Cyril Acott - Occultism - An Alternative to Scientific Humanism

7/27/2019 Cyril Acott - Occultism - An Alternative to Scientific Humanism

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cyril-acott-occultism-an-alternative-to-scientific-humanism 1/20

OCCULTISM

AN ALTERNATIVE TO SCIENTIFIC HUMANISM

by

Cyril Scott



OCCULTISMAn Alternative to Scientific Humanism.

A LECTURE GIVEN FOR

THE TRUTH FORUM

AT

THE CAXTON HALL

ON

JUNE 13t h , 1956

BY

CYRIL SCOTT

L. N. FO W LER & CO. LTD.,

St. Martin’s House,

29 Ludgate Hill, London, E.C.4.



TpHE Victorian philosopher Herbert Spencer

maintained: there is a principle which cannot

fail to keep a man in everlasting ignorance . . ,

and that is contempt prior to investigation .

Now as I myself was at one time guilty of that

same contempt where Occultism was concerned, it

is not for me to criticise those persons who may

adopt the same attitude towards it. But that is no

reason why I shouldn’t wish to dispel some of the

erroneous ideas about it at this time, when anincreasing number of people have become dissatis-

fied with the beliefs of their forefathers, whilst

many others have no beliefs at all, and perhaps

only wish they had. As to how and why, many

years ago I finally came to study Occultism after

having been a rabid agnostic— that is immaterial.

Suffice it to mention that the more I studied it in

my spare time, the more did evidence come my

way to convince me of its fundamental truth. Not

that Victorian Agnosticism didn’t have its value,

and doubtless its latest variant, termed ScientificHumanism, has its value also. But does it provide

any satisfying solutions to those baffling, basic

problems: — what are we; are we nothing but

glorified monkeys; why are some children born to

be geniuses and others to be idiots; what happens

to us when we die; are we snuffed out or are weimmortal as the religions maintain, though without

furnishing proofs acceptable to sceptics? These,

as I will try to show, are some of the vital

questions which Occultism has answered for those

people who have been openminded enough not



to dismiss it with . . . “ contempt prior to

investigation/’

To begin with, let us be quite clear as to what

Occultism really is. Although it covers a widefield, it is primarily the Science and Knowledge

pertaining to the subtler aspects of Nature, as

compared with ordinary Science, which is more

concerned with its grosser ones. It is occult, mean-

ing hidden, simply because most people haven’t

the faculties to be conscious of anything except

what they can see, hear, feel, taste or smell. They

may know of certain invisible things, such as

wireless waves, by their effects; but no one is

actually conscious of these waves, and in so far

even they might be said to be occult. Nevertheless,Occultism, like Theosophy, is more than just the

Science of the normally invisible, for it is also the

synthesis of Philosophy, Science and Religions.

No true occultist denies the proven facts of

Science, though he may have reason to repudiate

some of its unproven assertions or negations— for

even scientists are not infallible. If rightly under-

stood, far from being the enemy of Science,

Occultism is its complement, as also that of

Philosophy and Religion.

But the question may be asked: How can onebe sure that the assertions, tenets and doctrines

of Occultism are true? The answer is that we

obtain our knowledge from those in a position to

know . . . And surely this is not unreasonable,

f d ' d l h hi h



material Science is concerned? For instance,

astronomers tell us that the Great Nebula in

Andromeda is so far away, that its light, travelling

at a hundredandeightysixthousand miles a

second, takes about eighthundredthousand yearsto reach our earth. This seems so incredible to the

layman, that Bernard Shaw in one of his semi

humorous moments described the whole statement

as 44a stupendous lie ” ! And yet most of us

believe it because we trust those men we think are

in a position to know . These men we respect asgreat scientists, whilst those who correspond to

them in Occultism are known as great Initiates.

I will speak about them later.

Let us start with the doctrine of Evolution, that

natural and very gradual process of developmentfrom the simple to the complex. Not only do

Occultists accept the principle of Evolution as a

scientific fact, but they go even further; they

maintain that there are several streams of evolu-

tion operating concurrently. I have no wish to

strike 44the deep note " or harass my listeners withbrainteasing complexities, so I will only mention

one of these streams, because of its bearing on

folklore and legend. It is called the Deva

Evolution; deva being a generic Sanscrit word

which comprises beings ranging from the smallest

naturespirit to those entities of great power andradiance which Christians might call angels. True,

they are not quite like winged humans, as depicted

in old paintings, but they are all beings who have



their respective parts to play in the great

Evolutionary Scheme. There are airdevas, water

devas, firedevas, sounddevas and other varieties

too numerous to mention. If there were any

children listening to me, they would be delightedto hear that there really are such beings as we

westerners call fairies, leprecauns and the like,

though they may not behave exactly as the fairy-

tale writers describe. I may mention en passant

that several notabilities have firmly believed in

fairies, the Irish poet, Yeats, for one, and the

eminent writer Conan Doyle for another.

