Six reasons you may feel like a walk-in… when you aren’t one
Ever since I wrote that article about typical experiences of a walk-in and the several soul-swap scenarios that can happen, a lot of folks have reached out to tell me their story and ask if it’s possible that they might be a walk-in. (You can read a bunch of fascinating stories from readers in the comments under that article!)
Let’s recap! A true walk-in is a person who has experienced a soul exchange during this lifetime — they were born with one soul, and it was later replaced by a different soul.
You may have read or heard somewhere about what it feels like to be a walk-in. And if you recognized one or several of those “symptoms” in yourself, that can definitely make you wonder if perhaps you too have experienced a soul swap and didn’t know about it!
Here are some experiences that make people suspect they might be a walk-in:
not feeling connected to the family of origin and friends (always or only after a certain point in life)
feeling uncomfortable in one’s body, as if it’s not really their own
a noticeable change in the personality, habits, interests, or feelings towards loved ones
feeling completely out of place in the world, not sure what one is supposed to do with their time on Earth, life doesn’t make a lot of sense
If you checked a couple of these boxes, does it mean that you’re a walk-in?
Not necessarily!
Here are six phenomena that can make you feel that you might be a walk-in when you actually aren’t one:
1) You’re new to this planet.
If you’ve been consuming a lot of spiritual content, then you’ve probably come across this concept that a percentage of souls currently incarnated on Earth actually come from other civilizations — other planets, galaxies, dimensions. They’re often called Starseeds, and many of us who ask deep questions and read blogs such as this are Starseeds. :)
Some Starseeds have incarnated as humans many times and are now fairly comfortable in this crazy place. But if it’s your very first, or one of your first lifetimes on Earth, you may be feeling terribly out of place, disoriented, and puzzled by how this reality operates.
If you chose parents who are very different from you on a soul level (perhaps they’re Earthly souls or come from a very different soul group), you may also feel like you have nothing in common with your family of origin.
You will feel different from everyone you meet, like you see everything from a different perspective and no one really understands your point of view.
You may also feel somewhat uncomfortable in your body — because having a solid, dense physical from is a new and strange experience for someone from an advanced off-planet civilization.
There’s been the same soul in your body since the moment of birth — you’re just struggling with being embodied and getting used to operating in this strange world that is planet Earth.
Don’t despair — countless people around you feel the same way, they just don’t talk about it. It’s very common to feel different and out of place! And when you meet souls who are more similar to you, perhaps from the same civilization, you’ll feel “at home”.
2) You incarnated “in a rush”, without much prior planning.
Typically, a soul gets to plan its upcoming incarnation, map out the overall journey of this life, create soul contracts with family of origin, life partner(s), other important people... When the person is born, their life kind of “makes sense” and their relationships are typically meaningful. There’s a sense of purpose, and there are lessons they’re learning.
In rare cases, a soul is incarnated without much of a plan — it didn’t have time to prepare… Maybe it just arrived from another “mission” and there was no time to plan before jumping into the next incarnation, so it picked whatever “body” was available and got to work. Or perhaps another soul that was supposed to be born as this baby changed its mind at the last moment, and another soul (you) took its place, at a point that was still before birth.
In this case, it may feel like your life doesn’t make a lot of sense, your connections with people are sort of random and not very meaningful, and you’re not quite sure what you’re here to do or learn. It’s like you got airdropped somewhere without a map nor instructions on what to do.
3) You were supposed to incarnate in a different body/family/location, and there was a sudden change of plan.
This is another rare scenario. Your soul has planned an upcoming incarnation, chosen a location and culture to come into, chose a set of parents, set up contracts with people in the area to play important roles for you in this life (and you for them) — partner, friends, mentors, community groups… There was a dedicated place prepared for you in this interconnected fabric of reality.
…But instead of being born into that family, suddenly you get born to a different set of parents, possibly in another country, with none of your soul friends around.
This can happen by choice, necessity, or due to malicious interference.
Sometimes souls that are supposed to be “bright lights” and make a difference in the world are maliciously tricked or forced to swap places with another soul right before the moment of birth, and they end up in a family where they will experience abuse and trauma — all to dim their light and hold them back from fulfilling their mission.
Sometimes other people’s choices will result in a change of plan for us: let’s say our chosen parents didn’t follow their own life plan and broke up, or one of them unexpectedly died right before you were about to come into that family. And if your soul is in a hurry to come to Earth and help humanity, you might quickly find another set of parents somewhere that would provide somewhat similar learning opportunities, and you would be born to them instead.
In the best case, your soul will have a bit of time to re-plan, and will adjust and find its way. In the worst case, you may feel like you have no connection with these parents. Some young children (who still have access to their soul memories) may even say, “You’re not my mom/dad! Where are my real parents?” (true story)
And if you’re born in very different country or part of the world, you may feel like you were born “in a wrong place” and are supposed to be somewhere else instead, or even develop an unusual interest in a different country or culture.
Unless you find your way to the originally planned location(s), most of the people that you were supposed to meet and have meaningful connections with — friends, partner, community — are likely out of reach now, and you’ll have to create new soul contracts as you go, or just choose in the moment who to invite into your life.
