Sacred Science The epithet given to the occult sciences in general, and by the Rosicrucians to the Cabala, and especially to the Hermetic philosophy.

Samadhi The name in India for spiritual ecstasy. It is a state of complete trance, induced by means of mystic concentration.

Samkhara One of the five Buddhist Skandhas or attributes. (See Skandhas.) "Tendencies of mind."

Samma -Sambuddha The sudden remembrance of all one's past incarnations, a phenomenon of memory obtained through Yoga. A Buddhist mystic term.

Samothrace An island in the Grecian Archipelago, famous in days of old for the mysteries celebrated in its temples. These mysteries were world-renowned.

Samyuttaka-Nikaya One of the Buddhist Sutras.

Sanna (Pali ) One of the five Skandhas, or attributes, meaning "abstract ideas."

Seance A term now used to denote a sitting with a medium for sundry phenomena. Used chiefly among the Spiritualists.

Self There are two Selves in men-the Higher and the Lower, the Impersonal and the Personal Self. One is divine, the other semi-animal. A great distinction should be made between the two.

Sephiroth A Hebrew Cabalistic word, for the ten divine emanations from Ain-Soph, the impersonal, universal Principle, or Deity. (See Theosophical Glossary)

Skandhas The attributes of every personality, which after death form the basis, so to say, for a new Karmic reincarnation. They are five in the popular or exoteric system of the Buddhists: i.e., Rupa, form or body, which leaves behind it its magnetic atoms and occult affinities; Vedana , sensations, which do likewise; Sanjna , or abstract ideas, which are the creative powers at work from one incarnation to another; Samkhara, tendencies of mind; and Vijñana, mental powers.

Somnambulism "Sleep walking." A psycho-physiological state, too well known to need explanation.

Spiritism The same as the above, with the difference that the Spiritualists reject almost unanimously the doctrine of Reincarnation, while the Spiritists make of it the fundamental principle in their belief. There is, however, a vast difference between the views of the latter and the philosophical teachings of Eastern Occultists. Spiritists belong to the French School founded by Allan Kardec, and the Spiritualists of America and England to that of the "Fox girls," who inaugurated their theories at Rochester, U.S.A. Theosophists, while believing in the mediumistic phenomena of both Spiritualists and Spiritists, reject the idea of "spirits."

Spiritualism The modern belief that the spirits of the dead return on earth to commune with the living. (See Spiritism.)

St. Germain, Count A mysterious personage, who appeared in the last century and early in the present one in France, England, and elsewhere.

Sthula-Sharira The Sanskrit name for the human physical body, in Occultism and Vedanta philosophy.

Sthulopadhi The physical body in its waking, conscious state (Jagrat).

Sukshmopadhi The physical body in the dreaming state (Svapna), and Karanopadhi, "the causal body."

Summerland The fancy name given by the Spiritualists to the abode of their disembodied "Spirits," which they locate somewhere in the Milky Way. It is described on the authority of returning "Spirits" as a lovely land, having beautiful cities and buildings, a Congress Hall, Museums, etc., etc.

Swedenborg, Emanuel A famous scholar and clairvoyant of the past century, a man of great learning, who has vastly contributed to Science, but whose mysticism and transcendental philosophy placed him in the ranks of hallucinated visionaries. He is now universally known as the Founder of the Swedenborgian sect, or the New Jerusalem Church. He was born at Stockholm (Sweden) in 1688, from Lutheran parents, his father being the Bishop of West Gothland. His original name was Swedberg, but on his being ennobled and knighted in 1719 it was changed to Swedenborg. He became a Mystic in 1743, and four years later (in 1747) resigned his office (of Assessor Extraordinary to the College of Mines) and gave himself up entirely to Mysticism. He died in 1772.