All the devas are composed of matter too

rareified to be perceptible to ordinary sight, but

persons gifted with a certain degree of clairvoy-ance are able to see some of them. The smaller

ones have even appeared on photographs on those

somewhat rare occasions when conditions have

been favourable. In bygone times more people

were clairvoyant than they are today, hence the

many allusions to elves and fairies in folklore and

to angels in religious legends. The fact is, that

although we moderns may pride ourselves on our

greater knowledge and enlightenment, what it

really amounts to is that we know more about

certain things whilst the ancients knew more aboutothers. Nevertheless, according to Occultism, now

that Man is again emerging from the trough of

materialism in which he has been sunk, it won't be

very long before more and more people will be

clairvoyant as the natural consequence of the



Evolutionary Scheme. When this eventuates, we

shall be nearer to Truth, with a capital T.

And this brings us to the problem of Man him

self. The occultists hold, as likewise did theancients, that Man is not just a physical body, a

sort of thinking machine, but a much more complex

entity than even the Churches teach. For

surrounding and interpenetrating the dense

physical body are a number of subtler “ bodies ”

composed of rarefied matter, these subtler bodiesforming that luminous haze called the aura, about

which many people have at least vaguely heard.

In the Yoga philosophy, the theosophical and

other occult schools, these subtler bodies have dis-

tinguishing names. (The sotermed “ astral body ”

for one, is nowadays sometimes referred to evenby nonoccultists) . . . . But the point to be

noted here is, that according to Occultism, the

physical body, far from being the generator of

consciousness, is actually a damper on conscious-

ness, and that, paradoxical though it may sound,

a man is more alive when he is dead, so to say,than when he is alive. Just as a man feels freer

when he has divested himself of a heavy overcoat,

so does a man feel freer and happier when he has

shed his rather cumbersome physical body and can

function in one of his subtler bodies on the higher

planes. Thus, the occultists as also the spiritualistssay: to die is not a disadvantage, but quite the

contrary. It is only a disadvantage in the case of

persons whose interests and desires are so



exclusively centred on the physical plane that

there is nothing to draw them to the mental or

spiritual planes for that very reason . . . I may

add that the aura can no longer be dismissed as

mere fancy since the invention of the sonamedKilner Screens, which enable even nonclairvoyant

persons to see what is invisible to normal sight.

So we see how Science can eventually prove the

statements of occultists . . ♦ And, by the way,

it’s not only humans who have auras, but animals

too, though obviously of a more rudimentary sort.

Let us now consider the philosophical and

metaphysical aspects of our subject . . . Last

century that German scientistphilosopher, Ernst

Haeckel, came to the conclusion that there is one

Life pervading all the myriad evolving forms. In

other words, it is not the forms which create Life,

as some materialists believe, but the Life which has

been responsible for the forms, indeed for all

Matter. Sir James Jeans voiced the same conclu-

sion when he wrote: “ The material universe is

derivative from consciousness, not consciousness

from the material universe ” : a conclusion which

is entirely in accordance with that of Occultism.

True, Haeckel didn’t believe in personal immor-

tality, but as it’s obvious from his books that he

had never investigated the subject, that is

irrelevant. What concerns us here is that the One

Life conception is so ancient that it’s to be found

in the ageold Vedanta Philosophy of India, where

it is called the Atman— meaning the One Self,



Pure Consciousness which ever is, the great IAm.

Its parallel in The Gospels is obviously the “ Holy

Spirit ”; the word holy having been inaccurately

derived from a word meaning “ complete",

“ unimpaired ”, “ unsullied ”. “ Holy ”, in thesense of hallowed, is therefore misleading, and

“ Holy Spirit ” or “ Holy Ghost ” should more

correctly have been rendered, “ Pure Spirit ”,

namely that which is complete in Itself and un-

sullied in any way. Incidentally, the spiritualists

call The Supreme Being The Great White Spirit;

a conception which tallies with that of the occul-

tists, W hy It is called white, is because white is

the actual colour of the Pure, Formless Spirit;

which is not “ nothingness ” as the materialists

believe, but still matter, yet in its rarest aspect.

