On the Effects of the Sri Yantra

Do sacred geometries such as the Sri Yantra really have powers? Is there more to it than mood making and primitive religious beliefs? Are there any convincing evidences? These are some of the questions that we will address in this short artice.

One of the most convincing and informative account I have come across so far is the paper titled "Art as Technology: Oregon Desert Sri Yantra" written by Bill Witherspoon. If you have time I highly recommend reading the full article which you can find here. It was published in Leonardo (MIT Journal Press) on February 2005.

This article will summarize some of the most interesting results obtained by Bill during his experimentation with sacred geometries and more specifically the Sri Yantra.

I have known Bill Witherspoon for many years and his is a very smart, creative and practical person. An artist with a scientific mind. Bill is now a successful business man at the head of a company called the Sky Factory.

Sri Yantra First Design (1989)

Profound change in consciousness experienced after drawing the Sri Yantra

Here is what Bill experienced after drawing the Sri Yantra for the first time:

Consciousness change:
The process of research, and especially construction of the Sri Yantra, produced a powerful influence.  It restructured my awareness and perception.  I believed that my sensory experience and understanding of deep laws and forces of Nature was rapidly unfolded.

Oregon Desert Sri Yantra (1990)

Changes in weather and soil are observed after drawing a giant Sri Yantra

During the summer of 1990 Bill and a few friends completed the design of a giant Sri Yantra on a dried lake bed. When completed it was 1/4 mile across and covered over forty acres and contained over thirteen miles of lines.

Weather change:
Rain fell one hour after completion of design. Remarkably, the lightning and the rain were limited only to the small valley where we were working. The ranchers noticed a continued increase in the valley’s rainfall.  This was accompanied by increased vegetative growth, as well as increased populations of several plants and three animals species that were not previously common in the valley.

Environment change:
Increased fertility of the soil which was originally alkaline silt. Two years after construction, even though the lines were disappearing, the structure of the soil had changed from a highly compacted mixture of silt and salts to a loose, crumbly soil that smelled and tasted more like normal soil. The soil changes were due to an extraordinary proliferation of soil microorganisms and the resulting increase in soil organic matter.

 The soil changes were limited to the forty or so acres of the design and were most pronounced in its center.In other respects, the entire fifty square mile valley was different.  The ranchers noticed a continued increase in the valley’s rainfall.  This was accompanied by increased vegetative growth, as well as increased populations of several plants and three animals species that were not previously common in the valley.

Hidden Design (1990)

A group of blind people can find a hidden Sri Yantra

Bill wanted to find out if the energy of the Sri Yantra could be felt even if it was hidden from view. For this experiment Bill created two very similar painting. One had a Sri Yantra drawn on the backside the other didn't. He then had a group of sightless people visit the exhibition.

They spent a day in the gallery and concluded that the feeling inside the exhibition space was very different from the feeling outside, and that the peacefulness and happiness that they identified seemed to come from one painting - the one that had the design and text hidden behind it.

Other people who visited the gallery were informed about the experience of the sightless people without revealing which of the twenty two paintings had been selected, and asked to sit on the floor quietly and close their eyes for a few minutes.  Afterwards, they selected their favorite based on what they felt rather than what they saw.  The group unanimously picked the painting that was hiding the geometry and text.

Southeast Oregon Desert Design (1991)

Strange animal behavior and spectacular response from the environment

In the summer of 1991 Bill and a group of friends build another large-scale desert design. It was 1/2 mile across, covered about 80 acres and was made again in a dry lake bed on land owned by rancher Ed Davis. The design used was the Vastu Purusha Mandala rather than the Sri Yantra.

Strange animal behavior:
Suddenly, a large dragonfly appeared, hovered about two feet directly in front of my face and looked at me. It then circled me slowly, dropped down, and hovered in front of the crew member on the ground. From there it went to the open window of the tractor and hovered in front of the driver. As I watched, the dragonfly flew off to visit two other crew members that were about 50 yards away. A few minutes later the dragonfly returned, circled tightly around my head and then flew straight up until it was out of sight.

Later, sitting at camp after work, everyone spoke of his or her visit from the dragonfly. We had all felt something remarkable in its visit and were all in unusually elevated spirits. In the last bit of twilight we walked together to the very center of the design and lay watching shooting stars. Everyone felt in some way that we had been individually and collectively “blessed” by the visit of the dragonfly; that the dragonfly had “spoken” for Nature. That night we all sensed the project had taken a new turn, gained a new status.

A geyser appears:
A geyser sprung up between this design and the Sri Yantra design. This was the only natural geyser in Oregon.  For about three or four months it spouted 210 degree water about 12 feet into the air, every 1 and 1/2 minutes.

Conclusion

The accounts from Bill are very interesting because they have been repeated many times and the results are very noticeable and consistent.

A few extracts from the conclusion part of the article:

Certain geometric structures enliven and amplify specific laws or forces of Nature.  When these laws or forces of Nature become stronger, they consistently influence the total environment, including human physiology and consciousness.

Art of this kind has the power and role of a technology; it can bring the beauty, balance and wholeness of Nature into our day-to-day lives; it can help to create a venue from which Nature can speak; it is art that can assist in transforming our world into a fitting expression of the real possibilities inherent in life.

Where should this technology be applied? The range of man-made geometric structures where Nature could be made livelier is almost unlimited.