Some examples:
1. You detect aggressive intent when none was intended. Ruins your day. The other person was just obsessing about troubles at home; it was nothing personal.
2. People start talking about one person's negative energy, the same way we talked about "cooties" on the playground, and it becomes a means of social isolation. Worst case -- witchcraft trials, when young women suffering from rye-ergot-induced hallucinations had to distract the community from suspecting them of going over to the devil, so they found useful scapegoats among the healers. This can be a great way for the healing community to cannibalize itself. Examples abound; the combination of New Age and conspiracy theory is especially volatile.
3. In the energetic world, a sensitive person feels a force strongly, that really is an outward projection of inner struggle. Another sensitive, unconsciously empathizing with the first person's unconscious struggle, acts out in ways that make it seem like they are the source of the first persons's perceived "negative energy". Which reinforces the first person's perception, which makes the illusory negativity appear to be stronger.
4. In the politico-military world, internal insecurity (say, the unsustainability of the military-industrial complex), gets projected outward against scapegoats or true enemies, fabricating enemies where none existed, and enlarging small enemies into dire immediate threats to our existence. So we bomb them back into the Stone Age, and their orphaned sons and daughters become true enemies, multiplied by orders of magnitude.
Blessings,
Aronaya
