Legend
< The Lines of Demarcation Between Occultism and Spiritualism (continued from page 7-228) >
up between the covers of the Bible. To me the most remarkable phenomenon in Spiritualism is that Spiritualist who would limit the sphere of investigation from the bands of Orion to the cabinet of the Davenport Brothers.
When the chains of ecclesiastical despotism fell from the neck of the human soul, as we opened the gates of immortality at the summons of the first rapping spirit of the nineteenth century, we immediately enlarged our edition of the Bible—from King James’s version to that written by the King of kings on the pages of the Universe. And shall any petty spiritual autocrat denounce me because I turn from the communications of the immortal “John” and “Katie,” to those of Plotinus and Pythagoras? Because I believe, nay know, that my soul shall survive the shock of death, may I not try to find out where that soul came from? Because the spirits of earth are all around me, and their homes are made manifest, and their spheres have become palpable, and the demonstrations of their presence peoples the very air I breathe with a living aura, and makes the atmosphere of my silent chamber alive with the heart-throbs of an innumerable cloud of living witnesses, must I thenceforward conclude that there are no other spirits in the universe than those of humanity? No other spheres than those of this “little dew-drop in space” earth? no existences but those who have once been incarnated in the everchanging elements of our materiality? When my all-wise spiritualistic friends can find the ultimate point of divisibility in the atom, I will believe human spiritual existence is the ultimate point of density on the one hand, and attenuation on the other, in the realms of elemental being.
When they can prove that matter and spirit as we see it combined in the human structure is all that the realms of atmosphere hold in solution, I will cease to search below or above man for the origin and ultimate of his soul’s career. The real truth to my apprehension is this. Spiritualism is one phase, and one only, of Occultism. Occultism, as the science of the unseen universe, is only demonstrated in a very limited degree by Spiritualism. Even as far as we have proceeded in that glorious and most welcome revelation, the solution of one mystery only introduces us to the threshold of another, and upon, aye, and over these thresholds I shall presume to step, in never-ending search for those more profound solutions to life’s never-ending problems, that will require the whole realm of existence to solve, the experiences of every age to illustrate, and the entire areas of space to explore thoroughly.
As to any present standpoints of belief, which would justify critics in passing judgment upon us as Occultists, I protest against such presumption. I should as soon venture to set up my religious opinions as a standpoint for the faith of French Reincarnationists, Italian Catholics, English Trinitarians, American Nothingarians, Hindoo Buddhists, Chinese Llamaists, &c., &c., all of whom can, and do, believe in spirit communion, as to allow any journalist to represent the opinions of Madame Blavatsky, Colonel Olcott, or Emma Hardinge Britten, as authoritative standards of faith in Occultism. Whatever we may all and each believe, we make no profession of knowledge beyond what we can absolutely demonstrate; and as I have ever held that position, with all due allowance from my spiritualistic associates, I shall take leave to carry it with me into those broader fields of investigation which enlarge the borders of Spiritualism into Occultism.
Occultism then is the all of spiritual things, as modern Spiritualism proper is a part. Occultists are fearless explorers into the entire realm of the Occult, instead of being contented to drink only from such fountains of knowledge as the spirits of our own sphere can open up to us. Occultism has as yet no standards of knowledge, but very broad areas of opinion; and I should no more subscribe to the ipse dixit of an Occultist, unless he could prove his positions upon unimpeachable grounds of proof, than I should acknowledge a right from any Spiritualist to say to my soul, “Thus far shalt thou investigate, and no farther, and hitherto shall the waves of thy thought be stayed.”
For my own part, I strongly recommend all Spiritualists to become Occultists; that is, to leave the idle and senseless platitudes in which so many while away a leisure hour, converting Spiritualism into a mere vehicle of an evening’s entertainment, and seriously set themselves to work to discover the links of causation from which effects spring; to trace each spirit up through, as well as from matter, and up through space into ultimates, as well as into the pleasantries of the spirit circle.
Where such vast fields of knowledge are to be traversed as spiritual existence opens up to our gaze, past, present, and future are the only boundary lines which should limit our field of observation. Where belief can stretch away to such illimitable heights and depths without finding any horizon save man’s ignorance, it is an unpardonable sin to sit cracking jokes with materialised spirits and “run a-muck” against every student who attempts to find out from what manufactories the materialisers derive their materials. “Wide as the universe” should be the field of our research; free as the air our right to speculate and draw deductions; based on eternal principles our enunciation of doctrinal opinions; founded on the cornerstone of demonstrable facts our claims to knowledge.
Courteously exchanging opinions with one another, instead of belabouring those that differ from us with the old weapons of prejudice and ignorance, this should be our method of research and our means of growth; and if we add, standing shoulder to shoulder with each other in the new field of spiritual research against the legions of conservatism and materiality, I think I have laid down a better plan of operations for the advancement of our glorious cause than the idle and wasteful battle of terms which has so long been going on between the so-called ranks of Spiritualism and Occultism.—Harbinger of Light
(Melbourne).
The Interlinked Ring Test
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Editor's notes
- ↑ The Interlinked Ring Test by Wakefield, E.T., August 16, 1878