Theodore Illion: Darkness Over Tibet

[Voyageur]

According to the Wikipedia article Illion was a member of the Club of Rome, never married and had no children.

Looked at that wiki citation, here is the English translation:

Nolling (another pseudonym). Prof Herbert Novak (personal communication dated 8 July 1994) writes: "I am not aware of any biographical work, an obituary appeared in the Salzburger Nachrichten a few weeks after his death. I was friends with Prof Burang-Illion for 38 years, there were hardly any conversations about his background, the name Nolling was never mentioned. Born in Canada, he came from the great Plantagenet family {see here to look at this family}, a branch of the English royal family, was the child of wealthy parents, but left home at a very young age. He travelled to Tibet before the Second World War. He was a member of the Club of Rome between 1970 and 1980. If I remember correctly, he had positive contact with the Italian Tibetologist G. Tucci {see here for a review of Tucci}. He is buried in Kuchl, a village 20 kilometres south of Salzburg (not far from the back entrance to the cemetery, you can't miss the boulder with his name on it). He was a wise, kind, helpful and also very humorous man, we who knew him still miss him sorely today! I can't send you the obituary in the "Salzburger Nachrichten": I don't have it! There are no living descendants; he was never married. The bequest consisted of a box of personal notes, mostly written in Tibetan and Chinese script."

Translated with DeepL.com (free version)

 

[Benjamin]

So, after a dig, I found the obituary of Theodore Illion in the Salzburger Nachrichten archive. And here I get a (semi-) solid location and date of his birth. I say 'semi' because I can't (easily) find any record in Ancestry (which doesn't really suprise me but it was worth a shot). And just the fact that there are two '5's' makes me suspicious it's not a real date, but I could just be reading into this.

Illion speaking numerology with Narbu (Darkness Over Tibet; p. 87 & 88):

“I think man ought not to carry numerological speculations beyond the figure five,” I answered.

“Why that?”

“Five is the number of man. The higher numbers lead to complication and perdition, the smaller ones to God.”
...

"... Five therefore represents the interpenetration of five different spaces. With five the creature has reached the very limits of its existence. Five is the number of the creature and the number of manifested life which seems to exist simultaneously on five planes. Man lives, if I may say so, in five different realms, viz., the physical one and those of sensation, feeling, intelligence, and will. These are five realms which interpenetrate each other."
...
"As I said before, the figures exceeding five—viewed numerologically —have a dissociating effect on the personality of man. They are numbers of perdition.”

Ein edler und treuer Mensch ist seinen Weg unbeirrt gegangen.

Prof. Theodor Burang-Illion
*Quebec, 5. 5. 1898 ✝ Hallein, 4. 9. 1984

Als Experte für fernöstliche und tibetanische Heilkunde war sein Name in In- und Ausland ein Begriff geworden.
Seine Bücher und Publikationen erschienen in vielen Sprachen.
Er beeindruckte seine Mitmenschen durch profunds Wissen und weises Urteil.
Das, was an ihm sterblich war, wird am Freitag, dem 7. September 1984, um 10 Uhr auf dem Friedhof in Kuchl der Erde übergeben.

Im Namen aller Freunde

DeepL translation:

A noble and loyal man has gone his way unwaveringly.

Prof. Theodor Burang-Illion
*Quebec, 5. 5. 1898 ✝ Hallein, 4. 9. 1984

As an expert in Far Eastern and Tibetan medicine, his name had become a household name at home and abroad.
His books and publications appeared in many languages.
He impressed his fellow human beings with his profound knowledge and wise judgment.
What was mortal about him will be laid to rest on Friday, September 7, 1984, at 10 a.m. at the cemetery in Kuchl.

On behalf of all friends

Gravestone of Theodor Burang-Illion:



Oct. 10, 1955 is earliest mention I could find of Illion in the Salzburger Nachrichten archive. It looks like an announcment for an upcoming speech at an adult education center in the town of Neumarkt am Wallersee.

Volkshochschule Neumarkt am Wallersee, 19.30, Goigingersaal, Theodore Illion (Burang): "Drückt uns Asien an die Wand?" (Lichtbilder)

DeepL translation:

Adult education center Neumarkt am Wallersee, 19.30, Goigingersaal, Theodore Illion (Burang): "Is Asia pushing us up against the wall?" (photographs)

There's actually 74 entries (could be less, didn't check them all) for "Theodor Illion" in this newspaper ranging from 1955-1976 with a gap (attending the Club of Rome during this time?) and then his obituary in 1984. Many advertise upcoming lectures and actually writes short articles for the paper in the later years.

On Dec. 24, 1984, the final entry in this list is a full page tribute (all in German) to Theodor Burang-Illion (the hyphenated name seems to be what he went by after 1959. Before that it was Theodor Illion Burang.) written by Max Kaindl-Hönig. It's a bit much for me to type the whole thing into DeepL, but I noticed that "Japan" was mentioned so I think this is where Håkan Blomqvist got a lot of the background info.

Zu wissen, die eigene Weisheit ist nicht unsere Weisheit
Max Kaindl-Hönig - in gedanken an Theodor Burang-Illion

DeepL translation:

Knowing that our own wisdom is not our wisdom
Max Kaindl-Hönig - in memory of Theodor Burang-Illion

"Theodor Burang-Illion, Drawing by Josef Zenzmaier"

Incidentally, the wiki page mentions that "According to Professor Herbert Novak, a longtime friend of Theodore Illion, the latter was born in Canada in a wealthy family descended from a branch of the British royalty, the Plantagenets."

 

[Benjamin]

On Dec. 24, 1984, the final entry in this list is a full page tribute (all in German) to Theodor Burang-Illion (the hyphenated name seems to be what he went by after 1959. Before that it was Theodor Illion Burang.) written by Max Kaindl-Hönig. It's a bit much for me to type the whole thing into DeepL...

...but I did it anyway.

Illion is one strange guy but it does seem that his eventual home was the 'Salzburg area', and when you read the tribute, you'll get it. His obituary says 'Prof." but I don't know if he was actually a tenured professor or anything like that. There is no mention of specific family except that they were Quebec aristocratics, though, to run away at the age of 12 to Japan, I would think, is a bit tough to do in 1910. 'Orphan' also comes to mind but... Idk. When I looked on Ancestry, I didn't find anything specific, but there are a lot of records for 'Illion' all over the world, even a (very) few in Quebec. The Plantagenets are mentioned in the last paragraph but I think it's a bit weak when one alludes to bear a remarkabe resemblance to Henry V.

Max tells the story of Illion collapsing in his "ninth decade" and taking "five days and five nights" to finally pass. There's all of a sudden lot of double-fives.

It's long, and maybe not very satisfying, but it's worth a read to get a feel for this wanderer.

I see him leaving. Maybe that was when I started to form an image of him. Thirty, thirty-five years ago, I saw the man walking for the first time. I don't know if it was summer or winter, but I'm sure he was walking in his coat, carrying a bulbous briefcase. He had a cap on his head that wasn't slanted like a beret; he wore it upright, with the brim raised. You might find headgear like that ridiculously unfashionable, it created distance; it was like a beret or even a duke's hat. I also remember that he always wore the same worn, dusty epithets - coat, cap, bag. Finally, since he had to slow down his gait, dragging a little, the cane was added. But for a man over eighty, a cane is not a special feature to look at. All the more so was Mr. Illion's eye; an eye like that of a youth, the brightness of the pupil with the lively play around it, a child's play of wrinkles that made fun of age. Had he not known this long before?

In his first book about Tibet, the roof of the world, which he had boldly and calmly trekked through on his own at the age of thirty-six, he praised the hermits with their "young hearts and the wisdom of an old man". He described the opposite, as he had also encountered it in the vast majority there: those who "very quickly squander the most glorious thing - their youth - and once they have grown older and gained experience, it is no longer of any value because in the meantime their hearts have turned to stone”.

This sentence from the book "Rätselhaftes Tibet", published in Hamburg in 1936, may serve as an introduction. For I dare to attempt to follow the long life journey of a sage whom I knew and did not know, from afar, shyly, with steps like a wren. And who would not know the true futility of keeping step, be it, as here, in the trace of humor of what has gone before, which death has not blown away. I only hope I would hear Mr. Illion laugh without his contradicting my distress. His laughter, which, like the tone of speech, could change its register in the heat of the moment, like the change of voice on the threshold of youth.

I also remember the murmur, a sudden whisper, when the conversation touched on things he was worried about or hoped for. The loud word seemed to diminish his inner strength. But one inspiring thought was enough: his voice returned to him, his eyes began to speak along brightly, syllable by syllable. He often took hold of the bulging accordion in his traveling bag to bring a document to light. There was the admonishing letter addressed to a statesman, including the latter's reply to him, "...postlagernd [General Delivery] Salzburg/Hauptbahnhof". Or one of the multilingual printed articles from his pen: concerning Biafra, Nigeria, Pakistan, India; a part of this whole hopeless warlike world and its victims, to whom he, a single man without a fixed address, brought the seeds of truth with evenly sweeping steps, just as he was used to walking.

As I write this, I am filled with doubt. I think I know what the statistics are for the state of affairs in terms of verifiable humanitarian successes. Did Mr. Illion not in fact collect stones in his pocket? Spiritual content, which he gave unsolicited, unselfishly and steadily, without calculating the path of petrification they would take, without estimating the final success? Did he not carry around with him, farther and farther from any advantage, the older he became the heavier, what was everything to him and nothing: Omnia mea mecum porto -? ["All that is mine I carry with me"]

But there is the wren's knowledge again, the small, graspable food of my knowledge: I shrink into myself, step by step I am overshadowed by the shadow of the walker with his traveling luggage, with the Tibetan one-man tent back then and the cold food of grains, the freezing drink of water, the cocoon of clothes that cannot be changed, from which no having but true being could emerge. For there I read in the not yet forty-year-old who called himself "T. Illion":

"Why don't the few hundred men who live as true hermits or saints succeed in changing Tibet? They don't succeed because the masses of Tibetans want to be deceived. They prefer the people who give them pills or magic shoes to those who disinterestedly give them truth ... The few wise Tibetans have nothing to sell ... Wisdom is everywhere for those who have 'eyes to see and ears to hear'. Wisdom is like a beautiful flower by the wayside. It is not our own wisdom, nor is it the wisdom of our neighbor. If we pick the flower, it is ours, but it is dead. We can possess our own scholarship, but not our own wisdom. Many things are closed to the learned, but everything is clear to the wise.”

Elsewhere we read the radical, root-and-branch denial of advantage under the banner of intellectualism, for it is the one sin against the spirit that cannot be eradicated by anything: "In the true spiritual there is no, advantage' ... The hermits know that all the evils of the world are due to the boundless selfishness of the individual." That is why these Tibetan men do not want to "give direct help" to all and sundry; rather, they want to "set an example of the right life, which creates neither disharmony nor suffering, to those who can understand it at all. But if others are not influenced by their example, they will go their own way.”

If one contrasts such a statement with the picture of the life of the sixty-year-old and the well over eighty-year-old that has emerged for younger people, like myself, in encounters with the writing, lecturing and conversational Theodor Burang-Illion, it reveals a phenomenon of unprecedented similarity that otherwise only occurs in spiritual life: Between the author and his subject, more precisely, those target figures of the daringly ascetic journey on foot, whom he called the "true hermits", the "saints", and himself, Mr. Illion, an incessant process of assimilation in the spiritual has taken place.

I have tried to give an account of this moving subjective impression. I asked people from the circle of those who were only occasionally known to me who might have known the originator of such thoughts more closely. However, the circle narrowed once again. Everyone thought that someone else should have known more about him, that someone else's acquaintance would have lasted longer.

