Nuggets from Occult Invasion—Pursuing a Delusion

Jean Houston, who is both a psychologist and a theologian, presents us with a synthesis of psychology, occultism, and evolution in her workshops and writings. In some of her workshops she leads participants into an alleged awakening of ancient prehuman “memories” as a means of gaining insight into their personalities and working through “emotional blocks.” Here is an excerpt from a reporter’s account of one such session:

“’Remember when you were a fish,’ Houston suggested…. Nearly a thousand people…dropped to the floor and began moving their ‘fins’ as if to propel themselves through water.

‘Notice your perception as you roll like a fish. How does your world look, feel, sound, smell, taste?’

‘Then you came up on land,’ Houston recalled, taking us through the amphibian state….

“Then Houston suggested, ‘Allow yourself to fully remember being a reptile…. Then some of you flew. Others climbed trees….’

“We became a zoo of sounds and movements made by early mammals, monkeys, and apes.

“Houston then called us to remember being ‘the early human’ who loses his/her protective furry covering ‘and…evolves into modern human….’

“We had become a wriggling sea of bodies—nearly a thousand housewives, therapists, artists, social workers, clergy, educators, health professionals…[who] had crawled over and under each other, enjoying ourselves and re-learning what was deep within our memories.”

This “exercise in evolutionary memory,” as Houston calls it, is patently nonsense. The fact is that no one has such “memories.” Nor could such memories exist at some unconscious level (as in Jung’s alleged “collective unconscious”), or even at the cellular level, as some argue, inasmuch as evolution is a myth that never occurred in real life. Then what is happening? Obviously, participants are talked into fantasizing in order to play along with the regressive therapy game.

It is amazing to see who is willing to participate in such folly. Houston chaired and organized a symposium for leading U.S. government policymakers entitled “The Possible Society: An Exploration of Practical Policy Alternatives for the Decade Ahead.” She tells of guiding about 150 high-ranking officials for about three days. She had these officials on the floor, imagining internal journeys on a search for “the possible society.” Such exercises, of course, can lead one into occult contact as surely as the shaman’s journey to which it is clearly related.

Evolution, psychology, shamanism: The link is clear, but it is a belief in evolution which ahs led the downward spiral to today’s renaissance of the occult. Man’s much-vaunted claim to an evolving ascent to perfection has led instead to an inglorious return to pagan superstition.