Latest / Sri Aurobindo Studies / Extending a Measure of Validity to Reports of Supra-Physical Perceptions and Experiences
Transcript
- 0:02Shwirobindo makes an important point.
- 0:05Various aspects of reports about subtle senses and superphysical
- 0:09realities as they impact our external world have been
- 0:14documented and in some cases extensively studied and
- 0:18verified. Once we accept the fact that
- 0:22there is a real and solid basis for these experiences that we
- 0:26can validate, it provides at least circumstantial support to
- 0:31the idea that, by extension, those experiences outside our
- 0:36range of perception also have a similar validity.
- 0:40This is not to say that every report and every experience is
- 0:45absolutely true and correct in every detail.
- 0:48We know that there are errors of reception, errors of
- 0:52transcription, and errors of communication that occur as
- 0:56people relate perceptions and experiences that do not have a
- 1:00clear basis for description in our understanding and our
- 1:03language. And until this understanding and
- 1:07power of expression is developed, we are surely going
- 1:11to have some amount of inaccurate or distorted
- 1:14reporting to sift through. However, this is no different
- 1:19than the objects of our physical senses and our ability to
- 1:24understand, transcribe and report those experiences, even
- 1:29though they occur within the normal range of human
- 1:32perception, Shriorobindo observes.
- 1:38It is true that the glimpse of superphysical realities acquired
- 1:42by methodical research has been imperfect, and is yet I'll
- 1:47affirmed, for the methods used are still crude and defective.
- 1:52But these rediscovered subtle senses have at least been found
- 1:55to be true witnesses to physical facts beyond the range of the
- 2:00corporeal organs. There is no justification, then,
- 2:05for scouting them as false witnesses when they testify to
- 2:08superphysical facts beyond the domain of the material
- 2:12organization of consciousness. Like all evidence, like the
- 2:17evidence of the physical senses themselves, their testimony has
- 2:22to be controlled, scrutinized and arranged by the reason
- 2:27rightly translated and rightly related, and their field laws
- 2:33and processes determined. But the truth of great ranges of
- 2:37experience, whose objects exist in a more subtle substance and
- 2:43are perceived by more subtle instruments than those of gross
- 2:46physical matter, claims in the end the same validity as the
- 2:52truth of the material universe. The world's beyond exist.
- 2:57They have their universal rhythm, their grand lines and
- 3:01formations, their self existent laws and mighty energies, their
- 3:06just and luminous means of knowledge.
- 3:10And here on our physical existence and in our physical
- 3:14body they exercise their influences.
- 3:18Here also they organize their means of manifestation and
- 3:22Commission their messengers and their witnesses.
- 3:26End Quote reference. Shrioro Bindo and the Mother.
- 3:31The Hidden Forces of Life, Chapter 6.
- 3:34Hidden Worlds and Evolutionary Forces.
- 3:37Pages 1:40 to 1:41.