Thus that early book source remained irrevocably the most vivid insight into his biography. It proved the Tibetan exploration of the young researcher T. Illion as the exploration of himself; as the place of deep insight into a mirror-like doctrine of being. This does not recognize "the dividing line between the ego and the non-ego" drawn by the selfish human being. For the wanderer through Tibet, the life of the hermits was the reinforcement for his own life, as he wanted to lead it now and in the future. His notes make this clear;

Nowhere do they reveal the surprise that should have befallen an explorer; they betray the satisfaction of one who happily found the expected treasures where he was looking for them. He carried them with him on his long journey as a secret of "eternal youth" until the ninth decade of his life; in silence when crossing unavoidable "suspension bridges" on which he did not want anyone next to him, as he had already done in Tibet, where he had learned to avoid "superfluous conversations when crossing”.

I myself experienced this with him for an unforgettable moment. He walked beside me away from an open grave, and his silence lasted ten steps longer than I was able to keep it. How happy I was when the conversation between us developed as it always had, as if the lingering contemplation of his ego in the timeless non-ego had not been disturbed by me. Days later, in Mr. Illion's first Tibet book, I read a paragraph he had written about a man whose "selfless and impersonal kindness" touched him deeply. He calls it "a kindness of strength, not weakness" and recounts what happened to him:

"We were walking side by side and he began to quicken his pace. I did the same. I can cover up to nine kilometers an hour without walking, but the Tibetan Nalliorpa walked faster. Suddenly I realized that he now wished to be left alone. I stopped for a moment and turned away. When I turned back, he was no longer to be seen.”

This desire to be alone: as punctual as Mr. Illion was - it was said that one could set one's watch by his absolute reliability - the moment of going was, as it seemed, predetermined, just as the coming was. (This was one reason why he did not want his day trips in trackless Tibet to be hindered by a sluggish pack animal). Mr. Illion, however, had a special time for being alone, which he made his own rule. It was always at Christmas that he, more than ever, was lost to the world. Even in later years, while he stayed as a modest tenant in small private rooms here or there, he took up residence in an inn before the 24th. All those years he had already set up his writing and study room in half a dozen villages between the Tauern and Salzkammergut, living in inns as a harmlessly strange nomad. So at Christmas he was still living without an accessible address. No one could keep him company; he took no sign from anyone; no mail came to him. The hermit's inner silence was indivisible. It may be that on these days of seclusion - unconsciously, unintentionally - the peace of mind allowed him to breathe as he found it good: in the rhythm of the relaxation of soul and body. ''I only breathe about three times a minute, even in the evening,'' he had noted long decades earlier in that Tibet book.

Burang-Illion, who studied medicine for a while in Japan in his youth, but then pursued the sources of Tibetan healing - his books, writings and lectures bear witness to his spiritual attainment - turned to the ideas of this discipline anew and completely in the last decade of his life. In correspondence with doctors all over the world, he steered the direction towards psychosomatic medicine and introduced younger forces as adepts of Tibetan teachings to the original texts.

Research and guidance had always been his selfless service, especially for young people. Schools in the country and the city saw him as a welcome guest. It was not cold intellect, but head and heart that determined his actions. Acquiring wisdom meant that "the heart changed". He taught: "Do not accumulate knowledge like a miser who stores up gold." The consequence of his medical thinking: "Do not cure the selfish, they would start again with the excesses that made them sick before.”

For his book "The Physician in Tibetan Culture", the fundamental concluding sentence builds the bridge to a "new medicine that is neither specifically Eastern nor Western" when he says: "This should depend not only on the good will, skill and erudition of individuals, but also on whether a humanity entangled in suffering and sin is willing to take the paths to a spiritual and mental reorganization."

Nevertheless, he felt "at one with all the joys and sufferings of the world". And this free from the slightest self-delusion that it was permissible to be happy. His cheerfulness, his fabulous wit (in little plays for young people), his youthful enthusiasm, the radiance of peacefulness and the unprejudiced listening to whoever was speaking to him (except for the language of fanaticism): that counted for him as the just little happiness that one was allowed to have. Just as his walks over mountain and valley allowed him to see "a wonderful sunset", or how one hears "wonderful music" and yet does not want to take it, does not want to own it. "It is the bliss of perfect selflessness, which also expects no reward for selflessness…"

Who was this man whose two names - Burang, Illion - may have been as certain as the names of his birth were uncertain? "A Tibetan," someone said, "who was born elsewhere?" Asian and European languages were at his disposal by the dozen; he was a master of French, in which he liked to write his sketches. These showed the ironic Illion. In them, he treated with relish and preference everything authoritative, all the stupid superhumanity of civil servants, by painting it as naively as rancidly in Tibetan butter; he, who had roamed the "forbidden land" for almost a year - with iodine yellow make-up on his face, scalp and hands - unrecognized as a white man; who lacked all the paper accessories of man even in the middle of the Occident as a pure fool. "Don't you think it's enough to know that I'm a human being?" he once kindly rejected the friendly question about his origins. (It was not an official who had asked it.) Mr. Illion's passport revealed nothing of any particular nationality. In his general lack of need, he had nowhere engaged in the duplication of citizenships.

His death certificate read: Born on May 5, 1898 in Quebec, Canada. Died in Hallein, September 4, 1984. Theodoe Burang-Illion had collapsed on the sidewalk next to a garden fence near the post office in Puch (although it had not been the "responsible" one for years since his death). The stick clattered down, the bag, "his portable possession, including the mail he had received - slid ownerless to the ground. The doctor, who had known him from long conversations in a mountain hut ("His fingers were like feelers, sinewy and sensitive to natural phenomena."), approached him minutes later. The ambulance arrived. The hospital findings confirmed that the patient was clinically dead. Only his heart still had time to beat for five days and five nights. The soul-quiet heart of the hiker. His grave lies in the village of Kuchl, surrounded by mountains. The sculptor Josef Zenzmaier, who lives in the neighboring area and is one of those who knew him better, wants to create the stele for Mr. Illion's resting body in the spring. Mr. Illion himself had had a somewhat intimate relationship with memorials of reverence. Not only did the unassuming man visit the cemetery with grave lights on All Souls' Day, which contained places of his own memory, but he also took great pleasure in recounting a good deed he had accomplished in the Salzberg "communal cemetery". There, he said, a tall spruce tree stands by a grave that (to put it mildly) should not be standing there. It is the grave of a mountaineer who died in an accident. He had planted a small coniferous tree at its head. It has since shot up mightily. Mr. Illion whispers of twenty meters. With a deep sense of justice: "I've managed to cheat the authorities of the cemetery administration." Piety, humor, a strangely naive irony and at the same time a poetic play with metaphors from the image of nature…

Who was he that made it enough for us to recognize him as human? Of Anglo-Saxon-Swedish descent, son of an aristocratic family in French-speaking Canada: he had remarked to someone that he had run away from home at the age of twelve and traveled to Japan. The act of separation was finally accomplished with the gesture of a throw: the noble gift of a silver-tipped walking stick flew out of the boy's hand - he let it splash in a wide arc onto the flowing waters of the St Lawrence River. No more of the things that belonged to a dull, empty, rich life!

Much further back in the unwritten, unspoken history of a lineage, somewhere between a Tibetan smile and a shrug of the shoulders, the British royal name of the Plantagenets emerged. A younger friend spent some time in London digging through libraries and looking up historical portraits. He told me it was "the most incredible likeness" of a Henry V in the National Portrait Gallery. If you read up, this "Henry" comes off as the best of the sex in Shakespeare's Stage of Kings. "His liberal eye doth give to every one..."

 

[Benjamin]

I'm going to provide the original German version as well just in case it makes more sense then the DeepL translation.

Ich sehe ihn gehen. Vielleicht war es dies, als ich anfing, mir von ihm ein Bild zu machen. Vor dreißig, fünfunddreißig Jahren habe ich den Mann zum ersten Mal gehen sehen. Ich weiß nicht, war es Sommer oder Winter, aber ich bin sicher, er ging im Mantel, in der Hand eine bauchige Aktentasche. Am Kopf saß ihm eine Mütze, die er nicht schräg wie eine Baskenmütze aufhatte, er trug sie aufrecht, mit hochgestellter Stirnborte. Man mochte die Kopfbedeckung auf solche Art lächerlich unmodisch finden, sie schuf Distanz; sie war wie ein Barett oder gar ein Herzogshut. Ich erinnere mich auch, daß es immer die gleichen abgetragenen, staubigen Epitheta waren, mit denen er einherging - Mantel, Mütze, Tasche. Zuletzt, seit er, ein wenig schleifend, den Gang verlangsamen mußte, kam der Stock hinzu. Aber ein Mann von über achtzig, da zählt der Stock nicht als Besonderheit, auf die man sieht. Umso mehr war das bei Herrn Illion das Auge; ein Auge wie das eines Jünglings, die Helligkeit der Pupille mit dem lebhaften Spiel ringsum, einem Kinderspiel von Fältchen, die sich über das Alter lustig machten. Hatte er dies nicht lange voraus gewußt?

In einem ersten Buch über Tibet, das Dach der Welt, das er als Sechsunddreißigjähriger kühn und seelenruhig im Alleingang durchwandert hatte, pries er die Einsiedler mit ihren "Jünglingsherzen und der Weisheit eines alten Mannes". Dazu beschrieb er das Gegenbild, denn er hatte es auch dort bei der größten Mehrzahl angetroffen: jene, die ,,sehr schnell das herrlichste - ihre Jugend - verschleudern, und wenn sie einmal älter geworden sind und Erfahrungen gesammelt haben, haben diese keinen Wert mehr, weil in der Zwischenzeit ihre Herzen Stein geworden sind".

Dieser Satz aus dem Buch ,,Rätselhaftes Tibet", 1936 in Hamburg erschienen, mag uns die Einbegleitung sein. Denn ich wage den Versuch, der langen Lebenswanderung eines Weisen, den ich kannte und nicht kannte, von ferne, scheu, mit Schritten wie ein Zaunkönig, zu folgen. Und wer wüßte nicht die wahre Vergeblichkeit des Schritthaltens, sei es auch, wie hier, in der Spur des Humors von dem Vorausgegangenen, die der Tod nicht verweht hat. Ich hoffe nur, ich würde Hern Illion, ohne daß er meiner Not widerspräche, lachen hören. Sein Lachen, das wie der Sprechton im Eifer der Rede die Lage wechseln konnte gleich dem Stimmbruch an der Schwelle des Jüngling salters.

Auch das Raunen erinnere ich, ein Flüstern plötzlich, wenn das Gespräch an Sachen rührte, denen seine Sorge galt oder auf die er Hoffnung setzte. Das laute Wort schien ihm die innere Kraft zu schmälern. Ein begeisternder Gedanke aber war genug: die Stimme kehrte ihm zurück, die Augen fingen an, Silbe für Silbe leuchtend mitzusprechen. Oft nahmen dann die pralle Ziehharmonika seiner Wandertasche in den Griff, um ein Schriftstück ans Licht zu holen. Da war es der mahnende Brief, an einen Staatsmann gerichtet, auch dessen Antwort an ihn ,,...postlagernd Salzburg/Hauptbahnhof". Oder einer der mehrsprachig gedruckten Artikel aus seiner Feder: Biafra betreffend, Nigeria, Pakistan, Indien; einen Teil dieser ganzen heillosen kriegerischen Welt und ihrer Geplagten, denen er, ein einzelner ohne feste Adresse, mit gleichmäßig weitausholenden Schritten, so wie er zu gehen gewohnt war, die Saat der Wahrheit zubrachte.

Während ich dies schreibe, kommen mich Zweifel an. Ich glaube zu wissen, was statistisch an überprüfbaren Erfolgen humanitären Engagements für den Stand der Dinge abfällt. Hat Herr Illion in seiner Tasche nicht in Wirklichkeit Steine gesammelt? Geistige Inhalte, welche er ungebeten, uneigennützig und stetig hingab, ohne den Weg der Versteinerung zu kalkulieren, den sie gingen, ohne den Enderfolg abzuschätzen? Trug er nicht fern und immer ferner von jedem Vorteil, je älter er wurde desto schwerer, mit sich herum, was für ihn alles war und nichts: Omnia mea mecum porto -?

