If that imaginary individual so convenient for literary illustration,
a visitor from Mars, were to alight upon our planet at the present
time, and if his intellectual interests induced him to take a survey
of mundane views of what is “in heaven above, or on the earth beneath
or in the waters under the earth,” of terrestrial opinions in regard
to the great problems of mind and matter, of government and society,
of life and death--our Martian observer might conceivably report
that a limited portion of mankind were guided by views that were the
outcome of accumulated toil, and generations of studious devotion,
representing a slow and tortuous, but progressive growth through error
and superstition, and at the cost of persecution and bloodshed; that
they maintained institutions of learning where the fruits of such
thought could be imparted and the seeds cultivated to bear still more
richly, but that outside of this respectable yet influential minority
there were endless upholders of utterly unlike notions and of widely
diverging beliefs, clamoring like the builders of the tower of Babel in
diverse tongues.
It is well at least occasionally to remember that our conceptions of
science and of truth, of the nature of logic and of evidence, are not
so universally held as we unreflectingly assume or as we hopefully
wish. Almost every one of the fundamental and indisputable tenets of
science is regarded as hopelessly in error by some ardent would-be
reformer. One Hampden declares that the earth is a motionless plane
with the North Pole as the center; one Carpenter gives a hundred
remarkable reasons why the earth is not round, with a challenge to
the scientists of America to disprove them; one Symmes regarded the
earth as hollow and habitable within, with openings at the poles which
he offered to explore for the consideration of the “patronage of this
and the new worlds”; while Symmes, Jr., explains how the interior is
lighted, and that it probably forms the home of the lost tribes of
Israel; and one Teed announces on equally conclusive evidence that the
earth is a “stationary concave cell ... with people, Sun, Moon, Planets
and Stars on the inside,” the whole constituting an “alchemico-organic
structure, a Gigantic Electro-Magnetic Battery.” If we were to pass
from opinions regarding the shape of the earth to the many other and
complex problems that appeal to human interests, it would be equally
easy to collect ‘ideas’ comparable to these in value, evidence and
eccentricity. With the conspicuously pathological outgrowth of
brain-functioning--although its representatives in the literature of my
topic are neither few nor far between--I shall not specifically deal;
and yet the general abuse of logic, the helpless flounderings in the
mire of delusive analogy, the baseless assumptions, which characterize
insane or ‘crank’ productions, are readily found in modern occult
literature.
The occult consists of a mixed aggregate of movements and doctrines,
which may be the expressions of kindred interests and dispositions
but present no essential community of content. Such members of this
cluster of beliefs as in our day and generation have attained a
considerable adherence or still retain it from former generations
constitute the modern occult. The prominent characteristic of the
occult is its marked divergence in trend and belief from the recognized
standards and achievements of human thought. This divergence is one
of attitude and logic and general perspective. It is a divergence of
intellectual temperament that distorts the normal reactions to science
and evidence and to the general significance and values of the factors
of our complicated natures and our equally complicated environment.
At least it is this in extreme and pronounced forms; and shades
from it through an irregular variety of tints to a vague and often
unconscious susceptibility for the unusual and eccentric, combined
with an instability of conviction regarding established beliefs that
is more often the expression of the weakness of ignorance than of the
courage of independence. Occult doctrines are also likely to involve
and to proceed upon mysticism and superstition; and their theme centers
about such problems as the nature of mental action, the conception
of life and death, the effect of cosmic conditions upon human events
and endowment, the delineation of character, the nature and treatment
of disease, or indeed about any of the larger or smaller realms of
knowledge that combine with a strong human and possibly a practical
interest, a considerable complexity of basal principles and general
relations.
In surveying the more notable instances of the modern occult, it
is well while bearing in mind the particular form of occultism or
mysticism, or it may be merely of superstition and error, which one or
another of the occult movements exhibits, to emphasize the importance
of the intellectual motive or temperament that inclines to the occult.
It is important to inquire not only what is believed, but what is the
nature of the evidence that induces belief, what attracts and then
makes converts, what the influences by which the belief spreads. Two
classes of motives or interests are conspicuous; the one prominently
intellectual or theoretical, the other moderately or grossly practical.
