Life And Teachings of the Masters of the Far East by Baird T. Spalding

Author Govert SchullerPosted on March 26, 2023September 24, 2023Categories Theosophy

 

By David Tame, March 2023.

A Facebook friend of mine posted a quote from Volume 2 of these books [1] just hours ago, to which I gave quite a lengthy comment, and I now see the comment has been deleted (without any PM to myself). I think my comment is worth preserving.

I am very aware that, when it comes to people like Baird Spalding and his books, people find it very hard to face the truth that what he wrote was not genuine. So, evidently, my comment has been ‘censored’. Similarly, just for example, one comes across the same incapability to face the truth with believers in the books of Carlos Castaneda [2], who also definitely was long ago, in 1976, proven to have written his books as works of fiction [3]. I believed in the Castaneda books too for three or four years.

I’m a person who simply believes that real truths must be preserved, no matter how they may spoil one’s view of reality. We must adjust ourselves to Truth, not try to make Truth adjust to our conception of it. As the motto of Theosophy has it, “There is no Religion higher than Truth”[4].

My deleted or censored comment on Spalding and his “Life and Teachings” books, therefore, since I did take the trouble to write it, is as follows:

I myself am a lifelong believer in such genuine Masters. But in order for the truly genuine accounts and Their teachings to retain repute, I’ve always felt that we must ‘fess up when anything else is not quite what they seem: for the very sake of the reputation of wholly genuine books.

There is a deep mystery behind Spalding which may never be solved. The brief Wikipedia article the photo is taken from is evidently written by a ‘true believer’, and to be historically factual would need a lot of rewriting [5].

He had definitely never been to India before 1935, and he was not old enough to have been on any journey to India in “1894”. As his friend David Bruton states in his biography, Spalding advanced his age by two years upon every birthday to try to make it appear that he was old enough to have made such a journey [6]. He’d long planned to write Volume 1, though he had never himself been to the East. He wrote the first volume, and upon its unexpected success, the publisher asked him to write a second and then a third volume by virtue of the fact that, in the publisher’s eyes, they made more money for him than the rest of De Vorss’ books put together. If asked almost any question at all, Bruton tells how Spalding seemingly impulsively never replied truthfully, even about innocuous daily things.

As another means of making money, publisher DeVorss arranged for Spalding to be the guide for a party of spiritual tourists, who paid for the journey, to take them to India in 1935, yes, but soon after arrival it started becoming clear that Spalding had no knowledge or experience of India at all. (Anyone who does know India can tell that from the books, imho.) The travelling companions had frankly expected to meet at least one Master, but Spalding kept making poor excuses. Genuine British mystic, Dr Paul Brunton, writes of how he came across Spalding and his disgruntled party. Mystic Paul Brunton (not to be confused with friend and biographer David Bruton) was India-experienced, and saw through him. so Spalding finally admitted to him that his India travelogues “dealt with visits made in his astral body, not in his physical body, as readers were led to believe”. There was a showdown with his traveling companions, upon which Spalding basically ran away, turning up weeks later at the docks, penniless, to get back to the USA. One of the fellow-travelers paid for his passage back.

A great deal more along these lines can be read about Spalding, and I would advise the researcher to read his one biography, Baird T. Spalding As I Knew Him by his genuine friend, David Bruton. It’s full of mysteries and puzzles, and a good read by itself. I do find that ‘true believers’ find all this hard to accept, yet they need to read further such as in Bruton’s book. Bruton is no critic, and not trying to debunk, simply to tell the real truth. By the time Volume 1 of “Life and Teachings” came out in 1924, there were plenty of esoteric/occult sources from which the gist of such a tale could have been concocted, particularly Theosophy, but many other sources too.

However, one major part of the mystery is that since Spalding was never in India before 1935, and was too young to have been there in 1894, nevertheless his books are certainly packed with spiritual truths, even if the actual events are fictitious. His books have inspired generations of readers nonetheless, doing great good, and therein lies their undoubted value. (By the way, publisher DeVorss must surely have swindled him, since he died with only $15 to his name, apparently.)

I like a portion of David Bruton’s introduction to his biography, in which he says, in as many words (my copy isn’t to hand), “No matter the reality or not, or the real nature of his stories, it cannot be taken from Baird that he did indeed inspire many thousands of people, for which he should be remembered.”

I am writing this post on a very coincidental day, because just today I received the latest edition of the books (!), which simply contains Volumes 1 to 3, later volumes being poor efforts of the publisher to just keep making more money and of little value. The first three volumes are now newly published as one book, with the new title, The Journey (2021), still by the same publishing house, but the initial publisher himself, DeVorss passed on in 1953. They have been honest enough now, today, to give this brand-new book a 14-page Introduction by Mitch Horowitz, academic of American occultism, who comes clean on the real life-story of Spalding [7].

I would just say, take Spalding’s works as ever one wishes, but the 1894 journey never took place. The supposed backing establishment confirms that. If one wishes, one can think of his accounts as being overshadowed by some spiritual force, or, in any case, at the very least by his own spiritual knowledge, and perhaps by even more. It is certainly not my wish to pop any balloons, but Truth Above All must be our guide.

So if anyone really wants to follow-up on this, you can start with David Bruton’s 1954 biography, and the recent 2021 14-page introduction to the latest edition.

Sources

[1]. Spalding, Baird T. 1924-1997. Life And Teachings of the Masters of the Far East. Vols. 1-6. Los Angeles: DeVorss & Company.

[2]. Wiki entry: Carlos Castaneda.

[3]. De Mille, Richard. 1976. Castaneda’s Journey: The Power and the Allegory. Santa Barbara, CA: Capra Press.

[4]. Blavatsky, H. P. 1889 (1920). The Key to Theosophy: An Exposition on the Ethics, Science, and Philosophy of Theosophy. Los Angeles, CA: The United Lodge of Theosophists.

[5]. Wiki entry: Baird T. Spalding.

[6]. Bruton, David. 1954. Baird T. Spalding As I Knew Him. Los Angeles: DeVorss & Company.

[7]. Spalding, Baird T. 2020. The Journey: Life And Teachings of the Masters of the Far East. Reprint in one volume of Life And Teachings of the Masters of the Far East, vols. 1-3. With introduction by Mitch Horowitz. Los Angeles: DeVorss & Company. (Amazon, where you can read the Horowitz intro)