Theos-Talk Archives (March 1998 Message tl00127)

Jaqtarin Triele wrote:

> I may not be clear on what, exactly, siddhis are (although they seem
> to be "super"human abilities), but couldn't they be used to gain
> furthur insight to spiritual or theosophical truth, and not solely for
> personal gain?

    I spent a number of years working with brain injured children, using a
technique which is based on the natural development of human abilities.
There are many abilities which lead to other abilities. For example, when
a child crawls on his/her belly across the floor, his/her mouth frequently
touches the floor. Because the child has little control over the tongue,
the tongue frequently drags along the floor, sending sensations which the
brain can eventually interpret. This is the normal way a child learns
where the tongue is, and, through natural biofeedback techniques, learns
to control it. Notice that children who are put directly into walkers and
not allowed to crawl frequenlty develop speech impediments in later life.

    In any case, there are certain abilities that do not lead to any other
abilities. One is the ability to sit up. These are called "neurological
dead ends", interesting and possibly even useful, but not leading to any
growth.

    Virtually all the literature considers siddhi's to be "spiritual dead
ends". They may be useful, but they do not lead to spiritual growth, at
least not directly (check out Blavatsky's cautionary tale, "An Enchanted
Life", located in NIGHTMARE TALES, and also somewhere in the COLLECTED
WRITINGS, for an example).

    Bart Lidofsky