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I wasn’t going to make an article about entity removal, but since writing about this topic, many people have reached out seeking help. So, perhaps it’s best I shed some light here.
If you haven’t yet read it, I highly recommend that you read this article about what entity attachments are.
As I’ve learned more about this phenomenon, I’ve sought information from shamans, healers, and spiritual leaders from various cultures, traditions, and practices. Most people who have dedicated their lives to a spiritual path, at least in my knowledge, believe in entity attachments. Sure, interpretations vary, but they’re all pointing at the same thing regardless of the religious framework.
I want to be clear that I’m not an expert in the matter. I don’t perform entity removals, and although I have some knowledge of the topic, there’s plenty I don’t know. What I’m doing here is just passing on the wisdom from the healers I’ve worked with.
With that said, I very much trust the people who have shared this knowledge with me. I have seen them perform exorcisms and help many people remove entities – as trained shamans who have been working in the plant medicine space for decades.
So, let’s get into it.
Are entity attachments real?
Several years ago, I would have never believed in entity attachments. It wasn’t until I began working in the shamanic healing space that I crossed paths with many people claiming they had spiritual attachments, and were at these centers seeking help.
Some of these stories I took with a grain of salt. Perhaps the attachment was a way to defer blame or avoid taking responsibility for their mental health issues.
But other people seemed sincere, like they’ve had a dark cloud hanging over their heads for years, and recited stories in vivid detail. I could feel the conviction in their voices and knew they weren’t making this stuff up.
But by this point, I had already experienced some wild things along my self-discovery journey, so it wasn’t farfetched to me.
What erased any doubt was witnessing real exorcisms carried out by shamans. Not just one who was perhaps playing this whole thing up a little, but by different shamans in different communities.
Some of these exorcisms were relatively mild and for lack of a better word, anticlimatic. Others were intense, where guests were seemingly overtaken by something, and it took hours to send it to the light.
Entity attachment vs spirit: What's the difference?
An entity attachment is usually a dark spirit that has attached itself to a person and cohabits their body.
I’ve had my own experiences with spirits. Starting from a small child when I would wake up screaming every night and running to my parent’s room, screaming “There’s a man in my room!”.
Something was targeting me, but it wasn’t an attachment because I never had issues again when we moved from that house. Entity attachments attach to our energy bodies,ย so for lack of a better word, they’re like parasites.
While certain places can have spirits lingering there (think of haunted buildings), I wouldn’t call them entity attachments. Well… maybe to the building, but not to you. Likewise, if an entity seems to be following you, but you haven’t let it in… don’t.
I’ve had some encounters with strange spirits during plant medicine experiences and during astral projection which showed me firsthand that if we’re not careful when going into these places, we can invite them in.
Do you have an entity attachment?
An entity attachment is a type of soul contract, meaning it’s a conscious contract. While you may think you’re just an unfortunate soul who is victimized randomly by an entity, it’s best to acknowledge that you, on some level, made a deal with it.
This is important to acknowledge because part of removing these buggers is to take your power back. If you don’t take responsibility for the situation, getting rid of the entity can be a long, arduous ride.
From my understanding, there are a few ways in which people tend to get attachments:
- It came during a vibrational low: Typically, entities come in when we’re dealing with something really painful that we’re not quite ready for. When this happens, sometimes we unconsciously make a deal with an entity to “save us”, which is why it has a free pass to your energetic body.
- You expose yourself without being protected: When we travel into other realms, whether it’s via a spiritual craft like astral projection, or by using plant medicines without being in a ceremony, we expose ourselves to other levels of reality that are teeming with life. Generally, there’s a barrier between the material and the astral which we understand as the veil. The veil usually protects us somewhat, but when we pass this threshold without proper protection, we become targets for spirits with nefarious agendas.
- It was transferred through sex: As can different energies, entities can also be transferred via sex. If you have sex with someone who has an entity attachment, there’s a possibility it can be passed on to you. Energetically you’re opening your gates via sex to energies that aren’t in your best interest.
Entity attachments are spirits, or souls in the astral levels of reality who you have let in somehow. If you have an attachment, you let it in, in one way or another.
