EPUB Ebooks: Free ebook sample of "Realms of Wondrous Gifts: Psychic, Mediumistic and Miraculous Powers in the Great Mystical and Wisdom Traditions" by Santoshan (Stephen Wollaston) (powered by Smashwords)

There is a sea of universal spirituality flowing through all the great mystical and wisdom traditions. All we need to do is immerse ourselves into the ocean of this knowledge in order to draw wholesome nourishment from it and awaken to a deep and meaningful loving unity with all.

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‘A book that will be of tremendous help to all who wish to deepen their understanding of the powers and the wider implications of spirituality.’

Swami Dharmananda Saraswati, author of Breath of Life

‘A real gem of a book ... Highly recommended.’

Psychic World

‘This is a rare and enriching book.’

Eileen Davies, international medium and teacher

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Published by S. Wollaston

Revised for Smashwords edition

This ebook is also available in its original print edition at most online retailers

published by The Gordon Higginson Fellowship in 2008

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to http://www.smashwords.com/ and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Other titles by the author

(ebooks of all titles soon to be available)

Spirituality Unveiled: Awakening to Creative Life.

The House of Wisdom: Yoga Spirituality of the East and West (coauthored with Swami Dharmananda).

Spirit Gems: Essential Guidance for Spiritual, Mediumistic and Creative Unfoldment (coauthored with Glyn Edwards).

The Spirit World in Plain English: Mediumistic and Spiritual Unfoldment (coauthored with Glyn Edwards).

Dedication

This book is dedicated to the spiritual heroes who have sought to cross all boundaries and establish peace in the world and have encouraged a more caring attitude towards Mother Earth and all life upon her, and to those who have joined them in their quest and put their wisdom into practice.

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PREFACE

This ebook emerged out of a short article that focused primarily on Christian spirituality. In writing this book I aimed at presenting the evidence as it revealed itself. I was drawn to discovering the core of different views about psychic, mediumistic and miraculous powers and wanted to investigate the variety of experience there is to be found in many of the great mystical and wisdom traditions. Obviously every writer brings their own thoughts and observations with them. However, I have aimed at allowing the teachings and voices of those who had something to say about certain experiences and gifts that can manifest on mystical and spiritual paths speak for themselves, whether for or against certain practices. In the first and final chapters and in places where the choice of who to draw upon for a contemporary perspective is where my own preference and reflections sometimes come through the loudest.

I also feel that we can no longer talk about Christianity without considering some of the teachings of what are popularly known as the ‘Gnostic Gospels’ and have therefore included a few points they raise. Though it has to be said that biblical scholars such as Stevan Davies and Elaine Pagels now believe these gospels are not all Gnostic teachings, but simply different early perspectives of Christian wisdom that did not become a part of the canonical Gospels. Nonetheless, teachings found within the Gospel of Thomas and the Gospel of Mary have since been openly embraced by many liberal Christians. Because of the Gnostic Gospels discovery it is now recognized that we can no longer talk of early Christianity as a single unified tradition.

Because of knowing the UK medium, Glyn Edwards, as a close friend, it seemed like an opportunity not to be missed to include him in this book, particularly as he was once a monk in a Christian monastery, has studied the lives and teachings of many of the great masters of spirituality and has his own perspectives on the powers. This was the reason for including two interviews with him for the Appendices, in which he eloquently answered some difficult questions and shared thoughts that I had not heard him talk about before. His universal beliefs are about a collective responsibility for each other and our sacred Earth, as we are a part of a single family eternally evolving in the one interconnected Spirit that seeks harmonious expression through all. In our multi-faith world it is hoped that those who do not come from the same background as Glyn will nonetheless find much of what he had to say insightful. A glossary of terms linking with different areas that are looked at in this book has also been included. Readers will notice that this book does not focus on arguments about whether some accounts such as popular legends about key individuals or miraculous happenings in the Christian and Hebrew Bible should be considered as factual or not. For it is moving into the realms of personal belief and is the topic for another book, such as Bart D. Ehrman’s Jesus, Interrupted: Revealing the Hidden Contradictions in the Bible, although I have offered alternative perspectives about matters for consideration in various places.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I wish to thank Glyn Edwards and Graham Hewitt for approaching me with the idea of writing this book and for encouraging me to expand upon a piece I had written for The House of Wisdom: Yoga Spirituality of the East and West. A special thanks also goes to O Books for allowing extracts of the original composition to be used.

