Malicious Techno-Vampyrism

The concept of energy feeding on another person through an Internet connection is something that I've seen gain traction in the vampyre community over the last several years. The mechanic is the same as distance feeding but the difference is in using digital interaction to build the connection needed for the distance feeding to occur. In more recent times this is done through voice and video chat and has the same sort of ethical considerations regarding consent as any other type of feeding. That said, this article will focus on a darker side of technological energy feeding.

Have you ever been in a forum or chatroom where people seem to go out of their way to stir drama and cause chaos? The format has moved to short-form video content for the most part but the idea is the same: deliberately making people upset or "ragebaiting". In earlier times this was referred to simply as "trolling" and was done because the person trolling found the reactions to be amusing. The people responding to the bait would usually become very emotionally invested and spent a significant amount of time interacting with the troll post. Part of the fun for the troll was in how much time people were wasting with the bait.

Internet trolling is as old as the Internet but what if we look at trolling from a more vampyric perspective? Eliciting an emotional response, usually negative, is not that different from how an unawakened psychic vampyre (or a malicious awakened one) would initiate a feeding session. This hearkens back to the original connotation of the term "psychic vampire" as used by Dion Fortune or Anton LaVey. This person exhausts you emotionally and drains your energy just by interacting with them. We can all point out people that are "emotional vampires"; typically they are narcissists that have no idea they are vampyres or that simply have toxic personalities. I have a pet theory that a lot of the drama that took place in the online vampyre community of 20 years ago was because of unconscious efforts to feed by starving vampyres.

It is easy to get caught up in an argument over politics or religion, especially online, but take a moment to consider the motivations of the person that began the exchange. Are they deliberately baiting you so they can feed on your negative emotions and the attention you're giving them? Are they being genuine but lack the tact to be less abrasive? The question of whether they are actually a vampyre is irrelevant here. What is relevant is how you're expending your energy.

It is an important part of the vampyric condition to monitor and regulate one's own energy condition. A lot is preached about shielding, filtering, and cycling but perhaps something to consider in the digital age is one of the oldest axioms of the Internet: Don't feed the trolls. It has been said about trolling and ragebaiting that the first person to care loses the game. The ultimate defense to an online emotional vampire is to simply not care and that requires a degree of self-awareness that we should all be cultivating anyway.