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Spiritual Experiences and the Foundation of Peace and Aspiration Needed As Their Basis · Sri Aurobindo Studies

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  The vital nature is enamoured of experiences that are new and
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  different, exciting, unusual. This is the allure of the vision
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  quest, fasting and the use of entheogenic substances to bring
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  forth experiences, visions, contact with alternative states
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  of conscious awareness and alternative realities.
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  Many techniques have been developed to encourage these
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  experiences, including various psychophysical practices,
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  breathing techniques, mantras and chanting, the use of mudras,
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  bandas, trotak, devotional singing and dance, Sufi dancing,
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  et cetera. Seeking experiences such as an
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  out of body experience or a sense of the descent of a power
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  into the body, the intense silencing of the mind, the
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  experience of a deep peace or an ecstatic bliss.
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  These experiences are exciting to the vital nature and the
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  mind, and they speak to the sense of power, the sense of 1's
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  own unique spiritual capacities, and in some cases, if not turned
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  towards humility and gratitude, can accentuate the rising of a
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  form of vital pride and even arrogance towards others.
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  In the end, however, these experiences are either
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  distracting to the effort or even misleading if one does not
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  establish the foundation of the spiritual consciousness based in
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  development of peace, quiet in the mind, and the turning of the
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  spiritual aspiration to the Divine.
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  When experiences come, and they generally do come as the higher
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  consciousness descends and begins to manifest itself in the
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  seeker, they can be a support and aid to the growth if they
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  are based on this solid foundation and thus do not act
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  to distract or mislead the seeker, but to guide, lead and
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  help the seeker to realize and manifest the deeper truth for
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  which he is aspiring. Sri Aurobindo notes quote
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  Experience in the Sadhna is bound to begin with the mental
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  plane. All that is necessary is that
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  the experience should be sound and genuine.
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  The pressure of understanding and will in the mind and the
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  godward emotional urge in the heart are the two first agents
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  of yoga. And peace, Purity and calm with
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  a lulling of the lower unrest are precisely the first basis
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  that has to be laid. To get that is much more
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  important in the beginning than to get a glimpse of the Super
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  physical worlds or to have visions, voices and powers.
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  Purification and calm are the first needs in the yoga.
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  One may have a great wealth of experiences of that kind,
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  worlds, visions, voices, et cetera, without them.
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  But these experiences, occurring in an unpurified and troubled
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  consciousness, are usually full of disorder and mixture.
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  At first the peace and calm are not continuous.
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  They come and go, and it usually takes a long time to get them
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  settled in the nature. It is better, therefore, to
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  avoid impatience and to go on steadily with what is being
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  done. If you wish to have something
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  beyond the peace and calm, let it be the full opening of the
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  inner being and the consciousness of the Divine
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  power working in you. Aspire for that sincerely and
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  with a great intensity, but without impatience, and it will
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  come. End Quote.
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  Reference Sri or Vindo, Bases of Yoga, Chapter 1.
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  Calm, Peace and Equality, page 9.