World traveler and student of religions, Blavatsky was among the first to bring Eastern wisdom to the West. Her writings excited such luminaries as W.B. Yeats, James Joyce, Wassily Kandinsky, Piet Mondrian, and Gustav Mahler. Here are first-handed accounts of her colorful life by family, friends, and enemies.

In December 1885 the Society for Psychical Research (SPR) in London, England, published a 200-page report by Richard Hodgson. The report is perhaps best known for its denunciation of H P Blavatsky as an impostor, and is often quoted in encyclopaedias, reference books, and biographical works. In April 1986 the SPR Journal, 'in the interests of truth and fair play', published a critical analysis of the Hodgson Report by handwriting expert Vernon Harrison, who found it 'riddled with slanted statements, conjectures advanced as fact or probable fact, uncorroborated testimony of unnamed witnesses, selection of evidence and downright falsity'. Dr Harrison, a professional examiner of questioned documents, continued his research, including a line-by-line examination of 1,323 colour slides of the Mahatma Letters, and in a second monograph (1997) concluded that 'the Hodgson Report is even worse than I had thought'. H P Blavatsky and the SPR combines both of Dr. Harrison s papers together with his Opinion, Replies to Criticism, formal Affidavit, and 13 full-colour plates of sample pages from the Mahatma and Blavatsky letters.

The historiographers of religious studies have written the history of this discipline primarily as a rationalization of ideological, most prominently theological and phenomenological ideas: first through the establishment of comparative, philological and sociological methods and secondly through the demand for intentional neutrality. This interpretation caused important roots in occult-esoteric traditions to be repressed. This process of “purification” (Latour) is not to be equated with the origin of the academic studies. De facto, the elimination of idealistic theories took time and only happened later. One example concerning the early entanglement is Tibetology, where many researchers and respected chair holders were influenced by theosophical ideas or were even members of the Theosophical Society. Similarly, the emergence of comparatistics cannot be understood without taking into account perennialist ideas of esoteric provenance, which hold that all religions have a common origin. In this perspective, it is not only the history of religious studies which must be revisited, but also the partial shaping of religious studies by these traditions, insofar as it saw itself as a counter-model to occult ideas.

Helena P. Blavatsky (1831-1891) is widely celebrated as the leading esoteric thinker of the nineteenth century who influenced an entire generation of artists and intellectuals and introduced Eastern spirituality to the West. Until now, however, readers have been able to know this fascinating woman only through her public writings. Few may have realized that H.P.B. was also a tireless correspondent with family and colleagues, friends and foes, the learned and the simple. Her personal correspondence reveals for the first time the private H.P.B. in all of her sphinx-like complexity rarely visible in her published material. This unparalleled offering contains all known letters H.P.B. wrote between 1860 and the time just before she left for India in 1879. Meticulously edited by John Algeo, former President of the Theosophical Society in America and current Vice President of the international Society, the volume also contains letters to and about Blavatsky, articles, and editorial commentary.

Exploring the Living Universe and Intelligent Powers in Nature and Humans, author Edi Bilimoria heralds the new science of consciousness and offers the readers a roadmap and necessary tools to achieve future growth. Presented in three volumes, plus volume IV contains references, resources & further reading, they reveal the unity of the Eastern and Western branches of our perineal wisdom. Bilimoria shows how science seeks truth using a synthesis of both traditions. Evidence from a wide range of sources— scientific, medical, philosophical, religious, and cultural— is put forward to argue the case that humans are spiritual beings, primarily, and not merely complicated biological machines. Bilimoria teaches that consciousness is not the product of matter but the primary &‘ element' from which all else emanates. This process and its underlying mechanisms are described in detail with much clarity. This work has over 2000 references and is supported by copious tables and diagrams, plus individual chapter summaries and sidenotes to assist readers in navigating the multidimensional terrain traversed.Key areas - The scientific and esoteric worldviews compared and contrasted - The ultimate promise of science - The &‘ soft' and &‘ hard' problems of consciousness: How external input to the physical senses results in an internal, subjective experience - Quantum physics: its contribution to a new scientific paradigm - The Mystery Teachings of All Ages: their worldwide unity and central message - &‘ Wet computers' and computers: Is the brain no different, in principle, from a computer? - Death and after: the transition and continuity of consciousness in other realms - Paranormal phenomena and apparitions - Subtle bodies - Evolution and destiny - Powers latent in human beings - Divinity and the united message of all world religions - The question of immortality - The primacy of consciousness and the manner of its unfoldment from the unmanifest realms to the physical world Edi Bilimoria' s guest appearance on the Shepheard-Walwyn podcast series can be found on this link. https://shepheardwalwyn.com/edi-bilimoria-unfolding-consciousness-why-sapolsky-is-wrong-and-how-to-get-in-tune-with-life/

While a rational consciousness grasps many truths, Gananath Obeyesekere believes an even richer knowledge is possible through a bold confrontation with the stuff of visions and dreams. Spanning both Buddhist and European forms of visionary experience, he fearlessly pursues the symbolic, nonrational depths of such phenomena, reawakening the intuitive, creative impulses that power greater understanding. Throughout his career, Obeyesekere has combined psychoanalysis and anthropology to illuminate the relationship between personal symbolism and religious experience. In this book, he begins with Buddha's visionary trances wherein, over the course of four hours, he witnesses hundreds of thousands of his past births and eons of world evolution, renewal, and disappearance. He then connects this fracturing of empirical and visionary time to the realm of space, considering the experience of a female Christian penitent, who stares devotedly at a tiny crucifix only to see the space around it expand to mirror Christ's suffering. Obeyesekere follows the unconscious motivations underlying rapture, the fantastical consumption of Christ's body and blood, and body mutilation and levitation, bridging medieval Catholicism and the movements of early modern thought as reflected in William Blake's artistic visions and poetic dreams. He develops the term "dream-ego" through a discussion of visionary journeys, Carl Jung's and Sigmund Freud's scientific dreaming, and the cosmic and erotic dream-visions of New Age virtuosos, and he defines the parameters of a visionary mode of knowledge that provides a more elastic understanding of truth. A career-culminating work, this volume translates the epistemology of Hindu and Buddhist thinkers for western audiences while revitalizing western philosophical and scientific inquiry.