The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1894-10-27
MRS. THIRDS LECTURE.
THEOsoPHy AND oCCULTIsM TIN
SUBJECT.
The knowledge of the Spiritual Forces
Is Not Magic-Medium and
Spiritualism.

Occultism.' She said:
Many people regard Theosophy as
witchcraft or spritualism and believe
that in the Theosophical Society,
secretly, witchery is taught. This is not
true and never has the Theosophical
Society offered such instructions. In
connection with these ideas it is said
that Theosophists must be ascetics,
vegetarians, etc, etc. The truth is
that the rules of the Theosophical
Society require nothing of the kind,
except pure life.
Earnest students OF Theosophy, who
wish to study occultism with the object
of acquiring the wisdom and power
which the adopts possess will become
ascetics, as this study demands ALSO
lutte abnegation of self The idea as to
the wonderful doings in the Theosoph.
cal Society comes from Madame Blavat.
sky, who being practical occultist pos
sessesscd powers which seemed to the
western world miraculous. But the
Theosophical teachings say that there
are no miracles possible, and as we have
not learned all the laws of nature it
seems supernatural.
A knowledge of occutsm is possible
and it is true that the third object of
the Theosophical Society is, to investi-
gate unexplained laws of nature, and
the physical powers latent in man. Not
long ago the question was asked, what.
if anything is being done in regard to
this third object. and the answer was
given by Mr.. William o. Judge who is
the head of the American section of the
Theosophical Society that nothing is
being done at present directly, but indi-
rectly by PRONUNCIATION of a proper phil
osophy which prepares members in this
direction.
What now is Occultism? 1t is not ma
gic. While occutism is the knowledge of
the spiritual forces, magic is sorcery or
the communication with the regents of
the invisible worlds The common he
lief is that a medium is equivalent to
an adept. But medium is the passive
agent and an adept a conscious master.
Phenomena are sometimes produced
through mediums, but an adept can
produce phenomena by his own will a
medium being unconscious is only a
blind machine; the forces that rush in
are of lower nature, consequently the
medium suffers, and mental and moral
destruction of the medium is nearly
always the result. This is the reason
why the true occulists keep their know.
ledge secret; and he who will under
stand these powers must first become
perfectly unselfish, he must break loose
from the personal and merge into
wider life.
People very often wish to understand
something of spiritual powers, but who
wholly devotes himself to this study?
Few have the strength of courage to
follow the path successfully, few are
strong enough to bear the burden, and
with most of them encouragement and
failure will be the result. Let everybody
weigh well what he asks. But 1t does
not follow that we shall not study the
philosophy. The time is long; we will
come to earthlife again and again; we
can make part of the journey today,
and tomorrow the second part, until we
will reach the mountain top.
| will say a few words more about
magic. Magic is manipulation of
forces for selfish ends. So is hypnotism.
Hypnotizers are sorcerers, not occultlsts.
To acquire a knowledge of magic does
not require pure life, for the magicians
endeavor to injure. f. rmerly lhis
knowledge was common, but the hyp-
notizers of today are quite as danger,
Gus. Hypnotism works double injury -
to the operator as well as to thesubject.
Hypnotism paralyzes the body first
then the mind, and Mrs. Annie Besant
has called it rightly, mental UiUiSection.
Insanity and death have occurred from
hypnosis, and therefore many countries
have made laws against this terrible
practice.
Who submits to hypnosis or who is
medium throws away his will, because
the vicIim of the entities in the astral.
and is perfectly helpless, loses his
morals and learns nothing. If we
wish to develop higher powers we must
first become spiritual, and to become
this we must first learn and practice
philosophy an1 ethics. 1t is true that
sometimes occultists produce phe-
nomena on the lower planes. SO did
Madame II. p. Blavatsky, when she
came to strangers with a new philo-
sophy-she had to prove the existence
of the forces. But she could do by her
own will what spiritualists did through
mediums.
1t is rule that those who possess
spiritual powers do not pronounce to
the world what they possess, An
adept will never mention the fact.
Those who demand money for the exer-
else of their occult powers are frauds
and unworthy of confidence. There is
only one way to develop higher forces:
by publication Of the nature, by throw
ing away self. Who thinks least Of
self is most spiritual and when we no
longer think of self we shall already be
adopts.
Carter, NdOne and Winston in the
Fourth are known, pledged and reput-
able dRnerdtioniSts. Vote for them.