Psi & the Siddhi

The Sanskrit term for psychic abilities is siddhi, and these extraordinary abilities were described more than two thousand years ago by a yogi scholar named Patanjali in a four-volume book called, The Yoga Sutras. The third book, called Vibhuti Pada, describes the siddhis in 56 sutras.

Patanjali attested that these abilitities, which he divided into primary, secondary and inferior siddhis, were best achieved through deep meditation. Mainstream science hasn’t done much to explore the validity of the connection between meditation and psychic ability. But a few researchers have taken up the challenge.

I write about that research in my new book, The Jewel in the Lotus: Meditation for Busy Minds. Here’s a brief excerpt about research related to the siddhis.

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Parapsychologist Dean Radin in his book, SUPERNORMAL: Science, Yoga and the Evidence for Extraordinary Psychic Abilities, writes: “From a scientific perspective, the mere existence of these phenomena, regardless of how weak or unreliable they may be, is astonishing. It tells us that the modern understanding of the human mind, which is based on the neurosciences and its approach to studying brain functions, has completely overlooked a fundamental aspect of our capacity and potentials.”

More recently, British psychologist Serena Roney-Dougal studied Tibetan Buddhist meditators in northeastern India with the intent to find out if increased levels of meditation result in increased psychic abilities. The participants relaxed for five minutes, then meditated for 15 minutes. Then they were asked to describe a photograph on Roney-Dougal’s laptop computer, and sketch it. Afterwards, they were shown four photos on the computer and asked to select the photo that was closest to the image they saw in their vision.

A variation of the procedure tested meditators’ abilities to see the future. They were asked to describe and draw a picture that would be randomly selected on the computer from a collection of twenty-five photos.

The result of the study revealed evidence that more experienced meditators performed at a higher level when it came to exhibiting psi abilities. When all the tests were compiled, the odds against chance were 8,500 to 1. While scientific studies of meditation have become popular and the results positive, mainstream researchers continue to shy away from studying the siddhis. It’s almost as if they are saying, If the siddhis exist, we don’t want to know about them.

Radin puts it this way: “The siddhis are a core component of most meditative traditions, so one would think that any serious research on this topic would have to include a discussion of the siddhis. But most haven’t, and the abyss is especially conspicuous in the neurosciences, where merely this topic in a positive tone is strictly forbidden.”

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Some of my meditation students have told me about their paranormal experiences during meditation, and usually they’ve been about contact with deceased loved ones.

Recently, I had a curious experience myself while meditating at the end of a yoga class at the studio where I teach. As I relaxed and moved into a meditative state, an image came to mind. I saw two people standing at the counter in the lobby of the yoga studio. One of them was massaging the shoulders and back of the other one. It seemed an odd thing to pick up. So as I left the class, I asked the instructor behind the counter, who was checking in students for the next class, if anyone had been giving another person a massage while standing at the counter. I told her I’d seen it during the final relaxation.

She smiled and said: “No, but I wish somebody would give me a massage.” I left it at that and headed home. I was still in the car when she texted me: “Hey, after you left a couple came in, and the guy rubbed his wife’s shoulders while she checked in. Does that count?”

“Sure,” I responded. “But who’s counting?”

Whether you call it a siddhi or a synchronicity, it was meaningful to me.