This book is valuable for those who are searching for the practical life and evidence of Comte de St. Germain. An immortal who is still very active in the world today.

Cooper-Oakley's biography on Comte de St. Germain is the first biographical sketch written about this enigmatic character. Called by Frederick the Great "The man who does not die" Saint Germain was said to possess the Elixir of Life, and to be virtually immortal. Germain was the friend, confident, and spy of European rulers for a generation. Two hundred years after his disappearance from the scene of politics, his reputation as an emissary from the Invisible Brotherhood intrigues us even more. While there is a definite Theosophical spin to her work, Cooper-Oakley's "Comte de St. German" remains to this day seminal reading for those interested in this "Unknown Superior" of Western Esotericism - Freemasonry and Rosicrucianism in particular - almost a century after it was written. A very good book and well worth reading by any one interested in the mysterious occult forces behind history. Jean Overton-Fuller's historical biography on Comte de Saint Germain is a fine follow-up to this one.

Annie Besant,as always,writes in clear,inspirational language. This book explains the need for self-mastery and how to achieve it through control of our thinking. A MUST for sincere spiritual seekers. This a book to read and re-read,so packed is it with true wisdom.

This book has been a favorite for twenty-five years. It's been around a long time but it's message is still relavent to out times.

In this brief, but brilliant, text on the afterlife, the third in a series of Manuals written by Besant and Leadbeater between 1892 and 1896, Besant presents the theosophical perspective on the various stages undergone by the soul after the death of the body. Her writing is clear, focused, and careful as it introduces technical terminology from the Sanskrit. The basic model is straightforward: first the body dies as its energy system (the etheric double) leaves it behind; as this body in turn dissipates, the astral body solidifies into seven layers that must each in turn dissipate before the soul can move on (all of this in the realm of Kamaloka--the desire realm); finally, the soul rises up to its highest mental level and enters a realm of peaceful dreaming (Devachan) where it regathers its energies before becoming incarnate yet again. Besant raises the question: if reincarnation is true, why can't we remember our past lives? Her answer is fascinating; namely, that we can only remember the unconscious potencies of our past lives and deeds when we attain the highest levels of awareness in this life--levels that give us access to the hidden material that can only appear when the conditions for useful memory permit. The analogy here is to the life of the Buddha in which he was only able to remember his past lives at the moment when his final enlightenment was unfolding.
This Manual is a little gem and it is highly recommended for those who believe that the soul survives the death of the body--for it is one thing to believe in immortality, it is another to attempt to delineate just what the post-death state might be like. Annie Besant has done as well as anyone I know of in doing so. Readers of this volume will certainly want to read the other six in the series.

Annie Besant, in her usual inspirational style, has gathered together teachings and quotes from many spiritual writings and presents them clearly,concisely and with great devotion. It is a very small book, but only in physical size.It inspires,beckons and gently directs the seeker to the very Heart of God - ever-present,ever-loving and tenderly guiding His Creation toward perfection and Union with Himself.This little book brings comfort to the suffering,hope to the hopeless and guidance to the sincere Seeker after Truth,and most importantly, LOVE. It should be read over and over again in order to fully assimilate all it offers. A true spiritual treasure.

Pound for pound this is one of the best books on Karma I have ever read. It's short, to the point and concise.

Annie Bassant, is in my opinion, a brilliant woman. One of Mme Bavatski's contemporaries.

The authors have described the atomic structure by reducing themselves to atomic size and actually observing the structure of atoms.Several Nobel Prizes have been won 1991 onwards by developing the descriptions given in the book-written some time around 1924 .The book must be read by every student of physics and chemistry at the graduate level and also those who are generally interested in knowing the the true nature of the world around us.I can arrange the book at a v-low price.

navinkumar46@hotmail.com

While admitting to great ignorance before reading this compelling book, I humbly suggest that Annie Besant, through her research and insight, made me a qualified neophyte to discuss the seven great religions of India she covers, namely:
1. Hinduism
2. Zoroastrianism
3. Jainism
4. Buddhism
5. Christianity
6. Islam
7. Sikhism

Originally entitled Four Great Religions in 1897, three were added in 1901 - all from lectures delivered in India. Her bibliography cites over seventy sources from which she generously offers quotations and context, from the Al Qurån to the Zendavesta.

