{"id":1647,"date":"2013-07-13T01:36:13","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:36:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=1647"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:36:13","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:36:13","slug":"34-unusual-experiences-and-states-of-consciousness-vol-35-letters-on-himself-and-the-ashram","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/01-works-of-sri-aurobindo\/03-cwsa\/35-letters-on-himself-and-the-ashram\/34-unusual-experiences-and-states-of-consciousness-vol-35-letters-on-himself-and-the-ashram","title":{"rendered":"-34_Unusual Experiences and States of Consciousness.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\n\n
\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\tUnusual Experiences and <\/font><\/b>
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\nStates of Consciousness<\/font><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n 
\n<\/b>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nVisions of Unknown People
\n<\/b> <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tYes, of course, I remember about Baroda Babu \u2014  I can’t say
\nI remember him because I never saw him, at least in the flesh. What he probably means by the Supramental is the Above Mind
\n\u2014  what I now call Illumined Mind \u00ad Intuition \u00ad Overmind. I used to make that confusion myself at the beginning.
\n\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nThere is not enough to go upon to say whether he really sees the Mother or an image of her is reflected in his own mind. But
\nthere is nothing extraordinary, much less impossible in seeing a person whom one has never seen
\n\u2014  you are thinking as if the
\ninner mind and sense, the inner vision were limited by the outer mind and sense, the outer vision, or were a mere reflection of
\nthat. There would be not much use in an inner mind and sense and vision if they were only that and nothing more. This faculty
\nis one of the elementary powers of the inner sense and inner seeing and not only Yogins have it, but ordinary clairvoyants,
\ncrystal-gazers etc. The latter can see people they never knew, saw or heard of before, doing certain precise things in certain very
\nprecise surroundings, and every detail of the vision is confirmed afterwards by the persons seen
\n\u2014  there are many striking and
\nindubitable cases of that kind. The Mother is always seeing people whom she does not know; some afterwards come here or
\ntheir photographs come here. I myself have these visions, only I don’t usually try to remember or verify them. But there were two
\ncurious instances which were among the first of their kind and which therefore I remember. Once I was trying to see a recently
\nelected deputy here and saw someone quite different from him, someone who afterwards came here as Governor. I ought never
\nto have met him in the ordinary course, but a curious mistake happened and as a result I went and saw him in his bureau and
\nat once recognised him. The other was a certain V. Ramaswamy   <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 <\/font>383<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n

whom I had to meet, but I saw him not as he was when he actually came, but as he became after a year’s residence in my
\nhouse. He became the very image of that vision, a face close-cropped, rough, rude, energetic, the very opposite of the dreamy
\nsmooth-faced enthusiastic Vaishnava who came to me. So that was the vision of a man I had never seen, but as he was to be in
\nthe future \u2014  a prophetic vision. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n24 October 1934
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n 
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nThe Stone-Throwing Incident
\n<\/b> <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tThese stone-throwing or stone-producing incidents and similar
\nextraordinary occurrences which go outside the ordinary course of physical Nature happen frequently in India and are not un
\nknown elsewhere; they are akin to what are called poltergeist phenomena in Europe. Scientists don’t say or think anything
\nof such supernormal happenings except to pooh-pooh them or to prove that they are simply the tricks of children simulating
\nsupernatural manifestations. It was only three or four stones that fell inside a room, the others were thrown from outside and
\nin the last period banged day after day against the closed door of Bijoy Nag who was sheltering inside the servant boy who became
\nthe centre of the phenomena. As the boy got wounded by two of the last stones, we sent him away to another house with the
\nidea that then the phenomena would cease and it so happened. As a rule these things need certain conditions to happen
\n\u2014  e.g. a
\nhouse which becomes the field of the action of these supernormal forces and a person (usually psychologically ill-developed) who
\nis very often their victim as well as their centre. If the person is removed elsewhere, the phenomena often stop but sometimes
\nhis aura is so strong for these things that the house aura is not needed \u2014  they continue wherever he or she goes. As for the other
\nnecessary factor it is supposed to be elemental beings who are the agents. Sometimes they act on their own account, sometimes
\nthey are controlled and used by a person with occult powers. It was supposed here that some magic must have been used
\n\u2014  such
\nmagic is common in the Tamil country and indeed in all South India. The stones were material enough, a huge heap of them
\n  
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 <\/font>384<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n\twere collected and remained at the staircase bottom for two or three days, so they were not thoughts taking a brick form.
