Madame Blavatsky is considered by many to be a spiritual genius and her remarkable synthesis of western occultism and eastern traditions became a foundation for the New Age. The life she lived was no less remarkable. It is said that she left her husband to become a trick rider in the circus. Then traveling alone, she entered forbidden Tibet. This is where she gained her respect for eastern culture and religion which became the basis of her teachings. Her detractors say that she was a fraud whose one real talent was that she knew how to tell a good tale.