THE COLONIST. Published Every Morning. Saturday, November 20, 1909. THE CRAZE FOR THE OCCULT.

Colonist, Volume LIII, Issue 12701, 20 November 1909, Page 2

THE COLONIST. Published Every Morning. Saturday, November 20, 1909. THE CRAZE FOR THE OCCULT.

A lady who is said to be one of the most successful non-professional clairvoyants and fortune tellers, but who has beon led by the e.vil influences of the study of the subject on its votaries, to discontinue tho use of her gifts, writes an interesting article on the subject in a contemporary. Although the crazo for the, occult is no new thing, never, she says, lias it had such voguo as is tho case at present. The advertisement columns of the newspapers, especially at Home, are filled with the annoimcements of fortune tellers, ranging in bewildering classification : palmists, clairvoyants, psychomntrists, spiritualists, clarvoyants, crystal gazers, and seers of every sort. Some of these people seem to accumulate lar^e fortunes, and most of them prey upon tho. public credulity to the ex -out of comfortable incomes. So little of the craze is "harmless amusement," so much is deadly mischief. "How many of those women who go to their pet fortune teller, palmist, tea cup diviner, mediumistic clairvoyant©, or astrologer and recommended her to their friends as they would recommend a dressmaker or beauty doctor, can honestly say that they have been wholly unaffected uy the- "revelations" poured into their ears ? It is not only from the prophesies of the German soothsayer of unsound mind that disastrous results have ensued." Nor has it been unknown in the annals of necromancy that "one woman is said to have been influenced to such an extent by his prediction of hor future that she deserted her husband and children aJid ran away to a, foreign country with another man." But of all forms of the craze for tile occult, 0119 seems to call lor special caution and determined resistance. The vogue, of Spiritualism threatens a serious and groat danger at tho moment, notably in the rase of impressionable, highly strung girls and women. Modern investigation and rosivireh in tho realm of mental rncdicino forbids us to dismiss this form of tile J occult with a light laugh at its "silly" sido. That side undoubtedly exists, but no thoughful and unbiassed in- j vostigation on this dark borderland can deny or afford to overlook the undoubted element of. danger which exists beneath the surface silliness. Such clangers have probably never been more ably presented than by such an authority as Father Benson in his novel of "The Necromancers," but the private experience of anyone who has baen brought into contact with its phases can testify to the moral ruin and mental and physical peril in which Spiritualism must eventually inevitably involve the frequenter of the soance and the automatic writer. Is all occultism then, mere fantastic and dis- 1 lionest charlatanry? Is there no such thing as the genuine clairvoyant, the true seer? On the contrary, the witness of science, everywhere climbing more and more into the light of day with her marvellous burden of the once unknowable, goes to prove that the man of science of to-morrow will have no more powerful ally than the mystic of to-day. But between that mystic and the crazy charlatan who so often masquerades in his stead, how wide a gulf ! The scientific study of the occult is indeed the ( best cure than can be devised tor those to whom its fascination makes appeal. The vast extent of the field of occultism leaves little room for tho more, doubtful adventures of tho seanco and the teacup. For it includes the marvels of telepathy, already an accredited fact to many who have explored its possibilities. The influences of mind ou matter, on which again has been conferred the cachet of accepted fact, provides the most materialistic of physicians with food for thought in the direction of which he may follow tho most baffling of problems to that final elucidation. To those again who have been encountered the 'human vampire, in real life, the person whose neighbourhood seems to — actualdoes, rather — draw away all one's vitality, and exliaust and depress the victim, the study of human atmospheres cannot prove too great a tax upon the imagination. And lastly, in the region of psyohometry, that little known, little understood, faculty of reading the sensitive plate of passing impressions left by animate events on inanimate objects, letter, jewel, lock of hair, etcjis it too much to believe . that j in a race come into full possess?ionof vfche. realisation of all its powers, it may be possible to read and corrept history, both private and universal, as ■^reading arid correction have ■ never been possible before- It is because of the greatness of the . destiny that awaits these mysterious faculties of ours, still only stirring faintly in their sleep, that on© does so sternly revolt against the vulgarity, the trickery, the low motive, that drags them in [ the dust. ■ .