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Beyond the mind chapter 5

« The occult may lead to loss of identity, should its student surrender to its belief system. The individual must learn to protect himself optimally, or he subjects himself to possible psychic manipulation and disinformation that may lead to the eventual domination of his mind by forces that are very much alive and real. In surrendering his critical faculties, he victimizes himself through a gradual loss of identity. » BdM

 

The content of this page was written in English by the BdM Intl Diffusion team. If you read this page in another language, the translation will be done by an artificial intelligence (AI) service, so the result must be interpreted with discernment.

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Occult sciences have an undefined but important role to play in the evolution of consciousness. Their increasing presence in books and films is a testimony to an interest spreading in the industrialized countries, revived by a new generation seeking a form of knowledge that is well delineated from the didactic authoritarianism that had marked education prior to the identity crisis of the sixties.

As the identity crisis continues unchecked, psychic sciences are quickly becoming popular. The twenty-first century could be witness to forms of inner research and development that will strike a serious blow to superficial approaches to self-development, as a greater psychological and psychic freedom helps the individual out of his collectivity.

Occult sciences derive their compendium of knowledge from psychic sources which may or may not correspond to the general good of those who come in contact with them, due to the nature, obscure origins, and the influence they may bring to bear on their student’s undeveloped and too often naive personality. Occult sciences originate from an inner contact with psychic forces whose teachings conform in general to an astral view of life and reality.

Unlike psychological sciences, they tend to create a sense of reality that is grounded in an arbitrary acceptance of their authoritative teachings. The nature of these sciences cannot be discussed from a rational point of view. This leaves much room for interpretation and, at the same time, imposes upon the student a subtle form of authority which is not easily disposed of by those who lack an essential center of discernment.

In themselves, psychic sciences are not a problem. However, the lack of maturity on the part of those who come in contact with them may be cause for concern.

The Church has always anathemized them not only because they challenge its basic doctrines and undermine its authority, but because they invite the individual to study the mysteries from a point of view that has been channelled from interdimensional realities which only She is supposedly competent and empowered to judge and oversee for the preservation of man’s soul and spirit.

Those days are over, now that the new generation can no longer be halted or restrained in its appetite for discovery and knowledge of what lies beyond. As a result of this, psychic sciences in many forms are inviting the inquisitive investigator into a vast market of new age literature and esoteric teachings for which the individual is often psychologically ill prepared.

It should be noted that any occult science gives access to subliminal levels of energy which eventually alter the personality and consciousness. This, in itself is not negative. What is or could be, however, is the inevitable disorder experienced by those individuals who do not have the maturity to evaluate this information objectively, that is, from the center of their own inner intelligence.

Man is a psychic being evolving in a physical envelope. He lacks the necessary mental make up to psychically endure his contact with certain forms of occult knowledge without losing equilibrium. The occult is a reality that cannot be taken at face value.

As a result, the student must learn to be master of his own thoughts and this can only occur after he has developed the intelligence and insight to distinguish between real and astral-spiritual messages. As long as the student of the occult has sufficient maturity and a highly individualized mental and emotional make-up, these marginal sciences may become unique and useful tools in the waking of his mind to higher forms of thought and knowledge.

Under adverse conditions, however, he may fail to see the illusion of the form. Psychic sciences, be they occult, esoteric, or simply paranormal, can be hazardous if one is to live by them blindly. Instead of using them as a tool for increased insight, they may easily degenerate into astral forces that manipulate the mind.

The major risk of occult sciences lies in the student’s usual inability to see through subtle forms of alienation bred by notions that disturb the psyche’s equilibrium, due to a lack of strongly centred and creative critical faculties.

The ego must not surrender its identity when dealing with forms of knowledge or communication that are subject to unknown and widely misunderstood astral influences having the inherent power to channel conflicting truths through the psyche. The mind is easily entrapped when touched by extrasensory notions presented as true forms of knowledge.

The ego experiences difficulty in objectifying such unknown territory and maintaining its own critical faculties with respect to ideas that transcend reason. Too often, those attracted to the occult lose their identity when psychic sources, be they books or individuals or entities, appear to speak with authority.

Occult sciences are the threshold through which psychic forces penetrate and influence consciousness. It must be fully realized that the dead are not dead in an absolute earth sense of the word. They pursue their own evolution on a parallel plane of reality whose laws they are absolutely bound to: the astral plane.