Abbreviations used

BCE Before the Common Era

(contemporary term for BC)

CE Common Era

(contemporary term for AD)

Cor. Corinthians

Eph. Ephesians

Exod. Exodus

Heb. Hebrews

Josh. Joshua

Kgs. Kings

Lev. Leviticus

Matt. Matthew

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INTRODUCTION

There was a time when writing a book of this nature would have been considered as being out of touch with current thinking by the scientifically minded. The hypothesis put forward by Sir James Frazer in The Golden Bough, published over a hundred years ago, was that humans have evolved from mythical indigenous beliefs in magic and in many spirits interrelated with Nature and tribal communities who respected the Earth’s biodiversity, to formalized religions influencing the structures of the great civilisations of history, to a scientific age and way of relating to life and the universe that has no need for the beliefs and practices of the previous two stages.

For some, Frazer’s path to cold scientific and dualistic logic holds the final view, and for many years mechanistic science was thought to have proven once and for all that life was nothing mysterious and promoted ideas about Nature needing to be controlled, dominated and paid little respect. A spirit world or a sacred Earth to be celebrated, revered, cherished and lived in harmony with, or a cosmos with spiritual implications and purpose, were pushed aside in favor of theories about life and the planets being nothing more than regulated machines with no Creative Mind permeating and underlying them, and no room for such things as psychic, shamanistic and mediumistic phenomena, the miraculous, or ideas about the sacredness of existence.

Yet this is not the end of the story. For we currently live in exciting times, where some physicists and scientific philosophers, such as Joel Primack and Nancy Ellen Abrams, are discovering that humans hold a special place in a living universe that is not without significance. Some contemporary scientists are validifying psychic phenomena and transcendent and spiritual realms of experience as fact and have once again joined the search to discover what they imply and how we can best understand and awaken to diverse powers related to life – seeking how to responsibly manifest different abilities and live in harmony with the realms of Nature and spirituality with which they connect.

Similar to Carl Jung’s collective unconscious, the studies and theory of the Cambridge biologist, Rupert Sheldrake, into morphogenetic fields (a biological field permeating Nature that contains information to shape the exact form of living things, as well as behaviour) point to an interconnected creative and psychic mind of the world and all life upon it. In John David Ebert’s Twilight of the Clockwork Gods, he mentions how doctors such as Richard Gerber, Larry Dossey and Deepak Chopra are taking ancient microcosmologies seriously, as well as yogic beliefs about kundalini and pranic energy. A spirit world, a sacred Earth, telepathy, angels, reincarnation and the existence of the soul are all areas of earnest discussion for many respected contemporary scientists.

Ebert mentions how the Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research programme have meticulously documented the reality of paranormal phenomena, such as telepathy, psychokinesis and remote viewing. In the DVD version of the excellent What the Bleep do We Know? (extended English version) Dr Dean Radin, a senior scientist at the Institute of Noetic Sciences, mentions how it is no longer a case of asking whether scientists believe in psychic abilities or not, as many of them do. Contemporary terms, such as ‘precognitive events’, are now being employed by them to investigate a vast array of spiritual, mediumistic and psychic phenomena and wisdom.

With this in mind, let us look at some traditional myths, accounts, and documented comments and experiences of various yogis, mystics, seers and prophets and their teachings about them and search for a central core that might unite them. But before we do this, I feel it is wise to reflect on some areas that connect with the subject of this book, which are explored in the following chapter.

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Chapter One

ANCIENT WISDOM, POSTMODERN WORLD

There are different kinds of spiritual gifts, but they all come from the same Spirit.

– Corinthians.

