Theos-Talk Archives (November 2006 Message tt01083)

Gregory Tillett has written two important postings on Theos-Talk:

(1) "Editing HPB's letters" 
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/theos-talk/message/37780

(2) "Fake HPB letters"
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/theos-talk/message/37811

In posting (1) Tillett makes two significant points:

(a) "Letters should not be omitted on the grounds of content alone ? 
that HPB couldn't or wouldn't have written this...."

and

(b) "The fact that someone hostile to HPB originally published a
letter tells us nothing necessarily about whether the letter is 
genuine."

In posting (2) Tillett goes over these same points with more detail:

"Are they [the letters] to be eliminated on the basis of provenance 
('X was a crook therefore any letters he produced must be fakes') or 
content ('HPB wouldn't have written these words')?"

Gregory goes on to write:

"Both are methodologically unsatisfactory." 

"Liars, thieves and forgers sometime provide genuine material." 

"Letter writers sometimes write things that are atypical or contrary 
to their usual style or beliefs."

Gregory then gives an example from Leadbeater's life:

"I note that lots of clearly genuine letters from Leadbeater were made
accessible by his most savage critics; the letters were not 'fakes'
because they were made accessible in an attempt to damage Leadbeater's
reputation or by his self-declared enemies. The famous (or infamous)
'cipher letter', with its strange sexual message to one of his male 
boy pupils, is an excellent example. Leadbeater's supporters 
(including Besant) claimed it must be 'fake' because of its 
provenance ('His enemies produced it') and its content ('He would 
never have written such a letter.')."

Now Carlos Aveline tells us that he agrees with much of what Tillett 
is writing in these postings, but on previous occasions it is Carlos 
Aveline himself who has used THE VERY SAME METHODS described by 
Tillett.

In other words, Aveline has used these SAME arguments to discredit 
the HPB letters to Aksakoff.  

Read Mr. Aveline's own words below:

"More than one century later, the book entitled The Letters of H. P.
Blavatsky - Volume I , edited by Mr. John Algeo and published by the
USA T.P.H. in 2003, might be in the same broad category of books
with an unhealthy aura. Mr. Algeo included in it forged texts full
of disgusting lies and libels, cleverly mixed among authentic
documents."

"H.P. Blavatsky ? the woman who worked day and night for the good of
mankind and who gave the world such wonderful books as The Voice of
the Silence and The Secret Doctrine ? is made to describe herself as
a mean person; a Russian spy ('letter' 07); someone who helped
torture a cat to death during 'occult' experiences ( 'letter' 76);
someone who would like to sell her soul ('letter' 53); and someone
whom the devil got into trouble in her youth ('letter' 69) ? to name
but a few examples of Mr. John Algeo's 'work'."

"Out of the 136 'letters' published by Mr. John Algeo, at least 27
documents are certainly false. . . .
=================================================
quoted from:  http://groups.yahoo.com/group/theos-talk/message/35934

Elsewhere on many occasions Aveline has brought up the point of 
Soloyoff turning against HPB and has used this to discount the HPB 
letters in Soloyoff book.

IN SUMMARY, it would appear that Mr. Aveline has used the IDENTICAL 
methods that Mrs. Besant used (as given in the above example by 
Tillett)!!!

Daniel
http://hpb.cc