Walk-in
Encyclopedia
A walk-in is a new age
concept of a person whose original soul has departed his or her body
and has been replaced with a new soul, either temporarily or permanently.
Jane Roberts
, as reputedly authored by her various "spirit-world" benefactors. In 1979, Ruth Montgomery
contributed to the fascination with Strangers Among Us, a collection of accounts of walk-ins. She included prominent historical figures among her subjects, such as Thomas Jefferson
as having hosted walk-in spirits who actually wrote the Declaration of Independence
.
Subsequently, a belief system
grew up around the walk-in. It included New Age attributes such as the concept of ascending into higher frequencies of evolution
, a variety of psi
powers, traditional "predictions regarding Earth Changes
" first cited in the Bible (Book of Daniel
and the Book of Revelation
) but popularized by Edgar Cayce
, and predictions of dire fates for those whose vibrational levels remain unraised. In the late 1980s and early 1990s a channelling team known as "Savizar and Silarra" (Extraterrestrial Earth Mission), emphasised their walk-in status, claiming successive walk-in experiences together with corresponding name changes. The New Age walk-in belief system now includes a number of variant experiences such as channeling
, telepathy contact with extraterrestrial intelligences
, or soul merging, where the original soul is said to remain present, coexisting or integrating with the new one. As of 2006, an increasing number of people claim some type of walk-in experience. Walk-ins were featured on the June 4, 1999 segment of the Unsolved Mysteries
television series. According to information presented on this programme, there are walk-in convention
s, one of them drawing approximately 500 people.
. Some psychiatrists such as Herbert Spiegel
and cultural analysts such as Joan Acocella
believe that all of these experiences, from traditional walk-ins to the New Age variety up to and including cooperative 'healthy multiples', are mere attention-seeking playacting, or at best a "metaphor of distress" to express something the client feels is wrong, or somehow different from usual, but is having trouble describing.
, and its sequels and remakes, are a take-off on the older, spiritualist version of the walk-in concept, although the term is never used. Heaven Can Wait
, a 1978 remake of Here Comes Mr. Jordan, was also the inspiration for the television series Quantum Leap, in which Dr. Sam Beckett, involved in a time travel experiment gone awry, "leaps" into events that occurred during his lifetime, displacing another person. (Although most other characters perceive Sam as the person he replaced, this is not a true "walk-in", since his body is also involved.) In an attempt to return to his own time, he needs to change the future outcome of a situation for the better, after which he can make another leap. Beckett believes that his leaps are controlled by God or a God-like force.
Hawkgirl
comics, and the K-PAX
series of books and films have all featured situations similar or identical to walk-in experiences, although the term "walk-in" is not used.
After the Death of Superman story cycle, a handful of new superheroes appeared, among them John Henry Irons
, who called himself the "Man of Steel". He never claimed to be the real Superman, but Lois Lane
speculated that if Superman were really dead, perhaps his soul had moved into Irons' body as a walk-in, and she used that word.
The term "Walk-ins" was used several times in The X-Files
television series. In the episode ("Red Museum
") of the second season, it was used to describe the believers of a fictional cult that believed in soul transference in which enlightened spirits take possession of other people's bodies. In another episode ("Closure
") of the seventh season, it was used to describe the spirits of dead children who come to convert living children from matter to energy (starlight) in order to save them from a horrible fate in life.
The TV series Ghost Whisperer
(featuring Jennifer Love Hewitt) in the late 2000s used a term "step-in" when one character died, but whose soul came back into an accident victim (season 4, episode 7, "Threshold").
Stephen King
's The Dark Tower
series of books, specifically Song of Susannah
, featured characters known as "walk-ins". In these books, parallel universe
s are connected through "doorways" between worlds. These are actual doors created by magical means between parallel dimensions. "Walk-ins" are human or non-human beings who appear to have accidentally stumbled through to "our" world. They sometimes do not speak English, and sometimes speak languages unidentifiable to academics in "our" world. They often appear disoriented, confused, very ill, or suffering from severe physical defects
.
The Japanese novel and film Himitsu
is about a dead woman who inhabits the body of her daughter. It was remade in the United States in 2007 as The Secret
.
In the cartoon series Danny Phantom
, is about a boy who gains "ghost powers" by becoming half ghost. One of them is the ability to walk-in into other people, and sometimes ghosts, to control them temporarily. On the show this is referred to as "overshadowing" someone.
A similar "walk-in" concept, and variations thereof, was used by H.P. Lovecraft in several of his short stories. A good example of this can be found in the short story "Through the Gates of the Silver Key." In this story a man returns to earth in the body of an alien being. Other Lovecraftian tales portray a more conventional walk-in idea in which an alien being comes to earth and takes over the consciousness of a human. These tales are notable because the time frame in which they were written predates the above examples by many years. Lovecraft published his short stories in the early 1900s.
