Occult Science in India And Among the Ancients
by Louis Jacolliot
1919

Louis Jacolliot (1837-1890) was a French lawyer, who served as a judge in both India and Tahiti. Later in life, he became a prolific author. Jacolliot believed the roots of Western esoteric traditions lay in the East, and he believed that many Western esoteric traditions, in particular, Egyptian, Jewish and Christian, had their origin in India. This book inludes his fascinating encounters in India with a fakir, who demonstrates his amazing yogic powers. He also compares the Kabbalah, and its relationship to Eastern mystical beliefs.

[We intend to] "interpret and explain the Agrouchada-parikchai, which is the philosophical compendium of the Hindu spiritists; we shall tell what we saw with our own eyes, and shall faithfully record such explanations as we received from the Brahmins.

We shall pay particular attention to the phenomena which the Fakirs produce at will, which some regard as the manifestations of a superior intervention, and others look upon as the result of a shrewd charlatanism.

These doctrines were known to the Egyptians, to the Jewish Cabalists, to the people of Finland, to the school of Alexandria, to Philo and his disciples, to the Gauls and to the early Christians, and, as in the case of the Hindus, they set them apart for the use of those who had been initiated. As for the ancient Chaldeans, the practice of popular magic and sorcery seems to have been the utmost limit of their attainments in this direction."

Though deeply sceptical with regard to spirits, I often wondered, whenever I saw an experiment of this kind, whether or not some natural force had not been brought into play, with which we were totally unacquainted. I merely state the facts without further comment. -on the "trick" of "the magic stick" Spirit forces that make leaves dance in still air and buoyant wooden sticks sink in water and fakirs who levitate themselves and induce plants to grow overnight. A European observer in mid-19th century India reports-in the straightforward and unsensational fashion of a religious skeptic-the seemingly wondrous feats of Indian mystics, offering a unique first-person perspective on extraordinary phenomenon that continues to be referenced today by modern spiritualists and those interested in the paranormal. First published in English in 1884, this intriguing book also includes a translation of esoteric works of Indian magic that have been likened to the Jewish Kabbalah. French writer and jurist LOUIS JACOLLIOT (1837-1890) served in French India as a government official. Among his extensive works on Indian culture are Voyage au pays des fakirs charmeurs (1881).