Isaac Newton wrote more about the occult and alchemy than he did about physics. Pythagoras most likely learned the secrets of triangles from Egyptian mystery cults, and formed his own cult afterward. The Nazis simultaneously pursued war advantage via improved technology and a deep delve into the occult.

The separation between the scientific and the mystical world is a very modern concept, and not everyone buys in, especially when they go down a rabbit hole. Science and philosophy have ridden in the same cart for a long time, long enough that America's oldest scientific organization is called the American Philosophical Society, because its name predates the word "Science" and the idea of that separation.