Page 11 - NAMAH-Oct-2019

Namah Editorial

that which is dead can be revived; the habitual operation, in some cases by external stimulation,
operations, the response, the circulation of active but more normally by a spontaneous return to
energy can be restored; and this proves what we activity from within. What has really happened
call life was still there in the body, latent, that is that the surface mind-force has been withdrawn
is to say, not active in its usual habits …(6).” into subconscious mind and the surface life-
force into sub-active life and either the whole
It has been a custom with health workers man has lapsed into the subconscious existence
to designate a subject in coma to be in a or else he has withdrawn his outer life into the
‘vegetative’ state, ostensibly implying a subconscious while his inner being has been
suspension of consciousness from where lifted into the superconscient (9).”
death would be the next state. It has been
only as late as 2010 when the European Task Force How does the body die?
on Disorders of Consciousness acknowledged that
the term ‘vegetative’ had too many negative The bodily form can die or disintegrate in
connotations and sought to officially substitute three ways:
it by the term ‘unresponsive wakefulness
syndrome’. This step was initiated after some a. The bodily form has been damaged in such
severely brain-damaged patients showed a way that it can no longer be a fit receptacle
residual cortical processing in the absence to hold the quantum of life-energy necessary
of behavioural signs of consciousness (7). for animating it: “…. a lesion has been inflicted
This echoed what Sri Aurobindo had written on the body as makes it useless or incapable of
a century earlier, “In certain cases, such as the habitual functionings (10)”;
catalepsy, we see that the outward physical
signs and operations of life are suspended, b. The life-energy does not get the correct
but the mentality is there self-possessed and milieu to maintain the homeostasis: “…
conscious although unable to compel the usual the Force that should renew the life-action
physical responses (8).” becomes entirely inert to the pressure of
the environing forces with whose mass of
One interesting area is the trance state. It is stimulation it was wont to keep up a constant
an altered state of consciousness lasting a interchange (11).” However, during the
certain spell. Once the spell is over, there is process of disintegration [in both (a) and (b)],
a return to the pre-trance status quo. Trance Life-Energy has to itself conduct the process
states can be cultural phenomena as during of de-linking and disentangling its roots and
religious rituals subjects neither bleed nor feel points of attachment from the body — that is
pain when they jump on a bed of thorns, walk also a designated task: Life has to be “busy
through fire or pierce their tongues. Trance only with the process of disintegrating the
states can also reflect deep spiritual states formed substance so that it may escape in its
like the experience of samaadhi in Raj Yoga. elements and constitute with them new forms
Sri Aurobindo had observed, like an expert (12)”;
clinician, “…. in certain forms of trance, both the
physical functionings and the outward mental c. Death finally ensues when the Universal
are suspended, but afterwards resume their Will withdraws its fulcrum of support to the

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