The Subconscious, the Subliminal and the Superconscious Influence on Our External Lives

When we are focused on our external being, we tend not to recognise that forces unseen actually not only impact how and what we perceive, understand, and respond to impressions and pressures, but actually very much define who we believe we are. There are forces that are subconscient to our external awareness which send up suggestions, thoughts, impulses, drives, habits, and instincts that drive our action. There are also forces superconscient to our external awareness that help us see, and grow beyond the limits of our physical-vital-mental existence. If we look carefully at the sources or seeds of our external reactions, we can begin to trace back much of the way we act to specific vital or mental patterns that human beings have brought forward from animal nature. The very way we respond to pressure, the ‘fight or flight’ response, the ‘pecking order’ response all come from an earlier stage of evolution and remain active in our existing lives. Even our evolved mental life is very much conditioned by past habits of human thought, as well as by social conditioning, education, and interactions we have as we experience our human childhood. It becomes difficult to determine what is ‘unique’ within us other than the specific assemblage of these pre-existing and trained responses that are packaged to represent a specific external personality.

There are also many elements which are subliminal which act without our conscious attention. Many of the metabolic functions, for instance, are not controlled by our conscious thought and will, but take place at a level that is not easily perceptible by our waking mind.

At a certain point, we also find that as individuals grow and evolve, as they optimize the powers of body, life and mind, they experience what can only be named a ‘calling’ to another focus and life-direction. They begin to reorient their actions and thoughts towards this higher calling, a response to the pressure coming from regions of awareness superconscient to our normal human range of perception.

Sri Aurobindo writes: “The subconscious is the evolutionary basis in us, it is not the whole of our hidden nature, nor is it the whole origin of what we are. But things can rise from the subconscient and take shape in the conscious parts and much of our smaller vital and physical instincts, movements, habits, character-forms has this source.”

“There are three occult sources of our action — the superconscient, the subliminal, the subconscient, but of none of them are we in control or even aware. What we are aware of is the surface being which is only an instrumental arrangement. The source of all is the general Nature, — universal Nature individualising itself in each person; for this general Nature deposits certain habits of movement, personality, character, faculties, dispositions, tendencies in us, and that, whether formed now or before our birth, is what we usually call ourselves. A good deal of this is in habitual movement and use in our known conscious parts on the surface, a great deal more is concealed in the other unknown three which are below or behind the surface.”

Sri Aurobindo, Bases of Yoga, Chapter 5, Physical Consciousness — Subconscient — Sleep and Dream — Illness, pg. 88

The Evolution of Occult Powers

From the point of view of animals, we may assume, the actions, and the powers that drive them, of human beings are some kind of ‘occult powers’ about which the animals know nothing. These actions may seem miraculous but they are in reality expressions of the evolution of the mental stage of the evolution of consciousness and are quite natural powers expressed by Mind. Thus, the powers of abstract thought, self-reflection, logical inference, as well as advanced powers of organization, classification, and deduction, and the uses to which these powers are put, are beyond the ken of the animal kingdom, as well as those human beings who have not yet manifested them in themselves. Many animals, however, show at least rudimentary capacities in some areas that go beyond what might be expected from the vital powers that are primary in the animal kingdom. And of course, most humans, at some point or another, manifest some element of the advanced mental powers even if not overtly recognised. They may be seen as first manifestations of what is in process of emergence as the mental evolution develops.

The evolution of consciousness, however, is not finished with the expression of the mental power. Thus, we may expect to see further powers begin to express themselves that go beyond those of the ordinary mental consciousness with which we are familiar. We would expect to see partial expressions, limited functionality, and even some failed applications as this next evolutionary phase begins to manifest.

We observe various reports, many of them credible, of people using powers that most others do not use. Some of the reports are either deliberate falsifications or unintentional fabrications through self-deception, by people who either have an agenda to gain wealth or fame from some kind of occult power they claim to possess. Putting these aside, however, we are left with a considerable body of evidence of the existence of a number of these powers. In fact, substantial scientific research has been undertaken in the last 75 years or so and even deliberately secretive, elite military units in Russia and the United States have been formed to research and develop some of these powers for their potential use as weapons in the evolving nature of warfare.

