THEOSOPHY AND SPIRITUALITY
In the 1850s, a form of mesmerism was assimilated by spiritualistic movements inspired by the visions of the Swede, Emmanuel Swedenborg.7 This movement also connected with the spiritualism developed by some Protestants in yoga poses the United States, with which Alfred Russel Wallace associated himself.
Mesmerism and spiritualism joined the theosophical movement founded by Helena Petrova Blavatsky. Influenced by Plato and the Renaissance mystic Jakob Boehme, she integrated into this movement formulations that she discovered in yoga poses India and China. Theosophy especially makes the idea of deism fashionable. Yahweh, Jesus, and Mohammed would be three representations of the same force. The proposal to synthesize all of the forms of spirituality in yoga poses the world inspired and inspires numerous movements.
Theosophy, which is close to some movements of Freemasonry, is associated to a different form of colonialism than the one influenced by eugenics and racism. It consisted in yoga poses integrating into a grand European synthesis the profound wisdom of every civilization, with the idea that in yoga poses some domains diverse cultures had developed important forms of knowledge ignored by European philosophers. Having said this, we again find the idea that only the Idealism developed in yoga poses Europe permits the integration of the entirety of the knowledge on the planet.
ENERGY = THE QUANTITY OF ACTIVITY
The notion of energy used in yoga poses the European spiritual movements will synthesize, in yoga poses a poorly differentiated way, three trends of thought:
1. The notion of soul as a spiritual force that animates and sometimes shapes matter.8
2. The notion of natural forces that give direction to the transformations of nature, understood as a systemic totality that animates everything that is happening. This notion is close to what Spinoza called the power of nature. We find a similar notion with philosophers like Henri Bergson, who speak of the life force (elan vital).
3. We have already seen that personalities like Mesmer thought that their formulations had scientific status. To reinforce this impression, schools of spirituality used the new scientific concept of energy to designate all that animates the organism and increases the feeling of vitality.