Movements in which the former interest dominates contain elements
that command respect even when they do not engage sympathy; they
frequently appeal, though it may be unwisely, to worthy impulses
and lofty aspirations. Amongst the movements presenting prominent
practical aspects are to be found instances of the most irreverent and
pernicious, as well as of the most vulgar, ignorant and fraudulent
schemes which have been devised to mislead the human mind. Most occult
movements, however, are of a mixed character, and in their career the
speculative and the practical change in importance at different times
or in different lands, or at the hands of variously minded leaders. Few
escape and some seem especially designed for the partisanship of that
class who are seeking whom they may devour; and stimulated by the greed
for gain or the love for notoriety, set their snares for the eternally
gullible. Fortunately, it must be added that the interest in the occult
is under the sway of the law of fashion, and many a mental garment
which is donned in spite of the protest of reason and propriety, is
quietly laid aside when the dictum of the hour pronounces it unbecoming.
Historically considered, the occult points back to distant epochs
and foreign civilizations; to ages when the facts of nature were but
weakly grasped, when belief was largely dominated by the authority
of tradition, when even the ablest minds fostered or assented to
superstition, when the social conditions of life were inimical to
independent thought and the mass of men were cut off from intellectual
growth of even the most elementary kind. Pseudo-science flourished in
the absence of true knowledge, and imaginative insight and unfounded
belief held the office intended for inductive reason. Ignorance
inevitably led to error and false views to false practices. In a
sympathetic environment of this kind the occultist flourished and
displayed the impressive insignia of exclusive wisdom. His attitude was
that of one seeking to solve an enigma, to find the key to a strange
puzzle; his search was for some mystic charm, some talismanic formula,
some magical procedure, which shall dispel the mist that hides the
face of nature and expose her secrets to his ecstatic gaze. By one
all-encompassing, masterful effort the correct solution was to be
discovered or revealed; and at once and for all, ignorance would give
place to true knowledge, science and nature become as an open book,
doubt and despair be replaced by the serenity of perfect wisdom. As our
ordinary senses and faculties are obviously insufficient to accomplish
such ends, supernatural powers must be appealed to, a transcendental
sphere of spiritual activity must be cultivated capable of perceiving
through the hidden symbolism of apparent phenomena, the underlying
relations of cosmic structure and final purposes. Long periods of
training and devotion, seclusion from the world, contemplation of inner
mysteries, lead the initiate through the various stages of adeptship up
to the final plane of communion with the infinite and the comprehension
of truth in all things. This form of occultism reaches its fullest
and purest expression in Oriental wisdom-religions. These vie in
interest to the historian with the mythology and philosophy of Greece
and Rome; and we of the Occident feel free to profit by their ethical
and philosophical content, and to cherish the impulses which gave
them life. But when such views are forcibly transplanted to our age
and clime, when they are decked in garments so unlike their original
vestments, particularly when they are associated with dubious practices
and come into violent conflict with the truth that has accumulated
since they first had birth, their aspect is profoundly altered and they
come within the circle of the modern occult.
* * * * *
Of this character is Theosophy, an occult movement brought into recent
prominence by the works and personality of Mme. Blavatsky. The story
of the checkered career of that remarkable woman is fairly accessible.
Born in Russia in 1831 as Helen Petrovna, daughter of Colonel Hahn, of
the Russian army, she was married at the age of seventeen to an elderly
gentleman, M. Blavatsky. She is described in girlhood as a person of
passionate temper and wilful and erratic disposition. She separated
or escaped from her husband after a few months of married life and
entered upon an extended period of travel and adventure, in which
‘psychic’ experiences and the search for unusual persons and beliefs
were prominent. She absorbed Hindu wisdom from the adepts of India;
she sat at the feet of a thaumaturgist at Cairo; she journeyed to
Canada to meet the medicine man of the Red Indians, and to New Orleans
to observe the practices of Voodoo among the negroes. It is difficult
to know what to believe in the accounts prepared by her enthusiastic
followers. Violations of physical laws were constantly occurring in her
presence, and “sporadic outbreaks of rappings and feats of impulsive
pots, pans, beds and chairs insisted on making themselves notorious.”
