RAMPA, TUESDAY LOBSANG (1910-1981) 

    A.K.A. Dr. Carl Kuon Suo. His real name was Cyril Henry Hoskin or Hoskins, and he was a UK plumber's assistant who wrote the spurious book The Third Eye - Autobiography of a Tibetan Lama in 1956. Like Blavatsky before him, Hoskin chose Tibet as the back drop for his occult hoax. The book allegedly deals with a Tibetan who had a hole drilled in his forehead to open the “third eye”, among other fanciful things.

    The manuscript for The Third Eye was rejected by several publishers until Secker & Warburg Publishers got a hold of it. They realized the book would be a best seller, but they weren't quite sure as to its authenticity. So they sent to a real life Tibetan Monk living in the UK they knew of to review it. He told them the manuscript was an obvious fraud, and even went so far to call it “post Blavatskyan hogwash”, among other things. So the publisher had a choice of doing the ethical thing and not publishing the book, or publishing a fraud and making piles and piles of money. They opted for piles and piles of money. Go figure.

    The book sold 80,000 copies in the first printing and was translated into other languages. The German first edition sold 100,000 copies. The book went into several subsequent re-printings, and was followed by several sequels. Early on after it's initial release, skeptics discovered Hoskins had not only never been to Tibet, but didn't even own a passport, and didn't even speak one word of Tibetan. Hoskins explained this seemingly inescapable problem was because, why, he fell out of a tree and received a bump on the head, and then the spirit of T. Lobsang Rampa entered his body and spoke through him! Yeah, yeah, that's the ticket! Apparently the blow to the head made him also forget how to speak Tibetan as well.

    Believers gladly swallowed Rampa's history revision. Hoskin produced several more ludicrous books, including My Visit to Venus, in which he described a trip in a flying saucer in the company of two Venusians...even though scientists have determined Venus is incapable of sustaining life.

    Among some of the claims of Rampa are, having an encounter with a Yeti, seeing a mummy that had been himself in a past life, Gypsies are from the hollow Earth, Om Mani Padme Hum means. "Hail to Man's Overself" ( actually, the word Mani means "jewel", Padme means "lotus flower",  Hum means "enlightenment" ), and the reason flying saucers never land is because they're made of anti-matter (even though Earth's atmosphere is made of matter, which means they would STILL burn up in the atmosphere!).

    Obviously a Rampa is a crackpot, but his books are still in print. One reader on Amazon.com wrote “Back in the early 70's I read [The Third Eye ] with great anticipation. Little did I know at the time was that 'T. Lobsang Rampa was in reality a plumber from Ireland. If only the Internet existed at the time I would have been spared the copious amount of BS in this book. Actually I read three of his books and I was excited at the time but now I only feel cheated and abused by this BS artist. Don't waste your money on this book or any other by him. “ So there you go.

    The Third Eye seems to have inspired some people to actually drill holes in their heads in the 60's...some of which ended in brain damage or fatality rather than opening the non-existent third eye. Imagine that...drilling holes in your head actually isn't a good idea! Maybe Hoskin heard someone once say “Boy, I need that like I need a hole in my head!”, and took it the wrong way, or something. Rampa cashed in on the Ashram craze in the 1960's by opening his own in Canada. He lived there with devoted followers until his death in 1981.

    Even though Hoskins has passed away, Rampa gains new followers posthumously through his website and people are even writing new Rampa books...claiming they can channel Rampa.

    It's the scam that keeps on giving.