Theos-Talk Archives (April 2004 Message tt00659)

Friday, April 23, 2004

Re: HPB and Psychic Phenomena


Dear Friends:


Recent posts in regard to HPB have asked and questioned (again) the
accuracy of those who reported on her "phenomena". What can we
discover?


Lets consider: No one can prove anything to anyone who was not actually
there. All "psychic" phenomena has been challenged since there have
been many cases of fraud exposed. No one during HPB's life-time ever
"exposed" her and was able to prove that their surmises and opinions
were true.


In the case of H P B we have a long list of articles and views, pros and
cons, but these are not as authoritative as the work she did for
humanity in her great books, especially the SECRET DOCTRINE , and ISIS
UNVEILED, The KEY TO THEOSOPHY, and The VOICE OF THE SILENCE I repeat:
when someone has written as she has, books of comparative stature, then
they have a right to criticize and call her to task, not otherwise. 


One of her closest observers since 1874, among many friends and admirers
wrote after her death in 1891:


"...in 1875 she told me that she was then embarking on a work that would
draw upon her unmerited slander, implacable malice, uninterrupted
misunderstanding, constant work, and no worldly reward. Yet in the face
of this her lion heart carried her on.. 

Much has been said of her "phenomena," some denying them, others
alleging trick and device. Knowing her for so many years so well, and
having seen at her hands in private the production of more and more
varied phenomena that it has been the good fortune of all others of her
friends put together to seem I know for myself that she had control of
hidden powerful laws of nature not known to our science, and I also know
that she never boasted of her powers, never advertised their possession,
never publicly advised anyone to attempt their acquirement, but always
turned the eyes of those who could understand her to a life of altruism
based on a knowledge of true philosophy.

Others I know have looked with suspicion on an appearance they could not
fathom, and though it is true they adduce many proofs which hugged to
the breast, would damn sages and gods, yet it is only through blindness
they failed to see the lion's glance, the diamond heart of H.P.B...she
was laying down the lines of force all over the land...

The explanation has been offered by some too anxious friends that the
earlier phenomena were mistakes in judgment, attempted to be rectified
in later years by confining their area and limiting their number,
but...I shall hold to her own explanation made in advance and never
changed. That I have given above. For it is easier to take refuge
behind a charge of bad judgment than to understand the strange and
powerful laws which control in matters such as these.

Hardly any circumstance or epoch in Mme. Blavatsky's career was prosaic.


She chose to be born into this life at Ekaterinoslaw, Russia, in the
year 1831, when coffins and desolation were everywhere from the plague
of cholera. The child was so delicate that the family decided upon
immediate baptism under the rites of the Greek Catholic Church. This was
in itself not common, but the ceremony was - under the luck that ever
was with Helena - more remarkable and startling still. At this ceremony
all the relatives are present and stand holding lighted candles. As one
was absent a young child, aunt of the infant Helena, was made proxy for
the absentee, and given a candle like the rest. Tired out by the effort,
this young proxy sank down to the floor unnoticed by the others, and,
just as the sponsors were renouncing the evil one on the babe's behalf,
by three times spitting on the floor, the sitting witness with her
candle accidentally set fire to the robes of the officiating priest, and
instantly there was a small conflagration, in which many of those
present were seriously burned. Thus amid the scourge of death in the
land was Mme. Blavatsky ushered into our world, and in the flames
baptized by the priests of a Church whose fallacious dogmas she did much
in her life to expose.

She was connected with the rulers of Russia. Speaking in 1881, her
uncle, Gen. Fadeef, joint Councillor of State of Russia, said that, as
daughter of Col. Peter Hahn, she was grand-daughter of Gen. Alexis Hahn
von Rottenstern Hahn of old Mecklenburg stock, settled in Russia, and on
her mother's side daughter of Héléne Fadeef and grand-daughter of
Princess Helena Dolgorouky. Her maternal ancestors were of the oldest
families in Russia and direct descendants of the Prince or Grand Duke
Rurik, the first ruler of Russia. Several ladies of the family belonged
to the imperial house, becoming Czarinas by marriage. One of them, a
Dolgorouky, married the grandfather of Peter the Great, and another was
betrothed to Czar Peter II. Through these connections it naturally
resulted that Mme. Blavatsky was acquainted personally with many noble
Russians. 

