Theos-Talk Archives (April 2004 Message tt00674)

Art Gregory wrote that:

"Colonel Olcott in his testimony reports that he 
mostly met these Masters in their "doubles' or 
astral double form. Most of these contacts with 
Masters occurred to people in dreams and their 
fantasies...If there was contact on the physical 
plane such contacts were brief and fleeting and 
could be explained by mere coincidences and mistaken
identities... The human mind does this ... connects 
dots that are not really verifiable or objective...
given the power of suggestion, the person you meet 
on the street could be a Koothumi."

***Mere*** coincidences and ***mistaken*** identities??

Compare Art Gregory's suggestion of the physical 
Mahatmas as "mere coincidences" and "mistaken 
identities" with what Colonel Olcott writes below.

OLCOTT'S ACCOUNT OF MEETING MASTER KOOT HOOMI IN NOVEMBER, 1883 ON THE
OUTSKIRTS OF LAHORE, INDIA is to be found in the third volume of 
Olcott's Old Diary Leaves:

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"I was sleeping in my tent, the night of the 19th, when I rushed back
towards external consciousness on feeling a hand laid on me. The camp 
being on the open plain, and beyond the protection of the Lahore 
Police, my first animal instinct was to protect myself from a 
possible religious fanatical assassin, so I clutched the stranger by 
the upper arms, and asked him in Hindustani who he was and what he 
wanted. It was all done in an instant, and I held the man tight, as 
would one who might be attacked the next moment and have to defend 
his life. But the next moment a kind, sweet voice said: 'Do you not 
know me? Do you not remember me?' It was the voice of the Master
K.H. . . .I relaxed my hold on his arms, joined my palms in 
reverential salutation, and wanted to jump out of bed to show him 
respect. But his hand and voice stayed me, and after a few sentences 
had been exchanged, he took my left hand in his, gathered the fingers 
of his right into the palm, and stood quiet beside my cot, from which 
I could see his divinely benignant face by the light of the lamp that 
burned on a packing-case at his back.

Presently I felt some soft substance forming in my hand, and the next 
minute the Master laid his kind hand on my forehead, uttered a 
blessing, and left my half of the large tent to visit Mr. W.T. Brown, 
who slept in the other half behind a canvas screen that divided the 
tent into two rooms. When I had time to pay attention to myself, I 
found myself holding in my left hand a folded paper enwrapped in a 
silken cloth. To go to the lamp, open and read it, was naturally my 
first impulse. I found it to be a letter of private counsel. . . On 
hearing an exclamation from.[Brown's] side of the screen, I went in 
there and he showed me a silk-wrapped letter of like appearance to
mine though of different contents, which he said had been given him 
much as mine had been to me, and which we read together. . . .

The next evening. . .we two and Damodar sat in my tent, at 10 
o'clock, waiting for an expected visit from Master K.H. . . .We sat 
on chairs at the back of the tent so as not to be observed from the 
camp: the moon was in its last quarter and had not risen. After some 
waiting we heard and saw a tall Hindu approaching from the side of 
the open plain. He came to within a few yards of us and beckoned
Damodar to come to him, which he did. He told him that the Master 
would appear within a few minutes, and that he had some business with 
Damodar. It was a pupil of Master K.H. Presently we saw the latter 
coming from the same direction, pass his pupil. . .and stop in front 
of our group, now standing and saluting in the Indian fashion, some 
yards away. Brown and I kept our places, and Damodar went and 
conversed for a few minutes with the Teacher, after which he returned 
to us and the king-like visitor walked away. I heard his footsteps on 
the ground. . . .Before retiring, when I was writing my Diary, the 
pupil lifted the portiere, beckoned to me, and pointed to the
figure of his Master [K.H.], waiting for me out on the plain in the
starlight. I went to him, we walked off to a safe place at some 
distance where intruders need not be expected, and then for about a 
half-hour he told me what I had to know. . . There were no miracles 
done at the interview. . .just two men talking together, a meeting, 
and a parting when the talk was over. . . ." (pp. 37-39, 43-45, 1972 
reprinting.)
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Notice Olcott's words: "for about a half-hour he [Master KH] told me 
what I had to know".

Is this "brief" and "fleeting" as Art Gregory would want us to 
believe?

Also compare Art Gregory's "Paul Johnson"-like description with the 
following testimonies by Olcott at this URL:

http://www.blavatskyarchives.com/olcottaccounts.htm

or 

http://www.theosophy.info/olcottaccounts.htm

If Art Gregory wants us to accept the real "truth" about the Masters 
then he will have to first deal with the specifics such as I've 
outlined above. Gregory's reliance on general vague statements while 
ignoring such specifics and details does not win me over to his 
argument. In fact, I'm completely puzzled by his reasoning.

Daniel Caldwell
http://hpb.cc
http://theosophy.info