Book excerpt: In this first volume of his study of two influential Eastern streams, Prokofieff considers the spiritual movement of Agni Yoga, as presented to the world by Helena Roerich and her husband, the painter Nicholas Roerich. Helena Roerich developed Agni Yoga, or "Living Ethics, " in fourteen published volumes, which she believed to have been directly dictated by Eastern Masters. By relating the inspiration Helena Roerich received to that of the later teachings of H. P. Blavatsky, Prokofieff is able to penetrate the occult foundations of this stream. In the light of modern Christian esotericism, particularly the research of Rudolf Steiner, he pinpoints the principal spiritual errors of Agni Yoga, which include the teaching of a future physical incarnation of Christ. Along the trail, he uncovers ominous connections with Lenin and Bolshevik Russia, the American president F. D. Roosevelt, and the bringer of Glasnost, Michael Gorbachov -- who referred to Nicholas Roerich as "a representative of our civilization and of its culture, one of its pillars."