In Paris I met three princes of Russia and one well-known General, who
told of her youth and the wonderful things related about her then; and
in Germany I met the Prince Emile de Wittgenstein of one of the many
Russo-German families, and himself cousin to the Empress of Russia and
aide-de-camp to the Czar, who told me that he was an old family friend
of hers, who heard much about her in early years, but, to his regret,
had never had the fortune to see her again after a brief visit made with
her father to his house. But he joined her famous Theosophical Society
by correspondence, and wrote, after the war with Turkey, that he had
been told in a letter from her that no hurt would come to him during the
campaign, and such turned out to be the fact.

As a child she was the wonder of the neighborhood and the terror of the
simpler serfs. Russia teems with superstitions and omens, and as Helena
was born on the seventh month and between the 30th and 31st day, she was
supposed by the nurses and servants to have powers and virtues possessed
by no one else. And these supposed powers made her the cynosure of all
in her early youth. She was allowed liberties given none others, and as
soon as she could understand she was given by her nurses the chief part
in a mystic Russian ceremony performed about the house and grounds on
the 30th of July with the object of propitiating the house demon.

The education she got was fragmentary, and in itself so inadequate as
to be one more cause among many for the belief of her friends in later
life that she was endowed with abnormal psychic powers, or else in
verity assisted by those unseen beings who she asserted were her helpers
and who were men living on the earth, but possessed of developed senses
that laughed at time and space. 

In girlhood she was bound by no restraint of conventionality, but rode
any Cossack horse in a man's saddle, and later on spent a long time with
her father with his regiment in the field, where, with her sister, she
became the pet of the soldiers. In 1844, when 14, her father took her to
London and Paris, where some progress was made in music, and before 1848
she returned home.

Her marriage in 1848 to Gen. Nicephore Blavatsky, the Governor of Erivan
in the Caucasus, gave her the name of Blavatsky, borne till her death.
This marriage, like all other events in her life, was full of
pyrotechnics. Her abrupt style had led her female friends to say that
she could not make the old Blavatsky marry her, and out of sheer bravado
she declared she could, and sure enough, he did propose and was
accepted. Then the awful fact obtruded itself on Helena's mind that this
could not - in Russia - be undone. They were married, but the affair was
signalized by Mme. Blavatsky's breaking a candlestick over his head and
precipitately leaving the house, never to see him again. After her
determination was evident, her father assisted her in a life of travel
which began from that date, and not until 1858 did she return to Russia.
Meanwhile her steps led her to America in 1851, to Canada, to New
Orleans, to Mexico, off to India, and back again in 1853 to the United
States. 

Then her relatives lost sight of her once more until 1858, when her
coming back was like other events in her history. It was a wintry night,
and a wedding party was on at the home in Russia. Guests had arrived,
and suddenly, interrupting the meal, the bell rang violently, and there,
unannounced, was Mme. Blavatsky at the door.

>From this point the family and many friends testify, both by letter and
by articles in the Rebus, a well-known journal in Russia, and in other
papers, a constant series of marvels wholly unexplainable on the theory
of jugglery was constantly occurring. They were of such a character that
hundreds of friends from great distances were constantly visiting the
house to see the wonderful Mme. Blavatsky. 

Many were incredulous, many believed it was magic, and others started
charges of fraud. The superstitious Gooriel and Mingrelian nobility came
in crowds and talked incessantly after, calling her a magician. They
came to see the marvels others reported, to see her sitting quietly
reading while tables and chairs moved of themselves and low raps in
every direction seemed to reply to questions. 

Among many testified to was one done for her brother, who doubted her
powers. A small chess table stood on the floor. Very light - a child
could lift it and a man break it. One asked if Mme. Blavatsky could
fasten it by will to the floor. She then said to examine it, and they
found it loose. After that, and being some distance off, she said, "Try
it again." They then found that no power of theirs could stir it, and
her brother supposing from his great strength that this "trick" could
easily be exposed, embraced the little table and shook and pulled it
without effect, except to make it groan and creak. So with wall and
furniture rapping, objects moving, messages about distant happenings
arriving by aerial port, the whole family and neighborhood were in a
constant state of excitement. Mme. Blavatsky said herself that this was
a period when she was letting her psychic forces play, and learning
fully to understand and control them.