\nIt was evidently a case of materialisation probably preceded by a previous dematerialisation and “transport”
\n\u2014  the bricks
\nbecame first visible in their flight at a few feet from the place where they fell.
\n\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nScientific laws only give a schematic account of material processes of Nature
\n\u2014  as a valid scheme they can be used for
\nreproducing or extending at will a material process, but obviously they cannot give an account of the thing itself. Water
\nfor instance is not merely so much oxygen and hydrogen put together \u2014  the combination is simply a process or device for
\nenabling the materialisation of a new thing called water; what that new thing really is is quite another matter. In fact there
\nare different planes of substance, gross, subtle and more subtle    .<\/i>
\ngoing back to what is called causal (kārana<\/i>) substance. What is more gross can be reduced to the subtle state and the subtle
\nbrought into the gross state; that accounts for dematerialisation and materialisation and rematerialisation. These are occult
\nprocesses and are vulgarly regarded as magic. Ordinarily the magician knows nothing of the why and wherefore of what he
\nis doing, he has simply learned the formula or process or else controls elemental beings of the subtler states (planes or worlds)
\nwho do the thing for him. The Tibetans indulge widely in occult processes; if you see the books of Madame David-Neel who has
\nlived in Tibet you will get an idea of their expertness in these things. But also the Tibetan Lamas know something of the laws
\nof occult (mental and vital) energy and how it can be made to act on physical things. That is something which goes beyond
\nmere magic. The direct power of mind-force or life-force upon matter can be extended to an almost illimitable degree
\n\u2014  but
\nthat has nothing to do with the stone-throwing affair which is of a lower and more external order. In your (2) and (3) different
\noperations seem to be confused together, (1) the creation of mere (subtle) images which the one who sees may mistake for real
\nthings, (2) the temporary materialisation of subtle substance into forms capable of cognition not only by the sight but by material
\n   <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 <\/font>386<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n

touch or other sense, (3) the handling of material objects by mind-energy or vital force, e.g. making a pencil move and write
\non paper. All these things are possible and have been done. It must be remembered that Energy is fundamentally one in all
\nthe planes, only taking more and more dense forms, so there is nothing a priori
\n<\/i>impossible in mind-energy or life-energy acting
\ndirectly on material energy and substance; if they do they can make a material object do things or rather can do things with
\na material object which would be to that object in its ordinary poise or “law” unhabitual and therefore apparently impossible.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nI do not see how cosmic rays can explain the origination of matter; it is like Sir Oliver Lodge’s explanation of life on earth
\nthat it comes from another planet; it only pushes the problem one step farther back
\n\u2014  for how do the cosmic rays come into
\nexistence? But it is a fact that Agni is the basis of forms as the Sankhya pointed out long ago, i.e. the fiery principle in its three
\npowers radiant, electric and gaseous (the Vedic trinity of Agni) is the agent in producing liquid and solid forms of what is called
\nmatter.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nObviously a layman can’t do these things, unless he has a native “psychic” (that is, occult) faculty and even then he will have to learn the law of the thing before he can use it at will. It is al
\nways possible to use spiritual force or mind-power or will-power or a certain kind of vital energy to produce effects in men, things
\nand happenings; but knowledge and much practice is needed before this possibility ceases to be occasional and haphazard and
\ncan be used quite consciously, at will or to perfection. Even then to have “a control over the whole material world” is too big a
\nproposition; a local and partial control is more possible or, more widely, certain kinds of control over matter.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n24 October 1938 <\/font> <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t*<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t  <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAbout the occult phenomenon of the house and the stones etc. What was it?
