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What Is Occultism?

This question we may very well ask if we intend to devote time and trouble to its pursuit. Are we to content ourselves with tales of haunted houses, accounts of telepathy among primitive peoples, and research into the esoteric literature of the past? These things certainly have their value; all available occult phenomena should be carefully investigated, not only for the sake of obtaining knowledge, but also for the sake of unmasking charlatans; and the results obtained by investigators in the past are of the greatest value for counter-checking the results we are obtaining at the present day.

The Ancient Mysteries

But is this enough? Is our attitude towards occult science to be the same as our attitude towards the classical languages, in which we admire the masterpieces of antiquity but ourselves produce no living literature in the present? We know that the Mysteries exercised a profound influence on the ancient civilizations, and that some of the noblest men [and women] of all races were inspired by them, and looked on them with reverence and awe.

Are the phenomena we call "occult" merely those of the seance room on a larger scale,or, in addition to the little known laws of Nature whose operations we seek to understand, is there an energizing spiritual influence such as raised the consciousness of the initiates of old, and gave them a deeper understanding of their gods?

Hidden Matters

Let us consider the phenomena which may justly be described as occult, or hidden in their working and nature: ectoplasm; psychometry; clairvoyance in all its forms; telepathy; the various forms of divination, which are far from being altogether delusive; mystic experiences; conversion; trance and rapture; hypnotism, suggestion and auto-suggestion; the survival of bodily death; and last but not least, certain forms of mental disease. All these things are hidden in their nature, not amendable to ordinary scientific methods of investigation with instruments of precision, and legitimately form the field of investigation of occult science.

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