Howard Murphet comprehensively discusse the life of Helena Petrovna Blavatsky (H. P. Blavatsky).

H. P. Blavatsky (1831-1891) was one of the most extraordinary and controversial figures of the 19th century. The influence of her life, writings and teachings on world thought has been significant. The following three quotations may help to indicate the extent of Madame Blavatsky’s influence:

"... Madame Blavatsky ... stands out as the fountainhead of modern occult thought, and was either the originator and/or popularizer of many of the ideas and terms which have a century later been assembled within the New Age Movement. The Theosophical Society, which she cofounded, has been the major advocate of occult philosophy in the West and the single
most important avenue of Eastern teaching to the West."

J. Gordon Melton, Jerome Clark and Aidan A. Kelly, editors, New Age Almanac, Detroit, Michigan, Gale Research Inc., 1991, p. 16.

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"Theosophy occupies a central place in the history of new spiritual movements, for the writings of Blavatsky and some of her followers have had a great influence outside of her organization. ... The importance of Theosophy in modern history should not be underestimated. Not only have the writings of Blavatsky and others inspired several generations of occultists, but the movement had a remarkable role in the restoration to the colonial peoples of nineteenth century Asia their own spiritual heritage."

Robert S. Ellwood and Harry B. Partin, Religious and Spiritual Groups in Modern America, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, Prentice Hall, 1988, pp. 63, 79-80.

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"...Helena Petrovna Blavatsky... is surely among the most original and perceptive minds of her time ... Buried in the sprawling bulk of her two major books ... there lies, in rudimentary form, the first philosophy of psychic and spiritual evolution to appear in the modern West ... With all criticisms weighed up against her, HPB stands forth as a seminal talent of our time ... Above all, she is among the modern world’s trailblazing psychologists of the visionary mind. At the same historical moment that Freud, Pavlov, and James had begun to formulate the secularized and materialist theory of mind that has so far dominated modern Western thought, HPB and her fellow Theosophists were rescuing from occult tradition and exotic religion a forgotten psychology of the superconscious and the extrasensory. Madame Blavatsky may be credited with having set the style for modern occult literature."

Theodore Roszak, The Unfinished Animal: The Aquarian Frontier and the Evolution of Consciousness, New York, Harper and Row, 1975, pp. 118, 124-125.

Howard Murphet comprehensively discusse the life of Helena Petrovna Blavatsky (H. P. Blavatsky).

H. P. Blavatsky (1831-1891) was one of the most extraordinary and controversial figures of the 19th century. The influence of her life, writings and teachings on world thought has been significant. The following three quotations may help to indicate the extent of Madame Blavatsky’s influence:

"... Madame Blavatsky ... stands out as the fountainhead of modern occult thought, and was either the originator and/or popularizer of many of the ideas and terms which have a century later been assembled within the New Age Movement. The Theosophical Society, which she cofounded, has been the major advocate of occult philosophy in the West and the single
most important avenue of Eastern teaching to the West."

J. Gordon Melton, Jerome Clark and Aidan A. Kelly, editors, New Age Almanac, Detroit, Michigan, Gale Research Inc., 1991, p. 16.

__________

"Theosophy occupies a central place in the history of new spiritual movements, for the writings of Blavatsky and some of her followers have had a great influence outside of her organization. ... The importance of Theosophy in modern history should not be underestimated. Not only have the writings of Blavatsky and others inspired several generations of occultists, but the movement had a remarkable role in the restoration to the colonial peoples of nineteenth century Asia their own spiritual heritage."

Robert S. Ellwood and Harry B. Partin, Religious and Spiritual Groups in Modern America, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, Prentice Hall, 1988, pp. 63, 79-80.

__________

"...Helena Petrovna Blavatsky... is surely among the most original and perceptive minds of her time ... Buried in the sprawling bulk of her two major books ... there lies, in rudimentary form, the first philosophy of psychic and spiritual evolution to appear in the modern West ... With all criticisms weighed up against her, HPB stands forth as a seminal talent of our time ... Above all, she is among the modern world’s trailblazing psychologists of the visionary mind. At the same historical moment that Freud, Pavlov, and James had begun to formulate the secularized and materialist theory of mind that has so far dominated modern Western thought, HPB and her fellow Theosophists were rescuing from occult tradition and exotic religion a forgotten psychology of the superconscious and the extrasensory. Madame Blavatsky may be credited with having set the style for modern occult literature."

Theodore Roszak, The Unfinished Animal: The Aquarian Frontier and the Evolution of Consciousness, New York, Harper and Row, 1975, pp. 118, 124-125.