Many of us at some stage in our lives have been spooked and felt or feared what we might of believed to be an ominous or evil spiritual presence. Mostly we are mistaken, and this is caused by our own fears of the unknown getting the better of us and what we may be experiencing is a well meaning spirit guide or loved one in spirit who has been drawn to us or has come to make us aware of themselves and that they live on in spirit and the feelings and phenomena spirit give off at times when they are drawn close to us can produce a number of sensations that can cause us to fear.

Once we do understand and realize why we are feeling these sensations and how spirit use their energies that we can sometimes feel when they are trying to communicate with us, it often puts our mind at rest. But we do have our own natural in-built fears and caution of the unknown that can get the better of us. For instance we have some natural and many superstitious fears of the unknown, this is partly due to instinctual self preservation and also partly comes from our own beliefs and the beliefs of others concerning spiritual matters.

The truth is that good spirits sometimes have effects upon us as they blend their energies within our aura, that can produce unnerving affects and to those who are unaccustomed to such experiences, for instance as a spirit blends within our aura it often causes sensations of tingling and can make the hairs on the back of our necks stand on end, along with bringing up Goose bumps and sending cold shivers down our spine, many of these things we naturally associate with fear, but in this case there is a different reason for these effects, that does not imply there is any danger and in most cases true spiritual attacks or hauntings are very rare and in the majority of cases those who become spiritually awoken never suffer any form of spiritual attack, particularly if they are aware of how to protect themselves to prevent such circumstances from happening, although at times some of the phenomena that they experience may unnerve them or cause some to fear the unknown or what they do not yet understand or why it is happening and most often when it is explained to them, why these things are happening, it puts their mind at rest and they no longer fear, but instead progress and welcome their guides and loved ones to work with them.

We know that in past times many individuals

There that have genuinely suffered from mental illnesses such as schizophrenia and split personality disorders have often been said to be possessed by a demon or darker forces and the victim was seen to be suffering from Demonic possession. Today situations have changed in many parts of the world and modern medical science has recognized illnesses do exist such as Schizophrenia and Split Personality Disorders and in the majority of cases where individuals feel spiritually troubled, it is one of the above disorders causing this disturbance of the mind…

However there are truly some genuine cases even if they are rare, where individuals who are spiritually aware and may or may not be aware of this fact themselves, do on occasions have mild to quite severe spiritual attacks or unnerving experiences carried out on them by a spirit who is either cloaked in their own darkness still for one reason or another, and most often they are lost souls seeking help who have not been able as of yet to let go of their earthly ties and move on into the spiritual realms of light. Lost souls can be malignant and are often themselves in a confused and disturbed state of mind.

(If you have seen the film Sixth Sense then you would have some idea what a lost soul is, they are individuals that are tied to the earth and feel they have unfinished business or life to lead and they are not at peace enough to pass on into spirit and often need to be helped and guided into the light, However the film Six Sense was inaccurate about the numbers of spirit stranded here in this situation and the numbers are far less than was made out, they are not everywhere as was suggested and it is true some of them are stranded here by traumatic situations that happened in their lives, including some that have suffered at the hands of others or still have a loved one alive here on the earth they do not wish to leave, along with some who feel they have unfinished life to live here that try to continue living their life here and on a very rare occasion not realizing they have passed into spirit although as I said this is extremely rare)

In the worst case those here that are attacked can be over shadowed and taken over by spirit and are genuinely suffering from what would be termed as Demonic Possession, this is however very rare. Demonic possession to all intents and purposes is the ability for a bad spirit to have effects and control over the individuals mind or both mind and body. This can vary from mild sensations to a spirit being able to over shadow an individual to such an extent that the victims mind can be pushed to one side by the spirit and the spirit can then take control...

Spirit that can over shadow the mind can use the victims mind and body as a vessel in which they can mentally manifest within, this is known as Trance a form of clairvoyance, the spirit never enters the mind or body as such other than in mind and thought through becoming so attuned to the individuals spiritual vibration through the aura that they can link and impose their mind over the individuals and therefore by pushing the individuals mind to one side can gain control of the mind and the body through imposing their minds over ours and overpowering those who do not have the ability to resist. There are good spirit guides that work with clairvoyant mediums here that take control of the mediums who trust and work with their guides in these ways and give over both their mind and body to be used by a trusted spirit guide in this manner, in order that the guide may give spirit inspiration or healing for beneficial purposes etc, unfortunately spirit with Evil intent can also misuse these abilities for detrimental purposes with the odd individual here and do likewise to someone who is unwilling and vulnerable to being taken into trance by a spirit who is abusing these abilities.

