What Is Entity Extraction? Understanding Intrusive Energy in Shamanic Healing
What Is Entity Extraction?
Have you ever walked away from a conversation feeling completely drained? Or spent time around someone who was angry, critical, or emotionally overwhelmed, only to find yourself carrying those feelings long after you’ve left?
Sometimes we take on more than we realize.
From a shamanic perspective, we are constantly interacting with the energy of the people and environments around us. Some of these exchanges feel nourishing and supportive, while others can leave us feeling heavy, unsettled, or disconnected from ourselves.
Entity Extraction is a shamanic healing practice that focuses on identifying and clearing intrusive energies believed to have entered or become attached to a person’s energetic field.
Despite its rather dramatic name, the entity extraction work I offer isn’t focused on demons, possession, or paranormal attacks. My approach is centred on the emotional and energetic influences we may take on through relationships, difficult experiences, and our connections with others.
Within my shamanic practice, these influences may be understood as negative energy, thought forms, or lingering spiritual energy associated with someone who has passed.
The intention is to clear what may no longer belong within your energetic system, helping you reconnect with your own energy and sense of balance.
How We Can Take On Other People’s Energy
We don’t move through life in isolation. Every day, we interact with people who carry their own emotions, experiences, beliefs, and struggles.
And sometimes, we carry some of that home with us.
Perhaps you’ve worked in an environment filled with tension, criticism, or conflict. Maybe you’ve spent years supporting someone through a difficult time, listening to their struggles and absorbing much of their emotional burden.
Or perhaps you’ve experienced a relationship where someone regularly directed anger, resentment, jealousy, or criticism toward you.
In shamanic traditions, these experiences may be understood as energetic exchanges, particularly when someone feels they’ve taken on emotions or influences that don’t seem to belong to them.
This can be especially familiar to people who are highly sensitive, empathic, or accustomed to caring for others.
Sometimes we take on another person’s pain because we care deeply about them. We want to understand what they’re experiencing, ease their suffering, or help them feel less alone.
Other times, we may struggle to maintain healthy boundaries, particularly when we’re exhausted, overwhelmed, or already dealing with difficult circumstances.
Taking on someone else’s emotional burden doesn’t mean you’ve done anything wrong.
It can simply reflect how deeply connected we are to the people around us.
What About Energy Vampires?
You may have heard the expression energy vampire used to describe someone who leaves others feeling emotionally drained.
I don’t particularly like using it to label people, because it can create unnecessary judgment.
However, the experience behind the expression is something many people recognize.
Some relationships involve one person continually demanding attention, reassurance, or emotional support without much consideration for the other person’s needs.
In other situations, someone may repeatedly unload their anger, frustration, or personal struggles onto another person.
You might leave these interactions feeling exhausted, anxious, irritated, or weighed down by emotions that weren’t present beforehand.
From an energetic perspective, I explore whether someone feels they have taken on influences associated with these interactions.
The purpose isn’t to blame the other person. It’s to help you recognize what you’re carrying, explore what may not belong to you, and strengthen your connection with yourself.
Three Types of Intrusive Energy I Work With
Within my shamanic training, I work with three main categories of intrusive energy: negative energy, thought forms, and wayward spirit energy.
These are spiritual and energetic concepts used within my practice, rather than medically established conditions.
1. Negative Energy
Negative energy is a broad term for emotional or energetic influences that feel heavy, disruptive, or out of alignment with a person’s own energy.
From a shamanic perspective, these influences may be associated with difficult relationships, stressful environments, emotional conflict, or negativity directed toward someone by another person.
For example, someone may have experienced ongoing criticism, resentment, jealousy, anger, or hostility within a relationship or workplace.
Sometimes these feelings are expressed openly. Other times, the person directing them may not even recognize the impact their behaviour is having.
Within my practice, I explore whether someone may be carrying energetic influences associated with these experiences.
This isn’t about determining whether another person is good or bad. It’s about recognizing the effect an experience may have had and exploring what the individual is ready to release.
2. Thought Forms
In certain spiritual and esoteric traditions, a thought form is understood as an energetic pattern associated with repeated thoughts, emotions, beliefs, or intentions.
Thought forms may be associated with the energy of other people’s thoughts directed toward us, such as criticism, resentment, judgment, or hostility.
