Potal may be found with the following link:
http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/ams/india/nj-43-14.jpg

Russian map which gives also ” Potal ” can be found from another links:

http://blankonthemap.free.fr/3_geographie/31_cartographie/318_cartes_russes/pic/j43v.jpg
or
http://mapy.mk.cvut.cz/data/Centr_Asia/Topo%20maps_500k/J-43-V.jpg

From these latter, we find (written in italic Cyrillic) a name of village, looking
as Поmал . With capital letter its reads Потал, and, according to Latin alphabet that gives Potal.

Both maps lead to approximately the same geodesic coordinates, namely:
36° 53ˊ Latitude North
74° 44ˊ Longitude East
According to Russian map 5600m Altitude

Both maps (US and Russian) did not show the same villages, the Russian one seems to be older than the U502 series. That could be of interest.
Today, from GoogleEarth, it can be seen that ‘this’ Potal does not more exist !

Potal may be found with the following link:
http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/ams/india/nj-43-14.jpg
The US Army Map Service (AMS) Series U502 India and Pakistan was published between the late 1950s and early 1960s, and was last revised in 1962. The US AMS was superceded by the Defense Mapping Agency. This series was declassified in the 1970s, and preceded the Joint Operational Ground (JOG) series.
The U502 series remains, however, highly accurate for topographic details. Each map has a “reliability diagram” that shows its degree of accuracy. This series is the only map series to cover the entire Indian Subcontinent. The maps show most villages, but not recently-built roads.

Russian map which gives also ” Potal ” can be found from another links:

http://blankonthemap.free.fr/3_geographie/31_cartographie/318_cartes_russes/pic/j43v.jpg
or
http://mapy.mk.cvut.cz/data/Centr_Asia/Topo%20maps_500k/J-43-V.jpg

From these latter, we find (written in italic Cyrillic) a name of village, looking
as Потал . With capital letter its reads Потал, and, according to Latin alphabet that gives Potal.

Both maps lead to approximately the same geodesic coordinates, namely:
36° 53ˊ Latitude North
74° 44ˊ Longitude East
According to Russian map 5600m Altitude

Both maps (US and Russian) did not show the same villages, the Russian one seems to be older than the U502 series. That could be of interest.
Today, from GoogleEarth, it can be seen that ‘this’ Potal does not more exist !

Today I searched on “BTS” + “route” on Google and arrived here! Perhaps I got my search wish more than I know?

I see from reading this thread EVERY various reaction that I myself have had in my own reading of the thread. To summarize and add:
- As mentioned above, rereading I immediately wanted to find one of these rarified temples and GO THERE to sit with a teacher and “do the work”, thus my Google for route. IS ANYONE OUT THERE ALSO LOOKING TO “GO” IN NEXT FEW YEARS? SHALL WE PLAN SOMETHING?
- As several of you mentioned, the Spalding volumes were my first introduction (at around age 22?) to topics that have spurred my seeking to this day at the age of 55. No matter what comes from those of you doing this excellent research, I can only honor these BTS volumes for that inspiration – and its recent repeat inspiration. Something has gotta be up with that!
- I remember “stumbling” upon the set and buying them in a flow of events that I can’t explain as I have found other books where I was walking the aisles of some used book store and reach for a book, absent mindedly, and end up finding out about The Master DK, Alice Bailey, Ray Astrology or some other thing “meant to see”.
- As some mentioned, my initial reading faltered when I found the later volumes did not hold my attention and I drifted from them unfinished. Going on in my early twenties to gulp every drop of Shirley MacLaine’s tall tales instead…these worked perfectly to fuel me at that tender age past them and into authentic seeking all these decades later.
- My recent goal this time was to really force myself to re-read all 5 Volumes – but there are 6?!. Having found this blog of their undoubted fiction…or of possible plagiarism…and of things more authentic…and of possible leads to the source materials…will I keep this goal to read them all finally? I don’t know.
- I am a little disappointed that they are fictional…but it made sense to me quickly and I am ready to correct my course in any way, as needed.
- I too have studied A Course in Miracles — I am truly one of the “love-hate” and uncompleted ACIM students. I came to ACIM via Gary Renard’s excellent lay-person book enticements. I have always wondered if GaryR, like BairdTS, might have done some sort of bizarrely inspired fictionalizing based on plagiarism…thought he has worked diligently as a teacher to discourage any of his readers from even getting DISTRACTED by such wasted thoughts. He too says “Just do the work” and [sic] “Many will be called but few will will hear and even fewer will arrive…and yet arrival of ALL is inevitable.” This seems exactly as BairdTS masters have said. GaryR says frequently…it doesn’t matter if you believe me. He openly says he is happy if all he does is inspire.
- I have ALWAYS wondered how the actual ACIM volumes of such detail could be anything except truly channeled writing. Who could make up such repetitive and single purposed minutia that almost drives you crazy with its monotony and unity of purpose as you read/study! It says over and over “this is a course in Mind training.”
– And I had already understood through GaryR, et al that the messages of ACIM most closely parallel those of Advita Vedanta, which I looked forward to studying more.
- I will now add a goal of seeking out the writings of Gerwhal and others as identified above.
- And I also OFTEN stop reading and just work on traveling to the Temple of Silence within and understand that there is no where else to go and nothing more to read. Its a dance with me.

A long post but I hope to weave together the different revelations of this thread to date and add to it a few more that may catch the eye of others who stumble in this door.

Repeating, with my own irony fully in view, are there any out there planning physical travel expeditions?

In Spirit, Charlotte

Life and Teachings is not a tall tale of Baird T. Spalding, no matter how much solid indisputable proof you gather. If you want to know what is really true, raise your Consciousness Higher and ask Father-Mother God to give you that proof, instead of proof you can only acknowledge with your five senses.

So many Teachers have come to humanity, yet so many waste time in the mirk and the mire.

Does it really matter the event actually took place? Let us leave this aside. Nobody can deny Life and Teaching is a book full of spiritual truth and great understanding.

If you read the FAQ, you’ll find that Spalding was not in India in the 1890′s but actually mining in the Yukon. Indeed, he was only 22 years old in 1894. Spalding’s life story told in the books about being born in the 1850′s in England, studying at various universities, the 1894 expedition to India, and the Spalding Foundation and his family connections to India is entirely fictional. I’ve published numerous documents on the blog that show when and where Spalding was born, as an example, and that his family had no connection to India. It’s very clear that Spalding had a lifelong talent for ‘tall tales’, I’ve collected many dozens of examples in correspondence and personal meetings.

@ Spiritual Healer.

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