The narrator -- led by a mysterious dwarf -- takes a journey into the Alps to a secret Rosicrucian enclave, where he witnesses first-hand Alchemy, Past Lives, Psychic Travel, Water Spirits, and other miraculous events. Franz Hartmann was a 19th century Bavarian physician, theosophist and writer. He emigrated to the United States, and became an American citizen, practicing medicine in the then-frontier areas of the Midwest, including Missouri and Texas. He became interested in Spiritualism, and joined the Theosophists in 1883 at their enclave in Madras, India.