The "Endgültige" that threatens when you dabble with magic is disaster and
death.
EJ quotes elsewhere Goethe's ZAUBERLEHRLING (THE SORCERER'S APPRENTICE) as an
illustration of that old belief. (To be sure, in Goethe's poem the "Endgültige"
is averted by the timely return of the old sorcerer himself.). Access to magic
may be gained by mental training ("psychogene Ausrüstung") - as I read this
deliberately cryptic remark. EJ even hints that he knows of efforts to construct
devices that facilitate access to magical powers.
Later in this text EJ refers to an analogous attempt of modern technicians to
tap
the powers of the occult. If I remember the old newspaper story right the US
Navy
was said to have enlisted the help of people gifted with telepathic powers to
get
in contact with submarines under the polar ice cap with which radio
communication
was impossible.
