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The Power of Suggestion Working Through Personal Connections · Sri Aurobindo Studies

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  There is a serious rationale behind the many spiritual paths
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  that counsel the true seeker to abandon his family, his friends,
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  his social life, and live secluded in a cave in the
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  forest, in the desert to practice his spiritual
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  discipline. All of these connections and
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  social interactions bring with them vibrational patterns that
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  express the forces of thought, the forces of emotions, the
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  forces of desires, the forces of physical and vital demand that
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  automatically enter into one and raise those similar vibrations
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  within oneself. They are not only the unspoken
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  assumptions that are part of the cultural background, but very
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  concrete expectations that arise from one's family, friends, Co
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  workers, and associates, even from strangers with whom we have
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  just a passing interaction. Even a cursory observation can
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  lead one to understand that many of the impulses that arise
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  within each individual are the result of these interactions.
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  We may enter a place that is filled with desire for certain
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  foods and suddenly we have a craving.
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  Or we may enter a place where people are expressing their
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  sexual desires and suddenly we too may feel that impulse.
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  Someone may be angry and we engage with our own angry
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  response, where someone may be deep in a state of depression
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  and we feel drained and tired after an interaction with that
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  individual. People who imbibe recreational
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  drugs frequently talk about something they call a contact
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  high, where an individual not partaking of the drug
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  nevertheless gets a glimpse of the experience just from being
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  in the environs of those who are under that influence.
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  Sometimes an individual experiences a sudden fear and it
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  takes hold of other individuals nearby.
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  People visit churches, temples, ashrams, and experience there a
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  deep sense of peace or contentment, or a blissful
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  feeling out of a similar influence from individuals who
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  are experiencing that state. In that environment it is of
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  course not possible nor necessary for everyone seeking
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  spiritual realization to try to isolate himself from others, nor
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  join in ashram. And it must be noted that such
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  isolation is in many cases counterproductive or even a
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  failure over the long term. What is required is an awareness
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  of this influence, and thus an increasing consciousness of the
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  play of forces of the vibrational patterns that are
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  provoked and the need to exercise a review and some
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  amount of self-control over them, with a recognition that
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  they are coming to one from outside and are not inherently
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  one's own feeling, sensation, impulse, desire or thought.
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  For the most part, the vibrations that arise from one's
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  associations in the world are relatively weak, as most people
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  do not concentrate the force of these vibrations consciously or
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  intensely. There is also a mixing influence
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  as various impulses may cross one another, partially cancel
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  each other out, or dilute themselves.
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  Thus it is like a low grade vibrational state that is
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  constantly operative but which can be viewed and managed with
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  conscious awareness. In rare instances, there is
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  someone who is consciously trying to extend a control or an
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  influence, and these individuals can have a greater impact, which
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  leads to things we can observe in the world, such as the
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  development of a cult of personality where the followers
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  come under the direct influence and control of a specific
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  individual, who then becomes a leader.
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  Whether religious, spiritual, political or some form of
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  charismatic individual in any field, the mother notes quote,
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  you live surrounded by people. These people themselves have
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  desires, stray wishes, impulses which are expressed through
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  them, and have all kinds of causes but take in their
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  consciousness and individual form.
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  For example, to put it in very practical terms, you have a
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  father, a mother, brothers, sisters, friends, comrades.
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  Each one has his own way of feeling willing, and all those
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  with whom you are in relation expect something from you, even
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  as you expect something from them.
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  That's something they do not always express to you, but it is
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  more or less conscious in their being, and it makes formations.
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  These formations, according to each one's capacity of thought
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  and the strength of his vitality, are more or less
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  powerful, but they have their own little strength, which is
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  usually much the same as yours. And So what those around you
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  want, desire, hope, or expect from you, enters in this way in
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  the form of suggestions, very rarely expressed, but which you
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  absorb without resistance, and which suddenly awaken within you
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  a similar desire, a similar will, a similar impulse.
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  This happens from morning to night and again from night to
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  morning, For these things don't stop while you are sleeping, but
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  On the contrary, are very often intensified because your
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  consciousness is no longer awake, watching and protecting
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  you to some extent. And this is quite common.
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  So common that it is quite natural, and so natural that you
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  need special circumstances and most unusual occasions to become
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  aware of it naturally. It goes without saying that your
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  own responses, your own impulses, your own wishes have a
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  similar influence on others, and that all this becomes a
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  marvelous mixture in which might is always right.
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  End Quote Reference Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, The
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  Hidden Forces of Life, Chapter 3, Hidden Forces around pages 59
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  to 60.