The Concrete Reality of Spiritual Force and Its Action

There is a clear divide between those who have actually experienced the action of spiritual or yoga-force, and those who have a mental conception of spirituality but have not had a strong experience thus far that makes the theory into something real and actual for them. Once the experience is there, it is impossible to deny its authenticity or power and it is no longer a subject of internal debate as to whether it is real.

Many people report experiences that include the rising up a energy from the base of the spine area through the crown of the head, and the illumination and insight that occurs when that experience takes hold. Similarly, many report the sensation of a drilling force from above through the skull that brings changes to the mental view, the expression of will power, emotional reaction, vital response and even brings physical changes with it. Long experience, documented in yoga scriptures down through the ages, describe the need to prepare the body for the advent of the yoga-force and the risks and downsides of bringing in that power without a solid basis to hold it and not either spill it or become imbalanced as a result of its advent.

Large numbers of people have experienced the power of a location that is filled with devotional force. A researcher actually documented the difference between stones that had been long in a particular temple and absorbed the energy there and similar stones that were not kept in a place that was considered devotional and where long years of prayer had not taken place. Kirlian photography of the stones showed a distinct strong ‘aura’ radiating from the stones that came from the shrine, while there was no discernible radiation of force from the non-immersed stones. This tends to support the idea that certain invisible forces, operative on the spiritual level, can actually be captured and stored in physical matter.

Certainly if one looks at the stories told of great Rishis, Saints, Gurus, Seers, Shaman and Yogis down through the ages, there is a clear pattern of an active spiritual force that can impact lives and even physical health and wellness. In the book Called to Heal, the author recounts a story of an individual in Africa who came from a background of traditional healing, but who tried to avoid taking that path, preferring to have a career outside the healing field. She experienced endless numbers of life and health crises and eventually was advised that until she took up her destined healing path, she would not succeed and her health would be at risk. Once she accepted her destined role, her life became one of growth and joy. Some occult force was working within her life to move her toward a destined role as a traditional healer.

Sri Aurobindo writes: “Concrete? What do you mean by concrete? Spiritual force has its own concreteness; it can take a form (like a stream, for instance) of which one is aware and can send it quite concretely on whatever object one chooses.”

“This is a statement of fact about the power inherent in spiritual consciousness. But there is also such a thing as a willed use of any subtle force — it may be spiritual, mental or vital — to secure a particular result at some point in the world. Just as there are waves of unseen physical forces (cosmic waves etc.) or currents of electricity, so there are mind-waves, thought-currents, waves of emotion, — for example, anger, sorrow, etc., — which go out and affect others without their knowing whence they come or that they come at all, they only feel the result. One who has the occult or inner senses awake can feel them coming and invading him. Influences good or bad can propagate themselves in that way; that can happen without intention and naturally, but also a deliberate use can be made of them. There can also be a purposeful generation of force, spiritual or other. There can be too the use of the effective will or idea acting directly without the aid of any outward action, speech or other instrumentation which is not concrete in that sense, but is all the same effective. These things are not imaginations or delusions or humbug, but true phenomena.”

Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, The Hidden Forces of Life, Ch.7 Spiritual Forces of Help and Succour, pg.165