Theos-Talk Archives (June 2004 Message tt00059)

--- In theos-talk@yahoogroups.com, "Daniel H. Caldwell" 
<danielhcaldwell@y...> wrote:
> Bart, 
> 
> You wrote in part:
> 
> ". . . I am certain that SOME of her [Blavatsky's] 
> phenomena were faked. I never claimed to prove anything, 
> and I never claimed that I believed that they were all faked 
> (although I will not discount the latter, either)."
> 
> It would be interesting to know exactly which of HPB's
> phenomena you are CERTAIN were FAKED.

The following is a Sinnett comment published in the Boston Herald on 
April 27, 1895, the day before the meeting in Boston of the 
Convention of the American Section, and republished in chapter 32 of 
THE THEOSOPHICAL MOVEMENT, thus

".... I have known for a great many years that many letters in the 
Mahatmas' handwriting, coming through Madame Blavatsky herself were 
anything but what they seemed. "The trouble in this respect began 
about the year 1887, when Madame Blavatsky was in this country 
[England] and desirous of carrying out many arrangements with the 
society in London of which I personally disapproved. To my surprise I 
received through her letters in the familiar handwriting of the 
Mahatma K.H. which endorsed her views and desired my compliance. 
These gave me great distress at the time, though I did not at first 
suspect the bona fides of the origin.

"The flavour of their style was unlike that to which I had been used 
during the long course of my previous correspondence with the 
Mahatma, and gradually my mind was forced to the conviction that they 
could not be really authentic. A year or so later, when the Coulomb 
scandal had for the moment almost overwhelmed Madame Blavatsky's 
influence here, I visited her in her retirement at Wurzburg, and in 
the intimate conversation that ensued she frankly avowed to me that 
the letters to which I have above referred had not proceeded from the 
Mahatma at all.

"She had in fact procured their production in order to subserve what 
she conceived to be the right policy of the society at the time ?? 
falling into the fatal error of doing evil that good might come. 
There is no room for supposing that I am mistaken in my recollection 
of what passed. These are clear and definite, and were the subject of 
much conversation between myself and theosophical friends at the time.

"Moreover, at a somewhat later date, when Madame Blavatsky was 
staying at Ostende, I again referred to the matter, and said that I 
considered myself to have been hardly used, in so far as my deepest 
sentiments of loyalty to the Mahatma had been practiced upon for 
purposes with which he had nothing to do. Madame Blavatsky, I 
remember, replied: 'Well, you were not much hurt, because, after all, 
you never believed the letters were genuine...."

The author of the book, an apologist by trade, points out some 
chronological errors in the account, but the vasuc fac that Sinnett 
did not trust the authenticity of the letters while prtending 
publicly that he did remains.

There are also other comments regarding foubts on the part of Besant, 
Olcott, etc.

The phenomenon that mainly intrigues me is materialization, because I 
have never done this myself nor have I found anyone else who can do 
it. Bart claims those were all magic tricks and his argument makes 
sense. I think what I will do is experiment with the yoga techniques 
which are supposed to lead to this ability and see what happens. I 
do not believe for a moment that I have enough talent to materialize 
a teacup, assuming that it is even possible. But it should be 
possible to find out what the ancients discovered and explore what, 
if anything, there is to it.