Why Spiritual Protection Isn’t About Fighting Darkness

The following explores the mechanics of spiritual vulnerability. It is an excerpt from my in-depth, 7,000-word guide on spiritual protection. For practical tools on how to shield yourself, read the complete guide here.

When You Actually Need Spiritual Protection

Some of the tools I use for spiritual protection

You need spiritual protection most when you’re actively opening yourself up energetically or participating in a spiritual practice that pushes you into altered states.

The mistake people make is thinking protection works like a shield in a fantasy movie. Something swoops in for the kill, and your little chant sends it flying off in another direction. While I believe spiritual attack is real, I think it’s rarer than most people think.

In many cases, what people perceive to be a spiritual attack is something internal going on. Perhaps a process opening up, a disruption in your own energy, or even something psychological.

That said, usually you don’t get attacked by something. You become available.

Therefore, energetically protecting yourself is mostly about alignment. The more scattered you are, the more vulnerable you become to outside influence.

When Protection Is Non-negotiable

The spiritual realms are full of different beings, sort of like how Earth is full of different species.

Some are chill. Others aren’t so friendly. So popping your head into another dimension, going, “Howdy folks, what’s going on in here?” without any preparation isn’t always the wisest move, especially if you’re a more vulnerable target…

Things like fear, shame, guilt, obsession, exhaustion, trauma, substance abuse, ego inflation, desperation, and spiritual arrogance are the real entry points because they loosen your center and scatter your energy, making you porous. Low-vibrational energy makes you available to low-vibrational beings.

What I’ve learned is that energies can permeate.

So, if you feel drained while in an environment that’s carrying a lot of dense or stagnant energy, it sorta hooks into you, so you end up carrying it too. When you’re centered and in a high vibration, feeling genuine love, gratitude, compassion, self-empowerment… those unwanted energies have a much lesser impact.

This same dynamic, of course, is amplified in non-ordinary states of consciousness.

If you take mushrooms or do some energy work while in a low state, unwanted energies can stick to you much more easily. This is why people who are grounded and emotionally regulated rarely report spiritual attacks and tend to be much more effective at helping. It’s not that they’re immune. It’s that they’re not making themselves an easy target for anything to latch on to.

It’s important to protect yourself spiritually when:

• Working with plant medicines
• Going deep into meditation or breathwork
• Doing ritual or ceremonial work
• Processing intense emotions or trauma
• Doing regular spiritual practice over many years
• Performing energy work
• Working with plant medicines, especially unguided
• Attempting astral projection or other advanced modalities

Spiritual protection is about looking after your inner world and staying aligned with higher energies, which naturally makes you less prone to negative influence.

Signs You’re Dealing With Something Real

In my experience, encountering a dark presence creates a sudden and intrusive feeling of intense dread, anguish, or fear. It almost feels as if these denser vibrations are being projected straight into me, like it’s deliberate, not just me picking up the energy. That said, when I first notice this energy, I often feel the vibration of the space change.

When I have encountered something that I consider to be real, it’s not like a vague “ah, maybe something is here, maybe not…”; it’s sharp. That means I feel a presence in the space and can usually pinpoint which direction it’s coming from.

While the intuitive feeling is a strong indicator that I’m tapping into a presence, I have also had visions of the spirit at the same time as these feelings, or even heard it speaking to me, whispering in my ear in a strange, unearthly dialect.

For some people, a presence in the space can show up as an unexplainable sense that they’re being watched or that something’s simply not safe. And these feelings tend to get sharper the further you move into spiritual work, since you’re more exposed in a way most people never are.

It’s also worth being honest that intense dread or a feeling of losing your grip on reality can sometimes point to something psychological rather than spiritual, or both at once. There can be a fine line.

The DSM-5 (the standard reference book that mental health professionals use) includes a specific category called *Religious or Spiritual Problem,* acknowledging that some experiences are real and distinct from mental illness, while noting they can sometimes overlap or be mistaken for one another.

If what you’re feeling is intense, ongoing, or affecting your ability to function, it could point to a mental health problem too, so don’t rule it out. This isn’t me trying to downplay the experience, but honestly, spiritual problems and emotional problems tend to get mixed up more than they should.

Spiritual Attack Is a Universal Belief

One traditional healer that I’ve worked quite closely with over the years has dealt with some nasty attacks in the past. One instance was another shaman darting him during the ceremony. Another was a person he was helping at the time, who turned on him and cast black magic on him.

Afterwards, he was constantly sick, and his pets began dying without a clear cause over the following months. He described the energy as being off, resulting in things constantly going wrong, including financial issues, health issues, relationship issues, and a car accident, all happening in a short sequence.

He sought counsel from a curandera who did a cleansing and tried removing the energy with fire, however, it seemed to latch on. Long story short, when he re-empowered himself by making some clear decisions in his life, that’s when the energy went away.

But that’s just the tip of the iceberg in the shamanic world.

The practice of brujería (or sorcery) is common knowledge in South America. Healers here are particularly cautious about it, and often have plenty of wild tales about people they’ve treated, energies they’ve cleared, or the stories they’ve heard.

Brujas work with plant spirits, or perhaps manipulate them in a way to cause harm. Their intent is malicious, earning them an infamous reputation in the Amazon as people you don’t want to mess around with. I’ve heard many stories about them darting people, manipulating them, and, according to many traditional healers, even causing sickness and death.

Truth is, pretty much every culture I know of has its own version of spiritual attack.

Some cultures talk about the evil eye, which is essentially harming someone energetically through focused malicious intent. Then, my Lama Fera teacher in Nepal told me all about the sorcerers in Eastern India who are infamous for doing all sorts of nasty things to people, including human sacrifice.

So, it’s not limited to the Amazon or the traditions that I study. It’s universal spiritual knowledge. If people can send love and healing, they can also send darkness and decay.

Understanding your vulnerabilities is crucial, but what happens when you already feel something clinging to you? If you are feeling energetically drained or heavily influenced right now, there are immediate actions you can take. **Read my full guide here** to learn the exact protocols for commanding energy to leave, using sacred sound, and properly smudging your space.