Can another spirit walk-in and take over your body? While the idea may sound far-fetched, if you know anything about mediumship and channeling, the idea is not so far out there, after all.
A walk-in spirit is one that takes over the body that another soul originally inhabited, either temporarily or permanently. If a walk-in spirit were to take over your body, your soul would leave and the walk-in spirit would be in charge and none of your acquaintances would likely know the difference. (At least by looking at you.)
No, a walk-in spirit is not a possession
The concept of having a walk-in spirit take over may sound unsettling. In fact, it might even sound like possession where a negative entity takes over your body and your life — think the Exorcist.
While the concepts may sound similar, they really are not. With a possession, one’s body is taken over by force. The original soul does not want to give up its host body to the intruding entity. However, with walk-in spirits the opposite is true. The body exchange is actually agreed upon by both the original soul and the walk-in soul. The agreement is beneficial to the both of them.
There is a caveat: This would likely be a soul contract or soul agreement that may have taken place between lifetimes or it may take place in your current lifetime but you may not be conscious of it. For example, you might communicate with a walk-in spirit and agree to the body exchange during a dream and then you might wake up and promptly forget the entire interaction.
Why a soul would let a walk-in spirit take over
So why would a soul agree to let a walk-in spirit take its place? Here are some popular theories:
- Perhaps the soul only wanted to experience childhood in this lifetime, or they only had a few lessons that they wanted to focus on and all of those lessons were learned early in life. That soul might partner with another soul who only wants to experience adulthood.
- Sometimes a soul might get tired of living, particularly in a very challenging lifetime. In this case, a soul exchange could be done, freeing the original soul from the burdensome life and allowing the walk-in soul to finish that particular human journey. Such an agreement could be an alternative to suicide.
- Sometimes a walk-in will enter a life temporarily to take a specific action or to add a certain personality trait that the person needs for that lifetime. For example, if someone is meant to be a world leader in a particular lifetime, a walk-in may enter their body as they rise to power to bring charisma or leadership qualities that are needed to fulfill that mission.
Famous walk-ins in history
A number of people have written about the concept of walk-in spirits including author Ruth Montgomery in her book Strangers Among Us.
According to Montgomery, Adolf Hitler, Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson, Gandhi and Christopher Columbus all had walk-in spirits inhabit their bodies at one point or antoher.
There is even a belief that Thomas Jefferson invited walk-ins to inhabit his body and those walk-ins wrote the Declaration of Independence.
Signs a walk-in spirit has taken over
In cases where a walk-in enters the body temporarily, keep in mind, that the original host likely doesn’t remember making the agreement to share the body. Instead, the original host might ‘lose time’ or not remember certain blocks of time (when the walk-in spirit is inhabiting the body.)
If one of your loved ones shares their body with a walk-in spirit, you may notice that their personality changes or they experience sudden mood swings. You also might notice that the person makes a major change in their life, whether they decide to pursue an entirely new career, ask for a divorce out of the blue, or point their life path in an entirely different direction.
When a walk-in inhabits a body, it brings its soul energy to the body, which means the body’s energetic blueprint actually changes. That means relationships may fade and new ones may take their place. If you’ve ever heard someone describe the dissolution of a relationship by saying the other person ‘became an entirely different person; I didn’t know them anymore,’ those words could also describe what might happen when a walk-in spirit takes over a body.