The present book is a revision of my dissertation Accelerating Evolution in Annie Besant's Theosophy, which I submitted in February 2021. First, I would like to thank my wife for her patience and her support. I would also like to thank my children, both of whom were born during the writing process of my dissertation, for the enduring inspiration and insistent, but welcome, distractions. Secondly, I am grateful to Helmut Zander, who supported me, challenged me with critical questions, had me

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... se and reread passages and whole chapters and, above all, had the confidence that I could finish my dissertation. Without doubt, his support is one of the main reasons why the dissertation has reached completion and is now published. Thirdly, my thanks go to Jens Schlieter who agreed to review my dissertation as second supervisor. His valuable advice led to significant improvements to the structure of the text and to the strengthening of the overall argument. I also thank the many other friends and colleagues who supported me in writing my dissertation, including those from the Forschungsverbund "Gesellschaftliche Innovation durch 'nichthegemoniale' Wissensproduktion. 'Okkulte' Phänomene zwischen Mediengeschichte, Kulturtransfer und Wissenschaft, 1770 bis 1970"; the European Society for the Study of Western Esotericism (ESSWE); and people from and around the Lehrstuhl der Abteilung Religionswissenschaft und Interkulturelle Theologie, Heidelberg, among whom Michael Bergunder in particular stands out. My thanks also go to Annemarie Mertens, my very patient Sanskrit teacher, Frederike Grenner, my very supportive Hindi teacher, and Angelika Malinar, the head of the Indian Studies department at the University of Zürich. Last but not least, I also thank Jaishree Kannan, the archivist of the Theosophical Society's international headquarters, the Adyar Library and Research Centre, and Tim Boyd, the international president of the Adyar Theosophical Society, for providing a wealth of information and images for publication in this book. For the publication of the present book, I would like to thank the Swiss National Science Foundation, which supported the publication with generous funding. I would also like to thank the kind staff of De Gruyter Oldenbourg.