Theos-Talk Archives (June 2004 Message tt00133)

Bart,

Thanks for your recent comments but I see that for reasons
best known to you, you fail to answer any of the following
questions. I repeat them to refresh your memory.

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Are there ANY of HPB's phenomena that you think were genuine?

And if Blavatsky produced fake phenomena, then do you believe
she also faked the appearances of her Masters?

Take this encounter given by Olcott:

"The time came when I was blessed with a visit from one of these
Mahatmas in my own room at New York - a visit from him, not in the
physical body, but in the "double," or Mayavi-rupa. When I asked him
to leave me some tangible evidence that I had not been the dupe of a
vision, but that he had indeed been there, he removed from his head
the puggri [turban] he wore, and giving it to me, vanished from my
sight. That cloth I have still, and in one corner is marked in thread
the cipher or signature he always attaches to the notes he writes to
myself and others."

Or this encounter by Damodar:

"He [Master Morya] held and put His hands twice over Mme. B.'s
head.
She then stretched out her hand which passed through His - a fact
proving that what we saw was a Mayavi Rupa, although so vivid and
clear as to give one the impression of a material physical body. She
immediately took the letter from His hands. It crumpled, as it were,
and made a sound. He then waved His hands towards us, walked a few
steps, inaudibly and imperceptibly as before, and disappeared!"

Just a magic trick???

Or this one by Casava Pillai:

"That very night while I was going to bed in Col. Olcott's room, with
all doors closed, and in good lamp light, I was startled to see
coming out, as it were, of the solid wall, the astral form of my most
revered Guru Deva, and I prostrated before him, and he blessed me and
desired me to go and see him beyond the Himalayas, in good Telugu
language. The conversation that passed between us is too sacred to be
mentioned here. He disappeared in the same way as he appeared."

Now I have a pretty good hunch about what the Amazing Randi would say
about these encounters.

What do you say as a Theosophist?

The Amazing Randi never saw a psychic phenomenon that he didn't think
wasn't ESP....that is, ERROR SOME PLACE. Some kind of magic trickery,
or hallucination or something else involving a PHYSICAL cause or
explanation.

>From everything I've read by Randi, he is what I would call a
materialist or physicalist....he doesn't believe in superphysical
worlds, subtle bodies, auras, out of body experiences, life after
death, etc. etc. Therefore it is understandable about his view of
psychic phenomena.

But I haven't the foggiest idea of your point of view.
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Bart, you need not worry about spending hours writing a
reply to the above. I'm sure you could in five minutes
anwer frankly but concisely the questions and major points
raised above.

Daniel