The Paranormal and the Occult

Many people ask, "How can I tell if I have ESP"? They are aware of card tests but aren't familiar with the testing procedures or how many correct guesses it takes to show ESP abilities. Here are some simple tests you can try for telepathy, clairvoyance, and even precognition. You'll need a partner for the telepathy tests.

Take five cards of each suit from a deck of ordinary playing cards. You'll use these for all the tests.

Have a friend shuffle the 20 cards and sit so you can't see the cards. Both of you should relax. Have your friend look at the first card while you try to visua1ize the suit (not the numerical value). As your friend looks at each card, you make a list of your first impressions of their suits (hearts, clubs, spades or diamonds).

Don't take too long; a few seconds should do it. Your first impression counts. Don't intellectualize, especially as you go along and are tempted to recall how many of a particular suit may have already been called. Continue "calling" down through the 20 cards. Try to pick up an even pace of calls.

When you have called all the cards, go back and circle the correct calls on your list, as your friend reads them back to you from the pack of cards.

Repeat this four more times until you have had five "runs" (for a total of 100 calls). If you get 25 correct calls, it could be due to chance. If you get 34 hits, then the odds are 20 to 1 that it's not due to chance; you and your friend have demonstrated telepathy! Now switch and you "send" while your friend "receives."

This is one you can do by yourself. Clairvoyance is the ability to know (or "see clearly") something that another person isn't aware of. For example, the sequence of 20 cards in a freshly shuffled deck that no one has yet seen.

Shuffle the 20 cards and place the deck face down in front of you. Now relax. Ask yourself to "see" the first card's suit; then jot down your first impression (clubs, hearts, spades or diamonds). Continue down through the deck until you make 20 calls. Pick up an even pace. Don't think. When you are finished, look at the cards and place a circle around your correct calls. Repeat four more times for a total of 100 calls. Use the table below to see if you're clairvoyant.

This one you can also do by yourself. Precognition is the ability to see the future, such as the order of the cards in a deck that has not yet been shuffled. Begin by jotting down the suit of each of the 20 cards, in the order that you "predict" they will end up after you shuffle the cards.

After you have made a list of your "calls," shuffle the deck. Now compare the order of the card's suits in the shuffled deck with the list you made before the shuffle. Circle the hits and repeat for four more runs. Use the table below to see if you have precognition.

NOTE: This isn't a strictly scientific test, since careful controls aren't used to assure that you can't be picking up subliminal sensory clues, such as partner gestures or card marks.

HOW TO EVALUATE YOUR TEST SCORES (Depending on number of runs made)

From the GRAPEVINE: Vol. 3 - No. 7 :: October 1975

Knowingly or not, interest in psychic or occult subjects reflects a search for the significance of life. While many studies are rich for their own significance, occult studies are especially significant because they trace man's relationship to his roots and to the unseen forces operating on the inner levels of awareness.

An overview of the occult shows how the apparently diverse teachings really speak to the same theme: that man's current state is merely the most recent of many earlier cycles of intelligent life on earth (some of which were more advanced). A sub-theme might be "history ignored is history repeated."

On a personal level, study of the occult helps to awaken feelings of intense vitality and responsibility for fulfilling one's life-purpose. This happens because there is consistency between the core of occult teachings and the core of man's nature. The effort to reach that core can be called "expanding inward."

An important aspect of occult teachings is the consistency of the message. From different sources, separated by centuries and by cultures, we learn of ancient civilizations, earth upheavals and paranormal competencies of human beings. These sources offered their religious, philosophical or mystical teachings in terms designed to be understood at their time and place (or to be kept secret, for those to come later).

During the 1800's, the Eastern Oriental views were recast in terms which could be comprehended by western cultures. Such were the teachings of Theosophy by Madam Blavatsky. More recently, efforts were made to examine these concepts in the light of modern science. For example efforts were undertaken to explain the aura in a Kirlian photograph, telepathy in a statistic, or Atlantis in a fossile.

For those who want to learn more about the major occult movements which sought to provide a perspective of man in the recurrent cycle of civilization, read Colin Wilson's "The Occult" (Vantage Books, 1973, V813). He describes how Adepts, Kabbalists, Myers, Blavatsky, Gurdjieff, Besant, and many others have each contributed to that broader perspective. The book offers more than an assemblage of historical facts. It ties together the meanings of their "movements" in a way that makes it accessible to a modern mind .

To learn more about evidence suggesting ancient civilizations, strange happenings, truly "occult" (hidden, and rejected) information, begin with Charles Fort's books. Fort collected 25,000 reports of verifiable facts and events which were "damned" by science. Dover Publications has provided "The Complete Books of Charles Fort" (The Book of the Damned, New Lands, Lo!, and Wild Talents), 1974 (ISBN 0-486-23094-5).

From the GRAPEVINE: Vol. 2 - No. 2 :: October 1974

The Kabbalah (or Quabala to occultists) is not a book, although there are old books which seek to reveal the mysteries taught by the Kabbalah (which means "Tradition"). Its attraction for religious scholars stems from the insights it provides into such questions as how variety can arise from unity, how an infinite God can "connect" to finite man, how man can come to know (and reach) God, the sources of evil, etc.

