Disturbance cancellation for a special type of active magnetic bearing, the self-sensing magnetic bearing, is investigated. The method applied is the geometric approach. This problem is of practical as well as theoretical interest. Two types of disturbances are investigated, static load and sinusoidal disturbance (rotor unbalance). It is shown that the combined plant-disturbance model is observable for sinusoidal disturbance and not observable for static disturbances. As a result virtual zero power operation is achieved under static load while periodic disturbances can be compensated for. Experimental results support the theoretical predictions well.