They may also relate to patterns we’ve developed within ourselves.
For example, someone who has spent years being criticized may eventually begin repeating those same messages internally.
Thoughts such as I’m not good enough, I always get things wrong, or I don’t deserve better can become deeply familiar.
Within my shamanic practice, I explore whether a thought form is understood as an intrusive influence from outside the person’s own energy system or whether it reflects an internalized belief or emotional pattern.
That distinction matters because the way I approach the work is different.
External influences may be addressed through extraction, while personal beliefs and emotional patterns are approached through deeper healing and transformation.
3. Wayward Spirit Energy
Another category I work with is what is sometimes called wayward spirit energy.
Within some shamanic traditions, this refers to the perceived lingering presence or energetic influence of someone who has died.
My work in this area is focused on human connections, particularly those involving grief, caregiving, and close personal relationships.
For example, someone may feel that part of a loved one’s presence remains with them after their death.
Sometimes that connection is comforting. It may bring a sense of closeness, love, or reassurance.
And there’s nothing inherently wrong with that.
However, there may come a time when someone feels ready to explore releasing a connection they’ve been holding very closely.
I also work with people who have spent considerable time around illness, dying, or grief, including those in caregiving and healthcare environments.
Within my shamanic framework, I may explore whether the person perceives a lingering spiritual influence associated with those experiences.
This doesn’t mean that working around illness or death causes spiritual attachments, or that grief itself is evidence of an entity.
I don’t believe every connection needs to be released, and I would never encourage someone to let go of a loved one’s presence before they feel ready.
The person’s comfort, understanding, and willingness are central to this work.
When Might Someone Seek Entity Extraction?
People are often drawn to entity extraction when they feel they’ve been carrying something that doesn’t quite feel like their own.
Some experiences that may lead someone to explore this work include:
- Feeling emotionally drained after certain relationships or interactions
- Spending extended periods in stressful, critical, or emotionally demanding environments
- Having difficulty separating your own feelings from those of other people
- Feeling weighed down by conflict, resentment, or negativity directed toward you
- Carrying the emotional burdens of people you’ve cared for or supported
- Experiencing a sense of heaviness or disconnection after a difficult period
- Feeling ready to explore releasing a lingering connection with someone who has passed
- Wanting to strengthen your personal boundaries and reconnect with your own sense of energy
These experiences don’t necessarily indicate the presence of an entity or intrusive energy. Fatigue, anxiety, unfamiliar thoughts, and emotional distress can have many psychological, physical, and environmental explanations.
Entity extraction offers one spiritual way of exploring these experiences, rather than a diagnosis or replacement for medical or mental health care.
Extracting Energy vs. Transforming Energy
One of the most important distinctions I make in my shamanic practice is between energy that is understood as coming from an outside source and energy that belongs to the person themselves.
I work with the understanding that energy can’t simply be destroyed. It can be moved, transformed, or transmuted.
Let’s say someone comes to a session feeling anxious, angry, exhausted, or emotionally overwhelmed.
Within my shamanic approach, I explore whether any of what they’re experiencing may be connected to energetic influences they’ve taken on from other people, relationships, or environments.
If intrusive energy is identified, the extraction focuses on clearing what is understood as external to their own energetic system.
But what happens if some of the anger, fear, sadness, or emotional heaviness remains?
That doesn’t mean the extraction has failed.
It may point toward something that belongs to the person’s own experience—perhaps unresolved grief, an old emotional wound, a deeply held belief, or a protective pattern that developed over time.
Our own emotional energy isn’t something I approach by simply removing it.
Our feelings, even the difficult ones, are part of our human experience. They often carry information about what we’ve lived through, what we need, and how we’ve learned to protect ourselves.
Rather than trying to extract these parts of ourselves, we work with them through understanding, healing, and transformation.
This is where other aspects of Shamanic Healing work may become helpful.
The intention isn’t to remove everything uncomfortable. It’s to explore what we’ve been carrying, recognize what may no longer belong to us, and work compassionately with what remains.
What Happens During an Entity Extraction?
Entity extraction is one of the practices I may draw upon within a Shamanic Healing session. It isn’t a separate service, and not every session involves an extraction.
We begin with a conversation about what you’re experiencing and what has brought you to the session.
When we’re ready to begin the energy work, you’ll be invited to rest comfortably on the treatment table while we take some time for grounding and centering.
