Photographic memory is rare, leading to scepticism about its existence. Thomas Edison utilized a meditative state called Yoga Nidra to tap into his subconscious mind for innovative problem-solving. Yoga Nidra, also known as “yogic sleep,” involves deep relaxation and conscious awareness between wakefulness and sleep, promoting mental clarity and stress reduction. Both Edison and Blavatsky demonstrated that a calm mind can access deeper mental faculties, a phenomenon achievable through preparation and meditation. This extended brain-mind capability can enhance memory and perception, sometimes causing distress due to its intensity. This ability, likened to psychic powers and detailed by Buddha, allows for extraordinary mental feats such as clairvoyance, clairaudience, understanding others’ minds, and recalling past lives, ultimately leading to profound self-awareness and the cessation of suffering.
Photographic memory in people is few and far between. Because of this, people find it difficult to believe when people say they have a photographic memory, as they might do, like Blavatsky.
Here is Thomas Edison pointing this phenomenon out in his writings:
Edison did know something of his mind spaces as he used to exploit the mind space just before sleep to try and solve some of the innovative problems he was working on:
Yoga Nidra, explain how to stay aware/conscious as you fall asleep below 4Hz brain operating frequency. It was this mind space that Thomas Edison took advantage of to access other repositories in the universe to help him solve problems with his innovations.
Yoga Nidra, often referred to as “yogic sleep,” is a state of conscious relaxation that combines guided meditation with deep physical and mental rest. It typically involves lying down comfortably while following a guided meditation that leads the practitioner through various stages of relaxation, body awareness, breath work, and visualization. This practice aims to induce a state between wakefulness and sleep, allowing for deep restoration, stress reduction, and a sense of inner peace. Unlike regular sleep, Yoga Nidra encourages mindful awareness, helping to calm the nervous system, improve emotional regulation, and enhance overall well-being.
Notice in both examples, Blavatsky and Edison, that the silent and calm mind is required to work with the extended brain-mind — mind spaces you can exploit to do extraordinary things for you. This is a fragile phenomenon and needs to be brought about with some preparation. This is not a Spiderman or Superman phenomenon, but it is an equivalent of the exaggerated phenomenon but more subtle.
People find it difficult to believe. But I think it can be an evolved trait. Children are known to have this ability, which they say fades with time.
Personal experience and some have also described this — one’s memory starts to work on a higher level. The past hidden before becomes more vivid and it all can sit together in your brain and easily recalled. So what happened to the person when this revival happens? People can get bother when this happens to them — an example of a person who meditates and this has come about and was disturbed by it as it was not normal and she could double back and stop the phenomenon and return to normality. When one crosses the edge of normality, powers come through. Buddha described how he meditates and takes a deep dive into his brain-mind and experiences his mind spaces — this type of meditation of self awareness and meditation while still conscious while experiencing all one’s mind spaces can open up the brain-mind in different way. There is more of you in perception as the mind opens up.
This can happen to some people:
I personally believe that it generates an extended brain-mind for those who take a deep dive into the brain-mind and transform the personality: when one breaks away from memory and freely naturally looks for other repositories.
Psychic Powers
“They wield the many kinds of psychic power: multiplying themselves and becoming one again; appearing and disappearing; going unimpeded through a wall, a rampart, or a mountain as if through space; diving in and out of the earth as if it were water; walking on water as if it were earth; flying cross-legged through the sky like a bird; touching and stroking with the hand the sun and moon, so mighty and powerful; controlling the body as far as the Brahmā realm.”
Clairaudience
“Clairaudience” is a literal rendition of dibbasota. The root sense of dibba is to “shine” like the bright sky or a divine being. The senses of clarity and divinity are both present.With clairaudience that is purified and superhuman, they hear both kinds of sounds, human and divine, whether near or far.
Comprehending the Minds of Others
They understand the minds of other beings and individuals, having comprehended them with their own mind. They understand mind with greed as ‘mind with greed’, and mind without greed as ‘mind without greed’. They understand mind with hate … mind without hate … mind with delusion … mind without delusion … constricted mind … scattered mind … expansive mind … unexpansive mind … mind that is not supreme … mind that is supreme … immersed mind … unimmersed mind … freed mind … They understand unfreed mind as ‘unfreed mind’.
Recollection of Past Lives
They recollect many kinds of past lives, that is, one, two, three, four, five, ten, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty, a hundred, a thousand, a hundred thousand rebirths; many eons of the world contracting, many eons of the world expanding, many eons of the world contracting and expanding. They remember: ‘There, I was named this, my clan was that, I looked like this, and that was my food. This was how I felt pleasure and pain, and that was how my life ended. When I passed away from that place I was reborn somewhere else. There, too, I was named this, my clan was that, I looked like this, and that was my food. This was how I felt pleasure and pain, and that was how my life ended. When I passed away from that place I was reborn here.’ And so they recollect their many kinds of past lives, with features and details. Empowered by the fourth jhāna, memory breaks through the veil of birth and death, revealing the vast expanse of time and dispelling the illusion that there is any place of eternal rest or sanctuary in the cycle of transmigration. The knowledge of these events is not hazy or murky, but clear and precise, illuminated by the brilliance of purified consciousness.
Clairvoyance
And so, with clairvoyance that is purified and superhuman, they see sentient beings passing away and being reborn
Ending of Defilements
They truly understand: ‘This is suffering’ … ‘This is the origin of suffering’ … ‘This is the cessation of suffering’ … ‘This is the practice that leads to the cessation of suffering. When they’re freed, they know they’re freed. This is a reflective awareness of the fact of awakening. The meditator reviews their mind and sees that it is free from all forces that lead to suffering.They understand: ‘Rebirth is ended, the spiritual journey has been completed, what had to be done has been done, there is no return to any state of existence.