"Why Do I Love These People?" by Po Bronson

Since I read his other book I thought I should give it another chance and read this one as well. It was more entertaining than the first, although most reviewers said the first one looks like pulitzer material compared to this one. I was mostly attracted by the story of the woman who has near death experience which changed her life and made her a better person. This story is an outlier compared to the other stories of the book, and although I was not offended by his preaching that everyone should procreate, nor I thought that he has no credentials to preach parenting after only a few years of having a child, but I really did not get the significance of most stories in the book. Don't get me wrong they are nice stories, and nicely written, very sweet and cozy and leave you with a good feeling, but I really did not get anything life changing out of it.

If anything I was immensely grateful that Po did not do the reading on the audio book like on his previous book 'What should I do with my life' because his voice doesn't have the quality for the audio book narration, and sounds squeaky, paltry and distracting.

"What Should I Do with My Life?" by Po Bronson

I read this book an a recommendation of a friend who's opinion I value, however I was disappointed with its contents. The title is completely inappropriate for the book as it is more of a career change advice and examples than anything about the meaning of life itself. Many reviewers at amazon pointed out that the book is mostly concerned with over-privileged, over-educated, reasonably wealthy elite of the Bay Area and West Coast in general. I tend to somewhat agree with this opinion, although I don't want to downgrade their troubles, efforts and pains.

The book tells short bios of 55 people who have made more or less unconventional career change choices. I liked the story about the Harvard graduate turned catfish farmer. Most of the stories are fairly forgettable. I did not get much out of this book, both from advice and insight points of view. Many reviewers at amazon are right about saying that most of the people reviewed in the book never had any real troubles in life and did not have to take any big risks or make really hard choices.

The book is an entertaining read. The only distracting thing are Bronson's ramblings and musings about life, meaning, etc. where he overdoes it in driving some very obvious and common sense points home. One has to wonder about the quality of his spiritual and social life if such simple points impress him so much. Also I found the ever-present parallels he makes with his own life, and how things apply to him, distracting and plain annoying.

Other than that, a good, entertaining and forgettable book.

"Ocean of Theosophy" by William Quan Judge

This book is usually presented as the best introduction to the overall teachings and principles of Theosophy. As such it has it's value, as it spares the reader hundreds of hours in reading the Theosophical bibles like 'The Secret Doctrine' and 'Isis Unveiled'. Judge, who was the president of the Theosophical Society after the death of Blavatsky, is known to write more clearly than HPB, but shares her contempt for science, and the assumed superiority, bordering on snobbery, which can be annoying to the reader.

The book explains Blavatsky's ideas in more clear language, and the chapters were originally articles Judge wrote as answers to questions from theosophists. As most theosophical work, it draws mainly on Hindu scriptures and tradition, with lots of 'original' work by Blavatsky. It is openly resentful to institutionalized religion, mostly Christianity and Judaisms, while Islam is not even mentioned except as not worthy of discussion. The phantasmagoric tales of the 'Ascended Adepts' and races and continents preceding ours, which are offered purely on fate, or for 'examination' by people who can see the Astral Light, are intermixed by constant warnings and cautions about doing anything practical, as the powers you (seemingly automatically) get by any kind of practical work will immediately corrupt one's soul and mind, turning one into a power-hungry, super villain reminiscent of the ones in Marvel comics.

Judge tries to joke about the limited reach of science and how it doesn't have explanation for many phenomena, for which Theosophists have perfectly good explanations coming from the 'highest' source, i.e. Ascended Adepts, through their earthly mediators like Blavatsky and other high ranking Theosophists. He explain gravity as a form of electricity, and thus making levitation possible by 'changing the polarity' of an object or a person. Although it might have been common in the late 1800 to speculate about the electrical nature of gravity, such thoughts have been disproved soon afterwards, and it makes such statements laughable today. Judge tries to poke fun at science in many similar cases, basking in his imagined superiority of Theosophical thought, but the joke is ultimately on him, and on Theosophy, which hasn't updated its views of the world and science significantly in the last 120 years, while science has leaped forward in advances and understanding to the point where the Theosophical allegations and explanations seem like a relic from the past.

