How much of it is a deception?

Originally Posted by Xan

It does take self honesty and discernment to recognize the difference between 'me' and 'other' in the subtle dimensions of spirit.


Xan

Please elaborate

[Xan]

For me it's simple but not always easy, paying close attention to the energetic feelings that tell me whether a sense of presence and activity is mine or some other spirit being. That's about all I can really say about it, earthatic.


Xan

Originally Posted by Xan

For me it's simple but not always easy, paying close attention to the energetic feelings that tell me whether a sense of presence and activity is mine or some other spirit being. That's about all I can really say about it, earthatic.


Xan

You know that's pretty similar if not the same to what I can do, I can sense ill intent as opposed to just visiting or there for a purpose. If someone (living or dead) swings by with murderous or just bad intent, it pours on you very thickly. Kinda like that threatening feeling you get when you are about to face imminent death. It's a very unique fear that overwhelms you and boosts your adrenaline.

[Louisa]

I've sometimes experienced that thinking differently about others can subtly change them. I think that this works with people and maybe spirits too. The more positively you think of someone, the more positively they act. Sometimes I can feel the emotions of someone else, and then feel their emotions change for them, and I see that reflected in them. Even from a distance and far more than can be accounted for by surface interactions or nonverbal language would account for. There is something going on beyond their conscious awareness, that I am influencing. We are connected energetically in mysterious ways.

Originally Posted by Rumar

You know that's pretty similar if not the same to what I can do, I can sense ill intent as opposed to just visiting or there for a purpose. If someone (living or dead) swings by with murderous or just bad intent, it pours on you very thickly. Kinda like that threatening feeling you get when you are about to face imminent death. It's a very unique fear that overwhelms you and boosts your adrenaline.

I know what you and Xan mean. For the most part, intent, thought and energy is pretty much out in the open - but not always. I know there is a way to hide oneself and only interact within the target's mind without displaying yourself. You can read every thought and memory they've ever had, and even manipulate their thoughts and emotions to make it seem like it's them and not you. Within their mind, you can even sense how they learn (their cognitive process) so you can prevent them from finding certain things out. Sometimes the battle is truly within our mind and spirit.. but I can't condone fighting with these things.

[Louisa]

Originally Posted by earthatic
I know what you and Xan mean. For the most part, intent, thought and energy is pretty much out in the open - but not always. I know there is a way to hide oneself and only interact within the target's mind without displaying yourself. You can read every thought and memory they've ever had, and even manipulate their thoughts and emotions to make it seem like it's them and not you. Within their mind, you can even sense how they learn (their cognitive process) so you can prevent them from finding certain things out. Sometimes the battle is truly within our mind and spirit.. but I can't condone fighting with these things.

This is interesting to me, because I think I have experienced this exact thing, when I was dealing with a negative spirit in the past. At first, I didn't realize it was a negative spirit. I now feel able to protect myself through love. It was by experimenting that I finally figured out what drove away or neutralized the harmful spirit(s) (I think there may have been more than one).
I still wonder sometimes, but I actually receive concrete help in my life, and if I trust my own intuition and my own mind (which are, after all, all that I have to go by) then it seems clear to me that my life is greatly improved through interactions with spirits now. My progress in my life has shot forward in so many ways, it would take a lot for me to discount that this is good and helpful.
I consider interactions with certain people to be far more harmful, confusing and draining than interactions with the spirits in my life now (on the contrary, I feel energized, uplifted, healed and given mental clarity by the spirits). I believe in my own power to discern, but I agree it is a skill that needs to be developed, or one can fall prey to negative influence and it can even invade one's own mind and plant thoughts there that seem to be your own, but aren't.

[Louisa]

But I do wonder, after knowing that one has been influenced by negative spirits and let them into your own mind accidentally, if there is a way to sort of cleanse your own energy. It feels as though the negative taint of being around that negative spirit continued to affect me, even after it seemed the spirit was gone. It's been getting less so over time, and the more I center myself in love and mindfulness and improve my life and surroundings.

I understand what you're saying, but I think at a certain level you have developed your intuition to a degree that this becomes much less of a problem. The way you understand if this has happened is if these kind of experiences happen to you, and what you have pulled out of the experience doesn't further you spiritually and your connection with the divine, then that is the time to really sit back and reevaluate if some of it is your imagination.
I feel like you are making it sound like the majority of these experiences are imagined, but I whole heatedly disagree. As was mentioned in this thread, it isn't the experience that is imagined (such as in astral projection), but the meaning you pull from it that may he distorted. I believe that it is actually rare to completely evaluate and understand an event of that magnitude in complete entirety. That is a skill that must be mastered. Yet, to say that we completely misread situations in it's entirety often is erroneous. I believe it is usually in the middle for the average spiritual seeker. Obviously the more experience someone has in these situations, the more accurate their interpretations are in regard to how this may help in their spiritual development (which is the main point)