Subtle Energetic Interchange, Sexual Relations and the Inner Consciousness

Human interactions, human relationships have both a surface meaning and a subtle hidden energetic action. One of the most powerful vital energies in human life is sexual relations. By examining how this force operates, both overtly and on the occult levels, we can quickly see the mechanism that takes place with all vital forces at work in human affairs.

The sexual energy is alluring to most human beings. It is surrounded by a host of taboos, which makes it even more tempting to people who try to figure it out in their lives while trying to address the mixed signals they get from the society. For some, the ostensible purpose of sexual relations is purely for the purpose of bringing children into the world. It is however a fact that sexual activity takes place for many reasons not associated with child-bearing. There are other values associated with sex that go beyond the reproductive necessity.

This brings us to review a spectrum of hidden meanings behind the sexual activity that takes place. On the one extreme, some use it to establish dominance, to humiliate and control others, or to enslave someone to their will. Sexual violence has nothing to do with sex, per se, it is rather a use of the sexual act to control, dominate and in most cases, to make up for a sense of inferiority that the perpetrator feels about himself. He seeks to aggrandise himself by making others subservient to himself and by humiliating them to make himself feel superior. This is however, an extreme and there are other ways to approach the sexual energy.

For instance, there are individuals who understand that the sexual energy should be controlled and redirected, repurposed, sublimated to build up other, higher energetic powers in the being. Many yogic practitioners describe the conversion of the basic sexual force, retas, into a foundational and transformational force, ojas, that sends the energy upwards from the first chakra to successively higher energy centers in the being and their characteristic powers and expression, and which leads to eventual liberation, . We see Western psychologists describing the transformation of the basic sexual impulse into a creative force once controlled and directed as a corollary to this view.

The sexual energy need not be carried out in overt physical acts in order to be felt and responded to. We can observe the sexual tension that arises when an individual focuses attention on another with a powerful sexual urge, and, when the other person is able to vibrate to the same force, a reciprocating response occurs. Western science describes the action of pheromones that automatically activate the sexual response in people; but it goes further than this, to an actual vital vibratory pattern that can be received, accepted, and responded to by creation of a sympathetic vibration in the other person, even at a distance beyond the range of the pheromones. Much of modern cinema works to create sexual tension in the viewers as our modern society is increasingly fixated on sexuality, its allure, and exploring the taboos that have arisen in the society through millennia of attempts to control this powerful vital force.

For most people however, engaged in relationships with others on an interpersonal basis, there are many more messages sent through sexual relations than just the overt physical act or even the overt enjoyment or sensory stimulation that may occur. There can be feelings communicated of caring, intimacy, support, love, goodwill, and a sense of growing closer, sharing life energies and joining forces to create a strong power of common action in the world, when there is mutuality in the relationship. A deep mutual bonding can result in such cases.

When the relationship is not completely mutual, there can be a sense of draining or drawing away of the other party’s energy; or a communication of feelings of sadness, depression or despair. Anything active in one person can be communicated by this close linkage to the other person involved.

For the yogic practitioner, living in the world, it becomes important to be aware of the forces at work, both overtly and covertly, and be able to choose how and in what manner to have such a relationship, and what the boundaries can and should be in any such relation. As with every force in the world, the seeker will recognise the place and right use of the sexual energy, and determine at some point how to uplift, transform and develop the evolutionary next step in human interactions.

Sri Aurobindo writes: “There is always a drawing of vital forces from one to another in all human social mixture that takes place automatically. Love-making is one of the most powerful ways of each drawing upon the other’s vital force, or of one drawing the other’s, which also often happens in a one-sided way to the great detriment of the ‘other’. In the passage come many things good and bad, elation, feeling of strength and support, infiltration of good or bad qualities, interchange of psychological moods, states and movements, depressions, exhaustion — the whole gamut. People don’t know it — which is a mercy of God upon them — but when one gets into a certain yogic consciousness, one becomes very much aware and sensitive to all this interchange and action and reaction, but also one can build a wall against, reject etc. etc.”

“It is a wall of consciousness that one has to build. Consciousness is not something abstract, it is like existence itself or Ananda or mind or prana, something very concrete. If one becomes aware of the inner consciousness, one can do all sorts of things with it, send it out as a stream of force, erect a circle or wall of consciousness around oneself, direct an idea so that it shall enter somebody’s head in America etc. etc.”

Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, The Hidden Forces of Life, Ch. 1 Life Through the Eyes of the Yogin, pp. 16-17