While Theosophy has had significant positive social impact, especially under the guidance of Annie Besant, and includes such cosmopolitan ideas like universal brotherhood of all men, the teachings and theories on which it is based, and especially the methods by which Blavatsky and other high ranking Theosophists claim to have obtained such knowledge, casts very strong doubt on its credibility, even questioning the basis for its existence.

"Ultimate Book of Mind Maps" by Tony Bulzan

This is a very interesting book. My only gripe with it is how did the author manage to spend 256 pages explaining a very simple idea? Apparently he has written 82 books on pretty much the same idea, which is astounding. I guess it only goes as a monument to the consumer mentality of the world today.

The ideas in this book are neither new, nor overly original. Although Mr. Bulzan claims copyright over the idea and method, mind maps in their earliest incarnations have been used by Porphyry of Tyros, who lived in 3rd century AD. Mind maps are very similar to cognitive maps or semantic networks, but with less rules and limitations.

Mind mapping is basically a visualization technique for organization of ideas, note taking or decision making. It basically starts from a central problem statement, usually represented as an image, and works radially from it attaching branches with ideas that stem from the previous points. Images and color are used extensively as this makes the map more attractive and interesting to the brain, and research has showed that retention is best when the mind is interested in what is being presented.

The book promotes the old fashioned, and now discredited idea, that people only use one half of the brain, business and engineering and general logical reasoning people using the left brain, while artists, musicians and general creative people using the right brain. The book builds on this by claiming that mind maps force you to use both sides of your brain, the words and concepts coming from the left, and colors and images coming from the right side of the brain. Modern research has shown that we used both sides of the brain simultaneously and in conjunction for accomplishing various tasks, and the increased retention of information using mind maps can be attributed to making the cognitive process more interesting and exciting.

The book is filled with success stories and examples, some of them pretty loosely connected to the main topic of mind mapping, like the full chapter on physical exercise. One gets a feeling that the author did a mind map about the content of the book, and he kind of went wild with the number of branches he considered good ideas. Mind mapping is an interesting idea which might have good use in note taking, and knowledge organization, and thus could be very useful in appropriate situations, but is definitely not a panacea.

"In Search of the Miraculous: Fragments of an Unknown Teaching" by P. D. Ouspensky

I approached this book with skepticism, based on my previous knowledge and readings about Gurdjieff and Ouspensky, their lives and their (pitiful) deaths. However, after the first few dozen pages, I started to get more and more interested and involved in the material. It was something that you obviously deviates from the standard 'New Age' teaching, both in form and in function, and it actually sounded like something that could be true. Of course, there was plenty of borrowings from Theosophy, especially about the cosmology of the world and the organization of the 'higher planes' for which I couldn't care less. Things like 'The Ray of Creation' , the 'Law of Octaves', the angels and archangels that govern each plane did not interest me the least, since their practical value in modifying my life and everyday experience was next to none. Nowadays I judge the teachings by their fruits, not by how elegant and elaborate they are, but by how do the improve the quality of my life.

The teachings about 'self-remembering', self-observation, intentional suffering, about the fact that humans are machines, always under the Law of Accident, that they cannot do anything of their own free will, because they have none, they are asleep, constantly in a lucid dream where they only think they are free, but in fact all they do is caused by external influences and accident; these teachings resonate strongly, almost as if becoming aware of The Matrix. Also here we must mention the teachings about the complete mechanicalness of the human-machine, and the fact that no one is born with higher bodies, and they have to be earned by hard work, and the right kind of work, otherwise nothing outlast the death of the physical body, the dust returns to the dust from which it was created and the machine disappears, with no trace or any kind of entity outliving it. This discouraging view resonates much more truthfully than the fairytale teachings of most New Age groups, and is almost the same as the teachings found within Peter Carroll's Chaos Magick, i.e. humans are not born with a soul, they have to work hard all their lives to create a soul, which might have a fleeting chance of eternal life or even only outliving the death of the physical body for a certain period of time.

