Spiritual Gifts 2 - Supernatural and Power Gifts

As I mentioned in my last post, there is a special class of spiritual gifts that the ancient sages called siddhis or vibhutis.

Patañjali, who lived in the early centuries CE, was an enlightened sage and writer. In Patañjali's Yoga Sutras IV.1, he tells us how these gifts are attained: sometimes through birth, but most commonly through self-discipline or scientific yogic techniques that take one to specific states of merger with God. According to different sources, below are the eight classical siddhis, or eight great perfections:

1. The ability to reduce one's body to the size of an atom.
2. The ability to expand one's body to an infinitely large size.
3. The ability to become weightless or lighter than air.
4. The ability to become heavy or dense.
5. The ability to access any place in the world.
6. The ability to realize whatever one desires.
7. The ability to assert influence upon anyone.
8. The ability to control all material elements or natural forces.

According to ancient yogic scriptures and records, the five siddhis brought on by yoga and meditation are:

1. Knowing the past, present, and future
2. Tolerance of heat, cold, and other dualities
3. Knowing the minds of others, etc.
4. Checking the influence of fire, sun, water, poison, etc.
5. Remaining unconquered by others

The ten secondary siddhis are also described:

1. Being undisturbed by hunger, thirst, and other bodily appetites
2. Hearing things far away
3. Seeing things far away
4. Moving the body wherever thought goes
5. Assuming any form desired
6. Entering the bodies of others
7. Dying when one desires
8. Witnessing and participating in the pastimes of the gods
9. Perfect accomplishment of one's determination
10. Orders or commands being unimpeded

This is by no means a complete list. There are many more supernatural and power gifts.

Does this sound like sci-fi or fantasy to you?

If you look in the scriptures, you can find examples of Jesus Christ, his apostles, and his disciples using many of these powers. If you read intertestamental gospels and other spiritual literature, or the journals of saints and shamans, you will find examples of people using all of the above gifts in the name of God. If you’d like to read more modern accounts of people with these gifts, I can make a reading list for you—just ask.

Perhaps the reason we are obsessed with superheroes and fantasy as kids, and even as adults, is because a part of us remembers what’s possible. When I was a child, the one superpower I wanted most was to be able to touch a book and read it instantly. When I heard about the yogic siddhis, I started to ask around to see if this gift I wanted was real—and I met people who could do it! Eventually, I was led to a man who taught me the once-secret meditation technique to develop this gift for myself. My inner 10-year-old, who slept with the dictionary by her head, was exultant. (Dictionary Definition- (adjective) exulting; highly elated; jubilant; triumphant.)

As I list all these gifts, does your soul remember? do you feel belief or wistfulness? An inner child may be excited, or the ego may also be intrigued by the prospect of so much power. The ego is always after power. Although no one likes the ego, it has its purposes, and it is not going away any time soon. Here’s what I say: I think it’s okay to start, or be on, the spiritual path for egoic reasons. I don’t judge anyone for meditating, fasting, or using spiritual technology because they hope for spiritual gifts—I already admitted my own self-seeking desire for book osmosis.

Why one begins the path doesn’t matter, because either way, a person will gain a lot of healing. The soul is happy you are on the path, and the ego is happy also—but for different reasons. Of course, when a spiritual discipline is kept up long enough, consciousness changes, and at some point the ego and the soul will disagree in a major way. This can cause serious challenges later, but that stage of development is usually seven or so years into a serious discipline. So don’t worry about it now. If you are already at some ego challenges, I have received so much wisdom and guidance for navigating this phase, and I’ll share it in other posts and places.

Another reason I mention the siddhis and vibhutis, besides wanting to blow your mind, is that unlike other spiritual gifts, they show evidence of the scientific structure of yoga. Please do not misunderstand me. By yoga, I never mean the physical exercises that have become popular today in gyms and studios. I mean the ancient meditation science for union with God. Yoga means union.

Paramahansa Yogananda says in Autobiography of a Yogi:

"Section III of the Yoga Sutras mentions various yogic miraculous powers (vibhutis and siddhis). True knowledge is always power. The path of yoga is divided into four stages, each with its vibhuti expression. Achieving a certain power, the yogi knows he has passed the tests of one of the four stages. Emergence of the characteristic powers is evidence of the scientific structure of the yoga system, wherein delusive imaginations about one’s spiritual progress are banished; proof is required!

Patañjali warns the devotee that unity with spirit should be the sole goal, not the possession of vibhutis—the merely incidental flowers along the sacred path. May the Eternal Giver be sought, not His phenomenal gifts. God does not reveal Himself to a seeker who is satisfied with any lesser attainment. The striving yogi is therefore careful not to exercise his powers lest they arouse false pride and distract him from entering into the ultimate state of Kaivalya.

When the yogi has reached his infinite goal, he exercises the vibhutis—or refrains from exercising them—just as he pleases. All his actions, miraculous or otherwise, are then performed without karmic involvement. The iron filings of karma are attracted only where a magnet of the personal ego still exists. (p. 255)"

Patañjali’s warning is echoed almost exactly by the Apostle Paul—which brings me back nicely to where we started in Part 1. Here are Paul’s words from 1 Corinthians 13:1-10:

"Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.

Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.

Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away."

Does Paul sound like Patañjali? There is a reason for that. They were both regular practitioners of a highly advanced state of God-union. Paul was totally a yogi. (My proof will come in another post.)

Though there are other ways shamans and prophets have attained Christ Consciousness and the more advanced Cosmic (God) Consciousness, the ancient yogic technology of meditation is one of my favorite methods because it is so scientific—a spiritual science. What a lovely combination of words.
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I will write about how to discover, reclaim, or develop your gifts in the future. For now, I wanted to stir your soul a little, to let you know that, as Paul says, there is more than you may have imagined on the spiritual path. So much more.