What are often classified as supernormal powers can be seen to connect with various forces of Nature, such as having control over the weather or other natural phenomena. They can also be seen to connect with prophecies about coming events, communicating with departed spirit personalities, numerous states and stages of meditation, ultimate levels of spiritual being and various types of healing. The word ‘miracle’ refers to an event that is invariably attributed to have happened through the intervention of a Divine agency or a higher spiritual force, and because of this, miracles are generally looked upon as beyond ordinary scientific explanation and not bound by Nature’s laws.

Over the last hundred years there has been a blurring of different types of spiritual, mediumistic and psychic experience. While it can at times be difficult to draw a clear line between where one type of experience ends and another begins, it is a mistake to reduce everything to a single category. One cap cannot be made to fit all.

I recently came across an extensive pamphlet entitled Psychic Influences in World Religions, written with deep conviction by the Spiritualist James F Malcolm and noticed that he placed a variety of experiences, including mysticism, under the heading of mediumship. But if we look at what the word mediumship implies, we see that it generally refers to an ability to see, hear or feel spirit personalities that no longer have physical existence. Additionally, physical and trance mediumship and healers who are said to be aided by spirit personalities are other areas that can fall under this heading. The word literally refers to someone who is seen to be in the middle of two realms of existence (the physical world and the spirit world) and acts as a mediator between them. These two realms of experience that are often mentioned by mediums and shamans can be seen as quite different from the understanding of oneness, non-separateness and unity that is realized by many of the great mystics, where everything shares an interconnected underlying Divinity.

Mysticism itself invariably focuses around a life of prayer and/or meditation, reflection, work and spiritual discipline, dedicated to serving and discovering a unity with the Divine, which is found in all activities of life, yet also transcends all and in which all things possess an interactive relationship. While some mystics appear to display mediumistic types of experience or phenomena, Swami Abhayananda’s enlightenment experience, which occurred in 1966, shows us that some do not and demonstrates how simply calling ‘a mystic a medium’ is misleading:

… I was not privy to the so-called ‘subtle’ realms of spirit; I saw nothing there of angels, spirit-guides, or souls. This does not imply that these do not exist … My vision was one of identity with the Eternal, my original transcendent Source and ultimate being. I was able to see … the outflux and influx of the universal cosmos …

A blossoming of extraordinary gifts

When we look at the beginnings of a religion we frequently find there are reports of such things as profound meditational experiences, or we find a founder or an early leader displaying supernormal gifts. In the course of a religion’s history we invariably find holy men or women displaying various powers, such as healing and prophecy. Ancient scripture, such as the Old and New Testament, the Yoga Sutra and the Bhagavata Purana, mention a variety of phenomena that include the hearing of voices, visions, reading other people’s minds and levitation. We hear about contemporary charismatic Christians speaking in tongues (technically termed glossolalia) and various mystics performing extraordinary feats. Tibetan Buddhists have long-made use of oracles, who are said to go into trance states and become possessed by various deities.

One might argue that such things as oracles are nothing to do with spirituality. But if spirituality is seen as a way of life and discipline and oracles are being consulted as guides about various aspects of it, then they are obviously a part of it in some way. However, although this overview of five of the world’s great mystical and wisdom traditions shows that certain types of psychic, mediumistic and miraculous powers can be found and practiced within them, there is a general belief in not placing too much emphasis on them, which often comes through clearly as something that needs to be considered. For we must never look upon the parts as being greater than the whole.

Problems with miracles

With the subject of miracles there are ethical dilemmas and teachings that contradict the need for the display of supernatural powers. We are told in various teachings that if we wish to find a lasting peace we must at first accept things as they are. There is indeed great wisdom in this. Yet if we passively accept all things as they truly are, then the need for a miracle to occur to change anything would not arise. In addition to this, people who have disabilities sometimes tell us that they are not looking for a miracle that makes them the same as everyone else, but would rather people just accepted them the way they are.

A positive change might be desired because of an inability to include all life. We therefore have to be careful that we are not using spirituality and various practices as a form of avoidance. We may also notice a tendency at times to want to jump in and quickly fix various difficulties people face, which can display this inability to embrace the whole. We of course need to endeavour to be there for others in a supportive role and exhibit spontaneous and natural acts of compassion, but a quick-fix remedy is not always an authentic display of empathy with others.