The teachings of Gurdjieff also bear close semblance to the teachings of Castaneda's Don Juan, especially in the parts about self-remembering, and the lack of self-consciousness or self-awareness in humans. Don Juan says that the human consciousness is eaten by creatures from other planes, which Gurdjieff is saying that it is being sucked by the Moon, which uses it to become a planet itself, while reducing the meaning of human existence to yet another parasite whose by-product is useful to the wider world in general, much like the oceanic fito-plancton which produces oxygen. While these claims might be classified as outrageous or bombastic by people who like to believe in their own special and privileged place in the universe the ladder of living beings (as all major religions teach), it does infuse a refreshing perspective that is not egocentric and megalomaniac, and while the exact metaphors used might not be extremely accurate, the significance might be.

Further similarities between Gurdjieff's system and Castanedas 'Tensegrity' can be found in both teacher's insistence on use of moves for achieving higher states of consciousness. Castaneda has his 'Magical Passes' while Gurdjieff has the 'Sacred Dances' both being used for raising one's awareness and focusing attention. Similarities to Osho's system have been pointed as well, though Osho places much more emphasis on traditional systems like Yoga, Tantra and Buddhism. However, while Osho had no problem revealing and describing his system in great detail and with minute explanations, so that the greatest number of people can understand and practice it, neither Castaneda, and even less Gurdjieff did this, but quite the opposite. Gurdjieff was especially cryptic, and always let the students know that he is not telling them everything, which some people have equated with insincerity, even sadism, to complement many methods that Gurdjieff recommended to his students, which would look like masochism to an outside observer. Gurdjieff even goes further by saying that it is neither possible nor desirable to initiate many people in his system and thus increase their awareness, since then the initial purpose of the human beings of being parasitic converters of energy for the moon would be damaged. This goes in stark contrast to all major religions which claim salvation is for everyone and that spiritual evolution is the ultimate goal for all human beings.

Critics point out that after the demise of the teachers, both Castaneda's and Gurdjieff's teachings have not produced new enlightened followers and teachers, but have mostly fallen into obscurity, which is true and disturbing, as no matter how truthful and powerful one teaching sounds , if it is being unable to enlighten the students and bring them to the level of the teacher eventually, then it is useless, and becomes just another exciting fairytale. It is questionable that even Gurdjieff's best student, Jean De Saltzman, who died in 1990 at an age of 101, has achieved the permanent 'objective consciousness' which Gurdjieff pointed out is the goal of his teaching on individual level. It is a pity that Gurdjieff never wrote a clear and complete explanation of his teachings, both theoretical and practical, but left it to the students to record and publish scraps, bits and pieces, and supplemented that with convoluted, unreadable books like 'The Tales of Belzebub to his Grandson'. He pointed many times that the teachings are 'out there' and people either have no interest or capability to understand them, but in the same time never published a single clearly written book of his own teachings that would be 'out there' for the people to try to understand, but fall back into the errors of the teachers and teachings of the time past, wrapping it with allegories and metaphors for the 'initiated'.

It is a pity that even in the modern day people still fall back to methods of secrecy and allegories, as did the Pythagoreans and alchemists, the latter having good reason, fearing the persecution of the Church, while the former doing it from pure egotism and vanity, thus retarding mathematics for hundreds of years, and even resorting to murder like in the case of Hippasus of Metapontum. This insistence on secrecy and 'veiled knowledge' serves only to increase the egos and sense of exclusivity for those who think they have it, and is just as ridiculous as the Theosophist's paralyzing fear of developing 'powers' that can be used for evil. Secrecy and allegories are, and should be things of the past. All knowledge should be exposed clearly and comprehensively for the evaluation, acceptance or rejection by all of the human community, and until all self-appointed teachers and self-righteous students accept this, we will all continue to live in our own squalid little matrices.

