About the book: year / This curious information - for, whatever may be thought of it, it will undoubtedly be recognized as such - deserves a few words in the following article as an introduction. The details given therein concerning a subject which has always been considered one of the greatest and most closely guarded secrets of initiation into occultism from the time of the Rishis down to the advent of the Theosophical Society, came to the knowledge of the author of the article through circumstances which would seem strange and supernatural to the ordinary European. However, we assure the reader that he himself is the most complete skeptic in relation to the supernatural, although he has learned too much to limit the potential possibilities of the natural, as some do. Moreover, he, according to his own conviction, must make the following confession. A careful study of the facts will clearly show that if the situation really is as stated in the article, the author himself cannot be an adept of a high level, otherwise the article would never have been written. He doesn't pretend to be. He is a humble chela, or rather has been for several years, and therefore it must also be true that with regard to the higher stages of the mystery he cannot have personal experience and speaks of it only as a direct observer who has drawn his own conclusions , and nothing more. He can therefore safely say that during his stay with certain adepts, although it was unfortunately quite brief, he established by experience and observation the authenticity of some of the less transcendental or initial parts of this "course." And although he will not be able to give positive evidence of what happens next, he can still say that all his own course of study, training and experience - long, difficult and dangerous, as it always was - leads him to the conviction that everything actually matches what was said, with the exception of a few deliberately hidden details. For reasons that cannot be explained openly, he himself may be unwilling or unable to take advantage of the secret he has learned. Yet he to whom he has reverent love and gratitude—his last Guru—allows him to reveal for the benefit of science and man (and especially for the benefit of those who have the courage to carry out this experiment themselves) the following amazing features of the occult methods of prolonging life to periods far beyond the usual.