In 1873 she came to New York and sat in ‘spiritualistic’ circles,
assuming an assent to their theories, but claiming to see through and
beyond the manifestations the operations of her theosophic guides in
astral projection. At one of these séances she met Colonel Olcott and
assisted him in the foundation of the Theosophical Society in New York
in October, 1875. Mme. Blavatsky directed the thought of this society
to the doctrines of Indian occultism, and reported the appearance in
New York of a Hindu Mahatma, who left a turban behind him as evidence
of his astral visit. Later Mme. Blavatsky and Colonel Olcott (who
remained her staunch supporter, but whom she referred to in private as
a ‘psychologized baby’) went to India and at Adyar established a shrine
from which were mysteriously issued answers to letters placed within
its recesses, from which inaccessible facts were revealed and a variety
of interesting marvels performed. Discords arose within her household
and led to the publication by M. and Mme. Coulomb, her confederates, of
letters illuminating the tricks of the trade by which the miracles had
been produced. Mme. Blavatsky pronounced the letters to be forgeries,
but they were sufficiently momentous to bring Mr. Hodgson to India to
investigate for the Society for Psychical Research. He was able to
deprive many of the miracles of their mystery, to show how the ‘shrine’
from which the Mahatma’s messages emanated was accessible to Mme.
Blavatsky by the aid of sliding panels and secret drawers, to show that
these messages were in style, spelling and handwriting the counterpart
of Mme. Blavatsky’s, to show that many of the phenomena were the result
of planned collusion and that others were created by the limitless
credulity and the imaginative exaggeration of the witnesses--‘domestic
imbeciles,’ as madame confidentially called them. The report of
the society convicted ‘the Priestess of Isis’ of “a long continued
combination with other persons to produce by ordinary means a series
of apparent marvels for the support of the Theosophic movement”; and
concludes with these words: “For our own part, we regard her neither
as the mouthpiece of hidden seers nor as a mere vulgar adventuress; we
think that she has achieved a title to permanent remembrance as one of
the most accomplished, ingenious and interesting impostors in history.”
Mme. Blavatsky died in 1891, and her ashes were divided between Adyar,
London and New York.
The Theosophic movement continues, though with abated vigor, owing
partly to the above-mentioned disclosures, but probably more to the
increasing propagandism of other cults, to the lack of a leader
of Mme. Blavatsky’s genius, or to the inevitable ebb and flow of
such interests. Mme. Blavatsky continued to expound Theosophy after
the exposures, and Mrs. Besant, Mr. Sinnett and others were ready
to take up the work at her death. However, miracles are no longer
performed, and no immediately practical ends are proclaimed. Individual
development and evolution, mystic discourses on adeptship and Karma
and Maya and Nirvana, communion with the higher ends of life, the
cultivation of an esoteric psychic insight, form the goal of present
endeavor. The Mahatmas are giving “intellectual instructions,
enormously more interesting than even the exhibition of their abnormal
powers.” ... The modern Theosophist seeks to appeal to men and women
of philosophical inclinations, for whom an element of mysticism has
its charm, and who are intellectually at unrest with the conceptions
underlying modern science and modern life. Such persons are quite
likely to be well-educated, refined and sincere. We may believe them
intellectually misguided; we may recognize the fraud to which their
leader resorted to glorify her creed, but we must equally recognize
the absence of many pernicious tendencies in their teachings which
characterize other and more practical occult movements.
Spiritualism, another member of the modern occult family, presents
a combination of features rather difficult to portray; but its
public career of half a century has probably rendered its tenets and
practices fairly familiar. For, like other movements, it presents both
doctrines and manifestations, and, like other movements, it achieved
its popularity through its manifestations and emphasized the doctrines
to maintain the interest and solidarity of its numerous converts.
