Theos-Talk Archives (June 2004 Message tt00131)

Daniel H. Caldwell wrote:
> So Bart .... WHO planted the cup and saucer??
Probably Blavatsky with help; most probably one of the servants; 
Khitmutgar comes to mind immediately.

You must remember that all we have are accounts written by observers, 
and rather untrained observers at that. I recall, when Uri Geller first 
came to the forefront, all sorts of scientists were describing 
experiments that "proved" that he was psychic; at least until James 
Randi asked pointed questions, and found that there were details they 
had previously ignored which explained how they could have been done. 
So, for sure, to go over every single report of every single phenomenon 
that Blavatsky was involved with, at best one can come up with how it 
COULD have been done. The art of misdirection includes not even letting 
the person know they have been misdirected.

An important thing to look for, a "tell", is when a detail is 
unnecessary; a detail whose sole purpose appears to be to make the 
phenomenon more impressive is usually the major clue as to how it was 
faked.

I realize that some people have nothing to do with their day but sit 
down writing articles for the Internet. I am not one of them. If I 
thought that an article on a magician's analysis of Blavatsky's 
phenomena had a decent chance of being sold, I might consider putting in 
the hours and days of research it would take. Also, while revealing 
"magic secrets" is not quite the bugaboo that many stage magicians would 
have you think, showing techniques would involve breaking copyright way 
past the "fair use" level. For example, there's a technique where one 
can take a small metal box, wrap it up with rubber bands, wrap THAT up 
with yarn, and put the whole thing in a seal plastic bag, and STILL 
manage to get a marked bill into it without apparent disturbance. You 
can probably find out how to do it in a book from your local library. 
But I'm not going to print out the instructions in a public group.

One wonderful example of the phenomena is "Out of This World". It's an 
old trick, very easy to do, where the subject deals a deck of cards, 
face down, at random, into two piles, and, when turned over, one pile is 
all the red cards, and the other pile is all black cards. At least 
that's how 99% of the people who have seen it will describe it. And it 
is more or less impossible, as described. Because the key is slipped in 
so subtly, that it is not remembered.

Therefore, even if every phenomenon that Blavatsky was involved with 
were faked, we would never be able to prove it. All we can do is, in 
those cases where "tells" are revealed, to point them out as possibilities.

Bart