The transmission
Baird T. Spalding (1872–1953) was an American author best known for the multi-volume series Life and Teaching of the Masters of the Far East (first volume 1924).
The books purport to recount a research expedition during which Western investigators met immortal “Masters” in India and Tibet who demonstrated miraculous powers — walking on water, materializing food, conquering death — through perfect understanding of universal spiritual law.
Although presented as a factual travelogue, the expedition is almost certainly fictional, and details of Spalding’s own biography were embellished. Regardless of historicity, the series was enormously popular and helped seed the Western imagination with the image of hidden Eastern Masters wielding mind-over-matter powers — an image that fed directly into the I AM Activity and the broader New Age master-mythos.
What they gave
The miracle-working Master image: Popularized the idea of enlightened beings who manifest matter and transcend death through spiritual law.
- Universal law framing: Taught that “Christ consciousness” and divine law, once understood, confer mastery over physical conditions.
- Manifestation and immortality motifs: Reinforced beliefs in materialization and physical immortality that recur across mind-power movements.
- Mythic groundwork: Provided narrative fuel for the ascended-master current that the Ballards would institutionalize.
The line they stand in
Influenced by: Theosophy; New Thought; Christian mysticism; the Orientalist “hidden Masters” mythos.
- Influenced: the I AM Activity; the New Age master-mythos; manifestation and physical-immortality teachings.
Revelations they taught
Essential Works
- Life and Teaching of the Masters of the Far East1924-1955