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Mental Knowledge, Psychic Knowledge and Faith · Sri Aurobindo Studies

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  We tend to believe that mental knowledge is based in fact and
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  is certifiable and reproducible, whereas knowledge based in faith
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  is considered to be unreliable or possibly wishful thinking of
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  some sort. Our certainty about our mental
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  knowledge, however, is based heavily on faith.
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  We believe on faith that our perceptions are accurate.
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  On deeper review, we can see that we frequently mistake the
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  accuracy or validity of what we perceive based on a number of
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  factors including misinterpretation, falsehood
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  staged and presented to us as truth, manipulated data, and the
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  filtering process due to our education, past experience,
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  biases, societal norms, and expectations and prejudices.
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  With the advent of Photoshop and AI in the digital realm, we are
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  learning that we can trust almost nothing of what we see or
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  hear. Even the major AI engines are
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  known to hallucinate things, make up false references or
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  quotes, and respond based on biases.
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  Built into the way the AI engines interpret the data they
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  are looking at, we can recognize limitations of the mental
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  process and the faith required to rely on it by looking at the
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  errors, omissions, and falsifications that would occur
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  if we were to rely on AI without further verification.
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  When our mental process concludes something, we tend not
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  to question it, and thus it is a matter of faith.
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  That is, however, I'll placed when we turn to the question of
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  psychic knowledge, we acknowledge that faith in what
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  we know and experience is an essential part of the process.
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  The faith that we ordinarily attribute to religious beliefs
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  is essentially grounded in the mental process and thus subject
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  to the same kind of failures noted above.
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  The faith that is vested in the psychic knowledge is of a
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  different character. Rather than being based in the
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  mental process, psychic knowledge is something that
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  carries with it the certainty based on the existential force
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  of what comes to us in that manner.
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  Just as animals in the vital world instinctively know what to
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  do and how to do it, just as our bodies know how to operate their
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  own functions without mental input, there are certain
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  experiences and intuitions that come to an individual that are
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  self-evident truths of existence.
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  They come with such a force of rightness that the individual
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  simply accepts them for what they are.
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  The vibrational pattern, independent of our biases,
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  prejudices, interpretations, conclusions, analysis, or even
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  the perceptions of the senses, carries its own veracity with
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  it. Paramahan's Yogananda, in his
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  autobiography of a Yogi, relates how he recognized his guru when
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  he met him in person the first time.
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  There was no doubt in his mind and the connection was
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  immediate, deep and turned out to last without any break or
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  disruption. He had an experience at the
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  psychic level that told him a truth that his logical mind
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  could not have accepted without a lot of review and
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  consideration. The mother writes quote.
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  The perception of the exterior consciousness may deny the
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  perception of the psychic, but the psychic has the true
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  knowledge, an intuitive instinctive knowledge.
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  It says I know I cannot give reasons, but I know for its
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  knowledge is not mental based on experience or prove true.
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  It does not believe after proofs are given.
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  Faith is the movement of the soul, whose knowledge is
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  spontaneous and direct. Even if the whole world denies
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  and brings forward 1000 proofs to the contrary, still it knows
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  by an inner knowledge, a direct perception that can stand
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  against everything, a perception by identity.
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  The knowledge of the psychic is something which is concrete and
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  tangible, a solid mass. You can also bring it into your
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  mental, your vital and your physical.
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  And then you have an integral faith, a faith which can really
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  move mountains. But nothing in the being must
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  come and say it is not like that, or ask for a test by the
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  least half. Belief you spoil matters.
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  How can the supreme manifest if faith is not integral and
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  immovable? Faith in itself is always
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  unshakable. That is its very nature, for
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  otherwise it is not faith at all.
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  But it may happen that the mind or vital or the physical does
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  not follow the psychic movement. A man can come to a Yogi and
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  have a sudden faith that this person will lead him to his
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  goal. He does not know whether the
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  person has knowledge or not. He feels a psychic shock and
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  knows that he has met his master.
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  He does not believe after long consideration or seeing many
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  miracles, and this is the only kind of faith worthwhile.
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  You will always miss your destiny if you start arguing.
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  Some people sit down and consider whether the psychic
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  impulse is reasonable or not. End Quote.
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  Reference Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, The psychic being soul,
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  its nature, Mission and evolution.
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  Section 1. Meaning and Nature of the
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  Psychic Being, pages 43 to 44.