In this section we will begin our survey of a few select occult authors of the twentieth century. The particular authors I have chosen to discuss have been picked because, in many respects they have broken away from the traditional forms of occultism listed in the previous section. These authors all share the fact that their ideas can be interpreted as an attempt to rationalize the occult in more rational and meaningful terms for the twentieth century mind. By no means are these the only authors who have attempted a rationalization of occultism, but within the context of a synthesis of science and occultism, they are, in my opinion, the best to consider. An important reason for choosing the particular authors discussed below is that much of their work has foreshadowed and anticipated developments in twentieth century science. Much of what these authors have described in occult terms has since become legitimate science (in sense one of the word as defined in the previous chapter). As well, the authors discussed below are those with whom I am highly familiar and thus most qualified to discuss. It is in fact, my interpretation of the following authors' work that sets the stage for the synthesis of science and occultism that I shall present in subsequent chapters.
Lest up to this point in my discussions of the occult I seem naive, I should like to address the following issues before I begin my sampling of selected modern occult authors. If there is one characteristic that sets occultism in general apart from more socially accepted activities, it is the intrigue and mystique, and generally negative press that surrounds its central figures. And I am talking now of the actual biographical and autobiographical sketches of actual people, that is, real history, as opposed to the social misconceptions which I discussed in the previous chapter. This is especially true with some of the authors I shall reference throughout this book, most notably Aleister Crowley, and less infamous though no less controversial, Charles Leadbeater and Annie Besant. As well, the nature of the information these authors present is usually derived from means that in most intellectual circles would be deemed less than suitable. Clairvoyant investigations, discussions with spirits, intuitive generalizations, these are not the stock and trade of contemporary intellectual means and standards. It is not my purpose here to apologize for the usually very obscure and emotionally biased accounts of certain of these figures exploits and life activities. I will, however, in subsequent discussions attempt to rationalize their sources of information. At this point in the presentation I will simply present ideas that these authors have left behind that are relevant in showing that first, modern occultism is indeed modern and highly rationalized and second, such notions are not only in most cases compatible with current scientific thinking but practically identical to it. I will not decontextualize these authors' ideas to fit my purposes either. I will present their ideas within the contexts (or paradigms) that they conveyed them and, in most cases we will see that their contexts tend to be broader and more inclusive, though encompassing of, contemporary scientific thinking.
I would like to return to the point raised above about the reputations and bad press that some of the authors I am about to discuss possess. One can ask, as I have asked myself often through the preparation of this work; If some of these people were so strange (which indeed they are from a mainstream point of view), is it really legitimate to take their ideas so seriously, especially to the point of attempting to relate them to modern science? There is in general a lot of bogusness and fraud within the occult and many times, occult activities are little more than a front for seemingly strange and neurotic behavior. Often, prominent occult figures clearly possess (or possessed, if they are now dead) what we might take for highly eccentric or even neurotic behavior. This coupled to the often dogmatic assertions found in occult circles seems reason enough to make any attempt at taking the occult seriously seem an absurdity.
Yet it seems clear to me that such assertions could be leveled
just as equally toward science (in sense one of the word) as a
whole. If one is not careful at this level of thinking, the
entire situation can degenerate into a useless game of name
calling and finger pointing. I think in all fairness, the answer
to such concerns lies in recognizing once again the social
perceptions that cling to both science and occultism. Science is
a socially accepted activity in our culture but occultism is not.
Science is legitimized in our collective eyes, and its
proclamations are taken to be truth. Occultism has no real
legitimacy within the accepted culture of our times. It is a
counter-cultural activity, little understood and mostly
misunderstood by both the general public and its practitioners,
as I pointed out in the previous section. The ultimate example of
such misunderstanding is the person experiencing clairvoyant
perceptions who is institutionalized and put on prescription
drugs because the psychiatrist did not understand the true nature
of his patient's condition. What is truly at issue here is
basically separating the wheat from the chaff, so to speak; to
separate useful rational concepts from hype and mystique and
attempt to unravel whatever knot of truth may be present both in
the myths and symbols of occultism and the myths and symbols of
science. For each represent mythological systems, mythological in
the very broadest of senses. And if it is our desire to truly
understand, or have "knowledge for knowledge's sake"--a
much bantered about and abused phrase--then we will attempt
within our better judgement to glean whatever truth we can from
whatever sources are available.
The first authors to discuss are the renowned Theosophists Annie Besant and Charles Leadbeater. These two have contributed enormously to laying a scientific foundation for occult phenomena. Both produced, either separately or in conjunction, enormous amounts of writing, easily over one hundred books and pamphlets, providing a rational basis for such occult topics as reincarnation, karma, dharma, clairvoyance and psychic abilities, occult evolution, occult chemistry, auras, thoughtforms, descriptions of the nature and inhabitants of the nonphysical planes, and many other topics of an occult nature. Even today the full impact of their work is mostly untapped, and this book is itself in large part an attempt to understand more fully the ramifications of Besant and Leadbeater's works. I will go into some detail as to the general worldview they described and the significance of their work with respect to rationalizing occult teachings. Their descriptions of occult phenomena anticipated advances in modern science in both spirit and actual content as we shall see when we discuss Occult Chemistry in the next chapter. As well, their work provides a unique perspective on parapsychological, psychological and sociological phenomena, as will be emphasized throughout this book.
The peak of Besant and Leadbeater's career was at the turn of this century. Prior to meeting one another, Annie Besant (1847-1933) was already a public figure steeped in notoriety. Throughout her life she had been involved in one social cause after another. One of the first advocates of modern methods in birth control, she was also involved deeply in the socialist movement early in her career. In was not until she was forty-two that she became converted by the Russian aristocrat Helena Petrovna Blavatsky to the teachings of the newly formed Theosophical Society. It was during the 1890s, as the leader of the European and Indian Theosophical Societies that the collaborations between Besant and Leadbeater began.
Charles Webster Leadbeater (1854-1934), though not in his day sharing the same degree of public notoriety as Annie Besant, is no less controversial a figure. Leadbeater's life is shrouded in intrigue and mystery. A recent biographer has attempted to piece together details1, but many mysteries still remain. The whole origins of the Theosophical Society, the accounts of Blavatsky, and the roles played by Besant and Leadbeater, as well as the life exploits of these figures and others (most notably J. Krishnamurti) make up a most incredible set of stories. These have been amply documented and I have no intention of going into them here2. However, the unfamiliar reader is strongly recommended to look into these biographies, if simply for the sheer drama.
Basically, it was Besant and Leadbeater who filled in the details of the world-view presented by Blavatsky. These two couched their terms and teachings under the heading of the Theosophical world-view. Theosophy as a whole was in many respects a counter-cultural movement against the spiritual ignorance of nineteenth century science, the hey-day of the philosophy of materialism. As such, Theosophy was an attempt to reintegrate occultism into the mainstream of Western Civilization. However, the teachings of Theosophy are a hybrid containing elements of science, philosophy, religion, occultism and mysticism from both Eastern and Western sources. Theosophy itself, and especially the teachings of Besant and Leadbeater are a successful fusion of Eastern and Western approaches to occultism.
In some respects, Blavatsky's works (The Secret Doctrine,
Isis Unveiled, etc..) were a Noah's Ark of traditional
occultism. These books are collections of many seemingly
disparate teachings on occult matters from many cultures and
epochs. It was Blavatsky's primary intention to show that a
unified thread, the so-called "Perineal Tradition"
united these fragmented systems of thought. However, it was
Besant and Leadbeater who came along and formulated the
disconnected and fragmented works of Blavatsky into a unified and
relatively modern picture of occult teachings. Leadbeater himself
brought a new air to occultism with his straight forward and
matter-of-fact style about occult realities. Besant's main
contribution was the applying of occultism to her lifelong
preoccupation with social issues. Together, these two authors
have almost single handedly redefined occultism in a fashion that
is entirely comprehensible to the modern mind. Almost all of the
modern Theosophical principles concerning occult matters derive
ultimately from Besant and Leadbeater. As I stated, their
teachings represent a total fusion of Eastern and Western
approaches to occultism. As we shall see, Besant and Leadbeater
depended heavily upon altered states of consciousness, which is
characteristic of traditionally Eastern occult approaches. But
their scientific dispositions and thoroughly Western values and
world-view led to an essentially Western adoption of
traditionally Eastern occult practices and teachings. As an
illustration of the scientific mentality of these authors,
consider the following quote by Leadbeater:
"Most works dealing with Mysticism and Occultism are characterized by the lack of a scientific presentation, such as is exacted in every department of science. They give us far more the significance of things, rather than descriptions of the things themselves. In this little book the author approaches the Invisible World from the modern standpoint of science."3
Beyond this scientific mentality, what is characteristically unique to these authors, and to Leadbeater in particular, is their conception and actual usage of so-called psychic abilities. It was the use of these psychic abilities that provided the entire foundation of the claims and teachings they put forth. There is perhaps no better reference than Leadbeater when it comes to explaining the uses and mechanisms of psychic abilities. Leadbeater, and Besant to a lesser extent, claimed to have been able to perceive things far outside the scope of ordinary perception, and they built an entire cosmology based on these perceptions. What I would like to do now is discuss the nature of these perceptions that they claimed and the cosmology they built from them. After, and also throughout much of this book, I will then analyze the validity of their claims.
It is well known in the East and has been recorded there for centuries, most notably in India and Tibet, but as well in Asia, that certain practices of yoga can lead to the development of enhanced or superior modes of perception. The yoga Sûtras of Patañjali, written circa 400 B.C., records the ability of the yogi to develop what are called "siddhis". Siddhis are psychic abilities. It was the claim of Besant and Leadbeater that through such yoga exercises they developed siddhis of their own. They never publicly revealed the actual practices that resulted in the development of their siddhis, though it appears that these were revealed to select students in private (the most notable example being a student of Leadbeater's named Geoffry Hodson). However, though actual exercises were never prescribed or divulged by these authors, they were very thorough in describing the nature of these siddhis, and the occult rationale for their existence.
