An interest in Occultism is common to most people, but a deep study of its principles and its phenomena is attainable only by the few. It is not advisable to seek transcendental experiences without a sound working knowledge of the root-springs of these phenomena, and one of the purposes of this volume is to render invaluable assistance to those who possess psychic gifts in greater or lesser degree. The Spiritualist, the Theosophist, and the student of Psychic Research will all find in these pages much to interest them and much to ponder. It throws light in some of the dark places which have seemed obscure to those of the modern schools of thought who have not studied ancient knowledge. As it is impossible to expound an infinite mass of fact within the limits of a slender volume, I have added footnotes here and there which will direct any interested reader to further sources of information than my condensed text affords, but the purpose of the book is directed to the general reader rather than to the student or specialist who will doubtless know more than these pages can tell him. OLIVER BLAND. CONTENTS I. THE DEAD RAPPER 1 II. THE AUTOMATIST 17 III. ASTRAL LIGHT AND PSYCHO-LASTROMETER 36 IV. AN EXPERIMENT ON THE THEORY OF PROTECTIVE VIBRATION 56 V. SEX IN THE NEXT WORLD 76 VI. THE REALITY OF SORCERY 93 VII. INCENSE AND OCCULTISM 117 VIII. BEASTS AND ELEMENTALS 141 IX. POSSESSION 157 X. SOME NEW FACTS AND THEORIES 171 XI. ORIENTAL OCCULTISM 194 “_Read not to contradict and confute, not to believe and take for granted ... but to weigh and consider._” _Bacon’s Essays._ CHAPTER I THE DEAD RAPPER I had known Harry Carthew as a second-year man at Oxford. He never completed his course or took a degree because family reasons, some catastrophe of some kind or another--made it imperative for him to earn a living at once. As an undergraduate he was an ardent anti-Spiritualist.