Theos-Talk Archives (January 2005 Message tt00645)

Jan 19 2005


Dear Friends:

Coincidences ?

I had placed some notes on the PRECIPITATION of Letters (Masters, and
others) to illustrate the prevalence of psychic phenomena and events that
occurred when THEOSOPHY was being newly re-promulgated at the close of the
19th century.

Apart from demonstrating the power and availability to the Adepts and their
chelas (over 125 years ago) of the subordinate psychic powers being used to
transfer and receive written communications, there was always the question
of authenticity. In part. This was discussed in the earlier positing I
made. Here is a portion of what was just written and which I would like to
offer in the light of that just offered: --

The following News Item was published today: Jan. 19th, 2005, on page B11 of
the Los Angeles TIMES.

The article is by Margaret Atwood titled: 

IT CAME FROM BENEATH THE DUST JACKET --  

"A disembodied hand may be signing your books"

In the article she writes in part:  

"The author would be able to actually sign -- in real time, and with real
ink -- the book buyer's book... You would simply write on a little pad...
and on the other end, your message and signature would be duplicated... The
remote book-signer would be an extension of the Self, just as the arm is an
extension of the brain/mind, and the hand of the arm, and the pen of the
hand. The only difference ... no author's DNA would get into the book, and
no readers' germs would get into the author. 

All the technologies we have invented over the millenniums -- from the first
ax to the telephone to the computer -- are simply extensions of ourselves.
They project our desires. They enhance our capabilities. But in doing so
they separate themselves from us and appear to take on a life of their own."

"A signature is deeply personal. Your handwriting used to be called your
"hand" and there's such an intense connection between the hand and the
brain/mind that the former stands symbolically for the latter...our unique
scrawl -- represents us, on letters and legal documents and credit cards
alike. Every signature is different, and thus to forge a signature so that
the forgery is undetectable remains very difficult.

"But does a signature say I was here in essence, or should it only say I was
here in the body? Is the Self con fined to the physical self? Can you have
a meaningful interaction with someone at a distance? (And if not, what is it
that letters and e-mail are doing?)

-----------------------------------

I had written:

In Theosophical, as in spiritualistic or mediumistic circles the
question of the precipitation of messages has received attention.

Curiosity and a desire to learn how to emulate the process has
attracted the attention of many. That some force or being is able to
influence conditions so that a "message" is precipitated -- in one way
or another is an undeniable fact.

The next question is of process and rationale, and the third relates
to the authenticity and value of any such message.


Early in 1997, The Theosophical University Press published a monograph
by Dr. Vernon Harrison. There is described and illustrated from the
originals, the strangest feature of the precipitation of some letters,
said to be from the Mahatmas, which has come to light.

Examination of some letters at high magnification clearly shows that
what appears to the unaided eye as a continuous line, forming several
letters, words, -- a letter; is in fact a close series of very fine
lines each separated from the other by a white space. This series of
small lines have been shaped into an apparently continuous sweep of
what appears to the unaided eye (as we see it) a continuous line.

It is as though the original had been photographed with an apparatus
that used a diffraction grating, and the resulting interference
pattern into which the lines and letters had been transformed, had
been then transferred (precipitated ?) on to the final paper that was
sent to the recipient. In some cases this printing is found lying on
the surface of the paper, in others it appears to be embodied in the
substrate, so as to form a portion of the paper, and is an integral
part of it.

Needless to say that at the time of such precipitation (in the period
between 1880 and 1885) no technology existed in the West that could
produce such an effect. In fact it would be difficult to achieve a
similar effect, using the modern technologies of today.

Since "precipitation" of letters said to be from the Mahatmas, or
other sources, became one of the forms of entertainment by and among
Spiritualists and early Theosophists the Master K.H. found it
necessary to declare that all actual messages from Them would be
preceded by a sentence.

He wrote Mr. Sinnett on 23-11-82:

"PS.--It my so happen that for purposes of our own, mediums and their
spooks will be left undisturbed and free not only to personate the
"Brothers" but even to forge our handwriting. Bear this in mind and
be prepared for it in London. Unless the message or communication or
whatever it may be is preceded by the triple words:

" Kin-t-an, Na-lan-da, Dha-ra-ni."

