According to Osho, yes: disembodied, inferior souls driven by bodily cravings can enter a person, especially when fear makes one's own soul shrink and lose mastery of the body, leaving vacant space. Such entries can disturb or harass the person. By contrast, higher souls rarely enter, and only to perform compassionate acts. Cultivating fearlessness, joy, and inner mastery prevents intrusion.
If you’re scared and not in charge of yourself, pushy bodiless souls can slip in and bother you; being brave and happy keeps them out, while kind, wise souls only visit to help.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
The same friend has also asked: can these souls who are waiting to be born enter into someone's body and harass that person?
No one can accuse Hitler of bloodshed. If God is still dispensing justice by the old standards, he will find Hitler totally innocent. He did not spill a drop of blood; he pierced no breast with his sword, he simply devised an ingenious method of killing, a means beyond description. He placed people in a gas chamber, switched on a high-voltage button and the people simply evaporated. Not a sign was left to prove they had ever existed. Hitler, for the first time, got rid of people as one boils water and turns it into vapor. He turned ten million people into gas! It is very difficult for a soul like Hitler's to find a new body quickly. And it is good it is so difficult, otherwise the earth would be in great trouble. Hitler will have to wait for a very long time, because it is extremely difficult for…
He has also asked whether these souls that linger can enter someone’s body and disturb them?
Do not talk. You spoil the whole atmosphere again. After an hour of discourse you spoil the entire atmosphere. Move quietly. There is no question of talking while moving. What has moving to do with talking? Use your legs and move. Yes, and friends who need to leave should feel absolutely free to go; once we begin, no one will leave midway. And friends for tomorrow—if you have changed and come, fine; otherwise depart quietly. Yes, those who must go, go quickly, so that there is space for those who are to sit. And no one will sit or stand here as a spectator; there is no need for spectators here. Yes, the children who are sitting up there on the steps—please move away from there, sit separately. Sit at a distance. There is no benefit in sitting here like this. Sit at a distance below; do not sit in…
Osho, you have told us what happens to the soul during that timeless interval between two births. But some points remain unresolved, regarding the bodiless soul: in that bodiless state, does the soul remain stationary or can it move about? And how does it recognize other souls? In that state, is there any possibility of a dialogue between souls?
Sometimes different types of events may also happen, but these kinds of experiences will differ. Occasionally, it may so happen that souls which are neither stationary nor in movement will enter other bodies. But to say that the souls will enter is a linguistic fallacy. It would be better to say that some body may behave in such a way that it will cause a soul to enter into it. The world of such souls is not different from ours. That world exists also beside us, close by. We are all residing in the same world. Every inch of space that is here is filled with souls. The space right here which appears empty to us is also full. There are two types of bodies which are in a state of deep receptivity. One is of those that are in great fear. Those who are in great fear cause their…
Yes, it is possible for the soul to enter another body. But the question of how to enter another's body is of no importance at all when you do not even know how the soul that resides in your own body came there. What is the earthly good of wasting our precious time in a futile discussion about entering the body of another when you do not even know how your soul has entered your own? You do not even know your soul lives in your body. You cannot even see your soul. You have no idea how to separate your soul from your body.
Another friend has asked, Osho, if the soul leaves the body, can it also enter another dead body?
It can. But there is no meaning or purpose in entering another dead body. Because that body died precisely because the soul living in it had become incapable of remaining there. That body had become useless; that’s why it was left. There is no purpose in entering such a body. Still, the possibility of entering another body does exist. But it is not a valuable question to ask how to enter someone else’s body when we don’t even know how we are sitting in our own. What benefit can we gain by pondering the futile idea of entering another’s body? We do not know how we ourselves entered this very body. We don’t know how we live in our own body. We have no experience of separating from our own body and seeing ourselves. There is no purpose in entering another’s body. Yet, scientifically one can say it is possible…