Some weird news articles to tide you over.

Until I have time to write something with more substance I thought I'd share with you some interesting news articles I've come across over the past week.

'Vampire' stalks Siberian livestock
The Army's Bold Plan to Turn Soldiers Into Telepaths
Orange Goo Washing Up In Alaska Village Of Kivalina

Enjoy.

Vampire Watchers and the Kemetic Order of Aset Ka

Recently I was turned on to the idea of researching "vampire watchers."  This is allegedly a group of people that watch the modern vampire community much as Watchers watch the immortals in the Highlander franchise.  I had heard of the idea in the vampire community a few times before but had never paid much attention to it.  Through a bit of basic web searching I found that whenever there was mention of the "Vampire Watchers Group" there was almost always mention of the Aset Ka as well.

The Kemetic Order of Aset Ka is a spiritual order that claims lineage from ancient Egypt and vampirism plays a part in in their teachings and beliefs.  I won't go into too much detail about the specific beliefs of the Aset Ka, but my perception is that it's a bit of a mixed bag of Kemetic beliefs, vampiric beliefs, and some New Age beliefs all thrown into a blender.  It's interesting that even though they claim ancient lineage, no one seems to be able to produce anything concerning them before 2006 or so.  By doing a simple WHOIS search on their domain name one can see that it was created in 2006.

My personal opinion is that the Aset Ka (and probably the Vampire Watchers Group as well) were created to get publicity for the Asetian Bible by Luis Marques (published in 2007).  No one seems to know anything about them aside from very general information that has been rehashed over and over again and most people claiming any association with them always refer to the book.  This book seems to be the only evidence of their structure, beliefs, practices, or very existence and is marketed as the authoritative source on the Aset Ka.  One should also keep in mind that since the release of Asetian Bible the Aset Ka have not been very active except to promote and refer people back to that work.

Maybe the Aset Ka are more than a publicity machine to sell books.  If that's the case, I think claiming to be older than humanity is still a stretch.  Claiming ancients roots to gain some sort of validity is nothing new in the occult world but eventually the truth always comes out.  There's nothing wrong with starting a new organization and picking up ancient ideas but claiming direct lineage is dishonest.  Doing it just to sell books is even more dishonest.

Taking all of this into consideration, I have to say that all of the mystique surrounding the Aset Ka, and the Vampire Watchers for that matter, is all pomp and posturing.  They are trying to start an "ancient" tradition (which has too many similarities to other traditions and practices in the vampire community and the new age community to even count), apparently in hopes of getting rich off of it.  I can certainly see why someone would attempt this as vampires have been very popular for the past few years and "ancient" or "secret" knowledge is always desirable no matter the time period.

So to anyone that may be fearful of the Aset Ka or the Vampire Watchers, all I can say is take a deeper look and read between the lines.  The only thing they are really dangerous to is your wallet.  Their practices and traditions may be just as valid as any other practices or traditions but an ancient occult order the Aset Ka are not.  The Vampire Watchers make convenient bogeymen for the vampire community and this is perhaps why they were created and seem to talk almost exclusively about the Aset Ka.  It's made to get one thinking "Well, if these watchers are watching the Aset Ka then there must be something going on there."  The only thing going on is marketing, I think.

The Kemetic Order of Aset Ka
WHOIS for asetka.org
Asetian Bible at Amazon UK
Compare this entry at Paranormal-Encyclopedia.com with this deleted Wikipedia entry.
Forums for "Vampire Watchers Group"
See this thread on VampireForum.net.

Hopefully after going through that information you can see what brought me to my conclusion about the Kemetic Order of Aset Ka and the Vampire Watchers Group.  Maybe this will explain a few things or set some minds at ease.  I certainly feel like I now know a lot more about these elusive Vampire Watchers I've heard about.

How to Stop a Psychic Vampire Attack

The best way to stop an attack is to prevent one in the first place.  How do you do that?  Make yourself a hard target.  If you make yourself harder to attack then the vampire will most likely move on to easier prey.  The best way to do this, in my opinion, is to have a solid shield in place.

A shield is an energy construct or thoughtform used to keep your energy in and unwanted things out.  To make a shield around yourself, close your eyes and take a few deep breaths to relax.  Visualize a sphere of bright white light around yourself.  This light is impermeable and solid and nothing negative can enter your personal space.  Take a few moments to concentrate on this sphere and make it strong.  If it helps, you can visualize pulling bright white light from above and using it to form or charge the shield around you.  Actually feel the shield forming around you as you visualize it taking shape.  Feel the shield exerting a light pressure or static charge on your skin.  Know that it is there and feel the protection that it provides.

Once you have your shield formed and strengthened then you have basic protection in place.  Throughout the day take a moment to think about how strong your shield is, reinforcing it.  Feel it there and pump it full of intention and energy.  After you've had some practice at this you will have to stop to reinforce your shield less and less.  In the beginning it may be strenuous to maintain the shield, but this is like any other skill and it will become easier with practice.  This technique doesn't just work with psychic vampires but with most forms of psychic attack.