The following quote by Leadbeater, though specifically
referring to only one siddhi (that of astral sight), captures
succinctly these authors' attitudes about siddhis in general:
"We are, as it were, shut up in a tower, and our senses
are tiny windows opening out in certain directions. In many other
directions we are entirely shut in, but clairvoyance, or astral
sight opens for us one or two additional windows, and so enlarges
our prospect, and spreads before us a new world, which is yet
part of the old world, though before we did not know it." 4
The siddhis that Leadbeater discusses open up new vistas of perception to one who develops these abilities. But what are these new vistas? According to Leadbeater, the awakening of siddhis opens up to one's perception worlds that are not physical, but are intimately related to the physical world. And these worlds taken collectively are called by Leadbeater "Planes". Much of Leadbeater's writing and a fair amount of Besant's is dedicated to describing the nature, inhabitants and properties of these planes. As a matter of fact, this concept of the planes is central to the cosmology described by Besant and Leadbeater. In their scheme, they identify seven major planes perceivable by one with highly developed siddhis. I will now discuss at some length these authors' definitions of the planes, for this notion will be critical throughout much of the rest of this book.
These seven planes, from the "lowest" to the
"highest" are:
1. Physical Plane I. Mineral, Vegetable, Animal,
2. Astral Plane Human Levels of evolution
3. Mental Plane
4. Buddhic Plane II. Trans-Human evolution
5. Atmic Plane
6 Anupadaka Plane III. Divine evolution.
7. Adi Plane
This three-fold breakdown of the planes is indicative of the major types of phenomena associated with the respective planes, and will serve as a reference in following discussions.
These planes are described by Leadbeater to be
interpenetrating. That is to say, they all occupy the same space,
or he describes it thus:
"...these different realms of nature are frequently
spoken of as planes, because in our study it is sometimes
convenient to imagine them as one above another according to the
different degrees of density of the matter of which they are
composed...But it must be borne in mind that this arrangement is
merely adopted for convenience and as a symbol, and that in no
way represents the actual relations of these various planes. They
must not be imagined as lying above one another like the shelves
of a bookcase, but rather as filling the same space and
interpenetrating one another." 5
He also explains that there is a seven-fold subdivision of the
matter of these planes, though in this case he is speaking in
particular of the astral plane:
"...it must be understood that the astral plane has seven
subdivisions, each which has its corresponding degree of
materiality and its corresponding condition of matter." 6
Or as Blavatsky herself writes of this seven within seven
structure of the planes:
"The One Kosmic Atom becomes seven atoms on the plane of
matter...That same atom becomes seven rays on the plane of
spirit..." 7
Annie Besant presents a more complex conception of the
seven-fold subdivision of the planes:
" ...the "atoms" of the Adi, or highest
plane,...join together and make more complex combinations; and so
on till six sub-planes below the atomic are formed. Now comes the
forming of the atoms of the second plane...the atom of the first
plane, is the spirit of the second plane...thus ensouled, are the
atoms of Anupadaka, or second plane. By ever more complicated
aggregations of these the remaining six sub-planes (of the
Anupadaka plane) are brought into being."8
And so on for each of the five remaining planes, producing a total of 49 subdivisions within the seven planes. Now I have given these three quotes about the nature of the seven subdivisions of the seven planes because, from these descriptions we see another example of the operation of the Hermetic Axiom in occult thinking. In this case we see a repeating pattern of seven within seven within seven in these descriptions of the nature of the planes, what occultists call the "septenary arrangement" of the planes. Each plane is composed of seven sub-planes, and the seven planes of Nature taken together form the cosmic physical plane, this latter being one among seven of a vast cosmic set of planes. Again, this is a description of a self-similar pattern, which we may take to be a fractal in some sense, and this example illustrates how occultists use the Hermetic Axiom as an organizing principle identical to the concept of self-similarity found in fractal geometry.
Thus, not only is the physical plane fractal in nature (as described in section 3.2), but all of the planes are fractal in nature according to occult descriptions. Now there is a subtlety here that I must clarify. The physical world is fractal in the sense of being made up of many nested levels of organization or resolution. This is different than the Theosophical notion of the septenary arrangement of the planes. The septenary arrangement is a fractal pattern of seven within seven within seven--a fractal template, you might say. However, as we come to better understand the subjective nature of the planes through subsequent discussions, we will see that these planes are also fractal in the sense I described the physical plane as being made up of nested levels within levels of organization.
As well, Leadbeater's concept of the seven planes filling and interpenetrating space is identical to the notion of "superposition" used in physics. Superposition is a term used when discussing waves, and it means different waves can coexist within the same space. And this concept begins to suggest to us the literal reality of the planes and how it is they are related to the three dimensional everyday world of our experience.
Also in these quotes we see much reference to the "matter" of the nonphysical planes. Now, what we normally think of as "matter" are, according to occult teachings, the three lowest subdivisions of the physical plane; solid, liquid and gas. But these are only three out of the seven sub-planes of the physical plane. According to Besant and Leadbeater there are four more types of physical matter, or subdivisions of the physical world. In occultism these four sub-planes of the physical world are called "etheric" matter and are not perceivable by our ordinary senses. As well, such a seven-fold arrangement of matter exists for each of the other planes.
Thus, we now have had our first taste of the occult notion of nonphysical matter. The seven planes of Nature, as envisioned in the occult are, in the most real sense, material. Such a notion challenges the everyday use of the word "matter", and it also challenges the scientific use of the word. Normally we associate the concepts of "physical" and "matter" (or "material"), but the occultist does not. A thing does not have to be physical to be material from the occult viewpoint9. We are now beginning to see examples of how subtle and abstract modern occult notions can be. Though the subtlety of the concept of nonphysical matter is not apparent at this point, it soon shall be because this concept is fundamental in the context of this book and will be explored extensively through many of the following discussions.
Now what is very interesting in the cosmology these authors
present is that the planes beyond the physical correspond to subjective
aspects of human consciousness. That is, the astral plane
corresponds to the levels at which human emotions operate. The
mental plane, as the name implies, corresponds to the level at
which the mind operates. The fourth through seventh planes,
according to these authors, correspond to subjective faculties
that are latent at the present stage of human evolution, and thus
are relatively meaningless in terms of our actual subjective
experience. The following quote by Besant illustrates the manner
in which these authors equate the planes with aspects of our
subjectivity:
"One plane is called the plane made of `mind-stuff'...Another is called the plane of `desire-stuff'"10
"When we study consciousness working on the mental plane
we see...choice...discrimination...cognition. On the astral plane
we see...desire...love.. .sensation."11
Yet what is even more fascinating about these authors'
descriptions of the planes is that, though they correspond to
subjective levels of human experience, the planes are in the most
real sense objective worlds that exist independently of, though
interpenetrate, the physical world. Leadbeater says this about
the objectivity of the planes (again only referring to the astral
plane, but this generalization holds for all the planes);
"The first point which it is necessary to make clear in
describing this astral world is its absolute reality. In
using this word I am not speaking from (a) metaphysical
viewpoint...I am using the word in its plain everyday sense, and
I mean by it that the objects and inhabitants of the astral plane
are real in exactly the same way as our own bodies, our
furniture, our houses or monuments are real...They will no more
endure forever than will objects on the physical plane, but they
are nevertheless realities from our point of view while they
last--realities which we cannot afford to ignore merely because
the majority of mankind is as yet unconscious, or but vaguely
conscious, of their existence." 12
That is to say, these planes provide the objective medium through which human subjective events occur. Before this statement can be made comprehensible, other facets of Besant and Leadbeater's cosmology must be defined. Through their ability to perceive the planes, they identified an occult anatomy possessed by human beings. They describe that humans possess "vehicles" which are nonphysical bodies that allow interaction with the various planes. As we have a physical body, or physical vehicle for our consciousness, which allows us to perceive and exist on the physical plane, we also possess an "astral body" that allows us to perceive and operate on the astral plane. Likewise we possess a "mental body" that allows us to perceive and operate on the mental plane. They also describe that the average human possesses a "buddhic body" for operation on the buddhic plane but that this body is highly undeveloped and thus mostly inoperative. These bodies are invisible unless one has awakened siddhis that reveal their existence. Nonetheless, whether we know it or not, these bodies exist and play fundamentally important roles in our normal everyday lives. Figure 6 shows a drawing which combines the astral and mental bodies.
These bodies function in such a way to convey impressions into our consciousness from the plane corresponding to the respective body. Thus, our physical body conveys into our consciousness physical sensations. And likewise our astral body conveys to us impressions from the astral plane and our mental body coveys to us impressions from the mental plane. But the astral plane is the world of emotion and the mental plane is the world of thought. So, according to Besant and Leadbeater, the impressions we receive from the astral plane are emotions, and the impressions we receive from the mental plane are thoughts. It is thus that our emotions and thoughts are actually objects that exist on the astral and mental planes, respectively. As I perceive, say, a tree or a building on the physical plane, knowing that the image in my consciousness is but a reflection of the real tree or building, according to Besant and Leadbeater, it is the same case with our emotions and thoughts. Thus, anger or joy are objects that exist on the astral plane (objects called "elementals" by Besant and Leadbeater), and one's astral body will sense these objects and convey into consciousness the image of anger or joy, which we then experience subjectively as the corresponding emotion. It is the same with thought. Thoughts exist as objects on the mental plane, and these objects Besant and Leadbeater called "thought-forms". Our mental body will sense the thought-forms and convey the impression or image of the thought-form into our consciousness which we then subjectively perceive as a thought in our mind. Again, the notions here are being introduced in a cursory fashion, but we shall return to these notions repeatedly for they are critical in understanding the compatibility of modern science and occultism.
