The Potential for Emergence of the Subliminal Powers of Mind

When we begin to recognise the inherent power of the mind, independent of any reliance on the physical senses and the nerve pathways that link them to the mind, the question then arises as to how to become aware of, bring forward and train the use of these powers that are currently subliminal within the human being. Yogic practitioners have described the inner psychology and psychological landscape and have identified the basic mind, or Manas, as well as the higher intellect, Buddhi. They have also traced the pathways of interaction between mind and our environment and they have recognised that there is a basic ‘mind-stuff’, Chitta, which vibrates with the incoming impressions and becomes agitated as waves in a churning sea, when it attaches to following and becoming involved with the source of those impressions or, at least, the impact those impressions have. They have developed a number of mechanisms to bring the Chitta to a state of quiescence, including various forms of meditation , breath control, and non-attachment to thought. When the mind comes to a state of silence and is in a state of receptivity, it can experience elements of its inherent nature, and explore subliminal powers of mind that it otherwise does not tap into when it is fully engaged with the surface impressions.

We can also expect that as the pressure of the next evolutionary stage of the expression of consciousness makes itself felt, that powers that are currently subliminal to the action of our mental mode of being, will come to the surface, grow and mature into stable, established powers that become part of the normal action of mind.

Sri Aurobindo observes: “Sight, hearing, taste, smell, touch are really properties of the mind, not of the body; but the physical mind which we ordinarily use, limits itself to a translation into sense of so much of the outer impacts as it receives through the nervous system and the physical organs. But the inner Manas has also a subtle sight, hearing, power of contact of its own which is not dependent on the physical organs. And it has, moreover, a power not only of direct communication of mind with object, — leading even at a high pitch of action to a sense of the contents of an object within or beyond the physical range, — but direct communication also of mind with mind. Mind is able too to alter, modify, inhibit the incidence, values, intensities of sense impacts. These powers of the mind we do not ordinarily use or develop; they remain subliminal and emerge sometimes in an irregular and fitful action, more readily in some minds than in others, or come to the surface in abnormal states of the being. They are the basis of clairvoyance, clairaudience, transference of thought and impulse, telepathy, most of the more ordinary kinds of occult powers, — so called, though these are better described less mystically as powers of the now subliminal action of the Manas. The phenomena of hypnotism and many others depend upon the action of this subliminal sense-mind; not that it alone constitutes all the elements of the phenomena, but it is the first supporting means of intercourse, communication and response, though much of the actual operation belongs to an inner Buddhi. Mind physical, mind supraphysical, — we have and can use this double sense mentality.”

Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, Powers Within, Chapter XIX Occult Powers of the Subliminal, pp. 148-149