Ask a Psychic Vampire

[Dez]

Re: Ask a Psychic Vampire

[quote author=CttCJim link=topic=751.msg11776#msg11776 date=1289440060]
OH AND ANOTHER THING
As a man of science, I fully recognize that this condition may be psychosomatic. That in no way changes how I deal with it.
[/quote]

Like, V, serious props to you for saying that.

I am extremely skeptical. I've personally considered people an "emotional vampire" before, because there were the sort of person who would suck all of your time, energy, and resources, given the chance, and try to make you look like the bad guy if you said "sorry, I can't". Because of that "vampire" + anything makes me at once super skeptical, and rather negatively inclined.

Do you make any effort to give something back in return, for what you believe that you take? If not, how do you deal with the emotional implications of being, in essence, a leech?

That said, I am willing to believe that people can affect and be affected by the electromagnetic fields around us. I was rather troubled and angry as a teen, and the lights in the parts of the house I spent lots of time in, particularly the phosphorescent ones, would burn out within a month with a flash and sparks.

[CttCJim]

Re: Ask a Psychic Vampire

[quote author=Corvus link=topic=751.msg12017#msg12017 date=1289494446]
Just out of curiosity is the outer part of your iris (near the white)darker than the rest of it,except around the pupil?
[/quote]

actually, my eyes are officially "green"... very dark on the outside of the iris, but gold in the center in a sort of outward starburst.

[quote author=Deseret link=topic=751.msg12035#msg12035 date=1289497755]
Like, V, serious props to you for saying that.

I am extremely skeptical. I've personally considered people an "emotional vampire" before, because there were the sort of person who would suck all of your time, energy, and resources, given the chance, and try to make you look like the bad guy if you said "sorry, I can't". Because of that "vampire" + anything makes me at once super skeptical, and rather negatively inclined.

Do you make any effort to give something back in return, for what you believe that you take? If not, how do you deal with the emotional implications of being, in essence, a leech?

That said, I am willing to believe that people can affect and be affected by the electromagnetic fields around us. I was rather troubled and angry as a teen, and the lights in the parts of the house I spent lots of time in, particularly the phosphorescent ones, would burn out within a month with a flash and sparks.
[/quote]

Yeaaaahhh, the term "vampire" has some serious negative association. Especially once shrinks started using the term "psychic vampire" as a brainy way of saying "needy user."

As for "giving back," well, you've seen on these forums how hard I try to be a positive influence on the world. I try to be a source of wisdom and good advice to others, and to do whatever it is my Goddess put me here to do (lately, that's mostly "raise a good son and care for my wife&quot. I like to think, on the whole, my net influence on the world is an improvement. And I don't let myself feel guilty for being who I am.

[Medusa]

Re: Ask a Psychic Vampire

Ok going into this mind wide open....

When I think of a psychic vampire (which I do believe in in the sense of the Satanic version) I think of a nagging mother in law type character. The whining, the making someone feel guilty, the making themselves the center of the universe and just sucking the living daylights out of you. You don't seem to be like that. What is the general type of character a psy vamp takes in your experience?

[CttCJim]

Re: Ask a Psychic Vampire

[quote author=Medusa link=topic=751.msg12222#msg12222 date=1289518099]
Ok going into this mind wide open....

When I think of a psychic vampire (which I do believe in in the sense of the Satanic version) I think of a nagging mother in law type character. The whining, the making someone feel guilty, the making themselves the center of the universe and just sucking the living daylights out of you. You don't seem to be like that. What is the general type of character a psy vamp takes in your experience?
[/quote]

Let me do an analogy shift. What kind of personality do most people with brown hair have? What about people who are left-handed? Or short people? Are all gay people timid when confronted?
It's really more like a feature of the body than one of the personality. I'm familiar with the satanic use of the term - it's very similar to the one psychologists use. It's a totally different thing. In my experience, psychic vampires can be any sort of person from any walk of life.
There are some commonalities - often we are either very gregarious, needing to be around people and big on socializing, or the opposite like me and very antisocial - being alone means you're not picking up anyone else's energy. Many psychic vampires report being very empathic, for obvious reasons.
And yes, there are naturally some who are assholes. For the most part in my experience, they are frowned upon - just like everyone in the pagan community frowns on hex-slinging teen witch types.

