AVIA's psychic vampire fact sheet; or the weird stuff I read as a teen.

One of my favorite websites when I was in high school was the Australian Vampire Information Association (AVIA).  They had vampire fact sheets on various subjects, classifieds, forums,  book reviews, short stories, and all sorts of other things.  I admit, some of the classifieds were hilarious.  I kept imagining a bunch of Vampire: The Masquerade larpers gone over the edge.  But a lot of other information they had on the site was fairly solid.  I still don't know why the site was taken down.  I'm pretty sure it disappeared before Australia's 2008 mandatory ban on like half the internet (wtf, Australia?).  But that doesn't mean it wasn't one of the first victims, before the ban went mandatory, or the victim of some other law or lawsuit.  (If anyone knows, PLEASE tell me)  Fortunately, thanks to the internet's magical way of preserving itself I was able to find this snippet on a search engine Jhonn introduced me to.  The following is not mine; it's solely the property of AVIA and whoever wrote it.  I present it to you merely in the interest of preserving internet occult history and feeding my pangs of nostalgia.

The term 'psychic vampire' is used to describe the siphoning off of a person's energy and vitality, perhaps to the point where health is impaired" (guiley, 1991:190). This is a simple definition which will serve our purpose. What must be understood is that the psychic vampire steals energy. Now this may seem to therefore put it in a different category than the regular vampire. Not so! A Burmese may differ from a Persian, but they are both cats. So it must be remembered that a psychic vampire is still a vampire. Not all psychic vampires are malevolent creatures. Often they are unaware of the effect that they are having. Energy is constantly flowing from one person to another of from the environment in which we live. We feel "good" with some people, "drained" with others. A person with an excess of energy is "glowing", "radiant", or "high-spirited", whereas a person with an energy deficit is "down" or "low". Now the "true psychic vampire is aware of his lack of energy, and of is ability to sap energy from others which he has developed with practice." (kaplan, 1984:157). They choose a victim and then go through a certain ritual, whether consciously or subconsciously, which will guarantee to put them in a position to steal energy. However, there are some people who just naturally absorb energy and have no idea that they are doing it. The steal energy from humans, other animals, plants and, as Dion Fortune reports, some electrical machines. So how does one tell a psychic vampire? There are no hard and fast rules, however, there are some common characteristics that have been reported. Look for someone who's: A complainer who belittles and likes to bring people down. A pessimist. A touchy/feely person, i.e. gives unwarranted or exaggerated physical signs of affection such as hugs, kisses, puts their arms around your shoulder, etc. The center of attention, constantly, and seems deflated when they are not. Any position of power but will give up greater power if it means losing physical contact with people, i.e. a sales rep refusing to be promoted to an isolated office job. An intimidator. Insistent on giving you some form of present, possibly something small, but it will be something that you will have to handle at some stage during the day. It could be anything from a book or a pen to car radio. Seldom ill, and recovers from illness very quickly. Very "draining" to be around. Somehow always getting things to work out in their favour - people give them money, lend them material possessions and don't worry about getting them back, etc. Eyes change colour at different energy levels - greys and dull, lusterless brown/hazel at low energy level to bright luminescent blues and greens while 'feeding' or at high energy levels. A sensual, attractive person of high charisma. This does not necessarily mean physical beauty but they can appear young for their age. Interested/fanatical about religion, the occult or the martial arts. This is not a complete list by any standard and person exhibiting one or two of these characteristics is not necessarily a vampire. A person who exhibits most or all of them, however, would be a person to be wary of and if you work with this person, then it might be advisable to seek some form of protection.

We hope you enjoyed this sneak preview of Fact Sheet #10. The complete version, as well as other AVIA products, are available from our products page.