But the spirit of unrest came freshly again, and she started out once
more to find, as she wrote to me, "the men and women whom I want to
prepare for the work of a great philosophical and ethical movement that
I expect to start in a later time." Going to Spezzia in a Greek vessel,
the usual display of natural circumstances took place, and the boat was
blown up by an explosion of gunpowder in the cargo. Only a few of those
on board were saved, she among them. 

This led her to Cairo, in Egypt, where, in 1871, she started a society
with the object of investigating spiritualism so as to expose its
fallacies, if any, and to put its facts on a firm, scientific, and
reasonable basis, if possible. But it only lasted fourteen days, and she
wrote about it then: "It is a heap of ruins - majestic, but as
suggestive as those of the Pharoahs' tombs."

It was, however, in the United States that she really began the work
that has made her name well known in Europe, Asia, and America; made her
notorious in the eyes of those who dislike all reformers, but great and
famous for those who say her works have benefited them. Prior to 1875
she was again investigating the claims of spiritualism in this country,
and wrote home then analyzing it, declaring false its assertion that the
dead were heard from, and showing that, on the other hand, the phenomena
exhibited a great psycho-physiological change going on here, which, if
allowed to go on in our present merely material civilization, would
bring about great disaster, morally and physically.

Then in 1875, in New York, she started the Theosophical Society, aided
by Col. H. S. Olcott and others, declaring its objects to be the making
of a nucleus for a universal brotherhood, the study of ancient and other
religions and sciences, and the investigation of the psychical and
recondite laws affecting man and nature. 

There certainly was no selfish object in this, nor any desire to raise
money. She was in receipt of funds from sources in Russia and other
places until they were cut off by reason of her becoming an American
citizen, and also because her unremunerated labors for the society
prevented her doing literary work on Russian magazines, where all her
writings would be taken eagerly. As soon as the Theosophical Society was
started she said to the writer that a book had to be written for its
use. ISIS UNVEILED was then begun, and unremittingly she worked at it
night and day until the moment when a publisher was secured for it.

Meanwhile crowds of visitors were constantly calling at her rooms in
Irving Place, later in Thirty-fourth street, and last in Forty-seventh
street and Eighth avenue. The newspapers were full of her supposed
powers or of laughter at the possibilities in man that she and her
society asserted. A prominent New York daily wrote of her thus: "A woman
of as remarkable characteristics as Cagliostro himself, and one who is
every day as differently judged by different people as the renowned
Count was in his day. By those who know her slightly she is called a
charlatan; better acquaintance made you think she was learned; and those
who were intimate with her were either carried away with belief in her
power or completely puzzled." Isis Unveiled attracted wide attention,
and all the New York papers reviewed it, each saying that it exhibited
immense research. 

The strange part of this is, as I and many others can testify as
eyewitnesses to the production of the book, that the writer had no
library in which to make researches and possessed no notes of
investigation or reading previously done. 

All was written straight out of hand. And yet it is full of references
to books in the British Museum and other great libraries, and every
reference is correct. Either, then, we have, as to that book, a woman
who was capable of storing in her memory a mass of facts, dates,
numbers, titles, and subjects such as no other human being ever was
capable of, or her claim to help from unseen beings is just.

In 1878, Isis Unveiled having been published, Mme. Blavatsky informed
her friends that she must go to India and start there the same movement
of the Theosophical Society. So in December of that year she and Col.
Olcott and two more went out to India, stopping at London for a while.
Arriving in Bombay, they found three or four Hindoos to meet them who
had heard from afar of the matter. A place was hired in the native part
of the town, and soon she and Col. Olcott started the Theosophist, a
magazine that became at once well known there and was widely bought in
the West.

There in Bombay and later in Adyar, Madras, Mme. Blavatsky worked day
after day in all seasons, editing her magazine and carrying on an
immense correspondence with people in every part of the world interested
in theosophy, and also daily disputing and discussing with learned
Hindoos who constantly called. 

Phenomena occurred there also very often, and later the society for
discovering nothing about the psychic world investigated these, and came
to the conclusion that this woman of no fortune, who was never before
publicly heard of in India, had managed, in some way they could not
explain, to get up a vast conspiracy that ramified all over India,
including men of all ranks, by means of which she was enabled to produce
pretended phenomena. I give this conclusion as one adopted by many. For
any one who knew her and who knows India, with its hundreds of different
languages, none of which she knew, the conclusion is absurd. The Hindoos
believed in her, said always that she could explain to them their own
scriptures and philosophies where the Brahmins had lost or concealed the
key, and that by her efforts and the work of the society founded through
her, India's young men were being saved from the blank materialism which
is the only religion the West can ever give a Hindoo.

