EoD said:
As someone who has a similar trigger I'll explain it like this.
I don't ACTUALLY feel what is happening, however I get a phantom sensation that makes me think of whatever was said.
For example, if the person who gave me the trigger says she hugs me in italics, I feel a sensation around my arms and chest, that makes me THINK of being hugged.
Another example is she said she rubbed her nose against mine, and my nose twitched in response.
It's all mind over matter really.
I'm not sure I can understand your distinction between "feel" and "phantom sensation". As for my personal experience, one thing my partner has done is give me a trigger to make me believe I am in some public area. (Usually a bus or a store.) If he says that trigger. I will see those surroundings and those surroundings will be all I can register even if I open my eyes (which I usually can't because I'm embarrassed as hell). Kind of like when you dream, you see things, in the moment, those things are completely real, post fact, yes I can recognize "no I wasn't actually there and those things didn't happen." But in the moment I never would call myself personally aware that it is a "phantom sensation".
This is all me trying to understand what you're distinction between "phantom sensation" and "feel" is. Is the difference just if you are aware it isn't really happening? Much like how an amputee knows the sensation shouldn't be there in his amputated arm but it is?