When participants in an online session connect—whether through video, voice, or even text—they encounter something quietly profound: presence. This isn’t just metaphorical—it’s a measurable, felt sense of being-with that digital theorists have long explored. Lombard and Ditton (2006), whose work informed much of the early thinking around presence in virtual spaces, help us understand this not as a binary (present or not), but as a spectrum shaped by how we relate, how we show up, and how the medium itself interacts with us. This sense of online presence is where the numinous moments can arise.
Below are a few key dimensions of online presence that deeply inform coaching, therapy, and spiritual guidance in digital space.
Social Richness: Warmth in the Interface
Presence is often felt when the environment feels personal, intimate, and authentic. Coaches and therapists can co-create this warmth through tone, rhythm, visual cues, and even the design of their digital spaces.
While some default to neutral, corporate Zoom backgrounds, a thoughtfully chosen setting—even a simple bookshelf or curated object—can evoke a sense of psychological closeness. Presence is not just what we say online, but how we shape the space in which it lands.
Realism: Authentic Selves in a Virtual World
We often equate realism with physicality—but realism in online work comes through authenticity. The capacity to be real is not dependent on being in the same room. In fact, when we show up fully in the online space—with congruence between our words, energy, and tone—we generate a realism that transcends the screen.
The decline of the term “RL” (Real Life) to describe offline life is telling. Increasingly, we acknowledge that life is lived online and off. The divide is no longer as stark—only our presence, or lack thereof, creates the distinction.
Transportation: Meeting in the Middle
Traditional in-person sessions came with the assumption that one party (often the client) traveled to the other’s space. Online work dismantles this. The meeting space becomes a shared, mutual portal. Cyberspace is not “nowhere”—it’s a between place, a bridge-space we co-inhabit. This shift can foster a sense of equality and co-creation.
It also means we must become intentional about transitions. The absence of physical travel can save time, but it can also blur boundaries. Creating rituals before and after sessions—perhaps a breath practice, brief journaling, or a walk outdoors—can help ground the work in embodied rhythm.
Immersion: Presence as Absorption
Immersion is less about technology and more about engagement. Whether through narrative, dreamwork, or deep dialogue, a client may become immersed in their inner world, even while sitting in front of a laptop.
Yes, full VR immersion with visors and haptic suits is an emerging frontier—but meaningful immersion already happens when client and practitioner attune so fully to the process that the digital container disappears. Presence takes over.
Medium as Social Actor: Technology as Mirror
Increasingly, the medium itself participates in the interaction. From automated scheduling tools to AI-enhanced journaling apps or chatbot companions like Woebot, we see technology not only facilitating but sometimes engaging in therapeutic-style processes.
While we must remain discerning, these tools also raise powerful questions: Can presence be simulated? Can digital mirrors reflect back emotional truths? Perhaps what’s most important is that we recognize where presence is forming—and respond to it with care and ethics.
Spiritual Presence and the Numinous Online
Finally, we must distinguish between technological presence and what may be described as spiritual presence—a felt sense of connection that transcends words and time zones.
Psychologist Stanislav Grof spoke of nonordinary states of consciousness, and Jung himself recognized that the “approach to the numinous is the real therapy.” Numinous experiences—those charged with mystery, awe, or sacred resonance—are not bound to in-person rituals. They can and do occur online.
In spiritual coaching, these moments often appear as insight, synchronicity, or subtle energetic shifts. Words, intention, and focused attention become vessels of presence—like a beam directed soul-to-soul, beyond bandwidth or browser.
Presence Is the Practice
Whether we’re sitting in a circle or connecting by screen, presence is not a given—it is cultivated. As guides, coaches, and therapists, our task is to enter the digital temenos with the same reverence we bring to any sacred encounter.
And perhaps in this modern mythic landscape, the screen becomes a mirror, the internet a dreamscape, and presence a bridge between inner and outer worlds—reminding us that soul travels well.
Adapted from: Nagel, D.M. & Anthony, K. (2023). Reading between the lines: Numinous moments in online coaching. In D.M. Nagel & M.L. Akridge (Eds). Case Studies in Spiritual Coaching: A Survey Across Wellness, Life and Work Domains. Charles C. Thomas, Publisher.
Want a Neo-Jungian spin on nonlocal presence?
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Holding Space Across Distance: A Neo-Jungian View of Telepresence
