He spent much of 1932 to 1939 in India, was associated with the Radha Soami Satsang Beas spiritual society and Surat Shabd Yoga, and wrote five books (one unpublished) as a result of his experiences.
Johnson claimed that experiences during his three-year stay in India, however, rendered him surprised by the deep understanding possessed by Indians he had sought to convert, and urged him towards further study.
Over the years, he took to studies of various religious and philosophical teachings, including Christian Science, Freemasonry, New Thought, Rosicrucianism, Spiritualism, Blavatskyan Theosophy, and world religions.
His spiritual explorations culminated when he visited an old friend (Julia McQuilkin in Oregon)[1] who was a disciple of Sawan Singh of Beas, India.
[2] (At the two-week stopover in Hawaii, he had discussions on religion with the English Jodo Shinshu priest Ernest "Shinkaku" Hunt [1876–1967] of the Hongwanji.
However, its author's blunt style and now outmoded opinions – influenced by Northern European racist notions then in vogue but now considered politically incorrect — have turned off some modern readers.
The text's sheer eloquence, however, has made the work the object of plagiarism by other writers, especially in the United States, where it used to be almost totally unknown to the general reading public.