Theos-Talk Archives (April 2005 Message tt01072)

H.P. Blavatsky in The Secret Doctrine wrote:

"The Secret Doctrine is the accumulated Wisdom 
of the Ages, and its cosmogony alone is the most 
stupendous and elaborate system: e.g., even in the 
exotericism of the Puranas. But such is the mysterious
power of Occult symbolism, that the facts which have 
actually occupied countless generations of initiated 
seers and prophets to marshal, to set down and explain, 
in the bewildering series of evolutionary progress, 
are all recorded on a few pages of geometrical signs and 
glyphs. The flashing gaze of those seers has penetrated
into the very kernel of matter, and recorded the soul of things
there, where an ordinary profane, however learned, would have
perceived but the external work of form. But modern science believes
not in the "soul of things," and hence will reject the whole system
of ancient cosmogony. It is useless to say that the system in
question is no fancy of one or several isolated individuals. That it
is the uninterrupted record covering thousands of generations of
Seers whose respective experiences were made to test and to verify
the traditions passed orally by one early race to another, of the
teachings of higher and exalted beings, who watched over the
childhood of Humanity. That for long ages, the "Wise Men" of the
Fifth Race, of the stock saved and rescued from the last cataclysm
and shifting of continents, had passed their lives in learning, not
teaching. How did they do so? It is answered: by checking, testing,
and verifying in every department of nature the traditions of old by
the independent visions of great adepts; i.e., men who have developed
and perfected their physical, mental, psychic, and spiritual
organisations to the utmost possible degree. No vision of one adept
was accepted till it was checked and confirmed by the visions -- so
obtained as to stand as independent evidence -- of other adepts, and
by centuries of experiences."

Notice in particular the following:

"....independent visions of great adepts; i.e., men who have
developed and perfected their physical, mental, psychic, and
spiritual organisations to the utmost possible degree."

Were Hodson, Bendit and Kunz, Besant and Leadbeater therefore "great 
adepts"?

Had they "developed and perfected their physical, mental, psychic,
and spiritual organisations to the utmost possible degree"?

They may have been clairvoyants but were they adepts?

There is a recurring theme throughout all of HPB's writings
for the 16 or 17 years of her public career as well as in
the Mahatma Letters about Adepts and clairvoyants and about
the great difference between the two.

I am not suggesting that one should ignore what Hodson,
Bendit, Kunz, Besant and Leadbeater have written. Their writings 
should be studied and carefully considered. I am not suggesting that
one should pooh-pooh their observations.

I personally know several persons who can see auras, etc. etc.
They have some degree of clairvoyance, no doubt. But are the
persons I know "adepts"?

Probably not, I would hesitate to answer.

Admittedly, all of the above questions are hard to answer.
I would not want to pretend I know the answers. But I think
at least in theory, we should be able to see the difference
between what HPB and the Mahatmas mean by "adeptship" and
the group of individuals that we could call clairvoyants.

In the case of Mrs. Laura Holloway, we have the distinct
statement by KH:

"She is an excellent but quite undeveloped clairvoyante."

Moving on.

Writing about Emmanuel Swedenborg, "the great Swedish seer and
mystic," Mme. Blavatsky comments that Swedenborg "claimed to pass at
will into that state when the Inner Self frees itself entirely from
every physical sense, and lives and breathes in a world where every
secret of Nature is an open book to the Soul-eye." "The Secret
Doctrine," Vol. III, 1897, p. 425

But she adds:

"Unless one obtains exact information and the right method, one's
visions, however correct and true in Soul-life, will ever fail to get
photographed in our human memory, and certain cells of the brain are
sure to play havoc with our remembrances."

Elsewhere, Madame Blavatsky states that Swedenborg's "clairvoyant
powers . . . were very remarkable; but they did not go beyond this
plane of matter; all that he says of subjective worlds and spiritual
beings is evidently far more the outcome of his exuberant fancy, than
of his spiritual insight. . . ." "The Theosophical Glossary," entry
on Swedenborg.

H.P. Blavatsky gives more information on this topic in her E.S.
Instruction No. I:

"Yet even a clairvoyant possessed of such faculties, if not an Adept,
no matter how honest and sincere he may be, will through his
ignorance of the truths of Occult Science, be led by the visions he
sees in the Astral Light only to mistake for God or Angels the
denizens of those spheres of which he may occasionally catch a
glimpse, as witness Swedenborg and others." "The Secret Doctrine,"
Vol. III, 1897, p. 448.

And in The Secret Doctrine, HPB also writes:

"But this is the limit beyond which the ordinary faculties of man
cannot carry him. Many are the romances and tales, some purely
fanciful, others bristling with scientific knowledge, which have
attempted to imagine and describe life on other globes. But one and
all, they give but some distorted copy of the drama of life around
us. . . . we always find that at bottom the new world is but the one
we ourselves live in. So strong is this tendency that even great
natural, though non-initiated seers, when untrained, fall a victim to
it; witness Swedenborg, who goes so far as to dress the inhabitants
of Mercury, whom he meets with in the spirit-world, in clothes such
as are worn in Europe."

Compare this last statement with what C.W. Leadbeater
wrote about life on Mars. See:

http://blavatskyarchives.com/leadbeatermars.htm

The theme I referred to earlier in my posting is
to be found in the following from Master Morya:

"There is one general law of vision (physical and mental or
spiritual) but there is a qualifying special law proving that all
vision must be determined by the quality or grade of man's spirit and
soul, and also by the ability to translate diverse qualities of waves
of astral light into consciousness. There is but one general law of
life, but innumerable laws qualify and determine the myriads of forms
perceived and of sounds heard. There are those who are willingly and
others who are unwillingly — blind. Mediums belong to the former,
sensitives to the latter. Unless regularly initiated and trained
— concerning the spiritual insight of things and the supposed
revelations made unto man in all ages from Socrates down to
Swedenborg ... . — no self-tutored seer or clairaudient ever saw
or heard quite correctly."

And KH writes:

"The world of force is the world of Occultism and the only one
whither the highest initiate goes to probe the secrets of being.
Hence no-one but such an initiate can know anything of these secrets.
Guided by his Guru the chela first discovers this world, then its
laws ..."

See also my previous RELATED posting which can be found at:

Shearman's reference to "psychics quite unconnected with the 
Society."
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/theos-talk/message/18721

And compare what HPB says about life on other planets
quoted at:
http://blavatskyarchives.com/leadbeatermars.htm

AND HPB's quote as given by Perry at:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/theos-talk/message/18754

So I ask:

Should we include Hodson, Kunz, Bendit, Beant and Leadbeater
among the "great adepts; i.e., men who have developed and perfected
their physical, mental, psychic, and spiritual organisations to the
utmost possible degree"?

Furthermore, would truly "great adepts" make the kind
of statements as those quoted in the following two posts:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/theos-talk/message/18427

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/theos-talk/message/18428

Also concerning the post at:

A Misleading Mayavic Ideation & Deluding Influences
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/theos-talk/message/18520

If one accepts this 1900 KH letter as genuine, it is clear that Mrs. 
Besant suffered from at least one "misleading mayavic ideation" and 
from "deluding influences." And one could probably also include
Mr. Leadbeater in this estimation.

Daniel
http://hpb.cc