Outlines of Jainism

SR No.: 007012
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: S Gopalan
Publisher: Wiley Eastern Private Limited New Delhi
Publication Year: 1973
Total Pages: 216
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 9 MB

Page 112

16
Extra Sensory Perception
The phenomenon of perceiving without the help of either the
I sense organs or the mind which is accepted as a 'fact by modern psychologists has been speculated about and argued for long time ago by the Indian psychologists. The exceptions were the Cārvākas and the Mimämsakas. The former did not accept the concept of E. S. P. on the principle of not accepting anything not perceived by the sense organs. The latter's reliance on the Vedas was so much that they considered no other source as capable of giving a knowledge of the past, present and the future; naturally the phenomenon of E. S. P. was not considered to be meaningful since it was not derived from the Vedas.
The Jaina view of the E.S.P. is easily understandable from the fact that the sense organs and the mind were considered by the Jaina philosophers to impose limitations on man's capacity to attain full knowledge (kevala-jñāna) and from their theory that progressively man could remove the obstructive veils to omniscience to enjoy its full blaze. In man's march towards attaining direct perception two stages, clearly reflecting (though only approximating to) the ‘immediate knowledge' are discernible. These are clairvoyance (avadhi) and telepathy (manaḥparyāya) and offer us an insight into the ultimate potentiality of the human self whose essential nature is consciousness. Let us consider them in some detail.
Clairvoyance (Avadhi-jñāna) refers to man's capacity to perceive, without the help of either the sense organs or the mind, things which have shape and form. Perception of formless things