"In the Line of Fire: A Memoir" by Pervez Musharraf

This is a very interesting book to read right now (December 2007), although it was written more than a year ago, as Mr.Musharraf is all over the news again, having stepped down as a military dictator and holding the first democratic elections in Pakistan in years. Probably the single worst thing about the book is that most of it follows an apologetic tone, defending the actions of Musharraf and portraying them the best and only right ones to take at that moment, a statement with which many independent observers would thoroughly disagree. Another distracting thing is the style in which it is written. It is obvious that the book was dictated to a scribe, and not directly by Musharraf, as the sentences are simplistic and colloquial, with a very basic grammatical structure, and yet we find quite a few 'GRE' words scattered around, which stand out and distract the reader, being obviously placed there by the subsequent editors who wanted the book to sound more scholarly.

The book starts with Musharraf describing his family's escape from Delhi during the first Indo-Pakistani war, and reaching Karachi safely, which could not be said for many who were massacred right on the trains, both Indians and Muslims, going in both directions. He describes his early childhood in Karachi and after that in Turkey very vividly, and probably this is the best and least controversial part of the book. He describes himself as not particularly book-smart (an honor which was reserved for his brother), but street smart kid, who got into lots of fights, did lots of mischief, and was even a gang leader in Karachi.

After the return from Turkey Musharraf embarks on a military career, and progresses quickly through the ranks, mostly based on his physical strength, stamina, and comradeship with his soldiers. He is very emotional about the wars with India, and never misses a chance to point out how Pakistan beats India all the time, in all kinds of conflict, which gets kind of repetitive and boring after the first few time, regardless of if it is true or not. A very emotional and crucial formational moment for him is the separation of East Pakistan and it's independence as the state of Bangladesh, for which he rightfully blames the then Pakistani leader, but most of his rancor is directed towards India, and their role in the process. This very open hostility pervades the whole book, starting from cricket matches and ending with the Kashmir question, which Musharraf always refers to as the 'Kashmir's fight for freedom' and calls the Kashmir's mujahedeens, which the whole world sees as terrorists, "freedom fighters".

Musharraf had problems with authority and discipline and was expecting to retire as a Brigadier-General, if it wasn't for the last Pakistan's Prime Minister decision to make him Army Chief of Staff, in order to change and anger the previous Chief of Staff. However, the relations between the new chief of staff and prime minister did not develop well, and the Prime Minister tried to prevent the landing of Musharraf's plane, on a return from foreign visit, thus nearly killing him due to lack of fuel. This was used as a pretext for Musharraf and his supporters withing the army to execute a coup d'etait and take over power in Pakistan.

The further chapters of the book describe the self-proclaimed achievments that Mushrraf achieved since his coming to power, which include some less controversial ones like improving the economy and the corruption situation, but others that are highly disputed like another war with India that he lost according to all observers except himself, and shady dealings with the Taliban regime in Afghanistan and its own religious extremists at home. This part of the book would probably be most burdensome to a western reader as it is written in openly bombastic and self-laudatory style that can hardly pass even for good Public Relations effort.

The War on Terror and Pakistan's role in it is another part which is very interesting to the western reader, and although there is much valuable information, lots of things are left unsaid or distorted, like the statement from the US saying that if Pakistan doesn't cooperate with the war they will 'bomb them back to the stone age' which some observers point out was formulated because of the Pakistani intelligence agency's involvement in the 9/11 attacks. Musharraf writes on in great detail about the hunt for suicide bombers networks in Pakistan, and attempts on his life, but glosses too lightly over the wider Muslim extremists elements in Pakistan which make the country such a fertile ground for wannabe martyrs.

The book concludes with an optimistic view of the future of Pakistan, of course, under Musharraf's leadership, and somewhat disparaging diatribe about democracy and why the western-style democracy is not applicable to Pakistan. Although an amusing read, this is not the best written book, or full of objective information, but it gives a curious window into the mindset and personal views of one of the last modern dictators.

"Madame Blavatsky's Baboon: A History of the Mystics, Mediums, and Misfits Who Brought Spiritualism to America" by Peter Washington

Although this book tops 400 pages in a very small and dense typeset, it is a real pleasure to read and I persevered through it, though it took me some considerable time to finish it, even though I have trained in speed-reading techniques. Mr. Washington is an extremely well read person, editor of the "Everyman's Library" series, and a professor of English Literature at Middlesex University, and his vocabulary is humongous, including Latin and French-derived dixums and expressions. If your normal reading consists of the regular mystery, adventure and romance fare on the New York Times bestsellers list, then this is probably not a book for you.

