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Applying the Scientific Method to the Understanding of the Yoga-Force · Sri Aurobindo Studies

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  How do we determine whether there is any such thing as a
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  yoga force? Some treat it as a form of self
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  delusion, some as hypnotic suggestion, some as some form of
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  placebo effect of the mind, some as simply the action of other
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  forces that we simply define as yoga force without any objective
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  method of distinguishing such a force from other forces active
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  in our world and in our awareness.
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  If we apply the scientific method to this question, we find
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  that we need to have a way to eliminate other potential causes
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  of what takes place when we are considering forces that are de
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  facto invisible to our senses. We also need to look at our
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  method of knowing and determine the proper method to assure
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  ourselves of the validity of our interpretation of the forces at
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  work. Scientists are used to working
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  with unseen forces and finding ways to distinguish, measure and
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  harness them. Experiments are designed to
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  begin to limit the number of possible causes of an event or
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  action and eventually they can isolate what is taking place.
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  This happens frequently in the field of medicine where very
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  complex interactions take place to cause symptoms an individual
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  is experiencing. Much emphasis is also placed on
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  the instruments of knowing. How do we know?
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  The instruments are calibrated properly and able to measure and
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  record what is taking place in the field of consciousness?
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  It soon becomes clear that the emotional being and the mental
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  being are not competent judges, so anything they experience must
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  be subjected to further scrutiny.
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  This brings us to the types of knowing, with the ultimate type
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  being knowledge by identity as described by Sri Aurobindo in
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  The Life Divine. Knowledge by identity requires
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  the development of an inner receptivity and a systematic
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  approach to the inner experience relying on a form of intuition
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  or soul sense that can develop through patient and persistent
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  efforts. As we begin to utilize the inner
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  and the outer methods of knowledge, we can review those
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  things in our lives that remain inexplicable based on the normal
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  factors we take into account in our external world and view of
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  existence. For example, if an individual
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  has an out of body experience, sees his body from another
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  station outside, and then returns to the body and resumes
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  conscious awareness in the body, we learn a lot about the nature
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  of consciousness that defies our preconceived notions about who
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  and what we are. Such experiences are frequent,
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  and generally the individual can describe in precise detail the
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  circumstances, the actions of others in the room, the details
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  of which his physical senses are not in a position to pick up.
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  Other fields of inquiry that may bear fruit include the review of
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  the power of intuition as well as the creation of a palpable
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  atmosphere, the effect of mantric energy, and healing
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  through application of spiritual force.
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  Similarly, there is an entire range of experiences that defy
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  our mental ideas about existence and consciousness, and a close
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  exploration of these experiences can help us sift through what is
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  actually occurring. Just as scientists had to work
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  to understand the action of electricity, of radiation, of
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  gravity, and had to devise experiments, detail their
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  observations, make hypotheses and test them through a vast
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  number of trials, and then begin to apply the knowledge so gain
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  to practical technological actions, so an exploration of
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  our spiritual capacities and the action of a yoga force will
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  yield results that will be incontrovertible as to their
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  source, their power and their significance, Sri or Bindo
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  writes quote. Still, the yoga force is always
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  tangible and concrete in the way I have described, and has
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  tangible results, but it is invisible, not like a blow given
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  or the rush of a motor car knocking somebody down, which
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  the physical senses can at once perceive.
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  How is the mere physical mind to know that it is there and
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  working by its results? But how can it know that the
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  results were that of the yogic force and not of something else?
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  One of two things it must be either.
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  It must allow the consciousness to go inside, to become aware of
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  inner things, to believe in the experience of the invisible and
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  the Super physical. And then by experience, by the
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  opening of new capacities, it becomes conscious of these
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  forces and can see, follow and use their workings, just as the
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  scientist uses the unseen forces of nature.
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  Or one must have faith and watch and open oneself, and then it
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  will begin to see how things happen.
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  It will notice that when the force was called in, there began
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  after a time to be a result. Then repetitions, more
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  repetitions, more clear and tangible results, increasing
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  frequency, increasing consistency of results of
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  feeling and awareness of the force at work until the
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  experience becomes daily, regular, normal, complete.
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  These are the two main methods, one internal working from in
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  outward, the other external working from outside and calling
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  the inner force out till it penetrates and is visible in the
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  exterior consciousness. But neither can be done if one
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  insists always on the extrovert attitude, the external concrete
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  only, and refuses to join to it the internal concrete, or if the
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  physical mind at every step raises a dance of doubts which
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  refuses to allow the nascent experience to develop.
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  Even the scientist carrying on a new experiment would never
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  succeed if he allowed his mind to behave that way.
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  End Quote. Reference Srioro Bindu and the
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  Mother. The hidden forces of life.
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  Chapter 7. Spiritual Forces of Help and
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  Succor, pages 164 to 165.