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THE DANGER OF EXPERIMENTING IN OCCULTISM BY FRANZ HARTMANN




In this article, the esotericist Franz Hartmann relates what happened to a colleague for having experimented too much in the occultism without being sufficiently prepared for it.


On the seventh day of June, 1905, there died at V [¿Vienna?] Dr. C. K., one of our greatest authorities in electro-chemical science and an inventor of world-wide renown. He was not only a person of high intelligence and eminent scientific accomplishments, but also of extraordinary kindness and amiability, exercising a charming influence over all persons coming in contact with him.

The daily papers contain long articles, saying among other things, after speaking of his discoveries:

« He was known as a most fascinating personality, combining in his character perfect honesty with extreme kindness; his altruistic love for all beings was practically shown by his benevolence and by his being always ready to help the afflicted and to relieve the suffering. »

He was a “self-made man,” wealthy, strong in body and mind, and almost worshipped by his family and his friends.


But Dr. K was not satisfied with diving deep within the mysteries of “natural science”; he also wanted to conquer the realm of the invisible. He was a born mystic, a “genius” by intuition; he occupied himself with studies of occult science all his life, and his great “hobby,” if it may be so called, was the practice of Alchemy.

Well knowing that no practical results can be obtained in this line without the possession of certain occult powers, he sought everywhere for “Masters” to instruct him, and tried all the different systems of “Yoga” which were thought by the medieval mystics and by the philosophies of the East, as well as those prescribed by travelling fakirs and would-be Hindu-Adepts, some of whom were for weeks or months guests in his house.

For a long time his exercises did not have the desired result; but at last he fell into the clutches of a certain “teacher” (Hindu), who taught him breathing exercises and other things.

Dr. K was delighted at having, as he expressed himself: “now at last and unexpectedly found that for which he had been striving all his life.”

He continued his alchemical experiments with renewed vigor, and it appears from his correspondence that his experiments in making the Elixir of Life, during the first stages of the process, were successful, as the material employed went through the changes described in the old books on Alchemy and in the Secret Symbols of the Rosicrucians of the 16th and 17th Century.

All of which goes to show that these prescriptions and symbols are not to be taken merely as allegories representing spiritual processes on the mental plane, but that there actually exists a correspondence between the correlation of spiritual powers and chemical processes on the material plane.


Soon, however, some remarkable occurrences took place in Dr. K’s chemical laboratory. Unearthly noises were heard, the bottles and furniture began to move in a strange manner, apparitions appeared for one moment and disappeared the next, and one day Dr. K’s assistant, a young man of robust health, fell down dead. His body was subjected by the physicians to a post-mortem examination, but they could not find anything to account for this sudden death.

A couple of extracts from private letters which Dr. K wrote to me during that time may be interesting and instructive:

« I am progressing favorably with my experiments. At the same time I have to contend continually with a very gruesome crowd of ... for the preparation of the Elixir.  However, I begin to get accustomed to that fight, as a trainer of wild animals gets familiar with ferocious beasts.  At first it seemed as if the blood would freeze in my veins; but... »
(April 26, 1904.)

Again he writes in answer to my objections:

« I agree with you, that these arts as such are perhaps objectionable; but they open at least a new field of knowledge, and in so far they must be of some use. However, the dwellers on the threshold are to be dreaded; there are hosts of them guarding the door. »


Soon after the death of his assistant, Dr. K, who heretofore was always in perfect health, began to become subject to certain nervous troubles which nobody could explain. He soon fell into an entirely helpless state, resembling paralysis.

The greatest medical authorities attended him for months; but, as may be imagined, not two of them agreed in their opinions regarding the cause of his disease. Finally he had himself transported to Egypt, where he remained during the winter and returned in the spring, considerably improved in health. After his return to V, he visited his laboratory and died suddenly in the following night.


~ * ~

I have been intimately acquainted with Dr. K for twenty years, and as I closely followed the different phases through which he went in his efforts to obtain mastery over the “occult,” it seems to me very clear that he became a victim of the elemental powers, which he evoked, and whose influences may have been still adhering to his laboratory even after his return; for I am quite convinced that certain thoughts or states of mind will adhere to certain localities. Proofs of it may be found in abundance in current literature.

He was of a religious turn of mind, and his experiments were not made for any vulgar, selfish purpose, but in the interest of science, and with a view of benefiting humanity.

