According to Osho, a felt spiritual presence may be imagination if desired or fantasized, but when it arises unexpectedly—often in silence, solitude, or heightened states—it brings shock, awe, even fear, as mind-made boundaries, time, and space recede. Sensitivity sharpens; the presence feels tangible. Such moments reflect attunement rather than thought; stay open, don’t deny or distract, and let the encounter deepen.
If a presence pops up by itself and makes you very awake and a bit scared, it’s likely real; if you wished it up, it’s probably just your imagination.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Osho today in the samadhi tank I could have sworn I felt your presence for a few moments. I became quite frightened. Other people have spoken of feeling your presence even as far away as england. What is this? Is it imagination? Or projection? Or something else?
For example, one day in the night you are suddenly awake, alone in your room, all is silent and dark. And you become aware of a certain presence... maybe a dead friend, maybe one of your ancestors, maybe your dead mother. But you become so frightened -- in that fear you lose that perceptivity, that perception. The presence remains there, but you are dis-connected. You put the light on, you become occupied in doing something, you start reading a book, or you turn the radio on,Just to disconnect yourself from the strange experience that was happening. Don't be afraid! This existence is yours. This existence is very friendly and there are immense mysteries waiting for you -- to be known, to be experienced. This was a beautiful moment for you. Now that it has happened, you can make it happen again and again -- and there is no necessity to…
Image spirit simultaneously within and around you until the entire universe spiritualizes.
WITH YOUR ENTIRE CONSCIOUSNESS IN THE VERY START OF DESIRE, OF KNOWING, KNOW. O SHAKTI, EACH PARTICULAR PERCEPTION IS LIMITED, DISAPPEARING IN OMNIPOTENCE. IN TRUTH FORMS ARE INSEPARATE. INSEPARATE ARE OMNIPRESENT BEING AND YOUR OWN FORM. REALIZE EACH AS MADE OF THIS CONSCIOUSNESS. You are here listening to me. This very listening can become a transformation. If you are entirely here, this very moment here and now, if listening is your entirety, that listening will become a meditation: you will enter a different realm of ecstasy, a separate reality. But you are not entire. That is the problem with the human mind, it is always partial. A part is listening. Other parts may be somewhere else, or may be asleep, or may be thinking about what is being said, or arguing inside. That creates a division and division is a dissipation of energy. So when doing anything bring your entire…
Osho, if in your presence a person has an inner experience but later cannot, what is that? Would you call it a direction toward liberation or dependence?
There can be two kinds of reasons. In fact there can be many, but broadly two will do. - One: he may only be imagining, not actually experiencing. Even for imagination my presence gives support. Alone, even imagining becomes difficult. Imagination too asks for props. So in my presence he will be able to imagine more easily, and it will be easier to mistake imagination for experience. At home, if the same kind of thing happened, he might suspect it is only imagination. - The other, less frequent, possibility: you did not imagine; you actually took a leap. For a moment you jumped two feet off the ground; you lifted your head and saw a little higher. Then you fell back to the ground. That is possible too. Both can be useful. Even imagination is an indicator that you want to imagine—really, that you want to experience; that is why…
Consider your essence as light rays from center to center up the vertebrae, and so rises "livingness" in you.
OR IN THE SPACES BETWEEN, FEEL THIS AS LIGHTNING. FEEL THE COSMOS AS A TRANSLUCENT EVER-LIVING PRESENCE. In India, because of this, we have developed a particular yoga which we call SAHAJ YOGA. SAHAJ means spontaneous, easy, natural. Always remember SAHAJ. If you feel any technique spontaneously coming to you, if you feel more affinity with it, if you feel better with it -- more healthy, more alive, more at home -- then that is the method for you. Move with it; you can trust it. Don't create unnecessary problems. And the inner mechanism is very complex. If you do something which is too much for you, you may destroy many things. So it is better to move with something which feels harmonious to you. The third technique: <q>"FEEL THE COSMOS AS A TRANSLUCENT EVER-LIVING PRESENCE."</q> This again is concerned with light: "FEEL THE COSMOS AS A TRANSLUCENT EVER-LIVING PRESENCE."…
Beloved Osho, when I told you I saw you empty, you said, "emptiness in you is a `real' experience." you said that twice. My understanding of the proof of reality is that it -- the observed -- remains with awareness, whereas imagination dissolves. Seeing you empty did not return and as much as I try it will not return. And yet something has remained with me, something will not leave me since seeing you like that. Is that reality, Osho?
It is reality, there is just a little confusion -- which is natural. I have said that with awareness imagination disappears but the reality remains. You saw me absent or empty and I said this is real. Then you tried to see me empty again but you forgot one thing, that while you are trying you cannot be aware. So it is not that my emptiness was your imagination. Just be aware and you will see the emptiness again, but don't try -- because for the first time when it happened you were not trying, you were simply sitting silently here listening, and out of nowhere you felt the emptiness. It will come in the same way, without even knocking on your doors. With effort you cannot bring it. It is not imagination. But the other half you have forgotten. In the silence you were aware without any effort, and…