Translation from German by Robert Hutwohl[1]
The latest slogan of the “London Society for Psychic Research” shows the excesses that the urge to satisfy scientific curiosity can lead to. According to it, everyone should choose a motto or saying from any book and send it sealed and numbered to the secretary of the society. After his death he should then communicate the motto and number to a “medium” and if the secretary finds that it is true, he believes he has found proof that the person in question is still alive after death.
This proposal is based on a complete ignorance of the properties of the astral light (called the “sidereal light” by Theophrastus Paracelsus) and the fact that every action, however secret it is, is recorded in this “book of life” and can be perceived through astral vision. Moreover, such an attempt is a step towards the devilish art of “black magic”. The soul, which has struggled to break free from the dust of the earth, is thereby bound to this dark earth by means of a promise even after death, and instead of returning to the glorious freedom of divine self-consciousness, to the holy light of the deity from which it sprang, it is supposed to wander in the realm of shadows and ghosts (Antarikscha loca [R.H.—antarikṣa-loka]) in search of a medium through which it can satisfy the curiosity of people who see evidence where there is none and cannot see the evidence where it is.
There is a kind of devilish art or necromancy in the East, practised by the most depraved classes, by which the soul of a dying person is bound to the earth. For this purpose the “magician” in question visits the dying person, tries to find out whether he has any special wish, and solemnly promises to fulfil this wish, but does not do so. In this way the soul, waiting for the fulfilment of this promise, is bound to the earth (Kama loca [R.H.—kāma-loka) after death and banished to the proximity of the “magician”. The latter then performs certain ceremonies which we do not consider necessary to describe, by which the “spirit” in question is enabled to condense (“materialise”) and to communicate with the “magician”. Since these “spirits” lack higher intelligence, they can be abused for crimes just like fools and imbeciles.
We are far from denying spiritualism any value, for there is nothing in the world that is so harmful that it cannot also bring some benefit. In the end, vivisection is also useful. But the gain that one gets from such things is in no way proportionate to their disadvantage; they generally only serve to prove what one already knows if one has human reason. When Nero set fire to Rome, he was satisfying his scientific curiosity to see what it looks like when a large city burns; he was not concerned about the fate of the inhabitants. Anyone who commits murder and is convicted for it has the benefit of experiencing what it feels like to have committed murder and to be imprisoned for it. The “psychic experimenters” also carry out similar experiments without, as they believe, putting their own skin in danger. Nevertheless, they condemn themselves in the process. They thereby lose love, i.e. the knowledge of the divine nature of man; they enrich their apparent knowledge at the expense of true knowledge, which is called conscience.
—————
The ancient philosophers and sages had nothing to do with departed “spirits”. According to them, man became a god after death. “Spirit” is an insubstantial thing which, like light, only acquires essence and individuality through the body to which it “clings”. The body through which the spirit (Atma [R.H.—ātmā]) receives substance is the spiritual soul (Buddhi Manas). The earthbound “spirits” of the spiritualists are only the remains of the dead; that which has not yet completely died in man, but must die so that the soul can rise to freedom.
—————
Spiritualism differs from spiritism in that the one is dealing with the living, the other, [the latter,] with the dead. Spiritualism involves spirituality, i.e. elevation of the soul and sublimity of the spirit. Anyone who can raise himself with heart and thoughts to the realm of the eternal, the noble, the good, the true and the beautiful has a spiritual nature. Anyone whose feelings and self-awareness are firmly rooted in heaven (in eternal reality) and who from his elevated standpoint only observes the shadowy life of the world and its “junk room” (astral plane) like a silent observer is a “spiritualist”, in contrast to the “materialist” who digs for earthworms on earth. Anyone who is not aware of his higher nature, who himself plays a shadow among the shadows in the shadow play of the world comedy, who is absorbed in it, who imagines that he can make the high and sublime subservient to his low purposes and draw the immortal down to himself, has yet to recognize the true spirit. The true spiritualist is able, by the sublimity of his being, to put himself in touch with the immortals; the spiritualist is a fanatic who trades in the old clothes left by the immortals on earth (Kama loca [R.H.—kāma loka]—the world of earthly desires). The spiritualist in the true sense of the word sacrifices his own self and thereby expands himself into infinity; the spiritualist contracts in his shell and wills that the whole world, including the spirit kingdom, should bow before his selfishness and curiosity.
—————
Modern spiritism has had the advantage that it has led certain depraved minds, who had lost the awareness of their immortal nature, to the conviction that everything does not end with the death of the body. Whether they have become wiser as a result and have regained this awareness is another question. The wise man acts well because he recognizes what is good; the fool is guided in his actions by the fear of personal disadvantage. Increased knowledge brings with it increased responsibility. Some have passed from materialism to spiritualism through spiritism, others remain stuck in spiritism. Ignorance is better than false knowledge. “Truth does not do as much good in the world as false appearance does evil.” The mystical movement of modern times is the way to knowledge, but it also opens the door to pathological mysticism.
Note:
[1] Little things. Various. Franz Hartmann, M.D. Lotusblüten 3, no. 17 (February 1893), 135-141. {This article was reformatted from the original, but with the content unchanged other than minor typos, translation from German by Robert Hutwohl, ©2025}