Psychic 'Powers'
In order to complete our treatment of magic and other things of the same order, we must deal with yet another question, that of alleged psychic 'powers', which brings us back more directly to initiation, or rather to the errors made concerning it; for as we said at the beginning, there are those who expressly assign to initiation the purpose of 'developing those psychic powers latent in man'. What they so designate is really nothing other than a power to produce more or less extraordinary 'phenomena', and in fact most of the pseudo-esoteric or pseudo-initiatic schools of the modern West intend nothing else. This is a veritable obsession among the great majority of their adherents who deceive themselves about the value of these 'powers' to the point of taking them as the sign of spiritual development, or even as its result, whereas, even when they are not a mere figment of the imagination, they belong solely to the psychic domain-which in reality has nothing at all to do with the spiritual-and are most often an obstacle to the acquisition of any true spirituality.
This illusion about the nature and scope of the 'powers' in question is most often associated with an excessive interest in 'magic', which is also caused by the same passion for 'phenomena' so characteristic of the modern Western mentality. But here another error inserts itself which it is well to point out: the truth is that there are no 'magical powers', although one meets this expression everywhere, not only among those to whom we have alluded, but also, by a curiously coincident error, among those who attempt to combat the tendencies of these former while being no less ignorant than they concerning the real facts of the matter. Magic must be treated as the natural and experimental science that it really is; as bizarre or
exceptional as the phenomena with which it occupies itself may be, they are no more 'transcendent' than any others, and when the magician produces such phenomena, he does so merely by applying the knowledge he has of certain natural laws, those of the subtle domain to which the forces he engages belong. Thus there is no extraordinary 'power' here, any more than with one who, having studied some science, applies its results. Would one say for example that a physician possesses 'powers' because, knowing that a certain remedy is good for this or that illness, he cures it by means of that remedy? Between the magician and the possessor of psychic 'powers' there is a difference comparable to that in the corporeal order between one who uses a machine to accomplish some work and another who does so solely by dint of his own strength or manual skill, both acting in the same domain but not in the same way. On the other hand, whether it be a matter of magic or of 'powers', in neither case is there anything, we repeat, of the spiritual or the initiatic; if we note the difference between these two things, it is not because one is worth any more than the other from our point of view, but because it is always necessary to know exactly what one is speaking of and to dispel any confusions that vex the subject.
With certain individuals psychic 'powers' are entirely spontaneous, the simple effect of a natural disposition that develops of itself. In this case it is obvious that there is no room for pride, any more than in the case of other natural aptitudes, since such aptitudes do not bear witness to any intended 'realization', the existence of which the possessor may not even suspect. If he has never heard of 'initiation', the idea of being 'initiated' will certainly never occur to him simply because he happens to see things that others do not see or because he sometimes has 'premonitory' dreams, or again because he heals a sick person by mere contact and without knowing how it comes about. But there is also the case where similar 'powers' are acquired or developed artificially as the result of special 'training'; this is something more dangerous, for it rarely happens without provoking a certain disequilibrium; and at the same time it is in such a case that illusion is most easily produced. There are people who are convinced that they have obtained 'powers', perfectly imaginary in fact, either because of their desire and a sort of 'obsession'
[idée fixe], or because of a suggestion exercised over them by someone from those quarters where 'training' of this kind is commonly practiced. It is here above all that 'initiation' is carelessly spoken of and more or less identified with the acquisition of these all too wellknown 'powers'; and it is therefore not surprising that weak minds or the ignorant allow themselves to be as it were spellbound by such claims, claims which the case of spontancous powers suffices to reduce to nothing, since it involves 'powers' that are wholly similar and perhaps even more developed and more authentic, without requiring the least trace of any real or supposed 'initiation'. What is perhaps most strange and most difficult to understand is that when those who possess such spontancous 'powers' happen to find themselves in contact with these same pseudo-initiatic groups, they are sometimes led to believe that they, too, are 'initiates'; they ought to know the true character of their powers, which are also found to one degree or another among many very ordinary children, although often these powers subsequently disappear more or less quickly. The only excuse for these illusions is that none of those who bring about these 'powers' in themselves or in others have the slightest idea of what true initiation is; but of course this does not in any way diminish the danger of the psychic and even physiological troubles that are the usual accompaniment of such things, or of the more remote and still more serious consequences of a disordered development of lower psychic possibilities which, as we have said clsewhere, runs directly counter to spirituality.[1]
It is particularly important to note that these 'powers' can very well cocxist with the most complete doctrinal ignorance, as one can only too easily observe among most 'clairvoyants' and 'healers'; this alone should suffice to prove that they have not the least connection with initiation, of which the goal can never be anything but pure knowledge. At the same time, this shows that their acquisition is completely lacking in interest, since the possessor thereby advances no further in the realization of his own being, a realization that is one with effective knowledge itself; they are nothing but wholly contingent and transitory acquisitions, exactly comparable in this
respect to powers acquired by bodily development, which latter at least do not present the same dangers; and even the few no less contingent advantages that their exercise may bring certainly do not compensate for the disadvantages to which we have just alluded. Besides, do not these advantages all too often consist in nothing better than astonishing the naïve and securing their admiration, or in other no less empty and puerile satisfactions? Indeed, to make a display of these 'powers' is already the proof of a mentality incompatible with any initiation, even the most elementary; what can one say then about those who use them in order to pass for 'great initiates'? Let us not dwell further on this, for such things arise out of nothing more than charlatanism, even if the 'powers' in question are real in their own order; indeed, it is not the reality of the phenomena as such that counts here, but rather the value and scope attributed to them.
