Contrary to what many people might imagine, paranormal activity is much more prevalent than they give credit for, and this can explained by the unifying principle of Creation

This will probably be one of the most important foundational classes I will write, because it completely changed the way I viewed Creation. The information here will probably be overwhelming because we often never stop to think about its implications in everyday life, and how spirituality and physicality intersect.

Also, when we speak about paranormal activity, it seems to me people think it’s stuff out of movies, only appears to “spiritually attuned” mediums, or only happens in your imagination, but our sages teach in the Talmud that spirits are everywhere.

I get it there’s little Jewish material available online on this subject, but history is filled with accounts by Dibbukim, lost souls, psychic attacks, curses and whatnot. While we won’t be able to delve into each of these topics, I want to draw your attention to the unifying principle behind everything.

And that is “energy”.

The unifying principle in Creation

The concept of energy is fundamental both to ancient spiritual traditions and to modern scientific understanding. According to the laws of thermodynamics, energy cannot be created or destroyed but only transformed from one form to another. This principle is known as the conservation of energy and is a cornerstone of classical physics. If you heat and melt a piece of metal, it will eventually cool down and the energy will dissipate in the air. We can’t harness it back, but it’s now somewhere else.

Pretty straightforward, and I think we all learned that in high school.

In the realm of quantum mechanics, energy takes on even more intriguing properties. Quantum theory reveals that particles and energy are interchangeable, as famously encapsulated in Einstein’s equation E=mc². This equation shows that mass itself is a form of energy, blurring the lines between matter and energy. Furthermore, quantum fields, which are the fundamental entities in quantum field theory, are essentially fields of energy that give rise to particles. Scientific research also posits to the fact that there’s an invisible quantum energy field in the universe, binding everything together.

There are many types of energy (heat, electricity, etc…), and in Kabbalah, the primordial form of energy is called “light” (אור, Ohr), which shouldn’t be confused with the light you see when you turn on the switch in your house. This primordial light is the creative energy Hashem used to create all the spiritual worlds and the physical realm. It is the most fundamental power that is poured into the Sephirot and then irradiated to manifest a certain attribute of God, much like light comes into a prism and refracts many different colors on the other side.

From this primordial light came all the other forms of energy. As we learned, mass is then lowest form of energy (with lower vibrational frequency) than other higher forms because it was formed last in the Seder Hishtalshelut (see below. While we don’t “see” most types of energy, we can often feel it. And even the higher vibrational frequencies can be grasped if we expand our mind and activate consciousness centers around the body.

This is a skill that I teach in my private sessions.

And this is where things get weird. The human body works as an incredibly powerful battery that stores energy, and also possesses its own vibrational frequency. In a normal state of consciousness, most of us can only perceive a small range of frequency, but with enough training, one can use energy manipulation to study and pray more powerfully, and also learn some cool psychic abilities like seeing spirits, intuition, supernal wisdom, enhanced senses, even culminating to full blown spiritual experiences.

And this is all based on energy (which requires careful training).

Now, the term “spirits” can sound like something out of fairy-tail, they are essentially a form of organized consciousness, and consciousness is also a form of very subtle energy. Most of us don’t perceive spirits because they are ethereal and escape our physical senses.

Yet, when we understand the Seder Hishtalshelut, the order of chaining of the spiritual worlds (for lack of a better translation), everything begins to make sense.

The Seder Hishtalshelut – Order of Emanation of the Spiritual Worlds

In the beginning, there was only Ein Sof (no end), which is the term used to describe God’s ineffable essence. This is a state that came before everything, and so it is beyond our grasp. It’s hard to ascribe any terms to it because it is by definition undefinable. Some Kabbalah books do say write that Ein Sof is the absolute essence of God, with perfect unity and impossible to understand.

In Etz Chaim (the most fundamental book of Kabbalah) the Arizal teaches us that it was only when Ein Sof contracted itself “in the middle point”, that it created an “empty void” called the Hallal HaPanui, in the shape of a “circle. I’m putting this all in quotation marks because our understand of these terms fall short of the real thing, we simply can’t truly grasp what was in that incredibly ethereal state of the world.

