The Writings of Alfred Percy Sinnett
Alfred
Percy Sinnett
1840
-1921
The Occult World
By
A P Sinett
APPENDIX
LATER acquaintance with the subject has
done much to show me that the reserve hitherto maintained by the masters of
occult science was inevitable. It is useless to offer any man information which
his faculties are not sufficiently expanded to receive. Only a few hundred
years after the physical science that has been absorbed by the last two or
three generations with avidity would have been unwelcome and despised. Till
quite recently the serious contemplation of psychic phenomena would have been
resented as a relapse into superstition. No man can investigate causes till he
is willing to observe facts, and it was only the other day that a disposition
to observe facts lying outside the domain of physical causation would have
alienated any prematurely developed enthusiast from the sympathies of all his
contemporaries. The light of mere worldly wisdom may thus vindicate the
reticence of the few and secluded custodians of the higher knowledge, but with
far greater precision is their policy vindicated when with their own help we
come at last to comprehend the scientific law of human intellectual
development. The progress of the world is not rolling on under the direction of
blind chance. Propelled though it is by the collective impulses of individual
energy, it advances in a defined path, and the knowledge, the discoveries, the spiritual
teaching, which breaks upon the world at each stage of its advancement, is
precisely proportioned to the receptivity of mankind at that period of its
evolution. The revelation of occult truth going on in the world just now in
many ways and under various aspects- though as I most emphatically believe,
under none more unequivocally or satisfactorily than in the case of the direct
teaching of occult science I am instrumental in bringing to public notice - is
the legitimate inheritance of this generation, and the good it may do in the
world now could not have been done only a few decades ago. It is useless to try
to take a photographic picture upon a non-sensitized plate; it is useless to
present the subtle conceptions of spiritual science to minds on which no
psychic collodion has previously been deposited. The
Esoteric study in which some of us connected with the Theosophical Society have
been privileged, during the last two or three years, to engage, has so
effectually dispelled the discontent we first felt at the jealousy that had
withheld this teaching from the world so long, that we recognise
the message we are now commissioned to convey as addressed so far only to the
most highly advanced and intuitive minds of our time. We are but beginning to
put forward a doctrine which will only be appreciated in its full significance
later on.
-
It is interesting to observe that, in
accordance with predictions made to me when I began to write on these subjects,
the dawn of psychic truth has begun to brighten our sky from several directions
at once. The psychological telegraphy here referred to was quite unheard of In
the world at large in 1880. But for the last year or two the Psychic Research
Society in
It is too late in the day now, when
several editions of this book have already passed through the press, to affect
any reserve about this name. But in truth I greatly regret now that I ever
permitted it to become public property. All over
been formed, and long contact with the grand conceptions of Esoteric philosophy
has developed on the part of its members a sentiment of reverence for the
Mahatmas only second in intensity to that of the regular oriental initiates. It
would spare all such persons a great deal of indignant distress, if the name I
was unfortunately led to print in this work at full length had never been
disclosed. To most Western readers the matter may seem very unimportant, but
trouble and annoyance which I greatly deplore have ensued from the mistake thus
committed. As a matter of fact, I may here observe that the original manuscript
of my book , was written from end to end without the
use of the name, instead of ,which I had placed a mere initial, " H",
but a letter I received from India shortly before the publication of the book authorised the use of the name, and I felt at that time
that it was absurd to be plus royaliste que le roi. So the step came
to be taken which cannot now be recalled. The name of the Mahatma here made use
of, I may explain, in conclusion of this digression.
The necessity of reprinting this work for
a fourth edition gives me an opportunity of noticing some discussion that has
taken place in the spiritualistic press on the subject of a letter addressed to
Light, of September 1st, 1883, by Mr. Henry Kiddle,
an American spiritualist. The letter was as follows:
To THE EDITOR OF "LIGHT."
Sir,
-In a communication that appeared in your issue of July 21st, '" G. W.,
M.D.," reviewing '" Esoteric Buddhism," says: Regarding this Koot Hoomi, it is a very remarkable
and unsatisfactory fact that Mr. Sinnett, although in correspondence with him
for years, has yet never been permitted to see him." I agree with your corespondent entirely ; and this is not the only fact that
is unsatisfactory to me. On reading Mr. Sinnett's
"Occult World," more than a year ago, I was very greatly surprised to
find in one of the letters presented by Mr. Sinnett as having been transmitted
to him by Koot Hoomi, in
the mysterious manner described, a passage taken almost verbatim from an
address on Spiritualislm by me at Lake Pleasant in
August, 1880, and published the same month by the Banner of Light. As
Mr. Sinnett's book did not appear till a considerable
time afterwards (about a year, I think), it is certain that I did not quote,
consciously or unconsciously, from its pages. How, then, did it get into Koot Hoomi's mysterious letter?
I sent to Mr. Sinnett a letter through his publishers, enclosing the printed
pages of my address, with the part used by Koot Hoomi marked upon it, and asked for an explanation, for I
wondered that so great a sage as Koot Hoomi should need to borrow anything from so humble
a student of spiritual things as myself. As yet I have received no reply; and
the query has been suggested to my mind -Is Koot Hoomi a myth? or, if not, is he so great an adept as to
have impressed my mind with his thoughts and word while I was preparing my address?If the latter were the case he could not
consistently exclaim: '" Pereant qui ante nos nostra dixerunt."
