How instinct, perception, and psychic sensitivity can combine to create overwhelming experiences, and what you can do about it
Last updated: October 2025. I’ve done 10,000+ shamanic journeys over 25 years. This information is informed by my extensive work with clients navigating entity and spiritual attachment. This article is one in a series on the subject. For the full overview of resources on the subject, check out Entity and Spirit Attachment Removal Resources
Have you ever jumped out of your skin thinking a spider was crawling on you, only to discover it was just a stray hair or a loose thread? That instinctive, full-body alarm is ancient wiring meant to keep us safe. Our nervous systems are designed to pay dramatic attention to even the lightest touch, because for our ancestors, ignoring that sensation could have meant a bite or a sting. When that survival wiring intersects with psychic abilities that haven’t been trained and the presence of energetic beings such as entities or spiritual attachment, it creates a potent mix that can make entity experiences feel vividly physical, alarming, and confusing.
As a professional shamanic practitioner with over twenty-five years of experience, I’ve supported many clients who are struggling with entities or spiritual attachment. These are not spirit guides, but beings interacting with people in a non-consensual way, often creating profound distress and sometimes even debilitating experiences.
Energetic clearing can be a crucial part of resolving these situations, but there’s another essential piece that often gets overlooked: the way the human brain processes danger, sensation, and psychic input. Understanding this piece can dramatically change how overwhelming entity experiences feel.
Alternative Format
Would you rather listen than read? I also created a recording about this complicated topic.
Why This Topic Is So Complex
Many people struggle with these experiences for a long time before seeking professional help. In our culture, these kinds of perceptions are usually interpreted through a psychological lens that labels them as hallucinations or mental illness. While psychology offers useful tools, my experience is that this is often a both/and situation:
• Yes, entities aka negative spiritual attachment can be present.
• And, our brains and nervous systems can profoundly shape how those presences are experienced.
I’ve worked with clients where entities were genuinely attached. I’ve also worked with clients who continued to feel entities or spiritual attachment even after their field was clear, because their nervous system and brain had learned to interpret any subtle energetic sensation as threat.
Complicating matters further is the world we live in. I believe we are living in a time that is more psychically noisy than anything our ancestors encountered. There are more humans than ever, having more varied experiences, and most people have very little training in managing their psychic sensitivity. Many of us live disconnected from tribal structures and natural rhythms. We numb and distract rather than process emotions in healthy ways. These cultural patterns don’t create the problem, but they do create a perfect storm where psychic sensitivity can become overwhelming, especially for those who were never taught energetic protection.
Brains Are Built for Survival, Not Accurate Perception
A central truth here is that our brains are designed for survival, not for accurately mapping reality. We’re walking around with hunter-gatherer nervous systems, wired to prioritize “better safe than sorry” responses to possible danger.
Imagine you’re listening to a podcast on a walk, and suddenly hear a rustle in the bushes. Instinct overrides everything and your attention snaps to the noise. If it’s a bunny, you relax and return to your podcast. If it’s a genuine threat, you act fast.
This system works beautifully for keeping us alive in the wild. But in the modern world, especially in the psychically noisy era we live in, it can get hijacked in ways that amplify spiritual sensitivity into overwhelming fear.
Psychic Sensitivity Meets Instinctive Hypervigilance
Many people experiencing entity issues are psychically sensitive but were never trained to manage or protect their energy. The result is often a crucible where:
• Genuine energetic phenomena are happening.
• Psychic senses are perceiving real (and sometimes subtle) energies.
• The survival brain misinterprets these perceptions through its threat-detection filter.
People receive psychic information through different senses. Some are more clairaudient, some receive imagery, while others feel energetic sensations mapped into their bodies. Much of what gets talked about in spiritual communities is visual, because that’s the sense we rely on most. But many people receive raw information as subtle sensations or sounds that the brain then tries to make sense of. I once had someone swear there were English words spoken aloud in my drumming track. There weren’t, but her brain patterned random sound into meaning.
For example, our nervous systems are exquisitely tuned to detect tiny sensations on the skin. This is a survival adaptation from when humans slept outdoors and needed to react quickly to insects or scorpions. Even the lightest brush can trigger a full alert response. Historically, this made sense. It was safer to overreact to a tiny sensation than to risk being bitten by something dangerous in the night.
When energetic sensations, which are subtle shifts in the field, get mapped onto these physical alarm systems, the brain can interpret them as being pinched, poked, or touched. I frequently hear clients describe their experiences as being sexually assaulted, whispered to, or physically manipulated by entities or spiritual attachments. These sensations are real, but the mechanism is often their own brain interpreting energetic stimuli in the most alarming way available. After all, non-corporeal beings don’t have fingers and can’t actually pinch skin.
Sleep is often a key piece of this. As we drift toward sleep, our psychic senses tend to open more. The theta brainwave state that occurs between waking and sleeping is the same one used for shamanic journeying. This can make nighttime a particularly intense time for those experiencing entity issues, and disrupted sleep only compounds nervous system dysregulation.
How the Brain Fills in the Blanks
The brain doesn’t like uncertainty. When it encounters ambiguous sensory input under stress, it fills in details rapidly, and often inaccurately.
