually a different issue on the level of the aura that they have misdiagnosed. Thinking you have a negative entity attachment is all too common in the New age community, like a ‘catch all’ diagnosis. And I think it has gotten out of hand.

    I believe that part of the reason for this is: earthbound spirits (or ghosts, as they are more commonly known) can make a person feel pretty crappy, because when they’re in your energy field they magnify negative emotions. They are often mistook for something nastier, but they are simply magnifying your emotions and the negative triggers that are there. Remove the underlying pain, anger or guilt (or whatever), and the entities have nothing to magnify. So, people who feel victimized by negative beings don’t always like this (because it is much harder work than simply removing an entity), but I believe our spiritual and mental health really starts with us, and we can take responsibility for it.

  12. Tim

    Hi Anna.

    I love what I’ve what I’ve read of your articles so far. I am looking forward to reading more. I am no expert in this area, but I have had a lot of experiences with what my spiritual framework at the time told me were dark entities. I really agree with what you said about “psychological gremlins” and entities “in disguise”. As soon as I “switched frameworks” I never encountered another demon! I’m sure it was my belief in and fear of these ideas that created them in my experience – and very convincingly! Thanks for the guidance, affirmation and insight. I’m looking forward to experiencing more of your resources.

    Tim.

  13. Anna

    Hi Lindsay,

    I reckon a gold ribbon for spiritual protection week 🙂

    Re. your energy levels….I guess if you’re sick, you’re probably feeling more tired than usual, so have less energy for readings.

    How do you feel when you’re not sick, after a reading? That’s probably a better measure of whether your psychic protection is serving you or not…

  14. Anna Barlowe

    What a nice change this post is – I get rather tired of hearing about how all spirits must be negative or demonic and need to be cast out in the name of somebody-or-other. I have never been of that opinion myself. In fact I have a spirit quite closely associated with me, and he is nothing but sweet and polite and helpful. I couldn’t do without him around me!

    I think it’s much like anything else – if you’re a nice person you’ll attract other nice people (and beings). Like attracts like.

  15. Sol

    All of these energie — Oh, I mean comments, are very insightful.

    I’ve been feeling ‘crappy’ these last days, with my usual impulsive neediness behaviour and reaching out to people that I barely know. This is a pattern and I recognize it as such. Could such pattern then form into a thought form? I’ve asked around and I’ve been told that this is what it basically is. So, is a thoughtform based on a negative pattern considered a negative entity? If so, can you psychically protect yourself from such an entity even though it was self – created.
    I think Sel mentioned something about ‘erasing it from my aura’, but I’m not sure what that means.

    Insights?

  16. Christa

    Thank you for this article and comments. I wish I had learnt these things at school when I was a child! I can attest to the enormous relief and freedom felt after having released a heap of psychological and spiritual stuff on deep levels, my field is much stronger now. For this I have worked closely with my guides and angels, and I believe many energy parasites have now lost their purchase on my aura. Frequently calling on my helpers assists with auric sanitation (root word ‘sane’? 😉 ) as does using the Emotional Freedom Technique to deal with emotional charges immediately. Of course my mental state is vastly improved. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if more mental health workers and mainstream therapists were open to these type of teachings?!

  17. Kate Gladstone

    Re:
    ” You could also call on an Ascended Master (like Ganesh, Jesus, Mother Mary, Krishna, St Francis, Quan Yin or Buddha.)  ”

    Are there any Jewish Ascended Masters — like Moses or Abraham, maybe? Just wondering …

  18. Anna

    Hi Kate, Yes I believe Moses is an Ascended Master.

  19. Sharon

    I am so pleased that you said it was fear. I have panicked a few times when i have closed my eyes and seen “things” or nasty faces. After reading your article i feel that it is my fear (and maybe inner insecurities). As much i want to start developing (since having an incredible urge to do so), i fear that fear is ruling at the moment and i need to let go of that.
    Did you have difficulty in visualising peaceful places rather than blackness?

  20. Wendy

    So dunno what’s going on with me but I’ve always been able to read people and their emotions very well. I always know what others are feeling and have a strong desire to distance myself from negative people. I lost my son in March 2016. I had a subchorionic hemorrhage in my uterus that grew so much that it caused me to go into labor early at 16 weeks the doctors couldn’t stop it and it devastated me. He was alive for two hrs after birth. In recent months I’ve had visions of him as an angel both at home and while at his grave. But about five to ten minutes into these visions something dark shows up and tries to drown out the vision of my son. It happened to me tonight too. This also happens occasionally when I’m visualizing things for manifestation. I don’t understand why it always happens and can’t find anything online about it. Today I was upset and crying over marital problems and that’s when the vision came of him as a small boy dressed in white with beautiful gold tinged wings. He was trying to comfort me. Lifting his little arms up to be picked up, hugging me and touching my face and wiping my tears. I saw another taller angel in white with gold tinged wings too and heard my sons voice then the older angels voice both telling me ” mommy please don’t cry, everything is going to be ok, he’s coming home we’re bringing him back to you. Don’t cry mommy I’m coming back too, very soon” this went on for several minutes than all of a sudden a dark energy interfered and kept drowning out my vision of my son and his voice. I didn’t understand it but I couldn’t reconnect with the vision I heard his voice faintly though. Can you shed some light on this or am I just seeing things? So confused

  21. Carla

    Hello Anna, I often feel very tired after channeling
    I´m an Akashic Record reader.
    Lots of Love!

  22. Vanessa

    I don’t know how to start this off, I found this page by looking for help in protecting myself because I have earth bound souls attached to my energy, that won’t leave me alone. Then when I ignore them I will get dreams of random people that I have never meet telling me a life story to what happened to them my abilities started when I remember six years old and still continues now at age 23. Long story short, I have a negative being in my home and it sucks my energy out and wants to hurts me. It throwed items at me and growled at me, watches us. Also I am afraid for my two year daughter because her abilities are stronger, never have I expected her to run to me and pointed at the walls or outside and said to me “look mommy ghost” with a scared look on her face. By all means I have no experience at all it just happens, when they come they come, I have no control in what earth bound spirit or other beings comes around. I can sense a smell, visual, and hear them. Example if I smell a sweet flower spray with a hint of smoke then I see a old woman with detailed clothes and hair but some how they don’t have eyes. The spirit eyes are black. Then I would hear a small commutation from that soul or demon like hey or what are you doing? So on…It’s scary and I don’t know what to do.

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