This description of subjective events that Besant and Leadbeater present is most astounding. Effectively they have destroyed the dualism between objectivity and subjectivity. What we perceive as a subjective event (i.e. a thought or an emotion) is in actuality an objective phenomena existing on another plane of Nature. In this sense everything is both objective and subjective simultaneously. Our perceptions, emotions and thoughts are objective in the sense that they correspond to actual material objects which exist on their respective planes. The materiality of these objects is nonphysical, but nonetheless, they are real and objective in their nonphysical spheres. These things are subjective in that they all are ultimately sensations or images within our consciousness. This is a topic that I dwell on in more detail in another chapter (see "Just What Do We Mean By A Science Of Psychology?") so this is all that will be said here.
Now, Besant and Leadbeater's cosmology may thus far seem complex but we have barely scratched the surface of it. There are many details I am leaving out here simply because this is not a book solely about these two authors, though their ideas play prominently in later chapters. In spite of this, there are a few more points I would like to discuss.
The description given above of the planes as corresponding to our subjective experience of emotion and thought is one in which they appear from the point of view of physical experience and perception. But it is also part of Besant and Leadbeater's world-view that one need not operate only from this point of view. That is, according to these authors, consciousness operates quite well in the other planes just as it does on the physical plane. One can move about the astral plane in one's astral body or move about and explore the mental plane in one's mental body. All that is necessary is knowing how to effectively transfer one's consciousness to these other bodies, such abilities being a sign of highly developed siddhis. This notion of operating in bodies other than the physical body provides the underlying rationale for many occult phenomena within these authors' world-view. Such occult phenomena include: the nature of psychic abilities, the nature of dreams, life after death, reincarnation, communication with discarnate entities, astral projection, and a whole host of other phenomena.
Normally, these ideas seem absurd within the context of modern thinking, and the nature of these types of occult phenomena is mostly misunderstood by both the general public and modern science. But from Besant and Leadbeater's point of view, these are very normal and rational occurrences. As a matter of fact, they claim that we humans spend the better part of our time as discarnate, or nonphysical beings, and that our sojourn here in physical life between birth and death is but a brief span compared to the overall life of our (for lack of a better word at this point) soul or consciousness. That is, when we die, according to Besant and Leadbeater, we simply lose our physical body, and thus, the ability to operate upon the physical plane. But we still posses our astral, mental and buddhic bodies (for durations that are proportional to the energy contained in these bodies upon the death of the physical body) and we dwell as conscious living beings upon these planes for some time after the death of our physical body. We spend the greater part of our time upon these planes until, for whatever reason, we incarnate as physical entities again. Here then is a part of the occult rationale for reincarnation.
Thus, to one with siddhis that are developed enough to
perceive the astral and mental planes as the vast worlds, or
dimensions of existence that they are, one sees not only the
objects that correspond to our emotions and thoughts (elementals
and thought-forms), but one sees as well the vast hosts of beings
and inhabitants who occupy these nonphysical planes. Again, these
authors spend many pages detailing these inhabitants, explaining
the nature of ghosts and discarnate humans as well as the
creatures who are native to these planes. Examples of the latter
are the Elementals, Devas and nature spirits of the astral plane.
According to Annie Besant:
"Vast hierarchies of beings inhabit these planes, ranging
from the lofty Intelligences of the spiritual region to the
lowest sub-conscious Elementals of the physical world." 13
Elementals are essentially astral creatures, that according to
Besant and Leadbeater, are something reminiscent of insects. They
talk about how these creatures will flock and swarm around human
beings, being drawn by the particular moods or emotions a human
displays. Again, Annie Besant describes Elementals thus:
"The most salient characteristic of the kâmic (astral)
Elementals is sensation, the power of not only answering to
vibrations but of feeling them; and the psychic plane is crowded
with these entities; of varying degrees of consciousness, who
receive impacts of every kind and combine them into sensations.
Any being who possesses, then, a body into which these Elementals
are built, is capable of feeling, and the man feels through such
a body." 14
Here is another description of Elementals presented by Annie
Besant which incidentally describes thought-forms as well:
"A thought-form, is a mental image, created--or
molded--by the mind out of the subtle matter of the (mental)
plane. This form, composed of the rapidly vibrating forms of the
matter of (the mental plane) sets up vibrations all around
it...these vibrations thrill out as a singing-color in every
direction, and call to the thought-form whence they proceed the
Elementals belonging to that color... Elementals are addressed by
colors, and that color-words are as intelligible to them as
spoken words are to men...Men are continually talking in this
color language quite unconsciously, and thus calling round them
these swarms of Elementals, who take up their abodes in the
various thought-forms..." 15
We will at a later point return to the notion of thought-forms in great detail (see Figures 6, 7 and 8 for representations of thought-forms), and as well attempt to assess the nature of this "color language" the Annie Besant is here describing.
As well as Elementals, the planes are populated by creatures that Besant and Leadbeater refer to as "Devas" and "nature spirits". These creatures are beings, sometimes less evolved than humans as in the case of nature spirits, and sometimes more evolved in the case of Devas. The primary function of Devas and nature spirits is to maintain the forms of Nature such as plants and trees, mountains, clouds, lakes and rivers and other wilderness settings. These creatures essentially take care of what we perceive as physical Nature. Nature spirits come in all shapes and sizes and often resemble the fairy folk of Irish mythology. Due to their extreme sensitivity and tenuity, only the more base and crude of the nature spirits is able to be in the presence of man, owing to the generally coarse vibrations we emit on the astral and mental planes. Devas do not find the human realm hospitable either, and are rarely present in the planes associated with large human populations. Christian myths of angels stem from even earlier myths of semi-divine beings, the latter of which, according to Leadbeater, are faint mythological recollections of human contacts with Devas. Devas are described as radiant beings of great power and beauty.
And as well as these native inhabitants, there are also on the astral and mental planes vast companies of human beings. A very small fraction of these humans are dreamers who have temporarily left their physical body during sleep and are involved in activities on the planes. However, the vast majority are humans who do not have a physical body and are permanent inhabitants on the astral or mental planes (these are what are normally called "dead people"). According to Besant and Leadbeater (and other authors as well, notably Robert Monroe), there are many many, more humans on the nonphysical planes at any time than are on the physical plane. Given that there are 4 to 5 billion people on the physical plane presently, there must be uncountable hosts of "discarnate" humans on the nonphysical planes. Of these discarnate humans, only a very small proportion are even aware that there is such a thing as the physical world. Some on the other hand, mostly the recently dead, go about their business on the astral plane as if they were still on the physical plane not even realizing they are "dead"16.
Now, granted that we accept Besant and Leadbeater's contentions at face value, it is not too difficult to imagine what life must be like for a human living permanently on the other planes. That is because, according to these authors, we go there every night when we dream. Thus, the world of our dreams is where we shall go when we die and life there is as life is for us in our dreams, with all the strange occurrences we encounter in our dreams. In our dreams we can fly, breathe underwater, pass through walls or walk into the front door of our house yet mysteriously appear in a supermarket. We know that the dream world is not like the world of our physical experience, but we have all been there so we know what it is like. And, according to Besant and Leadbeater, this is what life is like for a discarnate human (i.e. a "dead" person). They are quite clear about this and often scoff at the ignorance of "modern" man with regard to the nature of physical death, and the experience of life after death.
As amazing and strange as Besant and Leadbeater's view of things seems, again, we have barely scratched the surface. These authors have described so many incredible things in their writings that it would be impossible to list them all here. One amazing thing they described was that they claimed they could clairvoyantly see physical atoms and molecules, and they wrote a book called Occult Chemistry detailing these observations. This is a very important topic within the scope of this book and Occult Chemistry will be described in a later section (6.2.4). As well, these authors claimed that with their siddhis they could see far into the past and describe in great detail the evolution of the universe, and of the solar system and the Earth. They also go into very great detail describing human occult anatomy in their works, especially Leadbeater's concepts of the chakras. This notion of chakras will be discussed further ahead so I will not dwell on it here. The point is that, as I said before, these two authors single handedly created a rich and extremely complex view of Humankind and Nature and the workings thereof.
At this point, the question is: What do we make of all of this? Are Besant and Leadbeater simply big story tellers with over-active imaginations? Is there any validity whatsoever to their claims?
For one thing, the vast bulk of this book is dedicated to interpreting the claims of Besant and Leadbeater from a scientific point of view. Surprisingly, many of their ideas are completely compatible with fundamental scientific concepts. These, as I pointed out in the previous chapter, are quantum theory, chaos theory, and fractal geometry. Later chapters are spent explaining these connections. I want to stress right here how amazing it is that quantum theory, chaos theory and fractal geometry are consistent with Besant and Leadbeater's view of occult realities because these theories did not even exist when these authors wrote most of their material. As I already stated, both fractals and chaos theory are only about 20 to 30 years old, and quantum theory was not formulated until 1925. Leadbeater wrote The Astral Plane in 1895, and the collaboration between Besant and Leadbeater also began in 1895. Thus, that they could foreshadow these sciences 50 years before they existed suggests that there may be a validity to their claims that is completely unexpected.
Also, however, as will be discussed in upcoming chapters, Besant and Leadbeater's ideas lay a strong foundation for parapsychology, psychology, and sociology. That is to say, when we review more closely some of their ideas about the occult nature of Humankind, and interpret these ideas in a scientific light, it will become apparent that these ideas very accurately describe human behavior and they do so in a way identical to how "hard" scientists describe the behavior of physical matter. At this point our main interest is to get a feel for contemporary, or "modern" occultism. As we review the next two authors, we will begin to develop a basis by which to compare the teachings of Besant and Leadbeater and how they fit into the arena of ideas that make up modern occultism.
Up to this point we have discussed what Besant and Leadbeater
perceived using the siddhis they claimed to have developed by
practicing yoga, but little has been said about the actual
siddhis themselves. For in spite of the seemingly incredible
claims these authors make, it must be realized that the total
validity of their claims rests upon the reality of the siddhis.