There is no doubt that suggestion plays a great part in all of this, even among those whose good faith is undeniable. To be convinced of this one has only to consider the case of 'clairvoyants' whose alleged 'revelations' are as far as possible from agreeing with each other, and instead are always related to their own ideas or to those of their milieu or school. Let us suppose nonetheless that we are dealing with realities, which is more likely when the 'clairvoyance' is spontaneous than when it has been brought about artificially. Even in this case it is hard to see why what someone has seen or heard in the psychic world should, in general, have more interest or importance than what anyone might happen to see or hear in the corporeal world while walking down the street: people, most of whom are unknown or to whom one is indifferent, incidents of no concern, fragments of incoherent or unintelligible conversations, and so forth. This comparison certainly gives the best idea of what presents itself to the 'clairvoyant', voluntary or involuntary. The former has more excuse for mistaking the importance of his visions, in the sense that he must suffer some pain at learning that all his efforts, pursued perhaps for years, finally lead only to such a derisory result; but these things ought to appear entirely natural to the spontaneous 'clairvoyant', as in fact they are, and if it did not happen so often that somcone persuades him that they are extraordinary, he would
doubtless never dream of concerning himself more with what he encounters in the psychic domain than he does with its equivalent in the corporeal domain, nor seek marvelous or complex significations for what, in the immense majority of cases, wholly lacks them. 'There is indeed a reason for everything, even the least important and apparently most indifferent fact, but this is of so little import to us that we take no account of it and feel no need to investigate it, at least when it is a question of what is conventionally called 'ordinary life', that is to say the events of the corporeal world. If the same rule were observed with regard to the psychic world (which at root is no less 'ordinary' in itself, even if not in our perceptions of it), how many divagations would be spared us! It is true that this requires a degree of mental equilibrium with which, unhappily, 'clairvoyants', even spontaneous ones, are only rarely endowed, much less those who have undertaken the psychic 'training' spoken about above. However that may be, this total 'disinterestedness' with regard to phenomena is no less strictly necessary for anyone who, while possessing faculties of this kind, wishes nonetheless to undertake a spiritual realization. As for one who is not so naturally endowed, far from striving to obtain them he must, on the contrary, consider this deficiency to be a very appreciable advantage in view of this same realization, in the sense that he will thus have far fewer obstacles to avoid, a point to which we shall return shortly.
In the final analysis, the very word 'powers', when used in this way, has the great defect of evoking the idea of a superiority that these things in no way imply. If this term is at all acceptable, it is only as a synonym for the word 'faculties', which moreover has an almost identical meaning etymologically.[2] These are indeed possibilities of the being, but possibilities that are in no way 'transcendent' since they are entirely of the individual order, and even in that order are far from being the highest and most worthy of attention. As to conferring on them some initiatic value, even if only auxiliary or preparatory, this would be entirely contrary to the truth, and as this latter alone counts in our eyes, we must speak of things as they
are without concerning ourselves with what might please or displease anyonc. Those who possess psychic 'powers' would surely be greatly mistaken to judge us harshly, for they would thereby only show even more clearly how entirely right we are in pointing out their own incomprehension and lack of spirituality. How indeed could one qualify otherwise an insistence on individual prerogative, or rather its appearance, to the point of preferring it to knowledge and the truth?[3]