And that’s the thing…
Sometimes these spirits are devious. They may appear as angels, your spirit guides, ancestors, or even god claiming to want to help you. You might be convinced that it’s a good thing, therefore opening yourself up to it and granting it access to your energetic body.
Spirits often enter during a particularly dark or painful point in our lives, but we can also get them other ways. As if we’re drowning, we extend a hand to whatever is out there to save us, and something else extends its hand too.
This is usually the case.
One client I had could identify the entry point of the entity. It came in during a particularly low point during the pandemic when he had financial difficulties, triggering abandonment issues from his past. Another client was in the process of being sued and felt deeply worried and betrayed, considering it was happening by someone she considered a friend.
Likewise, many people I worked with at a shamanic healing center had similar stories. Usually, there’s a particularly painful situation the person went through that they couldn’t quite deal with.
So, how do you know whether you have an entity attachment or not?
You need to be discerning
The very first thing you need to do is determine if the entity is a spirit that has latched onto your energetic body, or if it’s a manifestation of you.
This can be a bit of a tricky subject because in many cases, there’s a fine line between a real entity and something you’re going through psychologically or spiritually.
Either way, damage can be done if:
- You believe you have an entity, but it’s another issue
- You believe you have another issue, but it’s an entity
This is why we need to tread carefully.
I’ve met plenty of people who describe the entity in vivid detail, and claim it with certainty. I’ve also met people who believe that their depression, anxiety, or panic attacks are due to an external being when it could be them.
Of course, I’m not saying your entity is your imagination as I’ve worked with quite a few people who have had them. But it’s not always the case! Sometimes we think we have something external, when it turns out to be some sort of spiritual or psychological phenomenon that we’re going through.
There can be a fine line here, which is why it’s particularly important to give it some serious thought. Entities aren’t always obvious and can cause symptoms similar to mental illness including anxiety, depression, psychosis, or schizophrenia, adding another layer of complication to the equation.
I do believe that a lot of people with serious mental illness, or at least those who are labeled as such, do have entities that are causing, continuing, or exacerbating it. However, entities can usually be felt as a tangible presence in the body, often moving around, messing around with you, and perhaps communicating with you.
We can also experience spiritual phenomena that can cause symptoms similar to mental illness and have no connection to entities. For example, spiritual awakenings, kundalini awakenings, or particular plant medicine experiences can feel like you’re losing your mind. And sometimes, certain experiences can destabilize us. However, these experiences are not related to entities.
So let’s break this down into 3 categories that all share similarities:
- Mental illness: Caused by a mental or emotional imbalance, and is often attributed to the brain.
- Spiritual episodes: Caused by a powerful spiritual event that can destabilize us and feel like mental illness.
- Entity attachments: Attachments we picked up or made a deal with somewhere that can mess with us mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.
Therefore, it’s important to identify what you may be going through before proceeding.
Entity removal: How to get rid of the bugger
Now that you’ve got a little context, how can you remove an entity? While people can help you remove entities, ultimately, you’re the only person who can break this contract.
People who market themselves as entity removalists may be able to help you flush it out, but they can’t do much about it themselves. If they say they can remove it for you, that’s a red flag. We’re not moving furniture here, we’re dealing with a sophisticated spiritual contract, and you must be the one to end it by reclaiming your power and sending it to the light.
If you continue deferring responsibility and hoping someone else will do this for you without taking responsibility for this situation and working on it yourself, then that could be keeping you in a loop.
Depending on the severity of the attachment, this can be very difficult. Most people who have an attachment are aware they have an attachment but are in control. In this case, you need to reclaim your power and make sure you’re not playing the entity’s games.
This means:
- Don’t give it the time and attention it wants
- Don’t allow it to make you feel fear or manipulate you
- Assert your power, that you’re a sovereign being in control of yourself
- Connect more deeply with god, source, and angels
- Work on raising your vibration and connecting to your roots
Identify the entry point
Usually, an entity comes in during a particularly dark point in your life. There may be a significant trauma, or perhaps a situation triggered something from the past and you weren’t ready to deal with it. There is likely a point where you were overwhelmed by a painful emotion, which could have been something brought up from the past, and I bet you it hasn’t yet been resolved.