Aber da ist wieder das Wissen des Zaunkönigs, das kleinweis erfaßbare Futter meiner Kenntnisse: Ich schrumpfe in mich zusammen, Schritt um Schritt übersteigt mich der Schatten des Gehenden mit seinem Wandergepäck, mit dem tibetanischen Ein-Mann-Zelt damals und der kalten Nahrung der Körner, dem frierenden Wassertrunk, dem Kokon der nicht zu wechselnden Kleider, aus denen kein Haben, aber das wahre Sein sich entpuppen konnte. Denn da lese ich bei dem noch nicht Vierzigjährigen, der sich ,,T. Illion” nannte:

,,Warum gelingt es nicht den paar hundert Männern, die als wahre Einsiedler oder Heilige leben, Tibet zu ändern? Es gelingt ihnen nicht, weil die Masse der Tibetaner betrogen werden will. Sie ziehen die Leute, die ihnen Pillen oder Zauberschuhe verabreichen, denen vor, die ihnen in uneigennütziger Weise Wahrheit geben … Die wenigen weisen Tibetaner haben nichts zu verkaufen … Weisheit ist überall für diejenigen, die ,Augen haben, um zu sehen, und Ohren, um zu hören’. Weisheit ist wie eine schöne Blume am Wegesrand. Sie ist nicht unsere eigene Weisheit und auch nicht die Weisheit unseres Nachbarn. Wenn wir die Blume pflücken, so gehört sie zwar uns, aber sie ist tot. Man kann seine eigene Gelehrsamkeit besitzen, nicht aber seine eigene Weisheit. Dem Gelehrten sind viele Dinge verschlossen, dem Weisen ist alles klar.”

An anderer Stelle liest man die radikale, von der Wurzel her angesprochene Verneinung des Vorteils unter dem Schild des Intellektualismus, denn es ist die eine, durch nichts tilgbare Sünde wider den Geist: ,,Im wahren Geistigen gibt es keinen, Vorteil’ … Die Einsiedler wissen, daß alle Übel der Welt auf die grenzenlose Ichsucht des einzelnen zurückzuführen sind.” Deshalb wollen diese tibetischen Männer gar nicht allen und jedem ,,direkte Hilfe leisten”; vielmehr wollten sie ,,denjenigen, die sie überhaupt verstehen können, das richtige Leben vorleben, welches weder Disharmonie noch Leiden schafft. Wenn sich andere aber durch ihr Beispiel nicht beeinflussen lassen, gehen sie ruhig ihren Weg.”

Stellt man solcher Aussage das Lebensbild des Sechzig- und des weit über Achtzigjährigen gegenüber, das Jüngeren, wie auch mir, bei Begegnungen mit dem schreibenden, vortragenden, in Gesprächen sich mitteilenden Theodor Burang-Illion aufgegangen ist, so macht es ein Phänomen von kaum je gesehener Dekkungsgleichheit erkennbar, wie es sonst nur im spirituellen Leben vorkommt: Zwischen dem Autor und seinem Gegenstand, genauer, jenen Zielgestalten der wagemutig asketischen Fußreise, welche er die ,,wahren Einsiedler”, die ,,Heiligen” nannte, und ihm selbst, Herrn Illion, hat ein unaufhörlicher Assimilierungsprozeß im Geistigen stattgefunden.

Ich habe mir über diesen bewegenden subjektiven Eindruck Rechenschaft zu geben versucht. Ich fragte Personen aus dem mir nur vereinzelt namhaft gewordenen Kreise derer, die den Urheber solcher Gedanken näher gekannt haben mochten. Dabei aber verengte sich der Kreis erst von neuem. Jeder vermeinte, ein anderer hätte mehr über ihn wissen müssen, die Bekanntschaft des anderer hätte länger gewährt.

So blieb unwiderrufen jene frühe Buchquelle der lebendigste Aufschluß auch zur Biographie. Er erwies die tibetanische Erkundung des jungen Forschers T. Illion als die Erkundung seiner selbst; als den Ort tiefer Einsicht in eine spiegelgleiche Seinslehre. Diese kennt nicht ,,die Trennungslinie zwischen dem Ich und dem Nicht-Ich”’ welche der eigensüchtige Mensch zieht. Für den Wanderer durch Tibet war das Leben der Einsiedler die Bestärkung für das eigene Leben, wie er es jetzt und künftig führen wollte. Seine Aufzeichnungen machen das offenbar;

Nirgends spricht aus ihnen die Überraschung. welche einem Entdecker dabei hätte widerfahren müssen; sie verraten die Genugtuung dessen, der die erwarteten Schätze glücklich auffand, dort, wo er sie suchte. Er hat sie auf seinem langen Weg als ein Geheimnis von ,,ewiger Jugend” mit sich geführt bis ins neunte Lebensjahrzehnt; schweigend, wenn es über unvermeidbare ,,Hängebrücken” ging, auf denen er niemanden neben sich haben wollte, wie schon in Tibet, wo er gelernt hatte, ,,überflüssigen Gesprächen beim Hinübergehen” auszuweichen.

Ich selbst habe das einen unvergeßlichen Moment lang mit ihm erlebt. Er ging neben mir von einem offenen Grabe weg, und sein Schweigen dauerte dann zehn Schritte länger fort, als ich selbst es zu halten verstand. Wie froh war ich, da das Gespräch zwischen uns sich so entwickelte wie immer, als wäre die verweilende Besinnung seines Ich im zeitlosen Nicht-Ich von mir nicht gestört worden. Tage danach las ich in Herrn Illions erstem Tibet-Buch einen Absatz, den er über einen Mann geschrieben hatte, dessen zugleich ,,selbstlose und unpersönliche Güte” ihn tief berührte. Er nennt sie ,,eine Güte der Stärke, nicht der Schwäche” und erzählt, wie ihm geschah:

,,Wir gingen nebeneinander her, und er begann seine Schritte zu beschleunigen. Ich tat dasselbe. Ich kann bis zu neun Kilometern in der Stunde zurücklegen, ohne zu laufen, aber der tibetanische Nalliorpa ging schneller. Plötzlich wurde mir klar, daß er jetzt wünschte alleingelassen zu werden. Ich blieb einen Augenblick stehen und wandte mich ab. Als ich mich wieder umwandte, war er nicht mehr zu sehen.”

Dieses Allein-sein-Wollen: so pünktlich Herr Illion war - es hieß, man konnte die Uhr nach ihm richten bei seiner absoluten Verläßlichkeit - so war wie das Kommen auch der Augenblick des Gehens, wie es schien, vorausbestimmt. (Ein Grund, weshalb er seine Tagereisen im weglosen Tibet durch kein saumseliges Tragtier behindern lassen wollte.) Herr Illion hatte aber eine besondere Zeit des Alleinseins, die er sich auf seine Weise zur Regel machte. Es war immer zu Weihnachten, daß er, mehr noch als sonst, der Welt abhanden kam. Auch in den späteren Jahren, während er sich als bescheidener Mieter dort oder da in kleinen Privatzimmern aufhielt, nahm er vor dem 24ten in einem Wirtshaus Quartier. All die Jahre schon hatte er in einem halben Dutzend Dörfern zwischen Tauern und Salzkammergut, als ein harmlos fremdartiger Nomade in Gasthäusern wohnend, Schreib- und Studierstube dort aufgeschlagen. Zu Weihnachten also lebte er auch jetzt ohne erreichbare Adresse. Niemand konnte ihm zur Gesellschaft dienen; von niemandem nahm er ein Zeichen; keine Post kam zu ihm. Die innere Stille des Einsiedlers war unteilbar. Mag sein, daß ihm an diesen Tagen der Abgeschlossenheit - unbewußt, ungewollt - die Geistesruhe so zu atmen erlaubte, wie er es gut fand: im Rhythmus der Entspanntheit von Seele und Körper. ‘’Ich atme auch im Abendland nur etwa dreimal in der Minute”, hatte er lange Jahrzehnte vorher in jenem Tibet-Buch notiert.

Burang-Illion, der in seiner Jugend in Japan eine Weile Medizin studierte, dann aber den Quellen tibetanischer Heilkunst nachging - seine Bücher, Schriften und Vorträge zeugen vom geistigen Erträgnis -, hat sich im letzten Lebensjahrzehnt von neuem und ganz den Gedanken dieser Disziplin zugewandt. Im Briefwechsel mit Ärzten in aller Welt lenkte er die Orientierung auf eine psychosomatische Medizin hin und führte jüngere Kräfte als Adepten tibetischer Lehren in die originalen Texte ein.

Forschung und Wegweisung waren seit jeher seine selbstlosen Dienste, zumal für junge Menschen, gewesen. Schulen in Land und Stadt sahen ihn als ihren willkommenen Gast. Nicht kalter Intellekt, sondern Kopf und Herz bestimmten sein Tun. Weisheit erlangen bedeutete, daß ,,das Herz sich änderte”. Er lehrte: ,,Nicht Kenntnisse anhäufen wei ein Geizhals, der Gold aufspeichert.” Die Konsequenz seines medizinischen Denkens: ,,Nicht Ichsüchtige heilen, sie würden wieder mit den Ausschweifungen anfangen, die sie vorher krank gemacht haben.”

Für sein Buch ,,Der Arzt in der tibetanischen Kultur” bildet der fundamentale Schlußsatz den Brückenschlag zu einer ,,neuen Heilkunde, die weder spezifisch östlich noch westlich ist”, wenn er sagt: ,,Dies dürfte nicht nur vom guten Willen, der Geschicklichkeit und der Gelehrsamkeit einzelner abhängen, sondern auch davon, ob eine in Leid und Sünden verstrickte Menschheit die Wege zu einer geistig-seelischen Neuordnung einzuschlagen gewillt ist.”

Dennoch fühlte er sich ,,eins mit allen Freuden und Leiden der Welt”. Und dies frei von der leisesten Selbsttäuschung, daß es erlaubt sei, dabei glücklich zu sein. Sein Frohsinn, sein fabulierender Witz (in kleinen Theaterstücken für junge Leute), seine jugendlich Begeisterungsfähigkeit, die Ausstrahlung von Friedsamkeit und das vorurteilslose Hören, wer immer da zu ihm sprach (ausgenommen die Sprache des Fanatismus): das zählte ihm wohl als das gerechte kleine Glück, das man haben durfte. So wie ihm seine Fußmärsche ¨ber Berg und Tal ,,einen wunderbaren Sonnenuntergang” ansehen ließen, oder wie man “eine herrliche Musik” vernimmt, und will sie doch nicht nehmen, nicht besitzen. ,,Es ist die Glückseligkeit vollkommener Selbstlosigkeit, die auch keine Belohnung für Selbstlosigkeit erwartet…”

Wer war dieser Mensch, dessen beide Namen - Burang,, Illion - so gewiß wie ungewiß die Namen seiner Geburt gewesen sein mögen? ,,Ein Tibeter”, meinte jemand, ,,der anderswo auf die Welt gekommen ist?” Asiatische und europäische Sprachen standen ihm im Dutzend zu Gebot; er war ein Meister des Französischen, in dem er seine Sketches zu schreiben beliebte. Diese zeigten den Ironiker Illion. Genüßlich und vorzugsweise behandelte er darin alles Autoritative, alles dümmliche Übermenschentum von Staatsdienern, indem er es gleichsam in tibetanischer Butter so naiv wie ranzig herausstrich; er, der das ,,verbotene Land” damals fast ein Jahr lang - mit jodgelber Schminke auf Gesicht, Kopfhaut und Händen - unerkannt als Weißer durchstreift hatte; der alles Papierzubehör des Menschen auch mitten im Abendland als reiner Tor an sich vermissen ließ. “Meinen Sie nicht, es genügt zu wissen, daß ich ein Mensch bin?” hat er die freundliche Frage nach seiner Herkunft einmal freundlich zurückgewiesen. (Es war nicht ein Beamter, der sie gestallt hatte.) Herrn Illions Paß enthüllte nichts von einem speziellen Nationale. In seiner allgemeinen Bedürfnislosigkeit hatte er sich auf das Doppelwesen von Staatsbürgerschaften nirgendwo eingelassen.

