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Lost Masters: Rediscovering the Mysticism of the Ancient Greek Philosophers
Ashrams in Europe twenty-five hundred years ago? Greek philosophers studying in India? Meditation classes in ancient Rome? It sounds unbelievable, but it’s historically true. Alexander the Great had an Indian guru. Pythagoras, Empedocles, and Plotinus all encouraged their students to meditate. Apollonius, the most famous Western sage of the first century c.e., visited both India and Egypt—and claimed that Egyptian wisdom was rooted in India.In Lost Masters, award-winning author Linda Johnsen, digging deep into classical sources, uncovers evidence of astonishing similarities between some of the ancient Western world’s greatest thinkers and India’s yogis, including a belief in karma and reincarnation. Today ancient Greek philosophers are remembered as the founders of Western science and civilization. We’ve forgotten that for over a thousand years they were revered as sages, masters of spiritual wisdom. Lost Masters is an exploration of our long-lost Western spiritual heritage and the surprising insights it can offer us today.
227 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2006
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
March 21, 2019
Simply delightful. An abundance of insights, stories and holistic approach of Greek lost history of philosophy unfolded for our western societies, which will most likely clear your way of understanding the essential greek wisdom. The egyptian knowledge was passed on to the fabulous greek philosophers such as Pythagoras, Plato, Plotinus and others. Also the egyptians were initiated to higer levels of consciousness thanks to the indian philosophy. The western philosophy has deep roots back to the Eastern one. This is the main theme of the book. What a great journey did the author Linda Johnsen prepared for the reader!
January 29, 2017
Go back in time and learn how the wisdom of the ancient philosophers is so very applicable today. I was amazed and fascinated while reading this book. It is not academic yet you will learn so much and you will gain an entirely new perspective, much different from what you were taught about these wise sages when you attended school. So much can be gained from this work – you’ll see parallels to what is happening in the world today and just maybe, you’ll glean a fresh perspective on your own life and the impact you have on the great good. Highly recommended.
April 30, 2019
Endorsements:
“As you read this book, you will not only embark on a journey back in time to the very origin of our civilization but you will also find yourself on a journey without distance into the timeless dimension of who you are.”
— from the foreword by Eckhart Tolle, author of The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment and A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose
“It is a tragedy, and deeply absurd, that we in the West have lost touch with the wisdom of the extraordinary mystics who gave rise to our own civilization. This book is a lively and valuable introduction to that wisdom, and helps open the door again to those mystics and their transformative teachings, which we have been denied access to for so long.”
— Peter Kingsley, author of Reality and In the Dark Places of Wisdom
“As you read this book, you will not only embark on a journey back in time to the very origin of our civilization but you will also find yourself on a journey without distance into the timeless dimension of who you are.”
— from the foreword by Eckhart Tolle, author of The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment and A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose
“It is a tragedy, and deeply absurd, that we in the West have lost touch with the wisdom of the extraordinary mystics who gave rise to our own civilization. This book is a lively and valuable introduction to that wisdom, and helps open the door again to those mystics and their transformative teachings, which we have been denied access to for so long.”
— Peter Kingsley, author of Reality and In the Dark Places of Wisdom
April 6, 2025
Outstanding book. Very well-written. Although the connections between classical philosophy and Eastern philosophy are at least somewhat obvious, there is a glaring lack of representation of this symbiotic relationship in mainstream literature. Why this is the case is not so clear, but this book serves as a great resource for those who wish to deepen their knowledge of Neoplatonic practice in its relation to Eastern schools of thought, be they Buddhist, Egyptian, or Indian.
The first half of the book is rather shallow when it comes to making the East/West connections. Each chapter covers a specific classical philosopher, gives an overview of his worldview and accolades, and then makes the connection to Eastern philosophy. The issue is that for many of these chapters, it is essentially a repeat of, “Here is this famous philosopher, here is what he believed, he travelled to Egypt at this date, and he must have learned all this stuff there because the Egyptians believed the same things.” I am not implying that these are not meaningful connections, nor do I mean this to be a negative criticism, but make note that in terms of Hellenistic philosophers learning their esoteric wisdom from Egypt, it is more of conjectures and hypotheses rather than hard evidence. With that being said, these are strong conjectures.