Know it is not me, nor from me.	KH "
Mahatma Letters p. 419


Mahatma K.H. precipitated a letter to Col. H.S.Olcott in 1888 on the high
seas, on board the steamer S. S. Shannon, which reads in part:

"Make all these men feel that we have no favourites, nor affections
for persons, but only for their good acts and humanity as a whole.
But we employ agents--the best available. Of these, for the past
thirty years, the chief has been the personality known as H.P.B. to
the world (but otherwise to us). Imperfect and very troublesome, no
doubt, she proves to some; nevertheless, there is no likelihood of
our finding a better one for years to come, and your theosophists
should be made to understand it.

"Since 1885 I have not written nor caused to be written save through
her agency, direct or remote, a letter or line to anybody in Europe or
America, nor communicated orally with, or thro' any third party.
Theosophists should learn it. You will understand later the
significance of this declaration, so keep it in mind.

"Her fidelity to our work being constant, and her sufferings having
come upon her thro' it, neither I nor either of my Brother Associates
will desert or supplant her.

"As I before remarked, ingratitude is not among our vices...But this
you must tell to all:--with occult matters she has everything to do.

"We have not abandoned her. She is not given over to chelas. She is
our direct agent. I warn you against permitting your suspicions and
resentment against her "many follies" to bias your intuitive loyalty
to her..." Letters from the Masters of Wisdom, 1st Ser (1919), p. 52-3
[see also: ML 368 10 203 35 263; Isis II 92-3fp 34 150]


"Through the means of the Astral Light and the help of Elementals the
various material elements may be drawn down and precipitated from the
atmosphere upon either a plane surface or in the form of a solid
object; this precipitation may be made permanent, or it may be of
such a light cohesive power as soon to fade away. But this help of
the elementals can only be obtained by a strong will added to a
complete knowledge of the laws which govern the being of the
elementals."	Epitome, p. 20


"...an Initiate...is able to precipitate out of the viewless air the
carbon which we know is in it, forming the carbon into sentences upon
the paper, it is through this knowledge of the occult higher
chemistry, and the use of a trained and powerful image-making faculty
which every man possesses..."	Ocean, p. 12


"Power over mind, matter, space, and time depends on several things
and positions. Needed for this are: Imagination raised to its
highest limit, desire combined with will that wavers not, and a
knowledge of the occult chemistry of nature. All must be present or
there is no result."	WQJ Articles I. 453


"The instruments are in the body and brain of man. In the view of the
Lodge, "the human brain is an exhaustless generator of force," and a
complete knowledge of the inner chemical and dynamic laws of nature,
together with a trained mind, give the possessor the power to operate
the laws to which I have referred. This will be man's possession in
the future...A knowledge of the law when added to faith gives power
over matter, mind, space, and time...the trained Adept can produce
before the eye, objective to the touch, material which was not visible
before, and in any desired shape...it is simply evolution in your very
presence. Matter is held suspended in the air about us. Every
particle of matter, visible or still unprecipitated, has been through
all possible forms, existing, as they all do, in the Astral Light and
then by effort of the Will and Imagination to clothe the form with the
matter by precipitation. The object so made will fade away unless
certain other processes are resorted to which need not be here
described, but if these processes are used the object will remain
permanently. And if it is desired to make visible a message on paper
or other surface, the same laws and power are used. The
distinct--photographically and sharply definite--image of every line
of every letter or picture is formed in the mind, and then out of the
air is drawn the pigment to fall within the limits laid down by the
brain, "the exhaustless generator of force and form."

This, then, naturally leads to the proposition that the human Will is
all powerful and the Imagination is a most useful faculty with a
dynamic force. The Imagination is the picture-making power of the
human mind. In the ordinary average human person it has not enough
training or force to be more than a sort of dream, but it may be
trained. When it is trained it is the Constructor in the Human
Workshop. Arrived at that stage it makes a matrix in the Astral
substance through which effects objectively will flow. It is the
greatest power, after Will, in the assemblage of complicated
instruments. The modern definition of Imagination is incomplete and
wide of the mark. It is chiefly used to designate fancy or
misconception and at all times stands for unreality. It is impossible
to get another term as good because one of the powers of the trained
Imagination is that of making an image. The word is derived from
those signifying the formation or reflection of an image. This
faculty used, or rather suffered to act, in an unregulated mode has
given the West no other idea than that covered by "fancy."...it may be
pushed to a greater limit, which, when reached, causes the Imagination
to evolve in the Astral substance an actual image or form which may
then be used in the same way as an iron molder uses a mold or sand for
the molten iron. It is therefore the King faculty, inasmuch as the
Will cannot do its work if the Imagination be at all weak or
untrained. For instance, if the person desiring to precipitate from
the air wavers in the least with the image made in the Astral
substance, the pigment will fall upon the paper in a correspondingly
wavering and diffused manner."	Ocean, pp. 138-9


