The Power of Suggestion Working Through Personal Connections

There is a serious rationale behind the many spiritual paths that counsel the true seeker to abandon his family, his friends, his social life, and live secluded in a cave, in the forest, in the desert, to practice his spiritual discipline. All of these connections and social interactions bring with them vibrational patterns that express the forces of thought, the forces of emotions, the forces of desires, the forces of physical and vital demand, that automatically enter into one and raise those similar vibrations within oneself. There are not only the unspoken assumptions that are part of the cultural background, but very concrete expectations that arise from one’s family, friends, co-workers and associates, even from strangers with whom we have just a passing interaction!

Even a cursory observation can lead one to understand that many of the impulses that arise within each individual are the result of these interactions. We may enter a place that is filled with desire for certain foods and suddenly, we have a craving. Or we may enter a place where people are expressing their sexual desires and suddenly we too may feel that impulse! Someone may be angry and we engage with our own angry response. Or someone may be deep in a state of depression and we feel drained and tired after an interaction with that individual. People who imbibe recreational drugs frequently talk about something they call a “contact high” where an individual, not partaking of the drug, nevertheless gets a glimpse of the experience just from being in the environs of those who are under that influence. Sometimes an individual experiences a sudden fear, and it takes hold of other individuals nearby. People visit churches, temples, ashrams and experience there a deep sense of peace or contentment or a blissful feeling, out of a similar influence from individuals who are experiencing that state in that environment.

It is of course not possible, nor necessary, for everyone seeking spiritual realisation to try to isolate himself from others; nor join an Ashram. And it must be noted that such isolation is in many cases counter-productive or even a failure over the long-term. What is required is an awareness of this influence, and thus an increasing consciousness of the play of forces, of the vibrational patterns that are provoked and the need to exercise a review and some amount of self-control over them, with a recognition that they are coming to one from outside, and are not inherently one’s own feeling, sensation, impulse, desire or thought.

For the most part the vibrations that arise from one’s associations in the world are relatively weak, as most people do not concentrate the force of these vibrations consciously or intensely. There is also a mixing influence as various impulses may cross one another, partially cancel each other out, or dilute themselves. Thus, it is like a low-grade vibrational state that is constantly operative, but which can be viewed and managed with conscious awareness. In rare instances there is someone who is consciously trying to extend a control or an influence and these individuals can have a greater impact, which leads to things we can observe in the world such as the development of a cult of personality where the followers come under the direct influence, and control, of a specific individual, who then becomes a ‘leader’ whether religious. spiritual, political or some form of charismatic individual in any field.

The Mother notes: “You live surrounded by people. These people themselves have desires, stray wishes, impulses which are expressed through them and have all kinds of causes, but take in their consciousness an individual form. For example, to put it in very practical terms, you have a father, a mother, brothers, sisters, friends, comrades; each one has his own way of feeling, willing, and all those with whom you are in relation expect something from you, even as you expect something from them. That something they do not always express to you, but it is more or less conscious in their being, and it makes formations. These formations, according to each one’s capacity of thought and the strength of his vitality, are more or less powerful, but they have their own little strength which is usually much the same as yours; and so what those around you want, desire, hope or expect from you enters in this way in the form of suggestions very rarely expressed, but which you absorb without resistance and which suddenly awaken within you a similar desire, a similar will, a similar impulse…. This happens from morning to night, and again from night to morning, for these things don’t stop while you are sleeping, but on the contrary are very often intensified because your consciousness is no longer awake watching and protecting you to some extent.”

“And this is quite common, so common that it is quite natural and so natural that you need special circumstances and most unusual occasions to become aware of it. Naturally, it goes without saying that your own responses, your own impulses, your own wishes have a similar influence on others, and that all this becomes a marvellous mixture in which might is always right!”

Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, The Hidden Forces of Life, Ch. 3 Hidden Forces Around, pp. 59-60

Our Physical, Vital and Mental Sheathes Are Impacted by Energetic Forces in a Constant State of Interchange

We tend to live with an illusion of the separateness of our individual being from all others. We treat the physical body as a distinct, self-standing unit that is free and independent, has its own integrity and is essentially isolated in its separateness. This however is not quite the actuality of our situation.