This would inevitably be a very frightening and disturbing experience to go through not only because of the intrusion and invasion of mind and body, but also because spirit that can over shadow someone to this extent are at times able to exert control over the victim to think, say or do actions opposing to their will. To be faced with such a distressing situation inevitably would have its effects on the victim often causing them to become very withdrawn and closed off, often finding themselves in a nightmarish reality of having these things happening to them which are apparently out of their own control to prevent and they often find it very difficult to function normally suffering from this affliction and they often become mentally afflicted by these experiences, hence they exhibit symptoms not dissimilar to schizophrenia or split personality disorder along with depression, shock and feelings of being withdrawn from this reality and very cut off, being unable to turn to anyone who understands and believes what they are going through or anyone that seems to be able to offer any help or support to get them out of this situation…

Thus often they become and exhibit signs of being distressed and suffering a disturbance of mind which the medical profession does not recognize as a real Demonic possession and defers to categorize those showing these symptoms as suffering from delusions caused by mental illnesses such as schizophrenia or split personality disorder and are seen as suffering demonic psychosis. The medical treatments that are available for those who are suffering mental illnesses may work, but often do little good to help the few who are genuinely suffering from a spiritual attack. Even the more orthodox religions of which some do recognize demonic possession find it very difficult to diagnose a true possession as the symptoms that are exhibited by someone with schizophrenia and certain other mental health conditions are identical to the conditions exhibited by someone who truly is being spiritually attacked or controlled.

There is no doubt that some of the things that make us most vulnerable to these spiritual attacks in the first place are times when we may be spiritually depleted or unwell, also times when we are emotionally vulnerable, but of all the things that these spirit pray on most is our own fears, that make us far more open and susceptible to their influences, as when they cause us to fear them, our own spiritual vibration and defenses lower and this in turn brings us closer to their own more negative spiritual vibration as fear itself is also a negative vibration and thus it makes us far more vulnerable to their influences, so the more they can make us fear and become withdrawn the greater the effects and influences they can have over us and our best defense is keeping a positive mind, therefore raising our vibration above theirs and surrounding ourselves with a bubble of protective light to cast out and keep any negative influences away, this greatly helps to protect ourselves.

These fears we have are often fueled by superstitions that advocate the existence of Evil forces, such as demons, sprits and other demonic entities as well as the existence of the devil and such like. Most good clairvoyant mediums are aware that yes there are those in spirit that have cloaked themselves with darkness or become lost souls in one way or another, but these individuals are not demons as we might picture them, they are as we will be and as all are in spirit, human souls. Some spirits can be earth bound while others come back from planes within the spirit realms. The only hell and demonic force that exists are within the minds of mankind both here and on the lower levels of spirit, where those who have not yet cast off their darkness and have not yet moved on into the light of spirit can at times, given that they are free to remain upon the earth or return to it from spirit, sometimes be troubling to the odd spiritually aware individual here.

There are none that are denied transition into the spirit realms, as all gods children are welcomed within spirit. There are lower planes within spirit where those who carry darkness live and continue to learn the lessons of life until such a time as they cast off their darkness and move on to higher planes of evolution and light, but these spirit of a lower nature also mostly have the same spiritual abilities that many spirit use to help us and these gifts can be misused and abused by spirit and can be use to cause affliction upon us. Thus it is important if we become awoken to spirit that we learn how to protect and shut ourselves down properly from spirit to hopefully avoid such circumstances.

Lost Souls, Poltergeists & Negative Influences of Spirit

There are spirits that are sometimes very troubled souls who remain or come back upon the earthly plane. Most do pass over into the spirit realms successfully with the aid of spirit guides, helpers and loved ones. Those that come back or remain here are on occasion referred to as lost souls or poltergeists that are sometimes seen to be mischievous spirits responsible for some hauntings along with disturbances such as loud noises, lights, smells, physical and sexual assaults as well as telephone and bell ringing and the history that sites poltergeist activity going back as far as Roman times and in this modern day there is a great deal of scientific investigation into poltergeist activity carried out by parapsychologists, yet in most cases of hauntings there is an innocent explanation for why these spirit are present and the fact is that in most cases these spirit mean no harm and were not aware of the disturbance they may have been causing, that is not to dismiss that there are spirit that deliberately act to cause disturbance only that this is on the whole quite rare.

