Theos-Talk Archives (September 2004 Message tt00292)

Hi Dallas,

With the help of a friend I found the following article on
the Blavatsky CD-Rom. Note especially:

>> While it is yet time, both the founders of the
Theosophical Society place upon record their solemn promise
that they will let trance mediums severely alone after they
get to “the other side.” >>

Both the founders refers to Olcott and HPB.

Katinka 

The whole article:

UNDER THE SHADOW OF GREAT NAMES

[The Theosophist, Vol. IV, No. 6, March, 1883, p. 137]

The common vice of trying to palm off upon the world the
crude imaginings or rhapsodical concoctions of one’s own
brain, by claiming their utterance as under divine
inspiration, prevails largely among our esteemed friends,
the Spiritualists. Many clever persons known as “trance
speakers” and “inspirational writers” keep the thing up at
a lively rate, turning out oration after oration and book
after book as coming from the great dead, the planetary
spirits, and even from God. The great names of antiquity
are evoked to father feeble books, and no sooner is it
known that a prominent character is deceased than some
mediums pretend to be his telephones, to discourse
platitudes before sympathetic audiences. Shakespeare’s
imagination pictured to his mind the mighty Caesar, turned
to clay, being made to ‘stop a hole to keep the wind
away,”* but had he made a forecast of our Modern
Spiritualism, he would have found an even worse satire upon
the impermanency of human greatness, in the prospect of the
dead Caesar being forced to say stupidities that, alive, he
would not have tolerated in one of his foot soldiers. Some
of our more optimistic friends of the spiritualistic party
postulate a halcyon time when mediumistic utterances will
be judged according to their intrinsic merit, like other
oratorical and literary 
––––––––––
* [Hamlet, Act V, Sc. I, 235.] 
––––––––––



UNDER THE SHADOW OF GREAT NAMES 
353


productions, and it is to be hoped they may not deceive
themselves. The number of bright minds that are occupying
themselves with this great subject is assuredly on the
increase, and with such men as “M.A. (Oxon),” Mr. Massey,
Mr. Roden Noel, and others of that class, spiritualistic
literature is always being enriched. But at the same time
we see no diminution as regards bogus platform sermons
claiming to come from Judge Edmonds, Robert Dale Owen, Epes
Sargent, and Professors Hare and Mapes, or books ascribed
to the inspiration of Jehovah and his ancient Spirits. Our
poor Mr. Bennett, of the Truthseeker, had scarcely had time
to die before he was paraded as a spirit-control by an
American medium. The future has a gloomy look indeed to us
when we think that, despite their best endeavours to the
contrary, the Founders of the Theosophical Society are
quite as liable as either of the eminent gentlemen above
mentioned—with all of whom the writer was personally
acquainted, and neither of whom, in all probability, ever
communicated one word that their alleged mediums attribute
to them—to an involuntary post-mortem recantation of their
most cherished and avowed ideas. We have been prompted to
these remarks by a convincing demonstration, by the
Religio-Philosophical Journal, that a recent “trance
address” by our dear deceased friend Epes Sargent, through
a certain medium, was a sheer fabrication. A comparison of
the same with Mr. Sargent’s last and greatest
spiritualistic work, The Scientific Basis of Spiritualism,
shows beyond question that he could never have inspired any
such mediumistic oration. While it is yet time, both the
founders of the Theosophical Society place upon record
their solemn promise that they will let trance mediums
severely alone after they get to “the other side.” If after
this, any of the talking fraternity take their names in
vain, they hope that at least their theosophical confrères
will unearth this paragraph and warn the trespassers off
their astral premises. So far as we have observed, the best
trance speakers have been those who bragged least about
their controls. “Good wine needs no bush,” says the adage. 

--- "W.Dallas TenBroeck" <dalval14@e...> wrote:

> Sept. 6 2004
> 
> Dear Katinka / Erica:
> 
> Will you be able to help me?
> 
> 
> I need original Sources and references please?
> 
> I want to verify what you offer.
> 
> As an example: 
> 
> Earlier, Erica referred me to something on the "Green"
> Web-site concerning
> Judge.
> 
> Unfortunately it is at least 3rd or 4th generation
> hear-say.
> 
> I want for accuracy the FIRST generation statement, if
> available. 
> 
> Do you have any such?
> 
> Dallas
> 
> ==============================
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Katinka Hesselink
> [mailto:mail@k...] 
> Sent: Monday, September 06, 2004 3:47 AM
> To: theos-talk@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: Theos-World Re: Anand: Serious Questions with
> Profound Implications
> 
> Blavatsky stated specifically that she would not be
> speaking to anyone
> after she was dead. Nor would Olcott, for that matter.
> 
> Katinka
> --- In theos-talk@yahoogroups.com, "adelasie"
> <adelasie@s...> wrote:
> > Dear Erica,
> > 
> > Is it possible that we don't know enough to make such a
> 
> > determination?
> > 
> > > The writing style on one of the letter Judge affirms
> to be from
> > > Blavatsky it's a very different from the writing
> style of Blavatsky.
> > 
> > Such an accomplished adept as HPB could surely write in
> more than one 
> > style. Also, when a high entity communicates with
> someone in 
> > manifestation, the message comes through the latter,
> and can be 
> > colored by his/her personality in matters of
> expression.
> > 
> > > And also how he could affirm to be in contact with
> the diseased
> > > Blavatsky without challenging some of her basic
> teachings that are so
> > > clear against mediums practices. 
> > 
> > Perhaps HPB's teachings about mediumship did not apply
> to her own 
> > case. She was not a medium, such as those she warned
> against. She was 
> > a high adept, with a crucial work to do for the human
> race. Judge was 
> > her chosen successor, and perhaps there are things
> possible in the 
> > universe that we simply do not understand. Our lack of
> ability to 
> > comprehend does not make them impossible.
> > 
> > I have no way of determining the validity of Judge's
> claim, and 
> > certainly do not wish to convince anyone of one side of
> the argument 
> > or the other. But it does seem advisable, in the light
> of the crucial 
> > nature of the work of Theosophy for the evolution of
> humanity, that 
> > we at least exercise a bit of tolerance in considering
> such 
> > questions. More may depend upon our conclusions that we
> could know.
> > 
> > Adelasie
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 


=====
Katinka Hesselink
-----------------------------
-Those who observe, learn, a whole life long.
-Wie observeert, leert , een heel leven lang.
-----------------------------
http://www.katinkahesselink.net