Occultism and Spiritualism

or from the subjective to the objective, from the spirit to the body, etc., by means of an intermediary, is known in philosophy—at least in its application to man—under the name of the theory of the plastic mediator. Classical treatises say, in order to refute this opinion: "To admit an intermediary is to push back the difficulty rather than solve it." And one moves on.

The entire effort of contemporary occultists has focused on the physiological solution to be given to this problem, to show that one was wrong to overlook it and that this intermediary between the immortal Spirit and the physical body possessed not only its own existence, but absolutely characteristic organs and faculties. It is through physiology that contemporary occultists tend to resolve this problem of the constitution of man, which forms one of the most fascinating studies of psychology; and the ground they have chosen seems solid enough, since it has been able to withstand the attacks of theologians (within Canon Brettes’s Society for Psychic Studies) and those of materialist physicians (the Psychology Congress of 1900 in Paris).

Indeed, theologians, teaching that man is composed of only two principles—the immortal Spirit and the body—are exceedingly hard-pressed to explain many physiological facts in which the Spirit has no part, just as they are equally hard-pressed to answer the questions of materialists who ask where the Spirit is during a faint, typhoid fever, cerebral softening, or madness.

On the other hand, the materialists, attributing the faculties of the spinal cord to the brain by a sort of sleight of hand and wishing to transform the human being into a machine, are also very hard-pressed to explain the passage of the nerve impulse through neurons that do not communicate with one another, as well as to account for the facts of telepathy, clairvoyance, or dreams.