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TheBook of Dzyan (comprising theStanzas of Dzyan) is a reputedly ancient text ofTibetan origin. TheStanzas formed the basis forThe Secret Doctrine (1888), one of the foundational works of thetheosophical movement, byHelena Petrovna Blavatsky. The book has influenced writers in theancient astronaut,occult andUFO communities. Historians and skeptics have dismissed theBook of Dzyan as ahoax and have accused Blavatsky ofplagiarism.[1][2][3][4]
Madame Blavatsky claimed to have seen a manuscript of theBook of Dzyan while studyingesoteric lore inTibet. She claimed this and other ancient manuscripts were safeguarded from profane eyes by the initiates of an Occult Brotherhood. The work had originally, according to Blavatsky, been written in the sacred language ofSenzar, a language unknown tophilology.[3] She wrote:
In 1909, TheosophistCharles Webster Leadbeater stated that theBook of Dzyan possesses occult qualities:
Others have been skeptical.Max Müller is reported to have said that ‘in this matter she was either a remarkable forger or that she has made the most valuable gift to archeological research in the Orient.’[7]
In other references Blavatsky claimed theBook of Dzyan belonged to a group of Tibetan esoteric writings known as theBooks of Kiu-Te. Blavatsky wrote before a standard transcription ofTibetan into the Latin alphabet had been agreed upon; it tookDavid Reigle some time to establish that she was referring to what modern scholars write asrGyud-sde (gyü de, section of tantras) parts of a voluminous Buddhist corpus commonly referred to as theTantras.[8]
Other researchers have suggested a source in ChineseTaoism or JewishKabbalah.[9]
InIsis Unveiled Blavatsky herself identifies Senzar as being "ancientSanskrit" (Isis, I, 440). As noted by John Algeo in his book, Blavatsky's other statements about Senzar (including the above linkage to Sanskrit) create a number of puzzles, which make it difficult to take the etymological language family references literally, since some link to Egyptian sources, while yet others are still of other roots.[10]
Supposed verses from the sameStanzas of Dzyan were later published byAlice Bailey inA Treatise on Cosmic Fire in 1925. Bailey claimed these verses had been dictated to her telepathically by the Tibetan MasterDjwal Kul.
Swiss authorErich von Däniken claimed to have explored some of the book's content and its alleged history, reporting unsourced rumours that the first version of the book predatesEarth, and that chosen people who simply touch the book will receive visions of what it describes.[11][12] Other ancient astronaut and theosophist writers have alleged that theBook of Dzyan originated on another planet.[13]
References to theStanzas exist in the fiction ofH. P. Lovecraft, for example in his short story "The Haunter of the Dark".[14] However, Lovecraft did not believe that theStanzas had any factual basis and only used it as material for his fiction books.[15]
OrientalistWilliam Emmette Coleman undertook a complete exegesis of Blavatsky's writings.[2][16][17] He found that her main sources were H.H. Wilson's translations of theVishnu Purana;Alexander Winchell’sWorld Life: or, Contemporary Geology;Ignatius Donnely’sAtlantis: The Antediluvian World (1882); and other contemporary scientific and occult works, plagiarized without credit and, in his own opinion, used in a blundering manner that showed superficial acquaintance with the subjects under discussion.[2] He further claimed that she took at least part of herStanzas of Dzyan from theHymn of Creation in the old SanskritRig-Veda. Coleman promised a book that would expose all of H.P.B.’s sources including that of the wordDzyan.[2] The reason Coleman's book never appeared is that “Coleman lost his library and his notes in the1906 San Francisco earthquake and died three years later, his book unwritten”.[2]
René Guénon argued that Blavatsky based theBook of Dzyan on fragments of the TibetanKanjur andTanjur, published inCalcutta in the twentieth volume of Asiatic Researches, in 1836.[4]
HistorianRonald H. Fritze notes that:
[Blavatsky] claimed to have received her information during trances in which the Masters of Mahatmas of Tibet communicated with her and allowed her to read from the ancient Book of Dzyan. The Book of Dzyan was supposedly composed inAtlantis using the lost language of Senzar but the difficulty is that no scholar of ancient languages in the 1880s or since has encountered the slightest passing reference to the Book of Dzyan or the Senzar language.[18]
Jason Colavito has dismissed the book as a hoax and has noted that "even after skeptics debunked herBook of Dzyan as a fraud, her followers continued to assert its reality."[19]