For if the siddhis are real, then that means that the claims of
Besant and Leadbeater are truly open to scientific verification
to anyone capable of also developing these siddhis. Besant and
Leadbeater never asked anyone to believe what they
claimed, and they did not simply put forth unsubstantiated
dogmatic claims. Leadbeater always made very clear in his
writings that anyone who took the time could learn to perceive
for themselves the realities that he and Besant (and others as
well) described. Thus the crucial questions are: Are the siddhis
real? If so, then how does one develop them? Again, section two
of this book is focused on answering these questions. At this
point I shall leave the issue wide open and as well end the
present discussion about Besant and Leadbeater. However, we will
return to a consideration of these authors' works later. Let us
now proceed to our next author.
The next modern occultists we shall consider is Dane Rudhyar (1895-1985). Though generally not as well known as Besant and Leadbeater, Rudhyar's approach to occultism is no less important. Rudhyar's contributions to modernizing occultism are considerably more subtle than Besant and Leadbeater's. Rudhyar is popularly known for his reformulations and innovative approaches to astrology, "humanistic astrology" as he called it. However, Rudhyar's true contribution to the modernization of occultism lies primarily in his approach; he was truly a modern individual of the 20th century. Whereas Besant and Leadbeater were primarily Victorian in their values, Rudhyar was a product of the 20th century and it was through these eyes that he gave significance to occultism.
In 1917, French born Dane Rudhyar left Europe and came to America. He lived through and was affected by the great cultural changes that occurred throughout the 20th century. Influenced by the works of the likes of Stravinsky, Nietzsche, Debussy, Spengler and others, as well as two world wars and the psychedelic era of the 1960s, he operated within a very modern cultural mind-set. He contributed to the introduction of the semi-tone music of the East here in the West through his involvement in artistic circles as a composer. Through his artistic activities during the 1920s, he came eventually into contact with occult and theosophical circles, befriending such occultists as B.P. Wadia and Alice Baily. Through their influences, and coupled with his own intuitive sense of the meaning of the revolutionary historical changes of the 20th century, Rudhyar began to develop an approach to occultism that is highly relevant and specific for the Western mind of today.
In some respects the difference between Rudhyar's approach to occultism on the one hand, and the Theosophy of Besant and Leadbeater on the other hand, is the difference between Western and Eastern approaches to the occult. Besant and Leadbeater leaned more toward the Eastern ways with their emphasis on altered states of perception. Rudhyar in his writings speaks little of altered states of consciousness and other worlds. Instead, Rudhyar's recognized contribution in occultism is with astrology, a system of symbols to which he gave unique and highly substantial interpretations. As discussed above, this symbolic approach is more characteristic of Western occultism.
However, Rudhyar's primary contribution to the modernization of occultism was in his attitude towards occult concepts. He was both a philosopher and occultist, but primarily a philosopher. The culminating philosophy of his life, which he called the philosophy of "Operative Wholeness", gives to occultism a modern sense found nowhere else in contemporary occultism. Though Rudhyar did not stress occult practices leading to altered states of consciousness, it was one of his primary concerns to unify, not occult practices of East and West, but the Eastern and Western attitudes towards life in general. Rudhyar's approach combines the subjective oriented approach of the East with the objective oriented approach of the West leading to a highly intuitive, yet highly rational and sober approach to human events. Like Carl Jung, it was Rudhyar's main intention to see people become healthy and integrated individuals. Also it is through Rudhyar's philosophical approach to occult concepts that he foreshadowed many concepts that are becomingly increasingly important in modern science. I will now go into the specifics of Rudhyar's approach.
There are two primary insights that thread through all of
Rudhyar's writings. These are:
"1. Time is cyclic, and the Law of Cycles controls all civilizations as well as all existence.
2. The Western civilization is coming to what could be
symbolically called the autumn phase of its period of
existence.17"
Let us address point number one. This concept of the
cyclicness of Nature is fundamental in occult teachings and is
intimately related to the concept of Karma. The idea is present
in Blavatsky's works and is also taught by Besant and Leadbeater,
and is found in all occult teachings in some form or another. The
particular fashion that Rudhyar expressed this notion is in
conceptualizing the nature of our experience and the world to be
a series of cycles within cycles within cycles. Undergoing these
cycles are existential "wholes". Here is how Rudhyar
defines these "wholes":
"When a definable or identifiable boundary can be given
to an energy field in which the activities of a number of
elements are functionally interrelated, this field constitutes a
"whole". The wholeness of this whole results from the
coexistence of a state of multiplicity (the many elements the
field encompasses) and a state of unity (the fact that these
elements are circumscribed by boundaries). Any boundary defined
field of interrelated activities is thus a particular
manifestation of wholeness, regardless of how few or many the
number of its constituent elements and how limited or extensive
its defining boundaries. Boundaries separate a whole from other
wholes, yet all of these wholes may in turn be seen as parts
of a greater whole."18 (italics mine).
Again we encounter fractal notions in occult thinking. Like Leadbeater's description of the planes, Rudhyar is here defining a situation of "wholes within wholes within wholes"; the nesting of different levels of resolution, a fractal-like organization. Again, this fractalization of concepts in occult thinking stems from the ubiquity of the Hermetic Axiom in occultism. Rudhyar referred to this pattern of "wholes within wholes within wholes" by the term "holarchic", and with this concept he was attempting to define and give meaning to the interrelationships that exist amongst the myriad levels we encounter in our existence. He referred to this concept as a "holistic" form of conceptualization which he contrasted to the "atomistic" or reductionistic mentality that has characterized the traditionally Western approach to understanding.
The Law of Cycles, the second axiom of Rudhyar's thought, is
introduced as follows:
"Wholeness is Dynamic because it implies motion.
Moreover, it seems justifiable to give a rhythmic, thus cyclic
and repetitive character to this motion. It has structure--using
the word "structure" in its most abstract
sense."19
What Rudhyar appears to be saying in these quotes is that
"wholes" are not disorganized conglomerations in any
sense. The wholes operate and are structured in a cyclic sense.
Elsewhere he states this ideas thus:
"This multilevel reality pervades the whole of space and
it is active throughout infinite duration. It operates
cyclically, because it is dual or bipolar in nature, and what we
call and experience as existence results from the unceasing
interplay of two cosmic forces--an interplay that produces a
rhythmic sequence of cosmic manifestations in limited space-time
fields of activity..."20
When we apply what Rudhyar is saying about the cyclic nature of experience to real life examples, his meaning becomes perfectly clear. Take the fact that the Sun revolves on its axis as well as tracing out a path around the galaxy, as does the Earth about the Sun, and the Moon about the Earth; the systems of outer space form a very definite system of cyclically changing "wholes". But cyclic patterns of wholeness operate as well on and in the Earth. Seasons repeat in a periodic fashion. Biological life proceeds under the influence of circadian rhythms and the life-cycles of organisms. As well, the psychological and social events of our lives proceed in a cyclic fashion. We ourselves alternate between periods of sleep and wakefulness. The stock market rises and falls. Trends and fashions periodically resurface. All of these are examples of wholes undergoing cyclic (or in scientific terms, periodic) behavior.
At this point we can begin to see how Rudhyar's ideas correspond to modern scientific concepts. Rudhyar's notion of "wholes within wholes" is identical to the idea of a fractal, in the sense of patterns of self-similarity recursed (repeated) within nested levels of resolution. His concept of "cyclicness" corresponds to the idea of periodic attractors in chaos theory. The terms may be different between Rudhyar's occult description and the scientific nomenclature, but the meaning of the concepts is the same. However, Rudhyar's formulation of these concepts is considerably more encompassing than the current scientific notions in that Rudhyar saw this pattern of cyclically nested levels of organization to be an all-inclusive frame of reference by which to organize the reality of our experience. Modern science has simply not yet taken these ideas to this logical extreme.
A study of Rudhyar's ideas illustrates vividly how scientific and occult concepts are completely compatible. This discussion also illustrates how occultists have foreshadowed scientific developments. It is unlikely that Rudhyar even knew of fractals and chaos theory, much less that he chose not to mention them in his writings. Yet the similarity of his description to fractals and chaos theory is no coincidence, and we will go into this similarity much deeper below. No, the fundamental explanation for the similarity of these concepts is that occultism embraces the same explanations as science. This is support for my claim that both occultism and science (in sense one of the word) are both scientific activities (in sense two of the word). Both study Nature, so it is only predictable that both will discover the same organizing principles in Nature. What is ironic is that occultists have known these principles all along, because of the ubiquity of the Hermetic Axiom in occult thinking, but science has only recently acknowledged these principles and then only to a very partial degree relative to the occultists.
Rudhyar's ideas of cyclicness can be thought of as embracing a type of "cosmic ecology". For he sees all things within human experience as contained within vast terrestrial, solar and galactic cycles. Yet he takes these notions to the most abstract extreme in his reformulation of astrology. For here he defines astrology as the symbolic study of the behavior of cycles within cycles within cycles, the "algebra of life" as he calls it. This is a very subtle and sophisticated notion far outside the bounds of modern science. Rudhyar was hardly naive in his approach to astrology. The popular social misconception is that astrology claims that the stars and planets somehow mysteriously affect human events. This is a simple-minded idea that is not even a part of the astrological frame of thought. The general conception in astrology is that the patterns formed by the planets and the stars symbolically reflect the patterns found in human events. This again is an example of "as above so below", and from the fractal point of view is a very subtle and abstract way to apply the concept of self-similarity. Rudhyar's contribution to the modernization of astrology was to display this principle in a highly sophisticated and rational formulation of traditional principles in astrology.
Self-similarity, if you recall, means that the same pattern
repeats at different scales or levels of resolution. The pattern
that Rudhyar envisions as repeating at the scales of planets and
stars on one hand, and human events on the other hand, is the
abstract laws of cyclicness. This is the basis of Rudhyar's
reformulation of astrology and he describes these laws of
cyclicness in his Magnum Opus The Astrology Of Personality.
This is what Rudhyar himself says about applying the laws of
cyclicness to the symbolism of astrology, and how this creates an
"algebra of life":
"If now, we come back to our definition of astrology as the algebra of life, we shall make our meaning plainer by stating that astrology is to all the empirical sciences dealing with the formation, growth, behavior and disintegration of organic wholes what mathematics is to physics and in general to sciences of inanimate objects. We do not say that it is recognized as such but that such is its true function. And this to some extent is a verifiable statement21.
