Here is the second installment of the background of the New Age Movement, with more on Helena Blavatsky.

At 17 a governess scolded Helena for temper tantrums, saying she could not even get an old man to marry her. To prove the governess wrong, and to divert attention from her unhappy affair with Prince Galistin, she married General Nicephore Blavatsky, who was around 40-years-old. After three unhappy months of a honeymoon, however, she deserted Blavatsky and eloped with the skipper of an English ship sailing for Constantinople.
The years between 1848-1858 are known as Helena’s vagabond years. She spent at least two years in Tibet studying with the Lama.
When Blavatsky returned to Russia she agreed to return to Nicephore Blavatsky on one condition; that she would not be required to see him but “very little.” Which she did. She held seances in her grandfather’s house while he was asleep. Somehow she managed to have affairs with at least two other men, and even bore a child, a boy named Yuri, from one of them.
Yuri was born deformed. Helena referred to him as “the poor crippled child.” The father’s relatives said he had a hunchback. When the child was five Helena took him to Bologna to try to get help for him. The journey proved fruitless, however, and the child died.
Yuri was an important factor in her life. For the five years she had cared for him, the child’s welfare overshadowed her career in the paranormal. She described Yuri as “the only being who made life worth living, a being whom I loved.” Later she wrote, ‘“I loved one man deeply but still more I love occult science,’ but the one she loved ‘more than anything else in all the world,’ was Yuri.”
Years later Blavatsky confided in writing to a cousin of her rejection of Christianity. The Russian Orthodox god had died for her on the day of Yuri’s death. Although she had never been at peace with Christianity, “there were moments when I believed deeply that sins can be remitted by the church, and that the blood of Christ has redeemed me, together with the whole race of Adam.”
Around 1873 “Madame” Blavatsky emigrated to New York City. It was the height of Spiritualist excitement, and she immediately impressed people with her psychic abilities. She claimed she could perform physical and mental psychic feats which included levitation, clairvoyance, out-of-body projection, telepathy, and clairaudience (an alleged psychic ability to hear things that are beyond the range of the ordinary power of hearing, such as voices or messages from the dead). She also claimed ability to produce physical objects out of nothing (materialization). She soon found herself penniless, however, but she survived off her wits and determination. In 1874 she met Col. Henry Steele Olcott (1832-1907).
Olcott was a veteran of the Civil War, a lawyer, and an agricultural expert and journalist who covered the Spiritualist phenomena. Blavatsky had feelings for Olcott, but he did not see her as an attractive, sexual person. Michael Betanelly, however, found her desirable, was available, had money and wanted to marry her. They were married April 3, 1875.
While living in New York City, she founded the Theosophical Society in 1875. The label “Theosophy” means “wisdom of god.” Theosophy incorporates aspects of Buddhism and Hinduism, especially the belief in reincarnation and spiritual development. Human salvation depends upon the development of spiritual and mental discipline.
One thing which characterized Theosophy, especially in its early days, was its general lack of involvement with social concerns. There were two excuses for this attitude. The first was the general emphasis on personal spiritual growth which left little time for interest in the social conditions of others. This was convenient, since most members came from the middle or upper classes.
The second reason was the impact of beliefs regarding karma and reincarnation. Anyone living in impoverished or desperate circumstances is believed to be a consequence of mistakes committed in their past lives. Current problems are also current punishments. So it is easy to ignore their plight and enjoy one’s own life.

I welcome your comments: I am concerned that I am including too much about Blavatsky. What do you think?