I try to tell my mother about the definition of occult as "hidden knowledge". She's a deeply spiritual and religious person (not fanatically by any means) but the word "occult" to her ear has become synonymous with "black magic." This is an unfortunate side-effect of religion brainwashing her, although Christianity has given her strengths in many other ways. I've had to refrain from telling her too much about the true nature of God and Existence as i've come to understand it, because it deals very much with an intangible spirit world, and on some level that concept frightens her, thus she chooses not to understand it. My whole motivation came from a deep urge for just the opposite: to understand as much as i could. It takes quite a few lifetimes to master it.