The historical coverage is valuable, but alone is not the purpose of her book. Rather, she provides unmistakable linkage among the great religions, their laws, and purpose. Specifically she seeks to support religious study and comparisons of:
* The Founder - whose life and character are impressed on the religion
* The exoteric religion - thought to appeal to the masses of the people
* The philosophy - thought to appeal to the learned and the cultured
* The mysticism - defined as expressing the universal yearning of the human Spirit for union with its source

Enjoy this book because it suggests a celebration of religion seen as a process that supports the advancement of all humanity, given its current condition, constraints, and culture at the time it was founded.

Dr. Besant presents her material with loving concern for all people on the path to spiritual enlightenment. Her style is thoughtful and illumining, not doctrinaire or dogmatic. Every chapter guides and inspires us to greater love and service to all mankind.This is a work I'll cherish and return to again & again.

This book shows us a new dimension of our universe. It offers a theory on thought forms that we create every time we think. We create around us (astral plane and mental plane) some forms that affect us and people around us. If we have good thoughts we create pure forms and bad forms if not. Well this book describes differents forms that a medium could see and that is my main reproach. Somebody that has not this gift or who has not developed this power to be able to see in astral or mental plane can't verify this theory. Knowing that in theosophy you should verify before believing, there is a contradiction. So it is an interesting theory and that's all for most of us!

If you're into symbolism, intuition, and exploring the human condition -- Thought Forms just might blow your mind. I can't guarantee it for you, but with my life experience the author's depiction of how clairvoyants see our thoughts and spirits acting seems very true. Probably the best book I own on the occult, believe it or not, the statements made with images are profound. If you have any tendency towards being a mystic this book will give you a charge, the content will connect.

There are a number of methods that we can use to clarify and describe something elusive. In my own work I combine phenomenology (which slowly and carefully works through the ways in which something shows itself) and transcendental arguments (which move from what is observed toward what may or must be presupposed to explain what is observed). Using these two methods together can produce a (hopefully) powerful strategy for bringing the more hidden or esoteric realm into the less hidden realm of common discourse and description. Even though they did not use this technical methodological language (especially since phenomenology was just being born in 1901), Besant and Leadbeater were certainly using the same dual approach. That is, in probing into the human aura and the thought forms that emerge within and through it, they carefully describe the data that clairvoyants almost universally report. Since both authors were themselves gifted in this area, they were in a position to evaluate what others had said about those phenomena that reside outside of the immediate boundaries of the human body. The transcendental strategy comes into play when they argue that the world must be set up as a series of more and more refined fields of energy that condense themselves in order to become relevant to the physical orders. Simply put, phenomenology describes what appears in clairvoyant seeing, while the transcendental argument tells us what the world must be like in order to explain just how thought forms got to be the way they are. Three traits emerge from the phenomenological description. Thought forms manifest: (1) color, (2) form, and, (3) variations in definiteness of outline. The correlation of color with mood and even quality of thought is well known in the literature. The form of the thought is correlated with its intention, while the outline is related to the thought's intensity of focus. For Besant and Leadbeater, thoughts are causal agents in the world of so-called physical matter and can act to alter the brain states that are mistakenly taken to be their source. The aura-entwined thought form is causally prior to the later brain state activity (to which it is often reduced). The social aspects of thought form activity are given their proper role and are sometimes manifest pathologically in what Wilhelm Reich called the "emotional plague." It is this plague ridden thought form that lies behind such phenomena as fascism and group psychosis. Of great value are the many color renditions of thought forms and their emotional correlaries. Each thought contains an emotion and vice versa. Musicians will be especially interested in the color plates that depict the energetic effects (pictured as manifesting themselves high above a church wherein the music was played on an organ) of the thought forms of the music of Mendelssohn, Gounod, and Wagner. Needless to say, the music of Wagner's Overture to "The Meistersingers" has the most powerful expression of the three. It broils 900 feet upwards in mountain-like crags with intense color fields of red, green, and purple. Before reading this book I would have laughed at such an idea, but now I am reasonably persuaded that Besant and Leadbeater got it right. John Algeo's introduction locates this text historically and conceptually and prepares the reader for the strange things that are to come. "Thought Forms" is more akin to the real thing than many of the fluff books that came later. This book would make an excellent text for a seminar on esoteric thought because of its combination of careful reflection and iconic representation.