Astrology of itself has no more meaning than algebra. It measures relationships between symbols whose concreteness is entirely a matter of convention, and does not really enter into the problems involved--just as the symbols of algebra are mere conventions...The revolutions of celestial bodies constitute in their totality a vast and complex symbol which, of itself, is made up solely of cyclically changing patterns of relationship...In other words, the astrological realm of moving celestial bodies is like the realm of logical propositions. Neither one nor the other has any real content. Both are purely formal, symbolical, and conventional. They acquire real value only in function of the actual living experience they serve to correlate.
Alone, astrology and mathematics are without substance. But
they invest with coherence, pattern, logic and order whatever
substantial reality is associated with them. Thus mathematics
associated with physical experimentation produces modern physics.
In a similar manner (yet obviously not identical) astrology can
and probably should be associated with physiology, geology,
medicine, history, sociology; and above all, with
psychology."22
Again, Rudhyar is saying something here that is far outside the scope of modern science. He is not saying that the realm of moving celestial bodies, as studied by astrology, affects the Earth. In his writings he acknowledges the fact that the greater solar and galactic environments do exert energies that affect the Earth and biosphere, and the study of such factors and their effects upon the Earth he calls "cosmoecology", which is already a burgeoning science called exo-biology. Rudhyar clearly distinguishes astrology as he sees it from "cosmoecology".
Rudhyar, as is clear from the quote above, envisions astrology to be a symbolical means, based upon the changing celestial patterns in the sky, by which to interpret the cyclic phenomena we observe about us in our real life. To Rudhyar, astrology is a symbol system like mathematics, and it gains no meaning unless it is applied to real life events. And then, in that case, as he says, astrology, like mathematics, provides an organizing framework for real life events. In this sense, Rudhyar's concept of astrology makes astrology an actual form of mathematics, if we define mathematics to be the study of abstract symbol systems.
Yet there is a crucial and very subtle distinction between mathematics and the astrology that Rudhyar envisions. That is that the symbol systems of mathematics are purely arbitrary, and dependent only upon the human imagination whereas the symbol system of astrology is not. The symbolic content of Rudhyar's astrology is directly dependent on the relative relationships amongst celestial bodies, and this in itself is a real life phenomena, an empirical reality, and is not a simple product of human imagination. Thus, what Rudhyar has done is to envision a system of abstract logic that is grounded in real life events.
The implications of Rudhyar's conception of astrology take us directly into the heart of some of the deepest controversies and unresolved issues in modern science. One of these issues is the very nature of mathematics itself. It is not known why mathematics, being only a product of the human imagination, works like it does in describing the behavior of real life events23.
A second controversy involved here is the very nature of time, history and irreversibility. These three concepts to this day plague modern science and make a contradiction of the fundamental assumptions of the most important theories in modern science. For the mathematics behind both quantum theory and the theory of relativity view the world as being reversible in time24, though we know directly from our experience that time never goes backwards. The only "hard" science that addresses the issue of irreversibility is the science of thermodynamics and the concept of entropy. But it is not understood how thermodynamics is related to quantum theory and relativity (see note 23).
As far as the issue of history goes, this is really the main distinction between the "hard" and "soft" sciences. In the "hard" sciences, it is not necessary to understand an object's real life history to understand the object's behavior. The "history" of the supposedly inanimate objects studied by the "hard" sciences are not real life histories, but are mathematical histories, as for example the path within which a pendulum swings, or the path followed by a baseball in the air. These mathematical histories are based on what scientists call "time independent" equations and give the same answer whether the variable of time is going forward or going backward. On the other hand, the objects studied in the "soft" sciences are utterly dependent upon the object's real life history; biological evolution, ecology, anthropology, psychology and sociology.
There is much discussion and debate as to whether or not it even makes sense to develop an abstract model or theory of the objects studied in the "soft" sciences, such as the evolution of life, or of how societies operate, or how personalities develop, because these are all phenomena that have real life histories. How can we make up a general theory of how life evolves when we only know of one example, that of life on this planet? Or how can we make up a general theory of personality development when each of us develops according to the exact history of our experience? Or how can we construct a general theory of social systems, when the actual study of such systems is really the study of human history? This is a problem that has long plagued the philosophers of history and now the same problem today plagues modern science. These are issues that expose the true impotency of modern science when it comes to describing the real world of our experience.
Probably at this point it would be appropriate to discuss how Rudhyar's notions fit into this intellectual mess. His statement from the quote above provides the key to this connection: "... astrology can and probably should be associated with physiology, geology, medicine, history, sociology; and above all, with psychology."
This statement is what makes Rudhyar's views pertinent to the issues and difficulties in modern science with regard to time, history and irreversibility.
Rudhyar's ideas point to the solution to these difficulties; instead of simply making up arbitrary systems of logic like the ones that are the foundation for our present sciences, let us create systems of logic that reflect events in the real world of experience. We thus come to operate under a "self-similarity of Nature" principle in science that has essentially the same meaning as the Hermetic Axiom does in the occult.
But are the mathematical systems used by science really completely arbitrary? That mathematics does work at describing events in the real world would suggest that it is not simply an arbitrary product of the human imagination. It is likely that mathematics works at describing events in the real world because the concepts embodied in mathematics are a reflection of the organizing principles inherent in the mind (not the brain, which is only a sub-set of the mind). If this is true, then such organizing principles also operate on other levels in Nature, as is attested by the fact that mathematics is applicable to Nature. So it would appear that, in this respect, science since Newton has quite instinctively and subconsciously been operating under a "self-similarity of Nature" principle all along.
This all points to one of the biggest and most profound distinctions between science and occultism, which is that occultists see themselves as a part of Nature, whereas scientists have traditionally tried to describe Nature from the outside, so to speak. Rudhyar's entire approach points to a meeting ground where science and occultism bleed imperceptibly into one another and lead to the creation of an altogether new intellectual and intuitive approach to the study of Nature. This is a living and dynamic participatory approach in which Nature and the human mind are seen to be mutual and ever evolving reflections of one another. This approach would be grounded in the self-similarity of mind and Nature, or, since the mind is a product of Nature to begin with, we can come to realize that Nature itself is self-similar at its various levels.
There are already indications that modern science is beginning to appreciate the need for such an approach to the study of the phenomenon of Nature. Fractal geometry itself, through introducing the abstract concept of self-similarity, provides a means by which the relationship beween all of the levels of Nature may be understood. And the pains felt in modern science with regard to the irreversibility of time were, and are, the true impetus behind the development of chaos theory with its ability to describe situations that accurately reflect what we see in real life around us. And what is most amazing of all is that an occultist, Dane Rudhyar, foreshadowed, if not actually laid the appropriate philosophical basis for this necessary approach to the study of Nature. Like we saw with van der Leeuw in chapter 2, since Rudhyar was not caught up in the myriad distinctions of the contemporary intellect, but instead approached these issues from an occult point of view, he was readily able to penetrate through to significant and straight answers, and express them in a fashion much clearer than is found in legitimate academic circles.
As we can see from the above discussion, Rudhyar's
contributions to modernizing occultism and the relevance of this
to modern science are indeed very subtle and complex. Unlike
Besant and Leadbeater, Rudhyar does not even deal with issues
that one would think of as occult. Rudhyar instead discusses the
nature of time, and the organizing principles found within the
phenomena and systems seen in the real world of everyday events.
He utilized notions that are very common in occultism, that is,
the cyclic nature of existence (i.e. karma) and the Hermetic
Axiom, to explain the behavior of Nature. He found it most
convenient to use astrological symbolism to express the behaviors
of Nature, because of the renewed popularity of astrology
throughout the twentieth century. However, he turned to astrology
mainly because it is a symbol system intimately grounded in
describing the behavior of cycles, a fact completely unrecognized
outside of occult circles. Unbeknownst to Rudhyar, his ideas
actually provide a means to resolve some of the most crippling
issues facing modern science. We will return at length to these
issues and to this principle of the self-similarity of Nature in
the chapter "A New Concept Of Motion". At this point we
will end our discussion of Dane Rudhyar's contributions to the
rationalization of occultism and turn to our final modern occult
author.
The final modern occult author we shall discuss is in a class much different than the previous authors. Whereas Annie Besant, C.W. Leadbeater, and Dane Rudhyar were all real people who walked the Earth during this the twentieth century, the same cannot be said for our final author. This last author we are to discuss is not a human being at all but, as this author described, is an "energy personality" who exists outside of the bounds of physical space and time. This entity refers to itself as "Seth", though claiming to have other names and identities as well. Seth is a nonphysical entity who, by means we shall discuss momentarily, conveyed ideas of an occult nature into our world of physical existence.
