Everybody Practices Occultism, Whether They Realize It or Not

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. Thought, of course, is not something external, real, and palpable. It is something inward, unseen, occult, 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 will-power. 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’! 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 have 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. 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 (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: “… everybody practises 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 pin-head; it may be as vast as the Earth or even the universe. But you cannot live without practising 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 practising occultism. Only, you don’t know it. 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 practising 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 realised. 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 practises without even knowing it. So the difference from someone who really practises occultism is that he knows he is doing it and perhaps how he does it.”

Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, Powers Within, Chapter II Power of Thought, pp. 17-18