Dear Dr Kannan,
Thank-you very much for the questions you have raised. They give me another opportunity to approach these fundamental questions with a new perspective.I shall append my  observations below yours.

the five existential states of wakefulness, dream-state, mythical experience, the experience of inner radiance and that of transcendental illumination. These are called caakkiram, coppanam, cuzutti,turiam and turiyaatiitam.

Where do you place the status of Samadhi in this order? 

>>These are states of consciousness that are attained with the use of the cognitional utensils: manam, butti, ahangkaaram and cittam. The psyche as a substance is not to be reduced to the states of awareness generated by the use of these utensils.>>

Does it suggest that "psychic" entity is beyond the human body? Some Western analysts place the mind as an "epiphenomenon" of the material body.
 

Loga:
I certainly DO NOT subscribe to the notion that the mind is an epiphenomena, a view of mind quite popular among the Australian Philosophers. In India the Carvakas and some early Buddhists proposed this view. In earlier posting in response to yours I already explained the  reasons why I take it that the psychic entity is an independent reality and that the so called "mind" is actually the psyche functioning one- with the mental mechanisms  of manam etc that are already available in the human body possibly there because of the evolutionary progress underlying the emergence of the human body, complex cmachinery with which one can effect so many actions

Kannan
 

>>5. If by 'perception' is meant the sensorial experiences then to denote the experiences through dreams, myths and so forth, we shall use the term 'Transductive Perception' termed 'yookak kaatci' and subdivided into 'vinjnaanak kaatci' and 'civajnaanak
kaatci' in some classical texts. While this chapter deals with the definitising 'vinjnaanak kaatci', chapter six, the sixth sutra deals with 'civajnaanak kaatci'.>>

The so called Transductive perception needs some elaboration. This perception can not happen, I believe, out of the blue but from the information already available. For example by reading the subject's letters, or by asking questions to the subject or by careful and continuous observation of the subject for a prolonged period of time and then make careful interpretation or intelligent guess. This understanding is important because, no one gets Katchies of every one. The system is so complex that it will be impossible for a particular human mind to get Katchies of every thing happening to people. The transductive perception is applicable only to a particular association or to a particular case history. The western analysts may argue that a well trained psychiatrists can always make an intelligent guess that will be close to the truth. If that is so, is it worth while to give a "mystical" interpretation to such Katchies? (that will ultimately lead to "use" religious knowledge for power or for personal advantage!!) In a right sense, then the Katchies or nothing but an academic exercise. Is it so?
 

Loga

The katchies are certainly not intuitions guesses, or simply nothing but academic exercises.  They are higher WAYS OF SEEING that all human beings are capable of but which they DO NOT exercise because of the obscuratives, the mummalam of Saivism. Let me explain this a bit. We have seen that there are mental mechanisms Manam Buddhi AhangkaaRam and Siththam and that there is a sequential ORDER in their utilization by a child. Revising Piaget along these lines and aided by Access Testing, we can see that the child begins to process the world with Manam, and then Buddhi and then Ahangkaaram and finally Siththam. Adulthood begins with the availability of these mental mechanisms. Here ends Piaget and also most of the Western theories of Personality. Freud,  Jung and many others are more concerned with the notion of NORMAL PERSON or psychologically healthy person rather than PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT as such. And it is here Agamic Psychology fills up a vacuum in the Theory of Personality which it shares not only with Saivites and Tamil Siddhas but also the Islamic Sufis.

When these mental mechanisms are utilized for the satisfaction of ego desires they remain simply the PASUKARANAM, utensils of the deeply constrained psyche that seeks only physical or earthly desires. But when the same mental mechanisms are utilized for exploring the METAPHYSICAL WORLD, they become SIVAKARANAM, utensils that unfold the mysteries surrounding BEING. The notion of  Transductive Perception (that I coined) denotes the perceptual processes when mental mechanisms are utilized as SivakaraNam as opposed to PasukaraNam.

Here too, there are two distinct stages akin to  the Piagetian Concrete Operational and Formal Operational. When the transductive requires concrete representations , we have Sariya Kriyai type of RITUALISTIC existence where the mythical or puraaNic Lore  provides the substance. The Temple and what goes on there are for  people of this type. Now however when they  graduate from this concrecity and begin the ACTUAL SEEING of the archetypes and the dramas they enact  in the world and in the life of individuals, the FORMAL level of Existence begins. The genuine Metaphysical Existence and along with it the genuine transductive perceptions begin here. The Saiva VaishNava Bakthi literature are articulations of such experiences  and hence their spiritual qualities. In fact all religious literature throughout the world are verbal expressions of such transductive perceptions.

There are many books in Tamil on this topic that explore in great details such metaphysical experiences and most of them are post Meykandar. The ones I studied in some depth are: SiRRampala NadikaL 'ThukaL aRupootham." 'Thasakarya KattaLai" , Sithambarar's "Panjca athiraaka viLLakakam" and Sithtar VaLLuvar's " Nathaantha Thirvu KOl" etc. I have translated some of these and hope to  publish them  online when time permits.

The Katchies are similar to Dream Experiences and in this are different from ordinary seeing that are intentional and egoistic. What becomes available for Transductive Perceptions are ThooRRiya Thithi, as explained by Sithambara Natha Munivar in his magnificent PanjcathikaaRa viLLakakm and hence unfoldments of GRACE (aruL). For my recent views on the matter see my articles on dreams theories and studies of PeriyapuraaNam along these lines  already published in World Saivism Campus.

>>>Such forms of perception have been the substance of Caivite research from ancient times and there are in Tamil alone hundreds of books related to them. In the West there has been very little attention paid to these domains till recent times, the Western philosophic tradition eschewing it as 'mystical' and hence beyond the scientific and rational. A very narrow and highly prejudiced view, no doubt.>>>>
>>related to the CONCEALMENT of ABSOLUTE ILLUMINATION which is overcome only in the realms of Transcendental Experience.>>

Kannan

Shall we put it this way? The experience of anything falls within the realm of cognition and knowledge. If that is so, how can one experience the "transcendental"? The very meaning of Transcendental is beyond the sphere of knowledge or thought.
 

Loga

Instead of the terms "cognition' "knowledge" etc I prefer to use "understanding" that is so central in Hermeneutic Science. The former terms,  because of their frequent use by the epistemologists,  have linkages with the notion of logical reasoning etc. The psychic experiences are more inclusive than the logical and the term UNDERSTANDING is better placed to serve what is gained by a person even through the metaphysical experience that includes the religious in the broadest sense.

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