[Gwen]

Re: Ask a Psychic Vampire

[quote author=CttCJim link=topic=751.msg11999#msg11999 date=1289492359]
Well, i do the same sort of shielding anyone else does. The difference is that my shield only completely blocks things if i focus, otherwise it starts picking up whatever it hits like a metaphysical katamari
okay not quite like that. but it sponges a lot.
also, as i mentioned, i do tendril-feeding.. the shield itself extends as "feeding appendages." it makes the connection to a source and begins the drawing.
[/quote]

A winner is you! That game (this one, but more elaborate and for console... oh God, it exists in flash version, there goes a chunk of my life) is shockingly addictive. Now I have this lovely mental image of a person walking around and getting other people, cats, etc actually stuck to them aura to aura...

[ThorsSon]

Re: Ask a Psychic Vampire

[quote author=CttCJim link=topic=751.msg11774#msg11774 date=1289439975]Well, my rule of thumb with metaphysics is to always doubt it. I'm first and foremost a man of science, so it's understandably difficult to accept this sort of thing sometimes. It took a long time to come to an understanding of my "condition" (for lack of a better term).[/quote]

As a man of science, I assume you subscribe to the scientific definition of energy, yes?

If so, how does the mass of the person/object you are drawing from play into your feeding?

If not, now do you define energy?

[CttCJim]

Re: Ask a Psychic Vampire

[quote author=ThorsSon link=topic=751.msg12928#msg12928 date=1289724121]
As a man of science, I assume you subscribe to the scientific definition of energy, yes?

If so, how does the mass of the person/object you are drawing from play into your feeding?

If not, now do you define energy?
[/quote]

Ah, well now, the scientific definition of energy is "the potential to do work." and the scientific definition of work is a transfer of energy from one system to another. Mechanical work is the more familiar concept, "the amount of energy transferred by a force acting through a distance."

First, let's set skepticism aside and assume this energy exists. Not I will attempt to explain it based on how I believe it behaves. My only corroborating evidence is that it seems to behave this way - I have nothing beyond my observations and the words of others. Moving on.

Energy is, put simply, the ability to do stuff. You use it up as you do move stuff. You drain a battery as you power a bulb.
Metaphysical energy is, I believe, used to power our bodies and minds alongside the chemical energy we already know about from food. The difference is that this potential energy is normally self-replenishing.

Metaphysical energy can be quantified the same way as chemical or electrical, as long as you don't try to over-think it (we can't get too detailed or we fall short due to a lack of devices able to detect or measure it). It is the raw potential of a body to do the things a body does.
It is also a lot like what The Force used to be before Lucas made those crummy prequels, if that helps anyone grasp the concept
Meta-Energy can take many forms, just like regular Energy. It exists within our cores in an untapped form, much like the chemical energy in a battery. It flows through our bodies in an active form, much like the electrical energy in a current. And it swirls about outside us, much like the thermal and electromagnetic energies present around any electrical system (wow, this analogy is turning out great!).

Generally speaking, when I "tap into" someone or something, I'm just grazing off that "aura" of bleed-off, the "thermal" meta-energy. It is for this reason that I don't feel like an evil parasitic monster; that bleed-off would just drift away anyway.
If I were to go "deeper," with a willing donor of course, I might tap into the "current" of active energy. This can be done safely without damaging the donor as long as they are a relatively high-energy person (or at least healthy), and as long as you don't just drain it all.
It should be noted that I don't do this myself, but as I've said, I did my share of research.
There's a deeper level still, known as "core feeding." This is when you tap directly into the "battery" of a person. Taking energy in this way does risk doing damage to the source and should only be done in controlled situations of absolute trust between consenting and experienced adults. The thought of someone using it in a malevolent way gives me the jibblies (Although I don't doubt that is possible).