Often, there’s a childhood root.
Maybe you were going through a financial difficulty, and it brought up feelings of not being supported because you were not well-provided for growing up. Perhaps you were betrayed or backstabbed by someone close to you, and it brought back a flood of pain from being abandoned by a parent when you were a kid. Maybe you were depressed and hopeless, or perhaps you lost someone close to you and didn’t know how to fill that hole.
For whatever reason, you weren’t ready to deal with that particularly painful emotion or confront that shadow, and this cultivates the perfect conditions for an entity to swoop in and save the day. This particular event or circumstance made you feel very vulnerable, and you needed help getting through it.
While in these low-vibrational states, we’re already like beacons to entities with all sorts of nefarious agendas. When you reach out and ask for help, you may make a contract with one.
The contract usually goes like this:
You: I can’t deal with this, I’m not ready to face these shadows, I need help!
Entity targeting you: Cash or credit?
But seriously, you reach out, and they vicariously benefit. It’s an exchange. They shield you from experiencing that deeply painful emotion, and they get a free feast from all your low vibrational energy.
It’s a win-win.
At least temporarily. Then of course, as with any toxic relationship… it goes south.
You give the entity a foot, it will take a mile. Entities tend to exacerbate your mood, emotions, thoughts, attitudes, and behaviors to keep you in this cycle of pain. Do you think they will just let you transcend it and give up their free buffet?
They will mess around with you, scare you, and your problems will only seem to get worse.
Therefore:
- Try to understand how you got this entity
- Identify if you had a particularly dark moment around the time you noticed the entity activity beginning
- Determine if there’s a particular part of the body that you feel the entity, or if it moves around
Resolve the underlying wound
Once you have identified when and why you made a contract with the entity, you need to be willing to face all of that pain again.
The entity will not go away unless you send it away, and you can only do that if you reclaim your power and are willing to experience everything the entity has been sheltering you from.
So, you need to be ready to feel vulnerable, or overwhelmed, and deal with the issue that led to the agreement in the first place. Because if you’re not willing to face the hard yards and experience some uncomfortable emotions, then you won’t have the leverage to get rid of this thing.
Therefore, declare that you are ready to deal with this wound. Don’t just declare it, but feel it and truly prepare yourself to experience the pain, anger, and hurt to the full extent, or whatever is to it that you were feeling when the entity came in.
But just being willing to accept the pain isn’t good enough. You need to get to the bottom of it and resolve the wound, because if that wound is still there hidden somewhere under the surface, the back door is still open.
Aiming to remove an entity without resolving the root cause is like pulling weeds without dealing with the roots. If the underlying pain and vulnerability are still there, something else can easily take its place. Thatโs probably why some exorcisms donโt ‘stick’ and why certain people seem to keep attracting attachments.
This also explains why some people struggle to break free even when they want to. If theyโre not ready to face what led to the attachment, they might subconsciously cling to it, even if itโs causing suffering.
Likely, if you’re struggling to get rid of the entity, you might have some resistance to experience that pain. And maybe you’re just not ready yet. But when you are, you need to accept that you will feel that same vulnerability, and it’s probably going to suck…
But it’s necessary.
If you never go back into that pain point to work through that trauma, sooner or later you’ll experience the same pain point, let down your defenses, and something else can come in. This is why you need to make sure the backdoor is closed so once you get rid of this entity, nothing else can come in.
Reclaim your power and set your boundaries
Now you need to tell the entity that your contract is done. Saying it with doubt in a weak, shaky voice won’t do. Neither will screaming in a fit of rage. You need to be confident, assertive, and firm – even perhaps a little aggressive.
There needs to be energy behind it. Imagine you’re talking to a sticky ex-boyfriend. If you’re nervously telling him to leave or that you don’t like it, he will probably pick up on your energy and keep trying to get back with you. If you draw the line, look him in the eyes, and tell him with some healthy energy that you are done and you don’t ever want to see him, he will likely get the message.
In this case, the entity is the sticky ex-boyfriend, and it responds to your energy more than your words.