Some of the powers are subtle. They involve, for instance, focus of the silent will to affect people or events. Some involve creation of palpable vibrations in an environment that influence how people (and animals) respond. For example there are numerous observations of a powerful atmosphere of peace in the environs of certain Rishis or yogic practitioners. There are also many instances of someone seemingly being able to “read the mind” of people who come into contact with him. Psychology researchers in the West have noted that certain individuals can enter a room, project a sexual vibration toward a particular other person in the room, who takes notice and responds in kind (or if it is unwelcome, feels ‘assaulted’ by the force of the projection).

Powers such as remote viewing, telekinesis, and clairvoyance have all had research done which tends to validate the potentiality, even though there are as noted above, those who try to fake these powers. On a wider level, we see over the last several decades an increase in revelations about actions that formerly were kept as strict secrets, and we can adduce therefrom that a new power of truth-consciousness is beginning to work its way into the psyche of humanity. This may also explain the dramatic increase in notable falsehoods being aired across various social media and news media platforms as those who have used secretive dealings to gain and maintain power work to try to undermine the revelations that have been coming forward by flooding the social consciousness with distortions and lies that make it hard to sift out the truth from the blizzard of falsehoods..

Several interesting phenomena were reported by an individual. One was an attempt to create a force of “truth” in a court setting by invoking the Divine Shakti to reveal truth. This was done by chanting of various mantras in the room prior to the start of the hearing. One of the witnesses, under intense questioning, actually broke down, admitted the truth and was practically in tears as his revelations defeated the defense of the large corporation for which he was working. In another instance, the same individual was visiting someone in the hospital who had just given birth. The nurses were refusing to release the child, and were preventing the mother from access to the child. This individual was sitting at the opposite end of the room and spoke in a quiet but firm voice that they needed to relent and follow the directions of the child’s mother. The nurses were quite startled and said they did not like being “attacked” and would take steps to exclude the individual in the future if he did not relent his attacks. The “force” was unspoken, but it was clearly felt and experienced by the nurses in the room.

Another experience was related by a person who happened to be visiting the Sri Aurobindo Ashram in August 1973. He reported that due to reported health issues, according to the Ashram authorities, the Mother would not be giving her customary balcony darshan on August 15. He slept the night of the 14th of August with this knowledge. He reported awakening suddenly in the early morning on the 15th of August with a jolt of ‘electricity’ running through his body, and he felt uplifted and ‘knew’ that the Darshan would actually take place! He went to the Ashram building later that morning and a sign was placed indicating that indeed the Darshan would occur. He had no explanation for what he experienced or how he ‘knew’ about the Darshan, other than saying ‘Mother’s force’ had jolted him awake and gave him that certainty.

Sri Aurobindo observes: “Occultism means rightly the use of the higher powers of our nature, soul, mind, life-force and the faculties of the subtle physical consciousness to bring about results on their own or on the material plane by some pressure of their secret law and its potentialities, for manifestation and result in human or earthly mind and life and body or in objects and events in the world of Matter. A discovery or an extension of these little known or yet undeveloped powers is now envisaged by some well-known thinkers as a next step to be taken by mankind in its immediate evolution….”

Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, Powers Within, Chapter XIX Occult Powers of the Subliminal, pg. 143

The Action of the Higher Planes Is Needed to Bring Forth the Manifestation of Life, Mind and Spirit in the Material World

Matter, prepared and encoded with the dataset required to bring forth Life, does not spontaneously, on its own express the life-form for which it is encoded. The seed, or the egg, remains potential, latent, until it is acted upon by a force external to it. In the case of the seed of a plant, the sun’s force combined with the action of moisture, leads to the sprouting of the seed. In the case of an animal’s egg, we find that a heat source is needed to warm the egg until it is ready to hatch. For mammals, a complex mixture of warmth and nourishment is provided to the embryo as it grows within the mother’s womb.

The external force that is required to bring about the manifestation of the life-energy in a material form provides us a clear sign of the interaction that takes place to lead to the manifestation of Life, and Mind, and eventually further aspects of consciousness involved in Matter, through the pressure and occult action of those higher planes on the material plane.