You may feel like your life doesn’t make a lot of sense, you don’t really belong in your environment, you’re not particularly attached to anyone or anything around you.
4) You experienced an “upgrade”.
Some people get to experience a shift in their personality, interests, level of consciousness, and so on. We’re not talking about a gradual natural process of growth and evolution — this is a more abrupt change that may leave one feeling like a different person. It’s fair to suspect a soul swap in this situation, but that can also just be an “upgrade”…
This means: now that you’re able to hold and integrate higher frequencies, your Soul or Higher Self is able to move more of its energy into your human form, which will be experienced as a shift on many levels. Sometimes we even receive a piece of energy of a different quality than what we’re currently working with — either another aspect of our higher Being (which can be a diverse collective of energies) or a “soul braid” (a piece of soul energy of a totally different Being, like an Archangel, given to us as an aid on our mission).
Since your original soul didn’t get replaced and is still in control, this is not a walk-in.
Of course, with a higher frequency and awareness, it’s natural that we would lose interest in some lower-vibrational activities/hobbies, will want to adjust our diet towards more higher-vibrational foods, and we may feel more out of sync with people who resonated with our old self but no longer “vibe” with the new upgraded self.
5) Spirit attachments.
Often big shifts in personality and relationships can be due to another spirit or entity being present in your physical vessel alongside your actual soul.
Attached spirits, or negative entities, can affect us in a number of ways. Some can subtly inspire certain emotions and thoughts. Others can gain so much power over a person that they’re more in control of the human than the actual soul — we would call that “possession”, or “soul-switching”.
When it’s a partial possession, the original soul and the attached entity (or entities) take turns being in control, so a person may experience inconsistency in how they think, feel, and act. With a full possession, the original soul gets to spend zero time at the wheel, and the attached entity has full control of the person. This will be experienced as a drastic (seemingly permanent) personality change, the person can become cold or cruel towards family members and friends, and may try to disconnect from everyone and create a new life for themself.
This is still not a walk-in, as long as the original soul is still in/around the physical vessel and the situation is reversible: a trained practitioner can remove the attached spirit and allow the original soul to regain full control, which will bring back the old personality as well.
If an attachment was allowed to continue for a long time, folks around the affected person can definitely feel like the person is no longer the same soul that they used to know. Before giving up on someone who “has turned into a demon”, it would be very kind to first check if they can be helped — it may well be that their kind and peaceful soul is still there, suffering and seeking help!
6) Trauma.
Finally, we can be born exactly as planned, into the family we chose, and still experience all those “walk-in symptoms” mentioned above — because of things that happen during the course of this life.
One common cause is undergoing severe trauma early in life, planned or unplanned by the soul. Often it’s something that is experienced over a period of time (not an isolated incident), like ongoing physical or emotional abuse. Perhaps our parents were supposed to be tough to help us cultivate strength, but they succumbed to dark influences and ended up creating a home environment that was extremely damaging to our psyche.
We’ve got to be very careful when we want to explain someone’s experiences using a popular spiritual phenomenon like walk-in, Starseed, etc. For example, many “symptoms” of being a Starseed are shared by those who experienced emotional abuse in childhood!
Here are some experiences of childhood emotional abuse survivors that can be mistaken for signs of being a Starseed or a walk-in: feeling different and out of place, feeling disconnected from the family of origin, feeling like we were not equipped with a manual for how to live on Earth or how to be an adult, feeling like we’re missing something fundamental and don’t really understand how to cope with adult responsibilities. We may also be highly sensitive and intuitive — an ability that was developed out of a need to be vigilant around volatile, abusive people.
Trauma changes us profoundly. And when we’re not able to overcome it to a large extent, it can change our ability to follow our life plan, which has a ripple effect on our overall experience of life. We may not be able to develop a relationship with our predestined partner, we may not be able to step into our purpose and find the community we were supposed to serve, we may isolate ourself and stay in one place instead of moving to a location that was meant for our future. As a result, we’ll feel out of place, like our life doesn’t make sense, and we’re not doing what we’re supposed to.
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Well, this got dark. Let's inject some positivity into this article! 😅
Seriously though, no matter what your "soul story" is, and how far away from your original life plan you currently are, you’re endowed with a set of divine gifts as well as Free Will, which means you can always chart your own course and carve your own path in a way that makes your soul happy!
In a way, it can be freeing to know that we're not as beholden to soul contracts and predestined events as other folks, and therefore we have more freedom to consciously create a life that suits us.
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Lastly, if you're still wondering if you might be a walk-in, here's a quick, though not perfect, test. Read the analysis of your astrology birth chart (calculated off of your physical birth date). If you completely see yourself in it, chances are, there's only been one soul in this body the entire time. :)
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I hope this has expanded your understanding. However, if you’re suspecting that you’re a walk-in and it’s important for you to know the truth and have certainty, it’s always better to have it confirmed with the help of a trusted practitioner or through your own connection with your Higher Self (if reliable), rather than through reading blog articles and speculating. :)
If you need help making sense of your unique soul situation, walk-in or not,
if you want validation and a deeper understanding of who you truly are as a unique Being,
if you feel out of place, not sure what to do with your life, and want to design your own path aligned with your soul,
let’s chat about what’s possible! Grab a free consultation here
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