Theos-Talk Archives (December 2001 Message tt00153)

Steve, you wrote:

> 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.

Steve, in my recent email about your post, I was NOT dealing
in that email with the Ooton Liatto case, but with the OTHER
account that you describe as follows:

> "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, my questions to you were directed toward the IMPLICATIONS of 
what you had written about this ODL account. In the ODL account 
about the pencils, there is no indication that there were two adepts 
burning herbs in Olcott's room. Also the pencil account did NOT 
occur in Olcott's room.

If you dismiss Leadbeater's accounts, what about the other two 
accounts I cited by Olcott?

Concerning Leadbeater's accounts, the relevant observations (about 
letters materializing out of a white mist) by Leadbeater are 
confirmed by, for example, a similar account by Mohini Chatterjee.

I will deal later with your comments relevant to the Ooton Liatto 
account.

Daniel H. Caldwell
BLAVATSKY ARCHIVES
http://hpb.cc