WHAT IS THE OCCULT?

Hunt and McMahon (America, The Sorcerer’s New Apprentice): The “occult” (or ‘hidden’) has traditionally referred to an ancient perennial wisdom involving mysterious powers pursued and practiced in secret. Reflecting a recent change in attitude, however, the 1980’s brand of occultism is out in the open, having gained wide acceptance and respectability in mainstream America.

Ellis (The Occult): The occult is rather like counterfeit money. It is not the real thing, but it looks like it. It appears to promise some of the products of real spirituality, such as healing, happiness and peace. But in the end, time runs out, the goods have to be handed back, and a penalty has to be paid. Things were not as they seemed.

OCCULT PRACTICES

Editor: The list is long: automatic writing (writing while under a trance), seances (whereby contact is made with the dead), horoscope reading, astral travel (leaving the body), fortune telling, crystal ball gazing, reading of palms and tea leaves and tarot cards, ESP, astrology, numerology, hypnosis, telepathy (mind reading), witchcraft, santeria (the worship of saints), acupuncture, psychic healing, UFO involvement, transcendental meditation, yoga, etc. Behind every architecture there is an architect (yes, the evolutionist would disagree). Who is the architect of these strange occult practices? (Think Black Hat.)