Auf seinem Totenschein stand: Geboren am 5. Mai 1898 in Quebec, Canada. Gestorben in Hallein, am 4. September 1984. Theodoe Burang-Illion war nahe dem Postamt von Puch (obzwar dieses seit seinem Verzug schon Jahre nicht mehr das ,,zuständige” war) auf dem Gehsteig neben einem Gartenzaun zusammengesunken. Der Stock kollerte hin, die Tasche, ,,sein tragbares Besitztum, samt der empfangenen Post - glitt herrenlos zu Boden. Der Arzt, der ihn von einer Berghütte aus langen Gesprächen gekannt hatte (,,Seine Finger waren wie Fühler, sehnig und sensibel für Naturphänomene.”), trat Minuten danach zu ihm. Der Krankenwagen kam. Der Spitalsbefund bestätigte, daß der Eingelieferte klinisch tot war. Nur das Herz nahm sich noch Zeit, fünf Tage und fünf Nächte zu schlagen. Das seelenruhige Herz des Wanderers. Sein Grab liegt in dem von Bergen umgebenen Dorf Kuchl. Der in benachbarter Gegend lebende Bildhauer Josef Zenzmaier, einer aus dem Kreise derer, die ihn näher kannten, will im Frühjahr die Stele für das Ruhende von Herrn Illion schaffen. Dieser selbst hatte zu Denkmalen der Pietät ein gewissermaßen vertrauliches Verhältnis gehabt. Nicht nur, daß der Unseßhafte am Allerseelenfest der kirchlichen Gemeinden jenen Friedhof mit Grablichten aufsuchte, der Stätten seiner eigenen Erinnerung barg; mit allem Vergnügen erzählte er eine Guttat, die ihm im Salzberger ,,Kommunalfriedhof” geglückt sei. Dort stehe an einem Grab eine hohe Fichte, die eigentlich (leise gesagt) nicht dirt stehen dürfte. Es ist das Grab eines verunglückten Bergsteigers. Ihm hatte er damals das Pflänzchen eines Nadelbaumes zu Häupten gesetzt. Es ist seither mächtig emporgeschossen. Herr Illion flüstert von zwanzig Metern. Dazu das innige Gefühl von Gerechtigkeit: ,,Ich habe da den Autoritäten der Friedhofsverwaltung ein schönes Schnippchen geschlagen.” Pietät, Humor, eine seltsam naive Ironie und zugleich das poetische Spiel mit Metaphern aus dem Bild der Nature…

Wer war er, der es uns genug sein ließ, ihn als Menschen zu erkennen? Von angelsächsich-schwedischer Abstammung, Sohn einer Aristokratenfamilie im französisch-sprachigen Canada: Zu jemandem hatte er bemerkt, er wäre mit zwölf Jahren von Zuhause fortgelaufen und nach Japan gereist. Den Akt der Trennung vollführte endgültig die Geste eines Wurfs: das nobel Geschenk eines silberbeschlagenen Spazierstocks flog dem Knaben aus der Hand - er ließ es in weitem Bogen auf das dahinströmende Wasser des St Lawrence River klatschen. Nichts mehr von den Dingen, die einem flauen, leeren, reichen Leben zugehörten!

Viel weiter zurück in der ungeschriebenen, unausgesprochenen Geschichte einer Abkunft tauchte irgendeinmal, hingesagt zwischen einem tibetanischen Lächeln und einem Achselzucken, der britannische Königsname der Plantagenets auf. Ein jüngerer Freund grub in London eine Weile in Bibliotheken und schaute bei historischen Bildnissen nach. Er ließ mich wissen, es sei ,,die unglaublichste Ähnlichkeit” bei einem Henry V in der National Portrait Gallery. Wenn man nachliest: dieser ,,Heinrich” schneidet bei Shakespeare auf der Bühne der Könige als der beste des Geschlechtes ab. ,,His liberal eye doth give to every one…”

 

[Benjamin]

After reading through all the hits for 'Theodor Illion' and 'Theodor Burang' (because each search gave different entries) from the Salzburger Nachrichten archive, I decided to create a timeline. It would be too long to provide every entry so this is more condensed with the addition of his book releases.

1936

• Rätselhaftes Tibet: in Verkleidung unter Lamas, Räubern und wahrhaft Weisen is published by Uranus Verlag in Hamburg 24. (Theodore Illion)

1937

• In Secret Tibet: In Disguise Amongst Lamas, Robbers, and Wisemen. A Key to the Mysteries of Tibet, translated into English and published by Rider & Co. (Britain) (Theodore Illion)
• Darkness over Tibet is also published by Rider & Co. (Theodore Illion)

1944 - Here is the singular reference to Theodor Nolling. It was a lot earlier then I thought it was.

• Jul. 1 - Grundlagen und Heilverfahren der tibetischen Medizin, Theodor Nolling, Berlin

Nov. 3, 1945 - (this is the first time he shows up in the SN)

Spoiler: Original German

USA=Schriftsteller in Salzburg
In Salzburg hält sich gegenwärtig der bekannte kanadische Schriftsteller Theodor Eke Illion auf. Er konnte mit seinen Büchern ,,Dunkelheit über Tibet" und ,,Geheimnis Tibet" in Amerika, England, Frankreich und verschiedenen anderen Ländern durchschlagenden Erfolg erringen. Er ist nun im Übersetzungsbüro am Alten Markt tätig. Mit ihm arbeitet dort der ebenfalls gut bekannte Schriftsteller Frederic L. Dunbar. ,,Dreitausend Jahre Römische Geschichte" und ,,Buch der Tatsachen für jedermann" sind seine Werke, die ihn in der Welt bekannt machten. Derzeit übersetzen beide Schriftsteller in diesem Büro Arbeiten juristischen, wirtschaftlichen, kaufmännischen, technischen und medizinischen Inhaltes. Sie bürgen mit ihrem Ruf für die Qualität der Übersetzungen, die das Dolmetscherbüro am Alten Markt entgegennimmt.

USA=Writer in Salzburg
The well-known Canadian writer Theodor Eke Illion is currently staying in Salzburg. His books "Darkness over Tibet" and "Secret Tibet" have been a resounding success in America, England, France and various other countries. He now works in the translation office at Alter Markt. Frederic L. Dunbar, another well-known writer, works with him there. His works "Three Thousand Years of Roman History" and "A Book of Facts for Everyone" made him famous throughout the world. Both writers currently translate legal, economic, commercial, technical and medical works in this office. They vouch with their reputation for the quality of the translations that the interpreting office at the Alter Markt accepts.

Dec. 24, 1945

Spoiler: Original German

Unterricht
English-Kurse für jung und alt, für Anfänger u. Fortgeschrittene, geleitet von erfahrenen Sprachpädagogen, werden ab Jänner 46 vom öffentlichen Dolmetscher- u. Übersetzungsbüto, Salzburg, Alter Markt 11, Tel. 1825, abgehalten. Den Unterricht f. Fortgeschrittene leitet der kanadische Schriftsteller Herr Theodore Eke Illion.

Lessons
English courses for young and old, for beginners and advanced learners, led by experienced language teachers, will be held from January 46 by the public interpreting and translation office, Salzburg, Alter Markt 11, Tel. 1825. The Canadian writer Mr. Theodore Eke Illion will lead the lessons for advanced learners.

The above ad for English courses continues in the Dec. 27, 29 & 31 of 1945 and Jan. 4 & 7, 1946 papers.

As a side, here is a little info on the surname 'Eke':

This unusual name is of Old Scandinavian origin, dating from before the 10th Century, when much of Eastern and North-Eastern England was settled by Norse, Swedish and Danish invaders. The surname is locational, deriving from the place called "Eyke", in Suffolk. The placename is recorded as "Eyk" in the 1270 County Records of Suffolk, and as "Eyck" in the Suffolk Ecclesiastical Records of 1291. The name means "(place of) the oak trees", derived from the Old Norse "eik", oak tree.

It was mentioned in the tribute that Theodore was of Anglo-Saxon-Swedish ancestry, which may be coming from 'Eke'. Again, though, I couldn't find anything in Ancestry that was definitive for 'Theodore Eke/Ecke/Eyke". But the name may also be an alias.

1947

• Tibeter über das Abendland: Stimmen aus dem geheimnisvollen Tibet (Tibetans on the Occident: Voices from Mysterious Tibet) is published by Igonta Verlag (publisher) in Salzburg, Austria. (Theodore Illion)

1948/49

• Beherrschung seelischer Kräfte durch den Tibetanischen Menschen (Mastery of Spiritual Forces by the Tibetan Man) was printed at Schweizer Rundschau (Solothurn). Schweizer Rundschau was a union printing and publishing house and a Swiss Catholic cultural and political journal located in Stans and, later, Einsiedeln, Switzerland. (Theodore Illion- this is the last time he uses 'Illion' as a book author)

Now, the next time I see him in this paper is Sept. 18, 1951. He has dropped 'Eke' and 'Illion' and for the first time uses Theodore Burang. I don't know if he lectured in other towns/cities/countries prior, but in the SN this date begins his lecturing in the Salzburg area.

1951 - (Theodore Burang)

• Sep. 18 - "Central Asia Today.”
• Nov. 14 - "Tibet - the driving force of Asia", Part 1 of "Asia - a danger?”
• Nov. 19 - "Secret Central Asia”, Part 2 of "Asia - a danger?”
• Dec. 10 - "Shakespeare in Tibet". Screening of the Hamlet version performed in Tibet with shadow puppets.

1952

• Jan. 17 - “Central Asia - today"
• Jun. 11 - "Strange Tibet”

1954

• Jan. 26 - "The Yellow Peril" - Is Asia becoming the world's center of gravity?
• Mar. 31 - “Tibet - past and present" (in English).
• Nov. 11 - "Is Asia becoming the center of the world?”
• Dec. 14 - "Tibet of yesterday and today”

1955 - His name starts to change to Theodore Illion Burang.

• Oct. 10 - "Is Asia pushing us up against the wall?" (photographs)
• Nov. 10 - "Doctor and magic medicine in Asia" (,,Arzt und Zaubermedizin in Asien")
• Nov. 18 - "Today's theatre in China, India and Tibet" (with photographs) [contemporary theatre life in China, India and Tibet]

1956 - His name is solidified as Theodor Illion-Burang. The 'e' has also been dropped from his first name from here on.

• May 7 - "Restricted zones and secret services" (report on his experiences and adventures with important members of the secret services during his research trips)
• May 14 - “Tibetan Medical Philosophy"
• Oct. 8 - "Doctor and magic medicine in Asia”

1957

• Tibetische Heilkunde (Tibetan Medicine) was published by Origo-Verlag in Zürich, Switzerland. (Theodore Burang)

• Jan. 24 - "Doctor and magic medicine in Asia"
• Jan. 26 - "Tibet - Entry from the Middle Ages into the Atomic Age”
• Jun. 11 - "Today's theatre life in Asia". Admission free, guests welcome.
• Jun. 15 - Asian stagecraft [A review of "Today's theatre life in Asia"] "In his lecture at the J.-A.-Lux-Society, the outstanding Tibet expert Theodor Burang was able to shed some interesting light on today's theatrical art - the venerable tradition of the mystical and convincing performance art of the actor from the simplest people in Tibet, India or China, highly appreciated with a connoisseur's eye. Although there is a lack of stable theaters and the absence of any stage scenery, even the element of suspense in the plot (which is almost always known beforehand), there is no danger of disillusionment. Men still play women's roles and 60-year-old Mel Lan Fang delights Asia in the dazzling mask of a young girl. The expressive movement of the hands reveals everyone can attend the performances without hesitation, as eroticism as the content of a play is alien to the East. An open-minded audience applauded the well-known publicist's presentation and the subsequent discussion. J.B."

