Theos-Talk Archives (December 2001 Message tt00182)

DTB: "Let's be clear. If we are dealing with psychic
phenomena and the effects emanating from the astral
light, let us say so and provide the readership with
actual textual sources."

Daniel Caldwell says so and has provided numerous
"actual textual sources." I merely accepted his
challenge to critique the phenomenon he cited.

DTB: "Is this single report by "Rawson" in FRANK
LESLIE's POPULAR MONTHLY to stand against the whole
volume of her teachings?"

Nowhere did anyone suggest that Rawson's article
should "stand against the whole volume of her
teachings." That would be an utterly preposterous
statement.

DTB: "Further, it is an insinuation against H P B's
character that cannot and does not find any support. 
I need more evidence
before I accept or broadcast such information

Somehow I suspect no amount of evidence would satisfy
you. The evidence, or most of it, is supplied by
Blavatsky.

DTB: "I PROTEST THIS."

So do I. How dare anyone infringe on my academic
freedom? Thanks for saying that, Dallas. I am glad
to have you in my corner.

DTB: "Have you found anything in the DOCUMENTARY
BIOGRAPHY OF H P B by Sylvia Cranston that supports
this? As far as I can determine she did not, repeat: 
NOT."

It is ludicrous to say that Cranston has defined the
limits of what can and cannot be investigated and that
we need her imprimatur.

DTB: "She was not interested in inducing visions,
using "soma" or
fumes, or anything else."

It was Blavatsky who wrote about soma and at
considerable length. Why write about it if she was
not interested in it? She also never condemned the
Brahmins for quaffing the stuff.

I must say, though, that I am unaware of Blavatsky
ever using the phrase: "Rule, Botanica!" I wish
people would cease connecting her with that phrase.

DTB: "In regard to seeing colors and hearing sounds,
apparently some of these phenomena are related to the
astral light and the effects that it can have on
sensitive natures."

So far as I have been able to determine, this
experience is uniquely associated with hashish use. 
Nobody in the nineteenth century seems to have written
about it in any other context. The French Symbolist
poets wrote about it as did Baudelaire. Does anyone
know different? Please advise.

DTB: "In OLD DIARY LEAVES (ODL) Olcott give a great
deal of evidence concerning H P B's phenomena."

If you read that book you will discover it is Olcott
who recommended the article by Rawson in Frank
Leslie's Popular Monthly. That is how I and Johnson
and others found it. We found it because it was
recommended by Olcott. We merely followed Olcott's
recommendation. Follow Olcott's recommendation and
you will find it, too. It is a good article.

It was Olcott who wrote the story about the pencils
and in the very book you cite. He was unable to tell
how many pencils she was holding up. What does that
tell you? This story substantiates Rawson's claim. 
That experience clearly did not have anything to do
with any "astral light." HE WAS STONED. The fumes
were so thick everybody who came into the room was
stoned. These were nineteenth century Bohemians who
probably never visited Bohemia but were citizens in
spirit.

Incidentally, Rawson was a lifelong friend of
Blavatsky who knew her before she became famous and
stuck around to the end, as most others did not.

Nowhere has anyone connected Blavatsky with alcohol. 
However, had she been stewed as well as stoned, that
would not have made her any different from most other
people in that part of the world at that period in
time.

Bear in mind what they were doing was perfectly legal
at the time.

Olcott said of himself that he was a drinking man,
that he was partial to mistresses and clubs, etc. A
monk he was not.

Whew!

Steve


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