Talk:William Walker Atkinson

On one point this article is false: the phrase 'an English author' can legitimately refer to an author in the English language rather than an author of English birth.

The statement asserting that he made at least one false statement about himself is therefore very misleading, bordering on malicious. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 178.101.5.179 (talk) 21:54, 13 March 2019 (UTC)

Merge the Pseudonym articles?
I suggest we merge the articles on his pseudonyms into this article. Most or all of the information in the Pseudonym articles is already here, and any info that is not here is very relevant to this article.

(unsigned comment 21:22, November 11, 2006 Arch dude (Talk | contribs))


 * I wouldn't merge until there's resolution on information about Atkinson's role as ghost writer. My understanding is that Atkinson was an editor for his teacher's teachings as handed down from Ramacharaka. That makes much more sense since they held in common fundamental ideas behind the New Thought philosophy/theosophy. That, unlike a ghost writer, makes Atkinson's editorship a much greater contribution to the elucidation and explanation of their beliefs. In fact, I think it would be interesting for scholars of Atkinson to note where the New Thought ideas of his time part, if at all, from Hinduism mysticism. Is this a chicken or the egg question?


 * 24.218.233.27 05:34, 19 December 2006 (UTC)Mark


 * I am in favour of merging -- or, alternatively, of reducing the other pages (Theron Q. Dumont and Yogi Ramacharaka) to a single paragphrah each with pointers to the Atkinson page. If no one ojects, i will begin the latter work at once. I will leave the question of ouright merging for a concensus discussion at a later time.


 * ( unsigned comment 04:46, August 17, 2007 64.142.90.32 who is catherine yronwode Catherineyronwode 02:19, 3 September 2007 (UTC)


 * I am now also in favour of redirecting the redirect of the Three Initiates, which, at the time of this writing leads to the Kybalion page, so that it actually redirects to the William Walker Atkinson page, as he is one of -- and probably all three of -- the authors thus named.


 * cat yronwode Catherineyronwode 05:05, 16 September 2007 (UTC)

Massive Rewrite
As promised, i have integrated the material from the Yogi Ramacharaka and Theron Q. Dumont articles into this article. I have also created bibliographies. I leave it for others to groom the resultant piece and rid it of typographical errors. I hope that this rewrite spurs someone to move for merging.

In case anyone is curious, all edits made from the 64.142.90.3* IP block, as well as those appearing under my username, have been made by me, catherine yronwode. As far as i know, i am the only person who has worked on this article since it was enlarged by the inclusion of material from the Brazilian site a while ago.

Comments welcome.

cat yronwode Catherineyronwode 02:14, 3 September 2007 (UTC)

Three Initiates quote
As of today's date, 09/23/09 I have edited the section of the information page relating to The Kybalion and the Three initiates with respect to material which had for some reason been wrongly attributed to one Ray Delupos where there are huge tracts of material taken from a copyrighted paper of my own which I circulated in 2001 entitled "The Essential Kybalion." This text of mine is based upon a reconstruction of what appears to be a relatively intact hermetic fragment of neo-hermetic philosophy originally extracted from the book "The Kybalion," by Three Initiates in 1997. Mr. Ray Grasse, formerly of acquisitions at the Theosophical Publishing House has a copy of this manuscript which I circulated to a few private individuals in 2001, including the estate of Dr. Marie Louise von Franz, former director of the Jungian Institute in Zurich. It was shortly after this time that the manuscript was leaked onto the Internet. My original work was referenced by the attorney representing the city of Pleasant Grove, Utah vs. SUMMUM(TM) before the United States Supreme Court in their ruling in favor of Pleasant Grove in regard to the group's petition to erect a monument containing aphorisms of their sect in a public park adjacent to the Ten Commandments monument donated by the Fraternal Order of the Eagles. My original work, "The Essential Kybalion" does draw on a variety of sources and a copy can currently be found online here: http://rapidshare.com/files/275805922/The_Essential_Kybalion.mht

To my knowledge, I am the first person to have presented a theory suggesting an association between Bharata, Ramacharaka and Atkinson in relation to the identity of the Three Initiates and the origins of "The Kybalion." The true identity of the author Ramacharaka was revealed only a couple of months before I authored the paper I refer to, a secret family history known to few but which I confirmed with my contacts at The Yogi Publication Society.

It has been suggested to me that research into the Theosophical Society's Archives could prove valuable. Some believe that there may exist an actual photograph of Baba Bharata taken with certain prominent Theosophical Society members at the World Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893.

Jeffrey Bryant Bishop


 * Mr. Bishop, this is very interesting. However, I'm not sure that this particular paper meets Wikipedia's standards for a "Reliable Source".  See WP:RELIABLE as well as WP:SELFPUB for more information.  Could you review these guidelines and determine whether this paper meets the criteria?  Thanks, Madman (talk) 04:06, 24 September 2009 (UTC)

If my paper is not a reliable source, then insofar as it is also copyrighted material I demand that the following be retracted:

But who were these three initiates?


 * There is a tradition within Builders of the Adytum (BOTA) that William Walker Atkinson (Yogi Ramacharaka, a former Golden Dawn chief) was the author of The Kybalion, and that Paul Foster Case (the founder of BOTA) assisted him in the editing of the text.


 * In 1907, Summer (approx) - While in Chicago, Case read The Secret Of Mental Magic by Atkinson and wrote to the author. The two met and became well-acquainted. This eventually led to their collaboration on The Kybalion.


 * But the most likely source for the collection of aphorisms that is the essential Kybalion is Ramacharaka through his pupil Baba Bharata, based on official information of the Yogi Publication Society, and presumably all the literature written by Atkinson under the pseudonym Yogi Ramacharaka was based on materials provided to him through the tutelage of Bharata.


 * As to who these individuals really were, all is speculation. Baba means 'ascetic' and Bharata = India. Bharati is the name of one of the ten Swami orders of religious mendicants traced back to pupils of Shankaracharya, the members of which add this word to their names. Ramacharaka = Rama + charaka or wandering ascetic. So Ramacharaka = the wandering ascetic Rama.

You may find a reference to the first two paragraphs in a discussion forum on the alchemical site levity.com which I have paraphrased, although this is not likely to be considered a creditable source either. The last two paragraphs being uniquely my own, please give proper credit or delete them.

JEFFREY BRYANT BISHOP

Pioneer?
I would say to refer to him as a pioneer is misleading since "new thought" had already been in use for a long time before he was even born. 69.95.5.48 (talk) 16:10, 6 October 2013 (UTC)

Authenticity of Genre and Works of William Walker Atkinson
Imagine a collection of works written by a single person. Imagine this person using several known and unknown pseudonyms. Imagine this person's work originating through their own publishing company. Imagine this person acting as sole editor. Imagine this person's work, through pseudonyms, all complimenting and supporting one another. Would such work be considered legitimate? --HafizHanif (talk) 00:14, 21 November 2014 (UTC)

Question
Could "Thurston" be another pseudonym of Atkinson's? Oliver Puertogallera (talk) 06:47, 24 September 2018 (UTC)

Article is based purely on Skeptism and lack of Research
This article needs to be completely rewritten on the basis of this reference:

Light of India (IAPSOP)

which shows that Baba Bharata (Bharati-cf the petty comment on 'English author)) was not a 'fabrication'. Note that Atkinson is listed in the contributors of the first issue. Pikeeyes (talk) 12:47, 5 May 2023 (UTC)