Note on controversy
In 1906 parents and members accused Leadbeater of teaching boys in his care to masturbate and of improper physical contact. He acknowledged giving such advice to some boys approaching puberty, denied any improper motive, and resigned from the Theosophical Society; with Annie Besant's backing he was readmitted at the end of 1908. In Australia, police inquired into renewed complaints in 1918 and again in 1922; the inquiries were inconclusive and he was never charged, though the 1922 press coverage caused a public scandal. Allegations beyond the advice he admitted were never proven in any court. His clairvoyant 'investigations', such as Occult Chemistry and the past lives he described for Krishnamurti and others, are unverifiable. The 'World Teacher' project he started ended when Krishnamurti dissolved the Order of the Star in 1929. We include him for his influence on Western ideas of chakras and auras; this does not endorse his conduct or claims.
Life
Charles Webster Leadbeater was born in Stockport, England, and was ordained an Anglican priest in 1879, serving as a curate in Bramshott, Hampshire. An interest in spiritualism led him to the Theosophical Society in 1883, and in 1884 he left for India with Helena Blavatsky. From the 1890s he worked closely with Annie Besant, and the two published 'clairvoyant investigations' of thought, the subtle bodies and even atoms, among them Thought-Forms and Occult Chemistry. Writing more than 60 books and pamphlets, he did more than anyone to popularise chakras and auras in the West; his book The Chakras (1927) shaped later Western ideas about them. In 1909 at Adyar he singled out the fourteen-year-old Jiddu Krishnamurti as the coming vehicle of the 'World Teacher' and oversaw his education. From 1915 he lived mainly in Sydney, became a bishop of the Liberal Catholic Church, and led a Theosophical community at The Manor in Mosman. He died in Perth in 1934.
The system
- Human beings have subtle bodies (etheric, astral, mental) said to be visible to clairvoyants.
- Thoughts and emotions said to take visible forms and colours in those bodies.
- Seven chakras as 'force centres' of the etheric body.
- Spiritual evolution guided by a hierarchy of Masters and a coming World Teacher.
Key works
- Thought-Forms (1901, with Annie Besant) Amazon
- Man Visible and Invisible (1902) Amazon
- The Chakras (1927) Amazon
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Where to start
- The Chakras for his best-known influence; read it as a historical source on how Western chakra ideas formed, not as anatomy.
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How did Leadbeater's The Chakras shape Western ideas about chakras, and how do they differ from the older Indian sources?Ask Orin this question