Sri Aurobindo notes: “Our development takes place very largely by their [higher planes] superior but hidden action upon the earth-plane. All is contained in the inconscient or the subconscient, but in potentiality; it is the action from above that helps to compel an emergence. A continuance of that action is necessary to shape and determine the progression of the mental and vital forms which our evolution takes in material nature; for these progressive movements cannot find their full momentum or sufficiently develop their implications against the resistance of an inconscient or inert and ignorant material Nature except by a constant though occult resort to higher supraphysical forces of their own character. This resort, the action of this veiled alliance, takes place principally in our subliminal being and not on the surface: it is from there that the active power of our consciousness emerges, and all that it realises it sends back constantly into the subliminal being to be stored up, developed and re-emerge in stronger forms hereafter. This interaction of our larger hidden being and our surface personality is the main secret of the rapid development that operates in man once he has passed beyond the lower stages of Mind immersed in Matter.”

Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, The Hidden Forces of Life, Ch.6 Hidden Worlds and Evolutionary Forces, pp.148-149

The Action of the Superconscient in Our External Lives

Just as forces and vibrations act upon us that vibrate below our normal human level of perceptive range, and bring in much of the past, subconscient, dark and ignorant reactions that drive much of our human life, so also there are forces and vibrations that enter us from above our perceptible range, which have their source and origin in what we may call the ‘superconscient’ levels. Because they are outside our immediate range of perception, they mostly enter us unseen and unknown, what many would call ‘subliminally’ and from there they work to influence and express themselves as possible through our external being and personality. Sri Aurobindo points out that the action here works through the chakras, the subtle energy centers that channel the various forces at work in the being into the external life. To the extent that we are capable of opening to the energetic action of the respective chakras, the powers and forces that enter and collect there can have a direct influence on our lives.

It is from the higher superconscient ranges that those things we name inspiration, intuition, revelation, vision and creative insights occur. While we receive them without conscious awareness, we express them as much as possible and treat them as our own creative actions, when in fact they are the result of our receptivity to and ability to channel forces stemming from these higher ranges of consciousness.

Sri Aurobindo notes: “… from there … come all the greater aspirations, ideals, strivings towards a better self and better humanity without which man would be only a thinking animal — as also most of the art, poetry, philosophy, thirst for knowledge which relieve, if they do not yet dispel, the ignorance.”

“The role of the superconscient has been to evolve slowly the spiritual man out of the mental half-animal.”

“Even in Europe the existence of something behind the surface is now very frequently admitted, but its nature is mistaken and it is called subconscient or subliminal, while really it is very conscious in its own way and not subliminal but only behind the veil. It is, according to our psychology, connected with the small outer personality by certain centres of consciousness of which we become aware by yoga. Only a little of the inner being escapes through these centres into the outer life, but that little is the best part of ourselves and responsible for our art, poetry, philosophy, ideals, religious aspirations, efforts at knowledge and perfection.”

Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, The Hidden Forces of Life, Ch. 2 Hidden Forces Within, pg. 43

The Subliminal Level of Consciousness and Our Waking State

What we actively perceive and pay attention to with our waking consciousness is a very small portion of the entire pattern of energetic forces we are constantly subjected to, and which act upon us, unseen and unrecognised. Whether it is physical radiation, vital forces, or mental thought-forms, or the spiritual forces of the higher planes of consciousness, there is an energetic impact that impinges upon our being, and helps to create and influence the way we respond on the most superficial levels of the external consciousness.

The “all or nothing” phenomenon illustrates just one way that such subliminal action takes place. We do not see the movement of photons impinging on our visual sense until a certain quanta of photons is present to trigger “sight”. Up until that point, the photons are impinging on the sense organ, but it is not triggering our awareness. We know from a tremendous amount of research that various forms of radiation can impact our health, our sense organs, and our brains, but we do not perceive that radiation without the use of measurement tools such as geiger counter to tell us that it is there and active. Anyone who has looked at the sun during an eclipse, with their unshielded eyes, is affected by the radiation that accompanies the sun’s visible light, and this can be blinding. We can feel the focus of an individual who is staring at us or fixating their attention on us, even if we cannot actually observe this: how many times do we get the sense that someone is watching and then, when we turn around, we can see that individual! Vibrations of all forms of emotional and vital energy, unseen by us, are nevertheless received. Even if we do not acknowledge them with our waking consciousness, they are exerting pressure. Mental thought-forms can exercise a similar unseen influence. When we enter a zone where intense study or mental work is taking place, we can actually feel the atmosphere, but its effect impacts us whether we consciously acknowledge it, or not.

