Price: $19.99
From the Publisher
The Influence of Madame Blavatsky: A Woman Generations Ahead of Her Time
“Few women in our time have been more persistently misrepresented, slandered, and defamed than Madame Blavatsky. … No one in the present generation has done more toward reopening the long-sealed treasures of Eastern thought, wisdom, and philosophy. … Someday, if not at once, the loftiness and purity of her aims, the wisdom and scope of her teachings, will be recognized more fully.” — New-York Tribune
Even if you’ve never heard of Madame Helena Blavatsky, you may still have been influenced by her work in one way or another without being aware of this possibility.
Have you or someone you know been interested in any aspects of spirituality, such as meditation, yoga, karma, reincarnation, dreams, positive thinking, the law of attraction, higher consciousness, the unconscious, near-death and out-of-body experiences, alternative medicine, Eastern philosophy, Hinduism, or Buddhism?
Did you know that nothing from the above list would exist and thrive in the Western world now had Blavatsky never come to America and Great Britain to prepare the soil and sow the first seeds?
Nevertheless, she was initially the target of the utmost hatred and criticism for introducing something that Western people had never seen or heard of before, but which is so common today.
More than half of Americans now prefer cremation as their funerary choice. However, few are aware that Theosophists like Blavatsky were the ones who first introduced the benefits of cremation to the public and who held the first ever cremation ceremony in the United States.
Helena Blavatsky was also the first outspoken advocate of women’s rights, nearly a century before it was fashionable to be one. She fascinated the greatest minds in the domains of science, religion, philosophy, psychology, music, art, and literature.
Blavatsky’s Theosophy (meaning “Divine Wisdom”) blends the sacred wisdom of the ages, found at the core of all world religions and philosophies, with modern science. In essence, she presents a scientific attempt to understand religions and a religious attempt to spiritualize science.
Her major work, The Secret Doctrine, was significantly ahead of its time and contained numerous scientific foresights. For example, Blavatsky affirmed the atom’s infinite divisibility, the convertibility of matter and energy (E=mc2), the transmutation of elements, that the Moon is older than the Earth, and many other concepts denied or not yet discovered by science in her time. She also predicted the climate change we are witnessing today. Albert Einstein used The Secret Doctrine for inspiration, always keeping a copy on his desk. Nikola Tesla also studied Blavatsky’s works, from which he drew the idea of Akasha, the substance that is an eternal source of energy he used for his inventions.
The Theosophical Society, which Blavatsky co-founded in 1875, has included such prominent figures as Thomas Edison, L. Frank Baum, W. B. Yeats, Mahatma Gandhi, and His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama; the latter has been an Honorary Life Member since 2011. Theosophy also inspired the writings of Jack London, T. S. Eliot, James Joyce, E. M. Forster, and D. H. Lawrence; the music of Alexander Scriabin, Jean Sibelius, and Gustav Mahler; and the paintings of Nicholas Roerich, Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Piet Mondrian, and Paul Gauguin.
Elvis Presley always had copies of Madame Blavatsky’s writings on hand. The Voice of the Silence was such a favorite of his that he sometimes read from it onstage and was inspired by it to name his own gospel group, Voice. J. K. Rowling gave a character in the Harry Potter series the name Cassandra Vablatsky after Helena Blavatsky. Moreover, the Star Wars movies wouldn’t exist without her ideas for the concept of the Force, because George Lucas credited Joseph Campbell’s work as influencing his films. However, Campbell himself was influenced by Blavatsky and Theosophy.
Let’s go further and recall that, in the 1980s, millions of Americans were exposed to alternative spiritual ideas for the first time, largely thanks to Oscar-winning actress Shirley MacLaine. Her spiritual quest was initiated by the books of Rudolf Steiner, the former head of the Theosophical Society in Germany. Later, she was further influenced by Blavatsky’s works as well. MacLaine, in turn, inspired Oprah Winfrey to bring up all those “out-there” topics on her national talk show, allowing such prominent thinkers as Eckhart Tolle, Deepak Chopra, Gary Zukav, Marianne Williamson, and Rhonda Byrne to share their ideas with a massive TV audience.