AUTHENTICATION


"What criterion has any one to decide between one "precipitated"
letter, or another...Who except their authors, or those whom they
employ as their amanuenses (the chelas and disciples), can tell ? [
see M L p. 460 ] For it is hardly one out of a hundred "occult"
letters that is ever written by the hand of the Master, in whose name
and on whose behalf they are sent, as the Masters have neither need
nor leisure to write them; and that when a Master says, "I wrote that
letter," it means only that every word in it was dictated by him and
impressed under his direct supervision. Generally they make their
chela, whether near or far away, write (or precipitate) them, by
impressing upon his mind the ideas they wish expressed, and if
necessary aiding him in the picture-making process of precipitation.
It depends entirely upon the chela's state of development, how
accurately the ideas may be transmitted and the writing-model
initiated. Thus the non-adept recipient is left in the dilemma of
uncertainty, whether, if one letter is false, all may not be; for, as
far as intrinsic evidence goes, all come from the same source, and all
are brought by the same mysterious means.

But there is another, and a far worse condition implied. For all that
the recipient of "occult" letters can possibly know, and on the simple
grounds of probability and common honesty, the unseen correspondent
who would tolerate one single fraudulent line in his name, would wink
at an unlimited repetition of the deception. And this leads directly
to the following. All the so-called occult letters being supported by
identical proofs, they have all to stand of fall together. If one is
to be doubted, then all have, and the series of letters in the "Occult
World," "Esoteric Buddhism," etc., etc., may be, and there is no
reason why they should not be in such case--frauds, "clever
impostures," and "forgeries," [ see M L, pp. 307, 410, 414, 419-424,
431 ] such as the ingenuous though stupid agent of the "S.P.R." has
made them out to be, in order to raise in the public estimation the
"scientific" acumen and standard of his "Principals."
HPB--"Lodges of Magic" HPB Art. I. p. 291-2

"I must give you some explanation of this mode of precipitation...The
image of the geometrical or other figure which the active brain has
impressed upon it, is gradually imprinted upon the recipient
brain...Two factors are needed to produce a perfect and instantaneous
mental telegraphy--close concentration of the operator, and complete
receptive passivity in the "reader" subject...The "reader" does not
see the image as in the "telegrapher's" brain, but as arising in his
own.

In a case such as mine, the chela had...to pick up what he could from
the current I was sending him, and...patch the broken bits together as
best he might...if the mental picture received be feeble his visible
reproduction of it must correspond. And the more so in proportion to
the closeness of attention he gives. He might...be employed by his
"Master" as a sort of psychic printing machine producing lithographed
or psyhographed impressions of what the operator had in mind; his
nervous-system, the machine, his nerve-aura the printing fluid, the
colours drawn from that exhaustless store-house of pigments...the
Akasa. But the medium and the chela are diametrically dissimilar and
the latter acts consciously, except under exceptional circumstances
during development..."	Mahatma Letters,(B) p. 423-4


CAN THE PERSONAL SELF DECIDE ON AUTHENTICITY ?

"You and the Theosophists have come to the conclusion that in every
case where a message was found couched in words or sentiments unworthy
of Mahatmas it was produced either by elementals or my own
falsification. [ see M L p. 307, 419, 422, 431, 460 ] Believing the
latter, no honest man or woman ought for one moment to permit me, such
a fraud, to remain any longer in the Society...to kick me out--if you
really think so. [do you] credit the idea that They [the Masters]
should permit or even know of it and still use me ! Why, if They are
the exalted beings you rightly suppose Them to be, how could They
permit or tolerate for one moment such a deception and fraud?...little
you do know the occult laws I see...Before you volunteer to serve the
Masters you should learn Their philosophy, for otherwise you shall
always sin grievously, though unconsciously and involuntarily, against
Them and those who serve Them, soul and body and spirit."
HPB ART II 509-510 [ see also: HPB Art II 509-513.]


