Theos-Talk Archives (December 2001 Message tt00150)

Hi, Daniel:

The question is not fairly stated. I said Olcott
described an experience which clearly indicated he was
under the influence of something, and that supports
Rawson's statement that Blavatsy smoked hashish. 
Olcott himself clearly states that when it rained
inside his apartment, etc., there were herbs being
burned by his two visitors. That diminishes the
usefulness of the story as scientific evidence, since
we do not know what herbs were being burned or how
small and poorly ventilated the room was, or how
susceptible Olcott was to these hallucinogenic herbs. 
Pls respond to the specific facts I sent to Frank and
tell me if you agree or disagree and if you see some
other explanation which is more plausible.

Notice I am operating on the asumption that (1) these
wonder stories are true, and (2) they have
explanations. I am sure you would agree with both of
those premises.

I don't trust Leadbeater enough to respond to his
stories. He would have said just anything, and did.

Steve


--- danielhcaldwell <danielhcaldwell@yahoo.com> wrote:
> Steve, you wrote:
> 
> "In his Old Diary Leaves, Olcott recounts a story of
> seeing Blavatsky 
> hold up a pencil, which then turned into two
> pencils, and then more. 
> The longer he stared, the more pencils he saw. That
> seems to
> indicate something was burning in the room which
> produced sense 
> distorting fumes."
> 
> Steve, in your reasoning here are you really
> suggesting that the most 
> PROBABLE explanation is that there were "sense
> distorting fumes" in 
> the room which produced a hallucination in which
> Olcott thought he 
> saw Blavatsky producing multiple pencils out of one
> pencil?
> 
> If this is really what you are suggesting, then what
> about some of 
> the experiences cited below? I could give hundreds
> of examples but 
> will only give four of them at this time.
> 
> Experience 1
> 
> Charles Leadbeater wrote:
> 
> "Even at that hour a number of devoted friends were
> gathered in Mrs. 
> Oakley's drawing room to say farewell to Madame
> Blavatsky, who
> seated 
> herself in an easy chair by the fireside. She was
> talking brilliantly 
> to those who were present, and rolling one of her
> eternal cigarettes, 
> when suddenly her right hand was jerked out towards
> the fire in a 
> very peculiar fashion, and lay palm upwards. She
> looked down at it in 
> surprise, as I did myself, for I was standing close
> to her, leaning 
> with an elbow on the mantelpiece; and several of us
> saw quite clearly 
> a sort of whitish mist form in the palm of her hand
> and then condense 
> into a piece of folded paper, which she at once
> handed to me, 
> saying "There is your answer." Every one in the room
> crowded round, 
> of course, but she sent me away outside to read it,
> saying that I 
> must not let anyone see its contents. It was a very
> short note."
> 
> Steve, were there "sense distorting fumes" in the
> room which produced 
> an hallucination of a whitish mist forming in the
> palm of HPB's hand?
> 
> Experience 2
> 
> Charles Leadbeater again wrote:
> 
> "In those days trains were usually lit by smoky oil
> lamps, and in the 
> center of the roof of each compartment there was a
> large round hole 
> into which porters inserted these lamps as they ran
> along the roofs 
> of the carriages. This being a day train, however,
> there was no lamp, 
> and one could see the blue sky through the hole. It
> happened that Mr. 
> Oakley and I were both leaning back in our
> respective corners, so 
> that we both saw a kind of ball of whitish mist
> forming in that hole, 
> and a moment later it had condensed into a piece of
> folded paper, 
> which fell to the floor of our compartment. I
> started forward, picked 
> it up, and handed it at once to Madame Blavatsky,
> taking it for 
> granted that any communication of this nature must
> be intended for 
> her. She at once unfolded it and read it, and I saw
> a red flush 
> appear upon her face."
> 
> Steve, are we to suppose that there were "sense
> distorting fumes" in 
> the train compartment which produced an
> hallucination of "a kind of 
> ball of whitish mist forming in that hole, and a
> moment later it had 
> condensed into a piece of folded paper"?
> 
> Experience 3
> 
> Henry Olcott wrote:
> 
> "Isis was leaning back in her chair, fooling with
> her hair, and 
> smoking a cigarette. She got one lock in her fingers
> and pulled it, 
> and fingered it in an absent way—talking the while,
> when lo! the
> lock 
> grew visibly darker and darker until, presto! it was
> as black as 
> coal. I said nothing until the thing was done, when
> suddenly catching 
> her hand I asked her to let me have this neat
> specimen of miracle 
> making as a keepsake. You ought to have seen her
> face when she saw 
> what she had done in her brown study. But she
> laughed good-naturedly, 
> called me a sharp Yankee, and cut off the lock and
> gave it to me. I 
> will send you a bit of it as a talisman. Mind you,
> this was cut off 
> of Isis's head in my sight and under the full blaze
> of the 
> chandelier. This one lock showed against the blonde
> silky and 
> crinkled hair of Blavatsky's head like a skein of
> black
> sewing-silk upon a light-brown cloth." 
> 
> Steve, are we to suppose that there were "sense
> distorting fumes" in 
> the room which produced an hallucination of "the
> lock [of hair] which 
> grew visibly darker and darker until, presto! it was
> as black as 
> coal"?
> 
> Experience 4
> 
> Henry Olcott again wrote:
> 
> "When I asked him [Master Morya] to leave me some
> tangible evidence 
> that I had not been the dupe of a vision, but that
> he had indeed been 
> there, he removed from his head the puggri [turban]
> he wore, and 
> giving it to me, vanished from my sight." 
> 
> Steve, are we to conclude that there were "sense
> distorting fumes" in 
> Olcott's bedroom which produced an hallucination of
> the Master and 
> of the Master vanishing from Olcott's sight?
> 
> Daniel H. Caldwell
> BLAVATSKY ARCHIVES
> http://hpb.cc
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to
> http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ 
> 
> 


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