The Fulcrum of Experience in Indian Yoga and Possession Trance
Religions May 17, 2019 Frederick M. Smith 1 citation
In the Indian philosophical school Sāṃkhya, the 'inner organ' (antaḥkaraṇa) operates in two distinct experiential contexts: the yogic path of transcendence described in Patañjali’s Yogasūtras (circa 350 CE) and the identity shift occurring during possession by a deity in Indian cultural practices. Understanding the antaḥkaraṇa as an actual organ activated by experiential shifts, rather than as a mere concept or collocation of consciousness characteristics, better explains the act of transcendence. This emic approach avoids reducing the organ to nonepistemic objective or subjective factors.