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Overcoming the Limits of Perception of the Physical Sense-Organs · Sri Aurobindo Studies

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  We tend to accept the limitations of the sense organs
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  and the mind as if they are axioms unable to be altered.
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  We accept that blind people cannot see and that deaf people
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  cannot hear. We believe we cannot interact
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  with using the mind alone to communicate or to experience
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  things at a distance. We tend to believe that the
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  limits of our sense organs are fixed, and anything outside
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  their normal range is simply imperceptible to us.
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  What if, however, these limits which we accept are not the
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  actual limits? We can observe that if we try to
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  run or jump or swim, that with practice we can increase our
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  ability, we can train our physical bodies to respond, and
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  we can enhance what was formerly the natural capacity that we
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  accepted as our limit of action at a certain level of training.
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  We constantly find that world records for speed, height of
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  jumping, distance of throwing, et cetera, are frequently being
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  broken as individuals enhance beyond the limits that
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  previously set those records. The widespread reports of out of
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  body experiences highlight the artificial limitations we place
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  on how we sense or perceive things.
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  While we believe that our ability to see, hear, or
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  otherwise sense things is tied to the physical body and its
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  sense organs, the experience of those who have an out of body
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  event make it clear this cannot be the case.
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  The physical body is lying inert somewhere, while the awareness
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  of the individual is outside the body, frequently looking at the
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  body from a distance or from above.
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  In such cases, the individual, once he returns to consciousness
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  in the body, is able to accurately report what was
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  taking place in the room, who was there, what they were doing,
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  what the circumstances were, from a perspective that makes it
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  clear that they were outside and observing the event.
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  It is thus certain that the individual can perceive without
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  use of the physical sense organs and can do so at a distance from
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  those physical sense organs. The phenomenon of remote viewing
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  also makes it clear that under certain circumstances,
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  individuals can experience what is taking place at distances of
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  many thousands of miles and report back on what is being
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  viewed. This power has been widely
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  researched and utilized by trained individuals in both a
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  military and civilian setting, and courses are available to
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  train people on how to hone this skill.
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  Once again, there is no reliance on the sense organs of the
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  physical body. Various spiritual practices
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  utilize the power of visualization to create or
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  recreate the atmosphere and vibration of a distant location.
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  For instance, an individual may place himself in a sacred spot
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  in his mind to awaken the force that is active in that location.
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  There are also instances where yogic practitioners have been
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  seen in multiple locations at the same time or have been
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  observed in a palpable form and conversed with someone while at
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  a physical distance. Paramount's Yogananda, in his
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  Autobiography of a Yogi describes several such events to
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  which he was personally the observer.
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  The great Yogi of Tibet, Milarepa, was said to have
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  appeared to his disciples concurrently in multiple
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  locations to provide them a teaching at the time of his
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  physical death, the mother writes.
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  Quote. The field of our sense
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  experience has an absolutely ridiculous limitation.
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  While in the mind, if you think of someone or something, the
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  city or a place, you are there immediately, instantaneously you
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  see and you are there. It is not that you are not
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  there. You are there and you can have
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  so precise a mental contact that you can have a conversation, ask
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  questions and receive answers on condition that the other person
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  is fairly sensitive. Why?
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  This is something which happens constantly, constantly.
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  Only you must have a little knowledge naturally, for
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  otherwise you don't even understand what is happening.
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  Even physically with this, with the eyes, the nose, the fingers,
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  the mouth, the ears. Oh, it is ridiculous.
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  One can develop these if one wants.
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  One can succeed, for example, in hearing something which occurs
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  at a fairly great distance and hearing it physically, not by
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  another means than the physical, but one must have a control over
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  his senses and be able to prolong their vibrations
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  sufficiently. 1 can see at a distance also, and not by an
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  occult vision. One can manage to stretch his
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  vision and if he knows how to prolong the vibration of his
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  nerves outside the organ, he can prolong the contact.
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  I don't say some kilometers away, no, but in a certain area,
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  say for example through a wall, which is considered something
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  impossible, one can see what is going on in a room which is
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  separated from another by a wall.
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  But a very methodical practice is necessary.
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  Yet this is possible. Seeing, feeling, hearing.
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  If one wants to take the trouble, one can enlarge his
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  field considerably. But it asks for work, for
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  perseverance, a kind of assiduous effort.
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  Why? It has even been found that one
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  can develop other visual centres than the eye.
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  It has been tried out with people who for some reason or
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  other, have no vision in the eye.
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  One can develop other centres or another center of vision by a
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  continuous methodical effort. Jules Roman has written a book
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  about it. He himself conducted experiments
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  and obtained very conclusive results.
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  This means that we have a number of possibilities which we let
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  sleep within us because we don't take the trouble to develop them
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  very much. We can do infinitely more than
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  we actually do, but we take things like that as they come.
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  End Quote. Reference Sri Rabindu and the
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  Mother, Powers within, Chapter 1.
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  Latent Powers, pages 7:00 to 8:00.