Perhaps Mr. Sinnett may think it scarcely
worth while to solve this little problem; but the fact that the existence of
the brotherhood has not yet been proved may induce some to raise the question
suggested by "G. W ., M. D". Is there any such secret order ? On this
question, which is not intended to imply anything offensive to Mr. Sinnett,
that other still more important question may depend. Is Mr. Sinnett's
recently published book an exponent of Esoteric Buddhism ? It Is, doubtless, a
work of great ability, and its statements are worthy of deep thought; but the
main question is, are they true, or how can they be verified ?' As this cannot
he accomplished except by the exercise of abnormal or transcendental faculties,
they must be accepted, if at all, upon the ipse dixtt
of the accomplished adept, who has been so kind as to sacrifice his esoteric
character or vow, and make Mr. Sinnett his channel of communication with the
outer world, thus rendering his sacred knowledge exoteric. Hence, if this
publication, with its wonderful doctrine of Shells," overturning the
consolatory conclusions of Spiritualists, is to be accepted, the authority must
he established, and the existence of the adept or adepts -indeed, the facts of adeptship - must be proved. The first step in affording
this proof has hardly yet, I think, been taken. I trust this book will be very
carefully analysed, and the nature of its
inculcations exposed, whether they are Esoteric Buddhism or not,
The following are the passages referred to, printed side by side [ in
the book, but one after the other in this document ]- for the sake of
ready reference. .
Extract from Mr. Kiddle's
discourse, entitled "The Present Outlook of Spiritualism", delivered
at Lake Pleasant Camp Meeting on
"My friends, ideas rule the
world; and as men's minds receive new ideas, laying aside the old and effete,
the world advances. Society rests upon them; mighty revolutions spring from
them ; institutions crumble before their onward march. It is just as impossible
to resist their influx, when the time comes, as to stay the progress of the
tide.
And the agency called Spiritualism is
bringing a new set of ideas into the world - ideas on the most momentous subjects,touching man's true position in the universe; his
origin and destiny; the relation of the mortal to the immortal; of the
temporary to the Eternal; of the finite to the Infinite; of man's deathless
soul to the material universes in which it now dwells - ideas larger, more
general, more comprehensive, recognising more fully
the universal reign of law as the expression of the Divine will, unchanging and
unchangeable in regard to which there is only an Eternal Now, while to
mortals time is past or future, as related to their finite existence on this
material plane; etc., etc., etc.,
Extract from Koot
Hoomi's letter to Mr. Sinnett, in the "Occult
World", 3rd Edition, page 102. The first edition was published in June
1881.
Ideas rule the world; and as men's minds
receive new ideas, laying aside the old and effete, the world will advance,
mighty revolutions will spring from them, creeds and even powers will crumble
before their onward march, crushed by their irresistible force. It will be just
as impossible to resist their influence when the time comes as to stay the
progress of the tide. But all this will come gradually on, before it comes we
have a duty set before us; that of sweeping away as much as possible the dross
left to us by our pious forefathers. New ideas have to be planted on clean
places, for these ideas touch upon the most momentous subjects. It is not
physical phenomena,but these universal ideas that we
study, as to comprehend the former, we have first to understand the latter.
They touch man's true position in the universe in relation to his previous and
future births, his origin and ultimate destiny; the relation of the mortal to
the immortal, of the temporary to the Eternal, of the finite to the Infinite;
ideas larger, grander, more comprehensive, recognising
the eternal reign of immutable law, unchanging and unchangeable, in regards to
which there is only an ETERNAL NOW; while to uninitiated mortals time is past
or future as related to their finite existence on this material speck of dirt,
etc., etc., etc.
HENRY KIDDLE.
********************************************
The appearance of this letter puzzled,
without very much disturbing, the equanimity of Theosophical students. If it
had been published immediately after the first publication of the " Occult
World," its effect might have been more serious, but in the interim the
Brothers had by degrees communicated to the public through my agency such a
considerable block of philosophical teaching, then already embodied in my
second book, "
Esoteric Buddhism," and scattered through two or three
volumes of the Theosophist, that appreciative readers had passed beyond
the stage of development in which it might have been possible for them to
suppose that the principal author of this teaching could at any time have been
under any intellectual temptation to borrow thoughts from a spiritualistic
lecture. Various hypotheses were framed to account for the mysterious identity
between the two passages cited, and people to whom the Theosophic
teachings were unacceptable, as overthrowing conceptions to which they were
attached, were greatly enchanted to find my revered instructor convicted, as
they thought, of a commonplace plagiarism. A couple of months necessarily
elapsed before an answer could be obtained from India on the subject, and
meanwhile the " Kiddle incident," as it
came to be called, was joyfully treated by various correspondents writing in
the columns of Light, as having dealt a fatal blow at the authority of
the Indian Mahatmas as "' exponents of esoteric truth.
In due course I received a long and instructive explanation of the mystery from
Mahatma Koot Hoomi himself;
but this letter reached me under the seal of the most absolute confidence.