1958

• Oct. 6 - "Restricted zones and secret services”
• Oct. 16 - "Doctor and magic medicine in Asia" (with question and answer session!)
• Oct. 24 - "Doctor and magic medicine in Asia"

1959

• May 14 - "Fire torch Tibet - Red China on the decline?" [A popular lecture that saw 800 people attend when it was given in Innsbruck earlier.]
• May 16 - [A review of the May 14 lecture.] "In a lecture organized by the Catholic Education Centre Salzburg, Theodor Burang-Illion spoke on Thursday evening about "Fire torch Tibet - Red China on the decline?". The lecturer, who is familiar with Tibet through his travels, explained the background to the Tibetan resistance to the Chinese invasion, emphasizing in particular the Tibetans' love of freedom and their desire not to become slaves to the machine. The speculation of the Tibetan ruling class that communism would outlive itself and leave behind a spiritual vacuum into which their spiritual power could work, had initially proved to be mistaken. In any case, China's development in the coming years must be watched carefully, as the development in Tibet has helped to trigger the power of communist China."

1960

• Mar. 4 - "Do flying saucers threaten us?"

Mar. 7 - [Review of the Mar. 4 lecture.] "Flying saucers - yes or no?" "The so-called "Unidentified Flying Objects" have become quieter in recent times. This was also evident at a lecture organized by the Salzburg UFO study group on Friday evening on the subject of "Do flying saucers threaten us?". Two years ago this question would have attracted an almost uncontrollable stream of curious people, this time the rows in the large hall of the Chamber of Labor were half full, although the speaker Theodor Illion-Burang, a widely traveled publicist, tried to deal with the sensitive subject matter with the greatest possible objectivity. Of course, he could only limit himself to describing the possibilities; a final clarification of the alleged supernatural phenomena had to remain open.

Nevertheless, Burang said that the sightings had by no means stopped today, even if there was less talk of them. Around 100,000 sightings have been reported around the world so far. If all cases in which there is only one or only a few witnesses are disregarded, there are still around 4000 serious sightings of UFOs.

However, the confusion is increased by the fact that, in addition to allegedly "real" saucers, there are also imitations produced on earth. According to the speaker, the threat from such products is much greater than from the real saucers, of whose hostile attitude there is as yet no evidence. Since a cloak of silence was being spread around the whole complex, certain rulers had the possibility of "planetarily doctoring" their own products and thus psychologically paralyzing the West, and the fact that work was being done on weightless propulsion methods that were not being promoted and were being transferred to the Eastern sphere of power was food for thought."

• Mar. 30 - "Doctor and magic medicine in Tibet"
• May 25 - "Do flying saucers threaten us?"
• Jun. 22 - Saucers - hoax or reality? By popular demand, the well-known publicist Theodor Burang-Illion will be giving a new lecture and answering questions on the latest status of the much-disputed question of the "flying saucers" at the Salzburg Economic Development Institute, Weiserstraße 1, tomorrow, Thursday, 7.30 pm, with parallels to the question of the mysterious snow man and the "secret of Tibet”.
• Jun. 23 - "...lecture by Theodor Illion-Burang on the problem of flying saucers."
• Oct. 1 - "Suicide of China?"
• Oct. 3 - "The Mystery of Tibet"
• Nov. 4 - "Catholics on the question of unidentified flying objects"
• Dec. 14 - "Saucers - a modern mass madness?"

1961

• Feb 10 - "Flying saucers - a modern mass madness" (photographs)
• Apr. 6 - "How do you stay young? - The fight against old age through Tibetan medicine.”
• Apr. 7 - "Flying saucers - a modern mass delusion?" (Photographs, question and answer session)
• Apr. 10 - "Fighting old age with Tibetan medicine - how do you stay young?”
• Oct. 16 - "How do you stay young? - Combating old age with Tibetan medicine"

1962

• Feb. 1 - "Progress of mankind into nothingness?" (Is technology driving people out of their minds?) Admission free.
• Oct. 10 - "How do you stay young? - Combating old age with Tibetan medicine"
• Nov. 24 - "The fire of war in the Himalayas - a world threat?"
• Nov. 27 - "The fire of war in the Himalayas - a world threat?”. Guests welcome.

1963

• Jun. 11 - "Doctor and magic medicine in Tibet", followed by a discussion.

Jun. 12 - [Review of Jun. 11 lecture.] "Doctor and magic medicine in Tibet" "The publicist Theodor Burang-Illion, known for his books on Tibetan medicine, which have also been recognized by the specialist press, spoke on Tuesday in the St. Elisabeth parish hall in Salzburg about "Physician and Magic Medicine in Tibet". This medical science looks back on ancient experiences and combines spiritual principles that seem strange to us with an often masterful observation of nature. In recent years, world interest in these previously little-noticed areas has grown, as has recognition of their practical importance. The lecturer outlined, among other things, the views of traditional Asian healing arts on cancer and the healing of mental illnesses. Western medicine, too, can only gain if it critically considers the serious part of traditional Asian healing arts that remains after deducting a great deal of dizziness and hallucinations."

• Aug. 9 - "The scourge of cancer and other serious diseases from an Asian perspective." (with question and answer session)

Oct. 10 - [Review] "Asian medicine and cancer" "As part of the Salzburg section of the League for the United Nations, the publicist Theodor Burang-Illion, who is well known for his acclaimed books on Asian medicine, gave a much-noticed lecture in Salzburg on the attitude of this medicine to cancer and other serious illnesses. It is not a distinct "disease of civilization". Its much greater incidence in Western countries is in any case a consequence of the presence of many additional cancer-causing factors. On the basis of a wealth of factual material, the author has shown by means of factual material that, strangely enough, the views and healing methods of these healing arts, which have recently come more and more to the attention of the world public, are in many respects close to the views of the great physician Paracelsus."

• Oct. 11 - "Sex cult in Asia"

Oct. 14 - [Review] "Sexual cult in Asia" "Theodor Burang-Illion, a well-known publicist and author of books on Asian medicine, gave a critical, well-documented lecture on this interesting topic on Friday in Salzburg. He drew not only on original Asian texts and his own observations, but also on serious research findings by the Englishman Sir John Woodroffe, known under the pseudonym Arthur Avalon, who dedicated thirty years of his life to objectively researching this foreign world on the spot and bringing it closer to Western understanding."

1964

• May 20 - "China on the march to world domination" (with a Q&A session.)
• Nov. 5 - "China on the march to world domination"

1965

• Jan. 15 - "Will China push us to the wall?”

1970

• Jan. 12 - "Confronting Biafra - Nigeria" with films from both countries.
• Jan. 14 - SALZBURG: The League for the United Nations is organizing a lecture evening on Biafra in the Marble Hall of Mirabell Palace in Salzburg. Speeches were given by the Biafran priest Thaddäus Chukwukere, the publicist Theodor Burang-Illion and the parish priest Franz Wesenauer. Two films from Nigeria and Biafra were also shown.
• Jun. 4 - "Wars and billions in Africa" (film screening).

1971

• May 12 - "Cancer and leukemia in the mirror of Tibetan, ancient Chinese and ancient Indian medicine and their healing possibilities", followed by a discussion.
• May 13 - "Cancer and leukemia in the mirror of Tibetan, ancient Chinese and ancient Indian medicine and their healing possibilities", followed by a discussion.
• Jun. 25 - "Cancer and leukemia in the mirror of Tibetan, ancient Chinese and ancient Indian medicine and their healing possibilities"

Nov. 23 - [A letter responding to a previous article.] "India - Pakistan" - Regarding your report "India offers Pakistan negotiations", I would like to point out that the Pakistani head of state announced some time ago that he was prepared to negotiate with India without preconditions. Most of the mass media have been silent on this issue. As your article also shows, India is now "ready to negotiate", but with preconditions that Pakistan has repeatedly rejected as "interference in the internal affairs of another country". In the opinion of reliable and impartial experts on Asia, completely objective reporting on events on the Indian subcontinent would be in the best interests of Europe. Theodor Burang-Illion Box 285

1972

• May 10 - "Fundamentals and healing successes of Tibetan, ancient Indian, ancient Chinese and Tibetan medicine”
• Jun. 14 - "Narcotics - little known and concealed”

After this point, Illion all but stops lecturing and goes on a 'book commentary' spree. In 1974, he also writes two articles of his own that I know of.


1974

• The Tibetan art of healing, translated into English from the 1957 book Tibetische Heilkunde, and published by Watkins in London. (Theodore Burang)

• Jan. 12 - [article] "Witnesses to white African prehistory - Wide-ranging results of international cooperation at the Institutum Canarium in Hallein"
• Feb. 9 -"Thought transmission 30 years ago" (Upton Sinclair: ,,Radar der Psyche” (Originaltitel ,,Mental Radio”))
• Feb. 16 - "Lost in the thinking of advantage" - "The Crisis of Science" by Jerome R. Rawetz - An investigation into the aberrations of research
• Feb. 23 - "An Asia book by Max Reisch" (Max Reisch: ,,Karawanenstraßen Asiens.” ["Caravan routes of Asia"])
• Mar. 9 - "Alchemy - a world of great depth of thought" (Hans Biedermann: "Materia Prima". ["Dictionary of Symbols"] A collection of pictures on the history of ideas in alchemy.)
• Mar. 23 - "The strange life of Empress Tzu-hsi" (Marina Warner: ,,Die Kaiserin auf dem Drachenthron. Leben und Welt der chinesischen Kaiserinwitwe Tzu-hsi” ["The empress on the dragon throne. The life and world of the Chinese empress dowager Tzu-hsi"])
• Mar. 30 - "Great courage and the courage to leave gaps - The most important Napoleon biography of recent decades - Bei Claassen, Hamburg" (Vincent Cronin: ,,Napoleon”)
• Apr. 20 - "Konnersreuth considered as a test case" (Josef Hanauer: ,,Konnersreuth als Testfall - Kritischer Bericht über das Leben der Therese Neumann” ["Konnersreuth as a test case - Critical report on the life of Therese Neumann"])
• May 4 - "The greatest adventure: the human being" (A. E. Johann: ,,Menschen auf meinen Wegen - Aus einem Leben auf Reisen” ["People on my paths - From a life on the road"])
• May 11 - [article] "About wizards, witches and warlocks"
• Jun. 1 - "Is there life after death?" (Nils-Olof Jacobson: ,,Leben nach dem Tode? - Über Parapsychologie und Mystik” [""Life after death? - On parapsychology and mysticism""])
• Jun. 29 - "Two drafts about Alexander the Great" (Robin Lane Fox: ,,Alexander der Große - eine Biographie ["Alexander the Great - a biography"])
• Jul. 20 - "Remedies and therapies of the people" (Georg Friedrich Most: ,,Enzyklopädie der Gesamten Volksmedizine oder Lexicon der vorzüglichsten und wirksamsten Haus- und Volksarzneimittel aller Länder” ["Encyclopedia of all folk medicines or lexicon of the most excellent and effective household and folk medicines of all countries"])
• Aug. 10 - "The role of secret societies" (Karl R. H. Frick: ,,Die Erleuchteten - Ein Beitrag zur Geistesgeschichte der Neuzeit” ["The Enlightened Ones - A Contribution to the Intellectual History of Modern Times"])
• Aug. 24 - "Idolization of brain activity" (H. J. Cambell: ,,Der Irrtum mit der Seele” ["The mistake with the soul"])
• Oct. 12 - "Paranormal powers as a healing factor" (Alfred Stelter: ,,Psi-Heilungen” ["Psi healings"])
• Nov. 2 - "An ancient forgotten image of man" (Friedrich Weinreb: ,,Leben im Diesseits und Jenseits - Ein uraltes vergessenes Menschenbild” ["Life in this world and beyond - An ancient forgotten image of man"] and Friedrich Weinreb: ,,Die Symbolik der Bibelsprache” ["The symbolism of biblical language"])
• Nov. 30 - "Paracelsus has not yet discovered the end" (Heinrich Schipperges: ,,Paracelsus” ["Paracelsus"])
• Dec. 6 - "The career of a glamorous usurper" (Suzanne Ratie: ,,Hatschepsut. Die Frau auf dem Thron der Pharaonen” ["Hatshepsut. The woman on the throne of the pharaohs"])
• Dec. 6 - "Treasures rescued from Tibet" (Marten Brauen: ,,Heinrich Harrers Achätze” ["Heinrich Harrer's Achätze"])

