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A founding member of the Theosophical Society, and perhaps the first well-known European to convert to Buddhism, Henry Steel Olcott made a lasting contribution with his Buddhist Catechism of 1881. Seeing Buddhism with a Westernized scientific eye, the work is given in the same question and answer structure used in the Christian Catechism. David McMahan wrote of Olcott that he "allied Buddhism with scientific rationalism in implicit criticism of orthodox Christianity, but went well beyond the tenets of conventional science in extrapolating from the Romantic and Transcendentalist influenced 'occult sciences' of the nineteenth century."

Buddhism -- Catechisms. --- Buddhism. --- Religion. --- Buddhism --- Catechisms. --- Creeds. --- Buddha and Buddhism --- Lamaism --- Ris-med (Lamaism) --- Religions

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The lawyer and journalist Henry Steel Olcott (1832-1907) published People from the Other World in 1875. Part 1 of the work is a careful account of Olcott's 1874 investigations into the famous Eddy brothers of Chittenden, Vermont, and their claimed psychic powers. Part 2 is a report into two Philadelphia mediums who claimed to be able to call up two spirits called John and Katie King. The account includes descriptions of séances, healings, levitation, teleportation and the famous Compton transfiguration. Olcott, a founding member of the Theosophical Society and its first president, was a pioneer of psychical research. This work, deeply influenced by Helena Blavatsky (1831-1891), who he met at Chittenden, is one of his most popular. It offers an important insight into the nineteenth-century fascination with the occult and is a classic example of a Victorian attempt to approach the supernatural with the rigours of scientific investigation.

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Henry Steel Olcott (1832-1907), co-founder of the Theosophical Society, was a versatile man. He is regarded as one of the pioneers of American agricultural education and also served in the U.S. War Department. Later Olcott was admitted to the New York Bar and became interested in psychology and spiritualism, travelling to India and Sri Lanka with Madame Blavatsky to explore eastern spiritual traditions, especially Buddhism. This volume covers the period 1883-1887: Olcott tells of his meetings with many of the 'Masters' of the Society and considers what has been achieved since he and Madame Blavatsky met in Vermont in 1874. He is invited to Burma by its king, who is interested in hearing about Olcott's work; Madame Blavatsky resigns as Corresponding Secretary of the Society and goes into exile in Europe. The author, however, is determined to give a fair assessment of her invaluable contribution to the Society.

Theosophy --- Theosophical Society (Chennai, India).

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Henry Steel Olcott (1832-1907), co-founder of the Theosophical Society, was a versatile man. He is regarded as one of the pioneers of American agricultural education and also served in the U.S. War Department. Later Olcott was admitted to the New York Bar and became interested in psychology and spiritualism, travelling to India and Sri Lanka with Madame Blavatsky to explore eastern spiritual traditions, especially Buddhism. This volume (1895) describes the first meeting between Olcott and Madame Blavatsky and the founding of the Theosophical Society in 1875. Olcott continued to practise as a lawyer (and supported the Society financially) while in the evenings he and Madame Blavatsky would entertain visitors or collaborate on the book Isis Unveiled. The author portrays his friend as a spiritual medium and describes how Madame Blavatsky's body was from time to time possessed by other 'entities'.

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Esoteric sciences --- Theosophical Society