Nevertheless, it is said that we should never attempt to make divine powers subservient to any material purpose, however noble that purpose may be, and that wherever a spark of personal interest glows (be it ambition or the desire of intellectual knowledge) the powers of darkness will be attracted and destroy the work.

It is, therefore, not without good reason that the secrets of Magic and Alchemy were in olden times revealed only to those who had passed through the process of purification, outgrown the illusions of life, freed themselves of earthly ties, and obtained sufficient self-control to master their passions. It is said that if the imprudent inquirer trespasses upon forbidden ground, danger will beset him at every step:

« He will evoke powers that he cannot control and the currents of blind force will become infested by numberless creatures of matter and instinct under multifarious, aerial forms. »


Now if it is even extremely dangerous to awaken magical powers for the gratification of scientific curiosity, what then is to be said of those would-be magicians who seek to prostitute divine powers for the purpose of robbing the people or making a profit?

Their own salvation rests in their ignorance and non-possession of power. They are not magicians, but merely common cheats.

The above case of my friend Dr. K which I have here recorded is only one among many of a similar kind which have come to my knowledge within the last two years, wherein some of my own acquaintances in their desire for power have reached for the forbidden fruit before they were tall enough to attain it, and the result was disease and death, insanity and suicide.


(The Occult Review, March 1906, p.133-135)







NOTE

In his autobiography, Franz Hartmann wrote more about this subjetc.

« Unripe fruits are difficult to digest, and what may be wholesome food for one may be poison for another. There are so many who try to make the second step in occultism without making the first; they jump and fall into the ditch. I have a long list of people with whom I was personally acquainted and who became victims of their curiosity to learn occult practices and to use them for their own purposes, while they were not yet ripe to understand them correctly, and I feel sorry for the great multitude of people who are misled and sent to their ruin by blind teachers leading the blind.

It is not without just reason that in olden times the revelation of certain secrets of occultism was punished by death; because the more a thing may be put to a good use, the more it is liable to be misused and to do mischief.  Intellectual and scientific progress ought to be always accompanied by a corresponding development of the moral faculties. Divine things ought not to be touched with unclean hands. Selfish desires and thoughts are the greatest obstacles to the perception of truth.

The illusion of “self” is the shadow which is in our way of meeting the light of the real self, and therefore the first requisite in every religion and in every school of occult science is purification, i.e. the rising above the illusion of that “self” which is the product of our own imagination. The secrets of occultism will always be secrets to those who are not able to grasp them, but as these things at the present time are proclaimed from the housetops it will be better to throw light upon them than to be silent, because "a little knowledge is a dangerous thing."

A warning in time will often be useful, and if we cannot demonstrate to everybody’s satisfaction what the truth actually is, we may at least indicate what it is not, and for this purpose I propose to continue the work to which I have been called by another power than my own.

Those who wish to obtain divine powers for the purpose of employing them for material and selfish purposes; be it for gaining money, for the sake of ambition, or even for the gratification of their scientific curiosity, are on the same level of intelligence with those religious hypocrites who try to press the Divinity into their service by exhortations, persuasion and prayers.

Divine powers belong to the spiritual inner man and ought not to be misused.  "He who degrades these powers degrades himself." This is the secret referred to in the Bible (Corinthians xi. 29).

All this, however, is not to be understood as if we were forbidden to search for the still undiscovered laws of Nature and employ them to our service. If we knew all of these laws and would obey them, there would be an end of poverty, crime and disease. If we were to realize what fife really is, and what the ultimate purpose of our existence in this world, we could employ the laws of life, and heaven would descend upon the earth. All the forces of Nature are at our command, we only need to discover them, and by their discovery humanity may rise to an altitude of which we at present have no conception.

A real occultist is not a dreamer, and my pursuits of occult science have not prevented my studying natural laws, but they have helped me to make an important discovery of a gaseous chemical compound for inhalation which has already done great service for the cure of lung diseases, including that plague of humanity popularly called consumption. (See “The Health Record”, October 1907).

All ills result originally from ignorance of our own higher nature and the laws of life, and there is no remedy against ignorance except the attainment of knowledge. To aid in the search for that knowledge and to spread it is my object»

(The Occult Review, January 1908, p.33-34)




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