Concept
Theosophical Society
Overview
The Theosophical Society is the organizational body of Theosophy, an esoteric new religious movement. It was founded in New York City, United States in 1875. Among its founders were Helena Blavatsky, a Russian mystic and the principal thinker of the Theosophy movement, and Henry Steel Olcott, the society's first president. It draws upon a wide array of influences, among them older European philosophies and movements such as Neoplatonism and occultism, as well as parts of eastern religious traditions such as Hinduism and Buddhism.
The founders described Theosophy as the synthesis of science, religion and philosophy. It notes that the purpose of human life is spiritual emancipation and the human soul undergoes reincarnation upon bodily death according to a process of karma, referring to the principles from Indian religions. Around 1880, Blavatsky and Olcott moved to India, and the organization split into the Theosophical Society (Adyar, India) and the Theosophical Society (Pasadena, California).
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
Possible passages
Found by search and not yet checked by a person; they may only mention the idea in passing.
A glance at the membership fails, however, to corroborate this view. The president is Prof. Henry Sidgwick,[2] known by his other deeds as the most incorrigibly and exasperatingly critical and sceptical mind in England. The hard-headed Arthur Balfour is one vice-president, and the hard-headed Prof. J. P. Langley, secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, is another.
William James, The Will to Believe, and Other Essays in Popular Philosophy
The author is tied to Theosophical Society in the knowledge graph.
The enthusiasm with which they responded speaks volumes, both for his genius as a teacher and for the sanity of his position. A small posthumous book of articles by Davidson and of letters written from Glenmore to his class, just published, with an introduction by his disciple Professor Bakewell,[2] gives a full account of the experiment, and ought to stand as a model and inspirer to similar attempts the world over…
William James, Memories and Studies
The author is tied to Theosophical Society in the knowledge graph.
In the course of these seven years the philosophic development of the individual, preserving its correspondence with that of the race, will pass through its last phase. As the pupil passed before from Fetichism to Polytheism, so he will now pass, as spontaneously, into Monotheism, induced by the influence on his imaginative powers which hitherto have been supreme, of the spirit of discussion. No interference should…
Auguste Comte, A General View of Positivism Or, Summary exposition of the System of Thought and Life
Close in meaning to Theosophical Society; the term itself is not named.
Philosophers who discussed Theosophical Society
- Henri Bergson
- Jiddu Krishnamurti
- Meister Eckhart
- Swami Vivekananda
- William James
- Paul Brunton
- Curt John Ducasse
- Ganganath Jha
- Arturo Reghini
- Robert S. Corrington
- U. G. Krishnamurti
Related ideas
- Jesus
- Hinduism
- Indian religions
- Helena Blavatsky
- Karma
- London
- Jiddu Krishnamurti
- Doctrine
- Henry Steel Olcott
- Annie Besant
- Spiritualism (movement)
- New religious movement
- Western world
- Occult
- Om
- Neoplatonism
- Reincarnation
- Rudolf Steiner
- Soul
- Masterpiece
- Mysticism
- Thomas Edison
- Buddhism
- Cosmos
Place in the tradition
Part of Deism.