-- Idries Shah, in Psychology Today, 1975.
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excerpts from Oriental Magic by Idries Shah (1956):
from "Magic Is International"
... There will still remain a number of people who are not interested in culture-drift but want to know 'Is there anything in magic?' The answer to this is that there very possibly is a good deal `in magic'. What it is, however, and where it might lead, is for researchers to show.
What was there `in' alchemy? For one thing, there was modern chemistry; though what is left in it is not for me to say. Hypnosis, now not only an accepted fact but a very valuable technique, comes direct from magic. As to what there is `in' modern spiritualism, the descendant of Mongolian shamanism, again, I cannot say. One thing, however, is certain: that magic as it stands, in the mere repetition of the rituals which are available to general readers, is of very little value to anyone. According to Hindu occultists, as is described in these pages, many forms of magic, and hence certain well-documented so-called miracles, are accounted for by the existence of an undiscovered force (akasa), which seems to have some connection with magnetism.
Arab-Islamic writers, too (who gave the world modern science), suspected the presence of this force. If it is there, it is up to experimenters to find it.
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from "The Occult in Babylonia"
... This is the point at which the much-contested question, the lingering tradition, of an esoteric, supreme priesthood of magic seems to take shadowy shape. For not only are the gods and goddesses of the Turanian (ancient Babylonian) system connected by adoption and abstraction, with powers venerated in the Finnish, Aryan and Semitic systems (*and, of course, China and Japan) but in very many cases the magical rites of these and other nations depend upon the powers of those gods, as the multitude of spirits which are associated with them. Here, too, we come across the mana-akasa theory: the belief that there is a supernatural force which permeates the atmosphere and which is personified as a power within all men. Towards the concentration of that elusive power, and its aid in influencing spirits and gods, the activities of magicians are directed....
... Thought-concentration among the Finns, for example, was attained in a manner familiar to the Indians or even the men of the Sudan, where I watched their preliminary rites of `frenzy-induction':
"According to the Finnish creed, every man bore within
him from his birth a divine spirit who was his
inseparable companion for life. This spirit became more
closely united to its subject, in proportion as the latter
tore himself from earthly things to retire into the sanctuary
of his soul. This was an important source of the magician's
power ." (35)
Here we have a close parallel with many mystical systems, including those of the Gurus of India and the Arab-Islamic Sufi principle.
"He aspired to a transcendental ecstasy, TULLA INTOON,
to a great state of excitement of the soul, TULLA
HALIORHIN, in which he became like the spirit dwelling
in him, and entirely identified with it." (36)
Again the spiritualist (spiritist) and again the frenzy and identification principle of the dervishes and fakirs. . . .
"He used artificial means, intoxicating drugs for instance,
[compare Western witch-cults] in order to attain to this
state of excitement, for it was only then that he succeeded,
so to speak, in deifying himself, and received the homage
of the genii and spirits of nature . . . this doctrine . . .
prevailed also in the Accadian [Babylonian] magic books.
This furnishes an affinity of conceptions and beliefs which
is of great importance, since it is not one of those natural
ideas which arise independently amongst widely differing
nations ."(My italics.) (37)
Whence, ultimately, came this power of magic? Who taught it, or initiated it? What, in fact, is the fountain of mana-akasa : Life-Force? This is where an understanding of the demonology and theology of prehistoric nations is vital...
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from "The Arabian Contribution"
... Ibn Khaldun, the social philosopher, gives one of the most re-freshingly unbiased accounts of a thinker faced with magical beliefs. Writing in the fourteenth century, he says that there were two types of magic: (i) Pure Magic ; (ii) Talismans (66).
Pure magic he defines as some force which comes straight from within the magician, without the intermediary of any `helper' (mua'win).
In this form there is no question of spirits being used or conjured.
This is perhaps an echo of the mana-akasa belief in a widespread almost untapped occult force, which is there to be used, and neither good nor evil: almost a psycho-physical force.
The second form, which is summarized in the term Talismanic, implies the necessity of making contact with and use of some other force.
Ibn Khaldun was the first to notice that there is some link between the hypnoidal state and the ability to make use of some sort of power.
He says that the pentacle-drawing and other rituals must work up the magician's emotions to a high pitch. If this is not achieved, there will be no result. This is the first scientific comment to be recorded in the study of magic.
This background of intense intellectual activity, covering a study of various systems, produced a wide variety of talismans (67) and other wonder-working items.
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from "India: Rites of the Priest Magicians"
... The strange and unfamiliar Hindu doctrine of Akasa-- life-spirit or spirit-power-- lies at the basis of all occult phenomena described or attempted by the Hindu school.