The Seth material was produced by writer Jane Roberts and her
artist husband Robert Butts, a couple who lived in Elmira, New
York. Jane Roberts passed away in 1984, but her husband Robert
has survived her and is still alive today. The Seth material had
its origins in unusual psychic events that began to occur with
Jane Roberts in the early sixties. What was discovered by this
couple eventually is that these unusual psychic occurrences were
the foreshadowing of Seth attempting to communicate with our
world via Jane's consciousness. Jane herself described the
situation as such:
"You could say, if you wanted to, that Seth intruded himself from some unconscious dimension into my conscious life...As far as I know, Seth has no imprisoning body. He projects part of his consciousness, at least at times, into mine...I have been speaking for Seth in twice-weekly sessions since late 1963...The relationship between Seth and myself snaps into focus by prearranged appointments, as suggested by him in the early days of the sessions. Each Monday and Wednesday at 9:00 P.M., I sit in my favorite rocker. Rob sits across from me on the couch with his note pad and pen, ready to take notes. Normal lights are lit. I may feel very unpsychic, or even cross. I may feel tired, or really want to go dancing. Yet at nine, the session begins, and Seth "comes alive"
I don't "become" Seth. Instead, I seem to bask in
what he is, or in his presence, if you prefer. Sometimes I am
distantly aware that my facial muscles are being rearranged as
they mirror Seth's emotions rather than mine. But then, for me,
the reality of the room vanishes. Though my eyes are wide open,
it is Seth who looks out and smiles at Rob; Seth who speaks
through my lips, discussing the nature of reality and existence
from the viewpoint of someone not confined to the three
dimensional world."25
This is Jane's first hand account of Seth speaking through her consciousness. In modern New Age terms, this is a phenomena known as "channeling" and in the past century this phenomena was known as "mediumship" and practiced under candle-light at seances. This phenomena of channeling is the process by which a disembodied spirit speaks through the body of the channeler or medium. Leadbeater himself describes the nature of this process in detail, considering it a very crude and low-level type of psychic event and actually warns against it as being detrimental to the medium's health. Leadbeater claims that in the majority of valid cases of channeling that what is actually occurring is the displacement of the medium's consciousness from the physical body and its replacement with the consciousness of a disembodied being, usually a being of a crude and unrefined type. However, in the case of Seth this part about crude and unrefined is untrue. As is evidenced by the writings that Seth dictated to Jane's husband Robert, Seth is hardly a crude and unrefined spirit. The case of Seth channeling through Jane Roberts is a definite exception to Leadbeater's rule of thumb that channeled spirits were usually not what they appeared. We must remember that Leadbeater was addressing the popular spiritualism of his day and was likely addressing valid situations at that time. Leadbeater's analysis of the actual channeling process in terms of the mechanisms by which Seth entered Jane's body is probably valid. However, in the case of Seth, it is apparent from the Seth material that we are dealing with a highly refined emotional and intellectual personality in Seth.
Another unique facet of the Seth material that sets it apart from equivalent types of material in the occult literature is Jane and Robert's attitude about the situation. Initially neither one had anything to do with occultism and when these events began, they had no idea what was occurring. Both possessed a healthy skepticism initially that only relaxed as the situation with Seth became valid in their eyes. And once they were comfortable with the act of Seth channeling through Jane, they came to possess a very casual and matter-of-fact attitude about the situation. Seth became part of their family, so to speak. And during the sessions Seth, using Jane's body, would both smoke cigarettes and drink wine. Seth himself in his personality was both very profound yet eminently relaxed and also had a great sense of humor. Often Seth would ask Robert if he wanted to rest his hand, as it was that Robert copied by hand verbatim everything Seth said. And it was under such conditions that the Seth material--seven books in total--was produced.
The Seth material encompassed over nine hundred individual sessions from late 1963 through 1982. And in these nine hundred and some odd sessions, Seth presents a view of human existence and of life in general that is perhaps the most spectacular and profound in all of the occult literature. Seth discussed such topics as the nature of the Psyche, probable realities, space and time, the planes as "climates of value fulfillment", evolution as the actuality of possibilities of consciousness, his concepts of atoms and subatomic particles, the origin of the physical world, the means by which he communicated with our particular dimensions of existence, the fundamental role played by belief and intention in human existence, the nature of mass human events, the subtle roles played by occult realities in our day to day lives, the consciousness of other species of life, and the list goes on and on.
All and all, Seth created and presented a paradigm of occultism that outstrips any other in majesty, scale, and its overall relevance to our day to day lives. Seth was (and I'm sure he still is, wherever and when-ever he happens to be right now!) a personality of the most sparkling vitality and exuberance, and he made very clear the overall joyous intent that dwells in every conceivable facet of life. He was profound and cosmic, yet down to Earth at the same time, and the qualities displayed in the writings he dictated make it hard not to believe that this material did indeed come from a superior consciousness from another dimension of actuality.
Perhaps there is an alternative explanation to the Seth material. Maybe Jane Roberts and Robert Butts were delusioned or even neurotic. Maybe Seth was simply a figment of Jane's imagination, or some facet of her subconsciousness. Perhaps some other equivalent interpretation exists, and the situation of Seth as a being from another level of existence communicating through Jane via some type of mediumistic response was wrong. All I can say is that Jane and Robert themselves considered such possibilities and dismissed them on grounds that they freely discuss in the Seth books. Jane and Robert's ultimate response to this situation was that they were involved in some type of definitely positive and constructive creative activity in producing the Seth material, and that the validity of the material speaks for itself. And indeed this is true. One cannot read the Seth material and not walk away from it with a broader, more profound, and overall more joyous outlook on life. Seth's words themselves possess a high degree of therapeutic value. I will not even pretend to convey this element of Seth's writing here, all I can do is refer the interested reader to the material.
My intention here is to lay out certain aspects of ideas that Seth presented as clear cut examples of highly modern approaches to occult realities, and to show that Seth, via Jane Roberts and Robert Butts, has contributed enormously to making the occult a most rational intellectual endeavor. And as well, we will continue to discuss the relevance of modern occultism to science.
It is difficult figuring out where to begin discussing Seth's ideas. The material itself appears highly fragmented and unorganized in terms of the arrangement of topics. Yet under this apparent disarray of the Seth material there lingers a vast sense of order and organization. It is the difference between the seemingly complex, yet beautiful and simple pattern of a tree or the pattern of a library card catalogue. The Seth material is like the tree. There is also a hauntingly familiar sense of timelessness about the Seth material. Seth presents many discussions explaining that time as we know it, and space as well, have validity only within the narrow ranges of our perception and experience. And, Seth explains, our ability to perceive the nature of space and time are further narrowed by our beliefs as to what space and time are. Let us look at some examples of Seth's thinking which will illustrate these points.
Seth takes many traditional occult notions, such as the planes, or reincarnation, and expands their definitions to such a new and broad level to as completely shatter the traditional concept and replace it with an altogether new one. Let us take for example Seth's notion of the planes. Relative to Seth, Besant and Leadbeater's view of the nature of the planes could be considered "traditional" (even though we are still discussing "modern" occultism here!). Besant and Leadbeater, as we saw, taught that the planes formed a fractal-like arrangement of seven within seven within seven, and that these planes were mostly nonphysical. There are two angles from which Seth completely supersedes this notion.
The first angle by which Seth upsets Besant and Leadbeater's definition of the planes is in terms of how many there are and how they are arranged. Seth does not deny that planes exist. On the contrary he teaches that there are infinities within infinities of planes of existence, myriads and myriads of overlapping dimensions of actuality all intermingled and interbleeding with each other, each affecting all the infinite others in a constant give and take of the most subtlest of proportions. Seth describes that there are planes that are probable realities of this plane; all the "What ifs?" of existence in our world. All these worlds of "What if?": what if I had been born a girl instead of a boy?, what if Hitler had won W.W.II?, what if the Earth did not exist, and any other "what if..?" that you can imagine; to Seth these are literally real dimensions of existence, different levels, or plateaus of space and time. Seth speaks of these "Realms of Probabilities" as being as real in their own terms as our world is real in its own terms. Seth speaks of both "vertical" and "horizontal" arrangements to the planes. The "horizontal" arrangements are the unending fan of probable times and spaces. The "vertical" arrangements are the dimensions that our world both contains nested inside of it and those that enfold our level of existence. That is, Seth is using the idea of "vertical" to describe the dimensions of existence nested within our own dimension. These "vertical" and "horizontal" planes constantly interact with each other in the subtlest and most obvious ways. To try to superimpose a template of "seven within seven within seven" over what Seth describes is impossible. Besant and Leadbeater's notion of the organization of the planes is like "1+1=2", and Seth's notion of the planes is like an advanced treatise on calculus in comparison. Thus, from Seth's vantage point, there are an infinity of planes that overlap with and interbleed into our physical plane, and they literally have no fixed geometrical arrangement relative to one another. In Seth's teachings, all is dependent upon one's point of view.
Now, from a scientific point of view, Seth's concept of the planes as presented so far is very interesting. The notions Seth is presenting are not completely unknown to modern science. There is a particular interpretation of quantum mechanics known as the "Many Worlds" interpretation of quantum theory that was put forth by Hugh Everett 26. The idea of a Many Worlds interpretation in quantum theory comes about because of the use of probability theory in the mathematics of quantum theory.
In quantum theory, quantum physicists can only predict a result with a given degree of probability, they cannot make exact predictions. The way that quantum theory works in an experimental context is that, before an actual measurement is made (of say, the energy of an electron) any number of answers is possible. Each answer has associated with it a probability of occurrence; perhaps answer A has a 10% probability, answer B a 25% probability, answer C a 2% probability, and so on. Well, when an actual measurement is made, then one of the probable answers becomes 100%, and all the rest of the answers now have 0% probability in the system being measured. This measurement process is known as "the collapsing of the wave function" to quantum physicists. Now the philosophical issue is raised asking, what happened to all of the other probable states of the system? Did they just disappear? As far as most physicists are concerned, yes, all of the other probabilities just disappeared. The common view in quantum physics (the Copenhagen interpretation of Neils Bohr) is that quantum theory is simply a mathematical formalism and can not be taken too literally in some regards, and this is one of those regards. Even though the mathematics of quantum theory predict a number of possible states of the system, in the actual measurement of real life events, only one state is possible and so that is obviously the state that the system was in, and it is meaningless to discuss "what if it was one of the other possibilities?"
Again, Bohr's is the common view held in quantum theory, but to some this is not an aesthetically pleasing answer. Some physicists have suggested that perhaps one should take literally all of the probable states of a system as predicted by quantum theory. One suggestion put forth was Everett's Many Worlds model. What Everett is saying in this model is that every probable outcome of an event in Nature is realized, and the way that this is accomplished is that, every time a situation comes up in which more than one outcome is possible, then the universe branches into as many universes as necessary so that all possibilities can be realized. If (for simplicity's sake) there are two possible outcomes, then two new universes form, and each possibility manifests in its respective universe. What this means in real life terms is that, if you decided to go right at an intersection, then a new universe would form and branch away from our own, and in this new universe, you would go left instead of right.