There are also problems when it comes to miracles not happening, as it could be interpreted that people’s prayers are not being answered or that their practices are ineffective, or even that they are meant to suffer in some way, which would seem like a harsh and inhumane position to take. However, many miracles, if we wish to call them this, can be seen as not so much about changing physical circumstances, but in bringing about a proactive acceptance of a situation. This kind of miracle does not physically favor people over others who might be less fortunate than them. An example of this is when suffering brings about a wholesome transformation in people’s lives that awakens them to connecting more with others.

Suffering can at times open the door to profound spiritual and mystical experiences, which help to bring about new and healthier states of being. But as we know, this does not always happen, and there are no satisfactory answers as to why some people have these experiences in their darkest hours of need and yet others do not.

When it comes to healing we have to consider that medical science tells us that there are illnesses, even terminal ones, from which people can go into remission. Additionally, there is also the placebo effect to bear in mind. None of this undermines the infinite possibilities of healing, but leads us to realize there is much we still do not know about the power of the mind and the body’s ability to heal itself.

Synchronicity

Some scholars have looked for rational and scientific explanations for some of the Bible’s miracles, such as what natural event might have caused the Red Sea to dry up just as Moses and the Israelites needed to cross it (Exod. 14:21-22), or could have changed the water of the Nile to the color of blood, kill fish that lived in it and made it undrinkable (Exod. 7:17-18). Even if natural explanations are found for such phenomena, it is the way that the events are seen to happen at a certain time that gives them greater significance. Synchronistic events therefore can be seen as miraculous happenings. Drawing on Carl Jung’s theory about them, some people have come to consider synchronistic events as having deep spiritual meaning, as illustrated in James Redfield’s popular fictional book and film The Celestine Prophecy.

Problems with experiences

Within all beliefs there are followers who want to claim the experiences and phenomena that unfold in their tradition show that their path holds the final truth, or that they have been chosen over others as special in some way. Some go as far to condemn anyone displaying supernatural powers or having deep spiritual experiences outside of their tradition as false. Or even worse, that they are being misled!

In Carl Jung’s autobiography he reminds us that concepts are often built around experiences that can lose much of what they are about. Deepak Chopra tells us that, “Finding the truth is not a matter of making anyone wrong, but of seeing how every belief can be expanded.” But no matter what experiences are encountered on spiritual journeys, they need to lead to an opening to the transforming influence of the Divine that is within, transcends and unites all.

In today’s world we can take routes that do not rely on religious dogmas, but can still fall into familiar traps, as we might believe our experiences or practices give us the ultimate perspective on spirituality, the spirit world or life after death. Problems arise when the whole of development is overlooked in place of only one or two facets, such as only considering the philosophic and theological aspects of a belief system, or just the traditional realms of mystical and psychic experiences. Though in the ultimate sense, all facets become parts of mystical experience when the spiritual life is lived to its full.

A holistic approach on the other hand implies bringing all parts together in order to discover a balance and harmony with the many facets of life. For the majority of the great mystics, lamas and yogis, study, the development of the mind, everyday life, work and practices of prayer and meditation are unifying facets of the whole of spirituality. It is not a life of escapism and blissing out, but spiritually living and acting in the world and using all our powers for good.

Deeper mysteries

When thinking about the views some have against psychic, shamanistic, mediumistic and miraculous powers, one question that keeps coming to mind is, ‘Doesn’t wholeness and oneness include everything?’ After all, the New Testament tells us that God is in all (Eph. 4:6).

Obviously there is more to the great wisdom and mystical traditions than just wholeness and oneness. However, it can be said that they are important elements that link with them. For instance, the word ‘yoga’ comes from the verbal root yuj, meaning to bind and make whole. In a talk given at the Christian Meditation Centre in London by the highly respected Benedictine monk, Father Lawrence Freeman, he described the word ‘holiness’ as being a comparable word to ‘wholeness.’ In the Bible, holiness is about overcoming separateness from the Divine. So it seems that both words, yoga and holiness, imply a similar thing, which suggest an inclusion and integration of the many facets of our being. Further to this, the mystical strands running through various traditions invariably include realms of unitive consciousness experienced when we are fully present with all things, which overcome restrictions of separate individual awareness (our limited sense of ‘I’, self or ego).