Rigidly adhering to the policy which had all along restrained within narrow
limits the communication of their teaching to the world at large, the Brothers
remained as anxious as ever to leave everybody full intellectual liberty to
disbelieve in them, and reject their revelation if his spiritual intuitions
were not of a kind to be readily kindled. In the same way that from the first
they had refused me the overwhelming and irresistible proofs of their power,
which I had sought for in the beginning as weapons with which I might
successfully combat incredulity, they now shrank from interfering with the conclusions
of any readers who might be found capable, after the rich assurances of the
later teaching, of distrusting the Mahatmas on the strength of a suspicion
which was ill founded in reality, plausible though it might seem. Debarred
myself, however,from making any public use of the
Mahatma's letter, some of the residents and visitors at the Headquarters of the
Theosophical Society at Adyar, Madras, came into possession of the true facts
of the case, and some communications appeared in the society's magazine which
afforded everyone honestly desirous of comprehending the truth of the matter,
all necessary information. In the December number of the Theosophist,
Mr. Subba Row put forward a very cautiously worded article, hinting merely at
the actual explanation of the identity of the passages cited by Mr. KiddIe, and concerned chiefly with an elaborate analysis of
the " plagiarised" sentences, the object of
which was to show that in truth we might have divined for ourselves, if we had
been sharp enough in the beginning, that some mistake had been made, and that
the Mahatma could not have intended to write the sentences just as they stood.
The hint conveyed by Mr. Subba was as follows: -
" Therefore from a careful perusal of the passage and its contents, any
unbiased reader will come to the conclusion that somebody must have greatly
blundered over the said passage, and will not be surprised to hear that it was
unconsciously altered through the carelessness and ignorance of the chela by whose instrumentality it was
'precipitated.' Such alterations, omissions, and mistakes sometimes occur in
the process of precipitation; and I now assert I know it for certain, from an
inspection of the original precipitation proof, that such was the case with
regard to the passage under discussion."
The same Theosophist in which this article appeared contained a letter
from General Morgan in reply to various spiritualistic attacks on the
Theosophical position, and in the course of his remarks he referred to the
" Kiddle incident " as follows :-
" Happily we have been permitted, many of us, to look behind the veil of
the parallel passage mystery, and the whole affair is very satisfactorily
explained to us; but all that we are permitted to say is that many a passage
was entirely omitted from the letter received by Mr. Sinnett, its precipitation
from the original dictation to the chela.
Would our Great Master but permit us his humble followers to photograph and
publish in the Theosophist the scraps shown to us, scraps in which whole
sentences parenthetical and quotation marks are defaced and obliterated and
consequently omitted in the chela' clumsy
transcription - the public would be treated to a rare sight -something entirely
unknown to modern science- namely, an akasic
impression as good as a photograph of mentally expressed thoughts dictated from
a distance."
A month or two after the appearance of these fragmentary hints, I received a
note from the Mahatma relieving me of all restrictions previously imposed on
the full letter of explanation he had previously sent me. The subject, by that
time, however, seemed to have lost its interest for all persons in
Now, however, that this new edition of the
Occult World II is required, there is an obvious propriety in the course I now take. The new letter from the Mahatma constitutes in itself
a correction of the letter from which I quote on pages 101-102, and apart from
the interest of the explanation it furnishes in regard to the precipitation
process, the thoughts it conveys are in themselves valuable and suggestive.
"The letter in question," writes the Mahatma, referring to the
communication I originally received, "was framed by me while on a journey
and on horseback. It was dictated mentally in the direction of and precipitated
by a young chela not yet expert at this branch
of psychic chemistry, and who had to transcribe it from the hardly visible
imprint. Half of it, therefore, was omitted, and the other half more or less
distorted by the °'artist. ' When asked by him at the time whether I would look
over and correct it, I answered -imprudently, I I
confess - "Anyhow will do, my boy; it is of no great importance if you
skip a few words.' I was physically very tired by a ride of forty-eight hours
consecutively, and (physically again) half asleep. Besides this, I had very
important business to attend to psychically, and therefore little remained of
me to devote to that letter. When I awoke I found it had already been sent on,
and as I was not then anticipating its publication, I never gave it from that
time a thought. Now I had never evoked spiritual Mr. Riddle's physiognomy,
never had heard of his existence, was not aware of his name. Having, owing to
our correspondence, and your Simla surroundings and
friends, felt interested in the intellectual progress of the Phenomenalists, I had directed my attention, some two
months previous, to the great annual camping movement of the American
Spiritualists in various directions, among others to
The recent experiments of the Psychic Research Society will help you greatly to
comprehend the rationale of this mental telegraphy. You have observed in the
journal of that body, how thought transference is cumulatively effected. The
image of the geometrical or other figure which the active brain has had
impressed upon it is gradually imprinted upon the recipient brain of the
passive subject, as the series of reproductions illustrated in the cuts show.
Two factors are needed to produce a perfect and instantaneous mental
telegraphy- close concentration in the operator and complete receptive
passivity in the reader subject. Given a disturbance of either
condition, and the result is proportionately imperfect. The reader does
not see the image as in the telegrapher's brain, but as arising in his own.
When the latter's thought wanders, the psychic current becomes broken, the
communication disjointed and incoherent. In a case such as mine the chela had, as it were, to pick up what he could from
the current I was sending him, and, as above remarked, patch the broken bits
together as best he might. Do not you see the same thing in ordinary mesmerism
-the maya impressed upon the subject's
imagination by the operator becoming now stronger, now feebler, as the latter
keeps the intended illusive image more or less steadily before his own fancy. And how often the clairvoyants reproach the magnetiser
for taking their thoughts off the subject under consideration. And the
mesmeric healer will always bear you witness that if he permits himself to
think of anything but the vital current he is pouring into his patient, he is
at once compelled to either establish the current afresh or stop the treatment.