It is easier to comprehend that incarnated man’s only psychic shield against the alienating effect of astral disinformation lies in his capacity to relate to his own inner being. Man is a psychic being in the flesh. He knows more than he thinks or is willing to admit to himself.

Unfortunately, he has difficulty managing his intuitive knowledge when faced with astrally conditioned information that colours reality. At this point, occult sciences become a liability where they could otherwise compensate for his intellectual shortcomings. The occult may lead to loss of identity, should its student surrender to its belief system.

The individual must learn to protect himself optimally, or he subjects himself to possible psychic manipulation and disinformation that may lead to the eventual domination of his mind by forces that are very much alive and real. In surrendering his critical faculties, he victimizes himself through a gradual loss of identity.

Occult sciences are to the study of the soul what physical sciences are to the study of matter. This fact is of primary importance to those who involve themselves seriously in the pursuit of occult knowledge. The latter must be objectively evaluated.

While the mind can grasp the most obtuse ideas because of the subtle and intimate nature of its light, it may also be easily sidetracked by the forces of the soul. The soul carries within itself karmic weaknesses which astral forces may use to their advantage, in turn weakening the mind. The soul and the mind are two different aspects of human reality.

The soul is part of present and past human experiences while the mind is the ultimate principle of spirit consciousness. The mind is the light, the soul its carrier. Depending on the evolutionary status of soul experience, more or less light may move through it, which explains the human experience and its relative suffering due to ignorance of the occult laws of life and death, soul and spirit.

The occult awakens powerful forces that magnetize those whose naive spiritual quest appropriates much of their inner thoughts. However, above and beyond soul or astrality exists a higher mentality whose creative intelligence has instructive power as to the nature of the soul world or astral plane of the dead. Reality reaches far beyond astral teaching, be it enlightening or otherwise.

Whatever the astral world may teach man, he must measure and adjust according to his own mind in order to free himself from its powerful influence. The future evolution of the mind can be defined as the absolute capacity to live beyond the influences of the soul or the astral plane.

Through higher mental evolution, man will gravitate towards the center of his absolute self and bask in his own creative energy. His consciousness will experience realms that extend beyond his present physical boundaries. The path to such freedom, however, is heavily circumscribed by astral influences which only experience and maturity can neutralize.

The mind originates beyond all belief systems. It only creates and sustains them until the mature and conscious ego no longer needs to live under the umbrella of crystallized beliefs that foster naive attitudes towards the nature of reality. The mind can easily signify its affinity with supramental consciousness when the ego extends itself beyond the rigid framework of its thinking habits that hinder the free flow of conscious thoughts.

The ego can then gravitate to the center of thought itself and allow the individual to learn and understand the unwritten laws and the occult forces that underlie their reality.

While the occult may open up the mind to realms that do not correspond to the ego’s mechanical thinking habits, it may also violate the territorial integrity of the psyche, and force it into a difficult confrontation with reflected self-doubt that could, in the long run, impair its identity. Occult sciences cannot be dismissed.

They are parent to an infinite source of cosmic facts which lead to clearer insight into the mechanics of fusion or unity between the lower and the higher self, the etheric counterpart of the mind. Nevertheless, they must be evaluated through objective, critical and intuitive faculties.

Otherwise they may damage the egoic fabric and deprive the self of the necessary tools it needs to confront daily existence. The mind is a force field whose power to reveal is diminished or made latent only by the intellectual process and the mechanical unconscious memory of a soul-filled self.

Once the ego has learned to move with the free flow of conscious thought, and realized the powerful presence of astral energy constantly interfering with the clarity of thought, the mind bears witness to objective supramental activity. The ego, however, must never surrender the stability of its life to the occult dimension of the mind, since the only result is damage.

The occult is of another time and has its rightful place within our consciousness. From its dimensions of light and darkness, it composes with the physical but must not be left free to dispose of it. It is in the vital interests of those who pursue occult or paranormal forms of research to realize and know that nothing lies above man that cannot be integrated and unified by him and through him alone.

The unconscious surrender to psychic influence is akin to going to sea without the necessary vessel. The occult is but a term that bears witness to the relativity of what is seen and unseen, known and unknown, provable and improvable. It should never become a belief system.

It can, however, create many belief systems for it is not bound by logic and therefore cannot be put into effective logical verification. Surrender to the occult occurs whenever its dynamics interfere with the equilibrium of the physical, emotional and mental life of the student.