These lost souls fall into four main groups or categories, firstly there are those lost souls that become earth bound through loss and grieving for another who is still living here and has not yet passed on themselves, most of these souls do get help to pass on into the spirit realms, but not all choose to do so and in a way they can become earth bound and tied to the earth and those they love here for a time. The second group of lost souls are those who have become victims here in their lifetime and become lost in the darkness of their own suffering and again sometimes find it very difficult to make the transition on into the spirit realms by finding the light…

The third group are those who have done wrong or evil in their lifetimes here and have again become lost in their darkness and often even if they do find the light that will take them into the spirit realms they fear to set foot in it as they fear being judged and sent to a darker realm, this is not the case and they as all spirit are welcomed within the spirit realms and they would go to a plane that is suitable for their level of evolution, where they can learn and better themselves until such a time as they can cast off any cloak of darkness they may have taken on and move on into the light and higher planes within spirit. The forth group of lost souls are within the spirit realms, but are those who have not moved on that greatly and return as all spirit can do to the earth, often revisiting and reliving past memories that they have not yet left behind.

Unfortunately and often quite unintentionally some of these lost souls can be troubling to mortals who in one way or another can pick up on and sense these spirit and these spirit have often had a bad or traumatic experience while they lived here on the earth and have found it difficult to move on. This can include both adults and children and both are helped by spirit that come to aid them, but at times they may become attracted to mortals for help and usually because they are distressed they can cause many mortals that are in some way aware of spirit to become distressed or frightened themselves not always realizing that a majority of these spirit mean us no harm and are only looking for our help and recognition.

There are many examples that can be cited, such as spirit returning to the earth on an anniversary most often with love and happiness, but some can bring and remember sad or tragic memories of there life on earth and be spirit that have had great suffering and although they have moved on in spirit they can relive these experiences while here and those who can sense spirit might pick up on these vibrations possibly in their homes and to us it might feel like a negative and bad vibration and cause us to fear the worst, such as we have a bad spirit present that might be haunting us. Those mediums that often are called upon to investigate such hauntings or perform an exorcism, do in many cases make contact with these spirit and find a rational and logical explanation for why this spirit is present and what their problems are and once it is explained to these spirit what distress they are causing to a mortal, the problem is often resolved and the spirit leaves never to return having realized what effects their feelings were having on others.

There are psychic and clairvoyant mediums here on the earth who run rescue circles that specialize in helping these lost souls with the help of their own spirit guides, by guiding them to make the transition into the spirit realms helping these lost souls toward the portal of light which leads them into the spirit realms. These mediums usually sit in groups or sometimes hold a séance and attempt to communicate with these spirits to resolve their difficulties. Often there is an underlying cause why they appear to be stuck here on the earth or why they cannot let go of their earthly ties, often it is grief and a difficulty in understanding that they have passed into spirit themselves and need to move on into the spirit realms. They are sometimes very troubled and mediums explain to them that they have passed into spirit as nicely as it is possible and it is explain to them as some can be very confused, that the spirit realm is a very beautiful and wonderful place and that they are free to go there and have nothing to fear and to get there all they have to do is look for and walk into the light and they will be met and taken into the spirit realms, where they are welcome and there they may live free from the pains and hardships that they may have suffered while here on the earth and will find peace within spirit.

However there are genuine lost souls and there are malignant spirit that might pretend to be lost souls or may actually be lost souls themselves, even though they may be malignant. Those that have done great wrongs in this lifetime sometimes also become lost souls, as they fear that if they were to pass on into the spirit realms they may be judged and seen to of been bad or evil and then they fear that retribution for their wrong doings might be dealt out to them and that they may be banished to some darker plane of hardship and sufferance. So it is possible that those who have done wrong might also be attracted to spiritually aware mortals for their help and assistance, this is best left to competent mediums to deal with, as some of these individuals can be very abusive and are often traumatized and fearful and they can end up acting in a negative fashion toward the mediums that are trying to help them.

