Published in a New Jersey newspaper, 1913, the following article details how to ward off psychic and emotional vampires.
The advice is spot-on for self-protection techniques that are still used today in many spiritual and religious communities.
Get an Etheric Shell to Ward Off Vampires
It has been discovered at last — a way to foil the vampires of vitality.
Miss Julia K. Sommer, president of the Chicago Theosophical Society, has discovered it.
And it’s very simple. You just grow an etheric shell around yourself!
Maybe you think you’re not bothered by any such “vampires,” but listen:
“Vampires of vitality,” explains Miss Sommer, “go about absorbing energy, from stronger personalities and leaving them depleted. It is these ravages upon our stock of energy that tire us out.
“We speak of the high pressure of modern city life, the strain that makes nervous wrecks; but it’s merely the sapping of the vital force by others, in the home, the office, the theater, the train, the street.”
That’s why it makes you so tired to talk to some people and why it rests you to be in the presence of others. The former are vampires, draining your strength. The latter share their vitality with you. In the latter case, it seems, you are the vampire — but let that pass.
“The way to guard against being deprived of force and vigor,” says Miss Sommer, “is to image an etheric shell, like a soap bubble, about one’s body. The shell is egg-shaped and invisible.
“It takes a strong will to create such a shell, but it can be created and maintained. I myself have done it, and so have others of our society.
“Equipped with this protecting shell we can go forth safely in the midst of the unconscious kleptomaniacs who would otherwise steal our strength.
“It is necessary to sit three feet away from vampire people. Otherwise they may break through the shell and absorb the rosy light of our soul strength into their own depleted systems.”
Persons in robust health give off torrents of rose-colored vitality and may feel none the worse for their loss. Many unselfishly give their energy to weaker persons who absorb vitality like predigested food, but most of us can’t afford to be so liberal.
“The etheric shell is not imaginary,” Miss Sommer declares. “It is a real thing. Some time photography may advance far enough to get pictures of these psychic shells, somewhat has auras have been photographed by the use of cyanide plates.
“But it’s enough for the possessor to know that his shell is there, unknown and invisible to the rest of the world.”
Since Miss Sommer began teaching her novel theory at Besant Hall, Chicago, people have been very busy making etheric shells and crawling into them.
Source: Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. (Newark, N.J.), 08 July 1913.
