Based on the knowledge of the Vedas, we have a practical understanding of how and why Western psychologists are going wrong in their understanding of the phenomena of consciousness all together.
There are different levels of consciousness and different ways of acquiring consciousness and knowledge. Presently we have a more or less limited awareness of reality, according to the knowledge we have acquired up to now. Depending on the way knowledge is acquired, our awareness will grow accordingly. The three ways of acquiring knowledge are:
Direct perception
This is called pratyaksa or direct sensual perception. Being to certain extents conditioned by the physical experience of life, we do not have a direct perception of consciousness. Rather we are bound to look upon everything as a kind of physical phenomena. We can only perceive the gross reality by smelling, tasting, seeing, touching and hearing about the same qualities of the manifested world. Thus we can never adopt an impartial vision about faith and the soul in terms of relevance. We are confined and imprisoned by the shackles of our senses. We can understand this by using the example of the eye. Our eye can not see things which are very far away. At the same time it can not see things, which are very close, like the eye lids. In other words there is only a certain spectrum of experience and this is very limited and gross. Therefore faith, soul, creator, etc. can be considered by some people as fabrications of the human mind.
Deduction, logic and comparison
Above the sensual perception, there is the way of expanding one’s awareness through experimentation, comparison, logic and study. This process is called anumana.
A very important question in this process is the causal effect. What causes what, and what are the effects of different interactions in the physical world? The mind and intellect are playing the most prominent role in anumana. As this process is based on the experience of our physical senses or the thoughts and knowledge of others (which is again at some point based on sensual perception), it is again limited, even though some deeper awareness can be there.
Anumana allows us at least to take into consideration that there are things which we cannot see. Still it is not broad-minded enough to simply accept information, which could be revealed in one way or another from a higher dimension. This is a symptom of weak faith. As the process is very speculative, we can never come to the final conclusion about higher truths of existence. Revelations from higher dimensions are as real as there is a cause for every dimension. As there is a father of every son, there is also a creator of everything created. It is not an unreasonable proposal at all.
Through spiritual practice and inner quest
When we enter into the third way of acquiring knowledge, which is called sabda, we see it confirmed that there is knowledge of great importance, which cannot be verified with pratyaksa nor with anumana. Such type of knowledge can be received and realized only through faith and spiritual practice and it can be further established by prayer or inner conversation with the Master within all of us.
On the platform of anumana we tend to speculate a little bit about everything. Eventually in the end we cannot develop a real determination or strong faith of any kind. We tend to see everything in relative terms, and to such a degree that even our theoretical knowledge of positive religious and moral principles is of no avail to situate us in a healthy harmonious situation.
Sabda on the contrary is the divine revelation as documented in the holy Vedic scriptures. Every principle of truth is announced therein. Receiving sabda from the appropriate source brings about a growth of awareness and allows us to do as much additional research into transcendence as we like, or until we are satisfied with the result.
We can see that there are tremendous differences of awareness of reality in accordance with the faith we have, and resulting from that, differences in the system in acquiring knowledge we use. By helping to expand another person’s awareness, we can help them to solve problems. One may be dreaming of a lion and being scared, but as soon as the person wakes up, they will realize that that there is no reason to be afraid.
In the same way by expanding our awareness towards the understanding of the all-good and all-meaningful purpose of life and existence we can overcome the difficulties of our present situation.
By understanding the different levels of individual consciousness and how this consciousness is being formed by different social circumstances of life, and at the same time how it influences and forms the social environment, we learn how to help people allow positive influences to enter their lives and how to help them to protect themselves from destructive influences.
No environment in this world is absolutely good or bad. We have only to find out how to adjust properly. In other words there is no perfect world, as long as we do not rise to a perfect level of awareness and appropriate action.
In India we can see, for example, how the specific ritualism, popular teachers and popular interpretations of teachings impress people. They impress them so much that sometimes apparently ridiculous ideas, which contradict the very same sacred revelations they are based upon, are deeply ingrained into the faulty behavior of individuals.
For example the Vedas state very clearly that the human being should be considered exclusively for their personal qualities and by their work, not by their birth. The very so-called preachers of Vedic wisdom, the Brahmins, have a strong current insisting to the contrary. They claim that only by being born in a Brahmin family, one gets entitled to act as a Brahmin in society.
It is mainly the interest for name, fame and money which spoils the social atmosphere and which creates all the disturbances on an individual as well as on a collective level. These lower interests appear sometimes as materialistic concepts and sometimes they hide themselves behind the banner of religion. Our environment is loaded with preconceived faulty notions of the past, and all of them are the basis for the faulty assumptions and teachings of the present.
Doubt and faith
In the spiritual quest and in the search for true health, it is really important to question all values. We have to personally knock at the door of truth within our heart and keep our eyes open for sensible trustworthy revelations, as we go through our natural process of accepting and rejecting, between doubt and faith. As naturally as there must be doubt there can also be faith, the opposite of doubting. Doubting has been established within the creation to help us find what we can trust in.
When we find what we can trust in, at that moment we can exercise the doubting of the doubting process as such and embrace our faith whole-heartedly. We may call this process anumana with the support of sabda.
“Is there still doubt about how we can have full faith?”
The power of discrimination is God-given and faith is the crown-jewel of having properly exercised our evaluation.
Doubt and faith have accompanied us since the childhood. As a child we did not say that we trusted a certain person. We said rather or not we liked or disliked a person. If you liked someone you would go anywhere with them, despite what they might say to you. And if you did not like someone, even if it was your father or mother, you would not submit to their directions, at least internally.
Therefore OIDA-therapy increases faith and decreases doubt so that a you can search for a healthy environment of individuals, where you can happily put your full faith. Such an environment will help you to become healthier or more spiritually advanced, if you prefer to see it that way.
http://www.oidatherapy.org
Yoga Teacher: Rachel Durling 
Published: November 24, 2007
(New York Times)
Adapted from Patrick's new book, Music as Yoga - Discover the healing power of sound