In the Buddha’s teachings, though we cannot technically talk about them as ‘mystical’ (as a mystic is someone who follows a path grounded in the Divine/God, which the Buddha did not teach), we find mention of an ultimate state of non-separateness. We can therefore conclude that many of the great wisdom and mystical traditions appear to share some similarities in the different terms they use. And if all is interconnected and a part of a greater whole, then it must imply such things as psychic, mediumistic and miraculous powers are facets of this reality. It would be odd to leave something out and to call it ‘whole’ otherwise. Although from a supreme perspective some may teach about a transcendence of all things, this transcendence, if looked at in a healthy and practical way, need not imply denying any parts. It can be about including and transcending.

However there is one area that does not fit so neatly with this view, as there are various ascetics in many traditions who have renounced the world and normal contact with it, which is hardly about inclusiveness, though accounts of such people often mention them possessing and displaying a variety of supernatural powers. But it should be mentioned that completely renouncing the world is rarely practiced or even favored. It was not the path of the first guru of the Sikh faith (Guru Nanak), the Buddha (although he tried harsh ascetic practices at first, he found they did not lead to enlightenment), Moses, the Prophet Muhammad or Jesus, who went into the desert for forty days but then went back into society. The central message of one of Hinduism’s most revered holy books, the Bhagavad Gita, is about involvement in the world, rather than escaping from it and puts forward a belief in world renouncing practices not achieving their aim.

Problems with language

In writing about such a vast topic as psychic, mediumistic and miraculous powers in some of the world’s great wisdom and mystical traditions, it soon becomes clear that there are problems with terminology and the way these powers are considered. For what might be classed as an extrasensory faculty by some might be seen as a miraculous gift by others.

We also need to take into consideration that any practice, such as prayer or meditation, which is believed to have a result or effect in some way, is basically a belief in psychic or miraculous power. Even if there is a psychological or physiological explanation for what happens, such as feeling more relaxed after calming one’s breath. If an individual holds a belief in a power that brings about a transformation, it implies a belief in a psychic or miraculous force that can interact with his or her life and bring about positive changes. When bread is consecrated by a Roman Catholic priest during Mass and it is believed to transform into the body of Christ, it obviously implies a belief in a miraculous power.

To complicate matters further, we could consider as Carl Jung did that we can know nothing of life if it were not for our psychic senses, as everything can be seen as being perceived by and processed through them. For ultimately we experience everything as a psychic image in one way or another, i.e. in symbolic form, which has symbolic meaning to us, including language and all other sensory data. Visualization practices can for instance be viewed as a way of entering into and working with the deeper psychic levels of our being.

Whatever conclusion we wish to make, it is clear that psychic or miraculous gifts, although some might argue are not essential to spiritual and mystical life are, as will be seen in the examples given in this book, intrinsically bound up with and frequently by-products of it. It is only when we do not heed the general warning given about over attachment to them and allowing them to distract us from other realms of development and use them purely for self-promotion that they become obstacles to spiritual living. For the path is multifaceted. Everyone is uniquely different with an infinite variety of gifts to share, which does not imply an I am more important than anyone else egocentricness:

… your light must shine in the sight of all, so that, seeing your good works, they may give praise to your parent-God in heaven.

– Matthew’s Gospel.

Familiar and contemporary beliefs

As mentioned there are some that claim such things as mediumship and shamanism should not be practiced. Popular passages for such believers are found in the Old Testament, particularly sections of Deuteronomy. Yet even Jesus is reported to have consulted with the departed Moses and Elijah (Matt. 17:3 and Luke 9:30). Deuteronomy fails to mention that psychic and mediumistic types of abilities have been known to surface naturally within people’s spiritual growth, even when they have not consciously been trying to develop them, as fellow author of The House of Wisdom, Swami Dharmananda, discovered to her surprise when undertaking various yoga practices, or what people are meant to do if this happens.

