In the heyday of colonialism, when the West considered itself superior in the world, H.P. Blavatsky brought Eastern wisdom back into the spotlight. Ideas such as reincarnation and karma made their entrance and made headlines. The attainment of higher states of consciousness such as those of Buddhas and bodhisattvas was considered a possibility. In the East too, the work of Blavatsky and her colleague Henry S. Olcott led to a revival of Hinduism and Buddhism respectively in India and Sri Lanka, which were then occupied by the British.