Descent of Peace The Peace, Power, Light, Ananda of the higher spiritual consciousness are there in all veiled above. A certain opening upwards is needed for it to descent- the quietude of the mind and a certain wide concentrated passivity to the descending Influence are the best conditions for the descent. * I mean that you need not pull it down, but you should aid its entry by your full aspiration and assent.                                 * There is no necessity of feeling pressure. One feels force when something is being done or the force is flowing on or if it is there manifest in the body- but not when what is manifesting is peace and silence.                                 * The descent of Peace, the descent of Force or Power, the descent of Light, the descent of Ananda, these are the four things that transform the nature.                                 * Light, Peace, Force, Ananda constitute the spiritual consciousness; if they are not among the major experiences, what are?                                     * I don't think the peace descent is in the habit of waiting for companions- more often it likes at first to be all by itself and then call down its friends with the message, "Come along, I have made the place all ready for you".                                  * Yes, when things begin to descend, they must come down on a solid basis. That is why it is necessary to have peace as the first descent and that it should become as strong and solid as possible. But in any case to contain is the first necessity -then more and more can come and settle itself. Once these two things are settled -peace and strength, one can bear any amount of everything else, Ananda, Knowledge or, whatever it may be.                                * ...it is oftenest when the mind falls silent that there is the full descent of a wide peace from above and in that wide tranquillity the realisation of the silent Self above the mind spread out in its vastness everywhere.                              * There is no rule, but the most normal course is for a certain Peace and Force and light which is above the mind to descend and as the result of its workings the cosmic consciousness opens and in it higher and higher levels above mind. Many people get an opening into the cosmic consciousness first but without the basis of the higher Peace and Light it brings only a mass of unorganised experiences.                            * The descent into the body first in the head, then down to the neck and in the chest is the ordinary rule. For many there is a big stop before it gets below the navel owing to some vital resistance. Once it passes that barricade it does not usually take long to come down farther. But there is no rule as to the time taken. In some it comes down like a flood, in others it goes through with a methodical and deliberate increase.                         *  It [peace] has to be brought down to the heart and navel That gives it a certain kind of inner stability -though not absolute. There is no method other than aspiration, a strong quiet will and a rejection of all that is not turned towards the Divine in those parts into which you call the peace.                           *   A sensation of coolness indicates usually some touch or descent of peace. It is felt as very cold by the human vital because the latter is always in a fever of restlessness. * Your description of the solid cool block of peace pressing on the body and making it immobile makes it certain that it is what we call in this yoga the descent of the higher consciousness. A deep, intense or massive substance of peace and stillness is very commonly the first of its powers that descends and many experience it in that way. At first it comes and stays only during meditation or, without the sense of physical inertness or immobility , a little while longer and afterwards is lost; but if the sadhana follows its normal course, it comes more and more, lasting longer and in the end as an enduring deep peace and inner stillness and release becomes a normal character of the consciousness, the foundation indeed of a new consciousness, calm and liberated.     Your idea of psychic is certainly a mental construction which should be avoided. The psychic has indeed the quality of peace -but that is not its main character as it is of the Self or Atman. The psychic is the divine element in the individual being and its characteristic power is to turn everything towards the Divine, to bring afire of purification, aspiration, devotion, true light of discernment, feeling, will, an action which transforms by degrees the whole nature. Quietude, peace and silence in the heart and therefore in the vital part of the being are necessary to reach the psychic, to plunge in it, for the perturbations of the vital nature, desire, emotion turned ego-wards or world-wards are the main part of the screen that hides the soul from the nature. It is better, therefore, to be free from the mental constructions when you take the plunge and to have only the sense of aspiration, of devotion, of self- giving to the Divine. Letters on Yoga II , III