There is one more group of spirit to be aware of and this group is the worst of all, as they are intentionally malignant individuals in spirit that deliberately wish to use the abilities and gifts of the spirit that they have, in a hostile and abusive manner against spiritually aware mortals. Although this is rare as we are mostly well guarded from such spirit by spirit guides and loved ones in spirit and intentionally malignant spirit are only a small percentage of the overall spiritual presence upon the earth, they as all spirit can come back here from within the spirit realms or choose to remain upon the earthly plane…

So if we do come across a lost soul or what appears to be a lost soul and do not seem to be getting anywhere with them, then it is not wise to spend too much time trying to persuade them to move on and better to leave it to mediums here that have a greater understanding and more experience in dealing with such matters safely. One reason for not spending too long is that if it is a malignant spirit that is drawn to us the longer we talk to them the better the spiritual link they can form with us and that is the last thing we want to encourage or form with a malignant spirit. If they are malignant then we need to be doing just the opposite and that is blocking them out, as I will explain in the spiritual protection section below. So we should not allow ourselves to be drawn in by these spirit who may try to deceive and lie to us and after a short while we should dismiss them and tell them we cannot help them any further, if we believe that they are trying to delude or take advantage of us in anyway.

However there are spirit that might come to us that will do us no harm whatsoever and are meant to be with us, so don't be too quick to dismiss all spirit out of hand that might come to you, some of them might be spirit guides and helpers or even loved ones that can come in many forms, some as adults, others as children even on occasions as animal guides etc, depending on our own likes and dislikes, I have met those who have their guides come as dolphins or even as aliens, as this is what they wished and how they wanted to see and perceive their guides and often guides will do their best to accommodate some of our wishes, so that we would be at ease with them and more able to except them.

Spiritual Protection

If one ever feels threatened by any spiritual experience or phenomena, firstly surround yourself with a bright white spiritual light and barrier of protection, the energy that is given out and is resonated by our own spirit produces this light and barrier of protection that acts and repels negativity or negative influences from around us, thus protecting and helping to prevent spiritual negativity from permeating our aura and psyche, not only will this help to prevent negative spiritual effects of malignant spirit, but it can also help to block out certain other negative emanations, that we can psychically pick up on, such as when we may enter a room where there has been an argument and there is still a bad atmosphere in the air (The kind you could cut with an knife).

So learning to surround ourselves with this barrier and wall of light is something that most experienced mediums have already learnt to do to protect themselves. However if it is a spirit causing this influence, then there might be a need to do more if putting the light of protection around you is insufficient. Firstly we all have spirit guides and helpers that can include our loved ones in spirit and simply all we should do if we do feel there is a bad spiritual influence around us is send out our thoughts to our spirit guides and helpers which they will hear, asking them to also bring the light of protection to us, to cast away the darkness. It is also possible to ask in our prayers if we wish that we may receive both help for our own protection and for others who we feel need help or healing.

There are other important ways in which we can learn to shut negative spiritual influences out. The most important way of all and is wise for most spiritually aware individuals to learn, is how to control their own spiritual chakra energy centers which also act a psychic reception centers and learn how to both open and close the chakra properly to spiritual communications and sensing. Within we are each spiritual beings and our spirit has spiritual energy centers called chakra, the chakra energy centers both power our spirits life forces and produce the aura that surrounds us, they also act as channels through which we can both transmit and receive on a spiritual level or vibration and it is primarily through the opening of the chakra that we are able to perceive and communicate with spirit.

The chakra are spiritual reception centers and they work on what most mediums call a spiritually clairvoyant or psychic level of vibration, through which we may feel sense perceive hear and see spirit at times, this happens mostly in meditation or attunement to these abilities or with those who are naturally more spiritually developed and aware of spirit. Most mediums open their chakra to sense and work with spirit but when they have finished their work or meditation they mostly tend to close there spiritual chakras in order to prevent themselves remaining open to spiritual influences and communication all the time. There are a number of mediums who say they do not need to close their chakras, but in truth in these mediums it happens automatically, as when they consciously finish their spiritual work or meditation the chakras automatically close, as the chakra are partly self regulating. But with those who are not aware that they should be closing the chakra or do not even realize their chakra might be open, can end up walking round with their chakra very much open to spiritual communication and influences, which is not always the best of ideas and situations.

I will just briefly try to explain the mechanism by which spirit communicate with us, firstly spirit communicate with us on a spiritual vibration. Now what is a vibration? Well everything in existence vibrates and resonates at different frequencies and speeds and not all frequencies are that of sound, other things such as colors, even our bodies vibrate, we are all made up of countless molecules and atoms that resonate and vibrate at a multitude of different levels or speeds of vibrations, spirit are beings of energy that resonates both within ourselves as within those who have moved on into the spiritual continuation of all life. Our spirits vibration is much faster than those of our mortal bodies and the spirit also vibrates at many different levels...

