Today, we’re going to discuss how to recognize and defend against two magical dangers, psychic attacks and thoughtforms. While these may seem scary and you may be tempted to throw in the towel now, don’t worry. These kinds of magical problems are easily handled with the right knowledge and the first step in that journey is learning how to identify them!

What Is A Psychic Attack?

Three major types of psychic attacks occur, and only one of these is intentional. Jumping to conclusions about the root causes of a spiritual ailment can cause more problems than it solves. We’ll go through each type of attack in order from least concerning to most. 

Type 1: The Psychic Influencer

This type of psychic attack can be intentional but more often than not, the influencer is unaware that they’re the cause of your problems. Essentially what happens is the Influencer wants something very, very badly and as a result, they manifest effects through you. You can think of it as a very subtle form of mind control, they bombard you with thoughts and feelings that are not your own in order to get you to act against your own will. This might manifest as someone trying to get you to love them, or trying to get rid of you so they can have your spouse. They might want your job, your social circle, or any number of other things. The influencer is typically a very emotional, very insecure person who does not know how to create their own happiness, and as a result, they try to steal other people’s happiness. 

This type of attack manifests as sudden changes in personality, acting out of accordance with your values and wants, or suddenly having thoughts and feelings that are out of character. Your sleep might also be affected, leading to disrupted sleeping patterns, nightmares, or dreams of the influencer. 

You may have noticed that these symptoms sound quite similar to a partial possession. That’s because they’re effectively the same process, except the influencer is human rather than a spirit. How can you tell the difference? There’s no cut and dry answer to this, but there are a few things that can tip you off. 

>> Can you have a conversation with the “voice” that’s saying all of these foreign thoughts in your head? It’s probably a spirit. 

>> Are you having dreams of someone in your life? It’s likely an influencer. 

>> Can you align your sudden personality and thought changes with someone you know? That’s an influencer. 

>> Are you having memories that aren’t yours? You probably have a spirit. 

Outside of these tells it can be very difficult to tell the two apart without deeper digging. Luckily, you don’t really need to know which it is to effectively rid yourself of it. 

Begin with a strong cleansing bath, then banish the offending thoughts and feelings, if no spirit is identified in this process, simply ward yourself and go about your life. 

Type 2: The Psychic Vampire

I’m pretty sure everyone has experienced the psychic vampire at some point in their life. This is a person who drains the energy and vital force from people around them. They are typically energy deficient in some way, usually because of some kind of traumatic experience that is draining their energy faster than they can replenish it, causing them to steal from others. This person will make you feel exhausted, ill, and depressed. Do you have a family member or friend that always leaves you feeling like you’re coming down with the flu? Do you know someone who makes you feel like you need a nap after you talk to them? That’s a psychic vampire. 

Dealing with a psychic vampire is quite simple. You must first identify who this person is. If you think you can do without their company, then you can simply avoid them entirely. If this is not an option for you, then you will need to cleanse yourself and use a protective spell or a ward to block them from stealing your energy. If you think this person might be amicable to the idea, you can gently mention that you noticed they were drawing energy from and suggest some gentle ways to mitigate the behavior (grounding can be invaluable for psychic vampires). 

Type 3: The Attacking Witch

This is the only type of attack that is guaranteed to be intentional. A magic-user attacking you is exactly what it sounds like, some witch or magician has decided to cast spells against you. 

This isn’t always a spell to cause harm, love spells intended to force you to love someone are one of the most common forms of magical attack. Because of this, identifying the magic attacker is tricky. It could manifest itself as bad luck, unusual accidents, thoughts and feelings that aren’t yours, suddenly feeling like your life is cursed, patterns that repeat themselves throughout your life when they weren’t present before, or any of dozens of other ways. This form of attack is often accompanied by nightmares, sometimes of the magician. 

Telling this type of attack apart from a spirit or an influencer can be tricky, but more often than not, witches can feel it when magic is being used intentionally. It usually feels quite different and if I’m honest, many witches who do this sort of thing unprompted are a touch egotistical and will want you to know it was them. 

