Energy vampires. Negative thoughts. Addiction.
These are, in my opinion, the three most common types of spiritual parasites — entities that feed off your spiritual energy.
Some of them are pretty insidious. But there is always a way to get rid of them (I’ll mention four tips at the end).
If you’re curious about the concept of spiritual and emotional parasites — what they are and how they behave — keep reading!
As usual, feel free to leave a comment at the end if you’d like to share your own thoughts or experience.
What are spiritual parasites?
When I use the term “spiritual parasite” I refer to anything that survives and/or gains energy by feeding off your thoughts, emotions, and attention.
Typically, a parasite is defined as an organism that lives on or within another organism in order to get food from it.
That’s a physical parasite, in the sense that what they do to their host is visible, tangible, obvious.
We’ve all heard of parasitic organisms, and we all understand how they are able to survive.
But what if there were entities that also gained energy from others, giving nothing in return — but spiritually?
Spiritual parasites are insidious
Though spiritual parasites are much more common than physical parasites, they are often unnoticed.
We don’t take them seriously, we are not serious about protecting our energy from them. But they are there.
And the main reason they are able to drain so much of our energy is precisely because we don’t acknowledge them. We are not aware of them.
This is why the first step to get rid of spiritual parasites is to acknowledge them (more on this in a minute).
The devil’s finest trick is to persuade you that he does not exist.
Charles Baudelaire
Types of spiritual parasites
So… who are these entities? Are they even real?
The list of potential spiritual parasites is endless (at least if you use the definition explained above).
But I can think of three types that are especially common.
1. Parasitic people
Bullies. Narcissists. Control freaks who make the workplace a nightmare. Compulsive talkers who make you realize silence is actually golden.
And so on.
What do these people gain when they behave a certain way, when they make you feel worse mentally and physically?
It’s definitely not food. Nor is it money, or anything that has to do with survival or material things.
I mean, you may have to deal with a coworker who is manipulative in order to get to the top, which would translate to more money, but that’s the only exception that comes to mind.
None of these “energy vampires” attack you to get physical nourishment.
They attack you to get spiritual nourishment — they steal your vitality, your happiness, your enthusiasm. They turn your positive feelings into negative ones.
The easiest way to spot them? Pay attention to your feelings right after you meet them.
If you feel worse, and they feel better, chances are they are energy vampires — spiritual parasites that drain your energy.
2. Parasitic thoughts/emotions
This is where the term “parasite” is used in a more metaphorical way. Hopefully the following example gives you an idea of what these spiritual parasites are.
Say you’re afraid of something, and you keep avoiding it. Avoid it once, and your fear grows. Avoid it ten times, and your fear becomes even bigger.
Avoid it for years, and your fear may become so big it’ll start to consume your thoughts, and interfere with your life. Now your fear has become a parasite — it survives by taking your energy.
The same can apply to anxiety, anger, depression, and any kind of negative thoughts and/or emotions. Fear just happens to be the most common one.
Think of a time in which you fell victim to a negative mindset or emotion, or even to an actual mental disorder.
How much time and energy did you waste because of that? How much of your vitality disappeared simply because of that negative emotion or state of mind?
That “spiritual parasite” survived because, consciously or unconsciously, you gave it energy. You made it bigger than you by thinking it was bigger than you.
This is what happened to me when I was suffering from panic attacks — as long as I believed I couldn’t control them, they were bigger than me. They were parasites who fed off my energy.
Then I learned not to fear the attacks, not to give them energy. And sure enough, they went away.
3. Addiction
When it comes to alcohol and drugs, it’s pretty obvious — one’s addiction to them can be a parasite that has the power to consume their whole life.
But there are thousands of things we can get addicted to. They’re not as harmful, but they can still be spiritual parasites.
Any form of addiction that consumes much of your health, energy, time, willpower, or vitality can be considered a spiritual parasite.
The more you indulge in the addiction, the more you feed it, the bigger it gets.
The more you avoid the thing that’s addictive, the smaller it gets, because it doesn’t get any nourishment from you. Avoid it long enough and eventually it’ll “starve” (disappear).
Does it make sense?
The more you think about this, the more you realize these things are exactly the same as worms and bugs.
They are parasites that survive only when they get food (energy) from you. If you don’t give them energy, they go away.
How to get rid of spiritual parasites
By now, you probably already have an idea, but here are four tips to make it as easy as possible.
These tips work for all types of spiritual parasites — energy vampires, toxic emotions, fears, limiting beliefs, etc.
1. Acknowledge them
The very first thing you want to do is, you want to realize that these parasites are real, that they exist.
You want to be aware that parasitic processes exist not only in the material world, but in the spiritual world too.
You want to be aware that although we usually think of parasites as organisms that get food from other organisms, some parasites don’t get food but spiritual energy.
I think energy vampires (toxic people who feed off negativity) are an obvious example, and I’m sure you’ve met a few in your life.
Things like thoughts, phobias, addiction, etc. are not as obvious. But when you realize that these things can steal an immense amount of vital energy, it becomes clear that they are parasitic too.
2. Be too good for them
Toxic people such as narcissists are usually drawn to those who have a poor self-esteem, who don’t value and respect themselves.
Addiction is prevalent in those who have an empty life, who feel emptiness and desperately try to fill that void.
And mental health issues such as depression tend to affect those who don’t have a purpose, who are not clear about what they want in life.
Notice a pattern?
My second tip to get rid of any spiritual parasite is to simply be the kind of person who is (almost) immune to them.
Cultivate your passions. Cultivate happiness. Chase your dreams, be high on life.
Fill your mind and your life with positive things. Let your light shine so bright darkness can’t touch you.
3. Practice self-observation
Are there things in your life (including your own thoughts) that drain your energy?
Think of your habits, what you eat, the people you interact with. Think of things that tend to trigger negative emotions or reactions such as anger or fear.
Be like a scientist. Pay close attention to, and analyze, yourself — your mind and your body.
Through self-observation, you are able to identify spiritual parasites. This alone is an achievement, because most people basically live life on autopilot.
Most people are victims of spiritual parasites yet they have no idea.
Their life may be filled with things that literally lower their vitality, their vital energy, yet they keep doing these things over and over again and attribute their lack of energy to their personality.
4. Remove their source of energy
I’ll say it one more time: parasites (of any kind) survive only if they get food from you. Remove their food and they’ll go away.
This applies to spiritual parasites as well. Some examples:
- Energy vampires go away if you ignore them (if you don’t give them attention)
- Narcissists leave you alone if you don’t respond to them (if you’re emotionally detached)
- Fear/panic disappears if you see it for what it is (rather than making it bigger with your own thoughts)
- Anger disappears if you choose not to indulge in it (if you don’t give it energy)
- Addiction disappears if you choose not to indulge in it long enough
You always have control over these things, even when you believe you don’t.
Final thoughts
This may have been one of the weirdest, most abstract, most metaphorical posts I’ve written.
But I think the concept of “spiritual parasites” is very helpful.
When you realize there are spiritual entities (you may call them demons) that feed off your vital energy, you have reached a new level of awareness.
That’s one more step toward an optimal level of happiness and self-realization.
Your energy is way too important to be wasted. Give it to the people/things that matter. Don’t give in to darkness.
Focus on the good, and make it grow.
