Thought-Forms

When we examine the question of thought-forms, we recognise that people usually want to imply that a thought is able to turn into some kind of physical reality, purely through the power of thought. This, however, is one element of the question, but not the only element. Thought-forms have a variety of mechanisms for being created and effectuated.

Whenever we conceive of an idea, a plan, an invention, a creative direction, we are creating thought-forms at the mental level, on the mental plane, if you will. These forms, in order to be effectuated in the world, can act either purely on the mental level, can influence and create a force on the vital level, or can directly work on creating a physical form. How this happens is really the ultimate question.

Most people have a constant array of thoughts flitting in and out of their mind. They generally have very little focus or power and tend not to go very far in terms of effectuation or any detailed manifestation. Those who focus on an effort of some sort, such as a scientific, creative, artistic, emotional, vital or physical activity channel and concentrate specific thought-forms to carry out that effort.

The action may be developed through a process of externatlisation, a communication process, whether oral, written or communicated through some form of visual, tactile or olfactory, etc. Converting a thought-form into any form of actual communication in the external world is one means of effectuating it. The great writers, composers, artists of the world functioned in this manner. We can actually trace the influence of particular thought-forms through history when we work to identify for instance, the influence of Plato, the influence of the Vedic Rishis, the influence of Confucius, the influence of Shakespeare and the influence of Leonardo da Vinci, Nikola Tesla, Albert Einstein, Sri Aurobindo, or any other individual whose work has clearly influenced the development of humanity in a meaningful way.

Another method does not involve external action, but rather, the focus of the will power or the innate power of the mind to create vibrations and disseminate them. The action of the ‘silent will’ is one that many people have experienced through history, and people sometimes remark about the intensity of a certain person or atmosphere as that person is concentrating his force.

Certain spiritual traditions, such as Tibetan Buddhism, put a strong emphasis on the training and development of powers of mind, such as through extensive and detailed visualisation processes as part of their practice. It is reported that some advanced practitioners are able to create an actual physically visible or palpable formation in this way. Tibet’s great yogi, Milarepa, was reported to have appeared in a physical form and provided a last teaching prior to his death, to various disciples in diverse locales, all at the same time, appearing in his ‘rainbow body’.

The use of mantras has been known to create intense thought forms, even when not verbalized, that can influence events in the world simply through the power of the concentrated thought.

The entire issue of the power of a curse or a blessing on an individual revolves around the power of thought. There are instances recounted in the great scriptural texts of how formations were consciously created to harm another individual. If that individual was able to reject that force, it would rebound upon the sender as it had a power of effectuation that could not be denied.

It should be noted that harnessing brain waves for an external result is now an accepted part of Western medical science, as there are advances that harness an individual’s brain waves to operate artificial limbs, or operate a computer. As this science develops it is certain to show that brain waves, in and of themselves, are powers, unseen, yet real and effective, in the world.

A disciple asks: “How can human thought create forms?”

The Mother notes: “In the mental world human thought is constantly creating forms. Human thought is very creative in the mental world. All the time when you are thinking, you are creating forms and you send them out in the atmosphere and they go and do their work. Constantly you are surrounded by a heap of small formations.”

“Naturally, there are people who can’t even think clearly. So they form nothing at all except faint eddies. But people who think clearly are surrounded by a heap of little forms which, sometimes, go out to do some work in others; and when one thinks of them again, they return.”

“And we have instances of people who are troubled by their own formations, which return constantly as though to take possession of them, and which they can’t get rid of because they don’t know how to undo the formations they have made. There are more cases of this kind than one would think. When they have made a particularly strong formation — for themselves, you see, relatively — this formation is always tied up with the one who makes it and returns to knock at the brain to receive forces and ends up by truly acting as a necessity. It is a whole world to know; one truly lives in ignorance, one has powers one doesn’t know about, so naturally one uses them very badly. One uses them somewhat unconsciously and very badly.”

“I don’t know if you have ever heard of Madame David-Neel who went to Tibet and has written books on Tibet, and who was a Buddhist; and Buddhists — Buddhists of the strictest tradition — do not believe in the Divine, do not believe in his Eternity and do not believe in gods who are truly divine, but they know admirably how to use the mental domain; and Buddhist discipline makes you a good master of the mental instrument and mental domain.”

“We used to discuss many things and once she told me ‘Listen, I made an experiment.’ (She had studied a bit of Theosophy also.) She said, ‘I formed a mahatma; with my thought I formed a mahatma.’ And she knew (this has been proved) that at a given moment mental formations acquire a personal life independent of the fashioner — though they are linked with him — but independent, in the sense that they can have their own will. And so she told me: ‘Just imagine, I had made my mahatma so well that he became a personality independent of me and constantly came to trouble me1 He used to come, scold me for one thing, give me advice for another, and he wanted to direct my life; and I could not succeed in getting rid of him. It was extremely difficult, and I didn’t know what to do!’ “

“So I asked her how she tried. She told me how. She said, ‘He troubles me a lot, my mahatma is very troublesome. He does not leave me in peace. He disturbs my meditations, he hinders me from working; and yet I know quite well that it is I who created him, and I can’t get rid of him!’ Then I said, ‘That’s because you don’t have the ‘trick’….’ (Mother laughs) And I explained to her what she should do. And the next day — I used to see her almost every day in those days, you see — the next day she came and told me, ‘Ah, I am freed from my mahatma!’ (Laughter) She had not cut the connection because that’s of no use. One must know how to re-absorb one’s creation, that is the only way. To swallow up again one’s formations.”

Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, The Hidden Forces of Life, Ch. 3 Hidden Forces Around, pp. 67-69