Three Occult Sources of Our Action

0:02 Human beings have a limited range of perception with boundaries both above and below the vibrational thresholds that we can consciously receive. We know of various animals that can perceive things in ranges above or below the human levels of perception with respect to sound, light, scent, etc. And we are aware that the spectrum of vibrations far exceeds our limited range and is not limited solely to sense perceptions. What we do not generally acknowledge is that vibrational patterns that take place above or below our perceptive range actually can and do influence our existence, our thoughts, emotions, feelings, and physical responses to circumstances. Although we will acknowledge that at the physical level, UV or infrared waves can harm our physical bodies, provoke growth of cancerous cells, or cause blindness, Sri Aurobindo refers to three occult sources that impact us. These are sources other than those we directly perceive and acknowledge with our senses.

1:20 These can be vibrations in the electromagnetic spectrum or vibrations from forces active at those levels as their native realms with consciousness, intention, and will. Super conscient refers to those vibrational patterns and forces that take place at a higher vibration than what we can perceive. Subliminal implies forces that are within our normal range but do not gain sufficient notice, either through our own inattention, the filtering process our brains use to limit extraneous information, or through insufficient force of the vibration to create an act of perception. The all or nothing phenomenon in our eyes is such a situation. Photons of light may be impinging on our visual sense, but until a certain quanta of photons are active, we do not perceive the action of the light as the senses are not yet triggered to acknowledge them.

2:26 Once the sufficient impulse is received, we suddenly acknowledge the presence of the light. Subconscient refers to those things that vibrate below our level of perception. Much of the long standing, habitual, and instinctive reactions comes from this subconscious level. The flow of forces throughout the universal creation are constantly working upon, impacting, and influencing us, and, as we become habituated to specific vibrational patterns, set ourselves up to acknowledge them, receive them, and respond to them.

3:06 We create habits or grooves of behavior that we identify as our personality, as who we are, and as what sets us apart from others with a unique individuality. This habituation process also tends to further limit our ability to recognize and experience vibrational patterns that fall outside of our habitual range, even if they happen to fit generally within our human perceptive range. Shriorobindo writes, Quote There are three occult sources of our action, the superconcient, the subliminal, the subconcient.

3:50 But of none of them are we in control or even aware. What we are aware of is the surface being, which is only an instrumental arrangement. The source of all is that general nature, universal nature, individualizing itself in each person. For this general nature deposits certain habits of movement, personality, character, faculties, dispositions, tendencies in US, and that whether form now or before our birth, is what we usually call ourselves. A good deal of this is in habitual movement and use in our known conscious parts on the surface. A great deal more is concealed in the other unknown 3, which are below or behind the surface.

4:44 But what we are on the surface is being constantly set in motion, changed, developed, or repeated by the waves of the general nature coming in on us, either directly or else indirectly, through others, through circumstances, through various agencies or channels. Some of this flows straight into the conscious parts and acts there, but our mind ignores its source, appropriates it, and regards all that as its own. A part comes secretly into the subcontinent, or sinks into it, and waits for an opportunity of rising up into the conscious surface. A good deal goes into the subliminal, and may at any time come out, or may not, may rather rest there as unused matter part passes through and is rejected, thrown back, or thrown out, or spilt into the universal sea.

5:44 Our nature is a constant activity of forces supplied to us, out of which, or rather out of a small amount of it, we make. What we will or can. What we make seems fixed in form for good, but in reality it is all a play of forces, a flux, nothing fixed or stable. The appearance of stability is given by constant repetition and recurrence of the same vibrations and formations. End Quote Reference Sri Arobindo and the Mother, The Hidden Forces of Life, Chapter 2, Hidden Forces within pages 32 to 33.