As you gain experience with shielding you may wish to add embellishments such as thorns (as a means to strike back), a mirrored finish (to reflect back negativity), or elemental effects (such as fire to burn away negative energy).  A little experimentation can go a long way and you will get back what you put into your shielding efforts.  Some people find visualization to be difficult, but if you combine this with the tactile approach of actually feeling the shield around you it will work wonders.

This will give you basic protection from psychic vampires and other forms of psychic attack.  It will provide a deterrent, much like a security system acts as a deterrent to thieves; it may not keep them out entirely (if they are really determined they will eventually find a way in) but it makes you a less desirable target and the thief (or vampire) is more likely to pass you over in favor of an easier score.  This technique is also a good place to start practicing visualization and energy work.

How to Identify a Psychic Vampire Attack

There are two kinds of psychic vampire attack:  one-time attack and repeated attack.  One-time attacks are most often targets of opportunity and will not recur (at least not from the same vampire).  Repeated attack is perpetrated by someone that comes in contact with the victim a lot, providing lots of opportunity for attack.

The symptoms of a one-time attack may not be apparent enough for you to notice as it's happening, or at all.  By the time the symptoms manifest the vampire may be long gone.  The exception to this lack of identification would be someone displaying very obvious behavior (not likely), or in the case of those that are paranormally sensitive, they might be able to feel the "breach" of their energy field by the outside influence of the vampire.  A repeated attack over a longer span of time is perhaps easier to detect as eventually the symptoms will catch up to the victim and compound until they are no longer something that can be easily ignored.

What are the symptoms then?  Most commonly the symptoms are fatigue and headache.  The kind of fatigue you get after a long day, and the headache you get from stress or working too hard.  By themselves these aren't that sinister and aren't that uncommon.  Most of the time there are mundane explanations and there's no need to jump to the conclusion that you are the victim of a psychic vampire.  Sometimes though, the symptoms will not be proportional to the amount of strain/stress you have experienced during the day.  You'll have to use your own judgment with these.  Some of the more severe symptoms are fever, dizziness, and nausea.  These are typically indicative of a severe attack, or prolonged depletion of your own energy due to being attacked on multiple occasions.

Of course, you should make sure that there is nothing medically wrong with you before jumping to the psychic vampire conclusion.  A lot of mundane things can cause these sorts of symptoms and most people won't even notice them, even if they are being attacked by a psychic vampire.  I provide this information as a way of showing the potential physical symptoms that can manifest from an attack on your vital energy.  There are more subtle symptoms that can manifest but these aren't always noticeable to everyone.  These might include strange dreams, holes in your energy field, or a sickly or damaged looking aura.  All of these things would be either imperceptible or mostly written off by those not involved in an occult lifestyle, I think.

In my next post I'll finally get to some techniques you can use to stop this kind of attack.

Psychic Vampires

It may come as a shock to many that vampires walk among us.  Not the caped and fanged creatures of popular fiction or the bloated corpses of legend but people that are, more or less, like everyone else.  Some of these individuals do partake of blood like their mythological counterparts but for this post I'm going to focus on the vampires that are perhaps less well known (and perhaps less swooned over):  psychic vampires.

The term "psychic vampire" has come to mean more than one thing.  There is the purely psychological definition of a psychic vampire as someone that is emotionally draining, constantly demanding your attention, and constantly fishing for gifts and compliments.  These vampires are perhaps as bad as the bloodsuckers of myth as they can end up taking everything from you if you let them.  These are not the vampires I'll be discussing and some prefer to use the term "psychological vampire" as they find it more accurate and it effectively differentiates these people from those that are commonly called "psychic vampires" in occult circles.  (That is largely a matter of preference though, as some view psychic and psychological vampires as the same vile creature, always to be avoided.)

The definition I will be using (and perhaps the one gaining popularity) is of a person that draws the life force energies from other people in order to increase their own energies.  This is done because, for some reason, the psychic vampire has a deficiency and they cannot produce enough vital energy for themselves, or it can be done by those that simply want to take from others to fuel their own endeavors with extra energy.  Outside of the vampire community this type of vampirism is usually seen as on par with psychological vampirism, but in a more esoteric or metaphysical sense.  These vampires will most likely not crave your attention or try to inject themselves into your life, at least not consciously.  At most they may try to get you upset and then retreat.  Their goal is to siphon off your vital energy rather than your money or attentions, although there is some overlap in behavior between unrestrained psychic vampires and psychological vampires.

Most psychic vampires that behave like psychological ones are not even aware of their deficiency.  It is possible to have this issue without even knowing and all that may be necessary is informing the person of what they are doing and teaching them how to reign themselves in.  This is where the vampire community can be helpful.  Other people may have no legitimate need (origin of the need aside) and may do this simply for the rush they get or for the power boost.  The ones without need are usually seen as addicts of a sort as they continue to perform vampirism even though they do not have a need for the energies they take.  Some of these vampires take energy from others to power magical operations or their own psychic abilities.