To most physicists such notions are usually considered only fanciful speculation. How could one ever prove that the universe split? For this, and for other more technical reasons, the Many Worlds view is not taken very seriously. But, within Seth's context of the planes as I've described it so far, our universe is indeed nested inside a branching universe of probabilities, one among "many worlds", each one a probable version of the others. Except in Seth's picture, it is a relative issue if anything is actually branching or not. Over and over again, Seth stresses the simultaneity of time, that all time is a simultaneous event. Thus to Seth, all the probable realities exist side by side. But, perhaps from our vantage point in time and space as we know it, it may appear that something is branching in time.
These details are not as important as realizing that Seth's view of probable realities is almost identical to the Many Worlds view of quantum physics. Again, we have scientists and occultists saying essentially the same thing about Nature.
Also, I'll briefly point out here that Seth's notion of the simultaneity of time and space is identical to how Einstein's Theory of Relativity describes time and space. In the context of Relativity, all times in the history of the universe occur as simultaneous cross sections in a four dimensional manifold of space-time. Seth presents an equivalent, though much more complex, picture of the relationship(s) between space and time. Again, scientists and occultists are seeing Nature in very similar terms.
It is interesting to note that neither of these examples is directly related to Karma or the Hermetic Axiom as have been our previous examples illustrating similarities between scientific and occult concepts. Seth introduces ideas into occultism that have no precedence in traditional occultism. That is to say, Seth's ideas are very modern.
Now the major difference between Seth's occult view of space, time and probable realities and the scientific view of these is that they are literally real to Seth, whereas they are mostly just imaginative constructs to scientists. Scientists may perhaps find indirect ways of confirming the structure of space-time or the nature of probable outcomes. Scientists may find speculations such as Everett's to be entertaining, but they rarely ever conceive of their everyday lives in the terms of the theories they practice and teach. To Seth, however, these are direct and immediate realities, almost matter of fact things from his vantage point. Seth claims that we move in and out of probable realities in our dreams, where we can test future circumstances to help us determine how we shall act in our waking life. And the circumstances of our waking life are themselves the result of the intersection of many probable realities, which we are free to move in and out of to some extent through our actions and beliefs.
Again we are seeing here the difference pointed out above between scientific and occult views; to the occultist, what is taught is thought of in a participatory fashion and applied to circumstances in our everyday lives, but what the scientist teaches is abstracted from the world of everyday life, as if the scientist's ideas have validity only in the laboratory but no longer are applicable when home at the dinner table.
In regard to occultists relating their ideas to our everyday life, we can see that Besant and Leadbeater's notion of the planes and Seth's notions of the planes are complimentary. Because these authors teach different ways to see the planes does not mean that one is right and the other is wrong. Both are right, and both are describing different facets of the same thing. Most importantly, each has something relevant to say about our everyday lives. With regard to the notions of the planes, Besant and Leadbeater show how the planes are related to our subjective experience of thinking and feeling and thus give us a greater degree of control over these, and Seth shows how the planes relate and encompass the possibilities of our being. Now I said above that Seth's view of the planes supersedes Besant and Leadbeater's view. Seth actually expands their notion, encompasses it, and in doing so gives new meaning to the concepts put forth by Besant and Leadbeater.
Now there is more to Seth's view of the planes that sets him apart from Besant and Leadbeater, and this is the second factor I mentioned above. I would now like to discuss this because it is a very novel concept that not only expands our view of what "planes of existence" are, but helps us to understand Seth's overall intentions better.
Seth, in his dictations, comes to define a plane as a
"climate of value fulfillment". It took me some time to
figure out what he meant by this, and I have come to realize that
this is an extremely sophisticated, unique and insightful notion.
The whole issue of "value fulfillment" is probably the
fundamental theme of all of Seth's material. This is Jane
Robert's description of what Seth means by "value
fulfillment":
"Seth uses the term "value fulfillment",...to imply life's greater values and characteristics--that is, we are alive not only to continue, to insure life's existence, but to add to the very quality of life itself.
We do not just receive the torch of life and pass it on as one
Olympic runner does to another, but we each add to that living
torch or flame a power, a meaning, a quality that is uniquely our
own... Whenever that flame shows signs of dimming, of losing
rather than gaining potential energy and desire, then danger
signals appear everywhere. They show up as wars and social
disorders on national scales, and as household crises, as
illness, as calamities on personal levels as well."27
Seth himself says this about value fulfillment:
"...All species are motivated by what I call value
fulfillment, in which each seeks to enhance the quality of
life for itself and for all other species at the same time. This
further unites all species in a cooperative venture that has
remained largely invisible because of beliefs projected outward
upon the world by both your sciences and religions, generally
speaking"28
Both of these quotes define generally what Seth means by value fulfillment as well as illustrating the fashion in which Seth explains how belief affects our experience. The theme of belief and experience will play heavily in the final section of the book. At this point let us analyze Seth's notion of the planes as "climates of value fulfillment".
As we can see from the quotes, and is plain throughout all of Seth's material, Seth is saying that value fulfillment is the primary impetus behind life itself. Life is pure purpose in Seth's view, and it is not an arbitrary purpose, nor is it a purpose limited only to human intentions. All of life itself strives towards a constant betterment of itself, and the totality of this process is far beyond human comprehension, though every fabric of our being is involved in this process. Value fulfillment can be thought of as the joyful creative intent behind all of Nature and existence. This is the one overriding purpose behind all of the myriad forms of existence at every level and in every conceivable (and, I will add, inconceivable) dimension of actuality. In actual practice, the process of value fulfillment expresses itself in a myriad of diverse forms, schemes and aspects. According to Seth, a plane of existence is that which binds together those attempting to express the generally same approach to value fulfillment.
Here we have an incredibly novel view of what a plane is. There is no mention of physical or nonphysical, no mention of arbitrary frameworks of geometrical organization. What Seth is saying is that a plane is that which binds together those sharing a common purpose or intent. This definition has vast implications in terms of how an occultist can potentially depict the organization of Nature. The implication here is that Nature is not organized in any fundamental sense by any principle that is abstract and unrelated to values and intention. On the contrary, the fundamental organizing principle behind Nature is intention. This view is so far beyond the scope of both modern science and modern occultism that we will not return to it until the final section of the book.
As well, this definition sheds a completely new light on how we can conceptualize the relationship between the myriad forms of our physical experience. Thus, mineral, vegetable, animal, man, planet and galaxy; the basic elements of our physical plane, somehow or another are all involved in some great cooperative venture. There is no hint of such a notion of the planes in most mainstream occult thought. As a contribution to modern occult thought, Seth's notion of planes as climates of value fulfillment gives a sense of the purposeful arrangement of the planes, instead of them being seen as simply some type of arbitrary arrangement, be it geometrical or otherwise. It will probably take some time for this notion to filter in and have a substantial impact on occult thought.
Now I would point out that there are very similar notions to Seth's concept of value fulfillment in the occult. The occult concept of "dharma" is in many respects identical to this notion. All ideas of occult evolution are related to Seth's notion of value fulfillment as well. Dane Rudhyar also spoke much about these types of issues. However, no author is as clear as Seth on this topic. Rudhyar masked his concepts in the terms of the astrological symbolism (he saw the astrological birthchart as a symbol of one's dharma). The more traditional concepts of occult evolution and dharma seem to imply that eventually there will be something akin to value fulfillment at the end of a long and arduous path (over long ages of time). Seth's view is unique in that, again, he is saying the value fulfillment is right here and right now, that it is the fabric of all of existence. Seth eliminates the need for intermediary symbol systems of any nature in regard to value fulfillment and puts this in the context of our real and immediate experience. This is why Seth's approach is completely unique in modern occultism.
I would now like to discuss a second example of how Seth expands upon occult concepts by discussing the Sethian concept of reincarnation. This is a notion that is simply not accepted in our culture, though it was commonly accepted in other cultures. Today, the whole issue of death and the possibility of life after death is not even considered a legitimate issue. Nonetheless, it is a common concept in occultism. Generally speaking, reincarnation is a necessary corollary to the Law of Karma, as Annie Besant makes clear in her book Karma.
The fundamental assumption in occultism behind the idea of reincarnation is that our consciousness survives the death of the physical body. To the occultist this is not an assumption but an observable fact to those who can observe events on the nonphysical planes. I discussed above, in the section about Besant and Leadbeater, how these authors claim that our consciousness functions effectively on the nonphysical planes, whether or not it is associated with a physical body. Again, this is the basis for the rationale of life after death in occultism. Physical death is simply the death of the physical body, but the consciousness continues. The details of the after death experience are too involved to go into here, but the bottom line to the idea of reincarnation as embodied by occult teachings leads us into occult concepts of evolution.
Occultists, like scientists, teach about the process of evolution, but that is where the similarity ends, for the occult concept of evolution is vastly broader than the scientific concept. Scientists use the concept of evolution in many contexts; the evolution of stars, biological evolution, the evolution of the universe, the evolution of the chemical elements. When scientists use the term evolution, they are referring to the evolution of purely physical phenomena. An occultist, however, speaks of the evolution of the soul. To an occultists, physical evolution is but the backdrop, the stage or setting upon which occurs the evolution of the soul.
Furthermore, occultists do not simply speak of evolution, but of a two stage process of involution and evolution. Both Besant and Leadbeater, as well as Dane Rudhyar speak much of this involutionary/evolutionary cycle of existence. This is a very involved topic, especially in the Theosophical scheme, but the basic outline of the process is as follows: All of existence is defined by the polarity of spirit and matter. Spirit precipitates or descends into and as matter, and this is the process of involution; spirit becoming matter. And then matter once formed seeks to return to spirit, or sublimate itself back into spirit, and this is the occult process of evolution. Thus involution leads ultimately to the creation of the physical world through the progressive complexification of form created by spirit's descent into matter. And once spirit has reached a certain critical degree of consciousness within the framework of material existence, it then begins the conscious climb back into states of subjective spirituality, this being the process of evolution to the occultist.
