The Occult World

as well—not as the subject of vague, religious
rhapsodies ; but it is an actual entity, with properties
that can be examined in combination with, or apart
from, those of the body.
It is chiefly in the East that occultism is still
kept up—in India and in adjacent countries. It is
in India that I have encountered it ; and this little
volume is written to describe the experiences I
have enjoyed, and to retail the knowledge I have
acquired.

II.

My narrative of events must be preceded by
some further general explanations, or it would be
unintelligible. The identity of occultism as prac-
tised in all ages, must be kept in view, to account
for the magnitude of its organization, and for the
astounding discovery that secluded Orientals may
understand more about electricity than Faraday,
more about physics than Tyndall. The culture of
Europe has been developed by Europeans for them-
selves within the last few hundred years. The
culture of occultists is the growth of vast periods
long anterior to these, when civilization inhabited
the East. And during a career which has carried
occultism in the domain of physical science
far beyond the point we have reached, physical
science has merely been an object for occultism of
secondary importance. Its main strength has been
devoted to metaphysical inquiry, and to the latent
psychological faculties in man, faculties which, in
their development, enable the occultist to obtain