The revolutionary Idea of Consciousness Evolution in H. P. Blavatsky’s Esoteric Philosophy by Tim Rudbøg PhD
We are all familiar with the idea of evolution or the biological origin and development of the various species found throughout nature, but notions such as ‘spiritual evolution’ and the ‘evolution of consciousness’ have equally revolutionized human self-understanding these past couple of centuries. Many philosophers, scientists, and a wide number of spiritual thinkers now embrace some version of the idea that human consciousness changes and evolves over time. The consciousness of the individual clearly changes from childhood to adulthood; and on a collective scale, human consciousness evolves as our species undergoes different forms of societal structures. Already on the first page of Isis Unveiled (1877), Blavatsky was critical of a one-sided biological evolution when she wrote: ‘it cannot be unreasonable to infer and believe that a faculty of perception is also growing in man’. This lecture will discuss Blavatsky’s notion of consciousness evolution and show how her revolutionary perspectives in The Secret Doctrine (1888) have in a very fundamental way been instrumental for the discussions and perspectives that emerged in the twentieth century and continue to inform current debates about consciousness, spirituality, and evolution.
BIOGRAPHY: Dr. Tim Rudbøg is an associate professor at the University of Copenhagen and director of <em>The Copenhagen Center for the Study of Theosophy and Esotericism </em>sponsored by the Blavatsky Trust. Rudbøg is a trained historian of religions and has for over twenty years had an interest in Theosophy. His current major research project is focused on Blavatsky’s <em>The Secret Doctrine </em>and intellectual history and builds on his prize winning PhD thesis from the University of Exeter, which was dedicated to the study of the major themes in H. P. Blavatsky textual corpus. Rudbøg’s other work and publications have equally focused on topics such as Blavatsky’s Esoteric Instructions and the notion of an ageless wisdom and on the academic study of Western esotericism. Among his most recent works to be published in 2019 is his co-edited anthology <em>Imagining the East: The Early Theosophical Society 1875-1900, Oxford University Press.
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