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Washington Post, March 16, 1902
WIZARD IN THE TEMPLE Dr. de Sarak Astonished Distinguished Masons TRANSFORMED EGGS INTO FISH The Sixth Sense, He Said, Was Simply the Power to Hasten the Processes of Nature - Will Is Basis of All Occultism - Startling Exhibitions by the Man from Thibet - Dominos Blindfolded. Dr. A. de Sarak, occultist and adept, a professor of the mystic and sixth sense, gave a demonstration last night before a Washington audience. Several hundred persons gathered in the beautiful assembly hall of the House of the Temple of the Supreme Council, Southern Jurisdiction 433 Third street last evening to witness his weird exibitions of occult powers. A large number of members of Congress were in the audience and the Eastern sorceror was introduced to the assemblage by Grand Commander Richardson. After three hours spent in the presence of the East Indian, the audience filed out with apparently something to think about and ponder. Prof Sarak, while master of fourteen languages, does not speak fluently the English language. Last evening he spoke in French and a very charming young woman, also an adept, but of American birth acted as his interpreter. The Easterner, a man of medium height, was attired in a gorgeous gown of white silk across the breast of which hung certain mystic emblems of gold and silver. A loose pale yellow robe covered this garment during most of the evening. He wore a white turban. The adept wears a pointed black beard which, with large languid brown eyes, gave fully the effect that one expects in a student of the mystic schools of Thibet. The interpreter stated that Prof. de Sarak was born in Tibet and was descended from a noble French family. He had devoted his life, she said, to the study of the occult, first in the Tibetan schools and later with the ascetics hidden in the mountains. He has visited almost every country on the globe, spreading the occult science, which, she declared, some time would bring a rich harvest to all mankind. As the professor finished his rapidly spoken French sentences the young woman translated them to the hearers. Dr. de Sarak described the sixth sense in man, saying that it was second-sight, a latent and undeveloped force. He said he merely wished to present the facts of his religion. He explained the wonderful fluid force that existed. He said it was the force that raised the huge stones in building the pyramids and is the same force that brings the bird from the egg, the force which gives man the power of rising as if filled with buoyant gas, a power which can be concentrated in a tube. He stated that occultism was absolutely nothing but the powers of the will. "It is nothing supernatural," the doctor said, "but is merely the hastening of nature's work." A small table stood by a leather chair and on this burned a tiny candle from the mouth of a brazen asp. The professor stood over the table and busied himself with a pungent incense in an odd burner. A glass plate, with a number of fish eggs was shown and examined. A large glass bowl was filled with water, and one of the members of the audience was told to carefully brush the eggs into the water. In the meantime three men from the audience had with strong ropes securely bound the hands of the adept behind his back and he sat in the chair. Broad, clean, white cloths were wrapped about the seated figure leaving the head free, and the three men selected held these cloths in place. Music rolled from a deep organ, and the head of the adept sank back, and a strange light appeared to cross his face. According to the directions of the interpreter the bowl of water containing the fish eggs was placed by one of the three beneath the cloths and on the lap of the adept. After a period of straining and soft moaning from the white-wrapped figure, for perhaps ten minutes, the cloths were removed and from the lap of the apparently insensible man was lifted the bowl of water, but instead of the eggs which it contained a few moments before there swam about dozens of tiny, newly-born fish. Dr. Sarak was then blindfolded with a half dozen bandages pressing against absorbent cotton, which rested before the eyes. For a while he remained in his chair, while the vibrating tones of an organ filled the room. Then the adept suddenly arose and walked surely and steadily down the room, turning into narrow aisles through the audience as safely as a man might who had his sight. This experiment was to demonstrate double vision at a distance and through opaque bodies. A blank canvas stood on an easel near the adept. Apparently in a tance, he walked to the easel, mixed colors, and in ten minutes a finished picture was the result. A game of dominos was played with a member of the audience, and previous to the beginning of the game the doctor wrote something on a bit of card and his assistant handed it to some one in the audience to keep. Blindfolded and standing, the adept played the game perfectly, and at the conclusion the card ws found to contain the numbers of the last two dominos played by both the adept and his opponent. Experiments were given at the close in the disintegration and restoration of matter and of psychic perception. In which he aroused the wondering admiration of the audience. |