Distinguishing Psychic Experience from Occult or Abnormal Experience

How does one distinguish between psychic experience, as defined by Sri Aurobindo, as soul experiences, from the vast array of experiences that occur on the mental or vital planes that have been called ‘psychic’ phenomena? Once one has the clue about the different parts of the being and their characteristic modes of action, it is actually not to difficult to know what the experience is, where it originates from, and what energy it carries.

Most occult experiences actually take place on the vital plane. Things like out of body experiences, astral travel, prophetic, symbolic or vital desire-filled dreams, and interactions with ghosts, ‘psychic’ readings,’faith healing’, vision quests, etc. are generally located there.

Some experiences such as certain forms of intuition, inspiration, clairvoyance, clairaudience, remote viewing, exploration of the akashic records, may occur on the mental plane, although there may also be some vital element to it. There can also be an experience of a mental witness which remains within the mental view, while the spiritual experience of the witness consciousness removes itself from attachment to the exte
al ego-personality and is able to view people, events and circumstances from a totally different, abstracted standpoint.

Psychic experiences, those that involve the soul, will tend to involve movements of aspiration, consecration, devotion, spiritual dedication, as well as connection to a higher consciousness that provides new insights, and a wider vision. Psychic experiences may also have an element of Ananda, the transcendent bliss experience, as opposed to sensational experiences of pleasure which tend to operate on the physical or vital aspects of the being..

Sri Aurobindo notes: “Ordinarily, all the more inward and all the abnormal psychological experiences are called psychic. I use the word psychic for the soul as distinguished from the mind and vital. All movements and experiences of the soul would in that sense be called psychic, those which rise from or directly touch the psychic being; where mind and vital predominate, the experience weould be called psychological (surface or occult).”

reference: Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, The Psychic Being — Soul: Its Nature, MIssion and Evolution, Section 1 Meaning and Nature of the Psychic Being, pg. 7