Theos-Talk Archives (December 2003 Message tt00263)

Dennis, you wrote in part:

"Some of these quotations are as absurd as any I have
ever seen."

"I suggest that if Roberto or any one else should have
any curiosity at all, they look up some local
spiritualistic churches, and go to some services, and
observe and judge for themselves."

"You will find most of them very boring, but you will
find few if any maniacs, thieves, ravishers,
murderers, or cut-throats."

"In my opinion, HPB was out of touch with reality when
she was writing these paragraphs. I don't think these
things were true even when she was alive."

"I think she was (and is) mistaken."

Dennis, I invite you and other readers to carefully
reconsider exactly what HPB wrote. I quote two
paragraphs:

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A person may consciously and voluntarily submit his
will to another being and become his slave. This other
being may be a human being, and the medium will then
be his obedient servant and may be used by him for
good or for bad purposes. This other "being" may be an
idea, such as love, greediness, hate, jealousy,
avarice, or some other passion, and the effect on the
medium will be proportionate to the strength of the
idea and the amount of self-control left in the
medium. This "other being" may be an elementary or an
elemental, and the poor medium become a epileptic, a
maniac or a criminal. This "other being" may be the
man's own higher principle, either alone or put into
rapport with another ray of the collective universal
spiritual principle, and the "medium" will then be a
great genius, a writer, a poet, an artist, a musician,
an inventor, and so on. This "other being" may be one
of those exalted beings, called Mahatmas, and the
conscious and voluntary medium will then be called
their "Chela." 

Again, a person may never in his life have heard the
word "Medium" and still be a strong Medium, although
entirely unconscious of the fact. His actions may be
more or less influenced unconsciously by his visible
or invisible surroundings. He may become a prey to
Elementaries or Elementals, even without knowing the
meaning of these words, and he may consequently become
a thief, a murderer, a ravisher, a drunkard or a
cut-throat, and it has often enough been proved that
crimes frequently become epidemic; or again he may by
certain invisible influences be made to accomplish
acts which are not at all consistent with his
character such as previously known. He may be a great
liar and for once by some unseen influence be induced
to speak the truth; he may be ordinarily very much
afraid and yet on some great occasion and on the spur
of the moment commit an act of heroism; he may be a
street-robber and vagabond and suddenly do an act of
generosity, etc

---------------------------------

One should carefully read HPB's whole article which
can be found at:

http://blavatsky.net/blavatsky/arts/AreChelasMediums.htm

As far as I can tell, Dennis, you are taking what HPB
wrote completely OUT OF CONTEXT.

In the above paragraphs HPB is NOT speaking
specifically about "mediums" you would find at
"spiritualistic churches." 

She is not saying that a "medium" at one of those
churches will become "a thief, a murderer, a ravisher,
a drunkard or a cut-throat."

Her context is FAR WIDER.

Notice HPB's wording:

". . . a person may never in his life have heard the
word "Medium" and still be a strong Medium, although
entirely unconscious of the fact. His actions may be
more or less influenced unconsciously by his visible
or invisible surroundings. He may become a prey to
Elementaries or Elementals, even without knowing the
meaning of these words, and he may consequently become
a thief, a murderer, a ravisher, a drunkard or a
cut-throat. . . . "

Daniel H. Caldwell
BLAVATSKY STUDY CENTER/BLAVATSKY ARCHIVES
http://blavatskyarchives.com/introduction.htm

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"...Contrast alone can enable us to appreciate things
at their right value; and unless a judge compares
notes and hears both sides he can hardly come to a
correct decision."
H.P. Blavatsky. The Theosophist, July, 1881, p. 2
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