Creating a Positive Psychic Force

Perhaps you have had the experience that, if you go to the Oregon coast, you feel a strong presence of life energy there. The environment is fresh with prana. And if you were to go to places in central Oregon, you would not have that [same] feeling. The ground is kind of flat, rocky, sandy, a few sage brushes here and there, the occasional rattlesnake. There just isn’t the same presence of energy [as there is on the coast].

There is diversity in the amount of prana, the physical microvita, in different environments. And it is a bit the same in relation to the psychic microvita, the psychic energies. Many of you know Gopi Krishna. Some years ago, [he] was on a tour of spiritual places in south Asia, and he went to one area called Anandanagar. He was, as a part of the tour, taken to a place where there were trees planted in a traditional manner, [specifically] five different species of trees [in] a pentagon. That was traditionally done at a place where a saint had attained their final liberation. [As such], these places were very vibrated. Gopi said that he came with a small group to this place, and “sat to do (his) meditation, and when he opened his eyes, it was hours later and dark.” He shared that “he had no idea what had happened at the time, he was so deep in his sadhana.”

Some places are like that, and other places, people [might] say “oh, it feels kind of creepy being here.” There are some places that were inhabited by people whose focus in their collective life had more to do with the mental, the psychic realm. And sometimes, there were places [where] it was just known that you “don’t go there.” The energies were very negative, maybe even inhabited by certain kinds of psychic entities that were not benevolent in nature. They say certain places in Tibet [are] like that.

There are places where there is a concentration of positive psychic energy that infuses a physical location and other places where there is the negative psychic energy [concentration]. Around individuals, you will feel this as well. There are some people whose psychic nature is such that they radiate positivity. There is a vitality and an upliftment of mind they carry with them.

There are others whose minds are very attracted to being critical and talking about the defects of people. Obsessing about problems in life, expressing cynicism. But it is not only present in people who are “negative” … sometimes, these negative energies are in people who are a little elevated as well. We all have our dark sides, our shadow sides, and sometimes that shadow energy, the dark energy that is there around strong patterns of negative mental expression will congeal and have its own existence.

Sometimes, it is experienced as if there are separate entities that are plaguing the mind. For people who are shamans, much of what they do is working on ridding people (they have terminology for this that I don’t have) of these negative entities or what are experienced as negative entities.

I knew someone who went to see a local shaman in Eugene, who had been experiencing the typical symptoms of a [type of] entity known as an incubus. Within certain realms of Christianity, there is a whole typology of demons, and one of the most common ones is incubus. Incubus is the male and succubus is the female. This person had these experiences, and [shares that as] she [was] laying in bed, trying to go to sleep, there would be this feeling of an entity crushing her, trying to relate with her sexually, which is a characteristic of the incubus. She made a variety of attempts to try to have this incubus removed, and perhaps it was successful for a while. But if there is the opening there, then that kind of psychic energy will congeal [again], and it will still be present.

In the psychic realm, the human mind is very strong. And depending on the nature of its focus and ideation, these kinds of things happen and exist. I think all of us are aware that many in this society, now have some mental disturbances. There is a lot of negative psychic energy being coped with. The issue [presents itself], how to cope with it? There is now a whole pharmacopeia of meds that can be used to try and suppress these things and chemically balance out the mind in certain ways. But it is not dealing with the deeper symptoms.

Not only at an individual level, but also at a collective level, there can be a type of pooling or attracting of a lot of negative energy. This planet as a whole … right now is a place where some would say there is much feeding on the negative psychic energy by certain subtle entities, and also of entities that may even be encouraging [this feeding]. This expression of negativity [occurs] in the minds of those who are receptive.

I remember reading in the newspaper long ago, [an] official account in an AP press release about how many people reported a spaceship landing in Voronezh, Russia. Some of the beings in the spaceship got out and had a brief interaction with the people who were there. The people reported that the extraterrestrial people said that they stayed away from close contact because they were afraid “of being contaminated by psychic bacteria.”

Many minds right now are so plagued by negative thought patterns, and thought itself [manifests as] a life form, the medium of which is microvita, a type of psychic life that can impact the minds of others. We all have this experience of what it feels like to be around somebody whose mind is negative, as opposed to those whose minds are positive. When we came together at the retreat, and [engaged in] certain practices to enhance the positivity of mind, we were doing it in a collective way. The minds become very elevated and are suffused with positive microvita. It is also possible that, being around people whose psychic energy is negative in nature, [can influence our minds as well.]

And all of us, from time to time, are affected by a bit of depression, of feeling critical, of feeling wanting or craving something in a strong way. There are tendencies of mind that don’t express full spiritual clarity that we all deal with. And what is a yogic approach to this?

In general, the practices of yoga are designed to strengthen, what is called in yogic philosophy, the sattva guna. Sattva means “sentience,” [and] sentience in the sense of densifying sentience… being consciousness, awareness. There is a holistic strengthening of sattva guna, of sentience, in yoga, where body, mind and spirit are being developed in a way that strengthens the presence of sattva guna, of sentience.

Some of the primary practices of yoga to have this sattvic effect include the yama-niyamas, the ethical principles (which train the mind in a way that makes the mind very clear), and discerning in a way that can be in the world without generating negativity or negative karmic patternings. These practices help to uplift, clarify, and strengthen the mind.

The second [practice] is chanting, spiritual chanting, called kirtan. This can have a very powerful effect on the mind, and is a practice that can even be used in place of what is the practice of exorcism, where there are a great deal of negative entities. There are priests who have developed these techniques of exorcism in places where the energy is “weirded out.” You can go out and do the kirtan and clear it out. If your mind is feeling overwhelmed with depression, negativity or critical thoughts, you can put on kirtan music, sing with it, and feel your mind being drawn out of [the negative thought patterns].

And the third [practice], which I think is significant, is [remembering] of the presence of Guru. [In whatever way] we relate to Guru, when we can invoke this presence, the energy of Guru becomes a shield that profoundly protects and lifts us out of negativity. [This is] because Guru is the essence of positivity in the world.

Ravi Logan is the Director of the PROUT Institute, and the Director of Transformation Education, the training and education department of Ananda Seva. He is the principal author of PROUT: A New Paradigm of Development.  His new books are A New Interpretation of Revolution and Transition to a New Era. He is also the co-founder and program director of Dharmalaya, which has as its mission, “to promote dharma holistically in personal, social and ecological spheres of life.” 

Ravi has dedicated his life for the past 50 years to the project of the liberation of human beings and society. Ravi has been teaching yoga and meditation since 1972, and shared the yogic teachings of Shrii Shrii Anandamurti in Jamaica in 1974. In 1996 Ravi became a family acharya in Ananda Seva and has been involved with the organization since its inception, volunteering as publications secretary, retreat organizer, and developing training manuals for the mediation teacher training. His latest publication in that capacity is the Ananda Sutram Primer, an accessible format for understanding the philosophy of Shrii Shrii Anandamurti.

This article was transcribed from a talk by Ravi Logan given in April 2019.