Basic Feeding
House of Kheperu
This section covers the basics of the need to feed, ambient feeding, selection of feeding partners, and feeding from worship and other directed energy.
We may gain what we need through feeding, drawing in life as we would breath.
When we are the center of attention of a whole group, we may feed upon the emotions of those around us as they are directed toward us. Those involved in the group are unlikely to notice the loss of energy, and oftentimes feeding in this way only increases their focus upon you. You may feed actively or passively in such situations. The ambient energy abounds, and so a passive feeding would be to rely on the unconscious, constant draw that accompanies us everywhere. Active feeding would be to reach our consciously with a tendril on your own energy in order to pull the energy of those around you in.
Many Potentials are drawn to large crowds for this reason. They feed passively on the ambient energy without a conscious understanding of what it is they do. This is one of the main reasons many Potentials are drawn toward the stage. Many become actors, storytellers, musicians or other performers so that they may achieve the kind of focused attention they crave.
For those who have Become, this is a pleasing activity, but rarely satisfies more than the most superficial of needs. It is enough to get by when times are desperate, but it requires a careful balance and virtually no conscious expenditure of energy for any other thing.
Even when a group is not focused upon us, we may feed generally upon them. No physical contact is necessary: we simply expand our awareness to encompass the group around us as if throwing out a net, or visualize ourselves at the center of a whirlpool, drawing everything in. Thus our energy extends beyond ourselves and, like embracing good friends, we pull bits of everyone about us into ourselves, breathing them deeply.
Both of these techniques, the net and the whirlpool, require a slight energy expenditure of our own. We must send a little of our own energy out in order to touch the energy of those around us. This can cause problems for those in desperate need. The quality of the energy gained in such a general draw is poor, and it barely sustains. Often, when in deep need, an individual attempting a draw of this kind expends more energy than they regain, and thus they put themselves in a worse position that before they attempted to feed.
Thus, a balance must be sought when feeding from crowds. You must become aware of your own energy needs and what quality sustains you. If you feed frequently with a general draw, you will not feel satisfied, but your needs will be met. But if you allow yourself to hunger too long, you can easily become enervated to the point where you cannot spare the energy needed to take more in. Be cautious of this trap, especially if you are one with greater needs.
Find your balance and listen carefully to your hunger. If you feel the desire to be around people, be certain that you heed that desire. And if you know that you are in need, yet you cannot bear the thought of feeling others around you, know that you have fallen dangerously low, and force yourself to frequent some crowded place despite your revulsion. But if you have reached this point, try feeding passively, without extending your own energy to pull anything in, for an hour or so first. This way you will not exhaust yourself. The ambient energy of the place will soak into you until you have regained enough strength to reach out and actively feed.
Places with high energy and many emotions are preferable for these activities, and thus we are often drawn to dance halls and clubs. Once again, this manner of feeding is subtle and easily overlooked by the people who are your targets, and those being fed from are unlikely to suffer from the loss. High energy places often have enough ambient energy floating loosely in the atmosphere that you are truly taking little from any of the individual people there.
The two above techniques may be focused variably upon a single person for a slightly more intense effect. The individual in question does not have to be aware of your activities, and they do not even have to be close for you to feed from them. With concentration and focus, you can easily reach out across a room and draw off energy from a specific individual. At most, this person will feel a little tired from what you have taken, but most people are so desensitized to the subtle reality that they will pass this off as ordinary fatigue, stress, or too much drink.
Taking from unawakened individuals has its drawbacks, however. Certainly there are more of them, and they are far less likely to notice what you are doing than Awakened individuals. However, they are almost wholly ignorant to the energy that courses through them and they do little or nothing to cultivate this aspect of their spiritual selves, and so the quality of their energy is very poor.
Feeding from the Awakened is far more rewarding, as they cultivate their energy bodies, and so the quality of energy is purer and more intense. However, feeding without permission from the Awakened runs you the risk of getting caught. Many also perceive this as a psychic attack, and your actions will rarely be responded to kindly.
To this end, willing partners are the most advisable as they will not retaliate for anything which they consider an infringement on their person.. Having a willing partner who is Awakened is more fulfilling anyway, since the more feedback you receive from your targets, the more satisfying the drain, especially if they have some awareness of what is happening to them. It is like making love: the best partner is the one who responds to your touch, whose reactions guide you in increasing their experience of the exchange.
Single target, long-distance draws are convenient for establishing a connection to someone in order to draw them closer to you but before it is socially appropriate to engage in actual physical contact.
In general, energy coupled with some strong emotion is more fulfilling than simple energy alone. One of the most intense emotions we can feed upon is fear, but the negative repercussions associated with inspiring this emotion make it inadvisable to pursue. The next most intense emotion is passion or ecstasy, and this can be very fulfilling for both you and your partner. Any emotion that is transformative in its power and depth pleasantly satisfies our needs.
We may also feed upon energy gathered for religious purposes. This will sustain us in a time of need when no other sources are available, though often it is meager fare.
When people gather to worship, they generate a strong force of energy but few, if any of them, ever know how to properly direct it. Thus it curls up like smoke directionlessly through their place of worship or clings around those items which served as the foci for the group's attentions.
Whether we sit in on the actual worship or appear shortly thereafter, we may affect a general draw using the net technique which pulls the undirected energy into ourselves. The objects which were focused upon by the crowd can also be drained of the energy endowed in them, either from a distant, general draw or from the more direct drain of physical contact.
Many find such activities scandalous and unforgivable, but in truth the groups that can be preyed upon in this fashion have little awareness that they have been victimized and suffer not from our predations. The energy of their worship was undirected anyway and would dissipate eventually on its own, having served to benefit no one.
Michelle Belenger
