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CHARLES WEBSTER LEADBEATER 1847 - 1934

C.W. Leadbeater (C.W.L) was one of the most controversial occultists of his time. His biography shows at the same time multiple periods both professionally and spiritually, all lived with surprising energy, but with one single goal: the service of humanity.

Gregory Tillett, his most noted biographer tells us in The Elder Brother "The world's greatest occultist and psychic, and a living saint? Or the worst sort of charlatan, con-man and sex-pervert? These widely ranging views of Charles Leadbeater were current in his lifetime and even now...." http://www.spiritwritings.com/leadbeater.html

Leadbeater was born February 16, 1854 (some say on February 7, of same year). While a curate in the Church of England in Hampshire, he became interested in Theosophy and eventually left the Church. In 1884 he moved to Adyar, the headquarters of the Theosophical Society near Madras, India. He devoted himself to the cause of Theosophy and the related Liberal Catholic Church for the rest of his life.

He traveled in Ceylon with Henry S. Olcott, one of the founders of Theosophy, and publicly professed himself to be a Buddhist. He returned to England in 1890 and became a tutor. After the death of Helena Petrovna Blavatsky in 1891, Leadbeater wielded considerable influence over Annie Besant, Blavatsky's successor, in part due to his reputed clairvoyant abilities. 9http://www.answers.com/topic/charles-webster-leadbeater)

Trained for clairvoyance by an Indian Master, he became one of the prominents researchers in the field of supra-physical human consiousness. He applied is knowledge by supporting several occult mouvements, particularly the Theosophical Society and the co-masonic obedience Le Droit Humain. He was also a Rosicrucian, a Martinist, and a prominent member of the Egyptian Rite of Memphis-Misraïm.

His investigations into the unseen dimensions of life have had a far-reaching influence on the contemporary world, one of them being the discovery of the young J. Krishnamurti on the Adyar beach in Madras, India, in 1909, who would later become one of the most respected and insightful spiritual teachers of the twentieth century.(http://www.cwlworld.info/)

With the purpose to spread the spiritual energies of Christ, he was consecrated to the Episcopate, and is considered by many as the co-founder of the Liberal Catholic Church, of which he became the second Presiding Bishop.

C.W.L is also the co-author, with Annie Besant, of a trilogy entitled Talks on the Path of Occultism (1926) which includes their commentaries on the so called three Theosophical gems – At the Feet of the Master, Light on the Path and The Voice of the Silence. http://www.cwlworld.info/html/theosophical_society.html

C.W. Leadbeater is an enigma, and those who knew him personally thought him to be a person of extra ordinary compassion, breath of vision, and unconcerned with what the world thought of him.