Where the book really picks up is in the second half when we reach Plotinus and the other Neoplatonists, including Iambichlus and Proclus. Most think of cosmology and metaphysics when it comes to Neoplatonism, but hidden in the Enneads is a deep meditative practice that Plotinus would teach his students. This meditation focuses first on the Cosmic World, and then moves onto the One. The One is ultimately transcendent, and so this meditation is one that requires no outside thought, nothing except breathing. Johnsen doesn’t mention this, but anyone who is familiar with Vipassana meditation will know this sounds strikingly similar.
This intense state of meditation is what the yogis of India refer to as samadhi “the state of intense meditative absorption.” Recall that both Plotinus and Proclus tell us that the meaning of life is to return to the One, which is done by living virtuously and through the mystic experiences of the philosopher, which again is very akin to samashi. Both the Platonists (and subsequently the Neoplatonists) and the Eastern traditions also affirm reincarnation.
There is also a connection between the Greek concept of anamnesis and the Indian concept of pratyabhijna. The former refers to the moments in which we recall the true forms of our souls when they existed beyond the cosmos, in unison with the One. Such experience and recollection helps guide us in the lost and mirrored world we live in now. The latter teaches the same concept in Hinduism. Another similarity between the two traditions is what Plotinus referred to as dialektik (dialectic) and what the Indians refer to as vichara. This state of mind is dialectical because it refers to the stage a philosopher reaches in his life where he employs “discriminating wisdom.” It is where he can identify right from wrong, good from evil, etc., and not just philosophise about these things, but put them into practice and become a better person for himself and for others. This helps with the return to the One.
The One is described at times to be all-loving, but other times as beyond description and utterly transcendent. This is similar to the Indian view of the Supreme Reality which is said to be saguna and nirguna. Sirguna is the Supreme Reality when it refers to perfection, wisdom, and power. Nirguna is the term used for when the Supreme Reality is beyond description.
This leads to another point that Johnsen doesn’t mention but I feel is necessary, that there is an obvious connection with classical theism here. Those who are familiar with classical theist traditions will find the transcendent nature of the One to be very similar to their respective elder’s teachings of God. In Judaism, for example, you will read rabbis saying things such as “God is his attributes, and God has no attributes.” This sounds contradictory, but it makes sense when considering that since God is ultimately transcendent, he has no attributes, and passages where it appears he does are only trying to explain his actions in the world insofar as we can understand him, because it is ultimately impossible to understand God when he can only be described apophatically. Funnily enough, Nachman rebuked Maimonides for his dedication to divine simplicity, and saw it as heterodox!
The book ends with Johnsen posing the question as to why, despite the evidence we have that the Western and Eastern traditions share much in common, we know surprisingly little. She believes much of this has to do with the fact that the Hellenistic philosophers would not write much down. Their mystic traditions were supposed to be mystical, secret, and esoteric. Yet at the same time, they were supposed to be innate and intuitively clear for us. How can this be when Plato and Aristotle, the two most well-known philosophers in all of history, wrote very much literature themselves? It has to do with what their teacher Socrates taught. In the Pheadrus, Socrates is telling us about the Egyptian deity Thoth who invented writing. Thoth was proud of this invention, and told King Ammon it would make the Egyptians more wise.
“But Ammon was unimpressed. He said, ‘No, Thoth, just the opposite is true: writing will weaken, not strengthen, the memory. People will no longer exercise their memory once they put their trust in the written word. Why should they memorize a subject when it’s written down and they can refer to a piece of paper any time they need to? They’ll lose their wisdom when they no longer deeply assimilate what they’ve been taught by memorizing it.” Socrates concurred. This is why Socrates never wrote anything down, and yet we know him as the principle philosopher. There is an irony here that Plato wrote this story, and Johnsen wrote this book, but the point is that as cliche as it sounds, the ancient philosophers told us the age old saying that wisdom lies within. It is also in line with the return of the One. Aside from having knowledge of philosophy, science, and all other subjects, returning to the One involves living a virtuous life. Humility is a virtue. The philosopher who seeks the One is not a status seeker, nor does he look to proclaim his own legacy. His path is humble.