When we develop our spiritual abilities, what we are doing is learning to attune ourselves firstly to our own spirit and then to it's vibrations, that can then be used to sense beyond our normal mortal perceptions to one of the many different vibrations and levels that can be found, using the gifts of the spirit that can sense on a psychic or clairvoyant level. This is done by attuning ourselves to a subject, for instance the healing vibration is different to the vibration used to psychically sense the feelings given off from another person, also the clairvoyant ability to attune to sense and be able to communicate with spirit in some form, is yet again another even higher vibration that can be attuned into with the spirit. Finding the right vibration to achieve these abilities is somewhat like tuning a radio into different stations until the right station and frequency is found, in this case it is attuning the spirits ability to sense on the right vibration and frequency, in most cases this takes a lot of development but to some it comes very naturally.

Within us each there are literally hundreds of chakras but there are only seven main chakra, the harmonics of the spirit chakras is that they can each either work independently opening and closing depending on our needs moods feelings and situations etc, or they can work together to produce overall effects that can allow us to become attuned and sensitive to a variety of spiritual phenomena and abilities, most often we are able to sense through the aura that is the energy field generated by the chakra that surrounds our physical and spiritual bodies. Those who can sense spirit do generally have more developed chakra than those that do not and are much more open to spiritual perceptions and sensing spirit. So weather it is through meditation or because we have naturally developed chakra, the way spiritual communications take place is a heightening of our own spirits abilities to attune into higher vibrations, whether they be psychic or clairvoyant levels where we can sense or are able to pick up on feelings that are coming from somewhere other than ourselves, for instance another person or life, even a tree might be perceived in one way or another or the vibration we have tuned into might allow us for instance to see spiritual aura surrounding all living things and non living matter.

However other energy's can be seen round non life matter also at times, this is because it also vibrates and gives off energies. So when we are in a receptive vibration of some kind our own spirit vibration quickens, but we are within the mortal body and this does dampen our abilities to perceive spirit and slows our spirits vibration from that of those who are free of the material body in spirit, thus when spirit come to us to communicate in some manner or fashion with us, they have to attune to our spirits vibration, by lowering their own spirits vibration to a level that is compatible to harmonize with our own spiritual energy's to find attunement in order to be able to communicate in some form with us. It is done in this way, the spirit who wants to communicate with us has to blend with our own spiritual energies, so in effect they are blending with our own aura when the correct attunement is found then they can communicate with us in a vast number of ways…

However if we are not that well developed it is only in a very mild manner that we might perceive spirit and it takes most a long time to develop their chakra to a level where clairvoyance becomes possible that being clear communication with spirit, but in some cases it is a natural ability and comes very quickly even at times without any attempt to develop such an ability. Which of course can come as bit of a shock and unfortunately if an inexperienced individual comes upon all this it can frighten them when there is nothing to fear and again there are a few that do genuinely have the odd malignant spirit that is drawn to them. There are times when we naturally become more sensitive to spirit and it is often last thing at night as we drift off to sleep or first thing in the morning as we are waking, this is because our minds are more relaxed at these times and in a half conscious and dream like drifting state of mind that aids our natural receptiveness to spirit.

So when we do not wish to hear or sense spirit or if we are being bothered by what we might feel to be negative influences or bad spirit, then it is possible that when we do not wish to see hear or sense spirit in anyway that we can learn to shut down our chakra energy centers, thus hopefully blocking out our own spiritual senses from perceiving spirit, again even if we do this we can still put the light of protection around us to keep out negative influences of spirit.

Actual Physical Effects of Spirit

There is nothing spirit can really do that greatly to hurt us in any physical manner themselves, the reason for this is that spirit beings are Etheric in their nature, that is to say they are lighter than the air we breathe, much lighter and in fact and we as mortal beings are thousands of times more dense or heavier than a spiritual being, so in effect, a rugby team of spirit could try to tackle a mortal being and the only effect would be is that they would bounce off of us and we would not of in anyway of become aware or effected by their presence, so the first answer is no, directly in a physical manner there is virtually nothing or no effect spirit can have on us. Most spirit present here on the earth are friendly, however it is true that not all spirit are friendly and where there is light there is also some darkness, most of us would not be troubled by spirit we are mostly well looked after and well protected from more negative spiritual influences by spiritual guides helpers guardians and loved ones in spirit.

