Theos-Talk Archives (June 2006 Message tt00185)

Did the Society for Psychical Research abandon all 
charges against H.P. Blavatsky???

Yesterday I wrote to Leslie Price:

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Dear Leslie,

...I see that today on Theos-Talk Carlos Aveline
writes:

"...the Society for Psychical Research, SPR abandoned
all charges against HPB, precisely because they were
evidently false and molre -- ABSURD."

I didn't know the SPR had a corporate view on this!

Did the legal governing body of the SPR vote on this
and declare in some way or another that they disowned
or abandoned the Hodgson Report, etc?

Mr. Aveline has written about this several times in
the last few months on Theos-Talk.

I am not aware that the SPR has done this, are you?

If this is not true (what Aveline is writing), then
297 subscribers to Theos-Talk are being misinformed.

Are you willing to state the real facts about this
issue on Theos-Talk?

Daniel

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

Leslie Price was kind enough to reply and has given me 
permission to post the following statement by him here 
on Theos-Talk:

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

As one who has served twice on the SPR Council, and 
who was involved in the arrangements for the publication 
of Vernon's paper in JSPR April 1986,  I can confirm 
that the Society has no collective view on Theosophical 
phenomena. The Council may have  associated itself 
to an undue extent with its 1885 Report, not least 
in its later support for the Solovyoff translation. 
But in publishing Vernon's paper, they did not at the 
same time cancel the 1885 report -  in the way that 
for example, a scientific publication might withdraw 
a discredited paper on human cloning. All the published 
material -  including the little known first and provisional 
report of the SPR committee - remains available for study.

I have written previously on this [Theos-Talk] forum 
(May 8 2003) about the major constructive significance of 
Vernon's work. He made it possible for everyone to move 
forward.

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Daniel H. Caldwell
Blavatsky Study Center
http://blavatskyarchives.com