Theos-Talk Archives (April 2004 Message tt00676)

Wgile I believe the stor is true, it is not that great as evidence 
because you have a man awakened in the middle of the night in a 
darkened tent and assuming a voice belongs to a mahatma. The New 
York visitations described in v. 1 of ODL are better evidenbce.


--- In theos-talk@yahoogroups.com, "Daniel H. Caldwell" 
<danielhcaldwell@y...> wrote:
> 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:
> 
> ==========================================================
> 
> "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.)
> =============================================================
> 
> 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