Although Wolff states that he felt a close rapport with the thinking of Shankara, there can be no doubt that Wolff was also an avowed theosophist. Not only was his first introduction to metaphysical matters the result of his contact with a theosophical group during his undergraduate days, he settled in a community founded by this group when he left the world of academia. After leaving this community, he continued his involvement with Theosophy as a regular attendee at meetings of the United Lodge of Theosophists in Los Angeles, a group with which he would have continued an association had it not been for this wife’s desire for group work that better simulated the heart center.

Throughout his later alliance with non-theosophical groups and after the founding of his own organization, Wolff continued to rely on Theosophical works—such as The Secret Doctrine, The Voice of the Silence, and The Mahatma Letters—as primary source material for his lectures and essays. Indeed, he acknowledges the study of the philosophical material in The Secret Doctrine as a central element of his yogic discipline.[1] Wolff also mentions his Theosophical readings in Pathways Through to Space, as well as in The Philosophy of Consciousness Without an Object. And, in a 1948 essay titled “Is Theosophy Authentic?,” Wolff spent fifty-seven pages defending Theosophy in response a number of students who had questioned its authenticity. Finally, Wolff’s audio recordings contain numerous references to Theosophical literature, as well as reflections on matters theosophical. These latter recordings are listed here.

[1] Franklin Merrell-Wolff, “Meaning of Death,” part 3 (Lone Pine, Calif.: June 1977), audio recording, 1.