| PAGE | |
| Preface | v |
| BEFORE THE VEIL | |
| Dogmatic assumptions of modern science and theology | ix |
| The Platonic philosophy affords the only middle ground | xi |
| Review of the ancient philosophical systems | xv |
| A Syriac manuscript on Simon Magus | xxiii |
| Glossary of terms used in this book | xxiii |
| Volume first. | |
| THE “INFALLIBILITY” OF MODERN SCIENCE. | |
| CHAPTER I. | |
| OLD THINGS WITH NEW NAMES. | |
| The Oriental Kabala | 1 |
| Ancient traditions supported by modern research | 3 |
| The progress of mankind marked by cycles | 5 |
| Ancient cryptic science | 7 |
| Priceless value of the Vedas | 12 |
| Mutilations of the Jewish sacred books in translation | 13 |
| Magic always regarded as a divine science | 25 |
| Achievements of its adepts and hypotheses of their modern detractors | 25 |
| Man’s yearning for immortality | 37 |
| CHAPTER II. | |
| PHENOMENA AND FORCES. | |
| The servility of society | 39 |
| Prejudice and bigotry of men of science | 40 |
| They are chased by psychical phenomena | 41 |
| Lost arts | 49 |
| The human will the master-force of forces | 57 |
| Superficial generalizations of the French savants | 60 |
| Mediumistic phenomena, to what attributable | 67 |
| Their relation to crime | 71 |
| CHAPTER III. | |
| BLIND LEADERS OF THE BLIND. | |
| Huxley’s derivation from the Orohippus | 74 |
| Comte, his system and disciples | 75 |
| The London materialists | 85 |
| Borrowed robes | 89 |
| Emanation of the objective universe from the subjective | 92 |
| CHAPTER IV. | |
| THEORIES RESPECTING PSYCHIC PHENOMENA. | |
| Theory of de Gasparin | 100 |
| Theory of Thury | 100 |
| Theory of des Mousseaux, de Mirville | 100 |
| Theory of Babinet | 101 |
| Theory of Houdin | 101 |
| Theory of MM. Royer and Jobart de Lamballe | 102 |
| The twins—“unconscious cerebration” and “unconscious ventriloquism.” | 105 |
| Theory of Crookes | 112 |
| Theory of Faraday | 116 |
| Theory of Chevreuil | 116 |
| The Mendeleyeff commission of 1876 | 117 |
| Soul blindness | 121 |
| CHAPTER V. | |
| THE ETHER, OR “ASTRAL LIGHT.” | |
| One primal force, but many correlations | 126 |
| Tyndall narrowly escapes a great discovery | 127 |
| The impossibility of miracle | 128 |
| Nature of the primordial substance | 133 |
| Interpretation of certain ancient myths | 133 |
| Experiments of the fakirs | 139 |
| Evolution in Hindu allegory | 153 |
| CHAPTER VI. | |
| PSYCHO-PHYSICAL PHENOMENA. | |
| The debt we owe to Paracelsus | 163 |
| Mesmerism—its parentage, reception, potentiality | 165 |
| “Psychometry” | 183 |
| Time, space, eternity | 184 |
| Transfer of energy from the visible to the invisible universe | 186 |
| The Crookes experiments and Cox theory | 195 |
| CHAPTER VII. | |
| THE ELEMENTS, ELEMENTALS, AND ELEMENTARIES. | |
| Attraction and repulsion universal in all the kingdoms of nature | 206 |
| Psychical phenomena depend on physical surroundings | 211 |
| Observations in Siam | 214 |
| Music in nervous disorders | 215 |
| The “world-soul” and its potentialities | 216 |
| Healing by touch, and healers | 217 |
| “Diakka” and Porphyry’s bad demons | 219 |
| The quenchless lamp | 224 |
| Modern ignorance of vital force | 237 |
| Antiquity of the theory of force-correlation | 241 |
| Universality of belief in magic | 247 |
| CHAPTER VIII. | |
| SOME MYSTERIES OF NATURE. | |
| Do the planets affect human destiny? | 253 |
| Very curious passage from Hermes | 254 |
| The restlessness of matter | 257 |
| Prophecy of Nostradamus fulfilled | 260 |
| Sympathies between planets and plants | 264 |
| Hindu knowledge of the properties of colors | 265 |
| “Coincidences” the panacea of modern science | 268 |
| The moon and the tides | 273 |
| Epidemic mental and moral disorders | 274 |
| The gods of the Pantheons only natural forces | 280 |
