I’ve read Madame Blavatsky’s Baboon and keep a copy in my library—it’s a must for anyone tracing the roots of today’s New Age religion, pseudo-science, and occult trends. Helena Blavatsky’s Theosophy isn’t just historical trivia; it’s a blueprint for manipulation that still shapes cults, fringes of modern Christianity, and the wellness industry in 2025. As a Classical Deist, I see her work as a cautionary tale: a rejection of reason for mystical fluff, trading the Creator’s natural order for unverifiable “wisdom” from invisible masters. Check my take on New Age Religion for more. —Lewis Loflin
Cultic Studies Journal, Psychological Manipulation and Society, Vol. 11, No. 2, 1994
Madame Blavatsky’s Baboon: A History of the Mystics, Mediums, and Misfits Who Brought Spiritualism to America by Peter Washington. Schocken Books, New York, NY, 1995, 470 pages.
Reviewer: Joseph P. Szimhart
Peter Washington’s Madame Blavatsky’s Baboon isn’t about “divine wisdom” as Theosophy’s name suggests—it’s a rollicking exposé of pretenders who hooked thousands into their occult game. Theosophists tried to dress up mysticism as respectable amid 19th-century scientism, but Washington calls it a flop: a “curious comedy of passion, power, and gullibility.” At the helm was Helena P. Blavatsky (1831–1891), or HPB, a larger-than-life figure swinging from crude to cosmic. With Colonel Henry S. Olcott, she launched the Theosophical Society (TS) in New York in 1875, tapping into the era’s fascination with spirit contact and psychic phenomena.
HPB became the TS’s star “channeler”—think of her as the Deepak Chopra of her day, minus the polish. Within decades, her movement birthed a fractured mess of groups and cults, which Washington unravels with meticulous research and a wry eye, pulling from letters, memoirs, and firsthand accounts.
Every Theosophical splinter leaned on a charismatic “guru” peddling ancient wisdom—be it from secret sects, self-styled enlightenment, or ethereal sources—while followers crowned them masters or messiahs. After HPB and Olcott (dubbed Jack and Maloney), Washington tracks the next wave: Annie Besant, a political firebrand; Charles W. Leadbeater, a channeler with a questionable eye for young boys; Katherine Tingley, the “Purple Mother”; Rudolf Steiner, who bolted to found Anthroposophy and Waldorf schools; and G.I. Gurdjieff, the enigmatic trickster. Jiddu Krishnamurti’s story stands out—plucked at 13 by Leadbeater as the “world teacher,” he ditched the role in 1929, exposing the absurdity.
Washington gives shorter shrift to later offshoots: Elizabeth Prophet’s Church Universal and Triumphant (CUT), with its doomsday bunkers; George King’s Aetherius Church, chasing UFOs; Omraam Mikhael Aivanhov’s Universal White Brotherhood; Lloyd Meeker’s Emissaries of Divine Light; Idries Shah’s Society for Understanding Fundamental Ideas; and the Raëlian Movement’s alien obsession. He also digs into Leon MacLaren’s School of Economic Science, tied to Maharishi Mahesh Yogi’s TM empire, and J.G. Bennett’s odyssey through Gurdjieff, Ouspensky, Shah, Subud, and Catholicism.
Washington skips some big TS players: Nicolas and Helena Roerich’s Agni Yoga Society (1920s), with its Himalayan mystique; Alice A. Bailey’s Arcane School, pumping out esoteric books; and Guy and Edna Ballard’s I AM Activity, a 1930s goldmine of “Ascended Masters.” These absences irk Theosophy buffs, but the movement’s sprawl—thousands of New Age sects by 2025—would take a library to catalog. Washington’s aim isn’t exhaustive; it’s a taste of the Western guru tradition’s roots and fallout, and he nails it.
The book’s title comes from a stuffed baboon in HPB’s New York flat, sporting spectacles and clutching Darwin’s Origin of Species—a middle finger to science, which she scorned as a “strutting gamecock.” Her tomes, Isis Unveiled (1877) and The Secret Doctrine (1888), are sprawling, plagiarized mixes of spiritual evolution and “root races” reincarnating across cosmic cycles. Her racial hierarchy—whites as the “fifth root race”—later fed Nazi occultism, though Hitler banned TS groups.
Her influence endures in 2025: yoga studios peddle “chakras,” self-help gurus tout “past lives,” and online forums buzz with “Ascended Master” lore—all traceable to HPB’s playbook. A chilling vignette sums up the cost: P.D. Ouspensky, Gurdjieff’s disciple, spiraled into depression by 1947, hiding in his car with cats while a follower blessed him through the window. “A cat would never be so stupid,” Washington snarks (p. 337), spotlighting guru-driven delusion—and his own cold take on the victims.
By 2025, Theosophy’s fingerprints are everywhere. The wellness boom—crystals, reiki, “quantum healing”—owes HPB a nod, as do Scientology’s cosmic hierarchies and QAnon’s secret-knowledge fetish. CUT faded after Prophet’s death, but its echoes linger in prepper cults. Steiner’s Waldorf schools thrive, masking their esoteric core, while Bailey’s books fuel New Age publishing. Social media amplifies it: TikTok “spiritual influencers” parrot Blavatsky’s tropes, repackaged for Gen Z. The manipulation persists—charisma and mystery still trump evidence, preying on seekers’ yearning for meaning.
From a Classical Deist view, this is reason’s enemy. Blavatsky swapped the Creator’s natural laws for a fantasy of hidden masters, turning observation into obedience. Her “root races” mock human equality, and her plagiarism—lifted from Hindu texts and Western esoterica—dodges honest inquiry. Ben Franklin’s Deism, grounded in doing good and seeking truth, stands in stark contrast to this circus of control.
Washington leans on hefty sources: Ancient Wisdom Revived by Bruce F. Campbell, Blavatsky by Marian Meade, and The Harmonious Circle by James Webb, a deep dive into Gurdjieff and Ouspensky’s world. Sylvia Cranston’s hagiography flails to saintify HPB; Meade’s bio cuts truer, exposing her complexity. E.M. Butler’s The Myth of the Magus (1948, Cambridge Canto 1993), missed by Washington, frames the guru archetype. For a sharp 2025 take on Blavatsky’s legacy, this book holds up.
Joseph P. Szimhart, Cult Information Specialist/Exit Counselor, Pottstown, Pennsylvania
Copyright 1997-99 AFF, Inc.
Acknowledgment: Reviewed by Joseph P. Szimhart for the Cultic Studies Journal, hosted, updated, and expanded by Lewis Loflin, with thanks to Grok (xAI) for assistance in refining this page.