Similarly, when someone has been hyper-vigilant about entity activity for a long time, their brain develops strong neural pathways that keep interpreting even neutral sensations as dangerous. It also begins to prioritize scanning for entities or spiritual attachments above say, noticing the direction of the wind or other experiences.
This is similar to chronic pain conditions like fibromyalgia, where the brain keeps producing pain signals even when there’s no tissue damage. Another example is people who’ve lost a limb still feeling sensation from the missing arm or leg. Once these neural pathways are established, they take less and less stimulation to trigger the full cascade of responses.
This means that after entities and spiritual attachments are cleared, people can still feel like something is happening. It’s not that they’re imagining it in a dismissive sense. It’s that their brain has gotten stuck in a particular interpretive loop.
The Great Wall of China Analogy
When I journeyed with my guides about how to explain this, they showed me the Great Wall of China. Soldiers stationed on the towers had access to a system to could interrupt the emperor’s activities at any time if there was a threat.
Your survival brain operates similarly. Instinctive alarms are allowed to “break through” whatever else you’re doing. They don’t decide whether the situation is actually dangerous; they simply notify.
The role of your conscious mind is to be the “emperor” who wakes up, assesses the situation, and decides how to respond. Unfortunately, in entity experiences, people often identify completely with the alarm system rather than stepping into that higher-level role.
Why It Matters to Name This Mechanism
Recognizing this brain mechanism is not about dismissing or minimizing your experience. It’s about:
• Reducing the power you attribute to entities or spiritual attachments, many of which have limited ability to interact with the physical world.
• Separating raw energetic perception from brain interpretation, so you can respond more skillfully.
• Regaining agency over your own nervous system and attention.
When you can say, “My nervous system is interpreting this energy as sharp pain,” rather than “The entities are stabbing me,” you create space to work with your brain compassionately and strategically. Similarly, a person having a panic attack who knows it’s a panic attack and not a heart attack still has the same miserable sensations, but can have a subjectively better experience if they don’t believe their body is actually dying.
It’s also useful to understand that some entities and spiritual attachments feed on the intensity of focus and emotional charge that fear generates. Hypervigilance and reactivity can inadvertently create an all-you-can-eat buffet of energy. Reclaiming calm attention is not just soothing for you; it also removes a major energetic incentive for those beings to stick around.
Practical First Steps
Clearing entities/spiritual attachment, building psychic protection, regulating your nervous system, and seeking expert help can all be important parts of healing. But here are a few immediate practices that can make a difference:
- Breathe and Re-Center
When the alarm activates, take slow deep breaths. Relax tight muscles. Remind yourself: “This is my nervous system alerting me. I’ll assess and respond.” - Use Language Intentionally
Shift from “They’re hurting me” to “My system is interpreting energy this way.” This reframes your relationship with the experience. - Self-Soothe Like You Would a Child
Imagine comforting a child after a nightmare or who has a bug phobia. Talk to yourself the way you might to them. Validate your feelings, remind yourself that you are safe (if not comfortable), and guide yourself back to calm. I’ve watched my niece freak herself out because she saw a bee or because there might be bees she hasn’t yet seen and she’s afraid of being stung. When we find compassion for ourselves with a bit of pragmatism about how big a deal, say cockroaches, actually are, that can help. - Distinguish Perception from Interpretation
Notice what you actually sense versus what your brain adds. This builds discernment.
Resolution Is Multi-Layered
Entity situations usually resolve through a combination of approaches:
• Professional energetic clearing to remove actual attachments.
• Nervous system regulation to address hypervigilance and reactivity.
• Building strong psychic and home protection.
• Psychological or medical support where appropriate.
This is a process of both clearing the external and rewiring the internal.
A Final Word
If you’re in the midst of this, please know:
• Your experience is real and valid.
• Your brain is not betraying you; it’s doing what it evolved to do, just in an unhelpful context.
• You’re not powerless. These are learnable skills, and support is available.
With compassionate self-awareness and practical tools, you can begin to reclaim peace, reduce fear, and relate to the unseen world in a way that is far less traumatic and far more empowering.
Resources for Entity and Spirit Attachment Removal
- My Entity and Spirit Attachment Removal Resources
- Ted Andrews’ Book: Offers practical exercises for fortifying your energy field and protecting your home. It’s a valuable resource for both beginners and experienced practitioners.
- My Entities Course: Free Yourself from Entities provides comprehensive guidance on understanding and removing entities.
- Professional Help: Explore compassionate entity removal services here for personalized support with clearing spirit attachment.
Conclusion
Spirit attachment removal is a multifaceted process that requires awareness, intention, and ongoing effort. By strengthening your auric field, setting boundaries, and seeking appropriate help, you can effectively manage and prevent unwanted spirit attachments. With the right tools and mindset, maintaining a harmonious and entity-free life is achievable.
In summary, entity and spirit attachment removal are a journey of self-discovery and healing, where individuals learn to navigate both ordinary and nonordinary realities to reclaim their personal power and maintain energetic sovereignty. This comprehensive approach ensures lasting protection and peace.
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Curious about how long people have been receiving some version of shamanic healing? Check out this article! https://www.thecollector.com/shamans-mesolithic-period/
