Behind the enormous untapped potential of the human mind and body lies the power of a single cell. If we go deeper, we find that each cellular process is a pattern of energy in motion. The molecules move and interact in ways fixed for millenniums through repeated imprints. These imprints are conditioned by Nature. The fixity of this formation gives a certain stability. It is because of this fixity, that we find a perfect order in the universe and can study the laws of its operation. While this stability is a safeguard against chaos and random error, it also creates a rigid barrier to change. On a still closer look behind the energy in motion we find condensations of energy particles whirling in large spaces. So also behind the smallest event and minutest particle there stands a whole infinite space of consciousness and energy. If this were withdrawn the entire structure of the universe would collapse.
In the domain of mental processes, each thought and impulse can also be seen as an energy in motion. It interacts with the physical universe resulting in several possibilities.
i) The formative whorl of the material process may be too dense and fixed to allow any visible translation.
ii) The subtle formation may be too weak in charge and intensity to effectively influence the material process.
(iii) The right intensity of subtle energy influences the material process to change and correct itself.
In other words, the art of utilising a mind-body interaction would depend upon making the mental energies more and more powerful and the physical stuff more and more plastic and receptive. The first is achieved through ‘mental concentration’. In most of us, the mind is preoccupied with small interests and everyday pragmatic routines, so the mind force is scattered and thrown in hundreds of unchannelled directions. Thus lacking in intensity and force, it is unable to influence our life and body in a positive way. We can change this imbalance through:
i) A regular practice in meditative concentration that helps us to focus our mental energies.
ii) A connection to our soul or the divine which is the wellspring nourishing our mind.
The second task of making the body receptive and plastic can be done through a sustained discipline of the body. A methodical, regular physical culture keeps ‘shaking off’ the crust of adverse formations constantly introduced through the world around us. At the same time it tends to awaken in us the latent physical consciousness, through which the higher energies can pass into matter. As the physical consciousness opens, the body becomes strong enough to bear the charge and plastic enough to undergo the desired change.
Once we admit the possibility of such an interaction and inter-relation between different levels of consciousness-energy and its corresponding substance, we open our doors to immense future possibilities.
As,
1) The possibility of curing a person even at a distance. This is already demonstrated in many conditions like faith healing, distant healing, prayer etc. Even in daily life, it is well-known how thoughts and lives of ‘great’ people ‘influence’ lives of many others. Also we find that we can be ‘caught up’ in waves of feelings, emotions and impulses of those around us in a crowd. In these cases, the consciousness-energy-force enters through the sense channels or even directly, to stimulate the corresponding centres in us, thus triggering a similar state. In a group, this has a cascading effect and builds up a powerful collective formation far exceeding the individual’s.
It is this that lies behind the power of collective prayer and group affinities. It is because of this, that a small battalion unified in mind and heart and will, can outrun a larger similar group outwardly banded together but inwardly not motivated. The psychology of collective consciousness is still in its infancy and can be studied more.
2) Another interesting possibility is that one can influence animals, plants and even physical matter in this way. This has already been demonstrated for plants and animals.
At the level of physical matter the phenomenon is still rare but not unknown. In martial arts, for example, the vital energy can be so focused as to break objects that would be beyond one’s normal capacity to break.
These are still rudimentary beginnings. If pursued, we may find that the subtle can easily exert pressure on the physical. All that would be required is to discover/create the link between physical substance and the subtle. If all this is possible of the still unexplored ranges of mind and life-power, how much more would be possible if we could learn to harness the spiritual energy within and around us! Yogis, mystics and shamans in all cultures have demonstrated distinctly the possibility of a higher force entering and changing the set course of things in our visible physical world. For example, the phenomenon of a yogi continuing to live even while the brainwaves, heartbeats and respiration have stopped has been demonstrated. The scientific objection is that this phenomenon is not reproducible in the masses. The reason is very simple. In the mass of humanity even the full mental energy is not harnessed much less the spirit-energies. Hence in these, the normal course of predictable physical laws apply. But here too, even in our ‘averageness’ how often do we witness the miraculous intervention of Grace that changes our life? And yet we deny it! It is like denying the greatness of Beethoven’s music simply because everybody cannot reproduce it. Nevertheless, there are pioneers who are increasingly looking into this field of inquiry and search through a long and patient labour of the night. The science of bio-feedback is only an early hint of many more marvellous possibilities in us of not only transcending but even changing the physical laws and processes. It is now up to the biological sciences to align themselves with the ‘scientists’ of the soul, so that the whole cosmos becomes a field of inquiry and the being a self-chosen laboratory for possibilities and change.
