Anyone who begins to investigate the exotic factors of intellect, and
to read the literature on unusual powers of some advanced humans has his
attention immediately drawn to the Hindu "siddhis" or miraculous powers.
There are several reasons for this:
1 ) There is more available material,
2) The material is more extensive and covers more powers,
3) The material is presented in a more orderly fashion,
4) Whereas other traditions (e.g., Christian) present the powers as
theophanous graces, the siddhis literature presents them as abilities acquired
by certain specific practices. Under these circumstances, anyone who hopes
to develop a taxonomy of the exotic factors of intellect is virtually compelled
to build on the Hindu model.
Before going further, it may be well to state the author's personal views in a kind of caveat. The siddhis involve the use of universal force for personal interest in which there is great danger. The danger consists in that knowledge gives power which may come ahead of purification of selfish ego interests, always demanded in every monastic tradition. The use of universal power for selfish interests is magic and is proscribed by almost all religious leaders. Hence, many of them advise that no willful effort be made to encourage siddhis, and no particular attention be paid to them when they occur as epiphenomena of the developing consciousness, lest fixation on product, rather than attention to process occur. Our attention to them in this section is a research effort, and does not constitute a recommendation to attempt to develop them.
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There are some catalogs of these powers and abilities. Bro (1970) enumerates the powers of the American paragnost, Edgar Cayce (We interpolate the relevant section numbers in all of the following):
1) commune with dead (3. 1)
2) receive psychic impressions (3.0)
3) see auras (3.5)
4) perform automatisms (3.1)
5) act on people and things (4.4, 4.5)
6) have out-of-body experiences (3.2)
7) possess precognition (4.71)
8) possess retrocognition (4.71)
9) prophecy (4.71)
10) work wonders Al, 4.4, 4.5)
11) guide (4.77) 12) heal Al, 4A
Saraydarian (1971:220ff) gives the following list of "expanded powers":
1) intuitive response to ideas (4.77)
2) sensitivity to impressions (3.0)
3) right observation of reality on soul plane (4.4)
4) quick response to real need (4.6)
5) correct manipulation of force (4.5)
6) true comprehension of time element (4.71)
7) mental polarization (4.6)
8) fiery aspiration (4.7)
9) symbolic reading (4.72)
10) devotion to higher self (4.6)
11) continuity of consciousness, lucidity (4.8)
12) conscious contact with guru (4.9)
We give Montagu's (1950:79) nineteen signs of the physical phenomena of mysticism:
1) ecstasies (4.6)
2) stigmata (3.4)
3) levitation (3.8)
4) bilocation (3.2)
5) luminosity (3.5)
6) inedia (no need for food) (3.6)
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7) "non-somnia" (no necessity for sleep), (3.6)
8) "spiritual (precognitive) dreams (4.71)
9) visions and apparitions (4.2)
10) clairvoyance (3.2)
11) vision through opaque bodies (4.3)
12) infused knowledge (4.7)
13) discernment of spirits (4.77)
14) gift of healing (4.1, 4.4)
15) empery over nature (4.5)
16) demonical molestation (poltergeist phenomena)
17) fire of love (psychic heat), (3.3)
18) mystic marriage (4.8)
19) postmortem incorruption (3.7)
The list of siddhis according to Swami Sivananda (1971: 152) includes the following major eight:
1) Anima, (miniturization) (3.9)
2) Mahima (giantism), (3.9)
3) Laghima (levitation), (3.8)
4) Garima (the opposite of #3), (3.9)
5) Prapti (prophecy, clairvoyance and thought-reading)
6) Prakamya (invisibility), (3.9)
7) Vashitam (empery over animals), (4.5)
8) Ishitwarn (attainment of divine power).
Minor siddhis include the following (ibid:154-5)
1-3) Independence from Bodily Functions (3.6)
4,5) Clairvoyance, clairaudience
12) Knowledge of past, present and future (4.7)
14) Prophecy
19) Knowledge of past lives
20) Knowledge of the stars
22) Mastery of the elements (4.5)
24) Omnipotence
25) Levitation (3.8)
26) Dowsing (3.2)
It is interesting to compare Tables II-1 and III-1first to note the very considerable correspondence, and second to note entries in one table which do not appear in the other. Since Table II-1 is mainly from Western sources, and Table III-1 from Eastern, one
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may speculate that items found in only one table are cultural rather than universal powers. For example, 3.1, 3.3 and 3.4 (physical mediumship, thermal effects, and stigmata) are not spoken of in Patanjali. In the case of the first two, it may be because they are considered rather common there; in the case of stigmata, there seems to be no parallel outside of Christianity. Similarly sutras 26 and 27 (index 4.0) astronomical knowledge may well have been considered an intuitional grace by the Hindus; Western astronomy has made it a science. There are a few other differences in emphasis, but over all, there is a remarkable similarity in the two tables. Almost all the Patanjali sutras are represented somewhere. We left out sutra 46 (to get a perfect adamantine body) because it "comes" naturally as a result of perfection and does not appear to require samyama. It is also to be remarked that some Christian saints acquire siddhis "en passant" or without conscious performance of samyama. Evidently at certain levels, siddhis appear spontaneously.
Let us turn to Patanjali's Yoga Sutras (Aranya 1977), Book III (on paranormal powers) for the authoritative statement on samyama, (or the mechanism for the production of the siddhis. In the following, since we will follow the text closely, the Arabic number is the page and the Roman the sutra number.
"Dharama or attention is the mind's fixation on a particular point in space:" (278-1), (e.g., the navel, the heart, the nose, the tongue). "In the case of intra-organic regions, the mind is fixed directly through intermediate feeling, but in the case of external objects (sounds, forms, etc.), the mind is fixed, not directly but through modifications of the senses." "These three, viz. dharama (fixity), dhyana (meditation) and samadhi (concentration) taken together is (sic) called samyama," (283-IV). "By this samyama the three-fold mutation is directly realized. But these are external with respect to seedless concentration," (samadhi), (287-V1 11).
The three gunas are tamas (e.g., mass, inertia), rajas (e.g., activity,
energy), and sattva (e.g., lightness, intelligence). The gunas are a basic
triplicity, not defined by their examples, and in continual change. "The
product of gunas (or three basic constituent principles) is always mutable:"
(288-IV), since: "mutation is the nature of the gunas:" (303). "There is
no cause:", it being
a fundamental characteristic of all phenomena," for "everything
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is-essentially every other thing," (308). Thus to get a mental grasp on such a slippery concept one must look at group theory in which a particular finite group (viz, the group of three, e.g., ABC, ACB, BAC, BCA, CAB, CBA) has six different modes or appearances, which may permute into one another. One cannot usefully dwell on these changes, only on the whole group.
Further reflection on this topic indicates that perhaps the gunas may appear 'in four phases and may operate independently. I if so, the repetitions of four things taken three at a time would be 43 or 64, which, of course, brings us back to the I-Ching.
In this introductory section we have introduced two very common and
well accepted examples of human parasensory abilities-telepathy and dowsing.
We have also made an initial and crude attempt to organize the field of
exotic powers and abilities into a taxonomy by building on the Hindu siddhis
literature. All this has been designed to give some semblance of meaning
and order to an otherwise chaotic area, and to develop in the reader a
background of knowledge and a suspension of former belief so that he can,
with us, examine in detail a number of the more spectacular and surprising
faculties and events connected with these powers. Our method will be to
proceed seriatim through the cosmogenic sector of the taxonomy of exotic
powers and abilities discussing the specifics of each case in turn.