Were the occult experienced creatively, life would be enhanced a thousand times and never once diminished. It would be made complete through a process of creative growth that lies beyond the ordinary and unconscious experience. Until such time, the ego must be made aware of its charms, its fascination and its traps.

Therein lies the evolution of consciousness and the development of conscious thought supported by the opening of the mind and the realization that the price for real freedom is in the capacity never to surrender to a belief system, especially when it is occult and made valid in appearance through the authority of so called masters or teachers.

Man has but one master and teacher ultimately: himself. In a more advanced state of soul evolution, one becomes more sensitive to the occult side of nature. The role played by the soul and the spirit in the study of occult sciences is not necessarily a parallel one.

The soul may be attracted to the occult for reasons imbedded in past life experiences while the spirit may simply use the occult as a means to an end that ties in with the development towards an integrated identity.

In general, the differences between soul and spirit are not sufficiently clear in the consciousness of the student of the occult; they must be understood if one is to discern between the influence of the soul and the guiding force of the spirit at different stages of mental evolution.

Psychics, for instance, will easily interest themselves in the occult and be ensnared by their affinity with it unless they are sufficiently centred in their minds to see with discrimination. Mediums and psychic channelers tend to serve the occult forces moving through them without their willing consent.

Consequently, they become easy prey to occult politics of which they have little or no discriminatory notion. The general public will tend to lower its guard as it becomes engrossed with aspects of the occult that initiate a spiritual or philosophical quest.

The occult increases the psychic dimension of the mind and pulls the individual into a vortex of soul energy, thus creating a psychic bond between the ego and other planes of consciousness. As a result, it may threaten the individuals identity as it superimposes views of life, death, and reality that the ego can only integrate through a long process of spiritual disillusionment which it may or may not overcome.

Surrendering to the occult is the inevitable consequence of naively accepting or interpreting astralized truths, that circumvent the necessity of a solid daily ground in life where occult knowledge remains in the background as a support.

Psychic or occult influence comes about gradually as the ego loses sight of its life priorities and espouses inter-dimensional teaching or knowledge which fascinates the mind. The more pervasive the influence, the more impotent the ego becomes in a material world from which it seeks to expand in order to unconditionally free itself.

Surrendering to the influence of psychic sciences is a soul experience in the strictest sense of the word. The astral energy of the soul is intimately linked to the occult and vibrates in harmony with ideas that fascinate the ego because of its karmic past on the astral plane. The occult is a stream of consciousness undetected by the intellect.

It seeps through the mind in ways that correspond to the astral, unconscious desires of the ego unsatisfied by life and its complexity. It is in the nature of the occult to disinform in order to capture the imagination.

Through this process, material truths are put into secondary perspective and replaced by astral truths which in turn condition the ego to a self-induced form of knowledge or education, liberating it from the constraining and limiting reality of contemporary material civilization.

The mind cannot protect the ego unless the latter has learned to ascertain by itself even the most satisfying and apparently fundamental occult truth, otherwise, it may get caught in a web of inextricable feelings that correspond to an astral view of reality totally detached from etheric or mental consciousness.

The soul predisposes the individual to the occult. Its vibration is at the origin of the egoic impulse that will lead it towards an inner experience which he alone can and should evaluate. Surrendering to the occult is equivalent to the domination of the soul and the loss of one’s freedom to discern.

Discernment can only be secured by the support of the higher mind which is the seat of human intelligence and creative identity. The soul is a force field that must be neutralized by the mind in order to protect the individual from the powerful lust for inner search created by the occult side of human nature. Future generations will return to the occult.

The ancient wisdom will resurface and the younger generations, freed from materialistic views of life, will look beyond present conditions in order to elevate their knowledge and insure themselves of a deeper understanding of the human condition.

Many will fall prey to psychic manipulation at the hands of masters and entities and will surrender to the occult without realizing the inherent danger of studying dimensions of knowledge that magnetize the psyche. They will be ignorant of the laws of occult dimensions and find themselves at the mercy of forces which, once released, can no longer be left, unheeded.

Music is used to move occult messages, while literature and other forms of communication such as the cinema increase man’s severance from himself. The occult is not a matter of opinion any more than science can be a matter of opinion. Opinion is always conditional to the times.