Exploring What May Be Present
Using a testing method drawn from my shamanic training, I explore whether there are energetic influences that, within this spiritual framework, are understood as external to your own energy system.
I use my own muscle-testing method rather than physically testing your body.
I explore the three categories of intrusive energy—negative energy, thought forms, and wayward spirit energy—and whether one or more may be relevant to the session.
I may also explore whether a perceived outside influence is associated with conscious or unconscious intention.
This is an intuitive, spiritual assessment rather than a scientifically validated method of identifying entities or determining another person’s intentions.
Sharing What Emerges and Asking Permission
Before proceeding with an extraction, I’ll share what has come forward through the process and explain what I understand it to mean.
You’ll have an opportunity to ask questions and decide whether you’re comfortable continuing.
Your permission is always part of the process.
Nothing is extracted without your consent.
The Extraction Process
If you choose to proceed, I use a specialized shamanic technique from my training that works with what are called energetic orbs.
Within this practice, the orbs are used symbolically and energetically to locate, gather, and clear what is understood as intrusive energy.
Different types of energy are approached in different ways, and the closing practices may vary depending on what has emerged during the session.
The intention is not to confront, fight, or overpower anything.
It’s to work gently and respectfully with the process of clearing and release.
Restoring Balance and Energetic Protection
Following an extraction, I generally offer a practice called the Rainbow Web Ceremony.
This involves chakra and auric balancing, with the intention of restoring harmony and supporting the person’s energetic system after the clearing.
Depending on what is needed and the time available, I may also incorporate additional energy-balancing or protection practices.
These practices are intended to create a sense of energetic containment, stability, and support while you integrate the experience.
Within my shamanic framework, I work with protective layers around the energy field as a way of supporting that integration.
The intention is to help you feel more settled and connected to yourself as you move forward.
What Might You Experience After Entity Extraction?
Everyone’s experience is different.
Some people describe feeling lighter, calmer, clearer, or more present after energy-clearing work.
Others may notice subtle changes over the following days, particularly in how they respond to certain relationships, environments, or emotional situations.
And sometimes, there may be very little noticeable change immediately.
There isn’t one particular sensation or response that proves an extraction has worked.
I encourage clients to give themselves time to reflect on their experience and notice what, if anything, begins to feel different.
You might become more aware of your boundaries, recognize emotional patterns more clearly, or find that certain situations no longer affect you in quite the same way.
You may also discover that there are personal emotions or experiences that still need attention.
As I mentioned earlier, not everything uncomfortable is something external that needs to be removed.
Sometimes the deeper work begins when we recognize what is genuinely ours to understand and transform.
Entity Extraction as Part of a Shamanic Healing Session
Entity extraction is just one of the many practices I may incorporate into a Shamanic Healing session.
We don’t begin with the assumption that something is attached to you or that an extraction is necessary.
Instead, we begin with what you’re experiencing.
Perhaps you’ve been carrying the emotional weight of a difficult relationship, feeling overwhelmed by other people’s needs, or struggling to feel like yourself after a particularly challenging period.
Perhaps you’ve spent years caring for others and are only now beginning to recognize how much you’ve been holding.
Or perhaps there’s a connection with someone who has passed that you feel ready to explore in a different way.
Whatever brings you to the session, the work unfolds through conversation, shamanic practices, intuitive exploration, and your willingness to participate.
If entity extraction feels appropriate within that process, we can explore it together.
And if the work points toward something more personal—an emotional wound, an old belief, grief, or a repeating pattern—we can work with those deeper layers as well.
A Gentle Invitation
Sometimes we carry things for so long that we stop recognizing how much they’re affecting us.
The emotional weight of a relationship. The stress of a difficult environment. The responsibility of caring for others. Or the lingering sense that something doesn’t quite feel like our own.
From a shamanic perspective, entity extraction offers one way of exploring what we may have taken on and what we’re ready to release.
This work is offered within my Shamanic Healing sessions, alongside other practices that support deeper exploration, energetic balance, and personal transformation.
If you’re feeling weighed down, disconnected from yourself, or curious about what may be underneath your experience, you’re welcome to explore this work with me.
Sometimes healing begins by recognizing what we’ve been carrying—and discovering what it feels like to no longer carry it in quite the same way.