The reason for one of the warnings given in Deuteronomy is because it will make us ritually unclean if we associate with certain people (19:31). This goes against any wholesome ideas of a spiritual inclusiveness and contrasts strongly with other passages in the Old Testament that remind us to “love our neighbour as our self” (Lev. 19:18), which the Jewish people are called to live and Jesus advocated as the second greatest commandment after loving God with all one’s heart, mind and soul (Matt. 22:37-39). The combining of these two teachings has been called the ‘Jesus Creed’ by some Christians, such as Scot McKnight, which amends the ancient Jewish Shema/Creed.

Other warnings in Deuteronomy are about divination, sorcery and witchcraft (18:10-12), of which the latter has links in various cultures with Paganistic beliefs that are often about honouring the Divine Feminine and being at one with Nature and the Earth, which in today’s world, particularly because of global warming, are important practices. Ignoring an Earth centered spirituality and a creative empowered Divinity and its interactive relationship with the universe is looked upon as a serious mistake by many contemporary pioneers of spirituality, such as Thomas Berry and Matthew Fox, and is seen as a contributory factor that has caused humankind to not care enough about global issues.

The witch that Saul is described visiting in the Old Testament’s First Book of Samuel, who makes contact with the deceased spirit of Samuel, reminds him how he had expelled people such as her from the land, which shows a harsh form of persecution that would be unacceptable to any human rights believer.

On the whole, fundamentalist strands of any tradition will want to read holy scripture as a word for word factual document that needs little or no interpretation. Yet there is a problem with this, as there are invariably contradictory and ambiguous teachings in all the world’s great wisdom and mystical traditions and scriptures, as well as plenty of symbolic and metaphorical language used and perspectives on life that are no longer valid. This means that all teachings require personal reflection to arrive at one’s own understanding and insights in order to make sense of them. The cultivation of wisdom and personal reflection are highly prized in all healthy spiritual practices.

We need to remember that one person’s truth can mean little to someone from another faith and that ancient teachings were given in times that were different from the world in which we live. Even thirty year old studies on psychic, mediumistic and miraculous powers in world religions will be out of touch with contemporary thinking. Hopefully we would not put someone to death for working on the Sabbath (Exod. 35:2), as it is not only barbaric, but fails to see that every day is holy and work is a part of spiritual life. Teachings from other eras and traditions remind us that good works and wholesome and skillful actions are essential for balanced living.

The societies in which the historical Buddha, the first prophets and many of the early mystics grew up in cannot be compared completely with ours. The world in which we live is even vastly different from the one our parents grew up in when they were our age, and our understanding of science, spirituality, religion and the universe has changed. Having an ‘I am right and you are wrong’ intolerance will only create problems in our pluralistic, contemporary multicultural and multi-faith world.

Changes in thinking and understanding

Many contemporary scientists and influential thinkers are bringing about changes in our understanding of the various powers we possess and how they relate to underlying forces at work throughout the universe. Scientists for example are discovering things that were once looked upon as supernatural, such as precognition, as being perfectly natural phenomena that connect us with all life, as they are bound up with an interactive consciousness underlying everything. In contrast to this we find some attitudes of thirty years ago were not so open. Although taking an opposite view himself, Frits Staal pointed out in his excellent book Exploring Mysticism, published in 1975, that, “In modern scholarly literature such powers are frowned upon, and it is generally suggested that Patanjali [the compiler of the influential Yoga Sutra] himself also looked down on them.”

Even in early Buddhism, the beginning of section eleven of the Kevavaddha Sutta of the Digha Nikaya mentions the exercise of supernormal powers, in which the Buddha condemns as vulgar conjuring tricks. According to the relatively recent Rider Encyclopedia of Eastern Philosophy, all the great masters have cautioned against psychic and miraculous powers because they, “belong entirely to the phenomenal realm and contribute nothing to one’s realization of absolute truth, and because attachment to such abilities constitutes a serious obstacle in the way to spiritual development.”