Instead of being a protected island in the world, our body is actually more of a permeable membrane, taking in energy, vibrational patterns, as well as physical air, food and drink, and releasing back out again physical waste from our breathing mechanism, sweat, and excretions of food and drink wastes, etc. In addition to the physical interchange, we also send out vibrations and energies so that the process is a two-way interchange, all the time.

Kirlian photography has shown evidence of an energy body surrounding our physical body, which many call the ‘aura’. This energy body is the first line of defense against suggestions of illness for instance. When it is strong and whole, it can help to withstand physical, vital and even mental influences. At the same time, if there is any receptivity to the vibration, it takes up that energetic force and carries it inward to be accepted by the individual and have its impact awaken within, in many cases without the individual knowing how it came about.

If we focus for a moment on the vibrational patterns, we can see that the interchange means that we can be subject to the feelings, emotions, willings of others. Many people report feeling “drained” after meeting a certain individual or spending time in a certain environment. Others feel enthused, energized in other places. We can see crowds of people align their energies through identification with the speaker, or the team or the cheer-squad. All of this evidences a receptivity to the vibrations and an active intake of them, whether unconsciously or consciously, as the case may be.

Thought forms and exercises of silent will power have a similar impact on the mental ‘stuff’ of our nature. We can sometimes enter a research facility or a library and feel the concentrated mental energy that is active in that space. Those who attend lectures by spiritual leaders frequently remark on the intensity of the atmosphere as the concentration in the air impacts their own mental awareness.

A disciple asks: What is the nature of these influences from outside? Could you give us an explanation of their working?

The Mother writes: “Naturally, these influences are of very diverse kinds. They may be studied from a psychological point of view or from an almost mechanical standpoint, the one usually translating the other, that is, the mechanical phenomenon occurs as a sort of result of the psychological one.”

“In very few people, and even in the very best at very rare moments in life, does the will of the being express that deep inner, higher truth.”

(After a silence Mother continues:) “The individual consciousness extends far beyond the body; we have seen that even the subtle physical which is yet material compared with the vital being and in certain conditions almost visible, extends at times considerably beyond the visible limits of the physical body. This subtle physical is constituted of active vibrations which enter into contact or mingle with the vibrations of the subtle physical of others, and this reciprocal contact gives rise to influences — naturally the most powerful vibrations get the better of the others. For example, as I have already told you several times, if you have a thought, this thought clothes itself in subtle vibrations and becomes an entity which travels and moves about in the earth-atmosphere in order to realise itself as best it can, and because it is one among millions, naturally there is a multiple and involved interaction as a result of which things don’t take place in such a simple and schematic fashion.”

“What you call yourself, the individual being enclosed within the limits of your present consciousness, is constantly penetrated by vibrations of this kind, coming from outside and very often presenting themselves in the form of suggestions, in the sense that, apart from a few exceptions, the action takes place first in the mental field, then becomes vital, then physical. I want to make it clear that it is not a question of the pure mind here, but of the physical mind; for in the physical consciousness itself there is a mental activity, a vital activity and a purely material activity, and all that takes place in your physical consciousness, in your body consciousness and bodily activity, penetrates first in the form of vibrations of a mental nature, and so in the form of suggestions. Most of the time these suggestions enter you without your being in the least conscious of them; they go in, awaken some sort of response in you, then spring up in your consciousness as though they were your own thought, your own will, your own impulse; but it is only because you are unconscious of the process of their penetration.”

“These suggestions are very numerous, manifold, varied, with natures which are very, very different from each other, but they may be classified into three principal orders. First — and they are hardly perceptible to the ordinary consciousness; they become perceptible only to those who have already reflected much, observed much, deeply studied their own being — they are what could be called collective suggestions.”

Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, The Hidden Forces of Life, Ch. 3 Hidden Forces Around, pp. 56-58