The Fulcrum of Experience in Indian Yoga and Possession Trance

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.

Study at a glance

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.