In 1887 Mme. Blavatsky returned to England, and there started another
theosophical magazine, called Lucifer, and immediately stirred up the
movement in Europe. Day and night there, as in New York and India, she
wrote and spoke, incessantly corresponding with people everywhere,
editing Lucifer, and making more books for her beloved society, and
never possessed of means, never getting from the world at large anything
save abuse wholly undeserved. THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY was written in
London, and also THE SECRET DOCTRINE, which is the great text book for
Theosophists. THE VOICE OF THE SILENCE was written there too, and is
meant for devotional Theosophists. Writing, writing, writing from morn
till night was her fate here. Yet, although scandalized and abused here
as elsewhere, she made many devoted friends, for there never was
anything half way in her history. Those who met her or heard of her were
always either staunch friends or bitter enemies....

Then a permanent London headquarters was started and still exists. And
there Mme. Blavatsky passed away, with the knowledge that the society
she had striven so hard for at any cost was at last an entity able to
struggle for itself.

In her dying moment she showed that her life had been spent for an idea,
with full consciousness that in the eyes of the world it was Utopian,
but in her own necessary for the race. 

She implored her friends not to allow her then ending incarnation to
become a failure by the failure of the movement started and carried on
with so much of suffering. She never in all her life made money or asked
for it. Venal writers and spiteful men and women have said she strove to
get money from so-called dupes, but all her intimate friends know that
over and over again she has refused money; that always she has had
friends who would give her all they had if she would take it, but she
never took any nor asked it. On the other hand, her philosophy and her
high ideals have caused others to try to help all those in need.
Impelled by such incentive, one rich Theosophist gave her $5,000 to
found a working girls' club at Bow, in London, and one day, after Mrs.
Besant had made the arrangements for the house and the rest, Mme.
Blavatsky, although sick and old, went down there herself and opened the
club in the name of the society.

The aim and object of her life were to strike off the shackles forged by
priestcraft for the mind of man. She wished all men to know that they
are God in fact, and that as men they must bear the burden of their own
sins, for no one else can do it. Hence she brought forward to the West
the old Eastern doctrines of karma and reincarnation. Under the first,
the law of justice, she said each must answer for himself, and under the
second make answer on the earth where all his acts were done. She also
desired that science should be brought back to the true ground where
life and intelligence are admitted to be within and acting on and
through every atom in the universe. Hence her object was to make
religion scientific and science religious, so that the dogmatism of each
might disappear.

Her life since 1875 was spent in the unremitting endeavor to draw within
the Theosophical Society those who could work unselfishly to propagate
an ethics and philosophy tending to realize the brotherhood of man by
showing the real unity and essential non-separateness of every being.
And her books were written with the declared object of furnishing the
material for intellectual and scientific progress on those lines. The
theory of man's origin, powers, and destiny brought forward by her,
drawn from ancient Indian sources, places us upon a higher pedestal that
that given by either religion or science, for it gives to each the
possibility of developing the godlike powers within and of at last
becoming a co-worker with nature.
As every one must die at last, we will not say that her demise was a
loss; but if she had not lived and done what she did humanity would not
have had the impulse and the ideas toward the good which it was her
mission to give and to proclaim. And there are today scores, nay,
hundreds, of devout, earnest men and women intent on purifying their own
lives and sweetening the lives of others, who trace their hopes and
aspirations to the wisdom-religion revived in the West through her
efforts, and who gratefully avow that their dearest possessions are the
result of her toilsome and self-sacrificing life. If they, in turn, live
aright and do good, they will be but illustrating the doctrine which she
daily taught and hourly practised."
[ W Q J ]

I hope the above will offer some major points to consider.  

These are selected from among many more that can be pointed to if anyone
is interested. If one goes to Sylvia Cranston's biography "H.P B" --
much will be discovered there to add to these few instances.

Most important however is an opportunity to study THEOSOPHY as a
philosophy; and, then to discover that she has offered us a review of
the World's History culled from the pages of the ancient "Book of Dzyan"
-- WISDOM that is maintained and continually added to by the Great
Sages: The MASTERS OF WISDOM of whom she said she was a devotee. May
we all be inspired by her example.

Best wishes,

Dallas