Occidental Mystic and Occult, The.
The Western Spiritual Monthly. Devoted to Spiritualism and the Occult and Allied Sciences / Devoted to Advanced Thought.
Other titles: Occidental Mystic
1907--1910 Monthly
San Francisco, CA, Denver, CO, and then Los Angeles, CA.
Editor: Frank D. Hines, Arthur S. Howe.
Publisher: Occidental Mystic & Occult Publishing Co. (Denver).
Succeeds: Spiritual Republic-->Spiritual Therapeutics
Succeeded by: Occidental Mystic and Occult-->
1/1, October 1907-September 1910
$1.00 a year, 32 pp.

The journal has the same name ("The Occidental Mystic") as one published until 1906 in San Francisco but there is no apparent connection between the two. Hines (1862-1945) was an oil speculator and prospector, real estate developer and promoter of dubious mining investments. He was also, as the title page of his Spiritual Therapeutics describes him, "Adept in the Science of Truth, An Authority on Occult Phenomena." His advertisements (in English and Spanish) in another of his journals, the more business-minded Sister Republics, called him 'Doctor of Philosophy, Occult Sciences, Psychology and Chiropractic" and offered a bewildering series of lessons on 'the Higher Metaphysics and True Magic" by mail for $50. The journal was the organ of the Occidental Temple of Metaphysics, Philosophy and Psychic Research and Revelation Society, which held weekly meetings in Denver, of which Hines was president, and every issue contained a sample diploma in the Occidental Temple ($1.00 for initiation, plus $3.00 a year membership) which entitled the member to associate with 'Altruistic and Psychic People of Power and Might" and to obtain the daily benefit of 'Psychic Process" sent out by Hines. Hines was (self-) described as famous for his psychic abilities and prognostications. He was bilingual and wrote (on predictions of 'Cataclysms in South America") in La Verdad of Buenos Aires in 1909, which prompted the Theosophist to comment that he furnished 'enough predictions to destroy several continents," and he dutifully wrote the governor of Colorado to identify the murderer in a famous unsolved murder case. He also, later in his career, revealed that the soul of Tutankamun was then (1922) in Detroit, animating no less a personage than Henry Ford.

Hines was an almost perfect exemplar of the New Thought Mage of the period, teaching the sexual mysteries of 'regeneration" and 'unfoldment" of man's innate psychical and spiritual properties that led to the creation of the 'differentiated Soul Self" in man, an individualized, immortal entity capable of surviving death and functioning thereafter as a god. Hines's 'method" of regeneration centered around the 'six primal centers of the Soul or Subjective Mind" --centers corresponding in location and purpose to the chakras of Indian philosophy--and included suggestion and special breathing exercises and especially control and utilization of the sexual energy ('Mystic Marriage") on both the physical and 'soulual" planes.

'Regeneration is the means of all true unfoldment and Attainment; all life proceeds out from the one life, even as all Souls are of the One Soul Substance and all Minds of the One Mind in the essence of Being." 'Regeneration is the first step, which means changing from the old physical self to that of the higher; the drawing of your nature up to the breasts and changing it into the Fire of Love instead of the fire of passion -- and means that every atom and every molecule of your body partaking of the new Light of Spirit, or becoming the spiritualized man, and you become the ‘new creature' within that you may become the ‘new creature' without -- or, the regenerated flesh without. Regeneration is also brought about by the breath, mostly. It takes place in the psychic realms and is of the psychic realms -- which means the Spirit's Breath, and you are regenerated by the breath. You do not breathe through mouth and nostrils only, but in all the actions of the man; and you breathe differently after you know, and a marked change is noted; you are a different person. Then you are Illumined by the acceptance of that which is the Divinity that molds and shapes each of us according to attitude of mind. The minute you attitude your mind to permit the soulual man to express as the Kristos you change your life, and you are a manifestation of that Mind which is wisdom, knowledge, power, pure will in action. This is the spiritualized mind, and it can contain no anger thoughts, no hate thoughts, no jealousy, no sorrow, no envy, no fear or doubt - no negative thoughts whatever."

'It is necessary for the man and woman married according to civil laws on this earth to be also of the Mystic Marriage in order to be truly married. You yourself must partake of the True Marriage; you must be properly married within yourself -- you must represent Man and Woman (which is Will and Love) properly united in order to use your forces. ‘The Mystic Marriage includes an exterior evolution on the physical plane and an interior evolution on the psychic, etheric, and soulual planes."

Hines's ideas caused him to feature in the Denver Post in December 1920 when a poor housewife joined his Mystical Church of Christ and was led by his teachings to bring home a tramway conductor to share her bed. Her husband's legal complaint alleged that the 'Magus" (Hines) promised 'every man who joined the church a wife. Women, he declared, were taught that if they were not satisfied with their spouse they might take a ‘spiritual mate' and men might do the likewise if their wives did not please them." Hines's opinion was not sought by the newspaper but the wife denied the allegations.

The similarity of Hines's ideas with those of the streams of occultism derived from P.B. Randolph and especially R.S. Clymer is obvious, but there is no indication of the path by which he tapped into that tradition. He first met Clymer in 1910, when his organizations were already in existence, but by 1916 at the latest, he had amalgamated his own teachings with those of Clymer and his Rosicrucians and appended to his list of titles 'Master of the Aeth Process." The Sister Republics in its June 1916 issue describes the visit of five of 'The Denver ‘Illuminati,'"to Clymer's Beverly Hall in Quakertown, Pennsylvania, during which Hines was made Master over the Jurisdiction West of the Missouri River, 'with full rights and privileges to teach and, also, to organize and give the Degree work in Temples of his jurisdiction." Hines's only acknowledgment of the sources of his original teachings came in the last issue of the journal where he claimed that he and his wife (Myrtle May hines, Ph.D. and Ps.D.) were 'both graduates of The Indian Academy of Sciences, of Kizhannattam, South India, making them Occidental and Oriental Doctor of Philosophy, Psychology, Sciences and Occultism, with the most powerful Center established in the world." This mysterious academy was a mail-order New Thought powerhouse, which also lent its strength to H. Spencer Lewis in the early days of A.M.O.R.C. It published Self Culture and a variety of New Thought pamphlets on success, wealth, crystal gazing, 'Lessons in (psycho-occult Science), Will-Culture and Personal Magnetism," 'Tele-Psychee and Yogee-Meditation," and "Ancient Hindu Tantric Science." Hines also was involved with R.S. Clymer's Rosicrucians, which indicates a sexual element to his New Thought practice, a conclusion that is buttressed by articles in Hines's later journal the Denver Metaphysician like 'Control the Substance and Life Force and You Control Nature Itself as to Human Nature." LOC.

IAPSOP materials are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
IAPSOP respects people's privacy and personal data rights.