It is good to know that most of the psychic vampires that I've come across that are aware of what they are doing know how to control themselves.  Rather than taking from a single individual they choose to feed from crowds or from the energy given off by large groups of people in clubs or at concerts in order to mitigate the effects.  Their goal, typically, is to be as non-intrusive as possible when it comes to satisfying their need.  The vampires with the legitimate need are usually the nicest and most courteous about this process that many in the occult world see as nasty and invasive.  To the vampires it is unfortunate but necessary.  As usually seems to be the case, the selfish and the greedy give a bad name to those that don't necessarily deserve it.

In a future post I hope to give some tips and techniques that may help in identifying and stopping a psychic vampire.

It's that time of year.

It's getting to be close to Halloween and I find this as appropriate a time as any to kick off my new blog.  It's the time of year when all of the paranormal documentaries are on the various documentary channels and when the plethora of ghost hunting shows do either live shows or run marathons.  And let's not forget all of the vampire media that is out there either.  Witches seem to have taken a backseat in recent years as people claiming religious beliefs related to witchcraft traditions have made the idea less spooky and more normal.  Witch is no longer a classification of supernatural creature but a title taken by those that practice pagan faiths and work magic.

 Personally, I find ghosts and vampires to be the two most trite subjects when it comes to the paranormal.  This isn't to say that ghosts don't hold a very important place in the study of the paranormal.  Understanding the nature of ghosts and spirits could be one of the most important undertakings of mankind as it could give us some inkling of what to expect when we close our eyes for the final time.  I'll get to this later.

Then there are vampires who have come out of the darkness because of a recent novel and film series I won't mention.  What many people don't know is that there is a community of real-life "vampires" that are on the verge of bringing their community into a more respected public light.  The subject of real vampires, or Human Living Vampires (HLVs), is so broad that I could devote an entire blog to that subject alone.  You can probably expect posts specifically devoted to the vampire community on future dates.

Back to ghosts now.  I think that the area of parapsychology known as "survival studies" is very important and isn't necessarily given enough respect.  As little respect as ESP researchers get, survival researchers probably get even less.  This is odd considering that in the days of the founding of the Society for Psychical Research survival of the human being beyond death was a major topic of interest.  This said, it was a whole lot easier to investigate claims of spirits communicating secret information between parties then as there were no telephones or other rapid communications such as the Internet.  There were no fancy electronic gizmos or even electricity during the age of widespread mediumship and spiritualism.

I think that now serious survival researchers have to deal with all the noise surrounding television ghost hunters and paranormal investigators.  It's hard to be taken seriously when the public perception of ghosts, spirits, or survival after death is that of a group of young people, some looking less than professional, running around in abandoned buildings after dark filming themselves being scared.  An attempt to validate this vocation by the introduction of electronic devices such as EMF detectors may work for some people but this author doesn't really see the relevance.  I suppose my main problem with these types of shows is that the approach doesn't ever seem to gain any answers.  These "investigators" may be able to tell you whether your home is haunted in an hour or less, but they provide very few answers about what happens when we die, if ghosts are deceased people or something else, the mechanisms of how ghosts interact with our world, etc.  All of this without even going into the accusations of faking evidence for ratings.

I think that the real ground to be gained in this area is in the study of near death experiences, out-of-body experiences, and the similarities between these experiences as related by those experiencing them.  I think that the laboratory is where we'll find the answers and while there is value in field investigation of spontaneous occurrences...  I think the popularization and trappings that have been attached to field investigation by popular media is detrimental.  That's just the opinion of someone that's never done a field investigation of a haunted locale before though, so take it for what it's worth.

I think that the popularization of ghost hunting has also been detrimental to the younger people that have an interest in the paranormal.  I'm sure it's no mystery that kids like to watch TV more than they like to read and, when given a choice, I think most people would rather read fiction than nonfiction.  My point is that the younger generation is getting all of their information from television ghost hunters and haunted locations documentaries (or fictional teen romances).  This means that those of us that have been researching away from the TV have to deal with people taking every creak in their home or shadow in their peripheral vision as a ghost.  I'm not saying that it couldn't have been a ghost, but I think that some critical thinking should be used to temper seemingly inexplicable happenings.

I've experienced my fair share of inexplicable things (that's one of the reasons I'm so passionate about the paranormal).  However, I make it a point to try not to jump to conclusions about what happened.  I try to look at all of the mundane reasons before I cry "Ghost!" (Or whatever else my mind might immediately jump to.)   Sometimes there just isn't an obvious rational explanation though.  Just as often there isn't enough evidence to say that a deceased human being is hanging around in the attic.  I like to find a happy medium in most areas of my life and a little bit of critical thinking is how I do that with my paranormal interests.  That's all I ask when dealing with the paranormal if those of us that are serious about the subject ever expect to have the fields of parapsychology and paranormal research taken seriously.

If you've made it this far then thank you for reading my first entry.  If you have feedback then please leave a comment!