Deliberate fraud has been repeatedly demonstrated in a large number of
alleged ‘spiritualistic’ manifestations; in many more the very nature
of the phenomena and of the conditions under which they appear is so
strongly suggestive of trickery as to render any other hypothesis
of their origin improbable and unnecessary. Unconscious deception,
exaggerated and distorted reports, defective and misleading observation
have been demonstrated to be most potent reagents, whereby alleged
miracles are made to throw off their mystifying envelopings and to
leave a simple deposit of intelligible and often commonplace fact. That
the methods of this or that medium have not been brought within the
range of such explanation may be admitted, but the admission carries
with it no bias in favor of the spiritualistic hypothesis. It may be
urged, however, that where there is much smoke there is apt to be some
fire; yet there is little prospect of discovering the nature of the
fire until the smoke has been completely cleared away. Perhaps it has
been snatched from heaven by a materialized Prometheus; perhaps it may
prove to be the trick of a _ridiculus mus_ gnawing at a match. However,
the main point to be insisted upon with regard to such manifestations
is that their interpretation and their explanation demand technical
knowledge and training, or at least special adaptability to such
pursuits. “The problem cannot be solved and settled by amateurs, nor by
‘common sense’ that
Delivers brawling judgments all day long,
On all things unashamed.”
Spiritualism represents a systematization of popular beliefs and
superstitions, modified by echoes of religious and philosophical
doctrines; and is thus not wholly occult. Its main purpose was to
establish the reality of communication with departed spirits; the
means which at first spontaneously presented themselves and later
were devised for this purpose were in large measure not original.
The rappings are in accord with the traditional folk-lore behavior of
ghosts, though their transformation into a signal code may have been
due to the originality of the Fox children; the planchette has its
analogies in Chinese and European modes of divination; clairvoyance
was incorporated from the phenomena of artificial somnambulism, as
practiced by the successors of Mesmer; the ‘sensitive’ or ‘medium’
suggests the same origin as well as the popular belief in the gift of
supernatural powers to favored individuals; others of the phenomena
such as ‘levitation’ and ‘cabinet performances’ have counterparts
in Oriental magic; ‘slate-writing,’ ‘form materializations,’
‘spirit-messages’ and ‘spirit photographs’ are, in the main, modern
contributions. These various phenomena as ordinarily presented breed
the typical atmosphere of the séance chamber, which resists precise
analysis, but in which it is easy to detect morbid credulity, blind
prepossession and emotional contagion; while the dependence of the
phenomena on the character of the medium offers strong temptation
alike to shrewdness, eccentricity and dishonesty. On the side of his
teachings the spiritualist is likewise not strikingly original. The
relations of his beliefs to those that grew about the revelations of
Swedenborg, to the speculations of the German ‘pneumatologists’ and
to other philosophical doctrines, though perhaps not intimate, are
yet traceable and interesting; and in another view the ‘spiritualist’
is as old as man himself and finds his antecedents in the necromancer
of Chaldea, or in the Shaman of Siberia, or the Angekok of Greenland,
or the spirit-doctor of the Karens. The modern mediums are simply
repeating with new costumes and improved scenic effects the mystic
drama of primitive man.
Spiritualism thus appeals to a deep-seated craving in human nature,
that of assurance of personal immortality and of communion with the
departed. Just so long as a portion of mankind will accept material
evidence of such a belief, and will even countenance the irreverence,
the triviality and the vulgarity surrounding the manifestations, just
so long as these persons will misjudge their own powers of detecting
how the alleged supernatural appearances were really produced and
remain unimpressed by the principles upon which alone a consistent
explanation is possible, just so long will spiritualism and kindred
delusions flourish.
As to the present-day status of this cult it is not easy to speak
positively. Its clientèle has apparently greatly diminished; it still
numbers amongst its adherents men and women of culture and education
and many more who cannot be said to possess these qualities. There
seems to be a considerable class of persons who believe that natural
laws are insufficient to account for their personal experiences and
those of others, and who temporarily or permanently incline to a
spiritualistic hypothesis in preference to any other. Spiritualists
of this intellectual temper can, however, form but a small portion of
those who are enrolled under its creed. If one may judge by the tone
and contents of current spiritualistic literature, the rank and file to
which Spiritualism appeals present an unintellectual occult company,
credulously accepting what they wish to believe, utterly regardless
of the intrinsic significance of evidence or hypothesis, vibrating
from one extreme or absurdity to another, and blindly following a
blinder or more fanatic leader or a self-interested charlatan. While
for the most extravagant and unreasonable expressions of Spiritualism
one would probably turn to the literature of a few decades ago, yet
the symptoms presented by the Spiritualism of to-day are unmistakably
of the same character, and form a complex as characteristic as the
symptom-complex of hysteria or epilepsy, and which, _faute de mieux_,
may be termed occult. It is a type of occultism of a particularly
pernicious character because of its power to lead a parasitic life upon
the established growths of religious beliefs and interests, and at
the same time to administer to the needs of an unfortunate but widely
prevalent passion for special signs and omens and the interpretation
of personal experiences. It is a weak though comprehensible nature
that becomes bewildered in the presence of a few experiences that seem
homeless among the generous provisions of modern science, and runs off
panic-stricken to find shelter in a system that satisfies a narrow
personal craving at the sacrifice of broadly established principles,
nurtured and grown strong in the hardy and beneficent atmosphere of
science. It is a weaker and an ignorant nature that is attracted to
the cruder forms of such beliefs, be it by the impulsive yielding to
emotional susceptibility, by the contagion of an unfortunate mental
environment, or by the absence of the steadying power of religious
faith or of logical vigor or of confidence in the knowledge of others.
