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As Bruinsma states, the New Age Movement is a continuation of
the hippie culture of the 1960's, but its actual origins can be traced back

th
to the 18 century. The Theosophical Society (theosophy is a Greek
word meaning "Divine Mind") which was founded in America and
then emerged also in Europe, aimed to introduce the pagan religions of
the Far East into the lives of westerners and was the first instance of this
movement.

THE THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY

The Theosophical Society was founded in New York in 1875 by
Colonel Henry Steel Olcott and Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, both igno-
rant admirers of superstitious Hinduism and Buddhism. The reason
behind its creation was stated to be the research of religions, philoso-
phies and sciences, but in practice it aimed to revive some antiquated
teachings. Helena Blavatsky was an explorer who took a great interest
in occultism, superstitious practices that claimed to make contact with
the spiritual world, sorcery, mysticism and the pagan rituals of the Far
Eastern religions. She had traveled many times to countries like India,

Tibet, China and Japan in her quest to gain an insight into these teach-
ings. She had written extensively about sorcery, the worship of the
snake, contact with spirits and alchemy. Blavatsky was considered to
be one of the main influences promoting occultist ideas and she fre-
quently intimated that she had acquired supposedly supernatural
powers. She claimed that she had been a student of Buddhism in Tibet
and a number of gurus (guru means in Sanskrit “worthy of respect”
and in Hinduism stands for a spiritual leader) and that she was a medi-

um who could communicate with the spiritual world. 140 The Indian me-
dia was singularly unimpressed and gave her negative publicity and
printed articles accusing her of fraud. 141

Harun Yahya (Adnan Oktar)