René Guénon - The Reign of Quantity and The Signs of the Times

On the other hand, in spite of the aversion it evinces toward materialism, ‘neo-spiritualism’ resembles it in more than one way, so much so that it has been referred to not unjustly as ‘transposed materialism’, meaning materialism extended beyond the limits of the corporeal world, this being clearly exemplified by the crude representations of the subtle world, wrongly called ‘spiritual’, already alluded to and consisting almost entirely of images borrowed from the corporeal domain. This same ‘neo-spiritualism’ is also attached to the earlier stages of the modern deviation, in a more effective way, through what may be called its ‘scientistic’ side; that too has been previously alluded to when dealing with the influence exerted on the various schools from the moment of their birth by scientific ‘mythology’; and it is worthwhile to note more especially the important part played in these conceptions, in quite a general way and without any exception, by ‘progressivist’ and ‘evolutionary’ ideas, which are indeed among the most typical features of the modern mentality, and would suffice by themselves to characterize any conceptions as being beyond all doubt the products of that mentality. Moreover, even the schools that affect an appearance of ‘archaism’ by making use in their own way of fragments of uncomprehended and deformed traditional ideas, or by disguising modern ideas as they think fit under a vocabulary borrowed from some traditional form either Eastern or Western (all of which things, by the way, are in formal contradiction to their belief in ‘progress’ and ‘evolution’), are constantly preoccupied in adapting these ancient ideas, or what are imagined to be such, to the theories of modern science. This work has of course continually to be done afresh as the scientific theories change, though it is true that those who undertake it find their task simplified by their almost universal reliance on material drawn from works of ‘popularization’.

Apart from this, ‘neo-spiritualism’ is also, on the side alluded to above as ‘practical’, closely in conformity with the ‘experimental’ tendencies of the modern mentality. In this way it has gradually come to exert an appreciable influence on science itself, into which it has more or less insinuated itself by means of what is called ‘metapsychics’. Doubtless the phenomena considered in ‘metapsychics’ are in themselves just as worthy of study as are those of the corporeal world; but what gives rise to objection is the way in which the study is undertaken, that is, the application to it of the point of view of profane science; physicists (who are so obstinate in sticking to their quantitative methods as to want to try to ‘weigh the soul’!) and even psychologists in the ‘official’ sense of the word, are surely as ill-prepared as possible for a study of this kind, and for that very reason more liable than anyone else to allow themselves to be deluded in every way. [132] It is a question here, not so much of the more or less important part to be assigned to fraud, conscious or unconscious, but also of delusions as to the nature of the forces that intervene in the actual production of the phenomena called ‘metapsychic’. And there is something more: in actual fact ‘metapsychic’ researches are scarcely ever undertaken independently of all support from ‘neo-spiritualists’, and especially from ‘spiritists’, and this proves that these people fully intend that the researches shall serve the purposes of their propaganda. Perhaps the most serious thing in this connection is that the experimenters are so placed that they find themselves obliged to have recourse to spirit ‘mediums’, that is, to individuals whose preconceived ideas markedly modify the phenomena in question, and give them what might be called a special ‘coloring’, and who moreover have been drilled with particular care (for there are even ‘schools for mediums’) so as to serve as instruments and passive ‘supports’ to certain influences belonging to the lowest depths of the subtle world; and they act as ‘vehicles’ of these influences wherever they go, so that nobody, scientist or otherwise, can fail to be dangerously affected if he comes into contact with them and if he is, through ignorance of what lies behind it all, totally incapable of defending himself. Further insistence on this aspect of affairs is unnecessary, because it has been fully dealt with in other works, to which anyone who would like to have a fuller account of them may now be referred; but it is worthwhile, because it is something entirely peculiar to the present day, to underline the strangeness of the part played by the ‘mediums’ and of the supposed necessity of their presence for the production of phenomena arising in the subtle world. Why was there nothing of that kind formerly, for forces of that order were in no way prevented by that fact from manifesting themselves spontaneously in certain circumstances, and on a far larger scale than in spiritist or ‘metapsychic’ seances (and very often in uninhabited houses or in desert places, whereby the too convenient hypothesis of the presence of a medium unconscious of his own powers is excluded)? It may be wondered whether some change has not come about, since the appearance of spiritualism, in the very manner in which the subtle world acts in its ‘interferences’ with the corporeal world: such a change would only be a fresh example of modifications in the environment such as has already been considered in connection with the effects of materialism; but the one thing certain in any case is that there is something here that fits in perfectly with the exigencies of a ‘control’ exerted over inferior psychic influences, themselves already essentially ‘malefic’, in order that they may be used more directly with certain defined ends in view, in conformity with the pre-established ‘plan’ of the work of subversion, for which purpose they are now being ‘unchained’ in our world.

In the domain of philosophy and psychology, the tendencies corresponding to the second phase of anti-traditional action are naturally marked by the importance assigned to the ‘subconscious’ in all its forms, in other words to the most inferior psychic elements of the human being, something particularly apparent so far as philosophy properly so called is concerned in the theories of William James as well as in the ‘intuitionism’ of Bergson. The work of Bergson has been considered in an earlier chapter, in relation to the justifiable criticisms of rationalism and its consequences formulated therein, though never very clearly and often in equivocal terms; but the characteristic feature of what may be called (if the term be admissible) the ‘positive’ part of his philosophy is that, instead of seeking above reason for something that might remedy its insufficiencies, he takes the opposite course and seeks beneath it; thus, instead of turning toward true intellectual intuition, of which he is as completely ignorant as are the rationalists, he appeals to an imagined ‘intuition’ of an exclusively sensitive and ‘vital’ order, and in the very confused notions that emerge the intuition of the senses properly so called is mingled with the most obscure forces of instinct and sentiment. So it is not as a result of a more or less ‘fortuitous’ encounter that Bergson’s ‘intuitionism’ has manifest affinities, particularly marked in what may be called its ‘final state’ (and this applies equally to the philosophy of William James), with ‘neo-spiritualism’, but it is as a result of the fact that both are expressions of the same tendencies: the attitude of the one in relation to rationalism is more or less parallel to that of the other in relation to materialism, the one leaning toward the ‘sub-rational’ just as the other leans toward the ‘sub-corporeal’ (doubtless no less unconsciously), so that the direction followed in both cases is undoubtedly toward the ‘infra-human’.