The times are now more and more aligned to the occult. Whether one wants to believe or not is irrelevant. When young adults or children terminate their lives because of their relationship with occult forces, it is no longer time to discuss the validity or invalidity of its truths. It is time to act and realize the nature of its dangers.

Educators, public servants, church clergy and psychologists can no longer ignore murderers’ claims to have heard voices inciting them to commit acts of violence that shock our basic sensibilities. There are creative occult sciences and not so creative ones. It is up to the individual to choose.

There is a problem when parents, educators, and society in general, become too far removed to oversee what the new generation is reading, seeing, or hearing. Educators must be conscious of the new times. They cannot cut themselves off from the modern reality of marginal thinking.

The frontiers of the human mind are expanding and will change man’s view of internal and external reality beyond recognition. The evolution of consciousness is not only subject to mechanical forces but also to psychic ones. It is inherent in human nature to seek reality according to the overtures of the prevailing civilization.

As psychic sciences penetrate mass consciousness, their presence will increase the link with the occult and replace conventional forms of knowledge that have become too irrelevant to sustain the sense of purpose necessary to fully understand and live life. Occult sciences coincide with territorial imperatives that are yet and for a long time ahead, subject to psychic studies.

They have never been screened by psychically competent individuals who are recognized on the basis of their own creative minds. It is time for occult sciences to come under rigorous and profoundly critical study, as are the physical sciences, even though methods will vary greatly in substance and purpose.

Until occult sciences are submitted to objective and severe critical analysis, the individual seeker will be on his own. The more spiritually naive he is, the more he will remain a potential victim of astralized information that will, in time, bring him closer to a point of no return.

Occult knowledge can only serve man if he is intelligent enough to understand that its function in its astral form is to dissociate him from the real center of his mind which lies above and beyond spiritualized forms of knowledge.

The occult invests the naive personality with traits that characterize man’s inability to defy the cosmic components of knowledge, that is, the psychic dimension of the lie beyond the form. Man is but a child when seen from these dimensions. In reality, he is a giant that has not reached full maturity and occult knowledge cannot and will not give him that edge until he has seen through the occult laws of the form.

Surrendering to the occult means that the individual lives his experience in a manner that threatens his identity. The occult is a dimension of knowledge that converges on human consciousness only when man has reached a point of psychic saturation, that is, when he has finally realized that knowledge in itself is but a vibratory support for his reality.

As long as occult knowledge becomes a psychological or spiritual support for man’s reality, he loses his identity to the many traps that such knowledge holds in store for him. Surrendering to it is basically the final cry uttered by human consciousness that lives on the edge of itself and on the periphery of materialistic or traditional race consciousness.

The occult predisposes the individual to assumptions which are not necessarily in line with his own center of consciousness even though they may conform to his spiritual desires. The occult is a dimension of knowledge that corresponds to the will of spiritual entities seeking domination of the human mind for the sake of sustaining their own life cycle on parallel planes of reality which man deems unrelated to his everyday existence.

This basic flaw in human thinking has caused the great loss of identity of people who are involved in the occult experience until they have seen the light, their own light, often after years of deterioration of the fabric of their personality. The occult is a dimension of knowledge that intervenes in the psychological and psychic fabric of human consciousness to a point beyond imagination.

Human nature is so involved with the supraliminal forces of occult nature that, were we made conscious of them without preparation, our mind would collapse. For this reason, occult knowledge has always been hidden from the collective consciousness. We have difficulty dealing with forces whose intelligence lies beyond our subjective understanding.

It is important to realize that such knowledge contains immanent grey zones that are not easy for the unconscious ego to assimilate when seeking egocentric relief from formal knowledge. The student of the occult must understand that the mind is father to the mysteries. As such, it has the intrinsic power to free us from unchallenged truths.

Occult sciences may be dispensed as secretive and often questionable intentions expressed through mediums or channelers as revelations, that go unscrutinized and unchallenged in their dual nature. One of the more serious flaws of the naive mind lies in its inability to identify the source of information from its higher self or double.

The occult derives its strength from a lack of human awareness of the need to identify a possible inner link with disembodied entities absolutely bound to the laws of the astral or death plane. Because of this blind, unconscious side of his nature, the student of the occult cannot cover the whole spectrum of his inner experience, and is forced to live under the assumption that what he or she hears or reads coincides with the highest levels of truth.

Update on 2024/07/24