This is the complete double volume of The Secret Doctrine as a community text audiobook. Currently, I re-edit and remaster some of the sound files to make them an easier listen, in some instances for example by digitally reducing reading speed. I am in no way a professional reader or actor, and my shortcomings as a reader will be evident. On the other hand, I have lived with The Secret Doctrine for decades, which at any rate makes for some familiarity with the topics contained therein.
Please note, however, that no audio book of any production can substitute the real thing, viz. the facsimile text as authorized by the writer and affiliated publishers. At best, it can serve to whet the appetite for the original book or perhaps as a compliment when reading is not suitable, e.g. when driving a car, or for the hard of reading, and if you dislike even more the automated text-to-voice services not yet developed far enough to meet the standards of certain written works, than you do my erratic European accent. Also, most readers will invariably misread unfamiliar terms and even ordinary words, especially in a complex work such as this one; and although it is possible to re-edit a sound file, many a mistake will slip through. Please refer to the printed facsimile as the only authentic source.
The project will unfold as described in sound file #1, 'Studying the Secret Doctrine' to correlate with H.P.Bâs recommended approach to the work. As to the choice of edition of The Secret Doctrine, please turn to sound file #2: 'Publishers' Preface'.
...and why, then, should anyone read this book? Well, why did Einstein keep it on his desktop? Why have the recent scientific discoveries pointing to the probability of there having existed universes before that of 'The Big Bang' begun to resonate in the world of 'ordinary' science, and why do scientists of today spend research money on creating chambers to simulate interstellar space in their endeavors to pursue the recent (!?) theories that live organisms 'perhaps may have been transferred to (or from) for example our earth to other biospheres, via comets'? Why was the correct scientific conclusion that the found 47 million-year fossil named Ida, which initially was supposed to perhaps be the 'missing link' in Darwin's theory, proved not to be the sought-after missing link? (Answer: Because science looks for the wrong things: Since the theory is erroneous on this point, there is no missing link to be found, the reasons for which, stated in The Secret Doctrine may still be a bit thick for most post-Darwinian people to take.)
After all, these 'new' theories belong to pieces of fact, which Blavatsky wrote would become objectives of the academic scientists in the 20th century; not as a matter of prophecy, but through the sequential assemblage of facts. But the ancient adepts have known all such things for eons, and we are all invited to understand these things, and a good deal more about life and the cosmos, way ahead of the phenomenalist scientists of today and of tomorrow. Not because we are in a hurry, but because philosophy is a better mode of life.
And who can say, after having read the Qur'an or the Bible, that she really understands it, or knows how to live thereby, even? The Secret Doctrine does not claim to present the Truth, as most of the world religions do, but 'only' (and this must, in the name of philosophy or science, be considered good enough to any humble human) that it can lead the earnest pursuer of truth, towards it.
Technical note: Unfortunately I own no large membrane or ribbon microphone, but have used a close-sing dynamic ditto, which emphasizes differences in air flow, distance, etc. in an unfavourable way. To smooth out some of these characteristics, a compressor is used, which makes speech more chiseled and easier to discern, which is important because many terms may be hard to understand, anyway, and a muddy sound would make them difficult to hear. Unfortunately, this also enhances all misreading and artifacts due to my poor diction. Again, refer to the original book.