I suppose I strayed from your question. No, mass does not really come into play, as I'm not physically moving the source. Although for a person or animal, mass can be an indicator of total energy (example: does a cow have more energy than a hamster? The hamster probably has more per pound, but the cow will be your larger source). Electrical systems are a little different as there's voltages at work too; a tazer has a hell of a lot more energy than a desk lamp, despite being smaller. But larger source means more wires, which can mean more EM fields and thus more potential tap locations... So I suppose it might be a thing to think about.

The connection I make is much like a solar cell for aura feeding, or an electrical circuit tap for "surface" feeding, if that makes sense. I draw energy from another system into my own and use it to refill my own battery, which in keeping with the analogy is sort of like when your old cellphone battery won't hold a charge.

Dang, look at me getting all technical. Remember this is just my observations. Anyone metaphysically inclined can feel free to disagree with me. It's tough working with something I can't even see! (yes, I am most certainly NOT an aura-seeing energy-reader)

[ThorsSon]

Re: Ask a Psychic Vampire

Ummm... the scientific definition of Energy is E=MC^2

That is to say that Energy equals Mass times The Speed of Light squared.

Your definition of Energy being "the potential to do Work" and definition of Work being "the transfer of Energy" is circular. Your definition of Energy requires one to have advance knowledge of what Energy is.

There is a scientific definition of Energy, and it depends on mass.

So... how does the mass of the person/object that you are feeding on effect your ability to feed?

[CttCJim]

Re: Ask a Psychic Vampire

[quote author=ThorsSon link=topic=751.msg12936#msg12936 date=1289726528]
Ummm... the scientific definition of energy is E=MC^2

That is to say that Energy equals Mass times The Speed of Light squared.

Your definition of energy being the potential to do work and definition of work being the transfer of energy is redundant. Your definition of energy requires one to know what energy is.

There is a scientific definition of energy, and it depends on mass.

So... how does the mass of the person/object that you are feeding on affect your ability to feed?
[/quote]

E=mc^2 is the quantification of energy as a function of mass, and only really comes into play if you're creating or destroying energy - for instance in nuclear fission - or accelerating something to relativistic speeds.
In a closed system, Energy is never created or destroyed, merely relocated and/or changed to different forms. Thus, quantifying the amount of energy contained in a particle of inert matter (which is the meaning of E=mc^2) is meaningless here.

Since you doubt the validity of my definitions, here:
From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy :
In physics, energy (from Greek ἐνέργεια - energeia, "activity, operation", from ἐνεργός - energos, "active, working&quot is a quantity that is often understood as the ability to perform work. This quantity can be assigned to any particle, object, or system of objects as a consequence of its physical state.

From my high school physics prof:
"Energy is the potential to do work."

From the high school physics standardized tests:
Energy is: ____________
Answer: the potential to do work.

You cannot simply throw Einstein's relativity into a discussion without somehow applying it to the situation. The vast majority of calculations regarding energy don't even touch upon it. For instance:
Force: F=ma (massxacceleration)
Work: W=Fd (forcexdistance)
E-sub-p = mgh (potential energy = massxaccelerationduetogravityxheight)

Okay, i'm getting into rant-mode. Sorry. TL;DR: the Theory of General Relativity is not a "definition of energy." it is a quantification of energy released by the destruction of a particle. Therefore it is not relevant here.

[ThorsSon]

Re: Ask a Psychic Vampire

I grant that it is a VERY well written response, and it is clear that you are well read.

I am aware that the definition of energy is "the ability to do work," and the definition of work is "the trasfer of energy."

BUT... those definitions are circular. Once cannot define energy with that elementary definition of energy, without resorting to a word whose elementary definition includes the word "energy." In other words, with that simplified definition, you can't define energy without understanding energy. It is circular.

Einstein's General Relativity equation (which defines energy), E=MC^2, does not require quantum circumstances.. you are thinking of Special Relativity.

[CttCJim]

Re: Ask a Psychic Vampire

[quote author=ThorsSon link=topic=751.msg12941#msg12941 date=1289728345]
I grant that it is a VERY well written response, and it is clear that you are well read.

I am aware that the definition of energy is "the ability to do work," and the definition of work is "the trasfer of energy."

