Alfred Percy Sinnett

Alfred Percy Sinnett ( born January 18, 1840 in London, England; † June 26, 1921 ) was an English journalist, author and Theosophist.

Life

Alfred Percy Sinnett was one of five children. His father died in 1845, his mother Jane Sinnett fed the family by writing articles for several English newspapers. From this page Sinnett grew already influenced a writer on. He began his journalism career in 1865 in Hong Kong at the Hong Kong Daily Press, 1868 returned back to London and became editor of the Evening Standard, the way he wrote for the Daily Telegraph. In 1870, he married Patience Edensor ( Mrs. AP Sinnett, Patience Sinnett ) ( 1844-1908 ), from his marriage went son Denny ( Dennie ) ( 1877-1908 ) produced. Denny died in 1908 of tuberculosis, Patience in the same year of cancer. In 1872 the family moved to India, where he had accepted a prestigious post in Allahabad as editor of the influential British / Indian newspaper The Pioneer. Due to this position, he was one of the most influential Englishmen in India who worked outside the government authorities. 1875 Sinnett returned back to London for three months and came here with the spiritualism in contact, which fascinated him.

1877/78 he read Helena Blavatsky's Isis Unveiled just published book and was excited about it. When the theosophist Blavatsky and Henry Steel Olcott arrived in Mumbai India on 16 February 1879, he found this out a few days later and took another in February 1879 epistolary contact with the Theosophists on. After a lively correspondence visited early December 1879 Blavatsky and Olcott Sinnett in Allahabad. This developed into a friendship, Sinnett took a liking to Theosophy and joined together with his wife Patience at in December 1879, the Theosophical Society, where he quickly gained influence. In the following years appeared at the instigation Sinnett in the Pioneer a series of articles on Theosophy, which had significant impact on the rapid spread of this doctrine in India. In November 1882 he gave up the post at the Pioneer to establish their own, quite the theosophical doctrine dedicated newspaper called The Phoenix. The project failed, however, and he returned with his family in the spring of 1883 to England.

Between October 1 1880 and March 1885 were Sinnett and his wife Patience letters from the Masters of Wisdom, as the Mahatma Letters to AP Sinnett The were later published. They are a collection of teachings of the former " Master " Koot Humi and Morya. Sinnett's book The Occult World and Esoteric Buddhism are based on these letters. They made the Theosophical Society famous far beyond the borders of England also. The originals of these "Master Letters" he bequeathed to the British Museum, now they are in the British Library.

In England, arrived, looked Sinnett Theosophical influence in the London Lodge to win. This soon led to conflicts with Anna Kingsford, President of the London Lodge and in the fall of 1883 to a split into two competing camps. Following the resignation of Kingsford 1884 and a transitional phase under the compromise President Gerard B. Finch, Sinnett took over still in the 1880s, the sole presidency of the London Lodge. Gradually, he removed this ever further from the parent organization, the Theosophical Society, and led her around the mid -1890s virtually sovereign and largely independent. As part of the London Lodge, he was from 1904 to 1907 editor of theosophical magazine Broad Views. After the Judge Case, which in 1895 led to the splitting of the Theosophical Society, took Sinnett on July 4, 1895, the Office of the Vice President of the reorganized Theosophical Society Adyar.

He was a member of the Société magnétique de France and at the latest from 1896, member of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn.

Work

English edition

• The Occult World. London 1881
• Esoteric Buddhism. London 1883
• Married by degrees. A play in 3 acts. London 1911
• In the next world. Actual narrative of personal experiences by some who have passed on. ( = Theosophical Publishing Society), London 1914
• The spiritual Powers and the War. London 1915
• Unseen Aspects of the War. Two articles by A [ lfred ] P [ Ercy ] Sinnett. London 1916
• The Mahatma Letters to AP Sinnett from the Mahatmas M. & KH 2nd edition, London 1926
• The rational of mesmerism. Boston 1892
• The early days of theosophy in Europe. London 1922 ( published posthumously )

German editions

• The occult world. Leipzig, nd (1896 )
• The esoteric doctrine or Esoteric Buddhism. Leipzig 1884
• The growth of the soul. Leipzig 1910