OCCULT SCIENCE EXPLAINED BY FRANZ HARTMANN

(This article was written by Franz Hartmann and published under the title “Vibrations” in the Occult Review, March 1905, pp. 121-124)

There is a great deal of prating about what is called “exact science,” but nothing is said about the development of the investigator himself necessary to make his science exact and to enable him to practically apply it.

We do not recognize any other science as being “exact,” except that which results from true observation, experience and correct understanding. But these powers are not equally developed in everybody; not everybody has the same faculty of realizing a truth, and what may be exact science, resulting from one's own experience for one who is able to see, may still be a matter of conjecture or doubt for another who is blind.

Thus the greatest truths, however plain they may be for some persons, will be “occult” or hidden for others, and this is especially true in regard to such matters of science as can only be known and understood by one’s own introspection and self-examination.

The best way to study the powers of the soul is to develop these powers within oneself, and to examine them carefully; the observation of phenomena produced by the psychic powers of others will always leave room for doubt in regard to the causes by which they are produced, as the history of spiritism and witchcraft shows.

True occult science has for its origin real occult wisdom. Wisdom is the realization of truth. We really know only that which we know ourselves. For instance, nobody needs to accept it on hearsay or take it for granted that the doctrine about the seven principles in the constitution of man is true, provided he has the power to examine himself.

He will then find that he has neither more nor less than these seven.  He will not doubt that he has a solid material body, nor will he dispute his possession of a power that enables him to live.  He will find that in him exists the power to dream, that in him reside instincts and passions, that he is able to think and speculate, and perhaps he will also find within himself a region in which he may directly or intuitively know the truth, to say nothing about that highest and innermost state of consciousness in which man may realize the presence of his own divine Self, the presence of the universal spirit or God.

The knowledge of these seven principles, states or powers in the constitution of man, and the realization of their existence and action within oneself, is the key to the understanding of occult science.

Every plane of existence requires for its perception corresponding faculties and powers.  We have the physical organs of sense for the perception of the phenomena of the physical plane, and the powers of the soul to perceive that which belongs to the realm of the soul.

We have intellectual powers to grasp and examine ideas, and in some persons are unfolded the powers of the spirit by which they may know that which is spiritual and divine.

Thus the apostle Paul in his “letters to the Corinthians” writes to those who are “reborn in the spirit,” that is to say, to those whose organs for spiritual perception have been developed and their inner senses opened: “The wisdom of which we speak is not the wisdom of this world, nor of the great ones that perish, but the occult wisdom of God.”

The “great ones that perish” are those scientists and philosophers who move merely in the realm of phenomena, whose knowledge is based only upon speculation and external observation, who may be highly intellectual, but have not the power of spiritually realizing the divine ideal within themselves.

The basis and fountain of all true occult wisdom is the realization of one’s own real Self. This enables us to know that our whole organism is constituted of a scale of vibrations of something which we call “substance,” beginning from the lowest grade which manifests itself as what is called “matter,” to the highest state, called “spirit.”

We find that spirit, force and matter are not three separate things essentially different from each other; but only three manifestations of one eternal, unchangeable, nameless One, whose power has been called the “Logos,” “Iswara,” or “Word,” which means the organizing principle in nature.

Already the ancient sages knew, what modern philosophers are beginning to realize, that all things in nature are constituted of one primordial substance in vibration, which they called prima materia.

The different grades of vibrations produce different manifestations and phenomena on the different planes of existence. Thus we have vibrations of thought-substance, emotional vibrations, atomic vibrations, etc.

If we regard ourselves from a philosophical point of view, we find that our aspects change according to our standpoint.  Looked at from a mechanical point of view, our organism is a piece of machinery set into motion by a power, which we call “Life” whose origin we cannot know unless we know the origin of all things, the “ Self” of everything called “God.”

From the point of view of the “materialist” this organism is of an earthly material nature, being grown from the elements of the earth. Chemically considered, it consists to its greatest extent of water, of which the muscular system contains a very large percentage.

Thus we are, so to say, condensed water spirits or even materialized spirits of air; for our body is composed of three gases, oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, and also of carbon which in its combination with oxygen forms also a gas.

Besides these gases we possess only an insignificant portion of earthy matter composing our bones. We may also say we are ethereal beings, made of “fire” or force; for each of the atoms composing our body is a storehouse of energy, “matter” is only bound-up energy or latent “force,” and what we call force is a manifestation of the energy of matter.

Looked at from a still higher standpoint, man is like everything else in the universe the embodiment and representation of an idea, and seen in his highest aspect he is a spiritual being inhabiting a form of flesh, an incarnation of the divine Word, endowed with an organization which enables him to become self-conscious of his divine nature.

Let us now consider him in his aspect as the embodiment of an idea, or to speak more correctly, as the representation of a sum of ideas of which each may become manifested as a certain kind of vibrations of thought.

There are low ideas and high ones, there are gross and vulgar as well as refined and exalted vibrations of thought, and according to their nature is the character of a person and his position as a man in the universe either high or low.

The state of his consciousness depends upon the quality of these vibrations, and from this state depends the quality of his soul powers; such as impressibility, perceptive faculty, inspiration, intuition, will power, etc. etc.

There are vibrations of thought so grossly material and heavy that they cannot rise above the most sensual plane, and others so high and spiritual that they rise to the uppermost strata of the ether and are only to be grasped by highly refined minds.

Man is said to be a thinker.  He could not think without having ideas.  His very essence is the ideas which he has assimilated and made his own. They constitute his character. The thoughts by which his ideas become manifest come and go; his ideas remain and out of their substance he creates new forms of thought.

To look upon man as a personification of a certain sum of ideas which constitutes his individuality, renders easy the understanding of many teachings of occult science, which are often erroneously taught and misunderstood.  For instance, the doctrine of reincarnation, if examined in this light, offers no difficulties for our understanding; because it is then only the recognition of one universally acting law.

Everywhere in nature we see that forms or personalities perish, but the ideas which they represented appear again in new-born forms.  Not the personality but the character remains in the universal storehouse of nature and becomes again expressed in visible forms.

“There is truly nothing new under the sun;” the same types reappear not only in the vegetable and animal kingdom, but also in the history of individual human beings and in that of nations as a whole.  In the lower kingdoms there are the types of classes and divisions; but if a human being has once developed an individual character of his own he possesses a sum of vibrations differing from any other of a similar kind, and this individual type naturally by way of necessity requires successive and repeated re-expressions in matter, as without that no individual evolution or progress of that special type would be possible.

Likewise the phenomena of telepathy, transmission of thought, apparitions, “materializations,” etc., appear less mysterious if we recognize the law of vibration.

Man being an embodiment of ideas, and his thoughts their expression, if he sends a thought to a distant person, he sends to him a part of his very self, and if his friend is receptive for that special kind of vibration, his own being in harmony with the same, there appears to be no difficulty in establishing mental telegraphy or communication from mind to mind, however great the distance.

Furthermore, if we consider that the highest vibrations differ from the most material ones not in essence but only in degree, it is not difficult to conceive that by lowering the higher ones to a lower standard, so-called “spiritual” or invisible things may be rendered visible and tangible; but, of course, it cannot be expected that anybody could do this unless he had a will powerful enough to control the motion of these vibrations of thought.

The mysteries of occult science will not be fully understood, nor can they all be practically applied, unless or until we have become sufficiently spiritualized to have control over matter, and this is only possible through the attainment of perfect self-knowledge, self-possession and self-control.