However spirit seem to have mastered one or two phenomena where it appears they can through some means of concentrative power of the mind on a rare occasion have power of mind over matter or at times levitation and this appears to allow the few spirit who can achieve this ability to have an effect on things of physical matter and be able to move the odd material object or at times cause knocking noises to be heard, which are just presumed to be done to make us aware of their presence and is not usually done in order to frighten us in anyway. There are some things here upon the earth that are solid to spirit and other things that are not…

For instance spirit can pass through a door, yet they cannot pass through a floor, we might think this strange, but when spirit come here they are given some practical abilities, to allow them access so that they can enter a house through a door that is closed for instance, to allow them to be present with loved ones or those who are our guides etc. Some of the phenomena that has been and can be witnessed is objects that have been moved or are seen to be moving, sometimes levitating in the air or are seen to be knocked through the air. Some experienced trance mediums have also witnessed materializations of both objects such as flowers and even spirit, one of the other phenomena that trance mediums have produced is while in trance ectoplasm has materialized from within there own bodies to produce quite often the out line of a spirits head and face.

Perceived Physical Impressions Given by Spirit

However spirit can give us spiritual perceptions that to all intents and purposes can seem and feel like real physical effects within our bodies and minds that they can have upon us, this is done by spirit as they can project physical feelings to us and within us, which are given like a comprehension into our minds and spirit, so that it appears that we can actually feel the impression spirit give as though it is a physical effect on or within our bodies, when in fact it is only an impression from the mind of a spirit being put into our mind and spirit. This is an effect that can overshadow us with feelings and effects that are not actually within us, but is being projected and imposed upon us by spirit in order to be able to give us what seems like a real physical feeling. In effect this can trick our minds into believing the feelings we are receiving from spirit are real, so great can the ability of spirit be to give us and overshadow us with such feelings that they can seem to be very real. One does however have to have a rudimentary ability to sense spirit to have these experiences such as a psychic or clairvoyant might do.

So if we perceive spirit and they are giving us feelings and senses within our minds or bodies, then it is not that they can as spirit come within us or enter our bodies and possess us, because we are solid to spirit they cannot enter us and spirit is solid to spirit, it is that they can project thoughts and feelings into us that we might comprehend what they are sending to us as being and feeling real. This ability that spirit have is a form of ESP or simply a spiritual clairvoyant psychic ability to pass some thoughts and feelings including emotions and physical impressions onto and into our minds and bodies. So the impressions we might receive from spirit weather they are good or bad are coming from the minds and imaginations of spiritual beings, who are passing those thoughts and feelings into our minds from outside of our bodies via our aura and onto our spirit. So what we might perceive to be within us is a trick of the mind that spirit can cause by impressions that can deceive and trick our senses of minds and body.

Within the realms of spirit, spirit have become very competent at communicating to each other at times through psychic and clairvoyant ESP or mind to mind contact and to a level where they can not only communicate thoughts to each other, but also very powerful feelings that include physical perceptions and emotions. Good spirit that come here to guide us do use these abilities when they work with those here on the earthly plane and if you have seen a good psychic or clairvoyant medium working, then often you may of seen them saying as they give evidence from a spirit that has passed over communicating through them, of how and what this spirit that comes to them may have passed over with or from. Often the medium will feel and describe the feeling and illness or symptoms of the condition that this spirit suffered from. This is given partly as evidence to the recipient of the message, so that they might recognize from these symptoms who the spirit is that has come to give them a message through the medium.

So spirit can send feelings to some mediums of how they felt in there life or just prior to their passing, this can have a dramatic effect on the medium and the medium can at times experience how the pain felt, for this individual, for instance, if the spirit passed from a chest condition when they give it to the medium the medium will feel the experience of pain in there chest area and it can feel very real, although it is merely an impression that is being given to the medium, most mediums pass on the condition to the person here receiving the message and then soon ask that the spirit who is giving this experience, to take it away, as it can at times have dramatic effects on the medium and cause discomfort. This is called overshadowing and it is an ability for spirit to blend with our spirit energies and aura and overshadow our minds and bodies with such feelings and impressions. However as mentioned mostly it is only those who have a heightened awareness of spirit that would sense such things as to perceive spirit at this level one would have to be fairly spiritually developed.