So I, in this instance, having at the moment more vividly in my mind the
psychic diagnosis of current spiritualistic thought, of which the
" Well, as soon as I heard of the change, the
commotion among my defenders having reached me across the eternal snows, I
ordered an investigation into the original scraps of the impression. At the
first glance I saw that it was I the only and most guilty party, the poor boy
having done hut that which he was told. Having now restored the characters and
the lines omitted and blurred beyond hope of recognition by anyone but their
original evolver, to their primitive color and places, I now find my letter
reading quite differently, as you will observe. Turning to the' Occult World',
the copy sent by you, to the page cited, I was struck, upon carefully reading
it, by the great discrepancy between the sentences, a gap, so to say, of ideas
between part 1 and part 2, the plagiarised portion so
called. There seems no connection at all between the two; for what has indeed
the determination of our chiefs (to prove to a sceptical
world that physical phenomena are as reducible to law as anything else) to do
with Plato's ideas which' rule the world,' or' Practical Brotherhood of Humanity .' I fear that it is your personal friendship alone
for the writer that has blinded you to the discrepancy and disconnection of
ideas in this abortive precipitation even until now. Otherwise you could not
have failed to perceive that something was wrong on that page, that there was a
glaring defect in the connection. Moreover, I have to plead guilty to another
sin: I have never so much as looked at my letters in print, until the day of
the forced investigation. I had read only your own original matter, feeling it
a loss of time to go over my hurried bits and scraps of thought. But now I have
to ask you to read the passages as they were originally dictated by me, and
make the comparison with the' Occult World ' before you. ..I enclose the copy
verbatim from the restored fragments, underlining in red the omitted sentences
for easier comparison.
" ...Phenomenal elements previously unthought of. .. will disclose at last the secrets of their
mysterious workings. Plato was right to readmit every element of speculation
which Socrates had discarded. The problems of universal being are not
unattainable, or worthless if attained. But the latter can be solved only by mastering
those elements that are now looming on the horizons of the profane. Even the
Spiritualists, with their mistaken, grotesquely perverted views and notions,
are hazily realising the new situation. They prophecy
-and their prophecies are not always without a point of truth in them -or
intuitional prevision, so to say. Hear some of them reasserting the old, old
axiom that' ideas rule the world,' and as men's minds receive new ideas,
laying aside the old and effete, the world will advance, mighty revolutions
will spring from them; institutions, aye, and even creeds and
powers, they may add, will crumble before their onward march, crushed by
their own inherent force, not the irresistible force of the' new ideas' offered
by the Spiritualists. Yes, they are both right and wrong. It will be' just as
impossible to resist their influence when the time comes as to stay the
progress of the tide- to be sure. But what the Spiritualists fail to perceive,
I see, and their spirits to explain (the latter knowing no more than what they
can find in the brain of the former) is that all this will come gradually
on, and that before it comes they, as well us ourselves, have all
a duty to perform, a task set before us -that of sweeping away as
much as possible the dross left to us by our pious forefathers. New ideas have
to be planted on clean places, for these ideas touch upon the most momentous
subjects. It is not physical phenomena, or the agency called Spiritualism,
but these universal ideas that we have precisely to study; the noumenon, not the phenomenon: for to comprehend the latter
we have first to understand the former. They do touch man's true
position in the universe, to be sure, but only in relation to his future
not previous births. It is not physical phenomena, however wonderful,
that can ever explain to man his origin, let alone his ultimate
destiny, or as one of them expresses it, the relation of the mortal to
the immortal, of the temporary to the eternal, of the finite to the infinite,
etc. They talk very glibly of what they regard as new ideas, ' larger,
more general, grander, more comprehensive,' and at the same time they recognise instead of the eternal reign of immutable
law, the universal reign of law and the expression of a Divine will. Forgetful
of their "earlier beliefs, and that' it repented the Lord that he had made
man,' these would-be philosophers and reformers would impress upon their
hearers that the expression of the said Divine will ' is unchanging and
unchangeable, in regard to which there is only an Eternal Now, while to
mortals [uninitiated ] time is past or future as related to their finite
existence on this material plane,'- of which they know as little as of their
spiritual spheres - a speck of dirt they have made the latter, like our own
earth, a future life that the true philosopher would rather avoid than court.
But I dream with my eyes open. ...At all events, this is not any privileged
teaching of their own. Most of these ideas are taken piecemeal from Plato and
the Alexandrian philosophers. It is what we all study, and what many have
solved, etc. , etc.
" This is the true copy of the original document as now restored- the
'Rosetta stone' of the Kiddle incident. And now, if
you have understood my explanations about the process, as given in a few words
further back, you need not ask me how it came to pass that, though somewhat
disconnected, the sentences transcribed by the chela
are mostly those that are now considered as plagiarised,
while the missing links are precisely those phrases that would have shown the
passages were simply reminiscences, if not quotations -the keynote around which
came grouping my own reflections on that morning. For the first time in my life
I had paid a serious attention to the utterances of the poetical 'media' of the
so-called , inspirational' oratory of the English-American lecturers, its
quality and limitations. I was struck with all this brilliant but empty
verbiage, and recognised for the first time fully its
pernicious intellectual tendency. It was their gross and unsavoury
materialism, hiding clumsily under its shadowy spiritual veil, that attracted
my thoughts at the time. While dictating the sentences quoted -a small portion
of the many I have been pondering over for some days -it was those ideas that
were thrown out en relief the most, leaving out my own parenthetical
remarks to disappear in the precipitation."
