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Applying Knowledge Criteria Appropriate to Each Domain According to Its Own Law of Nature · Sri Aurobindo Studies

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  We frequently try to know things based on a particular capacity
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  of our being. However, this may not always be
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  the correct way to appreciate and understand what is actually
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  taking place. Trying to understand music, for
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  instance, by applying the logical intellect and trying to
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  parse the sounds, notes, and combinations is going to be an
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  exercise in futility. Music must be appreciated
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  through a different type of evaluation than that of the
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  logical intellect. Similarly, as long as we are
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  dealing with the strict logic of the material world, it may be
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  appropriate to apply that logic to events, and thus we can know
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  how our technology operates. We can plan according to the
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  movements of time. We can expect a series of
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  sequence of events to occur based on known factors within
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  our knowledge. What does not work is the
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  attempt to study other domains, worlds or cult forces with the
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  same methodology, techniques and ways of knowing that we use for
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  these external phenomena. There is much debate about
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  whether, for instance, life or intelligence can exist in other
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  worlds on a basis other than the carbon base that we are familiar
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  with in our world. Science fiction writers thus
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  speculate about the existence of silicon based units, which would
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  have totally different capabilities and limitations
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  that we have as carbon based units ourselves.
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  When we try to extrapolate the existence of other domains,
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  worlds, forces, powers or ways of knowing based on our physical
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  existence and our reliance on external senses and the
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  interaction with the operations of a nervous system and brain,
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  all limited by a specific range in the spectrum that we can
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  perceive, we quickly find out that different rules or laws of
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  nature operate on these different planes.
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  We also find that they may occupy the same space to the
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  extent they are not physically manifested, such that thought
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  forms or vital forces coexist with us in the physical world.
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  And thus mental beings and vital beings occupying their own
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  domains may be constantly within the space-time that we occupy,
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  just vibrating at a different frequency and occupying thereby
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  a different space that is nevertheless coexistent with
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  what we know of as our world. We may look at the concept of
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  frequency bandwidths used to transmit wireless communication.
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  Each bandwidth occupies a different level based on the
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  wavelength it manifests, and all of these different wavelengths
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  are all moving at the same time through our atmosphere without
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  interfering with each other and nevertheless carrying data to
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  those receivers we have built that can receive and decode
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  those transmissions. In some cases where the
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  bandwidths approach one another, there may be some overlap or
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  static occurring to the extent that our use of the bandwidth is
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  at all imprecise, but for the most part the signal carried at
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  each bandwidth comes through correctly without interfering
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  with a signal sent along a different bandwidth.
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  The strict separation of bandwidth analogy breaks down to
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  some extent when one recognizes that there are conscious beings
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  on the various planes who may be aware of and actively working to
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  communicate with and exert an influence on our physical lives,
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  and that the material world we live in is already permeated
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  with the interactive forces of a vital and mental nature.
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  Our world is not purely material, but incorporates
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  elements of vital mental and spiritual domains in a complex,
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  interrelated and interactive mix that automatically draws upon
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  and provides a field of expression to these other
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  vibratory planes. Thus, there is no reason to deny
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  out of hand the existence of any number of other worlds or
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  domains consisting of vital forces and beings or mental
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  forces and beings or spiritual forces and beings, without
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  having to find a physical planet or locate elsewhere than right
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  here where we are. We just need the ability to see
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  them by being able to tune into the wavelength at which they are
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  vibrating. This is not dissimilar to the
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  fact that even on the physical plane where we live, there are
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  beings that exist outside our ability to see them until we
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  develop the tools such as electron microscopes to observe
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  plankton or bacteria or viruses, for instance, Sri Aurobindo
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  observes quote. It is a fact that mankind,
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  almost from the beginning of its existence, or so far back as
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  history or tradition can go, has believed in the existence of
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  other worlds and in the possibility of communication
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  between their powers and beings and the human race.
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  It is evident that the beliefs of the past are not a sufficient
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  basis for knowledge, even though they cannot be entirely
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  neglected, for a belief is a mental construction and may be a
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  wrong building. It may often answer to some
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  inner intimation, and then it has a value, but as often as not
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  it disfigures the intimation, usually by a translation into
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  terms familiar to our physical and objective experience, such
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  as that which converted the hierarchy of the planes into a
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  physical hierarchy or geographical space extension,
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  turned the rarer heights of subtle substance into material
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  heights, and placed the abodes of the gods on the summits of
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  physical mountains. All truth, supra, physical or
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  physical, must be founded not on mental belief alone, but on
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  experience. But in each case experience must
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  be of the kind, physical, subliminal, or spiritual, which
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  is appropriate to the order of the truths into which we are
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  empowered to enter. Their validity and significance
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  must be scrutinized, but according to their own law, and
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  by a consciousness which can enter into them, and not
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  according to the law of another domain, or by a consciousness
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  which is capable only of truths of another order.
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  So alone can we be sure of our steps and enlarge firmly our
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  sphere of knowledge. End Quote Reference Shriorobindo
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  and the Mother, The Hidden Forces of Life Chapter 6 Hidden
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  Worlds and Evolutionary Forces, page 135.