Applying the Scientific Method to the Understanding of the Yoga-Force

How do we determine whether there is any such thing as a ‘yoga-force’? Some treat it as a form of self-delusion, some as hypnotic suggestion, some as some form of ‘placebo effect’ of the mind, some as simply the action of other forces that we simply define as ‘yoga-force’ without any objective method of distinguishing such a force from other forces active in our world and in our awareness.

If we apply the scientific method to this question, we find that we need to have a way to eliminate other potential causes of what takes place when we are considering forces that are de facto invisible to our senses. We also need to look at our method of knowing and determine the proper method to assure ourselves of the validity of our interpretation of the forces at work.

Scientists are used to working with unseen forces and finding ways to distinguish, measure and harness them. Experiments are designed to begin to limit the number of possible causes of an event or action, and eventually, they can isolate what is taking place. This happens frequently in the field of medicine where very complex interactions take place to cause symptoms an individual is experiencing.

Much emphasis is also placed on the instruments of knowing. How do we know the instruments are calibrated properly and able to measure and record what is taking place? In the field of consciousness, it soon becomes clear that the emotional being and the mental being are not competent judges, so anything they experience must be subjected to further scrutiny. This brings us to the types of knowing, with the ultimate type being ‘knowledge by identity’ as described by Sri Aurobindo in The Life Divine. Knowledge by identity requires the development of an inner receptivity and a systematic approach to the inner experience, relying on a form of intuition, or soul-sense that can develop through patient and persistent efforts.

As we begin to utilize the inner and the outer methods of knowledge, we can review those things in our lives that remain inexplicable based on the normal factors we take into account in our external world and view of existence. For example, if an individual has an “out of body” experience, sees his body from another station outside, and then returns to the body and resumes conscious awareness in the body, we learn a lot about the nature of consciousness that defies our preconceived notions about who and what we are! Such experiences are frequent and generally the individual can describe in precise detail the circumstances, the actions of others in the room, the details of which his physical senses are not in a position to pick up. Other fields of inquiry that may bear fruit include the review of the power of intuition, as well as the creation of a palpable atmosphere, the effect of mantric energy, and healing through application of spiritual force.

Similarly there is an entire range of experiences that defy our mental ideas about existence and consciousness and a close exploration of these experiences can help us sift through what is actually occurring. Just as scientists had to work to understand the action of electricity, of radiation, of gravity, and had to devise experiments, detail their observations, make hypotheses and test them through a vast number of trials, and then begin to apply the knowledge so gained to practical technological actions, so an exploration of our spiritual capacities and the action of a yoga-force will yield results that will be incontrovertible as to their source, their power and their significance.

Sri Aurobindo writes: “Still the yoga-force is always tangible and concrete in the way I have described and has tangible results. But it is invisible — not like a blow given or the rush of a motor car knocking somebody down which the physical senses can at once perceive. How is the mere physical mind to know that it is there and working? By its results? But how can it know that the results were that of the yogic force and not of something else? One of two things it must be. Either it must allow the consciousness to go inside, to become aware of inner things, to believe in the experience of the invisible and the supraphysical, and then by experience, by the opening of new capacities, it becomes conscious of these forces and can see, follow and use their workings, just as the Scientist uses the unseen forces of Nature. Or one must have faith and watch and open oneself and then it will begin to see how things happen, it will notice that when the Force was called in, there began after a time to be a result, then repetitions, more repetitions, more clear and tangible results, increasing frequency, increasing consistency of results, a feeling and awareness of the Force at work — until the experience becomes daily, regular, normal, complete. These are the two main methods, one internal, working from in outward, the other external, working from outside and calling the inner force out till it penetrates and is visible in the exterior consciousness. But neither can be done if one insists always on the extrovert attitude, the external concrete only and refuses to join to it the internal concrete — or if the physical mind at every step raises a dance of doubts which refuses to allow the nascent experience to develop. Even the Scientist carrying on a new experiment would never succeed if he allowed his mind to behave in that way.”

Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, The Hidden Forces of Life, Ch.7 Spiritual Forces of Help and Succour, pp.164-165