The Possibility of Psychic Consciousness in Matter

The spark of the Divine, the psychic presence, permeates all of the physical world. It remains relatively unformed and latent in the densest aspects of Matter. As Matter undergoes the evolution of consciousness to manifest living matter, mind and further developments of consciousness, the psychic presence grows to become the psychic being, a being that is self-aware, conscious and directly connected to the Divine. This psychic being begins to influence and control the external being as it grows and matures.

Sri Aurobindo and the Mother provide a very unique and insightful view about the nature of Matter. Matter and Spirit are considered to be one continuum of the divine consciousness and thus, the potentiality of Matter expressing and revealing Spirit is there. It becomes active to the extent the psychic being provides a direct control and expression through the material substance.

The Mother specifically excludes certain disorganized elements of the vital worlds as having the latent capacity of psychic, soul development. People sometimes ask about this, and whether these vital worlds impinge upon the earth and its development. For the most part, the vital worlds that are home to such disorganized forces are separate from the manifestation we experience in our earthly lives. Occasionally, some power or influence may try to intervene in earthly life from one of these vital worlds, bringing with it extreme types of disorder, violence, destruction, chaotic energy.

During the period of the second world war, Sri Aurobindo and the Mother identified Adolf Hitler as a medium, possessed by one of these adverse vital powers. The Mother clarified at one point that Hitler had a weak, undeveloped psychic being which was overpowered by the hostile vital being, which he accepted and embraced, to his own eventual destruction.

It was also noted that a hostile vital being, without a psychic being at its core, could also manifest under certain conditions, albeit very rare circumstances.

A disciple asks: “Is there a psychic being in the atom?”

The Mother replies: “No, it is not yet there. It can be said that there is a possibility of psychic consciousness in Matter — the diffusion of the divine Consciousness had only one object: to make possible an organisation which would be under the direct influence of the Divine. That is why it passes over all the worlds of disorder.* [*At the time of the publication of this talk, Mother added the following note for the sake of precision: ‘Some parts of the vital are worlds of disorder and the beings inhabiting the vital have no psychic being. The psychic being exists only upon earth, in the physical world. That is why I said in brief that the divine spark, which organises the psychic, passed over the worlds of disorder and manifested itself directly in the physical world to create there this possibility of organisation around the divine spark.’] It may hence be said that the Origin of the soul is also in the atom, in all the elements constituting the atom, but it is only the Origin…. I must tell you that when it is fully formed, the psychic being has a distinct form which corresponds to our physical form. It is not altogether similar, but it has a definite form. Every psychic being is different from another — they are not all cut out, modelled to one pattern. They are different, each has an individuality, a personality.”

reference: Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, The Psychic Being — Soul: Its Nature, Mission and Evolution, Section 6 More Lights on the Psychic Being, pp. 165-166