Sri Aurobindo observes: “Our waking state is unaware of its connection with the subliminal being, although it receives from it, — but without any knowledge of the place of origin, — the inspirations, intuitions, ideas, will-suggestions, sense-suggestions, urges to action that rise from below or from behind our limited surface existence. Sleep like trance opens the gate of the subliminal to us; for in sleep, as in trance, we retire behind the veil of the limited waking personality and it is behind this veil that the subliminal has its existence. But we receive the records of our sleep experience through dream and in dream figures and not in that condition which might be called an inner waking and which is the most accessible form of the trance state, nor through the supernormal clarities of vision and other more luminous and concrete ways of communication developed by the inner subliminal cognition when it gets into habitual or occasional conscious connection with our waking self. The subliminal, with the subconscious as an annexe of itself, — for the subconscious is also part of the behind-the-veil entity, — is the seer of inner things and of supraphysical experiences; the surface subconscious is only a transcriber. It is for this reason that the Upanishad describes the subliminal being as the Dream Self because it is normally in dreams, visions, absorbed states of inner experience that we enter into and are part of its experiences, — just as it describes the superconscient as the Sleep Self because normally all mental or sensory experiences cease when we enter this superconscience. For in the deeper trance into which the touch of the superconscient plunges our mentality, no record from it or transcript of its contents can normally reach us; it is only by an especial or an unusual development, in a supernormal condition or through a break or rift in our confined normality, that we can be on the surface conscious of the contacts or messages of the Superconscience.”

Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, The Hidden Forces of Life, Ch. 2 Hidden Forces Within, pp. 41-42

The Nature of the Subconscient Level of Consciousness in Man

European culture takes credit for ‘discoveries’ that it makes despite the fact that societies in other parts of the world have long known about these things. Thus, Europeans ‘discovered’ America while disregarding the fact that it was already populated with numerous tribes of indigenous people, and had been visited by Scandanavian Vikings much earlier than the European “discovery”.

Similarly, European psychological researchers have, over the last 100-200 years ‘discovered’ the existence of a subconscious level that is the storehouse of memories, traumas, experiences, etc. which can trigger habits, complexes, traumatic reactions, or unexpected uprisings or outbursts of feelings, emotions, or responses that were outside the awareness or control of the conscious mind. An entire science of Western psychology has arisen, with key proponents, such as Freud, fixating on the role of embedded complexes in developing the personality and life experience of individuals, and the ability of dreams to provide clues to what is taking place in this subconscious realm. C.G. Jung went further by showing that certain archetypal experiences were actually part of a ‘collective unconscious’ that could arise across numerous individuals under a variety of circumstances. Some researchers began to experiment with ideas such as operant conditioning, or Pavlovian conditioning by attempting to ‘train’ or ‘influence’ the subconscious elements of the being to respond automatically to certain externally generated stimuli, and more recently many have touted the idea that through the use of subliminal suggestions, sleep induction of information, and the power of affirmations substantial changes can be effected in the subconscious level and thus, lead to powerful results for the external life and personality.

All of these things, however, have long been known and described in one form or another in ancient cultures that have focused on tapping into the expanded ranges of consciousness outside the conscious waking level that we utilize as we operate in the external world. In particular, various yogic disciplines have developed forms of this knowledge and put much of it into practice. Sri Aurobindo, in particular, codified this into a clearly defined overview of the various levels of consciousness in man, and he has described the subconscious level and its action at some length.

