The Fulcrum of Experience in Indian Yoga and Possession Trance
Religions May 17, 2019 Peer reviewed DOI: 10.3390/rel10050332
Summary
The inner organ (antaḥkaraṇa) in Sāṃkhya philosophy is understood in two contexts: as a tool for transcendence in yoga and as a means for identity shift during deity possession. Viewing the antaḥkaraṇa through an emic lens allows for a deeper understanding of its activation during experiential shifts, rather than merely conceptualizing it as a collection of consciousness characteristics or reducing it to objective or subjective factors.
Study at a glance
| Key finding | The antaḥkaraṇa is better understood as an actual organ activated by experiential shifts rather than just a conceptual tool. |
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Abstract
The “inner organ” (antaḥkaraṇa) in the Indian philosophical school called Sāṃkhya is applied in two different experiential contexts: in the act of transcendence according to the path of yoga explored in the Yogasūtras of Patañjali (ca. 350 CE) and in the process of identity shift that occurs in possession by a deity in a broader range of Indian cultural practices. The act of transcendence will be better understood if we look at the antaḥkaraṇa through an emic lens, which is to say as an actual organ that is activated by experiential shifts, rather than as a concept or explanation that is indicative of a collocation of characteristics of the individuating consciousness or merely by reducing it to nonepistemic objective or subjective factors.