The Inner Being (the Subliminal)

There are many times when people suddenly get a true ‘sense’ or a ‘feeling’ about something that is not directly perceptible to their senses. Sometimes one will feel that someone is watching or following, although the person cannot be seen or heard. There is some inner sense, with a wider and more subtle range than the physical sense organs, that can pick up these impressions.

Albert Einstein and Nikola Tesla, among many others considered to be creative geniuses in their own field, have made statements about how the logical mental reasoning process of their external mind was unable to solve the things they were considering, but when their minds fell silent, they received inspiration, intuition, even in some cases visions that provided them an entirely new way of seeing and understanding things that led to the breakthroughs they experienced and the creative process that resulted. This is an example of what we would call the inner mind in contact with the larger universal mind.

Dr. Dalal notes: “Behind the surface or frontal consciousness of the outer being there is an inner or subliminal consciousness upon all the three levels — physical, vital, mental. Thus, there is an inner mind, an inner vital and an inner physical. The inner mind is in touch with the universal mind, the inner vital with the universal life-forces, and the inner physical with the universal physical forces around us. Thus whereas the outer being knows things only indirectly from their outer touches as perceived though the senses and the outer mind, the inner being is directly aware of the surrounding universal forces that act through us.”

Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, Our Many Selves: Practical Yogic Psychology, Introduction, Sri Aurobindo on Our Many Selves, Planes and Parts of the Being, pp. xxiii