New Age
The New Age movement is a Western spiritual movement that developed in the second half of the 20th century. Its central precepts have been described as "drawing on both Eastern and Western spiritual and metaphysical traditions and then infusing them with influences from self-help and motivational...
concept of a person whose original soul has departed his or her body
Body
With regard to living things, a body is the physical body of an individual. "Body" often is used in connection with appearance, health issues and death...
and has been replaced with a new soul, either temporarily or permanently.
Origin
Interest in the "walk-in" phenomenon was initially stimulated in the 1970s by the popular "Seth Speaks" series of occult books written by channelMediumship
Mediumship is described as a form of communication with spirits. It is a practice in religious beliefs such as Spiritualism, Spiritism, Espiritismo, Candomblé, Voodoo and Umbanda.- Concept :...
Jane Roberts
Jane Roberts
Jane Roberts was an American author, poet, psychic and spirit medium, who said she had "channeled" a personality she called "Seth". Her publication of the Seth texts, known as the "Seth Material", established her as one of the preeminent figures in the world of paranormal phenomena...
, as reputedly authored by her various "spirit-world" benefactors. In 1979, Ruth Montgomery
Ruth Montgomery
Ruth Shick Montgomery was a self-described Christian psychic in the tradition of Jeane Dixon and Edgar Cayce. She was a biographer of Dixon and a protégée of Arthur Ford who claimed he could access the Akashic Records of the Universe.Montgomery initially believed her mission on Earth was to...
contributed to the fascination with Strangers Among Us, a collection of accounts of walk-ins. She included prominent historical figures among her subjects, such as Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson was the principal author of the United States Declaration of Independence and the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom , the third President of the United States and founder of the University of Virginia...
as having hosted walk-in spirits who actually wrote the Declaration of Independence
Declaration of independence
A declaration of independence is an assertion of the independence of an aspiring state or states. Such places are usually declared from part or all of the territory of another nation or failed nation, or are breakaway territories from within the larger state...
.
Subsequently, a belief system
Belief system
A belief system is a set of mutually supportive beliefs. The beliefs may be religious, philosophical, ideological or a combination of these.The British philosopher Stephen Law has described some belief systems as "claptrap" and said that they "draw people in and hold them captive so they become...
grew up around the walk-in. It included New Age attributes such as the concept of ascending into higher frequencies of evolution
Evolution
Evolution is any change across successive generations in the heritable characteristics of biological populations. Evolutionary processes give rise to diversity at every level of biological organisation, including species, individual organisms and molecules such as DNA and proteins.Life on Earth...
, a variety of psi
Psi (parapsychology)
Psi is a term from parapsychology derived from the Greek, ψ psi, 23rd letter of the Greek alphabet; from the Greek ψυχή psyche, "mind, soul".-Etymology:...
powers, traditional "predictions regarding Earth Changes
Earth changes
The phrase "Earth Changes" was coined by the American psychic Edgar Cayce torefer to the belief that the world will soon enter on a series of cataclysmic events causing major alterations in human life on the planet....
" first cited in the Bible (Book of Daniel
Book of Daniel
The Book of Daniel is a book in the Hebrew Bible. The book tells of how Daniel, and his Judean companions, were inducted into Babylon during Jewish exile, and how their positions elevated in the court of Nebuchadnezzar. The court tales span events that occur during the reigns of Nebuchadnezzar,...
and the Book of Revelation
Book of Revelation
The Book of Revelation is the final book of the New Testament. The title came into usage from the first word of the book in Koine Greek: apokalupsis, meaning "unveiling" or "revelation"...
) but popularized by Edgar Cayce
Edgar Cayce
Edgar Cayce was an American psychic who allegedly had the ability to give answers to questions on subjects such as healing or Atlantis while in a hypnotic trance...
, and predictions of dire fates for those whose vibrational levels remain unraised. In the late 1980s and early 1990s a channelling team known as "Savizar and Silarra" (Extraterrestrial Earth Mission), emphasised their walk-in status, claiming successive walk-in experiences together with corresponding name changes. The New Age walk-in belief system now includes a number of variant experiences such as channeling
Channeling
Channeling, or channelling, can refer toscience*Channelling , the process that constrains the path of a charged particle in a crystalline solid.*metabolite or substrate channeling in biochemistry and cell physiology.law...
, telepathy contact with extraterrestrial intelligences
Extraterrestrial life
Extraterrestrial life is defined as life that does not originate from Earth...
