Magic and Mystery in Tibet

With Mystics and Magicians in Tibet is neither a travel journal nor an autobiography but a collection of studies of religious and mystical practices, occult traditions, and psychic trainings in Tibet and the surrounding areas. David-Néel described the events that brought her in contact with Lamaism (a term used to describe Tibetan Buddhism) and magicians that surrounded that religion. Then she groups multiple mystical theories and beliefs that she learned during her stages in the Gompas, in the presence of religious authorities and yogi hermits in the remote caves of the Himalayas. She illustrated the monastic system of Lamaism, the great teachers and the training of their disciples. David-Néel described in detail what in her words are the ‘Psychic Sports’, a set of practices done by Tibetan monks and mystics to achieve supernatural results, such as surviving naked in the snow with the self-heating technique ‘Tumo’.^[1] David-Néel claimed to have experienced many of the phenomena she described.