Apparently the first "Neo-Advaitin" was the Adi Shankara himself, a quasi-Buddhist.
Excerpt from Mahayana Sutra Lankara by Asanga: "Pure consciousness is the only Reality. By its nature, it is Self-luminous." (XIII, 13). "Thus shaking off duality, he directly percieves the Absolute which is the unity underlying phenomena (dharmadatu)." (VI, 7) Sharma, p. 112-113 ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <yifuxero@...> wrote : Almost all of the Batgappers (imo) are Neo or Pseudo-Advaitins, the characteristerics of which are described in several excellent websites, if you google "Neo-Advaita". They have numerous common qualities, but it best serves us to provide some examples then identify the quallities of Neo-Advaita from there - examples, Gangaji and Andrew Cohen. Many of them were devotees of HWL Poonja, but by now there is a new crop of them, growing like bacteria or mold on an old orange.: