The Characteristics of the Psychic World and Its Influence in the External World in Which We Live

Every stage of consciousness has its own unique set of characteristics. Each has its own world that operates under the characteristics associated with that stage. When they come into the world we live in, there is an interaction, a mixing that presents each stage and then creates modifications at the point that they relate to one another. There is a physical world and if we look at the purely physical aspects which we now understand were in operations prior to the advent of any vital or mental powers, we see sun, heat, wind, water, physical matter, rock, volcanoes, earthquakes, storms, all operating on one another and effectuating changes in the physical substance. With the advent of the vital world intervening in the material world, we see a transformation of physical energy into vital energy, the arising of hunger, assimilation and eventually disintegration when the vital powers can no longer sustain their functioning or when they are devoured in the process of the interplay of vital forces. If we enter certain spaces that are focused on the vital force, such as nightclubs or sports venues, we can actually feel the vital energy at work in a more concentrated form. With the advent, then, of the mental world, we begin to see a process of evaluation, sorting, categorizing, and planning of action. If we enter certain spaces that are dedicated to mental action, such as a library or a laboratory, we can actually feel the mental force in a more concentrated form at work and we naturally respond to that with various types of mental concentration.

We come then to the development of the psychic world and its influence in the world at large when it introduces its unique power of consciousness into the mix of the physical-vital-mental amalgam that has been established here. In the first chapter of The Life Divine , Sri Aurobindo describes the human aspiration in the seeking for God, Light, Freedom and Immortality. These represent the aspirations of the psychic being as it attempts to bridge the physical, vital and mental worlds with the spiritual consciousness of the Divine Presence. When the psychic world openly begins to manifest in the external world of body-life-mind, it infuses its natural orientation toward the Divine into the action of these earlier stages of the manifestation.

A disciple inquires: “What characterises the substance of the psychic world?“

The Mother responds: “The substance of the psychic world is a substance proper to it, with its own psychic characteristics: a sense of immortality, a complete receptivity to the divine influence, an entire submission to this influence by which it is wholly impregnated. It is this exactly which distinguishes the psychic from the other parts of the being. When, for instance, I speak of organising the mind and the vital around the psychic centre, I do not mean that they become psychic; they remain the mind and the vital, but they are organised around the psychic as an army is organised around its leader — it does not become the leader, it obeys him, doesn’t it? Well, it is the same thing here; the vital and the mind are organised around the psychic, they receive orders from the psychic and carry them out as well as they can. But their substance does not become psychic substance as a consequence. They can be under the influence of the psychic and assume its nature more or less but not its substance.”

reference: Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, The Psychic Being — Soul: Its Nature, Mission and Evolution, Section 6 More Lights on the Psychic Being, pp. 161-162