For most of my life, I thought entity attachment was just something found in fiction. A demon takes over the body of a child or elder, swears a lot, and rotates their neck 180 degrees – possibly complemented with some wall-crawling and supernatural jargon.
This is the image we have of spiritual possession, right? It’s a pretty grim image at best. Sure, it makes a good story, but this stuff isn’t real… Right?
I’m here to tell you that not only are entity attachments real, but I have seen them exercised many times while working closely with shamanic healers. Spiritual possession is not make-believe, nor is it improvisation, the result of psychosis, or people losing their marbles on medicine.
We must take entity attachment and spiritual possession seriously. I have a huge amount of respect for the healers who perform strenuous and often grueling exorcisms, as I’ve seen it in action multiple times.
Here I will tell you everything I know about entity attachments and a little about my experiences with people who have undergone it.
What Is an Entity Attachment?
Over the last couple of years, I’ve lived in multiple shamanic communities in Ecuador and Peru. During this time, I have witnessed several exorcisms, which have ranged from ‘I’ll take this with a grain of salt’ to downright disturbing.
But before we get into the details, I need to clear something up. When you hear the term entity attachment, you may think of spiritual possession. After all, this is how popular culture tends to depict it. Both of these things are real, but there are differences.
An entity attachment (or spiritual attachment) occurs when a spirit latches onto a person’s energetic body. Spiritual possession is when the entity takes control of the body under certain circumstances.
Here’s the thing.
The spiritual realm is teeming with life. Like people, spirits come in all sorts of forms and figures, each with different personalities, intentions, and desires. Believing that a spirit is either good or bad is a polarized view and doesn’t reflect the reality of the situation.
All spirits are different, as all souls are different. Just because a spirit possesses someone doesn’t necessarily mean it’s evil.
The spirit may be the lost soul of the deceased who latched on to someone out of fear. Perhaps it’s an opportunist who wants a joyride if it has the chance. Perhaps it was a nonhuman spirit that attached to a person while they were energetically exposed to alternate realms of information.
As there are many spirits of light in these realms, there are also neutral spirits and dark spirits. A spirit of light will not attach to a person, a neutral spirit might depending on the circumstances, and dark spirits often try to because they benefit from the interaction.
Occasionally, a guest in the shamanic medicine communities I have lived in would begin acting out of character either during or after a ceremony. Their energy would flip. What was once a cheerful young man or woman would pivot into something completely different.
Sometimes, people act strange after a couple of cups of medicine, which isn’t anything new. It’s expected. However, possessions are different as the person’s consciousness is hijacked by the spirit rather than piggybacking off it.
Often, the shaman can see the entity, recognize what it is and whether it’s masculine or feminine. I’ve seen a shaman see the points on a lady’s back that an entity was latching onto. After pointing to those spots, the lady said that was exactly where she had been experiencing pain.
Nowadays, I’ve worked with quite a lot of people with attachments, and they’re certainly real. Some are subtle, some are blatant. Regardless, they need to go because the entities aren’t doing you any good.
How Does Entity Attachment Occur?
As described to me by a shaman I worked closely with in Ecuador, dark spirits attach to wounded souls because they’re easy targets. Dark entities feed off low-vibrational energy, therefore, they’re attracted to people who are suffering.
Think of it this way…
People who are deeply suffering are like beacons for spirits with nefarious agendas. They’re low-hanging fruit for dark spirits who want to exploit the situation. When people unknowingly open themselves up to these spirits, they can latch onto them energetically, causing all sorts of problems in their lives.
Entity attachment is quite common. In our Westernized, rationalized paradigm of thinking, we tend to attribute many of these issues to mental illness – an error of the brain rather than an external energy influencing the person.
I’m not saying that mental illness isn’t real because it is. Many people’s condition results from a dysfunction of the brain and nothing more. However, in many cases, they have an entity attachment and can only really begin healing once the entity is removed.
This is the side we don’t see in Western culture. For the most part, we think of spirituality as simply a belief and nothing more.
Entity attachment is when an entity latches onto you, often for an extended period. Think of an entity attachment as a spiritual parasite, which may or may not evolve into possession under the right circumstances.
On the other hand, possession is rather rare. I’ve witnessed a few cases of spiritual possessions, and each time they occurred from an attachment that came to the surface with shamanic medicine.
Entity possession is when an entity hijacks your body (or consciousness). You no longer have control, and you may or may not be aware of what is happening. Possessions are generally intense, abrupt, and traumatic for the person experiencing them.
During cases of possession, it’s necessary to see a trained healer or guide who can perceive the spirit and send it to the light where it can break its cycle of suffering.
Signs of Entity Attachment
Entity attachments can often be described as tangible beings or souls that are continuously present with the person – often felt within their body.
Common signs of entity attachment include:
- Odd feelings or sensations moving around your body or predominantly residing in a particular part of the body
- Unexplained aches and pains, especially in areas like the back, neck, or head can be common places of attachment.
- Feelings of depression, anxiety, and a loss of hope
- Constant intrusive thoughts, especially about self-harm, fear, or paranoia
- Overwhelming anger, sadness, or fear without a clear cause
- Feeling drained no matter how much rest you get, as if something is siphoning your energy
- Addictive tendencies get worse, resulting in increased dependency on substances, risky behaviors, or self-destructive habits
- Compulsive or out-of-character actions, behaviors, or decisions
- Changes in personality or fluctuations in mood
- Feeling as if something is messing with your thoughts, beliefs, or decisions
- Nonverbal communication (like something speaking to you)
- Symptoms that mimic mental illness, such as psychosis or schizophrenia
- Increased psychic disturbances such as hearing whispers, seeing shadowy figures, or experiencing objects moving on their own
- Recurring bad luck or accidents, including a streak of misfortunes, obstacles, or a sense of being cursed
A person may feel trapped and unable to heal because they have an attachment. At some point, a spirit latched onto this person, and either perpetuates or exacerbates their suffering to continue feeding off the low-vibrational energy.
