| 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] |