For these reasons, Madame Blavatsky is justly called the Mother of Modern Spirituality because, without her influence, the religious dogmas that tolerate no alternative views would still dominate the cultural landscape of the Western world — to resemble something like Gilead in The Handmaid’s Tale. However, to prevent this from happening, Madame Blavatsky needed to sacrifice herself by taking the most poisonous arrows into her heart from both enemies and friends.
During her life, Blavatsky’s reputation and health were substantially damaged due to betrayal by her colleagues, who took money from missionaries with the aim of fabricating evidence for an accusatory report by the Society for Psychical Research (SPR). It was not until 1986 that the SPR issued a press release to newspapers and leading magazines in the United Kingdom, the United States, and Canada headlined: “Madame Blavatsky, co-founder of the Theosophical Society, was unjustly condemned, new study concludes.” Dr. Vernon Harrison, who reexamined Blavatsky’s case, finished his report with the words: “I apologize to her that it has taken us one hundred years to demonstrate that she wrote truly.”
Praise
“I have always believed that inner or spiritual development is necessary for greater human happiness and to increase our capacity to benefit others. I am therefore happy to have this long association with the Theosophists.” — His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama
“Whatever critics may say against Madame Blavatsky, [her] contribution to humanity will always rank high.” — Mahatma Gandhi
“Her books are famous. There is a lot of good in them; what is not good is that they speak of what people are unable to understand.” — Leo Tolstoy, author of Anna Karenina (an Oprah’s Book Club selection)
“I am extremely impressed … with the quality and power of Madame Blavatsky’s work.” — Brian L. Weiss, M.D., New York Times bestselling author of Many Lives, Many Masters
“Much of what I learned in those [Theosophy] classes was very helpful to my own constantly evolving personal beliefs about God and the universe.” — Jane Goodall, Ph.D., New York Times bestselling author of The Book of Hope
“A fantastic and enlightened lady. I’m only sorry she lived a century too early. How I would have loved to work with her, be inspired by her, and have traveled and taught with her!” — Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, M.D., author of On Death and Dying
“She is the most human person alive … and is wholly devoted.” — W. B. Yeats, poet, Nobel Prize laureate in Literature
“The wisest woman in Europe.” — T. S. Eliot, poet, Nobel Prize laureate in Literature
“Many of the remarks which she made at that time, which were highly controversial, are now generally accepted. Many of the findings which she reported and which amazed her contemporaries, now belong to our common knowledge.” — Manly P. Hall, author of The Secret Teachings of All Ages
“No other woman has been so powerful in the whole history of man, has had influence worldwide.” — Osho, author of The Book of Secrets
“Who will not bow before her, who took upon herself such a heroic deed amidst the abyss of ignorant negations, suspicions, and persecutions? Truly, she was a martyr for the new salvation, which she revealed to humanity in the era of suffocating and corrupting materialism.” — Helena Roerich, author of the Agni Yoga series
“My painting The Messenger … is dedicated to the memory of this great woman.” — Nicholas Roerich, artist and philosopher, three-time Nobel Peace Prize nominee
“Undoubtedly, Madame Blavatsky had in some way been initiated into the deeper side of Mahayana teaching and then gave out what she deemed wise to the Western world as Theosophy.” — D. T. Suzuki, philosopher, Nobel Peace Prize nominee
“What a woman! … misunderstood, vilified, and abused, and yet with a brilliant, cultured, and deeply learned mind; the very soul of generosity; a woman of direct speech and action, refusing to talk the pious platitudes and nonsense that we chatter under the guise of socially good manners, but offering the truth for anyone who wanted it.” — Christmas Humphreys, founder of the Buddhist Society
“She lived in great truth, yet was called a liar; in great generosity, and was called a fraud; in a detestation of all shams, and yet — was crowned the Queen of Humbugs.” — Edmund N. Russell, artist
Publisher : Radiant Books (August 12, 2023)
Language : English
Paperback : 701 pages
ISBN-10 : 163994043X
ISBN-13 : 978-1639940431
Item Weight : 2.23 pounds
Dimensions : 6 x 1.76 x 9 inches
Price: $19.99