I need only add a few words of apology to Mr. Kiddle
for my accidental neglect of his original communication on this subject
addressed to me in
The relations with the " Occult World " that I have been fortunate
enough to establish have so greatly expanded during the few years that have
elapsed since this volume was written that I must refer my readers to my second
book, " Esoteric Buddhism," for an account of their later
development. It may be worth while, however, as directly connected with the
main purpose of this earlier narrative, to insert here some papers I wrote
quite recently for submission to Theosophical audiences in
All persons who become interested in any of the teachings which have found
their way out into the world through the intermediation of the Theosophical
Society very soon turn to the sanctions on which those teachings rest.
Now the orthodox occult reply hitherto given to inquirers as to the
authenticity of any small statements of occult science that have hitherto been
put forth, has simply been this: -" Ascertain for yourself." That is
to say, lead the pure spiritual life, cultivate the inner faculties, and by
degrees these will be awakened and developed to the extent of enabling you to
probe Nature for yourself. But that advice is not of a kind which great numbers
of people have ever been ready to take, and hence knowledge concerning the
truths of occult science has remained in the hands of a few.
A new departure has now been taken. Certain proficients
in occult science have broken through the old restrictions of their order, and
have suddenly let out a flood of statements into the world, together with some
information concerning the attributes and faculties they have themselves
acquired, and by means of which they have learned what they now tell us.
It, is very widely recognised that the teaching is
interesting and coherent and even supported by analogies, but every new
inquirer in turn must ask what assurance we can have that the persons from whom
this teaching emanates are in a position to ascertain so much. Most people, I
think, would be ready to admit that persons invested, as the Brothers of of Theosophy are said to be invested with abnormal and
extraordinary powers over Nature- even in the departments of Nature with which
we are familiar- may very probably have faculties which enable them to obtain a
deep insight into many of the generally hidden truths of Nature. But then come
the primary question, " What assurance can you give us that there really
are behind the few people who stand forward as the visible representatives of
the Theosophical Society, any such persons as the Adept Brothers at all ?
" This is an old question which is always recurring, and which must go on
recurring as long as new comers continue to approach the threshold of the
Theosophical Society. For many of us it has long been settled; for some new
inquirers the existence of psychological Adepts seems so probable that the
assurances of the leading representatives of the Society in India are readily
accepted but for others again, the existence of the Brothers must first be
established by altogether plain and unequivocal evidence before it will seem
worth while to pay attention to the report some of us make as to the specific
doctrine they teach.
I propose, therefore, to go over the evidence on this main question, which
certainly underlies any with which the Theosophical Society, so far as it is
concerned with the Indian teaching, can be engaged. Of course, I am not going
to trouble you with any repetition of particular incidents already described in
published writings. What I propose to do is briefly to review the whole case as
it now stand, very greatly enlarged and strengthened
as it has been during the last two years. The evidence, to begin with, divides
itself into two kinds. First, we have the general body of current belief, which
in India goes to show that such persons as Mahatmas or Adepts are somewhere
in existence; secondly, the specific evidence which shows that the leaders of
the Theosophical Society are in relation with, and in the confidence of, such
Adepts.
As to the general body of belief, it would hardly be too much to say that the
whole mass of the sacred literature of
In Jaccolliot's books about his experiences in
Thus, in
~Now the evidence n this point divides itself as follows:
- First, We have the primary evidence of witnesses who have
personally seen certain of these Adepts, both in the flesh and out of the
flesh, who have seen their powers exercised, and who have obtained certain
knowledge as to their existence and attributes.
- Secondly.
The evidence of those who have seen them in the astral form, identifying
them in various ways with the living men others have seen.
- Thirdly.
The testimony of those who have acquired circumstantial evidence as to
their existence.
Foremost among the witnesses of the first
group stand Madame Blavatsky and Colonel Olcott themselves. For those who see
reason to trust Madame Blavatsky , her testimony is, of course ample and
precise, and altogether satisfactory. She has lived among the Adepts for many
years. She has been in almost daily communication with them ever since. She has
returned to them, and they have visited her in their natural bodies on several
occasions since she emerged from
Difficult as the hypothesis of her
imposture thus becomes, we next find it in flagrant incompatibility with all
the facts of Colonel Olcott's life. As undeniably as
in the case of Madame Blavatsky, he has forsaken a life of worldly prosperity
to lead the theosophical life, under circumstances of great physical
self-denial, in
But the case for the authenticity of their statement, far from ending here, may
in one sense be said to begin here. Our native Indian witnesses now come to the
front. First, Damodar of whom the well known writer
of " Hints on Esoteric Theosophy speaks as follows in that pamphlet:-
" You specially in a former letter referred to Damodar,
and you asked how it could be believed that the Brothers would waste time with
a half-educated slip of a boy like him, and yet absolutely refuse to visit and
convince men like------ and ------, Europeans of the highest education and
marked abilities. But do you know that this slip of a boy has deliberately given
up high caste, family and friends, and an ample fortune, all in pursuit of the
truth. That be has for years lived that pure, unworldly self-denying life which
we are told is essential to direct intercourse with the Brothers? 'Oh, a
monomaniac,' you say ; 'of course he sees anything and
everything. But do not you see whither this leads you ?
Men who do not lead the life do not obtain direct proof of the existence of the
Brothers. A man does lead the life and avers that he has obtained such proof,
and you straightaway call him a monomaniac, and refuse his testimony,.... quite
a " heads I win, tails you lose,' sort of position."