| Proofs of the magical powers of Pythagoras | 283 |
| The viewless races of ethereal space | 284 |
| The “four truths” of Buddhism | 291 |
| CHAPTER IX. | |
| CYCLIC PHENOMENA. | |
| Meaning of the expression “coats of skin” | 293 |
| Natural selection and its results | 295 |
| The Egyptian “circle of necessity” | 296 |
| Pre-Adamite races | 299 |
| Descent of spirit into matter | 302 |
| The triune nature of man | 309 |
| The lowest creatures in the scale of being | 310 |
| Elementals specifically described | 311 |
| Proclus on the beings of the air | 312 |
| Various names for elementals | 313 |
| Swedenborgian views on soul-death | 317 |
| Earth-bound human souls | 319 |
| Impure mediums and their “guides” | 325 |
| Psychometry an aid to scientific research | 333 |
| CHAPTER X. | |
| THE INNER AND OUTER MAN. | |
| Père Félix arraigns the scientists | 338 |
| The “Unknowable” | 340 |
| Danger of evocations by tyros | 342 |
| Lares and Lemures | 345 |
| Secrets of Hindu temples | 350 |
| Reïncarnation | 351 |
| Witchcraft and witches | 353 |
| The sacred soma trance | 357 |
| Vulnerability of certain “shadows” | 363 |
| Experiment of Clearchus on a sleeping boy | 365 |
| The author witnesses a trial of magic in India | 369 |
| Case of the Cevennois | 371 |
| CHAPTER XI. | |
| PSYCHOLOGICAL AND PHYSICAL MARVELS. | |
| Invulnerability attainable by man | 379 |
| Projecting the force of the will | 380 |
| Insensibility to snake-poison | 381 |
| Charming serpents by music | 383 |
| Teratological phenomena discussed | 385 |
| The psychological domain confessedly unexplored | 407 |
| Despairing regrets of Berzelius | 411 |
| Turning a river into blood a vegetable phenomenon | 413 |
| CHAPTER XII. | |
| THE “IMPASSABLE CHASM.” | |
| Confessions of ignorance by men of science | 417 |
| The Pantheon of nihilism | 421 |
| Triple composition of fire | 423 |
| Instinct and reason defined | 425 |
| Philosophy of the Hindu Jaïns | 429 |
| Deliberate misrepresentations of Lemprière | 431 |
| Man’s astral soul not immortal | 432 |
| The reïncarnation of Buddha | 437 |
| Magical sun and moon pictures of Thibet | 441 |
| Vampirism—its phenomena explained | 449 |
| Bengalese jugglery | 457 |
| CHAPTER XIII. | |
| REALITIES AND ILLUSION. | |
| The rationale of talismans | 462 |
| Unexplained mysteries | 466 |
| Magical experiment in Bengal | 467 |
| Chibh Chondor’s surprising feats | 471 |
| The Indian tape-climbing trick an illusion | 473 |
| Resuscitation of buried fakirs | 477 |
| Limits of suspended animation | 481 |
| Mediumship totally antagonistic to adeptship | 487 |
| What are “materialized spirits”? | 493 |
| The Shudâla Mâdan | 495 |
| Philosophy of levitation | 497 |
| The elixir and alkahest | 503 |
| CHAPTER XIV. | |
| EGYPTIAN WISDOM. | |
| Origin of the Egyptians | 515 |
| Their mighty engineering works | 517 |
| The ancient land of the Pharaohs | 521 |
| Antiquity of the Nilotic monuments | 529 |
| Arts of war and peace | 531 |
| Mexican myths and ruins | 545 |
| Resemblances to the Egyptian | 551 |
| Moses a priest of Osiris | 555 |
| The lessons taught by the ruins of Siam | 563 |
| The Egyptian Tau at Palenque | 573 |
| CHAPTER XV. | |
| INDIA THE CRADLE OF THE RACE. | |
| Acquisition of the “secret doctrine” | 575 |
| Two relics owned by a Pali scholar | 577 |
| Jealous exclusiveness of the Hindus | 581 |
| Lydia Maria Child on Phallic symbolism | 583 |
| The age of the Vedas and Manu | 587 |
| Traditions of pre-diluvian races | 589 |
| Atlantis and its peoples | 593 |
| Peruvian relics | 597 |
| The Gobi desert and its secrets | 599 |
| Thibetan and Chinese legends | 600 |
| The magician aids, not impedes, nature | 617 |
| Philosophy, religion, arts and sciences bequeathed by Mother India to posterity | 618 |