The book traces the origins of the modern New Age ideas and teachings back to their source, in the writings, lives and teachings of two Russian immigrants, Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, and Georgiy Ivanovich Gurdjieff. Although they never really met, and they supposedly derived their teachings from different sources, their pupils frequently alternated between the two teachers, and later their teachings were largely synthesized, and both can be found as the foundations or integral parts of most modern New Age teachings, the Theosophical part of Blavatsky being usually more prominent, while The Work part of Gurfjieff more hidden.

The title of the book refers to the stuffed baboon that Blavatsky used to keep in her apartment in New York City, and which she used to make fun of Charles Darwin and his theory of evolution and natural selection. Washington's playful style, open skepticism, sarcastic jabs and jibs is a refreshing change from the usual exalted and all-praising writings on the western 'gurus' described in the book. He describes them as real people, with multitude of character faults, whims and quirks, without the aura of prophets and holy people, as they are frequently referred to in some misguided contemporary writings. Going even further, Washington exposes the real motives behind the teachings and methods promulgated by the founders, but even more by their followers, which almost always are money, power, domination, sex, and not that infrequently - barely covered criminal activities like paedophilia, physical abuse and felony theft.

Blavatsky is probably the most likeable character of the lot, in a cynical way. Chain-smoking, heavy-drinking, binge-overeating, cursing and abuse-spitting, morbidly obese woman with abundant and sometimes disturbing imagination, she came to the US in the 1870s and initially set herself up as a spiritual medium, which was the fad at that time. She soon found a devoted follower in Colonel Henry Steel Olcott, a Civil War veteran, and after he got persuaded by Blavatsky of her 'supernatural' abilities and her communication with 'ascended adepts' they founded the Theosophical Society in 1875 in a shabby two-bedroom apartment in New York City, with less than a dozen other people, among which was William Quan Judge, who was to become a future leader of the American Section of the Theosophical Society, after the schisms in Theosophy following Blavatsky's death.

Since the popular imagination of that time ran towards Ancient Egypt, because of recent discoveries by French and other archeologists, Blavatsky's first book 'Isis Unveiled' deals with ancient mystical knowledge from the Ancient Egyptian point of view, and supposedly transmitted from a secret brotherhood in Luxor, Egypt. However, soon after, the current 'spiritual' fad and imaginative thinking changed to liking everything Indian and Hindu-related, thus Blavatsky promptly changed her style and her "ascended" sources, and her following books, including the cornerstone 'The Secret Doctrine' are all written withing the Hindu cosmology and transmitted from a secret brotherhood in the Himalayas. Seems that the "Ascended Master" from Luxor, Egypt, went into retirement after "transmitting" the first book to Blavatsky, the arch-swindler. As Washington points out, Blavatsky's sister described the huge extent of her sister's imagination, and how she would invent lengthy and complicated fantastic, made-up stories as a child, which might serve as an indicator as to why most of the material in Blavatsky's mystical books does not appear in any other mystical tradition before that. She made them them up on the spot.

However, Blavatsky's hugely excessive lifestyle had severe consequences on her physical health, and her morbid obesity reached such unprecedented levels, that she was barely able to move, and had to be hoisted by a cargo crane to the ship she took to England on one of her last trips. Washington mentions that her favourite meal was fried eggs floating in butter. Despite her obvious deceit and manipulations, especially with 'materializing' letters from the 'secret ascended masters', like Khuth Hoomi, with which letters, on many occasions, she was caught red-handed while writing them herself or trying to deliver them herself, she was a jolly person, of considerable sense of humour towards others and herself.  She never took anything too seriously, including herself, and saw this whole Theosophy thing as mostly entertainment for the bored and feeble-minded. This however cannot be said of her successors, as after her death, and Colonel Ollcott's death, a real power struggle emerged in the Theosophical society between the warring factions of Annie Bessant, Katherine Tingley, W.Q. Judge and Charles Webster Leadbeatter, with frequently changing sides and alliances, the spoils being not only the sizable property the society owned in Adyar, India, but also the very sizable endowment and bequests by rich members.  Even today, with the Theosophical Society being just a shadow of its former self, the real estate properties in Adyar are considerable, and elderly members still bequest most of their estate to the society, in the hope of that 'eternal life in the higher spheres, without much work', so languidly promised by Theosophists even today.