To get rid of this kind of psychic attack, begin with a cleansing bath made to break spells. After this, if the spell still persists cast a banishing spell and ward yourself. If you think the magic attacker has tried to re-cast the spell, bind them from harming you. 

Thoughtforms

Thoughtforms are not inherently dangerous beings, in fact, they can be quite helpful and peaceable when created with the right intentions and properly cared for. Unfortunately, not all thought forms are created intentionally, and worse still, some are created with malicious intent. 

A thoughtform, also sometimes called a tulpa or an egregore, is a being created out of human thought. They are a culmination of will, intention, and emotion that becomes a separate being from its original maker. These beings may be sentient and act independently or they may not, thoughtforms are highly variable beings and can function in just about any way a person can think up. For our purposes, we’ll split them into two types: intentional and unintentional. 

Intentional Thoughtforms

Intentional thoughtforms are spirits that have been created by a magic worker for some purpose. Often this purpose is mundane, the thoughtform might gather information, it might help with spellwork, it could even keep an eye on the magician’s house or astral goings-on while the magician is away. Occasionally, thoughtforms will be created with malicious intent. Often these spirits will follow, harass, and even try to harm their target either psychically or by causing accidents. These beings can be quite bothersome and in severe cases even dangerous, but a thoughtform can be treated like any other spirit. 

Often identifying a thoughtform can be difficult, they will often appear to be regular spirits, but if you’re sensitive to energy, you may be able to feel the ties to the original maker of the spirit. If you suspect a thoughtform, you should first banish the spirit, cleanse and ward yourself, and bind the suspected magician. Divination methods can help pinpoint the origin of a thoughtform and, if you’re experienced in spirit work, you may be able to temporarily bind the spirit and get information about its origin. This is best done on less sophisticated thoughtforms as the more complex and sentient the thoughtforms become the more likely they will be to lie, become secretive, or otherwise protect their maker. 

Please keep in mind, thoughtforms are real spirits even if they are created beings! Many of them think and feel independently, and they can develop sentience quite easily. Treating these beings with the same basic respect you would any other spirit is still a good idea, even if their beginnings were more manufactured. 

Unintentional Thoughtforms 

This kind of thoughtform is essentially a psychic influencer gone rogue. They occur when a person is feeling something so strongly that the feeling or desire becomes a separate entity unintentionally. This is most common in the case of obsessives, it takes a great deal of focus to create a thoughtform, especially unintentionally. The fact that these spirits are created by accident should not make you let your guard down! Unintentional thoughtforms are more likely to be erratic, extreme, and uncontrolled in their behavior as the maker is likely unaware of its existence. This means that the thoughtform will not have been well thought out and will simply manifest the strongest desires of its maker indiscriminately. It will also be poorly cared for and therefore more likely to be violent, angry, and unpredictable. 

Unfortunately, unlike spirits that are hurting, it’s not usually possible to rehabilitate these kinds of thoughtforms. Except in very rare (and exceptionally sentient) cases, these beings must remain tied to their maker in order to exist. Often the kindest way to deal with these spirits is to dismantle the thoughtform so that it is no longer suffering and tied to a maker that cannot care for it. This does not fully solve your problem however, as the kind of obsession that begets these spirits can simply create a new one. You will need to cleanse and ward yourself as well as binding the person who created the thoughtform. If you are not comfortable with or able to dismantle the thoughtform, then it will also need to be banished or bound. 

With unintentional thoughtforms, there’s often another layer of danger. Because of the nature of these beings, they often signal a deep and very serious emotional instability within someone that has fixated upon you. This might be a stalker, an ex, an abuser, or some other potentially dangerous person. If necessary, please take precautions to keep yourself safe physically and emotionally as well. This kind of person could very well end up being dangerous to you beyond the spiritual realm.

Protecting yourself against psychic attack and thoughtforms may seem overwhelming but these problems are very easily solved by learning a few good banishing and binding spells and keeping your magical hygiene up to snuff.

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Updated on August 19, 2023 by Avery Hart