Adaptation of the Body to Support the Manifestation of a New Power of Consciousness

In his Autobiography of a Yogi, Paramahansa Yogananda details a number of events he witnessed or experienced personally whereby a spiritual master was able to materialize his form and communicate with the disciple from a great distance; and where various yogis were able to perform acts of materialization of various material objects. His experiences are not isolated, but are similar to those reported by others on a number of occasions. Milarepa was noted to be able to fly through the air, as well as materialize his body in multiple places concurrently and provide instruction to disciples concurrently at those widely separate locales.

If we look at the operation of the chakras we can see that there is essentially a dual system of action within the human being. First, the external system of organs and material operations requiring input of material sustenance in order to function, and involving an entire machinery to operate all the various systems of the body. Second, the energetic system of the chakras that receive energy at various vibrational frequencies, and use this energy to manifest actions, capacities and developments on the level of consciousness.

We can conceive the possibility that the chakra system could eventually replace entirely the need for the organ systems, and that as new powers of consciousness manifest more fully, human beings could actually create the forms they need to operate in the world in which they are active for any purpose using these powers of consciousness and the ability to manipulate material substance using this energetic power.

We can thus conceive of beings that operate primarily on an energetic level and only take form, and a specific form, when required for whatever they intend to accomplish, while being left free and flexible within realms of consciousness that do not require fixed material formations in order to operate.

Indeed, the scriptures of the world abound with stories of interactions between “beings of light” and human beings. We can conceive the possibility that these beings primarily operate at energetic vibrational levels outside our normal range of perception, but are able to modulate their vibrational pattern when it becomes incumbent upon them to interact with human beings within our current limited range of perception. The question arises as to why, then, it is not possible for human evolution to move to this more energetic and flexible mode of existence in order to more completely and accurately express the new forms and powers of consciousness as they arise through the evolutionary process.

The Mother observes: “In the very, very old traditions — there was a tradition more ancient than the Vedic and the Chaldean which must have been the source of both — in that ancient tradition there is already mention of a ‘glorious body’ which would be plastic enough to be transformed at every moment by the deeper consciousness: it would express that consciousness, it would have no fixity of form. It mentioned luminosity: the constituent matter could become luminous at will. It mentioned a sort of possibility of weightlessness which would allow the body to move about in the air only by the action of will-power and by certain processes of control of the inner energy, and so on. Much has been said about these things.”

“I don’t know if there ever were beings on earth who had partially realised this, but in a very small way there have been partial instances of one thing or another, examples which go to prove that it is possible. And following up this idea, one could go so far as to conceive of the replacement of material organs and their functioning as it now is, by centres of concentration of force and energy which would be receptive to the higher forces and which, by a kind of alchemy, would use them for the necessities of life and the body. We already speak of the different ‘centres’ in the body — this knowledge is very widespread among people who have practiced yoga — but these centres could be perfected to the point where they replace the different organs by a direct action of the higher energy and vibrations on matter. Those who have practiced occultism well enough, in its most integral form, it could be said, know the process of materialisation of subtle energies and can put them in contact with physical vibrations. Not only is it something that can be done, but it is something which is done. And all that is a science, a science which must be used for the creation and setting in action of new bodies which will be able to manifest the supramental life in the material world.”

Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, Powers Within, Chapter XVI Body, pp. 130-131