I have to say I’m still not emotionally involved to the place that I need to be with energy thieves. It took me until my Saturn Return to wake up and realize we do not all have the same capacity for self reflection.

[I attribute this realization to major transits of both Saturn and Pluto to my natal 12th House Neptune–a planet I consider a key part of my psychic awareness).

They are driven by insecurity. I see them much more benignly now, because I’ve finally realized they can’t something from me that I’m NOT giving away.
A person’s ability to protect themselves from an energy thief is not a limited commodity.

I think this is what both thief/thieved from have in common: both are worried that their resources in the emotional/psychic realm are limited and so the weirdness is born.
Since I’ve had this realization, the feeling of panic that I got when I could feel a thief in my vicinity has diminished greatly.

I’m trying to become more detached in general as I don’t want to have such strong emotional reactions to things. Still working on it.

Kashmiri–You’re right. But I visualize it a different way: fear is what freezes the heart, and thus, coldbloodedness. Which leads to a need for blood transfusions, and thus, vampirism.

Actually, I was riffing a bit against Elsa’s veiled boasting about her hot-blooded Italian virtues.

You can see the thief by the bag. If you see pieces of your life passing in front of you, it was him. He knows no limits, that’s why he doesn’t have his own life either and needs to suck. He goes – it’s there I like it let’s take it. He doesn’t think, that’something he leaves up to his victims.

yeeeah…I dunno. I don’t really see it as cold-blooded myself. I resist that way of viewing it because I want to believe that I have more personal power than that. I believe that no one can take something from me unless I (mistakenly) allow it. And it can happen through no fault of my own. Maybe I’m sick, or depressed, or down and out and therefor more susceptible. But I always am conscious of my role (this may be all my Buddhist studies talking).

I have been victim of energy theft, but in hindsight I missed my opportunity to protect myself. The theft usually came from an established relationship, which I myself chose to enter. There were signs given that I consciously ignored because I wanted the person to be what/who I wanted them to be (Neptune/Venus).

I just wanted them to be NICE…you know? ‘If I keep being nice they’ll love me and treat me the way I want to be.’

I have met some energy thieves who were cold-blooded about it, but most are just unaware I think. They don’t realize that they’re draining you because this is how they’ve been all their life; it’s not malicious, it’s their stock-in-trade! And, like kashmiri said, most people aren’t self-reflective enough to see this about themselves. To me, once they recognize how they affect people yet continue to do so, then it’s cold-blooded.
It’s like the mom and son on the bouncy horse (from a year or so back) — he’s going to feel that it’s others’ duty to take care of and validate him, right? So that’s how he’s going to work until he understands that he does this, why he does this, and where it comes from. Once he hits that point he can continue to sponge energy and stagnate or take control of his own self and validation and grow. But until he makes that decision I can’t in good conscience accuse him of malicious intent.

I like your description of cold-blooded ewinbee, it resonates with me. (I’m still on the stupid train, though!)

The next 5 minutes & the next five minutes only. Short sighted indeed.

thanks ewinbee, you are very sweet! I actually meant that even though your description of energy thieves’ coldblooded-ness resonates (makes sense), my gut instinct is to agree that they are stupid…that’d be the thieves on the stupid train, LOL.

I have been screwed by thieves, but as I’m not operating the same way they are (they subconsciously/consciously think they can’t produce their own power, so they try and steal mine) I’m still going to be better off than them.

My energy, as my ability to protect myself, is not a limited commodity. It’s like having your gas tank cyphered. There’s gas to be got somewhere…I’m not a gas thief. I count myself lucky and ultimately %400 tougher than any damn thief, even if they did happen to catch me on a bad day!

Interesting that this post came up as I have have just put a family member back on the plane home after an extended visit. I was appalled but also impressed as to the extent she would go to get what she wanted, emotionally and materially. I could see this coming after a while especially as she got more and more desperate. What I couldn’t see was the kick in the proverbial kidneys after she got what she wanted. Drain you dry then punish you for it. Would have been easy to sink to those depths too but managed to drag myself back from the brink - just! She has sun exactly conjunct pluto with significant saturn squares. Lots of fear with lots of power too!

i have mixed feelings about the knows vs. not knows question. suppose it’s because i’ve seen it both ways. i have a kid who has done this both unknowingly and as calculated as a freakin’ hitman, too. and those times, it’s been very cold-blooded and lacking feeling. when it was just “issues,” then it wasn’t so much cold, just an incredibly self-involvement that didn’t bother to calculate the cost to anybody else. although the arguement could be made she didn’t care, even if she did know the bill for it.

because they’ve never learned that you can rely on other people to give back… so they just take.

i guess.

or they don’t want to be vulnerable.
know a guy who couldn’t stomach the idea of grounding because he didn’t want to let go of the energy he had (but if it’s poisoning you???)

Ok, I have to add that there are of course calculating energy thieves. But unless someone is protected, energy thieving happens ALL THE TIME. Put two people in a room, one more clear than the other, it could even be one of you guys, and one can pick up some of the other’s energy.

There are people that make the choice to get what they can and run with it, with no concern or caring for the impact on others. Those are the theives, and some are very aware of it, although they may not use the same terms.

Yes, every interaction is an exchange; I don’t consider normal exchanges anything like theiving, and in most cases, there is both give and take. Even an occassional mostly one-sided exchange is not akin to selling somebody cheap. That’s the give and take from relationships.

People who do healing work are a special circumstance, and have to specifically strengthen boundaries and build their own energy, as well as learn to manage the sometimes messy energy they get from other people. Not everyone can do it, and that’s why you see such high burnout rates from mental health workers. It’s a skill.

That said, there are somewhat malicious energy thieves that take advantage of the fresh, vulnerable energy of someone else. Once a (different) guy hugged me and I felt like I was disappearing in a black hole. The energy was so bad I dry heaved for a while afterward.

mudlikesubstance, I’m sorry about the OCD people. Did they mean to hurt you? Was it their personalities or were you feeling the brunt of what they were thinking about you? I feel really ashamed if anyone suffers for anything I think about them. The undesirability of the thoughts and possibility of hurting them makes them come all the more. Were you protected enough to not get hurt? Were you sensitive enough to energy to be at risk?

A song about a bad relationship/energy thief:

“sometimes at night i stare at the ceiling and i wonder what’s wrong with me
to involve myself with people who don’t know what my
true feeling might possibly be

who latch onto my strength like it’s all they have got
it takes all of my strengths and i go through such lengths to show them it is not
what they think they are stealing”

http://youtube.com/watch?v=oVE2-CfFZ9k