Psychoanalysis and the Practice of Yoga, Part 2

Freud made a breakthrough for the development of Western psychology that finally recognised that the human being responds to situations and circumstances, not solely on the superficial, transactional level, but also from suppressed, subliminal and subconscient activities that actually have a greater control than the exte
al conscious being in many instances. C.G. Jung widened this understanding beyond the very tight limits explored by Freud. Modern Western psychology has advanced steadily as it explores the hidden ranges of consciousness and how they impact the makeup of our ego-personality and the manner in which we respond to situations.

Today we find Western psychology approaching a level of understanding that begins to recognise what yogic psychology has developed over an extended period of time. That understanding rests on the premise that consciousness is one and universal, that it can and does deploy itself in the manifestation according to a range of frequencies, of which the human being is only partly capable of receiving and addressing with the conscious mind, but which impact human awareness from levels superconscient and subconscient to the frequency range of the human instrument, acting subliminally to alter our insights, reactions and responses.

If we step back for a moment and reflect on our own actions and reactions, we can trace back to the sources and in many cases find, not just the suppressed sexual tensions that Freud explored, nor even the wider collective unconscious that Jung described, but a much more complex amalgam of forces of physical nature, vital nature, mental nature and spiritual nature that interact and combine in unique ways to create what we understand to be our unique individuality.

If we consider the automatic reactions we have when confronted with various circumstances, we can see that these are not driven by the conscious mind and will, but by reactions that create a flood of nerve, hormone and neuro-transmitter responses that happen virtually instantaneously. Reactions of fear, loathing, anger, attraction, passion, rise up suddenly, outside our conscious choice. These arise out of subliminal levels that take place to channel subconscious, conscious and superconscious forces that are active deep within our being.

This understanding helps us to appreciate the complexity of the attempt by the spiritual aspirant to change human nature, and particularly, to modify automatic-seeming reactions by bringing a new light and a new force of consciousness to these levels. Sri Aurobindo describes the needed process, along with the cautions that need to be recognised during this process.

Sri Aurobindo notes: “It is true that the subliminal in man is the largest part of his nature and has in it the secret of the unseen dynamisms which explain his surface activities. But the lower vital subconscious which is all that this psycho-analysis of Freud seems to know — and even of that it knows only a few ill-lit corners, — is no more than a restricted and very inferior portion of the subliminal whole. The subliminal self stands behind and supports the whole superficial man; it has in it a larger and more efficient mind behind the surface mind, a larger and more powerful vital behind the surface vital, a subtler and freer physical consciousness behind the surface bodily existence. And above them it opens to higher superconscient as well as below them to lower subconscient ranges. If one wishes to purify and transform the nature, it is the power of these higher ranges to which one must open and raise to them and change by them both the subliminal and the surface being. Even this should be done with care, not prematurely or rashly, following a higher guidance, keeping always the right attitude; for otherwise the force that is drawn down may be too strong for an obscure and weak frame of nature. But to begin by opening up the lower subconscious, risking to raise up all that is foul or obscure in it, is to go out of one’s way to invite trouble. First, one should make the higher mind and vital strong and firm and full of light and peace from above; afterwards one can open up or even dive into the subconscious with more safety and some chance of a rapid and successful change.”

Sri Aurobindo, Bases of Yoga, Chapter 5, Physical Consciousness — Subconscient — Sleep and Dream — Illness, pp. 93-94