, or soul merging, where the original soul is said to remain present, coexisting or integrating with the new one. As of 2006, an increasing number of people claim some type of walk-in experience. Walk-ins were featured on the June 4, 1999 segment of the Unsolved Mysteries
Unsolved Mysteries
Unsolved Mysteries is an American television program, hosted by Robert Stack, from 1987 until 2002, and later by Dennis Farina, starting in 2008...
television series. According to information presented on this programme, there are walk-in convention
Convention (meeting)
A convention, in the sense of a meeting, is a gathering of individuals who meet at an arranged place and time in order to discuss or engage in some common interest. The most common conventions are based upon industry, profession, and fandom...
s, one of them drawing approximately 500 people.
Criticism
Experiences such as those described in this article are not regarded favorably by some religious groups and mental health professionals. Some fundamentalist Christians denounce the walk-in idea as being connected with the occultOccult
The word occult comes from the Latin word occultus , referring to "knowledge of the hidden". In the medical sense it is used to refer to a structure or process that is hidden, e.g...
. Some psychiatrists such as Herbert Spiegel
Herbert Spiegel
Herbert Spiegel was an American psychiatrist who popularized therapeutic hypnosis as a mainstream medical treatment for patients suffering from pain, anxiety and addictions...
and cultural analysts such as Joan Acocella
Joan Acocella
Joan B. Acocella is an American journalist who is the dance and book critic for The New Yorker. She has written several books on dance, literature, and psychology....
believe that all of these experiences, from traditional walk-ins to the New Age variety up to and including cooperative 'healthy multiples', are mere attention-seeking playacting, or at best a "metaphor of distress" to express something the client feels is wrong, or somehow different from usual, but is having trouble describing.
Walk-ins in popular culture
The film Here Comes Mr. JordanHere Comes Mr. Jordan
Here Comes Mr. Jordan is a comedy film in which a boxer, mistakenly taken to Heaven before his time, is given a second chance back on Earth. It stars Robert Montgomery, Claude Rains and Evelyn Keyes. The movie was adapted by Sidney Buchman and Seton I. Miller from the play Heaven Can Wait by Harry...
, and its sequels and remakes, are a take-off on the older, spiritualist version of the walk-in concept, although the term is never used. Heaven Can Wait
Heaven Can Wait (1978 film)
Heaven Can Wait is a 1978 American comedy film directed by Warren Beatty and Buck Henry. It is the second film adaptation of Harry Segall's stageplay of the same name, preceded by Here Comes Mr. Jordan and followed by Down to Earth...
, a 1978 remake of Here Comes Mr. Jordan, was also the inspiration for the television series Quantum Leap, in which Dr. Sam Beckett, involved in a time travel experiment gone awry, "leaps" into events that occurred during his lifetime, displacing another person. (Although most other characters perceive Sam as the person he replaced, this is not a true "walk-in", since his body is also involved.) In an attempt to return to his own time, he needs to change the future outcome of a situation for the better, after which he can make another leap. Beckett believes that his leaps are controlled by God or a God-like force.
Hawkgirl
Hawkgirl
Hawkgirl is the name of several female fictional superhero characters, all owned by DC Comics and existing in that company's universe. The character is one of the first costumed female superheroes...
comics, and the K-PAX
K-PAX
K-PAX is the name of the first novel in the K-PAX series by Gene Brewer and a film based on the series:*K-PAX **K-PAX – film*K-PAX II: On a Beam of Light *K-PAX III: Worlds of Prot...
series of books and films have all featured situations similar or identical to walk-in experiences, although the term "walk-in" is not used.
After the Death of Superman story cycle, a handful of new superheroes appeared, among them John Henry Irons
John Henry Irons
Steel , also known as the Man of Steel, is a fictional character, a superhero in the DC Universe. First appearing in The Adventures of Superman #500 , he is the third character known as Steel and was created by Louise Simonson and artist Jon Bogdanove...
, who called himself the "Man of Steel". He never claimed to be the real Superman, but Lois Lane
Lois Lane
Lois Lane is a fictional character, the primary love interest of Superman in the comic books of DC Comics. Created by writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster, she first appeared in Action Comics #1 ....
speculated that if Superman were really dead, perhaps his soul had moved into Irons' body as a walk-in, and she used that word.
The term "Walk-ins" was used several times in The X-Files
The X-Files
The X-Files is an American science fiction television series and a part of The X-Files franchise, created by screenwriter Chris Carter. The program originally aired from to . The show was a hit for the Fox network, and its characters and slogans became popular culture touchstones in the 1990s...
television series. In the episode ("Red Museum
Red Museum
"Red Museum" is the tenth episode of the second season of The X-Files science-fiction television series created by Chris Carter.- Plot :Agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully are called in to investigate a number of kidnappings in which children are recovered half-naked and drugged, with either the...
