Theos-Talk Archives (September 1999 Message tt00184)

Art Gregory wrote that:

"Colonel Olcott in his testimony reports that he mostly
met these Masters in their "doubles' or astral double form. Most of these
contacts with Masters occurred to people in dreams and their fantasies...
If there was contact on the physical plane such contacts were brief and
fleeting and could be explained by mere coincidences and mistaken
identities... The human mind does this ... connects dots that are not
really verifiable or objective...given the power of suggestion, the person
you meet on the street could be a Koothumi."

***Mere*** coincidences and ***mistaken*** identities??

Compare (just for starters) Art Gregory's "Paul Johnson"-like description with
the following testimonies by Olcott at this URL:

http://sites.netscape.net/dhcblainfo/paranormal.htm#Appendix

Then compare Art Gregory's suggestion of the physical Mahatmas
as "mere coincidences" and "mistaken identities" with what Colonel
Olcott writes below:

OLCOTT'S ACCOUNT OF MEETING MASTER KOOT HOOMI IN NOVEMBER, 1883 ON THE
OUTSKIRTS OF LAHORE, INDIA is to be found in the third volume of Olcott's Old Diary Leaves:

"I was sleeping in my tent, the night of the 19th, when I rushed back
towards external consciousness on feeling a hand laid on me. The camp being
on the open plain, and beyond the protection of the Lahore Police, my first
animal instinct was to protect myself from a possible religious fanatical
assassin, so I clutched the stranger by the upper arms, and asked him in
Hindustani who he was and what he wanted. It was all done in an instant, and
I held the man tight, as would one who might be attacked the next moment and
have to defend his life. But the next moment a kind, sweet voice said: 'Do
you not know me? Do you not remember me?' It was the voice of the Master
K.H. . . .I relaxed my hold on his arms, joined my palms in reverential
salutation, and wanted to jump out of bed to show him respect. But his hand
and voice stayed me, and after a few sentences had been exchanged, he took
my left hand in his, gathered the fingers of his right into the palm, and
stood quiet beside my cot, from which I could see his divinely benignant
face by the light of the lamp that burned on a packing-case at his back.
Presently I felt some soft substance forming in my hand, and the next minute
the Master laid his kind hand on my forehead, uttered a blessing, and left
my half of the large tent to visit Mr. W.T. Brown, who slept in the other
half behind a canvas screen that divided the tent into two rooms. When I had
time to pay attention to myself, I found myself holding in my left hand a
folded paper enwrapped in a silken cloth. To go to the lamp, open and read
it, was naturally my first impulse. I found it to be a letter of private
counsel. . . On hearing an exclamation from.[Brown's] side of the screen, I
went in there and he showed me a silk-wrapped letter of like appearance to
mine though of different contents, which he said had been given him much as
mine had been to me, and which we read together. . . .The next evening. .
.we two and Damodar sat in my tent, at 10 o'clock, waiting for an expected
visit from Master K.H. . . .We sat on chairs at the back of the tent so as
not to be observed from the camp: the moon was in its last quarter and had
not risen. After some waiting we heard and saw a tall Hindu approaching from
the side of the open plain. He came to within a few yards of us and beckoned
Damodar to come to him, which he did. He told him that the Master would
appear within a few minutes, and that he had some business with Damodar. It
was a pupil of Master K.H. Presently we saw the latter coming from the same
direction, pass his pupil. . .and stop in front of our group, now standing
and saluting in the Indian fashion, some yards away. Brown and I kept our
places, and Damodar went and conversed for a few minutes with the Teacher,
after which he returned to us and the king-like visitor walked away. I heard
his footsteps on the ground. . . .Before retiring, when I was writing my
Diary, the pupil lifted the portiere, beckoned to me, and pointed to the
figure of his Master [K.H.], waiting for me out on the plain in the
starlight. I went to him, we walked off to a safe place at some distance
where intruders need not be expected, and then for about a half-hour he told
me what I had to know. . . There were no miracles done at the interview. .
.just two men talking together, a meeting, and a parting when the talk was
over. . . ." (pp. 37-39, 43-45, 1972 reprinting.)

Theos-World Art Gregory on HPB's Masters