T. Lobsang Rampa And Other Characters of Questionable Faith

R.B. Russell
Tartarus Press 

R.B. Russell has written the first definitive biography of Rampa (also known as Cyril Henry Hoskin). The identity of Rampa may have been conclusively debunked by anybody who knew anything about Tibet, Buddhism, or basic scientific principles, but he would always claim that everything he wrote was true, and until his death in 1980 he doesn’t ever seem to have come out of character.

Russell’s biography of Rampa is accompanied in this volume by three further studies of alternative belief systems that have fascinated him over the years.

In the big, wide, wonderful, wacky world of books few things bring me as much joy as the cover art to one of those entertainingly ridiculous pseudoscience / occult / UFO paperbacks of the 60s and 70s and I cannot resist a book adorned with the likes of a drawing of a UFO hovering over a stone circle or an astronaut teleporting onto a pyramid.  Amongst the stacks I've acquired for the Wyrd Britain bookshop over the years there are two names that stand out, king of the ancient astronauts, Erich von Däniken and reincarnated Tibetan Lama, T. Lobsang Rampa.

In his newest book, R.B. (Ray) Russell presents four essays on various "Characters of Questionable Faith" that includes the aforementioned Lama; the immortal (but now deceased) leader the Nigerian millenarian church, the 'Brotherhood of the Cross and Star'; the pulp sci-fi hokum peddlers of the Scientology cult and the - initially - ironic, pseudo-cult of Thee Temple ov Psychick Youth.

The bulk of the book is taken up by Ray's biography of Rampa, born Cyril Henry Hoskin, a former surgical fitter from Plympton in Devon, who, in a 1956  "autobiography"called, 'The Third Eye', claimed to be, or perhaps to be home to, a reincarnated Tibetan Buddhist Lama named Tuesday Lobsang Rampa.  Despite being outed as  fraudulent pretty much immediately 'The Third Eye' proved to be a sensation and over the next quarter decade, until his death in 1981, Rampa would go on to write and have published another 19 books detailing the increasingly unlikely adventures of the Lama as he travelled in UFOs and explored the hollow Earth, met Yetis and fulfilled his cat's literary ambitions.

Focussing primarily on the publication of 'The Third Eye' and it's subsequent controversies, Ray takes an enjoyably frivolous but never judgemental tone and provides an engaging and fascinating overview of the life of a cultural enigma.

Ray's investigation of the 'Brotherhood of the Cross and Star' is an altogether more personal affair prompted by a friends involvement with the group and the outlandish claims of immortality, divinity and devastation made by it's now deceased leader 'Olumba Olumba Obu'.  The story Ray relates of the 'Brotherhood' and of it's leader's failed prophecies will be depressingly familiar to anyone with a passing knowledge of millenarian movements but for me what was more interesting was the sudden realisation that Ray had previously used his friends conversion as the catalyst for his novel, 'Waiting for the End of the World'.

Again, the impetus for Ray's short chapter on Scientology is based in personal experience, this time of being caught up in one of their bogus personality tests as a young man.  Here he takes the opportunity to discuss the personality cult behind Scientology's founder, L. Ron Hubbard and his willingness to take, or be assigned, credit for everything, which brings us nicely around to Genesis P-Orridge.

Formed from the ashes of pioneering industrial group, Throbbing Gristle, Psychic TV was, initially a multimedia project for P-Orridge, fellow ex-TG and future Coil member Peter Christopherson and Alex Fergusson formerly of Alternative TV from which grew the associated fanclub / magickal self-help network / pseudo-cult, Thee Temple ov Psychick Youth (TOPY).  

Originally aping the trappings of a religious cult, as various founding members began to move away and distance themselves from the PTV / TOPY, P-Orridge's egomaniacal tendencies and fascination with the likes of Charles Manson and Jim Jones became ever more prominent as (s)he moulded it into a cult of personality based around themself that came to an acrimonious end in the early 90s.

Ray is careful throughout this fascinating book to try, whenever possible, not to belittle the experiences of the various adherents, but he is less kind to those wielding the adhesive, with the exception of Rampa who appears no more than an imaginative eccentric who, beyond his books, seemed to have had little interest in profiting from or manipulating any followers.

The three chapters on the Brotherhood, the Scientologists and TOPY offer compelling glimpses into the lives of both the manipulators and the manipulated, exploring some of the ways some folks allow themselves to be subsumed inside another's ego, but, it's the Rampa biography that is the gem here.  Ray avoids any attempt at psychoanalysing his subject or forming any definitive conclusions on whether he was devious or deluded instead providing a superbly readable glimpse into the life of a man who must surely be considered alongside the greatest of British eccentrics.

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