Customer Reviews

The Ethical Psychic Vampire

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As an author on psychic vampirism myself, I know the challenges of tackling this complex and contraversial subject matter - especially when writing from a point of view sympathetic to the vampire. Raven Kaldera attacks the topic head-on, daring to delve into territory that many others have shied away from.

Kaldera, an author who has established himself as someone who does not flinch away from touchy subjects and cultural taboos, brings his usual clear, sensible, and sometimes blunt style to the table, offering practical wisdom for those individuals who are struggling to come to terms with their psychic vampirism. In a community that is often rife with politics, Kaldera takes no sides, instead presenting the material simply as he has observed and experienced it for himself. He supplements his own research and insights into the vampiric condition with interviews with other psychic vampires -- several of them fairly well-known. An added bonus is that these are vampires who themselves are known to have radically different approaches to the topic, and so the reader gets a full-spectrum view on values, practices, and personal experiences.

What I liked best about this work is the fact that Kaldera does not brush under the rug topics like sexuality, blood-drinking, and even parenting. The spiritual and magickal aspects of being a psychic vampire are adequately served, but the practical day-to-day concerns are also given their due.

In all, this is a balanced and coherent text, one I will be recommending to my own readers as a must-have for their shelves.

(...)

So, perhaps you've noticed a few odd things going on in your life. You get high from being in a crowd of excited people. Sex leaves you feeling energized and your partner feeling sleepy. You seem to need more contact and attention than other people do - a lot more.

You may be what is commonly referred to as a psychic vampire - someone who takes in energy from people around them. But you don't have to resign yourself to being evil, or to wondering if you're the only one out there. You're not.

This book is a lifesaver. It will help you answer questions like, "How do I get what I need ethically? What purpose do vampires serve in the human ecosystem? How can I use this talent to benefit others?"

Strongly recommended for energy vampires, those who are close to them, and energy workers of all sorts.

I came to Raven Kaldera's book because I have often had to deal with psychic vampires on an adversarial basis in the course of my work. Having had to protect myself, friends and patients against attack, I tended to view vampires rather unsympathetically, and assumed that they had little positive contribution to make to either the pagan/occult community or to society in general.

Then I realised that one of my close friends had vampire tendencies. This book was recommended as a way of gaining insight into her condition and I have found it immensely helpful. Raven has tackled the difficult task of not only explaining life from the vampire's point of view, but of developing, basically from scratch, an ethical and moral framework within which the vampire can live and act, with practical advice to the vampire, and their friends and family, on how to operate within that framework while safeguarding their health and wellbeing.

This is the first book to tackle this kind of material, so, naturally, it leans heavily on the personal experience of Raven and others, but this emphasis on actual experience is also one of the book's great strengths. Sharing the down to earth details of living as a vampire demystifies the subject and shows just how psychic vampires can fit into the spiritual ecosystem and benefit others. I, personally, found that it removed a good deal of my previous revulsion. I would still confront vampires who act in a predatory and unethical manner, but I now have a much better understanding of what's going on and the processes involved, and I know not to try and automatically slap down anyone I catch showing signs of vampire behaviour if they're not harming anyone by it.

All in all, this is one of those books that really did change the way I see the world, and cast much needed illumination on some dark corners.

Previous reviewers who have complained that there is no bibliography or citations should note that the author states repeatedly throughout the book that everything (except the quotes from other people) he writes about is drawn from his own personal experience as a psychic vampire and a shaman. This is not an academic treatise or a theoretical guide; this is a book by someone who has found out through trial and error how to control his own vampiric tendencies, and who gives good, thoughtful advice about how to deal with such tendencies in oneself or one's child, in an ethical and non-abusive way. There is no bibliography of references because the author's primary source was himself and those whom he interviewed.

That being said...I am not a psychic vampire myself, but I do deal with energy work quite a bit, and I think anybody who does as well should probably read this book. Even if you yourself are not a vampire, whether you're a magician, witch, shaman or whatever, you're probably going to run into one of these folks at some point, if you haven't already. Most of them probably aren't even aware of what they're doing. Rather than shunning them and screeching about how evil they are, why not show them this book and try to help them understand themselves better? It can't hurt to be accepting and understanding if you're in a position to help someone.

This is the best book available on psychic vampirism from a Vampire's perspective. Kaldera draws on the experiences of other vampires, as well as his own to explain and explore what vampirism is and what some of its causes may be. He makes a distinction between primary and secondary vampirism, explains basic physical and spiritual and health issues, and offers some excellent exercises that can be used by vampiries and donors. What makes this book shine is the detailed explanation of how energy works for vampirism and how such energy work can be used to help other people who aren't vampires.

On the other hand, I would've really liked to have seen a bibliography and internal citations in this book. The argument that Shamanism and Vampirism are similar isn't something I'm convinced of just from reading this book. Additionally the notion that secondary vampirism is caused by dysfunctional families is something I'd take with a grain of salt, given how dysfunctional the majority of families seem to be. Drawing on research in both of these cases would strength Kaldera's argument immensely.

I highly recommend this book as a primer for understanding what vampirism is and getting a sense of how energy work in vampirism is done.

I bought this book a while ago, and even though it's small, it's still one of the very best introductory books on real vampirism. It's emphasis is on psychic vampirism, but it mentions sanguine vampirism as well. The chapters are clear, concise, and well organized. Even for people who don't like to read much, if you have a serious interest in this topic, you can refer back to this book easily as a reference. I especially liked the chapter on raising a vampire child, because this is a subject that doesn't get much discussion in other books or forums, yet is a practical consideration for some parents who either are vampires themselves or have learned that their adolescent or teenage child is one.

I was quite pleasantly rewarded with a really, really good explanation of both psychic and sanguine vampires that filled in a lot of the holes in my education, so to speak. Kaldera is an excellent writer, with a very good writing style that doesn't dumb down the text. It was a rather quick read, somewhere around 144 pages, but not a bad one.

The first part of the book is dedicated to introducing the concept of vampirism, and why it is that some people simply need to feed. He also marks the differences between "primary" and "secondary" vampires, which answers the question of "Is a vampire born, or made?" with "Yes, and here's why".

He also dedicates a lot of this book to practical issues, such as physical safety and health for feeding, and problems that can arise in a vampire-donor relationship. And, true to the title, the ethics of vampirism are discussed throughout the book, such as why it's better to have a willing donor.

This book is rather streamlined--there's really no extra information beyond the basics, and not pages upon pages of vampire legends and lore (Vlad the Impaler, anyone?) so I'd definitely recommend it as a basic guide to today's vampires. He does throw some magical rituals in there for specific purposes, but they're more of an accent to the main body of the text and are purely optional.

My biggest complaint is that the book lacks both internal citations and a bibliography. I don't doubt that most of the material is original. However, particularly in regards to the chapter on vampires and shamanism, I'd like to know where he got his information--a lot of it sounds like material from Nigel Jackson's "The Compleat Vampyre", which is a book dedicated to vampirism, lycanthropy, and shamanism. That's not to say that this isn't necessarily Kaldera's work; I'm just curious as to whether he has read Jackson's text. The nice thing about bibliographies is that you can use them for further reading, and to see what inspired the author.

Overall, though, I really enjoyed this book and it's become an important resource for my own writing. Definitely recommended for anyone who wants a good, basic understanding of modern vampirism.

Raven's book has been an amazing source of inspiration to me, and as someone who had many questions, this book helped me find the answers :)

I will definitely recommend it to those who need answers to those burning questions.

cheers!