1975

• Der Arzt in der tibetischen Kultur, is published by Origo Verlag, Zürich. (Theodor Burang)
• Die Kunst des Heilens im Fernen Osten. Heilverfahren und Heilmittel is published by Origo-Verlag, Zürich. (Theodor Burang)

• Jan. 4 - "About the "miracle cures" of acupuncture - "China's healing needles" by Marc Duke - Documentation published by Scherz-Verlag, Bern - Munich" (Marc Due: ,,Akupunktur. Chinas heilende Nadeln” ["Acupuncture. China's healing needles"])
• Feb. 8 - "Does religion triumph over materialism? - Thoughts on the Christian-Jewish dialog based on a book by Frirdrich Weinreb - Origo Verlag" (Friedrich Weireb: ,,Begegnungen mit Engeln und Menschen - Mysterium des Tuns” ["Encounters with angels and people - the mystery of action"])
• Mar. 8 - "Brotherly unity affects the spirit" (Heinrich Lachmann / G. A. Schiffmann: ,,Hochgrade der Freimaurerei” ["High Degrees of Freemasonry"])
• Apr. 5 - "Is there a reincarnation?" (Morey Bernstein: ,,Protokoll einer Wiedergeburt” ["Protocol of a rebirth"])
• Apr. 12 -"The daughter of a peasant on the tsar's throne" (Tamara Talbot Rice: ,,Elisabeth, Kaisern von Rußland” ["Elizabeth, Empress of Russia"])

This is a rather humorous complaint by Illion to the post office. It also reveals that he has/had at least two mail boxes. The other was mentioned in Nov. 23, 1971 (Box 285 located, I think, "in a small town"). It also mentions contact with someone in Tyrol.

Apr. 19 - "Simplified postal services"

In Italy, it has been claimed that post offices there sometimes simplify their service to customers by using the posted mail to heat the offices. How is it elsewhere?

I live in a small town in the province of Salzburg, where the post office works perfectly, but I have also had a P.O. Box in the Salzburg railroad station post office (P.O. Box 59, Salzburg 2) for a long time. A letter addressed to me on March 9, 1975 in Tyrol with the correct address clearly written to this P.O. Box was returned to the sender with the initialed note "unknown". In such cases, the addressee is classified by most senders as an imbecile who cannot even remember his own address, quite apart from the possible serious damage caused by non-delivery. Fortunately, however, the sender sent me this proof of serious postal malpractice by other means.

Whether I and others have been harmed by similar procedures has not yet been proven, but it is possible. It is understandable that such brilliant performances are not conducive to the reputation of public services and that those who can afford it are forced by them to carry out their message transmissions increasingly by more reliable means.

Theodor Burang-Illion
Salzburg 2, P.O. Box 59

The post office's response. It shouldn't surprise me, but that is a lot of mail.

May 17 - "One exception"

In his letter to the editor (Salzburger Nachrichten of April 19, 1975), Mr. Theodor Burang-Illion draws conclusions about the quality of the postal service as a whole from a misdirected letter. We would like to point out that around 1.7 billion items of mail were sent last year, or about 7 million items per working day. Unfortunately, individual errors - which we very much regret - cannot be completely ruled out in this mass transportation.

Jul. 19 - "What is the point of getting sick?" (Friedrich Weinreb: ,,Vom Sinn des Erkrankens” ["On the meaning of illness"])
Aug. 16 - "Imagining the state after death" (Edmund Spieß: ,,Entwicklungsgeschichte der Vorstellungen vom Zustande nach dem Tode” ["History of the development of ideas about the state after death"])
Aug. 30 - "The religion of the Etruscans" (Ambrose Josef Pfiffig: ,,Religio Etrusca” (deutsch) ["Religio Etrusca" (German)])

A book review of Illion's (Burang's) Die Kunst des Heilens in Fernen Osten.

Nov. 22 - "Healing in the Far East"

Based on his experiences with Eastern healers and many original works of Far Eastern medicine that are not yet or insufficiently known, Theodor Burang vividly describes ancient Islamic medicine in the book "The Art of Healing in the Far East" with comparisons of its healing possibilities. The book offers a knowledgeable presentation of the spiritual and material foundations of these healing systems and many of their healing methods, which are often based on centuries of experience. The well-known author, whose earlier book "Tibetan Medicine" was also published in England, offers points of reference for genuine scientific cooperation between Western doctors and reputable healers of Far Eastern medicine. (SN)

• Dec. 6 - "To talk about sunken worlds" (Hans Biedermann: "Die versunkenen Länder - die Atlantis-Frage und andere Rätsel der Menschheitsgeschichte" ["The sunken lands - the Atlantis question and other mysteries of human history"])

1976

• Tibetan Medicine on Cancer, Theodore Burang, pp. 52–61, An Introduction to Tibetan Medicine, Dawa Norbu, Tibetan Review Publishing House, Delhi, 1976
• L'arte di guarire nella Medicina Tibetana, Theodore Burang, Astrolabio Ubaldini Edizioni, Roma, 1976 (translated into Italian by Serena Cavallo)

• Apr. 10 - "The ancient secret knowledge of the Kabbalah" (Papus: ,,Die Kabbala” ["The Kabbalah"])

1977 - Illion's last lecture in this paper that I know of.

• Jan. 28 - Adult education center. 18.30, Dompfarrsaal, Kapitalplatz 7, Alpenländisch Dichtung, Theodor Illion-Burang, Tibet researcher, reads from his own works. - 20.00, Gasthof Sternbräu: Customs evening.

1979

• Cancer Therapy of Tibetan Healers, Theodor Burang; American Journal of Chinese Medicine (Garden City, N.Y.), 7 (1979), pp. 294–296

1984

• Sep. 4 - Theodore Illion dies.

Dec. 24, 1984 is the date of the full page tribute that I posted above. But there was an earlier and much shorter tribute in the paper one week after the obituary. You learn almost nothing new from it save a few personal characteristics.

Sep. 18 - In memoriam to a silent Tibet researcher!

Your newspaper carried the obituary of Prof. Theodor Burang-Illion, who was laid to rest on September 4, 1984 at the cemetery in Kuchl at the age of 86.

Prof. Burang dedicated his life primarily to researching Tibetan life and in particular to exploring Tibetan healing methods. His books were published in various European countries and are probably out of print today. The SN also wrote about his work years ago and drew their readers' attention to Theodor Burang. Prof. Burang was not a wealthy man. He lived in silence and modesty on a small pension. In the last years of his life, he was physically very frail, but his intellectual potency seemed unbroken. In his book "Tibetans on the Occident", he drew attention to the great task he had set himself and accomplished.

He spent twenty years intensively studying the Tibetan language and the Tibetan way of thinking. After many years of study, he went to the "roof of the world" to get in touch with the Tibetans. He spoke to them in their own language and listened to their own opinions. Since he traveled in Tibetan clothes and also "adapted" his face color to the Tibetan color by dyeing etc., the vast majority of Tibetans, who had hardly ever met Westerners, mistook him for a Tibetan from a remote part of the forbidden land, and only a minority knew that he was a Westerner.

Hans Ezinger,
5020 Salzburg, Grubergasse 2

I have not found any other reference to Illion being a member of The Club of Rome.

(phew!)

 

[heinrich]

After reading through all the hits for 'Theodor Illion' and 'Theodor Burang' (because each search gave different entries) from the Salzburger Nachrichten archive, I decided to create a timeline. It would be too long to provide every entry so this is more condensed with the addition of his book releases.

1936

• Rätselhaftes Tibet: in Verkleidung unter Lamas, Räubern und wahrhaft Weisen is published by Uranus Verlag in Hamburg 24. (Theodore Illion)

1937

• In Secret Tibet: In Disguise Amongst Lamas, Robbers, and Wisemen. A Key to the Mysteries of Tibet, translated into English and published by Rider & Co. (Britain) (Theodore Illion)
• Darkness over Tibet is also published by Rider & Co. (Theodore Illion)

1944 - Here is the singular reference to Theodor Nolling. It was a lot earlier then I thought it was.

• Jul. 1 - Grundlagen und Heilverfahren der tibetischen Medizin, Theodor Nolling, Berlin

Nov. 3, 1945 - (this is the first time he shows up in the SN)

Spoiler: Original German

USA=Schriftsteller in Salzburg
In Salzburg hält sich gegenwärtig der bekannte kanadische Schriftsteller Theodor Eke Illion auf. Er konnte mit seinen Büchern ,,Dunkelheit über Tibet" und ,,Geheimnis Tibet" in Amerika, England, Frankreich und verschiedenen anderen Ländern durchschlagenden Erfolg erringen. Er ist nun im Übersetzungsbüro am Alten Markt tätig. Mit ihm arbeitet dort der ebenfalls gut bekannte Schriftsteller Frederic L. Dunbar. ,,Dreitausend Jahre Römische Geschichte" und ,,Buch der Tatsachen für jedermann" sind seine Werke, die ihn in der Welt bekannt machten. Derzeit übersetzen beide Schriftsteller in diesem Büro Arbeiten juristischen, wirtschaftlichen, kaufmännischen, technischen und medizinischen Inhaltes. Sie bürgen mit ihrem Ruf für die Qualität der Übersetzungen, die das Dolmetscherbüro am Alten Markt entgegennimmt.

Dec. 24, 1945

Spoiler: Original German

Unterricht
English-Kurse für jung und alt, für Anfänger u. Fortgeschrittene, geleitet von erfahrenen Sprachpädagogen, werden ab Jänner 46 vom öffentlichen Dolmetscher- u. Übersetzungsbüto, Salzburg, Alter Markt 11, Tel. 1825, abgehalten. Den Unterricht f. Fortgeschrittene leitet der kanadische Schriftsteller Herr Theodore Eke Illion.

The above ad for English courses continues in the Dec. 27, 29 & 31 of 1945 and Jan. 4 & 7, 1946 papers.

As a side, here is a little info on the surname 'Eke':



It was mentioned in the tribute that Theodore was of Anglo-Saxon-Swedish ancestry, which may be coming from 'Eke'. Again, though, I couldn't find anything in Ancestry that was definitive for 'Theodore Eke/Ecke/Eyke". But the name may also be an alias.

1947

• Tibeter über das Abendland: Stimmen aus dem geheimnisvollen Tibet (Tibetans on the Occident: Voices from Mysterious Tibet) is published by Igonta Verlag (publisher) in Salzburg, Austria. (Theodore Illion)

1948/49

• Beherrschung seelischer Kräfte durch den Tibetanischen Menschen (Mastery of Spiritual Forces by the Tibetan Man) was printed at Schweizer Rundschau (Solothurn). Schweizer Rundschau was a union printing and publishing house and a Swiss Catholic cultural and political journal located in Stans and, later, Einsiedeln, Switzerland. (Theodore Illion- this is the last time he uses 'Illion' as a book author)

Now, the next time I see him in this paper is Sept. 18, 1951. He has dropped 'Eke' and 'Illion' and for the first time uses Theodore Burang. I don't know if he lectured in other towns/cities/countries prior, but in the SN this date begins his lecturing in the Salzburg area.

1951 - (Theodore Burang)

• Sep. 18 - "Central Asia Today.”
• Nov. 14 - "Tibet - the driving force of Asia", Part 1 of "Asia - a danger?”
• Nov. 19 - "Secret Central Asia”, Part 2 of "Asia - a danger?”
• Dec. 10 - "Shakespeare in Tibet". Screening of the Hamlet version performed in Tibet with shadow puppets.

