The term occult gets a bad rap because it is most often used in relation to the black arts. The term means hidden, unseen knowledge. Medicine is an occult art. Religion and spitituality can not escape being occult. This is what they are about.

There is good evidence that whole cultures have been destroyed by emmersion into the black arts.

This was certianly the case of the great central American cultures. There is also evidence that it played an undermining role in the decline of ancient Egypt.

People admire the achivements of these cultures, yet seem to ignore the depravity that existed. The offering of human and animal sacrifices to appease cruel forces of nature, and the total faith, and unswaying belief that these practices really did appease the gods, in the face of accepting the reality that it made no difference. Often the sacrifices were to increase the fertility of the land. The sacrifes were in vain. Soil consevation might have helped. Blood sacrifice of the innocent really is meaningless. Still even in the 21st century, there are those who are convinced of the necessity and the worth of such grotesque offerings. This is black magic. This is what it is. That is what it is about. Does one have to practice ritual to preform it? No_one needs no ritual, one needs no belief system. One simply needs to be malevolent and dispicable.

The belief, that by wearing a special shirt, a warrior could become invinceable in battle, made for fearless warriors, but the shirt that was to protect them had no affect, The resulting battle became a mass suicide, because bows and arrows were not weapons that could be used against riffles.

Today young brave men are being recruited by evil old men to sacrifice themselves in this world, to experince a paradise in the next. There may be noble causes for which sacrifice may be necessary, but the final result for the person is oblivion. This is why to lay down one's life for another is the ultimate sacrifice. All to often these sacrifices are futile and unnecessary.

Many of the ancient mystery cults were rituals that simulated death. The person became convinced that they had experienced death and had been reborn. This gave them less fear of death and the unkown.