Spiritualism finds converts in both camps and assembles them under the
flag of the occult.[A]
[A] To prevent misunderstanding it is well to repeat that
I am speaking of the general average of thorough-going
spiritualists. The fact that a few mediums have engaged
the attention of scientifically minded investigators has
no bearing on the motives which lead most persons to make
a professional call on a medium, or to join a circle.
The further fact that these investigators have at times
found themselves baffled by the medium’s performances,
and that a few of them have announced their readiness to
accept the spiritualistic hypothesis is of importance in
some aspects, but does not determine the general trend
of the spiritualistic movement in the direction in which
it is considered in the present discussion. It may also
prevent misunderstanding of other parts of my presentation
to continue this footnote by adding that I desire to
distinguish sharply between the occult and what has
unwisely been termed Psychical Research--unwisely because
such research is either truly psychological and requires no
differentiation from other allied and legitimate research,
or it is something other than psychological which is
inaptly expressed by calling it ‘psychical.’ I admit and
emphasize that the majority of such research is the result
of a scientific motive and is far removed from the occult.
I therefore shall say nothing of Psychical Research and
regret that it is necessary even to deny its possible
inclusion in the occult. Such inclusion is, however,
suggested by much that is talked of and written under the
name of Psychic Research, and there can be no doubt that
the interest of many members of Psychic Research Societies
and of readers of their publications, is essentially of
an occult nature. Whatever in these publications seems to
favor mystery and to substantiate supernormal powers is
readily absorbed, and its bearings fancifully interpreted
and exaggerated; the more critical and successfully
explanatory papers meet with a less extended and less
sensational reception. Unless most wisely directed, Psychic
Research is likely, by not letting the right hand know
what the left hand is doing, to foster the undesirable
propensities of human nature as rapidly as it antagonizes
them. Like indiscriminate alms-giving it has the
possibilities of affording relief and of making paupers at
the same time. While I regard the acceptance of telepathy
as an established phenomenon, as absolutely unwarranted and
most unfortunate, and while I feel a keen personal regret
that men whose ability and opinions I estimate highly have
announced their belief in a spiritualistic explanation of
their personal experiences with a particular medium, yet
my personal regret and my logical disapproval of these
conclusions have obviously no bearing upon the general
questions under discussion. The scientific investigation of
the same phenomena which have formed the subject matter of
occult beliefs, is radically different in motive, method
and result from the truly occult.
The wane in the popularity of Spiritualism may be due in part to
frequent exposures, in part to the passing of the occult interest to
pastures new, and in part to other and less accessible causes. Such
interest may again become dominant by the success or innovations
of some original medium or by the appearance of some unforeseen
circumstances; at present there is a disposition to take up ‘spiritual
healing’ and ‘spiritual readings of the future’ rather than mere
assurances from the dead, and thus to emulate the practical success
of more recently established rivals. The history of Spiritualism, by
its importance and its extravagance of doctrine and practice, forms
an essential and an instructive chapter in the history of belief; and
there is no difficulty in tracing the imprints of its footsteps on the
sands of the occult.