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tI gave this as one instance of actual occult experience and action in accordance with occult law and practice, showing that these
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 <\/font>386<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n\t\t\tthings are not imaginations or delusions or humbug, but can be
\ntrue phenomena. The stone-throwing began unobtrusively with a few stones thrown at the Guest House kitchen
\n\u2014  apparently
\nfrom the terrace opposite, but there was no one there. The phenomenon began before the fall of dusk and continued at first for
\nhalf an hour, but daily it increased in frequency, violence and the size of the stones and the duration of the attack till it lasted for
\nseveral hours until it towards the end became in the hour or half hour before midnight a regular bombardment. It was no longer
\nat the kitchen only, but thrown too in other places, e.g. the outer verandah. At first we took it for a human-made affair and sent
\nfor the police, but the investigation lasted only for a very short time; when one of the constables in the verandah got a stone
\nwhizzing unaccountably between his legs, the police abandoned the case in a panic. We made our own investigations, but the
\nplaces whence the stones seemed to be or might be coming were void of human stone-throwers. Finally, as if to put us kindly out
\nof doubt, the stones began falling in closed rooms; one huge one (I saw it immediately after it fell) reposed flat and comfortable
\non a cane table as if that was its proper place. To wind up, they became murderous. The stones had hitherto been harmless in
\nresult except for a daily battering of Bijoy’s door which (in the last days) I had watched for half an hour the night before the
\nend. They appeared in mid-air a few feet above the ground, not coming from a distance but suddenly manifesting, and from the
\ndirection from which they flew, should have been thrown close in from the compound of the Guest House or the verandah itself,
\nbut the whole place was in a clear light and I saw that there was no human being there and could not have been. At last the semi
\nidiot boy-servant who seemed to be the centre of the attack and was sheltered in Bijoy’s room under Bijoy’s protection began
\nto be severely hit and was bleeding from a wound by stones thrown from inside the closed room. I went in at Bijoy’s call
\nand saw the last stone fall on the boy; Bijoy and he were sitting side by side and the stone was thrown at them from in front,
\nbut there was no one visible to throw it \u2014  the two were alone in the room. So unless it was Wells’s invisible man
\n\u2014  ! We had
\n  <\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 <\/font>387<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n

been only watching or sometimes scouting around till then, but this was a little too much, it was becoming dangerous, and
\nsomething had to be done. The Mother from her knowledge of the process of these things decided that the process here must
\ndepend on a nexus between the boy-servant and the house and if the nexus were broken, the servant and the house separated, the
\nstone-throwing would cease. We sent him away to Hrishikesh’s place and immediately the whole phenomenon ceased; not a
\nsingle stone was thrown after that, peace reigned. That shows that these occult phenomena are real, have a law or process, as
\ndefinite as that of any scientific operation and a knowledge of these processes can not only bring them about but put an end to
\nor annul or dissolve them. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n6 February 1943
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n 
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nUnconsciousness of the Body
\n<\/b>
\n\t\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tWhen the consciousness merges in the Self very little sense of
\nmy body remains. I do not know what it does or holds or even where it lies.
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tThat is usual. I was in that way unconscious of the body for many years.
\n\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n15 October 1934 <\/font> <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t 
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nThinking Outside the Body
\n<\/b>
\n\t\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tOwing to much reading I feel a strain and dryness in the head and find it difficult to sleep. But while reading and remembering I feel as if the process goes on somewhere in the chest, not in the head, and yet the strain is felt in the head. Why is this
\nso? <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tThe chest action is rather curious, because it is the vital mind that
\nis there and the Romans always spoke of the mind as if it were in the heart. But memory and reading would rather be in the
\nphysical mind. But anyhow the brain is a conveying instrument for all these activities and can feel the strain if there is any. The
\nbest relief for the brain is when the thinking takes place outside the body and above the head (or in space or at other levels but
\nstill outside the body). At any rate it was so in my case; for as  
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 <\/font>388<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n\tsoon as that happened there was an immense relief; I have felt body strain since then but never any kind of brain-fatigue. I have
\nheard the same thing from others. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n19 December 1934
\n  
\n  
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n 
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 <\/font>389<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n \t\t\t<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Unusual Experiences and States of Consciousness   Visions of Unknown People   Yes, of course, I remember about Baroda Babu \u2014  I can’t say I…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1647","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-35-letters-on-himself-and-the-ashram","wpcat-37-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1647","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1647"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1647\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}