All About Energy Vampires

The How-To Page

What are energy vampires? If you experience constant fatigue, coldness and a drain of energy, this could be a sign that your chi energy is being drained. Early Chinese legends tell of so-called huli jing or fox spirits — sirens who drain young virile men of their sexual energy to promote their own longevity.

But there are also other more common types of energy vampires — people who practice a black art — a type of negative qigong designed for the sole purpose of draining other people’s chi energy to benefit themselves.

Beginners in tai chi qigong usually do not have to concern themselves with energy vampires, as they usually only target the intermediate or advance practitioners whose chi is sufficiently advanced enough to benefit them but whose skill is still not strong enough to resist them.

The more common but less harmful are people with negative thinking or people with very low energy due to chronic illness and a weak immune system. These people drain other people’s energy by their very presence, but they do so inadvertently.

The more rare but harmful energy vampires are those who deliberately prey upon the unwitting. These are the ones who practice the “black arts,” and yes, there is even a black qigong art that specializes in this type of negative training.

When my master was very young and easily intrigued by anything that cultivated the power of the chi energy, he was drawn into the wrong kind of training. One of the masters he followed happened to be versed in the black arts and took on three other disciples, in addition to my master, who was the youngest.

At first, my master scoffed at the whispers of possible consequences of practicing such negative qigong arts, and attributed the gossip to folk superstition. And when someone else turned around and used the black arts on his master, striking a mortal blow, he chalked it up to the adversary’s greed for power drawn from this negative qigong.

But soon, one after another the disciples began to meet similar fates, and my master became frightened enough to abandon his training. Fortunately, for him, he had been new at the art and had not inflicted any harm on anyone. Perhaps for this reason, he had been spared the fate his master and other students had suffered.

With the black arts comes great power, but because that power is ill-gotten at the disadvantage of others, it can carry a great price — the greater the evil, the more costly the consequence.

Though my master did teach me one simple technique, I have never been tempted to use it. In addition to possible negative repercussions, there is also fear of the great harm it can do, not only to myself but to others around me.

To protect yourself from energy vampires, there are ways to ward them off. One simple way is to mentally chant a mantra during qigong or meditative practice.

Another method is to use your yinian to block them out mentally. You can also use the yi consciousness to channel your chi energy to push their negative energy out of you. However, keep in mind, even in self-defence, you must use caution and not abuse your powers.

Part of the principles of wude or martial arts chivalry/integrity is that the martial artist must heal what he/she has harmed. To this end, martial artists are traditionally versed in both Chinese medicine, as well as in self-defence.

If you do not know how to heal what you have harmed in self-defence, it is better not to inflict the injury in the first place, since even in self-defence, there are always repercussions to causing harm to another individual.

In his book, Unseen Influences, psychologist Dick Sutphen suggests visualizing a golden porous shield around you: only good energies can come in but the shield will filter out the negative. This simple technique will offer basic protection against most energy vampires, except those well trained in the black arts.

Many years ago, I did not believe in energy vampires, negative qigong, voodoo or any of the black arts, attributing them to superstition. It was difficult enough for me to believe in the extraordinary psychic powers of chi energy, let alone these other practices that did not appear to be part of the real world in which I grew up — even more so, because I had been raised with strong Christian beliefs.

However, when I began holding my own tai chi qigong classes, I very quickly attracted attention, because out of all the new age contemporary schools, my traditional approach and intensive training stood out in a small town.

One student registered in my class, saying she had recently moved in with her new boyfriend who had been training in qigong for eleven years. She was young, brimming with energy and enthusiasm, and though I had never met her boyfriend, she told me, he was responsible for exciting her interest and encouraging her to specifically join up for my class.

He was more than 15 years her senior, but, she said, he looked much younger than his age. I thought nothing of it at the time, as I was well aware of the rejuvenating effects of qigong.

Six months into the program, my student had made rapid progress in her training, but then suddenly became very lethargic and drained of energy. Shortly after a jinggong meditation session, another student raised the topic of energy vampires, whereupon I introduced a brief lesson on warding off energy drain.

After class, my student then confided to me that she thought her boyfriend was an energy vampire. Every time she woke up in the morning, she felt more tired and drained than the night before. She also confessed, she was now afraid to meditate because she felt something was taking hold of her and making her feel very vulnerable.

Recently, I noticed how pale and unwell she looked, so I took her concern very seriously, even though a part of me was skeptical of what her boyfriend was capable of. In our next jinggong meditation session, we sat in a circle as was our usual habit, but this time, I used chi energy to create a psychic shield around my student and myself.

Not more than a few minutes into our meditation, I felt a dark presence penetrate my mind. This was a “darkness” that felt so unpenetratingly black and evil, that I had no doubt it was nothing that I could ever imagine or that I had ever encountered before.

It seemed its sole purpose was to render us helpless with paralyzing fear and to take control over both our minds and bodies, as I found I could not open my eyes nor initiate any physical movement. The analytical part of me felt that the overwhelming fear was not coming from ourselves but exuding from the entity, probably as another means to overcoming our defences.

Despite the fear, I was able to recall my training and use my yi to channel the chi energy within me. At the same time, I mentally communicated the words, “Get out!” to the entity and put so much force into channeling the chi against the entity that I felt the entity immediately withdraw.

Immediately upon its withdrawal, I was able to open my eyes. Shortly after concluding the meditation, I questioned the rest of the class and found that aside from myself and the student concerned, no one else had experienced the invasion of the dark entity.

Earlier, my student had informed me she had already ended her relationship with her boyfriend, though they worked in the same building. The day following this incident, she saw him at work, and was shocked by the sudden dramatic change in his appearance. He had aged overnight, wrinkles and lines drawn on his face, his hair turned almost completely white.

His appearance, in fact, now reflected his true age, which leads me to surmise that his previous youthfulness was due to the energy that he had drained from his victims. This also explained his vested interest in pressing his girlfriend to learn qigong to develop her energy for him to drain and take advantage.

Was the dark entity that attacked us the man himself or another entity that he had conjured through his negative qigong — I’m not sure. Whatever it was, the experience has convinced me of this other negative realm, that I had so naively dismissed as folklore and superstition, to be very real.

While what I did to this energy vampire was self-defence; nevertheless I too suffered consequences for my actions. I had drained my own energy in the attack, and it took me three days of ongoing meditation to recover.

Had I been less forceful with my energy, I have no doubt I would have inflicted less damage and suffered less from the effects myself. Even in self-defence against a vicious energy vampire such as that, one must always be prepared for the consequences, good or bad, to turn itself upon the bearer.