Charles Webster Leadbeater - Discovers Krishnamurti

Discovers Krishnamurti

In 1909 Leadbeater "discovered" fourteen-year-old Jiddu Krishnamurti at Adyar. Leadbeater believed Krishnamurti to be the "vessel" for the indwelling of a concept known as World Teacher, whose imminent appearance he and many Theosophists were expecting. Like Moses, Siddhārtha Gautama, Zarathustra (Zoroaster), Jesus of Nazareth, and Muhammad ibn ‘Abdullāh, the new teacher would reputedly divulge a new religious dispensation.

Leadbeater assigned the pseudonym Alcyone to Krishnamurti and under the title "Rents in the Veil of Time", he published 30 so-called past lives of "Alcyone" in a series in The Theosophist magazine beginning April 1910. "They ranged from 22,662 BC to 624 AD ... Alcyone was a female in eleven of them."

During 1910, Leadbeater conducted additional research into the so-called akashic records, which he stated that he clairvoyantly inspected at the Theosophical Society headquarters in Adyar. He recorded the results in the book Man: How, Whence, and Whither? The reputed past lives of "Alcyone" are described. The book also features a Theosophical account of the theorized lost continent of Atlantis and of other civilizations. The future, nuclear power-using society of Earth during the 28th century is also described.

Leadbeater stayed in India until 1915, overseeing the education of Krishnamurti; he then relocated to Australia. During the late 1920s, Krishnamurti disavowed the role that Leadbeater and other Theosophists expected him to fulfil. He disassociated himself from the Theosophical Society and its doctrines and practices, and during the next six decades became known as an influential speaker on philosophical and religious subjects.