The Theosophy seems to have gone downhill after Blavatsky's death. Bessant turned it into a theatrical, pompous shell of her former self, with different outfits and choreography for a multitude of made-up rituals and silly copycat offshoots like Co-Masonry, Order of the Rising Star, etc. Tingley barricaded herself in Ojai, California (another Theosophy real-estate which got gobbled up), and helped start California's notoriety as a mecca for newagers, mystics, charlatans, quacks, swindlers, gurus, yogis, sufis and other general wackos. Judge tried to promote 'source' Blavatsky ideas and writings and spent his life alternating loyalties among the different factions. The most notorious and vile Theosophist, by far, was Charles Webster Leadbeatter. A known and persecuted pedophile and child molester, he moved to US from England to avoid further persecution, then, after some sordid affairs with young children of other Theosophists in schools established and led by Leadbeatter, he had to run again and spend prolonged time in India, and after he couldn't keep it in his pants even there, at the end he had to settle in Australia, where he formed the monstrous cult called the "Liberal Catholic Church" (no relation or similarity whatsoever to the regular Catholic Church), which was an offshoot of the "Old Catholic Church" of another pederast and child molester, J.I. Wedgewood.  Both lifelong pedos proclaimed themselves 'Bishops' of their made-up "Church".

Between constantly escaping persecution because of continuous rape of young children, and writing gregarious and mostly useless volumes on his apparent "insights" into Astral and other spiritual planes of existence (since he claimed to be a clairvoyant, prophet, sage and confidant of the "ascended secret masters"), Leadbeatter, along with Bessant, managed to find a hungry, emaciated and poverty-stricken little boy on the shores of the Indian Ocean, which Leadbeatter's "precious" prophetic and clairvoyant powers unerringly told him would be the next Messiah and the Second Coming. This boy was Krishnamurti, yet another great 'eastern-turned-western' guru (as the money is better in the West) who spent his early life in a total loss and confusion as of what is he is expected of him and what he needs to do. He spent his his later life in great luxury, since he finally figured out that all he needed is to spew vague Hodge-podge of "spiritual truths" which allowed him to travel extensively, always staying in best hotels, eating in best restaurants, enjoying company of beautiful women, both sexually and 'spiritually', while at the same time preaching detachment from the world, modesty, humility and chastity. He also led people to believe that he was a life-long celibate, while having sexual affairs with quite a few women, and at least on one occasion, siring an illegal child, which the pregnant woman was forced to abort. His books and speeches are still mostly preserved today, and upon reading them one could ask themselves "what did I just read?" since there is nothing of substance or practical use in them, just generalities and vague sophistry. He was probably more "inspiring" in person.

Theosophy, however, did gain ground around the world, mostly because it was an open ended and vague system in which pretty much anything could be incorporated and practiced. After a change in the Theosophical Constitution in the early 1900s, even the belief in the 'secret adepts' was not required as necessary for one to be a Theosophist. In Europe, the German branch under Rudolph Steiner split off and formed it's own variant on Theosophy called "Antroposophy", which was pretty much the same thing but spiced up with Steiner's love for Goethe, ecology, child education, and, of course, with multitude of new information obtained by Steiner's 'supernatural' powers and his direct contacts with the "secret ascended masters".  Those masters certainly go around.

