I would agree, Dianavan, that ultimately a spirit being is not in the human form...it's beyond the human form, but the mind can translate the spirit into a human form if that is what the mind is comfortable with. That's why people in different religious traditions often see different figures out of those traditions when they see a divine apparition, while they may not see a figure out of some other tradition. Their own expectations tend to shape the way they see what they are seeing, byt what are they truly seeing in the ultimate sense? Who can say? I am simply aware that one of my spirit helpers comes across as a male person, the other as a female. I can sense it.

I think there are probably about a million different ways of experiencing and interpreting such things, and one's own cultural expectations may play a big part.

I agree that the spirits of ancestors play an important part in guiding embodied people. No question about that, as far as I'm concerned.

Rather like Daylia and Donuel I sometimes see a whitish aura coming off the body. It rises kind of like steam off the body. I have to be very relaxed for this to happen so that I'm aware of it. I usually see it coming off my own body when I'm sitting in a theatre waiting for a movie to start or some situation like that. You have to sort of not have your mind on anything in particular at the time....all of sudden you notice this steamy stuff. Quite mysterious!