The impress of ancient and mediæval lore upon latter-day occultism
is conspicuous in the survivals of Alchemy and Astrology. Phrenology
represents a more recent pseudo-science, but one sufficiently obsolete
to be considered under the same head, as may also Palmistry, which has
relations both to an ancient form of divination and to a more modern
development after the manner of Physiognomy. The common characteristic
of these is their devotion to a practical end. Alchemy occupies a
somewhat distinct position. The original alchemists sought the secret
of converting the baser metals into gold, in itself a sufficiently
alluring and human occupation. There is no reason why such a problem
should assume an occult aspect, except the sufficient one that ordinary
procedures have not proved capable to effect the desired end. It is a
proverbial fault of ambitious inexperience to attack valiantly large
problems with endless confidence and sweeping aspiration. It is well
enough in shaping your ideas to hitch your wagon to a star; yet the
temporary utility of horses need not be overlooked; but shooting arrows
at the stars is apt to prove an idle pastime. If we are willing to
forget for the moment that the same development of logic and experiment
that makes possible the mental and material equipment of the modern
chemist makes impossible his consideration of the alchemist’s search,
we may note how far the inherent constitution of the elements, to say
nothing of their possible transmutation, has eluded his most ultimate
analysis. How immeasurably farther it was removed from the grasp of
the alchemist can hardly be expressed. But this is a scientific and
not an occult view of the matter; it was not by progressive training
in marksmanship that the occultist hoped to send his arrows to the
stars. His was a mystic search for the magical transmutation, the
elixir of life or the philosopher’s stone. One might suppose that
once the world has agreed that these ends are past finding out, the
alchemist, like the maker of stone arrow-heads, would have found his
occupation gone and have left no successor. His modern representative,
however, is an interesting and by no means extinct species. He seems
to flourish in France, but may be found in Germany, in England and in
this country. He is rarely a pure alchemist (although so recently as
1854 one of them offered to manufacture gold for the French mint), but
represents the pure type of occultist. He calls himself a Rosicrucian;
he establishes a university of the higher studies and becomes a
Professor of Hermetic Philosophy. His thought is mystic, and symbolism
has an endless fascination for him. The mystic significance of numbers,
extravagant analogies of correspondence, the traditional hidden
meanings of the Kabbalah fairly intoxicate him; and verbose accounts of
momentous relations and of unintelligible discoveries run riot in his
writings. His science is not a mere Chemistry, but a Hyper-Chemistry;
his transmutations are not merely material but spiritual. Like
all followers of an esoteric belief, he must stand apart from his
fellow-men; he must cultivate the higher ‘psychic’ powers so that
eventually he may be able by the mere action of his will to cause the
atoms to group themselves into gold.
The modern alchemist is, however, a general occultist; he may be also
an astrologer or a magnetist or a theosophist. But he is foremost
an ardent enthusiast for exclusive and unusual lore--not the common
and superficial possessions of misguided democratic science. He goes
through the forms of study, remains superior to the baser practical
ends of life, and finds his reward in the self-satisfaction of
exclusive wisdom. In Paris, at least, he forms part of a rather
respectable salon, speaking socially, or a ‘company of educated
charlatans,’ speaking scientifically. His class does not constitute a
large proportion of modern occultists, but they present a prominent
form of its intellectual temperament. “There are also people,” says
Mr. Lang, “who so dislike our detention in the prison house of old
unvarying laws that their bias is in favor of anything which may tend
to prove that science in her contemporary mood is not infallible. As
the Frenchman did not care what sort of a scheme he invested money in,
provided that it annoys the English, so many persons do not care what
they invest belief in, provided that it irritates men of science.” Of
such is the kingdom of alchemists and their brethren.
Astrology, phrenology, physiognomy and palmistry have in common a
search for knowledge whereby to regulate the affairs of life, to
foretell the future, to comprehend one’s destiny and capabilities. They
aim to secure success or at least to be forearmed against failure by
being forewarned. This is a natural, a practical, and in no essential
way, an occult desire. It becomes occult, or better, superstitious,
when it is satisfied by appeals to relations and influences which
do not exist, and by false interpretation of what may be admitted
as measurably and vaguely true and about equally important. When
not engaged in their usual occupation of building most startling
superstructures on the weakest foundations, practical occultists are
like Dr. Holmes’ katydid, “saying an undisputed thing in such a solemn
way.” They will not hearken to the experience of the ages that success
cannot be secured nor character read by discovering their mystic
stigmata; they will not learn from physiology and psychology that the
mental capabilities, the moral and emotional endowment of an individual
are not stamped on his body so that they may be revealed by half an
hour’s use of the calipers and tape-measure; they will not listen when
science and common sense unite in teaching that the knowledge of mental
powers is not such as may be applied by rule of thumb to individual
cases, but that like much other valuable knowledge, it proceeds by
the exercise of sound judgment, and must as a rule rest content with
suggestive generalizations and imperfectly established correlations.
