Theos-Talk Archives (July 2005 Message tt00099)

Paul Johnson's Conspiracy Theory on H.P. Blavatsky & the Mahatmas

I quote three extracts from Dr. Joscelyn Godwin's Foreword 
to Paul Johnson's "The Masters Revealed." These extracts outline 
succinctly Johnson's main argument in his "conspiracy theory":

"The principal Masters in question were Koot Hoomi and Morya, 
supposedly residents of Shigatse in Tibet...." (p. xv) 

"The theme of this book is that HPB's Masters were not the Himalayan 
sages whom she invented to distract her co-workers...." (p. xviii) 

"Mr. Johnson's suggestion---and he makes it clear that it is no more 
than that---is that the Mahatmas Morya and Koot Hoomi are fictitious 
Tibetan personae that conceal well-documented historical figures: 
Ranbir Singh and Thakar Singh." (p. xviii) 

Johnson in his own Introduction to "The Masters Revealed" summarizes 
this hypothesis as follows:

"Thakar Singh Sandhanwalia, founding president of the Amritsar Singh 
Sabha, corresponds in intriguing ways to clues about Koot Hoomi's 
identity in the writings of Olcott and HPB.... 

"Maharaja Ranbir Singh of Kashmir has many correspondences to Morya 
as described by HPB.... 

"Although much of HPB's portrayal of Morya and Koot Hoomi was 
designed to mislead in order to protect their privacy, enough 
accurate information was included to make a persuasive case for 
their identities as these historical figures...." (pp. 5-6.)

Johnson in his "conspiracy theory" alleges that HPB and others put 
out all sorts of DISINFORMATION to mislead the public so that they 
would not suspect what was REALLY going on behind the scenes.

For critiques of Johnson's arguments, see:

• The Theosophical Mahatmas: A Critique of Paul Johnson's New Myth
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/dp5/johnson.htm

• K. Paul Johnson's House of Cards?: A Critical Examination of 
Johnson's Thesis on the Theosophical Masters Morya and Koot Hoomi
http://blavatskyarchives.com/johnson.htm

• A Closer Look at Some of K. Paul Johnson's Arguments
Concerning 
H.S. Olcott's Testimony about the Masters
http://blavatskyarchives.com/johnsonparanormal3.htm

It would be interesting to know why Frank Reitmeyer hasn't adopted 
Johnson's "conspiracy theory" since Frank apparently accepts so many 
other conspiracy theories.

Daniel
http://hpb.cc