Damodar has seen some of the Brothers visit the
headquarters of the Society in the flesh. He has repeatedly been visited by
them in the astral shape. He has himself gone through certain initiations; he
has acquired very considerable powers, for he has been rapidly developed as
regards these, expressly that he might be an additional link of connection,
independently of Madame Blavatsky, between the Brothers, his masters, and the
Theosophical Society. The whole life be leads is
impressive testimony to the fact that he also knows the reality of the
Brothers. On another hypothesis we must include Damodar
in the conscious imposture supposed to be carried on by Madame Blavatsky, for
he has been her intimate associate and devoted assistant, sharing her meals,
doing her work, living under her roof at
Shall we, then, rather than believe in the Brothers accept the hypothesis that
Madame Blavatsky, Colonel Olcott, and Damodar are a
band of conscious impostors? In that case Ramaswamy
has to he accounted for. Ramaswamy is a very
respectable, educated, English-speaking native of
Two more witnesses who personally know the
Brothers next come to me at Simla, in the persons of
two regular chelas who have been sent across the mountains on some business,
and are ordered en passant to visit me and tell me about their master,
my Adept correspondent. These men had just come, when I first saw them, from
living with the Adepts. One of them, Dhabagiri Nath, visited me several days running, talked to me for
hours about Koot Hoomi-
with whom he had been living for ten years, and impressed me and one or two
others who saw him as a very earnest, devoted, and trustworthy person. Later
on, during his visit to
Another native, Mohini,
soon after this, begins to get direct communication from Koot
Hoomi independently altogether of Madame Blavatsky,
and when hundreds of miles away from her. He also becomes a devoted adherent to
the Theosophical cause; but Mohini must, as far as I
am aware, be ranked in the second group of our witnesses, those who have had
personal astral communication with the Brothers, but have not yet seen them in
the flesh.
Bhavani Rao, a young
native candidate for chelaship, who came once
in company with Colonel Olcott, but at a time when Madame Blavatsky was in
another part of India, to see me at Allahabad, and
spent two nights under our roof there, is another witness who has had
independent communication with Koot Hoomi, and more than that, who is able himself to act as a
link of communication between Koot Hoomi and the outer world, For during the visit I speak of,
he was enabled to pass a letter of mine to the master, to receive back his
reply, to get off a second note of mine, and to receive back a little note of a
few words in reply again. I do not mean that he did all this of his own power,
but that his magnetism was such as to enable Koot Hoomi to do it through him. The experience is valuable
because it affords a striking illustration of the fact that Madame Blavatsky is
not an essential intermediary in the correspondence between myself and my
revered friend. Other illustrations are afforded by the frequent passage of
letters between Koot Hoomi
and myself through the mediation of Damodar at
Bombay, at a time when both Madame Blavatsky and Colonel Olcott were away at
Madras, travelling about on a Theosophical tour, in the course of which their
presence at various places was constantly mentioned in the local papers, I was
at AIlahabad, and I used, during that time, to send
my letters for Koot Hoomi
to Damodar at Bombay, and occasionally receive
replies so promptly that it would have been impossible for these to have been
furnished by Madame Blavatsky, then four or more days further from me in the
course of post than Bombay.
In this way, my very voluminous correspondence is, demonstrably as regards
portions of it, and therefore by irresistible inference as regards the whole, not
the work of Madame Blavatsky, or Colonel Olcott, which, if the Brothers are not
a reality, it must be, The correspondence is visible on paper, a considerable
mass of it, How has it come into existence; reaching me at different places and
times, and in different countries, and through different people? I do not quite
understand what hypotheses can be framed by a nonbeliever in the Brothers about
my correspondence. I can think of none which are not at once negatived by some of the facts about It.
It would be useless to copy out from
statements that from time to time have been published in the Theosophist
the names of native witnesses who have seen the astral forms of the Brothers
-spectral shapes which they were informed were such- about the headquarters of
the Society at
As I write, Colonel Olcott and Mr. Mohini Mohun Chatterjee,
mentioned above, are in
The second of the papers I wish to insert here, read like the first to a
meeting of the Theosophists in London, dealt with the considerations which,
after the existence of the Brothers is established, lead us to put
confidence in the teaching they convey to us in regard to the origin and
destinies of man and the whole problem of Nature. It is as follows: -
Many people who approach the consideration of occult philosophy are inclined to
lay great emphasis on the difference between believing in the existence of
those whom we call "the Brothers," and believing in the vast and
complicated body of teaching which has now been accumulated by their recent
pupils. I think it can really be shown that there is no halting place at which
a man who sets out on this enquiry can rationally pause and say, '" Thus
far will I go, and no farther". The chain of considerations which will
lead anyone who has once realised the existence of
the Adepts to feel sure that there can be no great error in a conception of
nature obtained with their help, consists of many links, but is really unbroken
in its continuity, and equally capable of bearing a strain at any point.
It consists of many links, partly because no one at present among those who are
in our position as students- who are living, that is to say, an ordinary
worldly life all the while that they are intellectually studying Occultism -can
ever obtain in his own person a complete knowledge of the Adepts. He cannot,
that is to say, come to know of his own personal knowledge all about even any
one Adept. The full elucidation of this difficulty leads to a proper comprehension
of the principle on which the Adepts shroud themselves in a partial seclusion,
a seclusion which has only become partial within a very recent period, and was
so complete until then that the world at large was hardly aware of the
existence of any esoteric knowledge from which it could be shut out. This is a
matter that is all the more important because experience has shown how the
world at large has been quick to take offence at the hesitating and imperfect
manner in which the Adepts have hitherto dealt with those who have sought
spiritual instruction at their hands. Judging the occult policy pursued by
comparison with inquiries on the plane of physical knowledge, the impatience of
inquirers is very natural, but none the less does even a limited acquaintance
with the conditions of mystic research show the occult policy to be reasonable
likewise.