An educated man with wholesome interests and a vigorous logical sense
can consider a possible science of character and the means of aiding
its advance without danger and with some profit. But this meat is sheer
poison to those who are usually attracted to such speculations, while
it offers to the unscrupulous charlatan a most convenient net to spread
for the unwary. In so far as these occult mariners, the astrologists
and phrenologists and _id genus omne_ are sincere, and in so far
represent superstition rather than commercial fraud, they simply ignore
through obstinacy or ignorance the light-houses and charts and the
other aids to modern navigation, and persist in steering their craft
by an occult compass. In some cases they are professedly setting out,
not for any harbor marked on terrestrial maps, but their expedition is
for the golden fleece or for the apples of the Hesperides; and with
loud-voiced advertisements of their skill as pilots, they proceed to
form stock companies for the promotion of the enterprise and to sell
the shares to credulous speculators.
It would be a profitless task to review the alleged data of astrology
or phrenology or palmistry except for the illustrations which they
readily yield of the nature of the conceptions and the logic which
command a certain popular interest and acceptance. The interest in
these notions, is, as Mr. Lang argues about ghosts and rappings and
bogles, in how they come to be believed rather than in how much or how
little they chance to be true. In examining the professed evidence
for the facts and laws and principles (_sit venia verbis_) that
pervade astrology or phrenology or palmistry or dream-interpretation,
or beliefs of that ilk, we find the flimsiest kind of texture that
will hardly bear examination and holds together only so long as it is
kept secluded from the light of day. Far-fetched analogy, baseless
assertion, the uncritical assimilation of popular superstitions, a
great deal of prophecy after the event--it is wonderful how clearly
the astrologer finds the indications of Napoleon’s career in his
horoscope, or the phrenologist reads them in the Napoleonic cranial
protuberances--much fanciful elaboration of detail, ringing the
variations on a sufficiently complex and non-demonstrable proposition,
cultivating a convenient vagueness of expression together with an
apologetic skill in providing for and explaining exceptions, the
courage to ignore failure and the shrewdness to profit by coincidences
and half-assimilated smatterings of science; and with it all an
insensibility to the moral and intellectual demands of the logical
decalogue, and you have the skeleton which clothed with one flesh
becomes astrology, and with another phrenology and with another
palmistry or solar biology or descriptive mentality or what not.
Such pseudo-sciences thrive upon that widespread and intense craving
for practical guidance of our individual affairs, which is not
satisfied with judicious applications of general principles, with due
consideration of the probabilities and uncertainties of human life, but
demands an impossible and precise revelation. Not all that passes for,
and in a way is, knowledge, is or is likely soon to become scientific;
and when a peasant parades in an academic gown the result is likely to
be a caricature.
To achieve fortune, to judge well and command one’s fellow-men, to
foretell and control the future, to be wise in worldly lore, are
natural objects of human desire; but still another is essential to
happiness. Whether we attempt to procure these good fortunes by going
early to bed and early to rise, or by more occult procedures, we
wish to be healthy as well as wealthy and wise. The maintenance of
health and the perpetuity of youth were not absent from the mediæval
occultist’s search, and formed an essential part of the benefits to
be conferred by the elixir of life and the philosopher’s stone. A
series of superstitions and extravagant systems are conspicuous in
the antecedents and the bye-paths of the history of medicine, and
are related to it much as astrology is to astronomy or alchemy to
chemistry; and because medicine in part remains, and to previous
generations was conspicuously an empirical art rather than a science,
it offers great opportunity for practical error and misapplied partial
knowledge. It is not necessary to go back to early civilizations or
to primitive peoples, among whom the medicine-man and the priest were
one and alike appealing to occult powers, nor to early theories of
disease which beheld in insanity the obsession of demons and resorted
to exorcism to cast them out; it is not necessary to consider the
various personages who acquired notoriety as healers by laying on of
hands or by appeal to faith, or who like Mesmer introduced the system
of Animal Magnetism, or like some of his followers, sought directions
for healing from the clairvoyant dicta of somnambules; it is not
necessary to ransack folk-lore superstitions and popular remedies for
the treatment of disease; for the modern forms of ‘irregular’ healing
offer sufficient illustrations of occult methods of escaping the ills
that flesh is heir to.