However, metaphysics being a deep subject, I

can't enlarge upon it in this short talk. Having

briefly sought to show that Occultism, Philosophy

and Science are not incompatibles, it is more

important now to enlarge somewhat on that much

debated question of immortality, in which not only

religious people believe, but in which have believed

such eminent scientists as Sir Oliver Lodge, Sir

William Crooks, the French astronomer Flam

marion, and other eminent thinkers, many poets

included . . . But the vital question is: whatproofs are there to substantiate mere belief?

To begin with, there are the photographic

proofs. Wishing to investigate this aspect of the

matter, my friend, the late A. P. Sinnet, writer and



theosophist, some years ago tested out a spirit

photographer, in the following manner: — First of

all he bought his own plates, then having taken

them to the photographer concerned, they never

left his sight for one moment until the process ofdevelopment and printing was completed. On the

finished photographs there was a spirit^bodij .

Another case may be cited. An ordinary photo-

grapher who unknown to himself possessed

mediumistic gifts, went to a clairvoyant friend ofmine and told him he was in serious trouble

because he could not take a single photograph

without an " extra M(viz. a spiritform) appearing

on the plate. My friend was sympathetic, but could

only advise him to give up photography altogether,

seeing that he was obviously mediumistic and that

the spirits appropriated some of the matter from

his aura so as to materialise.

Now one thing is certain; all knowledge (unless

derived from calculations, which are never in-

fallible) must be based on experience, somebody'sexperience. For instance, how have we come to

know about certain remote regions of our world?

W hy simply because some explorer has discovered

them and then described them and their inhabi-

tants. " That’s all very well/’ our scientific

humanists might say. “ But who has ever explored

the socalled heavenworld?” The answer is,

many people. There are the yogis of India to begin

with. They have developed a technique by which

they can leave the physical body for a time at will



and function on other planes. Many occidentals

have done and can do the same thing. Moreover

they tell us that the higher the plane they can

reach, not only the more vivid their consciousness,

but what is more important at the moment, thaton some of those planes they can contact the

spirits of people they have known, and with whom

they have established the bonds of affection. All

this accords with the teachings of the spiritualists

and theosophists . . But not so with the beliefs,

or better said disbeliefs of the agnostics and scien-

tific humanists, who argue: “ if human beings con-

tinue to live somewhere and somehow after death,

they must have bodies of a kind; and as a body

occupies space, how could there be room enough

for them all even in the whole Universe, consider-ing the countless numbers of persons who have

lived and died ever since the Cosmos came into

being? ” This argument, nevertheless, may strike

one as a little naive, seeing that space is so vast,

that even the nearest star is twentyfivemillion

million miles away, so the astronomers calculate.In any case, the argument leaves out one thing—

and that is reincarnation as a factor in the

Evolutionary Scheme. Not only does the doctrine

of reincarnation, rebirth or preexistence obtain in

the Eastern religions, but many thinkers,

philosophers and poets have accepted it as a truth.

Now although there are ladies who like to think

they’ve been Cleopatra or some other notability,

many people (including myself) dislike the idea of



theosophist, some years ago tested out a spirit

photographer, in the following manner: — First of

all he bought his own plates, then having taken

them to the photographer concerned, they never

left his sight for one moment until the process ofdevelopment and printing was completed. On the

finished photographs there was a spirit-body .

Another case may be cited. An ordinary photo-

grapher who unknown to himself possessed

mediumistic gifts, went to a clairvoyant friend ofmine and told him he was in serious trouble

because he could not take a single photograph

without an “ extra ” (viz. a spiritform) appearing

on the plate. My friend was sympathetic, but could

only advise him to give up photography altogether,

seeing that he was obviously mediumistic and thatthe spirits appropriated some of the matter from

his aura so as to materialise.

Now one thing is certain; all knowledge (unless

derived from calculations, which are never in-

fallible) must be based on experience, somebody'sexperience. For instance, how have we come to

know about certain remote regions of our world?

Why simply because some explorer has discovered

them and then described them and their inhabi-

tants. That’s all very well,” our scientific

humanists might say. " But who has ever exploredthe socalled heavenworld?” The answer is,

many people. There are the yogis of India to begin

with. They have developed a technique by which

they can leave the physical body for a time at will



and function on other planes. Many occidentals

have done and can do the same thing. Moreover

they tell us that the higher the plane they can

reach, not only the more vivid their consciousness,

but what is more important at the moment, thaton some of those planes they can contact the

spirits of people they have known, and with whom

they have established the bonds of affection. All

this accords with the teachings of the spiritualists

and theosophists . . But not so with the beliefs,

or better said disbeliefs of the agnostics and scien-

tific humanists, who argue: “ if human beings con-

tinue to live somewhere and somehow after death,

they must have bodies of a kind; and as a body

occupies space, how could there be room enough

for them all even in the whole Universe, consider-ing the countless numbers of persons who have

lived and died ever since the Cosmos came into

being? ” This argument, nevertheless, may strike

one as a little naive, seeing that space is so vast,

that even the nearest star is twentyfivemillion

million miles away, so the astronomers calculate.In any case, the argument leaves out one thing—

and that is reincarnation as a factor in the

Evolutionary Scheme. Not only does the doctrine

of reincarnation, rebirth or preexistence obtain in

the Eastern religions, but many thinkers,

philosophers and poets have accepted it as a truth.

Now although there are ladies who like to think

they've been Cleopatra or some other notability,

many people (including myself) dislike the idea of



ever returning to this striferidden world. And

yet, according to Occultism, reincarnation is not

only a fact but a logical one at that. For it disposes

of the idea that every time a baby is born, a new

soul has been created by God, and hence thenumber of souls goes on accumulating ad infinitum.

Further, it disposes of the idea that a just God

could be guilty of favouritism, seeing that some

souls are born to be geniuses or saints and others

to be primitive savages, felons, deafmutes or what

not. The esoteric truth is, to quote The Bible, “ As

a man sows, so shall he reap,” which is the poetical

way of expressing the great law of cause and

effect carried to its logical conclusion. The “seeds”

are a man’s desires and strivings, the fruits are

their fulfilment or their achievement. There is alsothe impetus of the great Evolutionary Scheme; and

evolution is a slow process. Now in the name of

logic, could, say, a savage born in the back of be-

yond reach the stature of a Shakespeare, or a St.

Francis of Assisi in one short span of life? Surely

the only explanation of a phenomenon likeShakespeare, a saint like St. Francis, or an infant

prodigy like Mozart is by the doctrine of rebirth?

Hence do the occultists say that genius in whatever

field is the endresult of efforts made in former

lives. As to why only the high Initiates can

accurately recall their past incarnations or theirotherplane experiences between them, that is be-

cause every child born is, needless to say, born with

a new brain, and it’s simply the new brain which

can’t register the memories. Such is not the case,



however, with the Initiates, for they have acquired

soulconsciousness; and it's the soul in which such

memories are stored. These high Initiates, of

whom, in conclusion, I shall now speak, are what

the yogis call liberated souls. This means that theyhave reached a stage of evolution in which they

do not need to remain in incarnation or to reincar-

nate. Nevertheless some of them choose to be in-

carnate, the better to serve humanity. Although in

the theosophical literature they are referred to as

“ The Masters ", they modestly prefer to regard

themselves as “ The Elder Brothers Indeed,

they emphatically maintain that the difference

between other humans and themselves is not one

of kind, but merely of degree of development.

And now, what is the nature of their work and

activities? They are members of what is called

The Great White Brotherhood or, more briefly,

The Hierarchy; and part of their work is to inspire

by means of telepathic suggestion, the best in

Science, Philosophy, Religion, Ideologies, Thera-peutics and the fine Arts. Those members who are

incarnate are of various nationalities, and live in

various parts of the world. But as they can all

function in their spiritbodies, and also are adepts

at telepathy, distance is no obstacle to communi-

cation. At the head of The Hierarchy is the veryHigh Initiate we in the West call The Christ and

in the East is called The Bodhisattva. It was He

who some two thousand years ago inspired the

Religion which bears His name, as a type of Faith



especially suited to the western world, and one in

which Brotherhood and mutual Love is stressed

as the prerequisite to Peace and security.

(Brotherhood means working with instead of

working against , unity in diversity instead ofseparateness). Nevertheless, in the new religion

were incorporated some of the tenets of several

more ancient Faiths— this fact is known to

students of Comparative Religions.

And here an important point must be empha-

sised: The Masters may only guide and suggest,

but never compel — for it’s against the Divine Law

to interfere in any way with free will. Although

a truism, had we humans not been endowed with

a measure of freewill, we would all be auto-matons, and automatons we would still be if Men

of Power could control our thoughts and actions.

And yet our freewill would not have been a mixed

blessing if only we had used it wisely. As it is,

because it gave us the option of choosing either

good or evil, we have chosen a large proportionof evil. In consequence — and here is the salient

point— many of the religions, cults and so on

which the Masters espoused have fallen very far

short of the ideal; hence the birth of untenable

dogmas, distortion of texts and their meanings,

bigotry, wranglings and other inordinations. As

for the unchristian behaviour of the Christian

nations, the only thing that can be said is: if

there hadn’t been any Christian Religion at all,

human conduct might have proved even still more



It may be asked: if The Hierarchy does really

exist, why is it not more widely known? Theanswer is that only within comparatively recent

years would such a disclosure have been safe, that

is, safe for those to whom it might have been made.