Of course, everyone will admit that Adepts
are justified in exercising great caution in regard to communicating any
peculiar scientific knowledge which would put what are commonly called magical
powers within the reach of persons not morally qualified for their exercise.
But the considerations that prescribe this caution do not seem to operate also
in reference to the communication of knowledge concerning the spiritual
progress of man or the grander processes of evolution. And in truth the Adepts
have come to that very conclusion; they have undertaken the communication to
the general public of their safe theoretical knowledge, and the effort they are
making merely hangs fire, or may seem to do so to some observers, by reason of
the magnitude of the task in hand, and the novel aspect it wears, as well for
the teachers as for the students. For remember, if there has been that change
of policy on the part of the Adepts to which I have just referred, it has been
a change of such recent origin that it may almost be described as only just
coming on. And if the question be then asked, Why has this safe theoretical
knowledge not been communicated sooner, it seems reasonable to find a reply to
that question in the actual state of the intellectual world around us at this
moment. The freedom of thought of which English writers often boast is not very
widely diffused over the world as yet; and hardly, at all events, in any
generation before this, could the free promulgation of quite revolutionary
tenets in religious matters have been safely undertaken in any country.
Communities in which such an undertaking would still be fraught with peril are
even now more numerous than those in which it could be set on foot with any
practical advantage. One can thus readily understand how in the occult world
the question has been one of debate up to our own time, whether it was
desirable as yet to promote the dissemination of esoteric philosophy in the
world at large at the risk of provoking the acrimonious controversies, and even
more serious disturbances, liable to arise from the premature disclosure of
truths which only a small minority would really be ready to accept. Keeping
this in view, the mystery of the Adepts' reserve, up till recently, can hardly
be thought so astounding as to drive us on violent alternative hypotheses at
variance with all the plain evidence concerning their present action. There is
manifest reason why they should be careful in launching a body of newly-won
disciples on to their general stream of human progress; and added to this, the
force of their own training is such as to make them habitually cautious to a
far greater extent than the utmost prudence of ordinary life would render
ordinary men. "But," it will be argued, " granting all this, but
assuming, that at last some of the Adepts, at all events, have come to the
conclusion that some of their knowledge is ripe for presentation to the world,
why do they not present as much as they do present, under guarantees of a more
striking, irresistible, and conclusive kind than those which have actually been
furnished ? " I think the answer may be easily drawn from the
consideration of the way in which it would be natural to expect that a change
of policy amongst the Adepts in a matter of this kind would gradually be
introduced. By the hypothesis we conceive them but just coming to the
conclusion that it is desirable to teach mankind at large some portions of that
spiritual science hitherto conveyed exclusively to those who give tremendous
pledges in justification of their claim to acquire it. They will naturally
advance, in dealing with the world at large, along the same lines they have
learned to trust in dealing with aspirants for regular initiation. Never in the
history of the world have they sought out such aspirants, courted them or
advertised for them in any way whatever. It has been found an invariable law of
human progress that some small percentage of mankind will always come into the
world invested by Nature with some of the attributes proper to adeptship, and with minds so constituted as to catch
conviction as to the possibilities of the occult life, from the least little
sparks of evidence on the subject that may be floating about. Of persons so
constituted some have always been found to press forward into the ranks of chelaship, to resort, that is to say, to any devices
or opportunities that circumstances may afford them for fathoming occult
knowledge. When thus besieged by the aspirant the Adept has always, sooner or
later, disclosed himself. The change of policy now introduced prescribes that
the Adept shall make one step towards the disclosure of himself in advance of
the aspirant's demand upon him, but we can easily understand how the Adept, in
first making this change, would argue that if many chelas have hitherto
come forward in the absence of any spontaneous action from his side, it might
be that an almost dangerous rush of ill qualified aspirants would be invited by
any manifestation from him that should be more than a very slight one. At any
rate, the Adept would say it would be premature to begin by too sensational a
display of faculties inherent in advanced spiritual knowledge with which the
world at large is as yet unfamiliar. It will be better at first to make such an
offer as will only be calculated to inflame the imagination of persons only one
step removed beyond those whose natural instincts would lead them into the
occult life. This appears actually to have been the reasoning on which the
Adepts have proceeded so far, and this may help us to understand how it is
that, as I began by saying, no one person amongst those outer students, who
have been called lay-chelas, has yet been enabled to say that of his own
personal knowledge he knows all about any of the Adepts.