The other major stream of New Age teachings came from G. I. Gurdjieff. He was born in Armenia, in the then Russian Empire, in a very large family, to a Pontus-Greek father and Armenian mother. Just like Blavatsky, pretty much nothing is know about his life until his 40s, except from his own writings in which he claims to have travelled all of Central Asia and Middle East, finding a secret brotherhood after secret brotherhood (no sisterhoods) which taught him the ancient mystical secrets of spirituality, man's role in the universe, how to ascend to the highest spiritual levels, and of course, immortality (he died at age 81). He re-emerges in Moscow in the 1910s trying to stage a ballet, then during the Russian Revolution escapes through the Black Sea and Istanbul to ultimately settle near Paris, France. Here he founded his 'Institute of Harmonious Development of Man' where he teaches that man is basically an automaton in a form of spiritual sleep throughout his life, and the only way to "awaken" is through hard physical labour, intentional suffering and changing of thinking patterns (divided attention). None of these applied to him, however, but instead he entertained himself with lavish dinners, huge houses and castles bought with the money of his followers which he abused constantly, both verbally and physically, demanding slavish obedience to his multitude of whims and contradictory instructions. He always brought his extended family with him wherever he went, and had sexual relations with many of his female students, fathering illegitimate children with many of them, even with those that already had husbands and never stopped being married.

His followers were many, the most notable being Pyotr Damyanovitch Ouspensky, who wrote the most readable overview of Gurdjieff's teachings in his book 'Fragments of an Unknown Teaching' , but was eventually driven to alcoholism by the constant flip-flopping and abuse by his "master". Other followers like Alfred Richard Orage and John G. Bennett were driven to the brink of madness by Gurdjieff's contradictory demands and constant change of the rules of the game. In the case of Bennett, who in a way became a leader of the movement after Gurdjieff's death, the ending is tragic. After getting disillusioned with Ouspensky and then also with Gurdjieff, he desperately looked for other masters and teachings, travelling through the Middle East and Central Asia, getting in contact with various Sufi mystics, but to no avail. Back in England he gets in and out of various systems like Subud (he financed the trip of the entire family of the founder Muhammad Subuh to England and paid for all their expenses, including gallons of Coca Cola they consumed every day), Shivapuri Baba (another controversial Hindu holy man) and even Maharishi's Transcendental Meditation (the Beatles also though this guy was so cool, until his love for Rolls-Royce and helicopters came to light, with $300 million in assets at his death).

Finally, Bennett lost most of his considerable property (he was a British Military Intelligence Officer and had some coal mines interests) in the hands of the unscrupulous charlatan and self-proclaimed Sufi, Idries Shah. Idries Shah was a special kind of con man and scoundrel, since he was not satisfied just by having his and his family's expenses paid by Bennett, like the previous frauds, but he required that Bennett turn over all of his property and assets to him, without any strings attached.  This was to be an "act of faith" by Bennett where he gives everything he ever owned to his "master" and surrenders himself to his "infinite mercy", which Shah claimed is the only way to reach enlightenment.  Bennett was so desperate for something real in his endless spiritual search that he signed over everything he owned to the swindler Shah, as instructed.  The con man Shah immediately sold everything off and pocketed the money for himself, which allowed him to live off the rest of his life in considerable luxury and completely financially secure (writing many worthless books on Sufism with made-up or stolen material).  Bennett subsequently falls into an even greater desperation and depression, and even converts to Catholicism, in his endless, fruitless search for the evasive spiritual truths. His life ends tragically by falling off a bell tower of a church where the witnesses of his last moments say he saw Jesus Christ in the distance and climbed to meet him.

Washington's book is full of information, little known details and hidden facts from the lives of the mystics, misfits, crooks, frauds and self-proclaimed gurus. It is a perfect reading for anyone who wants to know the background of the multitude of contemporary New Age movements, sects and cults, which often try to muddle and misrepresent their sources and roots. Some of them have lifted their entire cosmologies and pantheons directly from the convoluted writings of Blavatsky and Gurdjieff. At the end of the book, after covering a period from the 1870s to the mid 1980s, chronicling the lives, fortunes and miseries of multitude of teachers, students, mental cases, frauds, scoundrels and wannabe mystics, Washington concludes that it is the sarcastic laughter of the Madame Blavatsky's baboon that roars triumphantly through the corridors of time.