1952

• Jan. 17 - “Central Asia - today"
• Jun. 11 - "Strange Tibet”

1954

• Jan. 26 - "The Yellow Peril" - Is Asia becoming the world's center of gravity?
• Mar. 31 - “Tibet - past and present" (in English).
• Nov. 11 - "Is Asia becoming the center of the world?”
• Dec. 14 - "Tibet of yesterday and today”

1955 - His name starts to change to Theodore Illion Burang.

• Oct. 10 - "Is Asia pushing us up against the wall?" (photographs)
• Nov. 10 - "Doctor and magic medicine in Asia" (,,Arzt und Zaubermedizin in Asien")
• Nov. 18 - "Today's theatre in China, India and Tibet" (with photographs) [contemporary theatre life in China, India and Tibet]

1956 - His name is solidified as Theodor Illion-Burang. The 'e' has also been dropped from his first name from here on.

• May 7 - "Restricted zones and secret services" (report on his experiences and adventures with important members of the secret services during his research trips)
• May 14 - “Tibetan Medical Philosophy"
• Oct. 8 - "Doctor and magic medicine in Asia”

1957

• Tibetische Heilkunde (Tibetan Medicine) was published by Origo-Verlag in Zürich, Switzerland. (Theodore Burang)

• Jan. 24 - "Doctor and magic medicine in Asia"
• Jan. 26 - "Tibet - Entry from the Middle Ages into the Atomic Age”
• Jun. 11 - "Today's theatre life in Asia". Admission free, guests welcome.
• Jun. 15 - Asian stagecraft [A review of "Today's theatre life in Asia"] "In his lecture at the J.-A.-Lux-Society, the outstanding Tibet expert Theodor Burang was able to shed some interesting light on today's theatrical art - the venerable tradition of the mystical and convincing performance art of the actor from the simplest people in Tibet, India or China, highly appreciated with a connoisseur's eye. Although there is a lack of stable theaters and the absence of any stage scenery, even the element of suspense in the plot (which is almost always known beforehand), there is no danger of disillusionment. Men still play women's roles and 60-year-old Mel Lan Fang delights Asia in the dazzling mask of a young girl. The expressive movement of the hands reveals everyone can attend the performances without hesitation, as eroticism as the content of a play is alien to the East. An open-minded audience applauded the well-known publicist's presentation and the subsequent discussion. J.B."

1958

• Oct. 6 - "Restricted zones and secret services”
• Oct. 16 - "Doctor and magic medicine in Asia" (with question and answer session!)
• Oct. 24 - "Doctor and magic medicine in Asia"

1959

• May 14 - "Fire torch Tibet - Red China on the decline?" [A popular lecture that saw 800 people attend when it was given in Innsbruck earlier.]
• May 16 - [A review of the May 14 lecture.] "In a lecture organized by the Catholic Education Centre Salzburg, Theodor Burang-Illion spoke on Thursday evening about "Fire torch Tibet - Red China on the decline?". The lecturer, who is familiar with Tibet through his travels, explained the background to the Tibetan resistance to the Chinese invasion, emphasizing in particular the Tibetans' love of freedom and their desire not to become slaves to the machine. The speculation of the Tibetan ruling class that communism would outlive itself and leave behind a spiritual vacuum into which their spiritual power could work, had initially proved to be mistaken. In any case, China's development in the coming years must be watched carefully, as the development in Tibet has helped to trigger the power of communist China."

1960

• Mar. 4 - "Do flying saucers threaten us?"

• Mar. 30 - "Doctor and magic medicine in Tibet"
• May 25 - "Do flying saucers threaten us?"
• Jun. 22 - Saucers - hoax or reality? By popular demand, the well-known publicist Theodor Burang-Illion will be giving a new lecture and answering questions on the latest status of the much-disputed question of the "flying saucers" at the Salzburg Economic Development Institute, Weiserstraße 1, tomorrow, Thursday, 7.30 pm, with parallels to the question of the mysterious snow man and the "secret of Tibet”.
• Jun. 23 - "...lecture by Theodor Illion-Burang on the problem of flying saucers."
• Oct. 1 - "Suicide of China?"
• Oct. 3 - "The Mystery of Tibet"
• Nov. 4 - "Catholics on the question of unidentified flying objects"
• Dec. 14 - "Saucers - a modern mass madness?"

1961

• Feb 10 - "Flying saucers - a modern mass madness" (photographs)
• Apr. 6 - "How do you stay young? - The fight against old age through Tibetan medicine.”
• Apr. 7 - "Flying saucers - a modern mass delusion?" (Photographs, question and answer session)
• Apr. 10 - "Fighting old age with Tibetan medicine - how do you stay young?”
• Oct. 16 - "How do you stay young? - Combating old age with Tibetan medicine"

1962

• Feb. 1 - "Progress of mankind into nothingness?" (Is technology driving people out of their minds?) Admission free.
• Oct. 10 - "How do you stay young? - Combating old age with Tibetan medicine"
• Nov. 24 - "The fire of war in the Himalayas - a world threat?"
• Nov. 27 - "The fire of war in the Himalayas - a world threat?”. Guests welcome.

1963

• Jun. 11 - "Doctor and magic medicine in Tibet", followed by a discussion.

• Aug. 9 - "The scourge of cancer and other serious diseases from an Asian perspective." (with question and answer session)

• Oct. 11 - "Sex cult in Asia"

1964

• May 20 - "China on the march to world domination" (with a Q&A session.)
• Nov. 5 - "China on the march to world domination"

1965

• Jan. 15 - "Will China push us to the wall?”

1970

• Jan. 12 - "Confronting Biafra - Nigeria" with films from both countries.
• Jan. 14 - SALZBURG: The League for the United Nations is organizing a lecture evening on Biafra in the Marble Hall of Mirabell Palace in Salzburg. Speeches were given by the Biafran priest Thaddäus Chukwukere, the publicist Theodor Burang-Illion and the parish priest Franz Wesenauer. Two films from Nigeria and Biafra were also shown.
• Jun. 4 - "Wars and billions in Africa" (film screening).

1971

• May 12 - "Cancer and leukemia in the mirror of Tibetan, ancient Chinese and ancient Indian medicine and their healing possibilities", followed by a discussion.
• May 13 - "Cancer and leukemia in the mirror of Tibetan, ancient Chinese and ancient Indian medicine and their healing possibilities", followed by a discussion.
• Jun. 25 - "Cancer and leukemia in the mirror of Tibetan, ancient Chinese and ancient Indian medicine and their healing possibilities"

1972

• May 10 - "Fundamentals and healing successes of Tibetan, ancient Indian, ancient Chinese and Tibetan medicine”
• Jun. 14 - "Narcotics - little known and concealed”

After this point, Illion all but stops lecturing and goes on a 'book commentary' spree. In 1974, he also writes two articles of his own that I know of.


1974

• The Tibetan art of healing, translated into English from the 1957 book Tibetische Heilkunde, and published by Watkins in London. (Theodore Burang)

• Jan. 12 - [article] "Witnesses to white African prehistory - Wide-ranging results of international cooperation at the Institutum Canarium in Hallein"
• Feb. 9 -"Thought transmission 30 years ago" (Upton Sinclair: ,,Radar der Psyche” (Originaltitel ,,Mental Radio”))
• Feb. 16 - "Lost in the thinking of advantage" - "The Crisis of Science" by Jerome R. Rawetz - An investigation into the aberrations of research
• Feb. 23 - "An Asia book by Max Reisch" (Max Reisch: ,,Karawanenstraßen Asiens.” ["Caravan routes of Asia"])
• Mar. 9 - "Alchemy - a world of great depth of thought" (Hans Biedermann: "Materia Prima". ["Dictionary of Symbols"] A collection of pictures on the history of ideas in alchemy.)
• Mar. 23 - "The strange life of Empress Tzu-hsi" (Marina Warner: ,,Die Kaiserin auf dem Drachenthron. Leben und Welt der chinesischen Kaiserinwitwe Tzu-hsi” ["The empress on the dragon throne. The life and world of the Chinese empress dowager Tzu-hsi"])
• Mar. 30 - "Great courage and the courage to leave gaps - The most important Napoleon biography of recent decades - Bei Claassen, Hamburg" (Vincent Cronin: ,,Napoleon”)
• Apr. 20 - "Konnersreuth considered as a test case" (Josef Hanauer: ,,Konnersreuth als Testfall - Kritischer Bericht über das Leben der Therese Neumann” ["Konnersreuth as a test case - Critical report on the life of Therese Neumann"])
• May 4 - "The greatest adventure: the human being" (A. E. Johann: ,,Menschen auf meinen Wegen - Aus einem Leben auf Reisen” ["People on my paths - From a life on the road"])
• May 11 - [article] "About wizards, witches and warlocks"
• Jun. 1 - "Is there life after death?" (Nils-Olof Jacobson: ,,Leben nach dem Tode? - Über Parapsychologie und Mystik” [""Life after death? - On parapsychology and mysticism""])
• Jun. 29 - "Two drafts about Alexander the Great" (Robin Lane Fox: ,,Alexander der Große - eine Biographie ["Alexander the Great - a biography"])
• Jul. 20 - "Remedies and therapies of the people" (Georg Friedrich Most: ,,Enzyklopädie der Gesamten Volksmedizine oder Lexicon der vorzüglichsten und wirksamsten Haus- und Volksarzneimittel aller Länder” ["Encyclopedia of all folk medicines or lexicon of the most excellent and effective household and folk medicines of all countries"])
• Aug. 10 - "The role of secret societies" (Karl R. H. Frick: ,,Die Erleuchteten - Ein Beitrag zur Geistesgeschichte der Neuzeit” ["The Enlightened Ones - A Contribution to the Intellectual History of Modern Times"])
• Aug. 24 - "Idolization of brain activity" (H. J. Cambell: ,,Der Irrtum mit der Seele” ["The mistake with the soul"])
• Oct. 12 - "Paranormal powers as a healing factor" (Alfred Stelter: ,,Psi-Heilungen” ["Psi healings"])
• Nov. 2 - "An ancient forgotten image of man" (Friedrich Weinreb: ,,Leben im Diesseits und Jenseits - Ein uraltes vergessenes Menschenbild” ["Life in this world and beyond - An ancient forgotten image of man"] and Friedrich Weinreb: ,,Die Symbolik der Bibelsprache” ["The symbolism of biblical language"])
• Nov. 30 - "Paracelsus has not yet discovered the end" (Heinrich Schipperges: ,,Paracelsus” ["Paracelsus"])
• Dec. 6 - "The career of a glamorous usurper" (Suzanne Ratie: ,,Hatschepsut. Die Frau auf dem Thron der Pharaonen” ["Hatshepsut. The woman on the throne of the pharaohs"])
• Dec. 6 - "Treasures rescued from Tibet" (Marten Brauen: ,,Heinrich Harrers Achätze” ["Heinrich Harrer's Achätze"])

1975

• Der Arzt in der tibetischen Kultur, is published by Origo Verlag, Zürich. (Theodor Burang)
• Die Kunst des Heilens im Fernen Osten. Heilverfahren und Heilmittel is published by Origo-Verlag, Zürich. (Theodor Burang)

• Jan. 4 - "About the "miracle cures" of acupuncture - "China's healing needles" by Marc Duke - Documentation published by Scherz-Verlag, Bern - Munich" (Marc Due: ,,Akupunktur. Chinas heilende Nadeln” ["Acupuncture. China's healing needles"])
• Feb. 8 - "Does religion triumph over materialism? - Thoughts on the Christian-Jewish dialog based on a book by Frirdrich Weinreb - Origo Verlag" (Friedrich Weireb: ,,Begegnungen mit Engeln und Menschen - Mysterium des Tuns” ["Encounters with angels and people - the mystery of action"])
• Mar. 8 - "Brotherly unity affects the spirit" (Heinrich Lachmann / G. A. Schiffmann: ,,Hochgrade der Freimaurerei” ["High Degrees of Freemasonry"])
• Apr. 5 - "Is there a reincarnation?" (Morey Bernstein: ,,Protokoll einer Wiedergeburt” ["Protocol of a rebirth"])
• Apr. 12 -"The daughter of a peasant on the tsar's throne" (Tamara Talbot Rice: ,,Elisabeth, Kaisern von Rußland” ["Elizabeth, Empress of Russia"])

This is a rather humorous complaint by Illion to the post office. It also reveals that he has/had at least two mail boxes. The other was mentioned in Nov. 23, 1971 (Box 285 located, I think, "in a small town"). It also mentions contact with someone in Tyrol.



