A Podcast Featuring Sri Aurobindo Studies
Sept. 12, 2024

Everybody Practices Occultism, Whether They Realize It or Not

Everybody Practices Occultism, Whether They Realize It or Not
Everybody Practices Occultism, Whether They Realize It or Not
Sri Aurobindo Studies
Everybody Practices Occultism, Whether They Realize It or Not

reference: Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, Powers Within, Chapter II Power of Thought, pp. 17-18 This episode is also available as a blog post at https://sriaurobindostudies.wordpress.com/2024/09/12/everybody-practices-occultism-whether-they-realize-it-or-not/

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More information about Sri Aurobindo can be found at www.aurobindo.net

The US editions and links to e-book editions of Sri Aurobindo’s writings can be found at Lotus Press www.lotuspress.com

0:01 People proudly deny occultism with a laugh and a smirk about how unreal it is and how people are taken in by the occult sciences. They state their dependence on what is real and solid and palpable to their senses. Seeing is believing, they say. They frequently pound on the table to prove how real what they believe in happens to be. Yet when given the opportunity to objectify what they do in their lives, they reveal that they too are practitioners of occult arts, things that are not so palpable or solid as they profess. In their attempt to minimize the value of occultism, they are asked how they decide to do something, and they indicate they think about it.

0:52 Thought of course, is not something external, real and palpable. It is something inward, unseen, a cult if you will. They are asked how they succeed in their careers or anything they do, be it sports, hobbies or development of their family life and they respond that it is through the use of their strong willpower. When asked how they came up with some invention or creative solution, they will talk about how they possess the power of imagination or they saw something in their mind's eye. Another not so solid, palpable or visible occult power.

1:34 Many of these same people wind up having a meaningful dream which they describe in great detail and explain how it impacted their lives. Or they wind up having a near death experience or having a feeling of Deja Vu in certain circumstances. Sometimes they play the lottery and if they win, they explain how they suddenly felt like they knew what numbers to choose. Or they had a dream they meet someone and it turns into a lifetime love with their soul mate. People utilize the power of prayer to aid them in their lives. Some people come back from a military engagement and indicate that their friend was killed or injured, but somehow they were at that very moment called away survivors of an unavoidable death, and they felt like some higher power protected them.

2:29 Occasionally they may feel like they even have some kind of guardian Angel watching over and protecting them, or else that God is managing to do that so that he can save their souls. They would, of course, deny that any of this has anything to do with occultism. We get the picture. Those who openly acknowledge, at least to themselves, that they utilize occult powers that lie within each of us have the best opportunity to consciously develop, train, and practice the use of these powers to optimize them, to explore other underutilized or unrecognized powers and truly realize their potential within the realm of their human capacities.

3:18 Not to speak of further evolutionary opportunities that open to them once they have become receptive to the occult forces that operate within and around them. The Mother notes quote everybody practices occultism without knowing that he does. Everybody has this power spontaneously but doesn't know he has it. It may be a very slight one, like a pinhead. It may be as vast as the earth or even the universe. But you cannot live without practicing occultism, only you don't know it when you think I have explained this to you, I don't know how many times. When you think you are practicing occultism only, you don't know it.

4:06 When you are thinking of someone, some part of you is automatically in contact with this person, and if to your thought is added a will that this person may be like this or like that, or understand this or that, whatever it may be, well, you are practicing occultism, only you don't know it. There are people who do this with power, and when they have a strong thought, it manifests and is realized. There are people in whom it is very feeble and they do not obtain many results. It depends on the power of your thought and also on your power of concentration. But this kind of occultism everybody practices without even knowing it. So the difference from someone who really practices occultism is that he knows he is doing it and perhaps how he does it. End Quote.

5:02 Reference Sri Orobindo and the Mother Powers within Chapter 2. Power of Thought, pages 17 to 18.