Various yogis, such as the 20th century teacher Gopi Krishna, warned against using miraculous powers and stated that, “Not one of the great modern Indian saints and sages such as Sri Ramakrishna, Maharshi Ramana, Sri Aurobindo, Swami Dayananda, or Swami Sivananda, endorsed the exhibition of psychic gifts or the working of miracles, even if endowed with such powers.”

Yet we find Sri Aurobindo writing extensively about our psychic being and experiences attainable in dreams and meditation. He even experimented with automatic writing after his brother introduced him to it and produced various amounts of teachings through the practice, where what appeared to be a discarnate spirit personality wrote about different spiritual topics. Sri Aurobindo even produced the short book Yoga Sadhana by the method, at the rate of one chapter a day and completed it in roughly seven to eight days. Interestingly in Volume Two of his diaries, he came to the conclusion that the writings were, “not always of a higher order”, and according to his experience he felt that the majority, but not all, “of such writings comes from a dramatising element of the subconscious mind.” In a balance to this comment we could consider the highly popular channelled book A Course in Miracles and conclude that the quality of such phenomena cannot always be dismissed so easily.

But no matter what type of phenomena are being encountered, we need to reflect upon their validity and see if they are leading us and others to a healthy understanding of life. Our own wisdom needs to play a part. Phenomena should not override the importance of compassionate actions, or the promotion of unity and peace with others and living skillfully and wisely in every moment. This requires an interspiritual and a deep ecumenical approach to our unfoldment that wholesomely accepts we do not have all the answers and respects the spiritual teachings of others. I use the word ‘spiritual’ here to imply teachings and practices that unite instead of divide people and their shared responsibilities for each other and all life on Mother Earth.

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Chapter Two

YOGIS AND BUDDHAS

The powers in Hindu spirituality

Yogis and yoginis tell us that astral beings are everywhere. To know this truth they must possess clairvoyant and other types of shamanistic and mediumistic abilities. When we look at the yogic and Hindu spiritual traditions we find that since early Vedic times, around the 2nd millennium BCE, there has been the belief in various extraordinary powers, including the power of specialized rituals and the creative use of prayer and mantra helping to maintain cosmic order (called rita in Sanskrit). Some have speculated that these rituals and the belief in their results point towards an early understanding of creative karmic action having a positive effect.

Within the Hindu spiritual tradition there is also the belief in what is called tapas, which literally means ‘heat.’ This goes back to the early Rig Veda, the oldest collections of sacred teachings within Hinduism. Tapas reflects the Vedic idea of the God-force (Brahman) that is seen to reside in mantras and prayers and is released when recited during specific rituals.

The generation of this mystical heat within ourselves is also thought to yield supernatural powers (called siddhis in the yogic traditions, which roughly translates as ‘perfect abilities’ and were also called prabhava in early teachings). For instance, through fasting or other disciplines, a yogi or yogini can build internally the mystical heat of tapas, which unfolds psychic abilities. In the later Epic literature of the Hindu tradition (Mahabharata and Ramayana), tapas refers to the practice of asceticism and its results, and as a power that can be transferred from a guru to a disciple. Here it is seen as a potent psychic force that is given to another in order to help him or her open to numerous subtle levels of being and move forward on numerous paths to enlightenment.

There are various legends that mention some of the abilities of different yoga ascetics, such as the ancient story about how, through tapas, a yogi named Bhagiratta urged God to release the river Ganges, which was said to have originally only flowed in heaven and cause it to flow on Earth:

Bhagiratta kept his arms raised for a thousand years and stood on one leg for another thousand. When the Gods at last granted his request, the force of the water came pouring down …

– Frits Staal.

The Divine being Krishna, who imparts profound teachings on yoga to the warrior prince Arjuna on the eve of a great battle in the Bhagavad Gita, is renowned for various miracles and heroic deeds in numerous legends about him. He is not mentioned in the early Vedic teachings, but has become one of the most revered figures in the Hindu tradition. Some scholars, such as my previous university lecturer, Professor Friedhelm Hardy, thought he must have been an actual historical teacher who gained a following in order to appear suddenly on the scene and be written about with such devotion.

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