Theos-Talk Archives (February 1998 Message tt00124)

I think we have to be careful about painting the psychism issue with too broad of
a brush.  HPB did make a distinction between clairvoyance, spiritual clairvoyance
and mediumship.  It was the latter that she was against, because the medium does
not have control over the phenomena.  Psychometry is not in this category.

After Judge died and Tingley took over, Alice Cleather joined Tingley's world
crusade.  By the time they got to India, Cleather became disillusioned with
Tingley.  Cleather concluded from her experiences with Tingley that Judge had been
duped by her.   On the other hand, there were others who followed Tingley
believing her a remarkable woman.  Different strokes for different folks.

I think that there is evidence that Tingley did have psychic abilities, but she
since she did not show them off to the membership, recorded instances are few and
far between.  Tingley was also a very charismatic speaker and talented at
organizing people together.  Whatever Judge saw in her, Tingley's abilities went
far beyond just being a good neighborhood psychic.

JJHE


Lmhem111@aol.com wrote:

> There was a lot of controversy about the relationship between Judge and Madame
> Tingley, all having to do with claims of succession. In THE THEOSOPHICAL
> MOVEMENT, it says Judge "recognized her true occult position several years
> before his death and approved her activities as a psychometer". (p. 268) I
> would like to know abou this myself. Very curious ! Did he just accept willy-
> nilly her psychic messages from wherever?
>