A spiritual teacher lived in the house Jeffrey Masson grew up in. The disciplines that Doctor Paul Brunton imposed on the household included meditation, obsessive fasting, vegetarianism and abstinence from sex. He also pursuaded the family to move to South America to avoid war and referred daily to his hidden powers, his previous lives and the ways in which to transcend maya, or the petty preoccupations of ordinary life. Masson, signled out as the spiritual heir to PB's kingdom, was enthralled. So was his father, who entrusted Jeffrey's education to him. But when Jeffrey went to Harvard to read Sanskrit he became aware that the teachings upon which his upbringing was founded were utterly bogus. This book is the author's memories and assessment of his upbringing.