Briefly-- if it is possible to be brief about such a matter-- Akasa means that force of which all spirits are a part . It is also the source of all power. There is, or so the Yogi's state, only one substance or power from which everything else derives. Natural laws, such as gravity, or the life-process of man or plant, are obedient to certain laws. These laws are not distinct and different phenomena: they are simply phases of the Akasa. A Hindu magician would contend that matter and energy are the same thing: just different aspects of Akasa, which is the principle of which they are both composed . Recent research has confirmed that belief.
Akasa in one state, causes animal life. In another it determines the movement of the planets. One form or state of it can be transformed into another. Thus to nullify the force of gravity is simply a matter of charging the object with a lighter form of Akasa. If you want to lift a load of ten tons, it is necessary to change the type of Akasa which is present in the load. If the ten tons is steel, you will have to divert the `steel Akasa' somewhere else.
Modern science with the atomic theory admits that all matter is composed of the same prime material-electricity. But where this oriental theory differs with Western science is when the Hindus claim that this prime material-Akasa-can be changed by means of the mind: not by mechanical methods. Very similar, incidentally, is the Arab philosophical argument about the transmutation of metals. Gold, held the Arab alchemists, is made only by the concentration of a suitably ripe mystical intellect. It could be made of anything, but making one metal out of another was simpler than making, say, gold out of wood.
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from "A New Thought Force: Akasa & Magnetism"
The supposed connection between hypnosis and magnetism is again under review. It is possible that traditional contentions made by Far Eastern wonder-workers that there is a `life-force' by which such a phenomenon as gravitational force is nullified, may have some substance in fact. This, of course, does not support that magical practices might receive scientific support: rather that some of the subjects formerly thought magical could come within the ken of better understood natural laws.
It appears that the following phenomena are related to magnetism
and electricity :
1 . Akasa (Hindu theory of 'life-force")* which can defy gravity .
* Parallel concepts echoing the akasa idea are to be found in several other systems of thought. The Polynesian mana idea is almost identical .
2. Healing by touch.
3. Hypnotic phenomena.
M. J. Roucous has spent several years in France examining the characteristics of human electricity under scientific conditions. Briefly he claims that the human body is a type of electricity-producing and storage plant. The presence of negative electricity, it is held, accounts for certain marked phenomena of hypnosis and `healing'.
Taking a number of 'faith-healers' of established reputation, Roucous discovered that their finger-tips seemed to repel small articles charged with negative electricity. In electricity, it will be recalled, like repels like.
Accumulated under the skin, he says-- in his recent work Les Maladies et le Magnetism-- this electricity is discharged into the body of the patient by the `healer'. In this way a supposed deficiency of subcutaneous electricity (the so-called protective electrical shield) is removed:
"The human body is like a wonderful electrical generator ; producer, accumulator, receiver and transmitter, of which the centre is the brain. Through the nervous system the positive fluid is discharged, causing the entire system to function. . . ."
How does a person become a natural healer? Roucous holds that `natural' healers seem to be those who have abnormally dry skins, which encourage the accumulation of subcutaneous electricity, a negative charge. In normal persons, this charge is constantly being given off; surplus electricity not needed for running the nervous system simply `leaks' away.
Readers will at once see here a reflection of the Akasa thesis of the Yogis, who claim that a vital fluid has to be stored up in the body and mind, and discharged into an object in order to influence it. Roucous' experiments, claimed to have been held under scientifically controlled conditions, seem to parallel the Akasa activities of the Fakirs.
In order, however, to establish such a phenomena as within scientific bounds, it is essential that easily controlled experiments be devised: and that they be capable of repetition with invariable results.
Here is one, according to supporters of Roucous: it may not prove that a negative electrical charge is emitted by the human body. But it is claimed to prove that something apparently physical does interact between human bodies:
The subject sits on a chair, while five or six others place their hands, one over the other, above his head . The object is to charge the subject with a negative electricity through the `leakage' of human electricity provided by the other `human batteries'. After several minutes, the effect of gravity can be proved to have been reduced. Two of the experimenters, using only two fingers, are able to lift the subject, chair and all.
But the effect does not last long under these conditions. The static leaks into the earth. Thus the lifting must take place at once.
The parallel with levitation is interesting. Why do the Fakirs specialize in stopping certain bodily functions, such as respiration? This theory claims that in this way electricity is saved and a hoard built up: either to produce supernormal effects or, more generally, to `step up' cerebration to a higher pitch than the normal .
Hypnotists, too, are familiar with certain phenomena which remain unexplained . Among them is the following: a test for hypnotic susceptibility:
The subject stands facing North, with his back to the hypnotist. The operator holds his hands, palms parallel, to the back of the subject without, of course, touching him. The subject cannot see what is going on. Slowly the palms of the hypnotist's hands are drawn with a `wiping' motion, downwards parallel to the subject's backbone, and about an inch away from it . Easily affected subjects invariably sway backwards during this proces .