Occultists are attracted to the Kabbalah because of its teachings about the hidden connections between visible and invisible cosmic forces. The hierarchy of these forces can be unlocked for use by those who learn the keys hidden in the Kabbalah. There are two major ways to approach the study of the Kabbalah (it is said you should be over 40 years old before attempting it); the Dogmatic and the Literal approach.

The Dogmatic Kabbalah is based on the interpretation of the "Tree of Life" (lower left) which is a meditation device for focusing on how the single divine emanation of God, starting at Kether (top), descends through the 10 successive "Sephiroth" of opposing attributes until it manifests in physical matter in Malkuth (bottom); man in Earth.

The up-down and across relationships of these attributes reflect the divine order of the universe (which is also reflected in man), and provides a map of the opposing forces which must be kept in balance to achieve harmony. The Sephiroth may represent hierarchies of virtues, vices, forces, gods, planets, numbers, colors, shapes, etc.. In each case, the Tree of Life shows their interrelationship and relative roles.

The Tarot Deck conveys the teaching of the Kabbalah by virtue of the relationship between the figures on its cards, and corresponding paths on the Tree of Life.

The Literal Approach to the Kabbalah makes use of the fact that Hebrew letters also have numerical value (see below right). Using these values, the Bible is then "decoded" by comparing the numerical value of different words For example, "Unity" has the same numerical value as "love," therefore, they convey the same idea. That approach is called "Gematria."

A more complicated Literal approach is "Notariqon," in which each letter of a biblical word is taken to be the start of a new word ("MAN" can mean "many are near"); or by acronyms, where biblical sentences are converted into "power" words, "Mighty Art Thou, Oh Lord" becomes a magic-word "AGLA" (in Hebrew).

TREE OF LIFE ( Just a pictorial representation. Not intended to be legible.)

From the GRAPEVINE: Vol. 3 - No. 9 :: May 1976

Whenever we get into a discussion about the paranormal, especially in trying to explain "how it works," I find myself using such terms as Etheric Body, Astral Plane, Aura, etc.. Where do these terms come from? Most of them were introduced by the teachings of Theosophy, especially as developed by Madam Helena Petrovna Blavatsky (better known by her friends as HPB). Colin Wilson, on page 332 of his book "The Occult," tells us something about the beginnings, and the basic beliefs of the Theosophical Society, as follows:

The word (theosophy) was not invented by HPB. It had been in use for centuries as a synonym for Mysticism. For example, Bishop Martensen refers to Jakob Boehme's system as a 'theosophy' in his classic book on Boehme (1882). But after HPB, theosophy meant primarily a curious system of Eastern and Western mysticism, 'secret Doctrine' and spiritualism.

As soon as the society was formed (in 1875), HPB set out to write its bible. She wrote endlessly, day after day, chain-smoking and occasionally glancing up to read some book held out for her by spirits. The result, 'Isis Unveiled,' came out in two volumes in September 1877 and sold amazingly well.

An incredibly erudite work, blending doctrines from the Kabbalah, Cornelius Agrippa, Pythagoras, Buddhist, Hindu and Taoist scripture, 'Isis Unveiled' can still be studied with enjoyment, if only for the extraordinary boldness of its conceptions. We have already touched upon her doctrine of 'root races' in discussing Atlantis.

The first root race lived near the north pole and they were invisible, being made of fire-mist; the second, living in Northern Asia, were just visible - they invented sexual intercourse; the third root race were the ape-like giants of Lemuria, who communicated telepathically and could not reason in our sense; The fourth were the Atlanteans, who were destroyed through black Magic.

We are the fifth root race (and according to the occultist Lewis Spence, we are also heading the way of Atlantis). The sixth root Race will evolve from the present human race and will live on Lemuria (in the Pacific) again. After the seventh root race, life will leave our earth and start up on Mercury.

Buried in all these remarkable assertions there is the vitally important notion that man is in a privileged position. It is true that his spirit is trapped in an unprecedented weight of flesh; but he possesses the will and intellect to cope with it. He could, with confidence and courage, become godlike.

In addition to these cosmological concepts, theosophy taught of various "bodies" of man, ranging from the coarse physical body through the finer matter of the etheric, astral, mental and causal bodies, etc. (seven in all). These concepts were extensively described by Annie Besant who succeeded Madam Bavatsky (after her death) in 1891.

Excellent summaries of Besant's, Blavatsky's and other theosophist writings were compiled in a series of books by A.E. Powell (the Etheric Double,The Astral Body,The Mental Body, and The Causal Body).

Interestingly enough, William A. Tiller, Ph.D., Professor of Materials Science at the University Of Stanford, California has adopted, intact, this concept of seven different types of substances which make up man's body, each obeying it's unique set of natural laws (page 517, "Psychic Exploration," by Edgar D. Mitchell).

Theosophy, and its companion teachings, may be entering the mainstream of science at last.

From the GRAPEVINE: Vol. 2 - No. 7 :: March 1975

Posted November 12, 1995