Don’t forget that at one time The Church was so

despotic, that any person suspected of holding un-

orthodox beliefs was subjected to the worst kindof persecution. And so the Hierarchy and its work

was not revealed except to the few, and they were

careful to hide the fact from the profane. Granted

that since those times things have changed, even

so, when towards the end of last century, two of

the Masters inspired the Theosophical Movementand used that remarkable woman, Mme.

Blavatsky, as their willing instrument, she was

denounced as a fraud and even accused of having

invented The Hierarchy and its Initiates. Yet con-

sidering that many people have contacted the

Masters, (a point to be noted) and still do so, the

fraudtheory was far from convincing. During the

present century mention of The Masters has been

made in a number of books and journals, yet they

still prefer to keep mostly in the background, for,

apart from other considerations, they are alive to

the unwisdom of personalityworship. They do not

wish that anyone should believe a thing merely

because they say so. The ideas they inspire are

left for the recipient to size up and accept as

disastrous. This was something The Christ must

have foreseen*



especially suited to the western world, and one in

which Brotherhood and mutual Love is stressed

as the prerequisite to Peace and security.

(Brotherhood means working with instead of

working against , unity in diversity instead ofseparateness). Nevertheless, in the new religion

were incorporated some of the tenets of several

more ancient Faiths— this fact is known to

students of Comparative Religions.

And here an important point must be empha-sised: The Masters may only guide and suggest,

but never compel — for it’s against the Divine Law

to interfere in any way with free will. Although

a truism, had we humans not been endowed with

a measure of freewill, we would all be auto-

matons, and automatons we would still be if Men

of Power could control our thoughts and actions.

And yet our freewill would not have been a mixed

blessing if only we had used it wisely. As it is,

because it gave us the option of choosing either

good or evil, we have chosen a large proportion

of evil. In consequence — and here is the salient

point—many of the religions, cults and so on

which the Masters espoused have fallen very far

short of the ideal; hence the birth of untenable

dogmas, distortion of texts and their meanings,

bigotry, wranglings and other inordinations. Asfor the unchristian behaviour of the Christian

nations, the only thing that can be said is: if

there hadn't been any Christian Religion at all,

human conduct might have proved even still more



It may be asked: if The Hierarchy does really

exist, why is it not more widely known? Theanswer is that only within comparatively recent

years would such a disclosure have been safe, that

is, safe for those to whom it might have been made.

Don’t forget that at one time The Church was so

despotic, that any person suspected of holding un-

orthodox beliefs was subjected to the worst kind

of persecution. And so the Hierarchy and its work

was not revealed except to the few, and they were

careful to hide the fact from the profane. Granted

that since those times things have changed, even

so, when towards the end of last century, two ofthe Masters inspired the Theosophical Movement

and used that remarkable woman, Mme.

Blavatsky, as their willing instrument, she was

denounced as a fraud and even accused of having

invented The Hierarchy and its Initiates. Yet con-

sidering that many people have contacted theMasters, (a point to be noted) and still do so, the

fraudtheory was far from convincing. During the

present century mention of The Masters has been

made in a number of books and journals, yet they

still prefer to keep mostly in the background, for,

apart from other considerations, they are alive tothe unwisdom of personalityworship. They do not

wish that anyone should believe a thing merely

because they say so. The ideas they inspire are

left for the recipient to size up and accept as

disastrous. This was something The Christ must

have foreseen.



reasonable or reject, as the case may be* Nor is

belief, as mostly understood, always involved, but

rather a change of heart. Plans for furthering the

wellbeing of man both physically and spiritually

on this our very backward planet are what theMasters are intent on putting through. For,

according to them, our earth is still in process of

evolving and has by no means reached perfection;

as witness the cruelty of Nature, especially as

regards the animal kingdom. Nevertheless, the

days will come when, as the ancient prophets fore-told, “ the lion will lie down with the lamb ", and

the nations “ will beat their swords into plough-

shares The wishes and hopes and strivings of

The Hierarchy have ever been to bring those days

nearer, and so speed up the establishment of what

in the Christian Religion is called “ the kingdomof heaven on earth

And at that I must leave it for the consideration

of the openminded. Should they find Scientific

Humanism or any other belief they may hold more

suited to their temperaments than Occultism, ifthey feel disposed to study it, then well and good.

After all, as a great Indian Swami once said:

44What is the use of any religion ” (or irreligion

for that matter) “ unless it bring us peace?”

Cyril Acott - Occultism - An Alternative to Scientific Humanism

Documents

Transcript of Cyril Acott - Occultism - An Alternative to Scientific Humanism