The existence of a special term for a medical impostor is doubtless
the result of the prevalence of the class thus named, but quackery and
occult medicine though mutually overlapping, can by no means be held
accountable for one another’s failings. Many forms of quackery proceed
on the basis of superstitions or fanciful or exaggerated notions
containing occult elements, but for the present purpose it is wise to
limit attention to those in which this occult factor is distinctive;
for medical quackery in its larger relations is neither modern nor
occult. Occult healing takes its distinctive character from the theory
underlying the practice rather than from the nature of the practice.
It is not so much what is done as why it is done or pretended to be
done or not done, that determines its occult character. A factor of
prominence in modern occult healing is indeed one that in other forms
characterized many of its predecessors and was rarely wholly absent
from the connection between the procedure and the result; this is the
mental factor, which may be called upon to give character to a theory
of disease, or be utilized consciously or unconsciously as a curative
principle. It is not implied that ‘mental medicine’ is necessarily
and intrinsically occult, but only that the general trend of modern
occult notions regarding disease may be best portrayed in certain
typical forms of ‘psychic’ healing. The legitimate recognition of
the importance of mental conditions in health and disease is one of
the results of the union of modern psychology and modern medicine.
An exaggerated and extravagant as well as pretentious and illogical
over-statement and misstatement of this principle may properly be
considered as occult.
Among such systems there is one which by its momentary prominence
overshadows all others, and for this reason as well as for its
more explicit or rather extended statement of principles, must be
accorded special attention. I need hardly say that I refer to that
egregious misnomer, Christian Science. This system is said to have
been discovered by or revealed to Mrs. Mary Baker Glover Eddy in 1866.
Several of its most distinctive positions (without their religious
setting) are to be found in the writings and were used in the practice
of Mr. or Dr. P. P. Quimby (1802-1866), whom Mrs. Eddy professionally
consulted shortly before she began her own propagandum. On its
theoretical side the system presents a series of quasi-metaphysical
principles, and also a professed interpretation of the Scriptures; on
its practical side it offers a means of curing or avoiding disease and
includes under disease also what is more generally described as sin
and misfortune. With Christian Science as a religious movement I shall
not directly deal; I wish, however, to point out that this assumption
of a religious aspect finds a parallel in Spiritualism and Theosophy
and doubtless forms one of the most potent reasons for the success
of these occult movements. It would be a most dangerous principle to
admit that the treatment of disease and the right to ignore hygiene
can become the perquisite of any religious faith. It would be equally
unwarranted to permit the principles which are responsible for such
beliefs to take shelter behind the ramparts of religious tolerance; for
the essential principles of Christian Science do not constitute a form
of Christianity any more than they constitute a science; but in so far
as they do not altogether elude description, pertain to the domain over
which medicine, physiology and psychology hold sway. As David Harum,
in speaking of his church-going habits, characteristically explains,
“the one I stay away from when I don’t go’s the Prespyteriun,” so the
doctrines which Christian Science ‘stays away from’ are those over
which recognized departments of academic learning have the authority to
decide.
Mrs. Eddy’s magnum opus serving at once as the text-book of the
‘science’ and as a revised version of the Scriptures--Science and
Health, with Key to the Scriptures--has been circulated to the extent
of one hundred and seventy thousand copies. I shall not give an account
of this book nor subject its more tangible tenets to a logical review;
I must be content to recommend its pages as suggestive reading for the
student of the occult and to set forth in the credentials of quotation
marks some of the dicta concerning disease. Yet it may be due to the
author of this system to begin by citing what are declared to be its
fundamental tenets, even if their connection with what is built upon
them is far from evident.
“The fundamental propositions of Christian Science are summarized
in the four following, to me _self-evident_ propositions. Even
if read backward, these propositions will be found to agree in
statement and proof: