Theos-Talk Archives (March 2001 Message tt00172)

Dear David

Your visit to the Mahatma Letters in the British Library sounds a great
experience, and it is truly something, as you say. Others say this too.

The letters are coated with some very thin kind of film by the Library, so
you would not have been touching the actual paper. It is difficult to
detect this covering.

THE LETTERS ARE NOT WRITTEN (there is an exception), but rather,
precipitated. It is easy to overlook this fact. It is an error to think
that pen and ink were used and that it is "the actual paper touched and used
by the Master's hands" It is in fact far more.

"I transcribe them with my own hand this once..."(Mahatma Letter 93, 2nd
ed., as numbered in British Library)

"The same as to the *precipitation* by the chela of the transferred thought
upon (or rather, *into*) paper..." the Master emphasises "into".
The words/thoughts are in the paper rather than on the surface.
And it is "transferred thought."

"The same as to the precipitation by the chela of the transferred thought
upon (or rather, *into*) paper: if the mental picture received be feeble his
visible reproduction of it must correspond. And the more so in proportion to
the closeness of attention he gives. He might -- were he but merely a person
of the true mediumistic temperament -- be employed by his "Master" as a sort
of *psychic printing machine* producing lithographed or psychographed
impressions of what the operator had in mind; his nerve-system, the machine,
his nerve-aura the printing fluid, the colours drawn from that exhaustless
storehouse of pigments (as of everything else) the Akasa. But the medium and
the chela are diametrically dissimilar and the latter acts consciously,
except under exceptional circumstances during development not necessary to
dwell upon here." (Letter 93)

There is plenty to think about here: e.g. "the colours drawn from...Akasa,"
rather than from bottles of ink. To what extent were the different shades
of red and blue, of which there are many, detectable, when you scrutinised
the letters? Why is it the case that there are these differences in the
shades of colour?

You write:
<<<Letters written often in haste, and sometimes without forethought,
but always with the best will in mind, by men who were still encased within
bodies they were born into, and hence who were still, if only slightly,
prone to typical human error (but not much!).>>>

This is how the Master puts it (Letter 93):
"The letter in question was framed by me while on a journey and on
horse-back. It was dictated mentally, in the direction of, and
"precipitated" by, a young chela not yet expert at this branch of Psychic
chemistry, and who had to transcribe it from the hardly visible imprint.
Half of it, therefore, was omitted and the other half more or less distorted
by the "artist." When asked by him at the time, whether I would look it over
and correct I answered, imprudently, I confess -- "anyhow will do, my boy --
it is of no great importance if you skip a few words." I was physically very
tired by a ride of 48 hours consecutively, and (physically again) -- half
asleep. Besides this I had very important business to attend to psychically
and therefore little remained of me to devote to that letter. It was doomed,
I suppose. When I woke I found it had already been sent on, and, as I was
not then anticipating its publication, I never gave it from that time a
thought."

This is another rather longer quote taken from "The Theosophist" vol. V,
p.64, December/January 1883/4. "Precipitation" by H.P.Blavatsky:

"OF all phenomena produced by occult agency in connection with our Society,
none have been witnessed by a more extended circle of spectators or more
widely known and commented on through recent Theosophical publications than
the mysterious production of letters. The phenomenon itself has been so well
described in the *Occult World* and elsewhere, that it would be useless to
repeat the description here. Our present purpose is more connected with the
process than the phenomenon of the mysterious formation of letters. Mr.
Sinnett sought for an explanation of the process and elicited the following
reply from the revered Mahatma, who corresponds with him:

*. . . Bear in mind these letters are not written but impressed, or
precipitated, and then all mistakes corrected. . . . I have to think it
over, to photograph every word and sentence carefully in my brain before it
can be repeated by precipitation. As the fixing on chemically prepared
surfaces of the images formed by the camera requires a previous arrangement
within the focus of the object to be represented, for, otherwise--as often
found in bad photographs--the legs of the sitter might appear out of all
proportion with the head, and so on--some have to first arrange our
sentences and impress every letter to appear on paper in our minds before it
becomes fit to be read. For the present, it is all I can tell you.*

Since the above was written, the Masters have been pleased to permit the
veil to be drawn aside a little more, and the *modus operandi* can thus be
explained now more fully to the outsider.

Those having even a superficial knowledge of the science of mesmerism know
how the thoughts of the mesmeriser, though silently formulated in his mind
are instantly transferred to that of the subject. It is not necessary for
the operator, if he is sufficiently powerful, to be present near the subject
to produce the above result. Some celebrated practitioners in this Science
are known to have been able to put their subjects to sleep even from a
distance of several days' journey. This known fact will serve us as a guide
in comprehending the comparatively unknown subject now under discussion. The
work of writing the letters in question is carried on by a sort of
psychological telegraphy; the Mahatmas very rarely write their letters in
the ordinary way. An electromagnetic connection, so to say, exists on the
psychological plane between a Mahatma and his chelas, one of whom acts as
his amanuensis. When the Master wants a letter to be written in this way, he
draws the attention of the chela, whom he selects for the task, by causing
an astral bell (heard by so many of our Fellows and others) to be rung near
him, just as the despatching telegraph office signals to the receiving
office before wiring the message. The thoughts arising in the mind of the
Mahatma are then clothed in word, pronounced mentally, and forced along the
astral currents he sends towards the pupil to impinge on the brain of the
latter. Thence they are borne by the nerve-currents to the palms of his
hands and the tips of his fingers, which rest on a piece of magnetically
prepared paper. As the thought-waves are thus impressed on the tissue,
materials are drawn to it from the ocean of *ákas*, (permeating every atom
of the sensuous universe) by an occult process, out of place here to
describe, and permanent marks are left. . ."

Tony