Lobsang Rampa was a rather unique individual who was born in England early last century. He wrote books recounting his time as a Tibetan lama, despite never having been to Tibet.
Rampa – original name Cyril Hoskin – claimed that ever since a fall from a tree, his body had hosted the spirit of a Tibetan lama called Tuesday Lobsang Rampa. He went on to write books on paranormal and occult themes, including his most well known publication, The Third Eye.
Here we feature an extract from when Rampa – in his incarnation as a Tibetan lama – was taken into the depths of the Potala Palace to be initiated. The ceremony involved an apparent out-of-body experience, an experience from which not all initiates survived.
The vision
In the dark depths of the Potala, Rampa experiences a black fog descend upon him “and with it a calmness not of this world”. He senses that he is beside the sea, with palm trees (which he had never seen before) nearby. A group of sun-bronzed people – “Giants!” – came into sight, and Rampa realises that he too has the body of a “giant”. Then…
“To my astral perceptions came the impressions: countless ages ago. Earth revolved nearer the sun, in the opposite direction. The days were shorter and warmer. Vast civilizations arose, and men knew more than they do now. From outer space came a wandering planet and struck the Earth a glancing blow. The Earth was sent reeling, out of its orbit, and turning in the opposite direction. Winds arose and battered the waters, which, under different gravitational pulls, heaped upon the land, and there were floods, universal floods. Earthquakes shook the world. Lands sank beneath the seas, and others arose. The warm and pleasant land, which was Tibet, ceased to be a seaside resort and shot some twelve thousand feet above the sea. Around the land mighty mountains appeared, belching out fuming lava. Far away in the highlands rifts were torn in the surface, and vegetation and fauna of a bygone age continued to flourish”
Extract from The Third Eye – The Autobiography of a Tibetan Lama by Lobsang Rampa
Sometime later the visions faded and Rampa awoke, freezing cold and lying in the darkness of a vault in the Potala. He had survived his initiation experience.
Some observations
Today the consensus is that The Third Eye and other books by Lobsang Rampa came from his imagination rather than being an actual account of his time as a Tibetan Lama. The books (and their contents) are assumed to be a work of fiction.
Having said that, the books definitely contain food for thought, and not just for Tibetologists.
Rampa’s “wandering planet” that “struck the Earth with a glancing blow” has similarities with the prevailing theory for the origin of the Moon. According to the giant-impact hypothesis, a Mars-sized object collided with the Earth and the resultant debris formed the Moon.
Rampa’s “universal floods” also draw comparisons with the Biblical flood and other flood myths from around the world (flood myth).
And as to the land of Tibet shooting up to 12,000 ft above sea level, with “mighty mountains” forming, this does seem to have been what happened: the Indian subcontinent collided with Eurasia and pushed up the mountains that are today known as the Karakoram and Himalaya ranges.
Of course these three happenings are not generally linked together. The origins of the Moon are said to lie billions of years ago, the uplifting of Tibet is dated some 50 million years ago, and – if it took place – the Biblical flood would have been thousands of years ago.
So perhaps this all confirms what is widely concluded today: Lobsang Rampa / Cyril Hoskin made it all up. It is a compelling narrative nonetheless.
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