I have been looking for a book like this for quite some time, and this did not disappoint. Johnsen does not fetishize the East, but rather uses the East as a supplementation to understand the West. Several times throughout the book she mentions that we in the West must regain the wisdom and knowledge of the great thinkers of our past. Those in the East have their yogis and their monks, while we in the West have our philosophers and theologians. Johnsen also does an excellent job of making the philosophical terminology and history accessible for the average reader. She rightly mentions that much of the philosophical literature is gate-kept by heavy jargon, something she tries to counter in this work. One could read this with no prior knowledge of classical philosophy or neoplatonism and be able to track along just fine. I highly recommend this to those who are interested in mysticism, classics, and intercultural studies. This has easily become one of my favorite books.
The first half of the book is rather shallow when it comes to making the East/West connections. Each chapter covers a specific classical philosopher, gives an overview of his worldview and accolades, and then makes the connection to Eastern philosophy. The issue is that for many of these chapters, it is essentially a repeat of, “Here is this famous philosopher, here is what he believed, he travelled to Egypt at this date, and he must have learned all this stuff there because the Egyptians believed the same things.” I am not implying that these are not meaningful connections, nor do I mean this to be a negative criticism, but make note that in terms of Hellenistic philosophers learning their esoteric wisdom from Egypt, it is more of conjectures and hypotheses rather than hard evidence. With that being said, these are strong conjectures.
Where the book really picks up is in the second half when we reach Plotinus and the other Neoplatonists, including Iambichlus and Proclus. Most think of cosmology and metaphysics when it comes to Neoplatonism, but hidden in the Enneads is a deep meditative practice that Plotinus would teach his students. This meditation focuses first on the Cosmic World, and then moves onto the One. The One is ultimately transcendent, and so this meditation is one that requires no outside thought, nothing except breathing. Johnsen doesn’t mention this, but anyone who is familiar with Vipassana meditation will know this sounds strikingly similar.
This intense state of meditation is what the yogis of India refer to as samadhi “the state of intense meditative absorption.” Recall that both Plotinus and Proclus tell us that the meaning of life is to return to the One, which is done by living virtuously and through the mystic experiences of the philosopher, which again is very akin to samashi. Both the Platonists (and subsequently the Neoplatonists) and the Eastern traditions also affirm reincarnation.
There is also a connection between the Greek concept of anamnesis and the Indian concept of pratyabhijna. The former refers to the moments in which we recall the true forms of our souls when they existed beyond the cosmos, in unison with the One. Such experience and recollection helps guide us in the lost and mirrored world we live in now. The latter teaches the same concept in Hinduism. Another similarity between the two traditions is what Plotinus referred to as dialektik (dialectic) and what the Indians refer to as vichara. This state of mind is dialectical because it refers to the stage a philosopher reaches in his life where he employs “discriminating wisdom.” It is where he can identify right from wrong, good from evil, etc., and not just philosophise about these things, but put them into practice and become a better person for himself and for others. This helps with the return to the One.
The One is described at times to be all-loving, but other times as beyond description and utterly transcendent. This is similar to the Indian view of the Supreme Reality which is said to be saguna and nirguna. Sirguna is the Supreme Reality when it refers to perfection, wisdom, and power. Nirguna is the term used for when the Supreme Reality is beyond description.
This leads to another point that Johnsen doesn’t mention but I feel is necessary, that there is an obvious connection with classical theism here. Those who are familiar with classical theist traditions will find the transcendent nature of the One to be very similar to their respective elder’s teachings of God. In Judaism, for example, you will read rabbis saying things such as “God is his attributes, and God has no attributes.” This sounds contradictory, but it makes sense when considering that since God is ultimately transcendent, he has no attributes, and passages where it appears he does are only trying to explain his actions in the world insofar as we can understand him, because it is ultimately impossible to understand God when he can only be described apophatically. Funnily enough, Nachman rebuked Maimonides for his dedication to divine simplicity, and saw it as heterodox!
