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.
~ *
~
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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