When we consider the two stages of the transformation, the development of the possibilities of human mind-life-body through optimization and adaptations, and the impact of the supramental consciousness through an actual change in the basis and functioning of the mind-life-body, we need to consider the time and put these changes in some kind of longer-term perspective. Evolutionary change of the type that would manifest, for instance, a new human species, would ordinarily be considered to be a task of millennia. Even with the conscious participation of the individual and the influence of the Supermind, changing the physical body’s basic functionality and human habits of living and thinking, is not something that will occur overnight. What can happen, progressively, and is already happening, is the push toward perfection and uplifting of the current body-life-mind complex to bring it to a state of accomplishment beyond our ordinary human experience today.
Another possible development would be the development, expression and widespread integration of capacities and powers that are today quite unusual or extraordinary. It should be noted that the limits of the physical body are being tested and expanded, and that through use of technological aids, such as biofeedback, video analysis and advanced physiological analysis, people are able to increase their perfection in action, when they practice and adjust based on the feedback they receive. Similarly, technology has been used to expand human ability to “see” and “hear” things outside the normal human range and has helped us to adjust our viewpoint about things, and correct illusions that have permeated human experience since the beginning of history. The vision of the earth from outer space, and the recognition of the earth not being the center of the solar system or the universe, has helped humanity expand its mental vision.
Spiritual practitioners have used meditation, concentration, and various techniques of breath and body control to develop both new insights and new powers of perception and action, including things like clairvoyance, clairaudience, and even the ability to modify the reactions of the autonomous nervous system, slow down the respiration and the heartbeat and even practice various forms of healing of others through transfer of energy or through spiritual vision.
The kind of transformations that would involve physical adaptations in terms of how we receive energy, the function and processes of digestion, reproduction, and maintenance of the physical being are things that can only occur over longer time frames through a process of natural mutation, adaptation and evolutionary pressure.
Sri Aurobindo observes: “These things have been already to some extent illustrated in the lives of many who have become possessed of spiritual powers but as something exceptional and occasional, the casual or incomplete manifestation of an acquired capacity rather than the organisation of a new consciousness, a new life and a new nature. How far can such physical transformation be carried, what are the limits within which it must remain to be consistent with life upon earth and without carrying that life beyond the earthly sphere or pushing it towards the supraterrestrial existence? The supramental consciousness is not a fixed quantity but a power which passes to higher and higher levels of possibility until it reaches supreme consummations of spiritual existence fulfilling Supermind as Supermind fulfils the ranges of spiritual consciousness that are pushing towards it from the human or mental level. In this progression the body also may reach a more perfect form and a higher range of its expressive powers, become a more and more perfect vessel of divinity.”
Sri Aurobindo, The Mind of Light, The Divine Body, pg. 46
Sri Aurobindo Studies 