"The outer senses cannot give a safe final judgment upon a
precipitated message, they can only settle such physical questions as
how it came, through whom, the credibility of the person, and whether
any deception on the objective plane has been practiced. The inner
senses, including the great combining faculty or power of intuition,
are the final judges...if one hitherto supposed to be in communication
with the White Adepts comes to us and says "Here is a message from one
of Those," then if we have not independent power in ourselves of
deciding the question on inner knowledge, the next step is either to
believe the report or disbelieve it...[HPB] put it tersely in this
way" "If you think no Mahatma wrote the theories I have given of man
and nature and if you do not believe my report, then you have to
conclude that I did it all." The latter conclusion would lead to the
position that her acts, phenomena, and writings put her in the
position usually accorded by us to a Mahatma. As to the letters or
messages of a personal nature, each one had and has to decide for
himself whether or not to follow the advice given..."
WQJ ARTICLES I pp. 450-1


MASTERS' LETTERS -- GENUINENESS


In The PATH for July 1895, Mr. Judge published an article: 

"H.P.B. on Messages from Masters."  
[Reprinted in WQJ Articles, Vol. I, p. 55]


"Some years ago H.P.B. was charged [ by A.P.Sinnett ] with misuse of
Mahatmas' names and handwritings, with forgery of messages from the
Mahatmas, and with humbugging the public and the T.S. therewith.
Those charges had floated vaguely about for sometime...afterwards,
writing on the subject in "Lodges of Magic" [ HPB Articles 1, p.
291 ] in Lucifer [ Vol. 3, p. 92-3 ] the question of genuineness or
the opposite of such messages was dealt with, and what she wrote is
here presented for reconsideration. It covers two matters.

First, it proves out of her own mouth what the Path not long ago said
that "if one letter has to be doubted then all have" to be doubted.
Hence if the Letter to some Brahmins ["Prayag Letter" -- Mahatma
Letters, p. 461-3 --] is a fraud, as Col. Olcott and another say, then
all the rest are, also.

Second, it applies precisely to the present state of affairs in
respect to messages from Masters, just as if she had so long ago
foreseen the present and left the article so that tyros in occultism,
such as the present agitators are, might have something to show them
how to use their judgment. The portion selected from her article
reads:

We have been asked by a correspondent why he should not "be free to
suspect some of the so-called 'precipitated' letters as being
forgeries," giving as his reason for it that while some of them bear
the stamp of (to him) undeniable genuineness, others seem from their
contents and style, to be imitations. This is equivalent of saying
that he had such an unerring spiritual insight as to be able to detect
the false from the true, though he has never met a Master, nor been
given any key by which to test his alleged communications. The
inevitable consequence of applying his untrained judgment in such
cases, would be to make his as likely as not to declare false what was
genuine and genuine what was false. Thus what criterion has any one
to decide between one "precipitated" letter, or another such letter?
Who except their authors, or those whom they employ as their
amanuenses (the chelas and disciples) can tell? For if hardly one out
of a hundred "occult" letters that is ever written in the hand of the
Master, in whose name and on whose behalf they are sent, as the
Masters have neither need nor leisure to write them; and when a
Master says: "I wrote that letter" it means only that every word in
it was dictated by him and impressed under his direct supervision.
Generally they make their chela, whether near or far away, write (or
precipitate) them, by impressing upon his mind the ideas they wish
expressed, and if necessary aiding him in the picture printing process
of precipitation. It depends entirely upon the chela's state of
development, how accurately the ideas may be transmitted and the
writing-model imitated. Thus the non-adept recipient is left in the
dilemma of uncertainty, whether if one letter is false all may not be,
for as far as intrinsic evidence goes, all come from the same source,
and all are brought by the same mysterious means. But there is
another and far worse condition implied. All the so-called occult
letters being supported by identical proofs, they have all to stand or
fall together. If one is to be doubted, then all have, and the series
of letters in the Occult World, Esoteric Buddhism, etc., etc., may be,
and there is no reason why they should not be in such a case,--frauds,
"clever impostures," and "forgeries" such as the ingenuous though
stupid agent of the "S.P.R." has made them out to be, in order to
raise in the public estimation the scientific acumen and standard of
his "Principals"... [H.P.B.]	WQJ Articles I, p. 55


=================================

Best wishes,

Dallas