Sri Aurobindo
Letters on Himself and the Ashram
The Complete Works of Sri Aurobindo. Volume 35
Experiences and States of Consciousness
The Stone-Throwing Incident [1]
These stone-throwing or stone-producing incidents and
similar extraordinary occurrences which go outside the ordinary course of
physical Nature happen frequently in India and are not unknown elsewhere; they
are akin to what are called poltergeist phenomena in Europe. Scientists don’t
say or think anything of such supernormal happenings except to pooh-pooh them or
to prove that they are simply the tricks of children simulating supernatural
manifestations. It was only three or four stones that fell inside a room, the
others were thrown from outside and in the last period banged day after day
against the closed door of Bijoy Nag who was sheltering inside the servant boy
who became the centre of the phenomena. As the boy got wounded by two of the
last stones, we sent him away to another house with the idea that then the
phenomena would cease and it so happened. As a rule these things need certain
conditions to happen — e.g. a house which becomes the field of the action of
these supernormal forces and a person (usually psychologically ill-developed)
who is very often their victim as well as their centre. If the person is removed
elsewhere, the phenomena often stop but sometimes his aura is so strong for
these things that the house aura is not needed — they continue wherever he or
she goes. As for the other necessary factor it is supposed to be elemental
beings who are the agents. Sometimes they act on their own account, sometimes
they are controlled and used by a person with occult powers. It was supposed
here that some magic must have been used — such magic is common in the Tamil
country and indeed in all South India. The stones were material enough, a huge
heap of them 
were collected and remained at the
staircase bottom for two or three days, so they were not thoughts taking a brick
form. It was evidently a case of materialisation probably preceded by a previous
dematerialisation and “transport” — the bricks became first visible in their
flight at a few feet from the place where they fell.
Scientific laws only give a schematic account of
material processes of Nature — as a valid scheme they can be used for
reproducing or extending at will a material process, but obviously they cannot
give an account of the thing itself. Water for instance is not merely so much
oxygen and hydrogen put together — the combination is simply a process or device
for enabling the materialisation of a new thing called water; what that new
thing really is is quite another matter. In fact there are different planes of
substance, gross, subtle and more subtle going back to what is called causal (kāraṇa)
substance. What is more gross can be reduced to the subtle state and the subtle
brought into the gross state; that accounts for dematerialisation and
materialisation and rematerialisation. These are occult processes and are
vulgarly regarded as magic. Ordinarily the magician knows nothing of the why and
wherefore of what he is doing, he has simply learned the formula or process or
else controls elemental beings of the subtler states (planes or worlds) who do
the thing for him. The Tibetans indulge widely in occult processes; if you see
the books of Madame David-Neel who has lived in Tibet you will get an idea of
their expertness in these things. But also the Tibetan Lamas know something of
the laws of occult (mental and vital) energy and how it can be made to act on
physical things. That is something which goes beyond mere magic. The direct
power of mind-force or life-force upon matter can be extended to an almost
illimitable degree — but that has nothing to do with the stone-throwing affair
which is of a lower and more external order. In your (2) and (3) different
operations seem to be confused together, (1) the creation of mere (subtle)
images which the one who sees may mistake for real things, (2) the temporary
materialisation of subtle substance into forms capable of cognition not only by
the sight but by material 
touch or other sense,
(3) the handling of material objects by mind-energy or vital force, e.g. making
a pencil move and write on paper. All these things are possible and have been
done. It must be remembered that Energy is fundamentally one in all the planes,
only taking more and more dense forms, so there is nothing a priori
impossible in mind-energy or life-energy acting directly on material energy and
substance; if they do they can make a material object do things or rather can do
things with a material object which would be to that object in its ordinary
poise or “law” unhabitual and therefore apparently impossible.
I do not see how cosmic rays can explain the origination of matter; it is like Sir Oliver Lodge’s explanation of life on earth that it comes from another planet; it only pushes the problem one step farther back — for how do the cosmic rays come into existence? But it is a fact that Agni is the basis of forms as the Sankhya pointed out long ago, i.e. the fiery principle in its three powers radiant, electric and gaseous (the Vedic trinity of Agni) is the agent in producing liquid and solid forms of what is called matter.
Obviously a layman can’t do these things, unless he has a native “psychic” (that is, occult) faculty and even then he will have to learn the law of the thing before he can use it at will. It is always possible to use spiritual force or mind-power or will-power or a certain kind of vital energy to produce effects in men, things and happenings; but knowledge and much practice is needed before this possibility ceases to be occasional and haphazard and can be used quite consciously, at will or to perfection. Even then to have “a control over the whole material world” is too big a proposition; a local and partial control is more possible or, more widely, certain kinds of control over matter.
24 October 1938