Josepp, I never said that you read Blavatsky or Cayce. One doesn't have to, because the same stuff is spouted by charlatans and hucksters from all over.

Pythagoras started a secret society called the Pythagorean brotherhood devoted to the study of mathematics. This had a great effect on future esoteric traditions, such as Rosicrucianism, which is an occult group claiming to have evolved out of the Pythagorean brotherhood. The mystical and occult aspects of Pythagorean mathematics are discussed in a chapter of Manly P. Hall's The Secret Teachings of All Ages entitled "Pythagorean Mathematics".

Pythagorean theory was highly influential on later numerology, quite popular in the ancient world, particularly in the Middle East.

Genuine Biblical scholars and historians have noted that the Book of Revelation, rather than referring all that much to what modern "Rapture" fans consider the "End Days," was more of a political tract—and veiled rant against the Roman occupation. It's notable that 666, the Mark of the Beast, rather than refering to the Devil or the Anti-Christ, is the name of the emperor Nero, translated into numerology.

The 8th-century Muslim alchemist Jabir ibn Hayyan grounded his work in an elaborate numerology greatly influenced by Pythagorean theory. Today, Pythagoras is revered as a prophet by the Ahl al-Tawhid or Druze faith along with his fellow Greek, Plato.

Blavatsky, Cayce, and various others who have made their fortunes by dipping into the occult and the esoteric, have drawn heavily on Pythagorean material. They are also heavily into the idea of past lives (reincarnation, often associated with Eastern religions). This opens the way for such beliefs as "The Ascended Masters," who can pop in and out at will. "Miracle Man" Hamid Bey, who maintained that he had reincarnated over 1,000 tims, claimed to be one of these.

A questing mind is indeed a valuable thing, but that mind also needs to have the faculty of sifting the nuggets of truth from the muddy river of sheer claptrap that some folks will try to peddle you.

Pythagoras was very good at seeing mathematical relationships, but he had a whole bundle of crackpot ideas and he tried to infer a lot of mystical conclusions from these relationships that were not really indicated.

By the way, where, exactly, was Atlantis? Deep water submersibles have been down as far as the mid-Atlantic ridge, which is about as deep as anything can go, and nuthin'! In fact, the whole floor of the Atlantic Ocean has been charted by several methods, including satellite mapping that can look right through water to the very ocean depths, and still, no evidence to support the myth.

Plato seemed to be the one who initially "popularized" the idea of Atlantis, having gotten the idea from Solon. Plato put its location "beyond the gates of Hercules," i.e. outside the Mediterranean somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean. He also dated it some nine millennia before his own time. Historians believe that what he really had in mind were stories he had heard about the massive volcanic eruption of Thera, about 120 miles southeast of Greece. The eruption, which took place circa 1600 BCE, blew up the entire island, leaving a caldera marked by a ring-shaped archipelago. Although the Minoan civilization was based mainly on nearby Crete, much of its wealthier population and many of the movers and shakers of the culture lived on Thera, and were wiped out with the eruption. The Minoan civilization essentially folded some ninety years later.

So much for Atlantis and it's vast store of occult and esoteric "wisdom" upon which so many present-day charlatans, also drawing heavily on Eastern mysticism and interpreting it to suit their own spin, claim to got their occult mumbo-jumbo.

All of those mystical looking charts can easily be reconstructed by anyone with a fairly good knowledge of music theory, especially if coupled with some knowledge of the physics of music. Nothing particularly mystical, occult, or esoteric there.

Sorry to burst your bubble.

Don Firth