These are notions that modern science has only touched on in the most speculative and imprecise of ways. What modern science calls "evolution", occultists call "involution", albeit minus the spiritual connotations of the occultist. Modern science has no counterpart to the occult concept of evolution. Some evolutionary biologists have expressed notions akin to the occult concept of evolution, most notably Teilhard de Chardin, Erich Jantsch, C.H. Waddington, and others from these authors' school of thought29. However, the scientific view does not clearly distinguish between involutionary and evolutionary processes as does the occultist's. This is because scientists refuse to operate from any basis implying the reality of spiritual matters.
This digression on the occult view of the involution/evolutionary process has been necessary so that we can put the concept of reincarnation in its proper occult perspective. For it is the view of the occultist that spirit is immortal, and that this spirit is our very consciousness itself. Thus, it is our consciousness, our spirit, that is the permanent entity involved in reincarnation (This is not the consciousness of our physical personality though. How our physical personality relates to our permanently reincarnating consciousness is discussed in the section "What Is Ego?").
Theosophy teaches that our consciousness has passed through the long ages of the involutionary process through all of the increasingly complex grades of material organization; first as minerals, then as vegetables, than as animals, and finally now we are human beings. This ascent of spirit is evolution, and the necessary process by which occult evolution is effected is reincarnation. And it is our fate, if you will, according to occultists, to continue this upward progression, to continue to expand our consciousness, our spirit, to levels of being far beyond that of humanness. This is essentially the idea taught by Besant, Leadbeater and Rudhyar, and is an idea ubiquitous to all occultism.
To finally return to Seth's notion of reincarnation, what we must realize about the occult view presented above is that it is conceptualized in terms of space and time as we understand it presently. So reincarnation is thought of in terms of "past-lives" and the "future lives" that we have before us. However, we have already spoken about the fact that Seth (like Einstein) teaches that all of time is simultaneous. Thus, in Seth's view, there are no past or future lives, they all exist right now. What this means is that our ultimate existence as conscious beings is independent of time and space, as well as having other implications.
To distinguish clearly Seth's ideas on reincarnation from the standard occult view, we must define more of Seth's concepts. As Seth is fond of saying, we possess a "spiritual biology" and a "biological spirituality". What this means is that we have a spiritual anatomy, and this is to be distinguished from Leadbeater's occult anatomy spoken of above. Our spiritual anatomy, according to Seth, involves vast and subtle psychological interconnections on the inner planes between our normal waking consciousness and the consciousness of what Seth calls our "counterparts". These counterparts are other versions of ourselves from probable realities. And these inner psychological connections form what Seth calls "families of consciousness". According to Seth, each of us belongs to a vast psychological gestalt or organism of interconnections of consciousness. And this organism spans vast infinities of dimensions of time, space and existence. As a matter of fact, this was what Seth claimed his connection was with Jane Roberts. They were both members of the same family of consciousness.
With all of this strange information in mind, we are now in a position to understand Seth's view of reincarnation. To Seth, reincarnation has nothing to do with time, nor space, and it is a process of a vast psychological organism entering into or forming a myriad of interconnections of consciousness in an infinity of times and spaces. I think of this process as something like a tree opening its leaves in the springtime. The tree is the vast psychological organism of which each of us is but one leaf. And each leaf opens as an individual human life into a different space and a different time. Thus, all of the reincarnating selves come into and leave manifested existence in a process somewhat analogous to a tree opening its leaves in the spring and then shedding them in the autumn.
The practical implication of Seth's view of reincarnation is that we are intimately connected with our "past lives" and "future lives" right here and right now. According to Seth, we communicate in very subtle ways with these other lives at every moment of our existence. And each of these lives supports all of the others in terms of value fulfillment, just as each leaf contributes to the overall life of the tree.
Now this view is in contrast to the more standard view of reincarnation. The standard view alienates one from "past lives" and "future lives" by separating these from one another in time. And the standard view does not explain readily the experience of becoming aware of one's other incarnations. Seth's view solves both of these problems by explaining that all of our incarnations are interconnected in a vast web of consciousness that is beyond the bounds of space and time. And it is through this gestalt web-work that awareness of other lives occurs. And there is no alienation, because all incarnations are intimately bound now, and at all points in time.
I think it should be apparent from these two examples of Seth's redefinition of the occult concepts of planes and reincarnation, that I have not underestimated him by saying that he operates on a scope that is vast and unprecedented. If we take the Seth situation at face value then it is apparent even from the little I have described here that Seth was indeed a being from some level of existence that far exceeds our own, and had a bird's eye-view of our human existence that we simply cannot relate to in any fashion, even from the clairvoyant vantage point of Besant and Leadbeater. Yet in spite of this vast broadness of Seth's teachings, he constantly relates these to facets of our everyday lives and experience. Seth's abstractions always somehow resolve themselves back to the subtle and unexplained occurrences of our lives. Seth does not alienate us from our experience, but unifies our experience and our sense of belonging to the vaster processes of Nature which enfold us.
Also, I think this section on the Seth material has illustrated an important factor about discussions that include both science and occultism. Not only does modern occultism embrace science, but it leaves it far behind in the dust when it comes to rationalizing and abstracting human experience. Science is normally thought of as intellectually difficult, but it is simple in comparison to the mind-stretching capabilities of occult thought. Most occult concepts have no counterpart in science, yet occultists are usually capable of addressing and accepting anything a scientist can present. This is a little appreciated fact and I hope that the above discussions make this point clear.
And, as I keep stressing, the occult always relates to our everyday lives. Even though occult abstractions are usually much vaster than those of modern science, they are always related to the world of everyday life; our dreams, strange occurrences like deja vu, our thoughts and emotions. The particle tracks of the scientist's bubble chambers, the quarks and black holes of science possess little of this quality of relating to our everyday lives. The occult is a rationalization of our everyday experience in such fashion so as to allow us as individuals to lead a healthier, more integrated and harmonious life. Science presents us with some interesting and perhaps dramatic pictures of Nature, but is usually mute when it comes to making us better people. So even though science and occultism are compatible when it comes to describing Nature, there are important ways in which they differ and this is probably the most important. This difference will be discussed at great length elsewhere.
To summarize this section about modern occult authors, it has been my intent here to show that twentieth century occultism does operate from a highly rational basis. Though the occult ideas I have discussed above are very far-out and seem to contradict many mainstream beliefs, I hope to have shown, at least to some extent, that occult thinking and world-views possess their own type of internal logical consistency. In terms of the validity of these ideas, I have pointed out that the essential crux of this matter rests with the validity of the psychic abilities or siddhis that occultists claim can be developed. This issue of psychic abilities will be discussed at length in section two.
I also have attempted to introduce the reader to the fundamental compatibility of scientific and occult notions, particularly with regard to fractal geometry, quantum theory and chaos theory. As we have already seen, the relationship between scientific and occult notions is not simple. Not only are we looking at two different technical and highly complex languages for describing Nature, but as well, occultism and science diverge on fundamental philosophical issues. Again, going deeper into these issues will be the subject of section two.
Notes: Chapter 5
1Tillet, (1982).
2Leadbeater's biography is presented in the previous footnote.
For biographies of other relevant individuals see: For H.P.
Blavatsky; Neff, (1971) and Meade, (1980). For Annie Besant;
Besant, (1893) and Dinnage, (1986). For J. Krishnamurti see;
Lutyens, (1975).
3Leadbeater, (1984) page vii.
4Ibid., page 5.
5Leadbeater, (1980), page 8-9.
6Leadbeater, (1984), page 15.
7Blavatsky, (1928), page 696.
8Besant, (1980), page 17.
9To an occultist, the word "matter" is etymologically related to the word "mater" meaning "mother". That is, matter, whether physical or nonphysical, is viewed as the female polarity that gets impregnated by the male polarity of "spirit".
10Besant, (1980), page 23.
11Ibid., page 44.
12Leadbeater, (1984), pages 3-4.
13Besant, (1918), page 10.
14Ibid., page 11.
15Ibid., pages 13-15.
16The most incredible description I have ever read of discarnate humans is in Monroe, (1985).
17Shere, (1972).
18Rudhyar, (1986), page 7.
19Ibid., page 8.
20Rudhyar, (1975a), pages 15 - 16.
21Speaking on the verifiability of astrological predictions is a subtle issue. First it depends on how well the astrologer understands astrology to begin with (and therefore the quality of the predictions made), and secondly, and more importantly, it depends on the nature of the prediction. Astrology, by its very nature cannot make the kind of detailed predictions that scientists make. Astrology's predictive value (which Rudhyar argues is not a main function of astrology) rests in outlining broad trends. To this end Rudhyar predicted in 1975, but also mentions even as early as the 1930s (in Astrology Of Personality) that: "It is probable that...around 1989-91, when a massing of six planets repeatedly occurs in the sign of Capricorn...world events of major importance will take place; but the level at which they may occur cannot be safely determined..."
This is from Rudhyar, (1975b), page 256. Looking at these years, we witnessed the fall of the Berlin Wall and the decline of power of the Communist governments in both the U.S.S.R. and in Eastern Europe. Obviously these were "world events of major importance". Unfortunately, Rudhyar did not live to see his very accurate prediction borne out. However, this illustrates that there is indeed a subtle and profound logic that underlies astrology, particularly as Rudhyar taught it, a logic that proves its own validity. Those who criticize astrology obviously do not understand it. It was, as a matter of fact, this particular example that made me curious enough to actually study and learn astrology. I do not know it well enough to confidently practice it, but I do understand its logic well enough to know that it is a highly valid and imminently useful system of thought.
22Rudhyar, (1970), pages 48-49.
23For a discussion which reveals the essentially mysterious nature of the application of mathematics to real life events, see Kline, (1980).
24A popular discussion of the status of time and
irreversibility in modern physics can be found in Prigogine and
Stengers, (1984). A more technical discussion can be found in
Prigogine, (1980).
25Roberts, (1989), pages 4-6.
26DeWitt and Graham, (1973).
27Roberts, (1986), 20-21.
28Ibid., page 115.
29This school of thought is exemplified by works such as
Jantsch and Waddington (1976).
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