Beasting is a term commonly used to refer to the need or desire of a Vampyre to sate their hunger. It can be overwhelming and at times painful, both spiritually and physically. The first thing to understand is that vampyrism is not a physical condition. Rather it is a spiritual condition that is manifested on the physical. The average human being is made of many Selves. We have a physical body, a mental body, an astral body, the emotional body, and our true self which is the spiritual body. Each of these parts of us require fulfillment on some level. Our emotional self requires love, happiness and peace to maintain itself in a balanced manner. The physical self requires food in order to maintain its health and to longevity. Even the most vital bodily functions are dependent upon the ability of the physical body to maintain itself. The spiritual body is very similar in that it has no physical requirements other than the influx of prana. Mundane people often lose prana, but they do so in small doses so they feel fatigued or tired or may have the desire to be around positive people or places such as the ocean. Vampyres have a very different response to the loss of prana because we don't lose it in small doses; we lose it en masse and quickly. Because our spiritual frequency is higher than the average person's we tend to both lose it quickly and gain it quickly, but we do not replenish it quickly on our own. Because this is a sudden thing, we often feel a panicked fight or flight-like response that is an urgent desire to feed. Because the mental body or the mind and the spiritual body are intertwined, what happens to one also happens to another. If the spirit is hungry, the physical body manifests the discomforts associated with this loss and triggers a physical response.
In order to effectively understand beasting and use proper control techniques, we have to know what to look for. General symptoms of an pranic loss or impending beasting episode are headaches that increase in intensity and last more than two days, headaches that are non-responsive to medications, dehydration, thirst, nausea, vomiting, abdominal cramps, muscle spasms, tremors, cold flashes, uncontrollable shivering and the inability to get warm, night sweats, aversion to food, metallic taste in the mouth, bleeding gums, increased tactile sensitivity or painful skin resembling needling, tingling skin or crawling skin, labored breathing, black outs, loss of time, lethargy, weakness, increased moodiness, irritability, or anxiety, bizarre or violent dreams or thoughts, hallucinations, pale gums, visual sensitivity, decrease in blood pressure, inability to concentrate, and an intense hunger. Many people do not exhibit all of these symptoms at one time, some never at all and the majority of these are exhibited only in extreme cases.
As extreme as some of these things sound, they are easily avoided. It is inevitable that at some point in our growth and journey that we will have at least one memorable episode in our lifetime. There are many techniques to avoid this or at best help ease our ravaging beast.
We live in a culture that does not foster proper eating and drinking habits. We tend to medicate everything with high carbohydrate foods, beverages, alcohol, or other substance. For the vampyre these things are toxic. Foods with high sugar content or empty calories do nothing to help us regain energy; if anything they require us to use more energy to break them down and can actually make us feel more fatigued than we did initially. Soft drinks, sugary or high starch foods, fried foods, and caffeinated drinks do us more harm than good. They can elevate our blood pressure causing more intense headaches, aggravate our already stimulated nervous system causing more irritability and sensitivity and can aggravate our digestive systems as well. Eating lots of fresh raw veggies and fruits, drinking lots of water and getting lots of fresh air will do wonders for our dispositions and help ease us through these transitions. Raw veggies and fruits also still carry some of the prana they had on the vine with them, so even though a rare steak may be more appetizing, a bowl of fresh veggies would do us much better.
Because our mental and spiritual selves are so closely connected, maintaining mental hygiene during this time is imperative. Developing a daily habit of meditation, visualization, a sound spiritual practice, and avoiding games, songs, and movies that contain violent or gory images are all ways of decreasing the beast within. Watching a blood soaked movie during a beasting episode is like dangling raw meat in front of a rabid bear. The ability to control our mental processes during this time is extremely vital in the control of our darker nature. It can't be done if we're getting a steady influx of gory imagery. Clearing out the chakra centers is also a good way to remove stagnant energy and prevent blockages that could cause energy loss.
Our mental body is also connected with our physical body in more than one way. Man can not live on bread alone and certainly not only fruit and veggies. We also need exercise and aggression release. Practices such as martial arts, tai chi, yoga, pilates, kick boxing, belly dancing, hiking, swimming, and any kind of physical activity can release the aggression that builds up. This also allows us to take in prana from other sources such as the elements or the environment and the physical activity speeds up our metabolism which also helps to improve our energy levels. These things also do something else...they enhance and instill discipline and concentration.
There are many myths and home remedies for beasting and some work and some should be avoided because they can only aggravate the situation. Within the vampyre community there is a large population of cutters, or people suffering from self mutilation syndrome. These people release their pain and aggravation by literally opening their skin and letting it out. Vampyres often do this to try and assuage their hunger. Drinking your own blood will not help you!!!! Cutting yourself will not help you!!! Your blood is the truest carrier of human prana, it is the strongest concentrated and most easily found within the blood. However....if you are beasting you are already lacking in prana, cutting yourself will not help this situation. It aggravates it by the negative enforcement of gratifying the aggression urge, providing visual stimuli to an already stimulated self, and by providing an empty source of prana. Likewise never try to feed while you are in beast-mode. You are likely to do harm to someone else or yourself. It is better to wait until you are under control and calm before attempting to feed.
Drinking the blood from meat packages is also not only unhealthy as it often carries various bacteria that can make you deathly ill, but also as pointless as drinking your own. This is dead blood. Dead blood does not carry the life force unless it is from a newly butchered animal, and it is best that the animal have a similar biochemical makeup that closely resembles ours (i.e. pigs or cows). Blood is also an emetic, so if you drink too much of it can make you puke. Trust me you do not want this. The average vamp only needs about a thimble full to a half shot.
On the flip side teas made of or containing chamomile, Echinacea, ginger, ginseng, cinnamon, rose hips, lavender, orange or lemon zest and decaffeinated will help soothe the stomach and the nerves, raise our immunities, and sharpen our concentrations. The citrus zest teas or adding these to teas will help soothe the bleeding gums as well as the metallic taste we often acquire. A wee bit of honey is very good for both sweetening these herbal potions and for giving us a nice boost of vitamin B in many forms as well as a metabolism boost. Vitamin B6 and 12 are both very good for us as they support healthy red blood cell formation and since there is a connection between the death of our RBC's and the loss of prana it's a good idea to toss that one in there. Carrots, red and purple cabbages, red and purple onions, brussel sprouts, spinach, garlic, and beets are all very good for the maintenance of a healthy immune system as well as support for our circulatory systems.
Above all, remain calm. Even if it gets to a point of being unbearable, it will pass. You won't die and it's unlikely that it will last longer than a few hours. As uncomfortable as it may be, it is a part of our progressive process and forces us to be responsible and disciplined people as well as members of community. Every beasting episode marks a different transition in our lives. In the beginning they may be frequent but then they may come less and less frequently until the need to feed is very infrequent, often spanning months or even years. This doesn't mean that our vampyric state has lessened, only that we are growing stronger and have mastered control over our bestial natures.