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Occult Forces: Their Development and Proper Use · Sri Aurobindo Studies

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  When a scientist studies the physical properties of matter
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  and energy and thereby creates an invention, they can do things
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  such as communicate voice or sound wirelessly across the
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  world, or predict general weather patterns, or develop
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  pharmaceutical drugs or vaccines that can cure, mitigate or
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  prevent serious diseases. We seem to take these things for
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  granted. If we reflect for a moment,
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  however, it soon becomes obvious that the discoverers or
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  developers of these miraculous things, from our everyday
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  standpoint, was able to explore occult forces and relationships
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  and learn how to harness them. It should not be surprising,
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  therefore, to consider that there are other powers,
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  material, vital or mental, which remain as yet unexplored and
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  unused. There's a good deal of
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  scepticism surrounding the discovery and use of occult
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  powers. Part of this is due to inability
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  to see or directly experience the action of these forces.
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  Part of this is due to misleading attempts to take
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  advantage of gullibility by proclaiming things that are not
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  actual in order to obtain an advantage.
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  Part of this is due to fear of the unknown.
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  It must be noted that many people are skeptical about the
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  advances of science as well, despite the evidence that is
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  available to them of the functionality of the very
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  scientific advances they are unsure about.
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  Whatever the cause of the skepticism, it behooves us to
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  appreciate that occultism, to the extent that it takes up the
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  exploration and integration of powers of mind, powers of vital
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  force, or material powers, is part of the methodology of human
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  advancement and has been throughout human history.
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  One of the issues with respect to vital or mental forces on an
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  occult level is that while material research is able to be
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  validated through reproducibility of results by
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  different researchers following the exact same protocol, this is
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  not realistic when it comes to powers that depend on the inner
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  development and level of receptivity of each individual.
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  There is also the potential influx of desire, ambition or
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  greed that can skew the results claimed.
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  Thus, a certain amount of care must be exercised when
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  evaluating claims of occult powers to ensure that they are
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  real and actual, while still appreciating the necessarily
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  subjective level of experience that is involved.
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  Those powers that can be seen to have an external and measurable
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  effect canmore easily be validated than those that are
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  less palpable to the external senses.
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  It is interesting to note that many powers considered to be a
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  cult have actually been taken quite seriously by various
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  military services such as the Russian and the American
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  military. They practice things like remote
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  viewing quite seriously and have indeed shown results.
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  It is not just the military, however, that is exploring the
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  use of direct mental power. Medical science is creating
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  opportunities for individuals who are physically paralyzed to
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  operate computers or prosthetic limbs through the power of
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  thought. Clearly, the reality of mental
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  powers being able to impact the external world is now being
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  recognized to an ever greater degree.
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  Spiritual aspirants have regularly been advised about the
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  development of occult powers through various methods of
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  concentration, pranayam, the power of visualization, or
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  through other means as the spiritual practices develop.
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  Swami Vivekananda, for example, described the development of
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  occult powers as a consequence of the practice of the Raja Yoga
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  as outlined by Patanjali. For the most part, seekers have
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  been advised to renounce the use of such powers, as they tend to
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  distract from the spiritual focus, which for most paths
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  involve liberation from the life in the world.
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  At the same time, some paths acknowledge the reality of these
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  powers and work to organize, enhance, and utilize them as
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  part of the integration and development of all powers of
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  body, life, and mind, but in a balanced manner and subservient
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  to the spiritual aims. The development of heretofore
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  unused powers of body, life, and mind is part of the evolutionary
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  process. The challenge then is to accept
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  the development of these forces, but at the same time to make a
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  proper, harmonious and balanced use of them to further the
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  Divine intention in the manifestation.
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  There may be times when a focus on spiritual development
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  requires an intensive 1 pointed concentration without the
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  distraction of the outer world, its demands and the development
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  of powers appropriate to the world.
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  But such periods do not solve the deeper significance that
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  harmonizes the material world with the spiritual world as one
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  omnipresent reality, Sriorubindo writes.
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  Quote Occultism is associated in popular idea with magic and
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  magical formulae and a supposed mechanism of the supernatural.
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  But this is only one side, Nor is it altogether a superstition,
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  as it vainly imagined by those who have not looked deeply or at
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  all at this covert side of secret nature force or
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  experimented with its possibilities formulas in their
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  application. A mechanization of latent forces
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  can be astonishingly effective in the occult use of mind power
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  and life power, just as it is in physical science.
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  But this is only a subordinate method and a limited direction,
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  For mind and life forces are plastic, subtle and variable in
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  their action and if not the material rigidity.
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  They need a subtle and plastic intuition in the knowledge of
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  them, in the interpretation of their action and process, and in
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  their application even in the interpretation and action of
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  their established formulas. And overstress on mechanization
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  and rigid formulation is likely to result in sterilization or
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  formalize limitation of knowledge, and on the pragmatic
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  side, to much error, ignorant convention, misuse and failure.
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  Now that we are outgrowing the superstition of the sole truth
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  of matter, a swing backward towards the old occultism.
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  And to. New formulations as well as to a
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  scientific investigation. Of the.
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  Still, hidden secrets and powers of mind and a close study of
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  psychic and abnormal or supernormal psychological
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  phenomena is possible and in parts already visible, but if it
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  is to fulfill itself the true foundation.
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  The true aim and. Direction.
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  The necessary restrictions and precautions of this line of
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  inquiry have to be rediscovered its most.
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  Important. AIM must be the discovery of the
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  hidden truths and powers of the Mind Force.
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  And the life power and the greater forces of the concealed
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  spirit. Occult science is essentially
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  the science of the subliminal, the subliminal in ourselves and
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  the subliminal in world nature, and of all that is in connection
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  with the subliminal, including the subconscient and the
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  superconscient, and the use of it as part of self knowledge and
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  world knowledge and for the right dynamization of that
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  knowledge. End Quote.
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  Reference Shrioro Bindu and the Mother The Hidden Forces of Life
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  Chapter 5 Occult Forces pages one O 1 to one O 2.