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<p class=MsoNormal align=right style='text-align:center;mso-line-height-alt:
11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><b
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<span
style='mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-style:normal'><font size="4">On Occultism</font><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;mso-line-height-alt:11.75pt;
mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;mso-line-height-alt:11.75pt;
mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>IT has been
often said and it is very true that as soon as you enter the domain of the
invisible, the very first things you meet are literally frightful. If you have
no fear, then alone you are safe; but the least fear means the utmost peril. It
is for this reason that in ancient days the aspirant had to pass through a
severe discipline for a long time precisely with the object of getting rid of
fear and therefore of all possibility of danger before he was permitted to
start on the way.<o:p></o:p></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:13.5pt;mso-line-height-alt:
11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>That
is why till now I have not spoken to you of it. But if any of you feel you have
a disposition for such things, or some special aptitude in this direction and
are ready to surmount all weaknesses, well, I am at your disposal, ready to
help you and initiate you into the mysteries. But I am afraid you have still to
grow a little more, become more mature before I can take up the charge.</p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:13.5pt;mso-line-height-alt:
11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>Of
course, age is really no bar. I was doing occultism when I was twelve years old.
But I must tell you I had no fear, I had fear of nothing. Here you come out of
the <span class=GramE>body,</span> you are connected with the body by the very
tiniest, almost imperceptible, bit of thread, as it were. If the thread snaps,
there is an end of it all, the end of your life. So you come out into another
world and begin to look about and see what kind of world it is. Generally, the
first things you see, as I said, are absolutely terrifying. In your normal
view, the air about you is empty; there is nothing – you see the blue of the
sky or the white cloud or the sunshine and everything is beautiful. But when
you have the other sight, the picture is quite different. You see that the
whole atmosphere is filled with a multitude of small formations, which are the
remains of desires and mental deformations and they crowd about you in such a
way that<o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>

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mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>
<span
style='font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;'>Page – 354<o:p></o:p></span></p>

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<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;mso-line-height-alt:11.75pt;
mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><span
class=GramE>the</span> whole thing gives you a very disagreeable impression.
Indeed, it is positively ugly more often than not. They come near you, attack
you, press upon you and you fear and tremble. Then they assume formidable
proportions. But if you are not shaken, if you can look with the eye of a calm curiosity,
you will find then there is nothing so very terrifying. Things are not
beautiful perhaps, but they are not frightful either.<o:p></o:p></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:13.5pt;mso-line-height-alt:
11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>I
shall tell you a story to illustrate my point. I knew a Dane who was a painter,
a painter of some talent.' He was interested in occultism. Some of you might
have heard of him. He had come here and met Sri Aurobindo. He did a portrait
too of Sri Aurobindo. It was the first Great War. He returned to <st1:country-region><st1:place>France</st1:place></st1:country-region>
and saw me. He asked me to teach him this science. I taught him how to come out
of the body, how to maintain control, etc., etc. I told him especially, what I
tell you now, not to have fear. Now he came to me one day and narrated his
experience of a night. He had a dream; but of course it was not a dream: he
knew how to come out of the body and was out consciously. Once out he was
trying to find where he was. Suddenly he saw moving towards him a tiger, huge
and formidable, evidently with dire intentions. He remembered, how-ever, my
advice. So he kept calm and quiet and said to himself: &quot;There is no
danger, I am protected, <span class=GramE>nothing</span> can happen to me, I am
surrounded by the power of protection.&quot; And he looked straight at the
animal calmly and fearlessly. As he kept on gazing, strange to say, he saw the
tiger diminishing in size, shrinking and shrinking, till at last it turned into
a small harmless cat!</p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:13.5pt;mso-line-height-alt:
11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>What
did the tiger represent? I told the painter that perhaps in the course of the
day or at some time he was angry with some one and indulged in violent
thoughts, wishing him harm, etc. Now as in the physical world, so too in the
occult world there is a law of action and reaction or return movement. You
cherish a bad thought; it returns upon you as an attack from outside. So the
tiger might have represented some bad thought or impulse in him which came back
upon him, like, as it is said, a boomerang. It is exactly one of the reasons
why one should have control over one's thoughts and feelings and sensations.
For if you think ill of a person, wish unpleasant things for him, <span
class=GramE>then</span> in your dream you are likely to see the person<o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>

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mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>
<span
style='font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;'>Page – 355<o:p></o:p></span></p>

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<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;mso-line-height-alt:11.75pt;
mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><span
class=GramE>coming</span> to attack you, more violently perhaps than you
thought of doing. In your ignorance and impulse of self-justification you say,
&quot;Just see, was I not right in my feeling towards this man, he wanted to
kill me!&quot; In point of fact, however, the contrary is the truth. It is a
common law in occultism that if you make a formation – a mental formation, for
example, to the effect that an accident or some unpleasant thing should happen to
a person and you send out the formation to do its work, then, if it so happens
that the person concerned is on a higher level of consciousness, that is to
say, if he wishes harm to none, is quite disinterested and indifferent in the
matter, then the formation approaches him but does not enter into his
atmosphere or touch him, it rebounds upon the sender. In that case a serious
accident may happen to the sender of the formation: if one wishes death to
another, death may come to himself. That is often the result of black magic
which is a de-formation of occultism.<o:p></o:p></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:13.5pt;mso-line-height-alt:
11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>Formations
are of many kinds. A formation is made for a particular work. When the work is
done, the formation too dissolves. But it is a huge and complex subject. You
cannot learn the whole of chemistry in one hour. </p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:13.5pt;mso-line-height-alt:
11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>I
shall tell you another story in this connection, for it has an occult bearing. </p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:13.5pt;mso-line-height-alt:
11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>There
was a very well-known scientist in <st1:City><st1:place>Paris</st1:place></st1:City>.
He has written the story in a book of his. He wanted to know to what extent
man's reason can affect or influence his reflex movements, how far one can
control one's instinctive or subconscious impulsions by the force of conscious
intelligence. So one day he went to the Zoo. Among the animals there were huge
snakes, one was particularly notorious for its vicious character, <span
class=GramE>that</span> is to say, it could be easily excited and enraged. It
was a very big animal, black but beautiful. The serpents were of course kept
within glass cases, the glass being sufficiently thick to prevent any
possibility of accident. He came before meal-time, when it was hungry; for
after food they go to sleep. He stood before the glass-pane, quite near, and
began teasing and <span class=SpellE>and</span> exciting the animal. I do not
remember exactly what he did to rouse the animal, but there it was wild with
anger; it shot out like a spring and darted at the face of the gentleman who
was just on the other side of the glass almost touching it.<o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>

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mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>
<span
style='font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;'>Page – 356<o:p></o:p></span></p>

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<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;mso-line-height-alt:11.75pt;
mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>He knew
very well that nothing could happen to him, the barrier was sound and secure
and yet each time the snake darted at him, he leaped back to avoid the blow as
it were. The thing repeated itself continually and however much he repeated to
himself all the reasons of his safety and security, the reflex gesture could
not be controlled.<o:p></o:p></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:13.5pt;mso-line-height-alt:
11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>Only
the scientist did not know one thing – an element of occult knowledge escaped
him. The physical movement of the serpent was accompanied by a considerable
amount of a vital projection of its nervous energy. It was that which struck
him with an irresistible force. It was almost like a violent physical shock and
mere reason has no power to control it. To check and control, you must learn
the occult way.<o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>

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<span
style='font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;'>Page – 357<o:p></o:p></span></p>

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