The book ends with Johnsen posing the question as to why, despite the evidence we have that the Western and Eastern traditions share much in common, we know surprisingly little. She believes much of this has to do with the fact that the Hellenistic philosophers would not write much down. Their mystic traditions were supposed to be mystical, secret, and esoteric. Yet at the same time, they were supposed to be innate and intuitively clear for us. How can this be when Plato and Aristotle, the two most well-known philosophers in all of history, wrote very much literature themselves? It has to do with what their teacher Socrates taught. In the Pheadrus, Socrates is telling us about the Egyptian deity Thoth who invented writing. Thoth was proud of this invention, and told King Ammon it would make the Egyptians more wise.
“But Ammon was unimpressed. He said, ‘No, Thoth, just the opposite is true: writing will weaken, not strengthen, the memory. People will no longer exercise their memory once they put their trust in the written word. Why should they memorize a subject when it’s written down and they can refer to a piece of paper any time they need to? They’ll lose their wisdom when they no longer deeply assimilate what they’ve been taught by memorizing it.” Socrates concurred. This is why Socrates never wrote anything down, and yet we know him as the principle philosopher. There is an irony here that Plato wrote this story, and Johnsen wrote this book, but the point is that as cliche as it sounds, the ancient philosophers told us the age old saying that wisdom lies within. It is also in line with the return of the One. Aside from having knowledge of philosophy, science, and all other subjects, returning to the One involves living a virtuous life. Humility is a virtue. The philosopher who seeks the One is not a status seeker, nor does he look to proclaim his own legacy. His path is humble.
I have been looking for a book like this for quite some time, and this did not disappoint. Johnsen does not fetishize the East, but rather uses the East as a supplementation to understand the West. Several times throughout the book she mentions that we in the West must regain the wisdom and knowledge of the great thinkers of our past. Those in the East have their yogis and their monks, while we in the West have our philosophers and theologians. Johnsen also does an excellent job of making the philosophical terminology and history accessible for the average reader. She rightly mentions that much of the philosophical literature is gate-kept by heavy jargon, something she tries to counter in this work. One could read this with no prior knowledge of classical philosophy or neoplatonism and be able to track along just fine. I highly recommend this to those who are interested in mysticism, classics, and intercultural studies. This has easily become one of my favorite books.
August 23, 2021
Remarkable
This is a remarkable and enjoyable book to read. This is one of those books that once you start reading you can’t put it down. Then when you get to the end it makes you mad because you are not ready for it to stop. Lately I’ve gotten into quantum physics especially Robert Lanzar, MD’s three books with Bob Beeman discussing Biocentrism. I know this sounds strange but to me the thought process by the great “Lost Masters” discussed in Johnson’s book is the same currently being experienced by our leading scientist.
This is a remarkable and enjoyable book to read. This is one of those books that once you start reading you can’t put it down. Then when you get to the end it makes you mad because you are not ready for it to stop. Lately I’ve gotten into quantum physics especially Robert Lanzar, MD’s three books with Bob Beeman discussing Biocentrism. I know this sounds strange but to me the thought process by the great “Lost Masters” discussed in Johnson’s book is the same currently being experienced by our leading scientist.
January 10, 2024
Dit was een interessant boek over Griekse filosofie. Linda Johnson neemt het standpunt van de invloed vanuit de Indische cultuur alleen veel te sterk in. Voor mij leek de clue van elk hoofdstuk gewoon dat elke Griekse filosoof al zijn invloeden uit de Indische cultuur haalde en hun literaire werken te maken hadden met ascetische, Indische rituelen. Ze verwachtte dat dit je elk hoofdstuk opnieuw ging verbazen, maar dit was helemaal niet zo.
March 29, 2023
The kind of book worth rereading. Johnsen looks at the Greek philosophers, and shows the impact of Hinduism on their thoughts. I didn't know much about many of these philosophers or these stories. Great book.
December 13, 2024
Thought provoking. As a believer in the power of mystic christianity, it was interesting to see mystic expressions in Greek sources. I wish I'd taken more notes on this book before taking it back to the library. Would love to reread.
September 5, 2024
Really interesting look into the ancient Greek philosophers and where their wisdom may have come from. Definitely worth a second, more thorough read!
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews