Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1883-05-12
NUMBER THREE
THEosoPHY AID occuLTIsM IN INDIA.
Some Account of a Few and Remarkable
Movement.
Bx Orieate L,.x.

Inc aUaIOI Oh - i 0O OCSulb W OEAU
had story to tell which was certain to
challenge the incredulity of at least large
proportion of the Western world. Nor is
this incredulity 10 any way surprising, for
the conditionsof which Mr.. Sinnett has writ
ten are TOO novel and strange, and have
too few European anaIogies, to be received
easily. And this renders his work the
more diffcult, for as he ssYs: "The
whole edifice of occultism, from basement TO
roof, is so utterly strange to ordinary con-
captions, that it is difficult to know how to
begin an explanation of its contents" He
premises, however, that "the powers with
which occaltiam invests itsAdepts include,
to begin with, a control over various
forces in Nature which ordinary Science
knows nothing about. and by means of
which an Adept can hold conversation with
any Other Adept, whatever intervals on the
earth's surfaces may lie between them. This
psychological telegaphy is wholly indie
pendent of al mechanical conditions or
appliances whatever. And the clairvoyant
faculties of the Adept are SO perfect and
complete that they amount to species
omniscience as regards mundane affairs
The body is the prison OF the soul for or
binary mcrtals. We can see merely what
comes before its windows; we can take
eognizance only of what is brought within
its bars. But the Adept has found the key
OF his prison, and can emerge from it at
pleasure. 1t is no longer prison for
him-merely a dwelling. In other words,
the Adept can project his soul out of his
body to any place he pleases, with the
rapidity OF thought" Such statement
as this could not but be received with sar-
castle skepticism by the pseudo.scientific
Philistines Of the day, but even these
may hesitate somewhat when they find so
eminently orthodox a publication as the
London "Quarterly Journal of Science "
expressing its belief that Mr.. Sinnett has
demonstrated the genuineness of the phe-
nomena described in his book; the said
phenomena being primarily intended to es-
tablish o. the existence, and ~ the pow
ers, of the Occult Brotherhood.
In the first place, the Oriental Adepts,
according to Mr.. Sinnett, perform their
wonders by natural forces. This is incom-
prehensible, perhaps, to the Western mind,
and especially TO the Western scientific
mind. Bat one reason of this incompre-
hensibilty Is that Western science has
never made any real progress in Psychol-
ogy. The philosophers of the old world
have, without exception, followed specu
lative course in Psychology, and this is
why no European system of philosophy
affords any stable defense against that
ultra, materialism of the German school of
Haeckel and Buchner, ETC., which insists
on representing thought and conscious
ness as mere functions or secretions OF the
cerebral organs. The speculative schools
of psychology can never obtain any
gertrude as to the separate existence
Of mind or soul. The latter cannot
be studied through the body, in
fact; it can only be examined from within
and experinentally. Now it is asserted
that the Adopts have acquired gertrude
concerning The reality of the spiritual part
of humanity, By pursuing course of psy-
Geological experiments which has finally
enabled them to separate the spirit from
the body, and to demonstrate the reality
and persistence of the former by testing its
intelligence, It's thinking and volitional
powers, when it is so separated fron the
BODY aa to be for the time incapable Of en-
ployipg the physical organism. In pre-
pairing the Western mind for the reception
of these hard sayings it will be OF some
use to point out that even in modern
science the extraordinary capabilities OF
the Human VIII have been perforce
recognized, while the influence of
the Mind upon the Body is at
length becoming understood as far more
import Mt factor than it was formerly
thought. The influence of Mind upon
Mind is indeed everywhere perceived and
admitted. The stronger minds have always
impressed themselves upon weaker ones.
The stronger Wills have always controlled
the less energetic. In the phenomena Of
Mesmerism, Hypnotism, Electro-Biology,
etc., these forms of influence ere strikingly
exhibited. For, whether the theory OF
Magnetism is accepted or not, it is certain
that the human VIII is capable of exercis-
ing very remarkbla pressure upon its own
kindred. And it is equally well estab-
lished that the body can be affected
through the mind in the most positive
way that is to say, that alterations of tissue
and organic and structural changes may be
produced solely through mental emotion.
For abundant and well-attested illustra-
tions of this truth the reader is referred to
DR.. Tuke's treatise entitled The Influence
of the Mind upon the Body" DR.. Carpen-
ter. both in his " Human Physiology " and
" Mental Physiology testifies to the same
effect And it is very certain that the
many cases of stign,ata which have been
asserted by the Roman Catholic Church,
together with the alleged miracles of Port
Royal and elsewhere, are explicable upon
strictly scientific grounds, not as halluci-
nations or impostures, but as matters of
fact. Under the head of "expectant at
tention," DR.. Carpenter has discussed the
subject very ably, but modern scientific
men are too apt to beg the question in
these matters, and to imagine that when
they have invented name for phenome-
non, they have explained it. The truth is
that the study of Psychology has been
hampered and hindered for centuries
by the natural reaction against the
gross anthropomorphism of the West.
ern Churches during the Middle
Ages, and that because of this reaction the
real significance of the most suggestive
phenomena HAS too commonly been missed.
Modern Science does not know what Mat
ter is, or what Spirit is. Thus Huxley
asserts cit is certain that we can have no