Franz Hartmann was a 19th century Bavarian physician, theosophist and writer. This book begins with a journey in the Alps. The narrator meets a mysterious dwarf. The dwarf takes him to an Adept who resides in a hidden Rosicrucian colony high in the mountains. This Adept proceeds to expound for a hundred and fifty pages on the Rosicrucian way, including Alchemy, Elementals and the acquisition of psychic powers. There is a demonstration of the transmutation of silver into gold using a red powder. The narrator also meets some of other residents, including two mysterious women who have vivid memories of their past lives, and the doppelganger of the Adept, who sends the narrator on a hallucinogenic night journey to the Indian ocean where he consorts with water spirits. The narrator has many other esoteric adventures and is instructed in spiritual wisdom.
