Dear Julia:

I'm hoping you can offer me some advice for a friend. She has psychic gifts and is a Reiki Master, but has a problem she feels is beyond her. She has had an entity attached to her back for over 20 years. She feels it move and it causes her discomfort and seems to bring negative events to her. She doesn't know where to turn. She told me she once went to a psychic who could see the entity and removed it, but now it's either back or another has attached.

The psychic said the original entity was not human and had a slug-like appearance. I have been trying to figure out what this could be, and have drawn a blank so far. She knows it feeds on her fear, but so far, she's been too afraid to try to remove it herself. Can you shed some light on this? Thanks!
- Andrew

Dear Andrew:

We tend to think of the "Other Side" as a pristine place where people drift around on clouds, but it's really not so different from our physical world. Just as we have a fascinating array of creatures here on earth, there are all sorts of beings in other dimensions as well.

What your friend is dealing with is the astral equivalent of a leech, and just like a physical leech, it can attach to a person's aura and feed off their vitality. This astral parasite is no more intelligent or conscious of what it is doing than a slug would be; it just needs energy to survive, and when it "smells" it nearby, it latches on and starts sucking.

Just as our lakes and ponds are full of leeches, there are many more of these creatures on the astral plane than there are attached to people. It is thus important for your friend to purge her personal environment of these entities before she frees herself from this attachment.

There are things that tend to attract astral parasites or "larvae." Just as we find things like maggots, worms, roaches, etc. in trash dumps and unclean dwellings, we find astral pests in environments where there is a lot of etheric garbage to feed on. Further, it may surprise many readers to know that an unclean physical space generally reflects an unclean astral space.

There is a correlation between the state of one's physical reality and the state of one's astral reality. If a person's physical environment and body is slovenly, you can bet that they are no more disciplined about "cleaning up" the energy in their atmosphere.

When we clean house, for example, we begin by mentally deciding what we will do and then thinking through that process as we go. Our space is thus first cleaned on an astral level, and then on a physical level. While working, we channel our energy into cleanliness on many levels. Similarly, when we neglect such tasks, we allow both our physical environment and astral environment to accumulate dust, dirt, scum, clutter, and all sorts of other things we don't want.

Because there is a direct correlation between the physical and astral, there are things your friend can do physically to keep entities like this out of her personal space. Things like light, sounds and smells that you can perceive but are not physically tangible readily affect things in the astral. This is why a room that is clean, brightly lit, smells good and has spiritual music playing will tend to have "good energy."

With this in mind, if I were your friend, I would clean my house from top to bottom. I'd sage the whole house once and then burn frankincense daily to sanctify the atmosphere. (Some may advise you to kill off astral leeches by using sulphur on them or burning sulphur in the home, but this could be very dangerous. There are safer ways that are just as effective). I'd also get rid of anything that suggests or carries negative energy, and consciously incorporate positive, sacred elements.

I find it interesting that this thing is attached to her back. As this is a spot that rarely sees daylight and is relatively hard to clean by oneself, I imagine it is an easy place for an entity to attach. To make it harder, I would daily scrub my whole body (but especially my back) with a scented soap or oil. Something with camphor or a eucalyptus or lavender scent would be ideal. I'd also sunbathe with my back exposed.

In addition to all the above, our THOUGHTS and FEELINGS directly affect the astral, and our minds and hearts must be "clean" as well. I don't want to offend or embarrass your friend, but it's important to know that such entities are often attracted by debased sexual energy like fantasies and what we might call a less than sacred approach to sexuality.

This leech is feeding off of emotional energy, and if she wants to "starve it," she must abstain from lower emotions, including lust. (I'm in no way implying that sex is bad or sinful, simply that we are wise to take a conscious, respectful approach to all we do. Just like casual, unsafe sex with a lot of partners will tend to leave one with physical STDs, lots of lustful fantasizing may leave one with a case of "astral crabs!")

Further, while I can understand your friend's fear, that is the very thing that is enabling this attachment to continue. In fact, waxing fearful when she thinks about this entity is like sprinkling sugar on top of the energetic treat this entity is after.

Frankly, if she is this fearful of astral entities, for her own sake, she should not be doing Reiki healing or dabbling in psychic arts. Energy healers are empowered and protected by FAITH. While I believe that anyone is capable of learning energy healing, that doesn't mean that everyone should.

If we poke around in psychic waters spiritually naked, odds are good that eventually, we will indeed pick up something like this leech. If we hope to heal others but have a low (fearful) vibration ourselves, we may pick up whatever has been ailing them. Faith, a high vibration, and conscious awareness are like a good wetsuit in the astral; they protect us from picking up creepy crawlies while we're dipping in etheric waters.

I'm sure there are lots of people with astral parasites who have no idea they're afflicted, and I don't want to imply that she brought this upon herself by nobly trying to heal others. However, the more often we swim naked in mucky ponds, the more likely we are to pick up leeches. Further, if we are trying to help or heal others, our odds of picking something up from them is very high if we are not immune or protected ourselves. For these reasons, it's wise to be fully spiritually prepared before exploring psychic territory.

So how does your friend get past her fear to deal with this? Hopefully, once she knows that this entity is nothing more than an astral leech, she'll see how silly it is to be so afraid of it. Your friend is a million times more intelligent and powerful than this entity. If she reclaims authority over her own experience, freeing herself from this should be a snap.

Also, the astral is the realm of imagination, so mental energy is powerful here. She could center herself in her own personal power and faith and then visualize pouring salt on the leech, and it curling up and dropping off. She could visualize herself plucking it off and hurling it into the sun to be recycled back into the Universe. She could pray for Archangel Michael to come and cut it from her back, and then visualize herself coated with lovely scented oil, and so "slippery" that nothing could cling to her again. Her options for freeing herself of this are as limitless as her imagination.

Once she is free, she would be wise to cultivate faith, purity of mind and heart, spiritual knowledge and a high vibration, for this will surround her with natural spiritual protection, and prevent such experiences in the future.

- Julia