Category: Isis Unveiled, Volume II: H. P. Blavatsky (1877)

“There is one fact which remains undeniable. There is not a single European in India who could have or has ever boasted of having penetrated into the enclosed sanctuary within the pagodas. Neither authority nor money has ever induced a Brahman to allow an uninitiated foreigner to pass the threshold of the reserved precinct. To [...]

“At the great festivals of Hindu pagodas, at the marriage feasts of rich high-castes, everywhere where large crowds are gathered, Europeans find Guni – or serpent-charmers, fakir-mesmerizers, thaum-working sannyasi, and so-called “jugglers”. To deride is easy – to explain, rather more troublesome – to science, impossible. The British residents of India and the travelers prefer [...]

“A number of lamas in Sikkin produce meipo - “miracle” - by magical powers. The late Patriarch of Mongolia, Gegen Chutuktu, who resided at Urga, a veritable paradise, was the sixteenth incarnation of Gautama, therefore a Boddhisattva. He had the reputation of possessing powers that were phenomenal, even among the thaumaturgists of the land of [...]

“What is now generally known of Shamanism is very little; and that has been perverted, like the rest of the non-Christian religions. It is called the “heathenism” of Mongolia, and wholly without reason, for it is one of the oldest religions of India. It is spirit-worship, or belief in the immortality of the souls, and [...]