ABSTRACT
The Columban Exposition included a world parliament of rehgions where a wide range of beliefs and approaches were given an opportunity for expression and dialogue. As an alternative to the traditional philosophies of the West, Eastern mysticism has proved very popular, and the success of the initial movements inspired others, of varying degrees of authenticity and importance, to undertake missionary work in the West. This emergence of the East can be linked to two events–the founding of the Theosophical Society in 1875, the Columban Exposition in Chicago in 1893. The former, because of its interest in oriental philosophy and the emphasis placed by its founders on India and Tibet as sources of occult knowledge, promulgated many oriental ideas and encouraged investigation into Eastern scriptures which had previously been the almost exclusive domain of the scholar and the academic. There is an increasing range of other Eastern teachers and traditions appearing in the West.
