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The Inevitable Emergence of New Powers of Consciousness Is Difficult for the Mind of Man to Envision · Sri Aurobindo Studies

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  We live in a time of incredible feats of technological progress.
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  Digital technologies, quantum computing, wireless transmission
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  of energy, solar power, airplane flights, Space Flight, landing
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  on the moon, instant communications of audio and
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  video content worldwide are things we tend to take for
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  granted. Just 50 or 100 years ago,
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  however, many of these technological wonders were
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  considered to be fanciful or the stuff of science fiction.
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  These technologies are evidence of the power of imagination and
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  the power of persistent organization of mental force to
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  understand and harness the powers of nature.
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  We can observe that there is an ascending power of consciousness
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  as we move up the evolutionary scale, such that the power of
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  the logical reasoning, intellect and power such as imagination,
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  intuition, creative vision have developed within mankind to a
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  markedly higher degree than anything we can witness in the
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  plant or animal Kingdom. We can also observe that certain
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  phenomena that have historically been limited to a very rare
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  group of individuals, such as clairaudience, clairvoyance,
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  intuition, creativity, spiritual and psychic powers of vision,
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  understanding and action, are becoming somewhat more
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  widespread and at the same time are slowly gaining more
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  acceptance in the scientific and intellectual community.
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  Institutes have set up studies to and confirm that certain
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  powers are indeed both real and able to be developed, which
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  heretofore were treated with considerable skepticism.
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  While there is still a considerable amount of doubt and
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  confusion with regard to some of these powers, in many cases due
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  to misunderstandings perpetuated in the popular media or due to a
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  considerable amount of fraud surrounding some of these powers
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  being active in specific individuals, there is no doubt
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  and increasing awareness of both the reality and the potential
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  benefits of developing these powers.
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  Medical science in particular has begun to recognize that the
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  power of thought can be harnessed to control computer
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  input. Prosthetic limbs can be
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  controlled by thought as well. Many people are now beginning to
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  understand that even the dramatic development of
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  technology in our external lives is the result of the unleashing
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  of powers that have developed within.
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  Nikola Tesla and Albert Einstein both testified to the fact that
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  their creativity and insights were not based solely in the
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  accepted logical stepwise process of the intellect, but
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  relied instead on creative vision and inspiration.
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  They, among others, are recognizing that the evolution
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  of consciousness is not completed and that naturally new
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  powers will manifest as this process continues.
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  Just as 100 years ago people could not imagine the
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  possibility of humanity traveling to the moon landing
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  and returning other than in fanciful science fiction
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  stories, so also we must note that developing powers of
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  consciousness are not easily imagined by the vast mass of
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  humanity that can only see and accept what is manifest right
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  before their eyes. Few are those who can envision
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  the actual trajectory of the development of consciousness and
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  thereby see where this development is taking us in the
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  future. Sri Aurobindo writes quote.
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  An evolution of innate and latent but as yet unevolved
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  powers of consciousness is not considered admissible by the
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  modern mind, because these exceed our present formulation
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  of nature, and to our ignorant preconceptions, founded on a
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  limited experience, they seem to belong to the supernatural, to
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  the miraculous and occult. For they surpassed the known
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  action of material energy, which is now ordinarily accepted as
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  the sole cause and mode of things and the sole
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  instrumentation of the world force.
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  A human working of marvels by the conscious being discovering
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  and developing an instrumentation of material
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  forces overpassing anything that Nature has herself organized, is
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  accepted as a natural fact and an almost unlimited prospect of
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  our existence. An awakening, a discovery and
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  instrumentation of powers of consciousness and of spiritual,
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  mental, and life forces overpassing anything that nature
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  or man has yet organized, is not admitted as possible.
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  But there would be nothing supernatural or miraculous in
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  such an evolution, except in so far as it would be a supernature
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  or superior nature to that of animal or plant or material
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  objects. Our mind and its powers, our use
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  of reason, our mental intuition and insight, speech,
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  possibilities of philosophical, scientific, aesthetic discovery
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  of the truths and potencies of being, and a control of its
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  forces, are an evolution that has taken place.
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  Yet it would seem impossible if we took our stand on the limited
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  animal consciousness and its capacities, for there is nothing
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  there to warrant so prodigious a progression.
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  But still there are vague initial manifestations,
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  rudimentary elements or arrested possibilities in the animal, to
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  which our reason and intelligence, with their or
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  extraordinary developments, stand as an unimaginable journey
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  from a poor and unpromising point of departure.
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  The rudiments of spiritual power belong to Gnostic supernature,
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  are similarly there even in our ordinary composition, but only
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  occasionally and sparsely active.
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  It is not irrational to suppose that at this much higher stage
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  of the evolution, a similar but greater progression starting
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  from these rudimentary beginnings might lead to another
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  immense development and departure.
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  End Quote. Reference Srioro Bindu and the
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  Mother Powers within Chapter One.
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  Latent Powers, pages 3:00 to 4:00.