What’s wrong with being just human? Sometimes, I get the feeling that it’s more important for some people in our fringe communities to PUBLICLY  declare their personal identity than it is to focus on using that identity to self-direct one’s self in healthy and nurturing ways.

To my understanding, self-identity can be a sort of shorthand–a way of summarizing what I understand about my traits and characteristics, what is deep-rooted in my personality, what is true for me in this moment of self-analysis. It is a way of saying “THIS IS WHAT I AM, RIGHT NOW”…so that I can take that understanding of what is true for me as a navigational system to decide what is healthy and supportive for myself, based on my interpretation of those needs.

When we are dealing with Sanguine Vampirism, it is a much more straightforward observation of which physical effects drinking blood has on one’s system. It is questioning one’s motivations and [as part of the evaluation process] possibly asking if one WANTS to simply self-identify as a Blood Drinker, [Modern/Living/Real] Vampire or any other label that we use to classify a Sanguivore. An intelligent member of the GVC would notice their personal needs and benefits to ingesting blood, then apply the most relevant classification/label to themselves as a blood drinker, for purposes of guiding future activities and interactions to share information pertaining to blood ingestion.

When we are dealing with Psychic Vampirism, we are in a shakier territory. Here, the tools by which we measure our experience are even less objective than our physical senses.  (Physical senses that usually are filtered through subjective interpretative filters, to begin with.) In the realm of the Energy Vampire, we are beyond the use of physical tools to measure energetic activity. And the non-physical senses are even more subject to error, depending on the individual perceiver and each individual circumstance being perceived.

In my sincere opinion, understanding psychic vampirism comes with a certain level of the understanding of the metaphysics that explains energy and energy movement. To observe psychic vampirism, one needs to be sensitive to a certain degree to be accurate in one’s observations. One can fairly say that this means that one is psychic enough to perceive energy and strives to be constantly accurate in their psychic observations. [Technically, this concept would also apply in the case of being a Magician, Energy Worker, and any kind of Otherkin/Therian. All activities of these three categories involve perception of psychic and spiritual reality levels.]

To accurately gather information regarding to the non-physical levels where energy vampirism occurs, one must constantly refine one’s psychic senses–whether it is one or multiple of the senses, including clairsentience or claircognizance….just sensing or “knowing” when there is movement on an energy level is as good as a guide as the more glamorous senses of clairvoyance and clairaudience.

As part of the process of refining the senses is the ongoing vigilance against “wishful thinking”–the constant evaluation, questioning and re-evaluation of the information that comes through the clairvoyant senses. With constant practice, this becomes quicker and almost instantaneous when using these non-physical senses.

Part of accurately forming the self-identity of being a Psychic Vampire is the accurate collection of that information which leads to the conclusion that one is having the specific non-physical experience that we can summarize as being a Psychic Vampire.

When one identifies with one label or another, it is because the description of the qualities and activities that are associated with that label describe one’s personal experience. When we observe the activities of the Psychic Vampire, we need to question and refine the senses that we use to do so…again, to preserve and enhance our accuracy.

I define myself as a Psychic Vampire because of the observation of the deep-rooted trends in my non-physical (extra-dimensional or “spiritual”) experience, as I have come to understand and observe them. I self-identify as a Psychic Vampire because of how I would summarize someone who has these same experiences on the non-physical level….metaphysically speaking.

Because of my metaphysical leanings and what I think of as my spiritual goals, part of the way that I keep a higher level of accuracy in clairvoyant sensing and observation of my non-physical experience is that I constantly check my reasoning and context for sharing my self-identity as a Psychic Vampire. Personally holding my self-identification in my mind gives me reference points to check against. Am I taking in enough energy on a conscious level, resisting energy, or taking in too much? Mentally working with the self-identification gives me a framework to check in with, to navigate my human life in a healthy and comfortable way.

Sharing our self-identities can be helpful. Using labels can open a dialog, as long as they are not used as buzzwords or for shock value. Within the GVC, self-identifying as a Psychic Vampire can immediately narrow and widen [define] the parameters of conversation. It immediately differentiates one from being a Sanguivore, so that the conversation is automatically directed to a metaphysical lens…or is at least, directed away from a materialist-only lens. Using the label of Psychic Vampire generally lets the audience know that the identifier believes in the non-physical/psychic sensing of the activity of the energetic levels and that they have had particular experiences on those levels.

Other general associations that we can make with Modern/Living/Real Vampires is that we believe in a history (or lineage) associated with others of our kind that have existed before us. What we believe about those M/L/R Vampires is varied and individually validated (or justified) through personal conviction, accounts and literature.

I identify as a Psychic Vampire within particular contexts, mainly for purposes of information sharing. However, I observe that other people declare their self-identity for reasons which I find counter-productive–or at least, indirect. Of course, people can do whatever they want (within reasonable and socially acceptable limits). I am only sharing my opinion, within the framework of what I find productive.

In my perception, it makes for a calmer, easier life to separate my ego motivations from my accurate perception of my psychic/spiritual nature and the motivating drives that come from that nature. It is most clarifying to question if my perception of non-physical activity is accurate or if my thought process is driven by the psychological needs of my emotional insecurities.

The need to be considered a Vampire by others or by the self  (for purposes of emotional satisfaction) can color one’s mind to perceive [and create] psychic activity on an imaginal level which actually has no benefits to one’s etheric, astral or energy bodies’ health or wellbeing.

The need for others to perceive one as a Vampire [or any special category, actually] can spring from the thoughtform that one cannot be emotionally satisfied until one gets a particular response from the world around them.  In this case, one has anchored one’s future response and emotional satisfaction into the perception of other’s EXPRESSING a particular set of actions that would indicate that they accept that one is a Vampire.  Mentally hinging one’s internal reaction/satisfaction on other’s actions is a common, yet useless and victim-oriented concept.  Yes, it is definitely the popular way to live–but, for the Psychic Vampire living as a Spiritually evolving creature, it is another way to twist ourselves further into the illusions and limitations of this world…and a good way to further cloud our psychic clarity.

There is immense value in constantly questioning the possibility of any emotional need for external validation.  To weed this out will eliminate this possible obstruction to clear perception.

Also, this must be applied to one’s personal perception of the self.  Is there any underlying insecurity or other feeling that fuels the NEED to think of one’s self as something more special than “just human”?  Along this line of thinking, does thinking of one’s self as a Vampire help one focus on actions that make life easier and healthier?  Or is there a deep emotional need to be special, because that guarantees you other things?

Here’s a thought experiment to gauge your ego-driven limitations–in meditation space, confront the “worst case scenario”.  Meditate on this concept–What if you are just human?  Nothing non-human.  Given, you still have access to all of the psychic and magickal faculties that are available to all other humans–but, what if you did not classify as any other extrahuman being [Vampire, Otherkin, etc.]?  Are you completely okay with that?  Observe your internal reaction when you contemplate that question.  Are you okay with just being considered human?

Can you be completely happy with just being human?