BUT... those definitions are circular. Once cannot define energy with that elementary definition of energy, without resorting to a word whose elementary definition includes the word "energy." In other words, with that simplified definition, you can't define energy without understanding energy. It is circular.

Einstein's General Relativity equation (which defines energy), E=MC^2, does not require quantum circumstances.. you are thinking of Special Relativity.
[/quote]

Well, I was trying to keep it simple, since it's not "University-level Physics Forum." I recognize the definitions are circular, which is why I included the more specific mechanical work (when force is applied to an object and it moves in the same general direction) and those other formulae.
Regardless, I think defining "energy" as a concept of physics is not that important to the discussion. We all have a general idea of what "energy" means in the scientific sense (and if anyone doesn't, http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy to the rescue: "It is used in science to describe how much potential a physical system has to change.&quot and we all probably have an idea of what is meant by metaphysical energy (especially after I just spent all that time talking about it).
I don't see much reason for us to talk about mass-energy equivalence ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass%E2...gy_equivalence ) because, as I said, I am not annihilating matter.
If you want to debate physics (non-meta) further, we should probably take it to PM as this is getting badly off-topic.

[ThorsSon]

Re: Ask a Psychic Vampire

I guess the issue is that I have absolutely no idea what "metaphysical energy" is... and I have read this entire thread thrice.

I assumed that, like in physics, energy is energy.

So, perhaps I should just leave it to the initiated.

Sorry to bother you.

[CttCJim]

Re: Ask a Psychic Vampire

[quote author=ThorsSon link=topic=751.msg12945#msg12945 date=1289729218]
I guess the issue is that I have absolutely no idea what "metaphysical energy" is... and I have read this entire thread thrice.

I assumed that, like in physics, energy is energy.

So, perhaps I should just leave it to the initiated.

Sorry to bother you.
[/quote]

Aha, well then let's set physics aside and see if I can help!
And it's really no bother. I'm at work on a weekend. It's this or watch Columbo.

Let me start with the nerdiest analogy possible.
"The Force is what gives a Jedi his power. It's an energy field created by all living things. It surrounds us, penetrates us, and binds the galaxy together." - Obi-wan Kenobi

Metaphysical energy is a lot like this. It is the stuff that powers magic. It is present in all things, especially in living things. It's really what makes us go.
In a way, it exists parallel to the physical world; it is the energy of the spirit. When it runs low we feel sick or tired, and when it runs high we feel the whisper of our Gods in our ears.
It's both easy and simple to describe...

Other names for it according to wiki:
Ka in Ancient Egypt
Qi/Ki/Chi in Taoism
Prana, Doshas, Chakra, Kosha, Kundalini in Indian Ayurveda and Yoga
Subtle body - the Etheric Body and Astral Body in Theosophy
Qudra in Sufism
Silap Inua in Inuit mythology
Holy Spirit in some branches of Christianity, similar ideas in Islam and Judaism
Mana in Oceanic cultures and in anthropology
Aether or the quintessence of classical physics

Does that help? I'd love to feel that I explained this well enough that someone "uninitiated" could understand...

[ThorsSon]

Re: Ask a Psychic Vampire

So, you are saying, that it has nothing to do with science?

[CttCJim]

Re: Ask a Psychic Vampire

[quote author=ThorsSon link=topic=751.msg12952#msg12952 date=1289730699]
So, you are saying, that it has nothing to do with science?
[/quote]

Eeeehhhhh, that's a tough question. How are you defining science? It has very little to do with any forces recognized and understood by the scientific community - hence the name "METAphysics." However, ideas like the scientific method most definitely may apply.
The big difference is, there are no physical instruments capable of measuring or detecting meta-energy in such a way as to provide empirical evidence. Which is why I acknowledge the fact that it may in fact be "all in my head." And also why the scientific community does not bother dealing with any of this, for the most part. (aside from a healthy amount of debunking)

or to summarize.. going back to wiki:
"The four known fundamental interactions, all of which are non-contact forces, are electromagnetism, strong interaction, weak interaction (also known as "strong" and "weak nuclear force&quot and gravitation."
This is a fifth force.