I will draw on my own experiences here when encountering entities. During one medicine experience while unprotected (rookie mistake), I encountered some jester-type entities bouncing around the space. I didn’t get a sense of malevolence, but rather dirtiness, and knew right at that moment that this wasn’t a good place to be.ย
Being deep in a plant medicine journey, I saw an older, wiser version of myself forcefully swishing them away with a loud yell. It was a little aggressive, perhaps even a little violent, but I instinctively knew at that moment that I had to use some force to get rid of them.
But I didn’t… I let the experience die down naturally and went to sleep without making a peep. I didn’t realize this at the time, but I was being shown by my higher self what I had to do to set my boundaries and make sure they didn’t attach to me.
The experience died down quickly and things seemed relatively normal again, but that’s when I seemed to slip into a depression. Following that experience, I just couldn’t find joy in life, and I didn’t know why.
It was strange considering within a month I would be heading to Ecuador to work at a shamanic healing center – a life-long dream come true. Even when I arrived, I didn’t feel any better. I just wondered what was the point of it all, and life was a massive downer.
It wasn’t until I sat in an Ayahuasca that I had a vision of a huge dragon scaring away these goopy slimes. I immediately had a new lease of life, free of this dark shadow that had been lurking over my head.
So adhere to the message that I didn’t. When you’re setting your boundaries, it needs to be done with energy.
Help them get back home
From the many conversations I’ve had with one of my teachers about entities, what I’ve noticed is that she always speaks about them with compassion. Even regarding demonic entities, she says that the path toward getting rid of them is to help them.
You need to view dark spirits as lost souls that are very far away from their divine true nature. You have to be fearless and ask them if they’re tired of this and would like to go home to the source.
Sometimes they’re not ready, sometimes they are. According to this shaman, if they say yes, the angels come in and help them cross over and leave the hell they created for themselves. Even though other bodies of knowledge may work with entities, such as the Catholic church or certain Vodu traditions, I resonate with the shamanic view. Not only because I have seen it in action many times now, but because they have a much more compassionate view.
They view attachments as lost souls that need help and guidance to return home. The shamans I know tell me that people who have attachments are in a position to help them. Those who are completely taken over have a view of the other side. Although they may be experiencing torment, this situation sets them up to be a helper.
What if you're not in control?
On the other hand, sometimes people are not in control. Sometimes people send me videos of people they know who look like they’re possessed. We’re talking odd movements and sounds, walking unnaturally, unresponsive, incognizant. You take one look and think “Oh my god, that’s anything but natural”.
At this point, it will be an uphill battle. Not impossible, but tough. The person is in a world of torment and has surrendered all of their control to the entity, to the point it’s controlling them.
Note that if you bring this person to get an exorcism done, ultimately it’s still them breaking the contract. Unlike the movies, the priest, shaman, or spiritual healer can’t banish the spirit from the person. They can push it away and guide the person through the process, but it’s ultimately the individual who breaks that contract.
And this is good news because it means that you always have control. The person must find a deeper willpower within him/herself to push on and reclaim their power. Supporting the person through the process and telling them that you love them can help them gain the strength necessary to take control again.
External tools like liquid tobacco, Rapeh, sage, Palo Santo, and frequencies such as using a drum or Tibetan singing bowl might help push the entity away for a moment to help the person regain control and become cognizant again.
Ultimately, the person needs to make it loud and clear that they are not giving up, and that the entity absolutely cannot be here. They need to do everything in their power to set the boundaries and ground themselves.
Again, if the entity is given an inch, it will take a mile, so make your boundaries firm and enforce that it has no power over you.
Shamanic medicines can be powerful tools to help you remove entities.ย I know that traveling to South America to work with master plants might not be on your agenda, or perhaps not possible in your situation, but this is a good last resort.
Many shamans, such as the ones I’ve worked with, are very skilled at helping people remove entities.ย They don’t do it themselves, but they, with the help of the medicine flush those entities out, where the person can break the contract.
Shamans, given they can see entities on other people, can send those entities away for some time – giving the person clarity to think about what they want, and if they’re ready to cut the contract. That is to experience the pain again and go back into these dark places.
If you have an entity attachment or know someone who is going through it, remember that you are in charge. You have the power to send it home and to enforce your boundaries, despite how much it tries to convince you that it’s in control.