The host is in a hole and can’t seem to escape their suffering, despite how hard they try. Entity attachments often latch onto people who are deeply suffering, energetically exposed, and don’t know how to protect themselves.
How Entity Attachment Can Evolve Into Possession
Spiritual possession can manifest in different ways, but I’ll tell you about a possession that happened in the previous shamanic healing center I was working in.
Several hours after an ayahuasca ceremony, everyone was settling down for the night, singing by the fire, and integrating their experiences. One woman seemed to still be relatively deep in the medicine and preferred to be by herself. She said she was still integrating the experience during a brief encounter with her, so I gave her some space.
Perhaps half an hour later, I noticed chanting from the room she was staying in, which happened to be the same room I was staying in too. She was vocalizing quite loudly, almost as if she was singing, however, it sounded a little strange.
At the time I thought nothing of it. After all, people often go through unique processes after working with such a powerful medicine, it wouldn’t be the first time someone sang a little strangely after a ceremony. So I sat outside while playing on my phone to not disrupt her process.
The singing became louder and more offbeat until the lady began screaming different notes at the top of her lungs. Okay… I thought. Now it’s getting a bit loud, you’re going to alert the neighbors, but I wrote it off to processing and played the waiting game, hoping she would calm down in a moment.
The screams became louder and louder, and something didn’t seem right. Suddenly, the door to the room flung open, and the woman started pacing around the kitchen in circles while screaming at the top of her lungs.
A moment later, the ayahuasca shaman entered the space, grabbed the woman while she was screaming, and walked her to the fire outside. A couple of other medicine people entered the space and asked if he needed help. He told them that he would perform an exorcism and that they needed to find her passport to get her full name, which they did with haste.
Being a sensitive matter, I didn’t get involved so I did not witness the exorcism. However, the exorcism lasted for at least 3 hours. While trying to sleep, I heard the woman screaming at times while still heavily entranced.
The Aftermath of Spiritual Possession
After this experience, the woman spent a couple of days in solitude, recovering from the ordeal. When she was finally up and about, I spoke to her about this episode, and she told me what happened from her perspective.
While taking a shower, she mentioned that the medicine abruptly kicked in with force. She described it as entering another dimension and losing her grip on reality, but she thought it was just an anomaly of the medicine.
She quickly dressed and entered our shared room for privacy. Sitting on the floor, she decided to surrender to the experience, believing it was a breakthrough. That’s when the trip started to get very dark, very quickly.
This woman explained that she was going into some dark territory and it started to feel more like a bad trip. Fear rapidly evolved into dread that she couldn’t get out, as she felt at the moment that she was about to permanently lose her sanity and be trapped in this dark interdimensional pit for eternity.
At this moment, she began vocalizing to ground herself and open up her channels. This is when her ‘singing’ took a life of its own. As her vocalizations became louder, she lost all control of her body. This is when she began pacing the house, screaming and vocalizing. By this point, the spirit was in full control of her body, and the shamans could perceive it.
Recalling the experience, the lady said she didn’t know what happened and wasn’t fully present. With that said, she did mention that it was a very traumatic and violating experience for her.
Speaking to the shaman about the experience, I was told that this woman was possessed by a dark spirit that waited until after the ceremony to attack – as this is when the woman’s defenses were lowered.
He mentioned that the spirit was female and had been with the woman for a while, likely passed to her through sexual intercourse. They mentioned the word succubus, but my Spanish wasn’t good enough to understand everything they were saying. The medicine brought the spirit to the surface, where it could then be exercised and sent to the light to be transmuted into something else.
After this ordeal, it had a happy ending. Eventually, the shaman was able to send the spirit to the light, and that seemed to be the end of its lifecycle.
Defending Yourself From a Spiritual Attachment
Light energy is like a repellent to dark spirits. If you are deeply centered within yourself while experiencing energies of love, gratitude, and compassion, the spirit will move onto someone who is an easier target.
However, this is often easier said than done.
In my experience, the issue seems to be when people are energetically wide open, making an easy passage for spirits to attach to the person. Therefore, it’s important to protect your energy, especially if you are working with shamanic medicines.
Avoid tapping into energies and dimensions, such as through astral projection, plant medicines, or mediumship if you aren’t properly trained. Sometimes, people have a big ego, thinking they know exactly what to do, but this can be a big mistake. At the least, make sure you are properly protecting yourself energetically and cleansing after any grim encounters.
Otherwise, do your best to learn, grow, and heal. As long as you are aligning yourself with the light to experience more high-vibrational energy, then that will act as your safeguard.
Dark spirits do not like the light. They are attracted to suffering. Therefore, experiencing light energy is your best repellant.
If you suspect you have an attachment, it’s best to seek out a healer, whether they’re a shaman, sage, psychic, or priest. Find someone you trust, and they may be able to cut the cord with the attached entity.
Otherwise, be cautious when dabbling with these realms of consciousness because there are some nasty things out there. Respect the proper paths, traditions, and training, and you should be right.
With that said, I’ve written an article about entity removal that you can read here. If you suspect that you or someone you know has an entity, here we will explore what you can do about it.