Either way, from the “upper side” of the void Ein Sof extended a line (Kav) of his Light until the center of the circle and began emanating the primordial energy that would create Adam Kadmon (a spiritual plane) and the 4 spiritual worlds called Atzilut (emanation), Beriyah (creation), Yetzirah (formation) and Assiyah (action).

(By the way, there is another place in Etz Chaim which tells us that the Kav extended all the way to the bottom of Adam Kadmon)

Either way, the order of the spiritual worlds show the degree of condensation of energy up until we reach the innermost point of our physical world, Assiyah (depicted in red). The red circle represents the entire observable universe.

It’s important to realize that there is an physical and a spiritual Assiyah and they both overlap. Also keep in mind that the way to “ascend” the worlds is via meditation, not through physical travel. As we are all most connected to Assiyah, it’s difficult to find people who can travel above it but the prophets would go all the way to Atzilut.

Wandering Spirits – Paranormal activity

All of this helps us understand how paranormal activity works: we are all enveloped in a sea of spiritual energy and spirits are a form of consciousness/energy. As part of this “ecosystem”, it follows then that spirits can manifest in our physical world and even influence people or objects.

Pretty much everyone once saw a movie or video in which objects move out of nowhere, scaring everyone. Well, every object has an energy field, so if a foreign sentient form of energy comes to influence it, then the object will move. And many scientific studies tell us that atoms have only a tiny real amount of mass (protons), but have electro-magnetic fields which are given by their electrons.

Paranormal activity has fascinated humanity for centuries, often invoking a mix of fear, curiosity, and skepticism. From ghost sightings to unexplained phenomena, these events are frequently interpreted as manifestations of energy movements that take physical form.

When people die, they don’t get to just “wake up” and see an “old man sleeping on a chair oblivious to everything”. We see from the writings of real Mekubalim like R’ Yehuda Fetayah that spirits often go through a series of judgments and may end up “stuck” in the lower realms, some even being able to possess people to one degree or another. It can vary from little mood variations to full-blown possession, which is rare.

People who were able to elevate their desires are not anchored to the lower physical realm and can rise easier when they die. Yet, even then, they can also choose to come back and make themselves visible to others or even assume a different form. We find many stories in the Talmud such as those of R’ Yehuda HaNasi who would come back, among many others who would reveal themselves to the sages as we find in the Zohar.

And what is possession, if not the disturbance of a person’s natural energy field by a foreign force? Our soul, which is a form of energy, can get mixed signals from other souls, be them good or bad. This explains much of the custom of praying at Kivrei Tzadikim (graves of the righteous) that we have in Jewish tradition, and also the warning the Arizal gave to Rabbi Chaim Vital not to even walk close to the graves of the wicked. We can get righteous souls to assist us and they can grant us power, but we certainly don’t want bad souls to lead us astray (chas v’shalom).

Certain souls that have not yet shed their burning desire for physical pleasures (which we all end up having even at the end of life to one extend or another), are left wandering this world and only after they shed this negative energy, can they ascend to the upper spiritual worlds. A lot of Yichudim and Kavanot to rectify souls are taught in the Kitvei Ari, some of them to remove a possessing soul from a person.

As an aside, in many cases the spirit desires to posses another person because it has some form of attraction to that person. Alternatively, it is escaping the judgment of the Kaf HaKelah and possessing a person does give it some relief.

Concluding remarks

We talked in a webinar here that possession happens when the host gives a form of permission to a spirit to enter, like a sin or actively allowing it in, because otherwise it would not be able to do anything due to the natural protection of the Ohr Makif (the surrounding light or aura).

While it’s often difficult to know if someone is possessed or not, as there can be varying degrees of paranormal activity, the unifying principle applies to everyone. And of course, let’s not forget that the best protection is holiness and purity, which comes from Hashem.

I wish you a safe journey and many blessings.