It is important to note here that, while most hypnotists accompany this operation with verbal suggestions of sleep and falling backwards, these are not necessary, as I have myself ascertained: words merely enhance the effect.
Roucous claims that this phenomenon follows from the `static electricity' postulate, and that the `aura' said to surround sensitive mediums and others, is merely the constant discharge of static from the skin.
The hypnotic trance, then, concentrates the brain, charging it with the bodily electricity, and can cut off the supply from the nerve complex which serves the limbs and organs.
Recent researches by Professor J . B. Rhine (77), of Duke University, relating to the supposed effect of the mind over inanimate objects, might fit in with the above theory. Dice, among other things, were used in thousands of controlled experiments, and attempts were made to influence their fall merely by an effort of will. In terms of the Roucous theory, Dr. Rhine trained his subjects to project their cerebral electricity towards interrupting gravitational force.
In his latest published researches, Professor Rhine-whose integrity as a scientific investigator is unchallenged-shows that such influencing of material objects by apparently mental means is a possibility that cannot be ruled out.
A whole new field of research is now open : how to establish the nature of this force and its scope, how to harness it, having regard to its presence in that most difficult of all media, the human brain?
The first step is foreshadowed by current work being undertaken by Roucous at Paris : the construction of an electro-static machine to measure the nature and extent of human electricity, and particularly the means of its engendering and discharge.
The main obstacle to this type of research is that the vast majority of occultists fall into two groups : the converted, who believe things because they want to-- as a sort of wish-fulfilment--and the overenthusiastic, who let their enthusiasm run away with them. It is the latter who too often find themselves called upon to explain their `discoveries' to audiences so pitifully anxious to hear wonders that they are almost disappointed if they are not rewarded by exaggerated claims.
To illustrate : Louis de Wohl speaks briefly of this problem in a recent book on astrology. "Draw up a chart, make a few hasty calculations, and say your say in a dark, slow voice. And they will do what they are told . You will direct their lives, you. With a spoonful of knowledge and two spoonsful of acting." (78).
What is the remedy? There is, so far as I can see, none. No more than there is a remedy against the spread of indiscriminate education without culture and the development of common sense.
The only avenue open to students of the occult in their strivings is to operate strictly on a basis of science. And modern science, which often struggles against occult studies (when it troubles to take any notice at all), should not be regarded, surely, as an enemy?The very fact of the existence of unparalleled reservoirs of knowledge accumulated by modern science itself means that there is material enough for serious occult students to draw upon for their investigations.
How does all this fit in with Akasa, magnetism and the rest? Take one example. In the nineteen-thirties, a strange series of experiments took place at Harvard, in the United States. The Faculties of Economics and Astronomy discovered that there seemed to be a positive correlation between certain terrestrial and solar phenomena . More precisely, the Harvard Committee on Research in Social Sciences financed a study which claimed to show that sunspots were associated with trade cycles. By means of statistics, graphs showed that sunspot activity affected world trade. Economic conditions seemed to react according to the amount of ultra-violet rays that penetrated the stratospheric barrier.
As far as I know, this concluded the investigation. Astrologers immediately claimed that this fact `proved astrology' (79). What it may have proved was that the sun affects things on earth in ways that man had not generally realized. How or why was not known, and is difficult of further investigation. As far as theories like Akasa are concerned, this indicates that there are still forces which we do not entirely understand. Who is to carry the research further? Occultists and astrologers, because with few exceptions, orthodox scientists are not deeply interested at the moment. How many astrologers, however, are concerned with this and similar problems? It is probably safe to say that not many of them bother. I am certainly not against astrology as such: in fact I write on it myself quite a lot. But I do feel that many astrologers want things both ways. While their subject is very much on a similar empirical basis as other sciences were in the Middle Ages, they still strive for recognition among sciences which are more developed, and capable of greater materialistic proof. Now, either astrology and kindred semi-occult studies are to be on the same footing as, say, chemistry, or they are not. If they are, they should either be similarly organized in their thinking and practice, or at least should be less empirical. If they are not, are astrologers barking up the wrong tree?
It seems to me likely that the semi-occult arts may find their own level on a slightly different basis from that of materialistic science. It may well be that it is the very ultra-sensitiveness of astrologers and others which makes them such attractive targets for attack by their opponents. As anyone who has been to school knows, there is no fun in teasing people who are unaffected by it. Even if you call it bullying, the mechanism is the same.
Whatever may be the correct attitude, the fact remains that phenomena like akasa, or sunspots-- or anything else which seems to point towards forces which are not fully understood-- will bear closer examination. The people who want to believe that there may be a vast potential use and meaning in these phenomena are those from among whom serious students and investigators should emerge.
--Idries Shah, Oriental Magic: Considerations in Eastern and African Minority Beliefs (1956), p. 138-142
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