Sri Aurobindo notes: “… we mean by the subconscient that quite submerged part of our being in which there is no wakingly conscious and coherent thought, will or feeling or organized reaction, but which yet receives obscurely the impressions of all things and stores them up in itself and from it too all sorts of stimuli, of persistent habitual movements, crudely repeated or disguised in strange forms can surge up into dream or into the waking nature. For if these impressions rise up most in dream in an incoherent and disorganized manner, they can also and do rise up into our waking consciousness as a mechanical repetition of old thoughts, old mental, vital and physical habits or an obscure stimulus to sensations, actions, emotions which do not originate in or from our conscious thought or will and are even often opposed to its perceptions, choice or dictates. In the subconscient there is an obscure mind full of obstinate Sanskaras, impressions, associations, fixed notions, habitual reactions formed by our past, an obscure vital full of the seeds of habitual desires, sensations and nervous reactions, a most obscure material which governs much that has to do with the condition of the body. It is largely responsible for our illnesses; chronic or repeated illnesses are indeed mainly due to the subconscient and its obstinate memory and habit of repetition of whatever has impressed itself upon the body-consciousness. But this subconscient must be clearly distinguished from the subliminal parts of our being such as the inner or subtle physical consciousness, the inner vital or inner mental; for these are not at all obscure or incoherent or ill-organized, but only veiled from our surface consciousness. Our surface constantly receives something, inner touches, communications or influences, from these sources but does not know for the most part whence they come.”

Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, The Hidden Forces of Life, Ch. 2 Hidden Forces Within, pp. 35-36

Our Surface Personality Is Only a Small Representation of Our Complete and True Being

We construct a personality that we present to the world and organize our expression and actions around this chosen construct. In doing so, we pick and choose elements that are present in our conscious mind, heart, life-force and physical body and create for ourselves the ego-personality that seemingly ties all of this together into what we know as ourselves. In some cases, we consciously mislead ourselves and others by omitting thoughts, motives, drives, and reactions that are occurring, through active suppression or through simple avoidance. In other cases, we simply are not paying attention to all of the influences, forces and powers that are moving us to act out the impulsions that are received by us. When we are placed under some kind of pressure, some of these deeper motivations and drives exhibit themselves, and we don’t realise that these were there, all the time, waiting for the opportunity to sprout up and manifest. Similarly, others may express shock and consternation about how these responses are so “out of character”. It is as if we have adopted a “stage persona” for our external life, and the real person remains hidden deep within.

Sri Aurobindo observes: “We are not only what we know of ourselves but an immense more which we do not know; our momentary personality is only a bubble on the ocean of our existence.”

“… what we know of ourselves, our present conscious existence, is only a representative formation, a superficial activity, a changing external result of a vast mass of concealed existence. Our visible life and the actions of that life are no more than a series of significant expressions, but that which it tries to express is not on the surface; our existence is something much larger than this apparent frontal being which we suppose ourselves to be and which we offer to the world around us. This frontal and external being is a confused amalgam of mind-formations, life-movements, physical functionings of which even an exhaustive analysis into its component parts and machinery fails to reveal the whole secret. It is only when we go behind, below, above into the hidden stretches of our being that we can know it; the most thorough and acute surface scrutiny and manipulation cannot give us the true understanding or the completely effective control of our life, its purposes, its activities; that inability indeed is the cause of the failure of reason, morality and every other surface action to control and deliver and perfect the life of the human race. For below even our most obscure physical consciousness is a subconscious being in which as in a covering and supporting soil are all manner of hidden seeds that sprout up, unaccountably to us, on our surface and into which we are constantly throwing fresh seeds that prolong our past and will influence our future, — a subconscious being, obscure, small in its motions, capriciously and almost fantastically subrational, but of immense potency for the earth-life. Again, behind our mind, our life, our conscious physical there is a large subliminal consciousness, — there are inner mental, inner vital, inner more subtle physical reaches supported by an inmost psychic existence which is the connecting soul of all the rest; and in these hidden reaches too lie a mass of numerous pre-existent personalities which supply the material, the motive-forces, the impulsions of our developing surface existence. For in each one of us here there may be one central person, but also a multitude of subordinate personalities created by the past history of its manifestation or by expressions of it on these inner planes which support its present play in this external material cosmos. And while on our surface we are cut off from all around us except through an exterior mind and sense-contact which delivers but little of us to our world or of our world to us, in these inner reaches the barrier between us and the rest of existence is thin and easily broken; there we can feel at once — not merely infer from their results, but feel directly — the action of the secret world-forces, mind-forces, life-forces, subtle physical forces that constitute universal and individual existence; we shall even be able, if we will but train ourselves to it, to lay our hands on these world-forces that throw themselves on us or around us and more and more to control or at least strongly modify their action on us and others, their formations, their very movements. Yet again above our human mind are still greater reaches superconscient to it and from there secretly descend influences, powers, touches which are the original determinants of things here and, if they were called down in their fullness, could altogether alter the whole make and economy of life in the material universe.”

Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, The Hidden Forces of Life, Ch. 2 Hidden Forces Within, pp. 33-35

The Inner Being Far Exceeds the Limits of the Surface Personality

In order to function in the outer world, we wind up filtering out most of the input that comes our way, such that only a very small percentage of what we perceive or experience actually comes into our waking awareness. The rest is captured and held somewhere in what we call the subconscious level of our being, to come forth only under circumstances that trigger the awareness, or with prodding under the influence of techniques such as hypnotism, or various forms of regression therapy that take us back into circumstances and events and let the mind examine the observations of the event from a new angle. Without such a filtering process, we would have a tremendous amount of data to process and we would be functionally paralyzed into inaction. The filtering process is one that is refined as we focus our attention on various interests or outcomes and target data that will aid us in achieving the desired result. This does not imply, however, that the rest of the input is ineffective and has no impact on the direction, response and actions we take; rather, that we consciously only pay attention to certain key factors while the others influence us unseen and unnoted.

While we focus our attention on the external world and our ‘waking self’, there is much more to existence and the significance of each being, than just that external interaction. The inner being has a much wider range and scope of action than the limited and filtered life of the surface personality.

Sri Aurobindo notes: “This concealed self and consciousness is our real or whole being, of which the outer is a part and a phenomenon, a selective formation for a surface use. We perceive only a small number of the contacts of things which impinge upon us; the inner being perceives all that enters or touches us and our environment. We perceive only a part of the workings of our life and being; the inner being perceives so much that we might almost suppose that nothing escapes its view. We remember only a small selection from our perceptions, and of these even we keep a great part in the store-room where we cannot always lay our hand upon what we need; the inner being retains everything that it has ever received and has it always ready to hand. We can form into co-ordinated understanding and knowledge only so much of our perceptions and memories as our trained intelligence and mental capacity can grasp in their sense and appreciate in their relations: the intelligence of the inner being needs no training, but preserves the accurate form and relations of all its perceptions and memories and, — though this is a proposition which may be considered doubtful or difficult to concede in its fullness, — can grasp immediately, when it does not possess already, their significance. And its perceptions are not confined, as are ordinarily those of the waking mind, to the scanty gleanings of the physical senses, but extend far beyond and use, as telepathic phenomena of many kinds bear witness, a subtle sense the limits of which are too wide to be easily fixed. The relations between the surface will or impulsion and the subliminal urge, mistakenly described as unconscious or subconscious, have not been properly studied except in regard to unusual and unorganised manifestations and to certain morbidly abnormal phenomena of the diseased human mind; but if we pursue our observation far enough, we shall find that the cognition and will or impulsive force of the inner being really stand behind the whole conscious becoming; the latter represents only that part of its secret endeavour and achievement which rises successfully to the surface of our life. To know our inner being is the first step towards a real self-knowledge.”

“If we undertake this self-discovery and enlarge our knowledge of the subliminal self, so conceiving it as to include in it our lower subconscient and upper superconscient ends, we shall discover that it is really this which provides the whole material of our apparent being and that our perceptions, our memories, our effectuations of will and intelligence are only a selection from its perceptions, memories, activities and relations of will and intelligence; our very ego is only a minor and superficial formulation of its self-consciousness and self-experience. It is, as it were, the urgent sea out of which the waves of our conscious becoming arise.”

Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, The Hidden Forces of Life, Ch. 2 Hidden Forces Within, pp. 30-31

The Expanded Field of Consciousness Beyond the External Awareness

Consider that we remove ourselves from active participation in the external world and its activities for some 30% of our lifetimes while we are asleep. Sleep provides the physical body-life-mind complex with the opportunity to undertake basic ‘maintenance’, repair the body, soothe the life energies and refresh the brain function. What happens to our consciousness during sleep?

Consider further that we are constantly receiving and sending out electrical signals, impulses, and vibrational patterns that we are not consciously attending to, but which nevertheless create their own effects within us and on the world around us.

Reflect on the fact that there are experiences we have at various times when our external consciousness is withdrawn, such as experiential dreams where we are meeting individuals, going to places and taking actions that are not based in our waking lives; or in near death experiences, or in out of body experiences including phenomena such as astral travel. It becomes clear that our consciousness is functioning on other planes and in other circumstances during the times it is not actively participating in the external world of our waking state.

Many have reported seeing and meeting teachers and gurus, and receiving profound insights while their physical being was asleep. They return from these experiences with inner growth, new levels of knowledge and use the sleep state as a field for progress in their yogic endeavour.

We also know that we process things on multiple different levels at the same time. People who are questioned about events under the technique of hypnosis are able to describe specific details that their waking processing did not grasp. We filter out much of what occurs to make our waking lives more ‘efficient’, but it is nevertheless received and stored at a subliminal level and available, under the right circumstances to be brought to conscious awareness.

Yogis shift their awareness, through a state of yogic trance, such that it is said that day for the ordinary man is night for the yogi; and day for the yogi is night for the ordinary man. This indicates that there are other states of awareness available to human beings than that of the surface waking consciousness.

Sri Aurobindo writes: “It is a mistake to think that we live physically only, with the outer mind and life. We are all the time living and acting on other planes of consciousness, meeting others there and acting upon them, and what we do and feel and think there, the forces we gather, the results we prepare have an incalculable importance and effect, unknown to us, upon our outer life. Not all of it comes through, and what comes through takes another form in the physical — though sometimes there is an exact correspondence; but this little is at the basis of our outward existence. All that we become and do and bear in the physical life is prepared behind the veil within us. It is therefore of immense importance for a yoga which aims at the transformation of life to grow conscious of what goes on within these domains, to be master there and be able to feel, know and deal with the secret forces that determine our destiny and our internal and external growth or decline.”

Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, The Hidden Forces of Life, Ch. 2 Hidden Forces Within, pg.29

The Subliminal, the Subconscient, the Superconscient and the Circumconscient Forces That Impact Our Responses to Life

Our surface awareness is basically the ‘tip of the iceberg’. Most of what takes place in our being occurs outside of the range of our active external perception of the senses and mental awareness. Even the interactions with the external reality we experience represent only a small fraction of the input we are receiving from that external reality. Our range of perception and understanding is limited on all sides within a very narrow framework; while forces, factors and influences from outside this range wind up impacting us, we are simply blind to these forces and the ways in which they influence how we perceive, respond to and react to the world around us. Much of what actually moves us remains buried in subconscious memories, which can be triggered based on appropriate circumstances impinging upon us. It can be a sight, a scent, something we hear, or a location we visit that somehow triggers reactions that we had no clue were part of our being. We do not actually understand most of the impulsions that we nevertheless adopt as our own thoughts, feelings, emotions, ideas, concepts or directions.

Sri Aurobindo writes in his epic poem Savitri: a Legend and a Symbol:

“Only a little of us foresees its steps, Only a little has will and purposed pace. A vast subliminal is man’s measureless part, The dim subconscient is his cavern base.”

and “A portion of us lives in present Time, A secret mass in dim inconscience gropes; Out of the inconscient and subliminal Arisen, we live in mind’s uncertain light And strive to know and master a dubious world Whose purpose and meaning are hidden from our sight. Above us dwells a superconscient god Hidden in the mystery of his own light; Around us is a vast of ignorance Lit by the uncertain ray of human mind, Below us sleeps the Inconscient dark and mute.” [Savitri: a Legend and a Symbol, Book Seven, Canto 2]

Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, The Hidden Forces of Life, Ch. 2 Hidden Forces Within, pg.28