") of the second season, it was used to describe the believers of a fictional cult that believed in soul transference in which enlightened spirits take possession of other people's bodies. In another episode ("Closure
Closure (The X-Files)
"Closure" is the 150th episode and the eleventh episode of the seventh season of the science fiction television series The X-Files. The episode first aired in the United States and Canada on February 3, 2000 on the Fox Network, and subsequently aired in the United Kingdom. It was written by...
") of the seventh season, it was used to describe the spirits of dead children who come to convert living children from matter to energy (starlight) in order to save them from a horrible fate in life.
The TV series Ghost Whisperer
Ghost Whisperer
Ghost Whisperer is an American television supernatural drama, which ran on CBS from September 23, 2005 to May 21, 2010.The series follows the life of Melinda Gordon , who has the ability to see and communicate with ghosts...
(featuring Jennifer Love Hewitt) in the late 2000s used a term "step-in" when one character died, but whose soul came back into an accident victim (season 4, episode 7, "Threshold").
Stephen King
Stephen King
Stephen Edwin King is an American author of contemporary horror, suspense, science fiction and fantasy fiction. His books have sold more than 350 million copies and have been adapted into a number of feature films, television movies and comic books...
's The Dark Tower
The Dark Tower (series)
The Dark Tower is a series of books written by American author Stephen King, which incorporates themes from multiple genres, including fantasy, science fantasy, horror and western. It describes a "Gunslinger" and his quest toward a tower, the nature of which is both physical and metaphorical. King...
series of books, specifically Song of Susannah
Song of Susannah
Song of Susannah is the sixth novel in Stephen King's Dark Tower series. The novel was nominated for the Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel in 2005.-Plot summary:...
, featured characters known as "walk-ins". In these books, parallel universe
Parallel universe (fiction)
A parallel universe or alternative reality is a hypothetical self-contained separate reality coexisting with one's own. A specific group of parallel universes is called a "multiverse", although this term can also be used to describe the possible parallel universes that constitute reality...
s are connected through "doorways" between worlds. These are actual doors created by magical means between parallel dimensions. "Walk-ins" are human or non-human beings who appear to have accidentally stumbled through to "our" world. They sometimes do not speak English, and sometimes speak languages unidentifiable to academics in "our" world. They often appear disoriented, confused, very ill, or suffering from severe physical defects
Deformity
A deformity, dysmorphism, or dysmorphic feature is a major difference in the shape of body part or organ compared to the average shape of that part.Deformity may arise from numerous causes:*A Genetic mutation*Damage to the fetus or uterus...
.
The Japanese novel and film Himitsu
Himitsu
, , is a novel by Keigo Higashino, published in English as Naoko by Vertical. The story centers on a man whose wife and daughter are in a terrible accident; the wife dies, but when the daughter wakes up, he discovers his wife's mind inside....
is about a dead woman who inhabits the body of her daughter. It was remade in the United States in 2007 as The Secret
The Secret (2007 film)
The Secret is a 2007 thriller, directed by Vincent Perez and a remake of Himitsu, a 1999 Japanese film produced by Yasuhiro Mase , written by Hiroshi Saitô and Directed by Yojiro Takita.-Plot:...
.
In the cartoon series Danny Phantom
Danny Phantom
Danny Phantom is an American animated television series created by Butch Hartman for Nickelodeon, produced by Billionfold Studios. The show was about a teenage half-ghost boy, who frequently saves his town and the world from ghost attacks, while attempting to keep his ghost half a secret...
, is about a boy who gains "ghost powers" by becoming half ghost. One of them is the ability to walk-in into other people, and sometimes ghosts, to control them temporarily. On the show this is referred to as "overshadowing" someone.
A similar "walk-in" concept, and variations thereof, was used by H.P. Lovecraft in several of his short stories. A good example of this can be found in the short story "Through the Gates of the Silver Key." In this story a man returns to earth in the body of an alien being. Other Lovecraftian tales portray a more conventional walk-in idea in which an alien being comes to earth and takes over the consciousness of a human. These tales are notable because the time frame in which they were written predates the above examples by many years. Lovecraft published his short stories in the early 1900s.
External links
- Interview with Ruth Montgomery and some personal anecdotes from people who experience walk-in phenomena
- Past Forward Walk-in checklist and New Age explanation of experiences
- Galactic Federation
- KinHost.org, Resource for learning about otherkin type walk-ins and hosting
- Multiplicity, The Missing Manual, a wiki for people who report hosting and/or other forms of multiplicity to describe their experiences in their own words
- Extraterrestrial Earth Mission, example of walk-ins and their place in a typical New Age group