World of Philosophy

Author(s): Christopher Key Chapple, Intaj Malek, Dilip Charan, Sunanda Shastri, Prashant Dave
Publisher: Shanti Prakashan

Page 382

why, and how of transformation is a psychological, a philosophical, and a theological mystery.
According to William James, the mind is a system of ideas, wherein ideas mutually check or reinforce one another. Each aim "awakens a certain specific a kind of interested excitement, and gathers a certain group of ideas together in subordination to it as its associates."1 Therefore, the ideas form different, relatively independent groups or systems. When one group predominates and pre-occupies the individual's interest, the other ideas and their allies get obscured from the mind. The mental infra-structure of ideas is sustained by the force of habit. As the individual grows, there are mental rearrangements due to changes in one's habitual outlook. Ideas and aims which were once peripheral or marginal in consciousness can become central. It is very important as to which set of ideas are central and which, peripheral in consciousness. In religious life, spiritual ideas which were earlier marginal in consciousness migrate to the centre, and spiritual aims become the keynote or the habitual centre of one's energy. By "habitual centre of energy" is meant a group of ideas which engage a person's attention and from which the individual works. Habits and established groups of ideas affect mental rearrangement, whereas "explosive emotions". e.g. happiness, hope, resolve, etc. - catalyze changes. Explosive emotions can destabilize the interstitial structure of the mind sustained by habit and, thereby, initiate a mutation of the mental outlook and transformation of the personality of an individual. Shifts in the centers of energy are due to the subconscious incubation or maturation of ideas, and partially due to the conscious effort of thought and will.
If habits and established ideas of life retard rearrangement, new information accelerates changes in habits and personality. The influence is subconscious. According to psychology, the subliminal, or trans-marginal, or mystical, or super-natural region is the storehouse of the impressions of sense-experience. It is the source of all non-rational activities and spiritual experiences - e.g. superstitious beliefs, convictions, presuppositions, dreams, intuition, etc. In a religious person, this region is said to be very wide. William James is of the view that the higher power with which one communicates in religious experience operates through this region.
According to psychology, the subconscious impressions on attaining maturity or "tension", "enter consciousness with something like a burst."2 All inexplicable changes in consciousness are the outcome of the tension of the subliminal memories reaching the bursting point. The invasions from the subliminal assume objective appearances, and suggest to the individual an external control. Therefore, the "other" higher power with which one interacts is only a subconscious continuation of the conscious life of the individual. In religious experience the change from tension, responsibility, and
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