Dear Julia:

I have been experiencing weird happenings over the last six months. When I go to sleep at night, I can gently feel someone climbing onto my bed. Their presence moves up alongside my body, all along my spine with a vibrational energy that seems to run through my body. I don't like it; the feeling is incredibly strong and overwhelms me. I have prayed, had the place blessed by a priest and sleep with a Bible and rosary around my neck, but it still comes back. Sometimes I sit up until the early hours of the morning. I have prayed and spoken out loud for this thing to go away, but it keeps coming back. What could this be? What can I do to stop it? All I want is to be left in peace to sleep at night, as I haven't had a good night's rest in months! Can you help with some advice?
- Sid

Dear Sid

If you hadn't stated that you can feel something climbing onto your bed, I might assume you had misinterpreted the whole situation and were experiencing your own kundalini rising or the beginnings of astral projection. Since I still feel this is a possibility, I recommend you research both ideas, as I don't have space to cover them here.

I'm going to approach this as a case of psychic attack because you do feel an entity, and you describe typical symptoms of such phenomena. For example, it's common to perceive astral entities when falling asleep or waking up; psychic attacks often produce tingling in the spine; and sleep deprivation is a key strategy negative entities use to disempower us.

Psychic attacks often start when we're exhausted, and astral parasites use sleep deprivation to keep us overwhelmed and fatigued because we're vulnerable when we're sleep deprived. Also, things tend to get worse and worse because we can't think straight and we make poor decisions. We also get impatient and irritable, which causes our relationships to fall apart. This makes us miserable and removes our support system, leaving us even more vulnerable to psychic attack.

So the first thing is to find a way to get some sleep. You might go stay with friends or family for a few nights and ask to sleep between two highly spiritual, loving people. This will offer you protection and comfort and allow you to catch up on your rest. This alone could end these attacks, but even if it doesn't, you'll feel renewed and ready to take charge when you get home.

I also recommend you read Practical Psychic Self-Defense by Robert Bruce, but please don't let this book freak you out. Though Bruce disagrees, I experienced psychic attacks myself early in my spiritual journey, and I can assure you that all you need to lift yourself above such experiences is a very high vibration.

One thing Bruce does get right is the need to reclaim your personal power. If you succumb to fear or feel like you are somehow powerless to stop whatever is doing this, you are giving your power away. Psychic attacks only happen to people who are psychically sensitive and vulnerable. Oddly enough, being religious can make us vulnerable because religion generally teaches us to view God as outside of us, and other people (like priests) as somehow more divinely connected and powerful than we are.

So while it's wise and beneficial to have unshakable faith in a higher power, that faith should be centered within you. You must know that you have a direct connection to the Divine, that you ARE divine in nature, and that God guides you from within your own heart. No one is more qualified to heal your life than you are; in fact, you are the only one who truly can.

Remember that you have the ultimate authority over your being and experience. Also keep in mind that in addition to fear, any darkness or shadows within you can make you vulnerable, for it's these shadows that negative entities latch onto. Like attracts like, so if you're pure of body, heart, mind and spirit, nothing negative can get a foothold on your being. If you have any habits that are unhealthy, destructive, unloving or unforgiving of yourself or others, this is the time to heal and release them.

Some people may recommend getting angry and battling negative entities, but since like attracts like, this can make things worse. It may seem like getting angry is effective, but this is because usually it's the first step in taking our power back. When we say, "I'm not going to take it anymore!" it means we're ready to do whatever we have to do to love ourselves well. It's not the anger, but rather the decision to own our own power and love ourselves that shifts our energy.

Since this has been happening for six months and no real harm has come to you, hopefully you can shed your anxiety and step up to reclaim your authority over your own life and energy. I once had a kitten that wouldn't let me sleep, for in addition to meowing like crazy, she would reach up and poke at me with her paw to wake me up. If I'd slept with a Bible and squirted her with holy water, I'm betting she would have loved the attention. I had to decide that I'd had enough and take charge by shutting her in another room for the night in order to get some rest. My point: you have the ultimate authority over your own experience, so stop giving your power away to this astral kitten.

Here are more practical suggestions:

Try sleeping in the sunlight. If you are able to sleep undisturbed in the sun, you can be sure you're dealing with a negative entity. If this sensation continues in sunlight, you're probably dealing with kundalini energy or astral projection sensations.

Clean and smudge your whole house. Wash your bedding and pajamas and bless them. Spray your bed, linens and pajamas with something that smells wonderful like lavender water. Crack your window to let in fresh air, and keep your blinds open to let in sunlight. Also, play spiritual music constantly in this room.

Before bed, take a cleansing saltwater bath. While in the bath, mentally scan your body and see anything dark, dirty or icky being washed away down the drain. Dry off and stand naked in your bathroom, then lift your face and your hands heavenward while you say the following prayer. It's important to FEEL this prayer, not just say the words:

Infinite Spirit, purify me! Cleanse all of my being and fill me with peace, well-being, and personal power. Make me radiant with divine light and love! Surround me with loving guides and angels and help me to radiate my own loving, divine spirit to others. Divine love now surrounds me and blesses me with all that is good, right, healthy, loving and positive. Amen!

When you get into bed, keep the spiritual music going and read something spiritually uplifting and empowering. Leave the light on. I would be very surprised if after all of this, you feel something crawling up on the bed again. If you do, however, stop it QUICK. Astral parasites try to feed off of our energy because they are weak, so the time to nip things in the bud is when they first approach.

As soon as you sense this entity, sit up, clap your hands very loud and fast, and say "BE GONE! In the name of God, be gone NOW. You'll have to go elsewhere to meet your needs, so you might as well GO NOW."

Then see that divine light you just filled yourself with turning up brighter and brighter, dispelling any shadows around you. See yourself surrounded by angels and divine protection, and go to sleep knowing that you will slumber peacefully through the night.

- Julia