The post office's response. It shouldn't surprise me, but that is a lot of mail.


Jul. 19 - "What is the point of getting sick?" (Friedrich Weinreb: ,,Vom Sinn des Erkrankens” ["On the meaning of illness"])
Aug. 16 - "Imagining the state after death" (Edmund Spieß: ,,Entwicklungsgeschichte der Vorstellungen vom Zustande nach dem Tode” ["History of the development of ideas about the state after death"])
Aug. 30 - "The religion of the Etruscans" (Ambrose Josef Pfiffig: ,,Religio Etrusca” (deutsch) ["Religio Etrusca" (German)])

A book review of Illion's (Burang's) Die Kunst des Heilens in Fernen Osten.

• Dec. 6 - "To talk about sunken worlds" (Hans Biedermann: "Die versunkenen Länder - die Atlantis-Frage und andere Rätsel der Menschheitsgeschichte" ["The sunken lands - the Atlantis question and other mysteries of human history"])

1976

• Tibetan Medicine on Cancer, Theodore Burang, pp. 52–61, An Introduction to Tibetan Medicine, Dawa Norbu, Tibetan Review Publishing House, Delhi, 1976
• L'arte di guarire nella Medicina Tibetana, Theodore Burang, Astrolabio Ubaldini Edizioni, Roma, 1976 (translated into Italian by Serena Cavallo)

• Apr. 10 - "The ancient secret knowledge of the Kabbalah" (Papus: ,,Die Kabbala” ["The Kabbalah"])

1977 - Illion's last lecture in this paper that I know of.

• Jan. 28 - Adult education center. 18.30, Dompfarrsaal, Kapitalplatz 7, Alpenländisch Dichtung, Theodor Illion-Burang, Tibet researcher, reads from his own works. - 20.00, Gasthof Sternbräu: Customs evening.

1979

• Cancer Therapy of Tibetan Healers, Theodor Burang; American Journal of Chinese Medicine (Garden City, N.Y.), 7 (1979), pp. 294–296

1984

• Sep. 4 - Theodore Illion dies.

Dec. 24, 1984 is the date of the full page tribute that I posted above. But there was an earlier and much shorter tribute in the paper one week after the obituary. You learn almost nothing new from it save a few personal characteristics.



I have not found any other reference to Illion being a member of The Club of Rome.

(phew!)

wow!!! this was a serious piece of work. many thanks for you dedication

 

[Tuatha de Danaan]

Thank you Benjamin. He was elusive but you gave a lot of information.

 

[Benjamin]

Thanks @heinrich and @Tuatha de Danaan. "Elusive" is the key word with him and the information that I've found about him is actually small. I'm having a real problem getting past the 1945 barrier. His origin information that he was born in Canada, I guess, has to come from him, and it's got some iffiness, imo. And then so many name changes (all of which may be aliases), living with no fixed address in "half a dozen villages" and "small private rooms here or there", two mailboxes, preferring to live in solitude... he sounds more like a couch surfer or part of an underground espionage ring or just plain paranoid then a professor, which he never referred to himself as, btw. He is deliberately elusive, imo.

"Don't you think it's enough to know that I'm a human being?" he once kindly rejected the friendly question about his origins.

But this section from the transcripts sticks with me as does the name Eke, for some reason.

Q: (Laughter from all) (L) I want to ask about this book I was reading about this guy - T. Illion who traveled to Tibet and found this underground city and interacted with these strange beings, was this an actual trip this guy made in a traditional 3rd density sense?

A: It is a disguise for conveying truths of a spiritual nature as well as a depiction of 4th Density realities.

Q: (L) Did he physically travel to Tibet?

A: No.

Q: (B) Sounds like he gained some inner awareness and used a story to convey it. (L) Did he travel anywhere?

A: Yes.

Q: (L) Did he travel somewhere else and get this information and then accurately portray it as being centered in Tibet?

A: Yes.

Q: (B) Were his travels in 3rd density?

A: Yes.

Q: (B) Is it important where he traveled?

A: Yes.

Q: (B) Well you know what the next question is (laughter). What would be his destination? Where did he travel?

A: Siberia.

Q: (B) Does it have anything to do with the spot in Siberia or Russian mountains that has the electromagnetic labs or whatever it was that they were discussing before?

A: Close.

Q: (A) Well still the question is: in the book he said he knew the Tibetan language.

A: He did.

Q: (A) In Siberia they don't use Tibetan language. (L) He didn't have to be using the Tibetan language. (A) What language is he using in Siberia, probably Russian. (L) I don't know. I've never been there. Well they didn't say he didn't know Russian. (A) That's true. (L) Was the place that he really traveled to a place that was positive that was telling about a place that was negative?

A: Yes.

Q: (B) When you answered 'close' to my question about the electromagnetic thing did you mean close physically or close in concept?

A: Both.

Q: (B) Both are linked then, are you saying there is a link between the two?

A: Vague.

Q: (B) I was thinking why Stone {word indecipherable} Does it have anything to do with the grid?

A: Partly.

So far in everything I've seen, I haven't run into any mention of Siberia or Russia, but the above answer was on my mind last night after I posted that list. I made a quick search on Ancestry and found a Scandinavian/Russian spelling as 'Iljion'. This made me think I should try converting his name (Theodore Illion) into Cyrillic (Теодор Иллион) and then do an internet search, which I did this afternoon. I got a lot of similar info that is already known, but I also got some that was not. And, without having read much yet, there was a brief mention that might (and I stress 'might') blow his Canadian origins away. So, there's a little more coming this time from the Russian side.

 

[Finduilas495]

Thank you Benjamin for putting together this interesting information.

Regarding the subject of Tibet/Siberia and how to reconcile them in the biography, I think the following paper (link to researchgate.net) may provide a clue:

[Early encounters of German-language explorers with the Tibetan medicine in
Siberia in the modern era].

Quote from the abstract:

The spreading of Tibetan Buddhism and with it the Tibetan medicine in the region east of Lake Baikal, goes back to the 17th century. At the beginning of the 18th century, German speaking scholars were among the first to undertake scientific expeditions through Siberia. As such they were amongst the first scientists of the modern era who encountered the traditions, concepts, and therapeutic methods of Tibetan medicine. The aim of this article is to describe and analyze these first encounters with Tibetan medicine by the example of selected men of science of the 18th and 19th century. This work is based on extensive studies of sources in archives and libraries in Russia and Switzerland. We found documents related to the following scientists: Daniel Gottlieb Messerschmidt (1685-1735), Johann Georg Gmelin (1709-1755), Erik Laxmann (1737-1796), Friedrich Adelung (1768-1843), and Joseph Rehmann (1779-1831). They mentioned the distribution of Tibetan medicine within Russia, the use of medicinal plants and formulas as well as therapeutic techniques. For the scientific community of the time these first encounters of Europeans with practitioners of Tibetan medicine could not lift Tibetan medicine out of other exotic context in the field of ethnography. For today's researchers, these encounters are an important evidence for more than 300 years of development of Tibetan medicine on the vast territory of Siberia. The practice and the scientific examination of Tibetan medicine in Siberia is an active endeavor until today. The present work shows that it is possible and rewarding to follow up the historic and cultural connections from Europe to Asia via the Siberian link.

Another scholar mentioned briefly in this paper is T Burang (Tibetische Heilkunde. Zürich, Origo, 1957).

 

[Laura]

Well, this is as good as a whodunnit! I'm amazed at what you have dug up, Benjamin! What does it say on that last photo and where was it taken?

 

[Bastian]

What does it say on that last photo

I would guess something like that (in German) :
In [?] freundlicher Erinnerung [an] meine Freunde R. S. / Juli 1936 T. ILLION

Which would translates in English to :
In friendly memory [of] my friends R. S. / July 1936 T. ILLION

 

[Finduilas495]

If you mean what does the handwritten note on the left of the photograph say, if I read it correctly, it says:

Zur freundlichen Erinnerung meinem Freunde R.S.

which the search engine translates to:

As a kind reminder to my friend R.S.

Although it seems to me the translation would be more like Bastian's suggestion, the writer would like his friend R.S. to remember him kindly.

 

[Benjamin]

Well, this is as good as a whodunnit! I'm amazed at what you have dug up, Benjamin! What does it say on that last photo and where was it taken?

Unfortunately, there is no info on where the four photos were taken, and Bastian's and Finduilas495's translations are probably as good as I can make. The way it's written makes me think it was written by him, though.

I downloaded a 25 page paper published in 2021 yesterday that appears to be a deep research about Illion. I started to run it through DeepL yesterday but only got part of the first paragraph before I was booted for 24 hrs. for using up my character limit. So I don't know much at all. The translation was a bit wonky too so I'm going to try a different method of cut 'n paste. However, there is actual genealological evidence (in English! Yay!) at the end of the paper and what it says left me gobsmacked. The answer (to at least some questions) had actually subtly flashed in my mind two days ago when I was rolling all this info around, but semi-dismissed it. It's so simple! It certainly supports a possible reason as to why he lived with no fixed address.

Now this paper is all in Russian. So it's going to take a few days for me to DeepL it. I'll most likely be kicked out several times for character limits. I'm really looking forward to reading it!

 

[Approaching Infinity]

Unfortunately, there is no info on where the four photos were taken, and Bastian's and Finduilas495's translations are probably as good as I can make. The way it's written makes me think it was written by him, though.

I downloaded a 25 page paper published in 2021 yesterday that appears to be a deep research about Illion. I started to run it through DeepL yesterday but only got part of the first paragraph before I was booted for 24 hrs. for using up my character limit. So I don't know much at all. The translation was a bit wonky too so I'm going to try a different method of cut 'n paste. However, there is actual genealological evidence (in English! Yay!) at the end of the paper and what it says left me gobsmacked. The answer (to at least some questions) had actually subtly flashed in my mind two days ago when I was rolling all this info around, but semi-dismissed it. It's so simple! It certainly supports a possible reason as to why he lived with no fixed address.

Now this paper is all in Russian. So it's going to take a few days for me to DeepL it. I'll most likely be kicked out several times for character limits. I'm really looking forward to reading it!

Looking forward to it! We've got several native Russian speakers who can read it, too, if you share a link or the file.

 

[Altair]

Unfortunately, there is no info on where the four photos were taken, and Bastian's and Finduilas495's translations are probably as good as I can make. The way it's written makes me think it was written by him, though.

I downloaded a 25 page paper published in 2021 yesterday that appears to be a deep research about Illion. I started to run it through DeepL yesterday but only got part of the first paragraph before I was booted for 24 hrs. for using up my character limit. So I don't know much at all. The translation was a bit wonky too so I'm going to try a different method of cut 'n paste. However, there is actual genealological evidence (in English! Yay!) at the end of the paper and what it says left me gobsmacked. The answer (to at least some questions) had actually subtly flashed in my mind two days ago when I was rolling all this info around, but semi-dismissed it. It's so simple! It certainly supports a possible reason as to why he lived with no fixed address.

Now this paper is all in Russian. So it's going to take a few days for me to DeepL it. I'll most likely be kicked out several times for character limits. I'm really looking forward to reading it!

Can you share the paper?