On the other hand, putting together the various scattered revelations
concerning the Brothers which have been distributed amongst various people in
India belonging to the Theosophical Society, so much can be learned about the
Adepts as to put us in a very strong position in regard to estimating their
qualifications for speaking with confidence as they do about the actual facts
of Nature on the superphysical plane. These scattered
revelations -if my reasoning in what has gone before may be accepted -have been
broken up and thrown about in fragments designedly, in order that as yet it
should only be possible to arrive at a full conviction concerning Adeptship after a certain amount of trouble spent in piecing
together the disjointed proofs. But when this process is accomplished we are
provided with a certain block of knowledge concerning the Adepts, out of which
large inferences must necessarily grow. We find, to begin with, that they do
unequivocally possess the power of cognizing event and facts on the physical
plane of knowledge with which we are familiar, by other means than those
connected with the five senses. We find also that they unequivocally possess
the power of emerging from their proper bodies and appearing at distant places
in more or less ethereal counterparts thereof which are not only agencies for
producing impressions on others but habitations for the time being of the
Adepts' own thinking principles, and thus in themselves, if the proof went no
further, demonstration of the fact that a human soul is something quite
independent of brain matter and nerve centres. I do not stop now to enumerate
instances. The record of evidence must be dissociated from its manipulation in
arguments like the present, but the records are abundant and accessible for all
who will take the trouble of examining them. Now, if we know that the Adept's
soul can pass at his own discretion into that state in which its perceptive
faculties are independent of corporeal machinery, it is not surprising that he
should be enabled to make, of his own knowledge, a great many statements
concerning processes of Nature, reaching far beyond any knowledge that can be
obtained by mere physical observation. Take for example, the Adepts' statement
that certain other planets besides this earth, are concerned with the growth of
the great crop of humanity of which we form a part. This is not advanced as a
conjecture or inference. The Adepts tell us that once out of the body they find
they can cognize events on some other planets as well as in distant parts of
our own. This is not the exceptional belief of an exceptional!y
organised individual, who may be regarded by doubters
as hallucinated; there is no room for doubting the fact that it is the
concurrent testimony' of a considerable body of men engaged in the constant
experimental exercise of similar faculties. In this way the fact becomes as
much a fact of true science, as the fact that the great nebula Orion, for
instance, exhibits a gaseous spectrum, and is therefore a true nebula. All of
us who have star spectroscope can ascertain that fact for ourselves, if we make
use of a clear night when the conditions of observation are possible. To doubt
it, would not be to show greater caution than is exercised by those who believe
it, but merely an imperfect appreciation of the evidence. It is true that in
regard to the condition of the other planets our acceptance of the Adepts'
statement must be governed by our impressions concerning the bona fides
of their intention in telling us that they have made such and such
observations. So far it is a matter of inference with us whether the Adepts are
saying what they believe to be true-when they speak of the septenary chain of planets to which the earth belongs -or
consciously deluding us with a rigmarole of statements which they know to be
false. I think it can be shown in a variety of ways, that the latter
supposition is absurd. But an exhaustive examination of its absurdity would be
a considerable task in itself. For the moment the position I am endeavouring to establish is one which does not depend upon
the question whether the Adepts are telling us, in reference to the planets,
what they know to be true, or something which they know to be untrue. My present
position is that at all events the Adepts themselves know what is true In the
matter, and that position, it will be observed, is not vitiated by the fact
that, as yet, we, their most recent pupils, are unable to follow In their
footsteps and repeat the experiments on which their teaching rests.
The same train of reasoning may be applied to the whole body of teaching which
the Theosophical Society is now concerned in endeavouring
to assimilate. As offered now to the uninitiated world, it can only take the
form of a set of statement on authority. And that sort of statement is not one
which is most agreeable to our methods or to the Adepts' habitual methods of
teaching. For there is no chemical laboratory in England where the system of
teaching Is more rigidly confined to the direction of the learner's own
experiments, than that same system is adopted with occult chelas
following the regular course of initiation. Step by step, as the regular chela is told that such and such is the fact in
regard to the inner mysteries of Nature, he is shown how to apply his own
developing faculties to the direct observation of such facts, But those
developing faculties carry with them, as pointed out a while ago, fresh powers
over Nature which can only be entrusted to those from whom the Adepts take the recognised pledges. In teaching outsiders as they are
trying to do now, the Adepts must depart from their own habitual
methods,- we must depart, if we wish to understand what they are willing to
teach, from our habitual methods of inquiry. We must suspend our usual demand
for proof of each statement made, in turn as it is advanced. We must rest our
provisional trust in each statement on our broad general conviction which can
be satisfied along familiar lines of demonstration, -that such men as the
Adepts certainly exist, even though we cannot visit them at pleasure, that they
must understand an enormous block of Nature's laws outside the range of those
which the physical senses cognize, that in any statement they make to us they
must be in a position to know absolutely whether that statement is or is not
true.
This much fully realised-,
the truth is that each inquirer in turn becomes satisfied, pari
passu with his realisation
of the case so far, that reason revolts against the notion that the Adepts can
be engaged in their present attempt to convey some of their own knowledge to
the world at large in any other than the purest good faith. It may be concluded
that we who have come to the conclusion that their teaching is altogether to be
accepted, are rearing a large inverted pyramid upon a small base. But the
logical strength of our position is not impaired by this objection. In every
branch of human knowledge, inferences far transcend the observed facts out of
which they grow. And even in the most exact science of all, a theorem is held
to be proved if any alternative hypothesis is found, on examination to be
irrational. Moreover, the doctrine even of legal testimony recognises
the value of secondary evidence where in the nature of the case It is
impossible that primary evidence can be forthcoming. That is exactly the state
of the case in regard to the present attempt to bridge the gulf that separates
the school of physical research from the from the school of spiritual knowledge.
As long as we of this side were justified in doubting whether there was
anywhere on earth such a thing as a school of spiritual knowledge, it may have
been hardly worth while to worry ourselves with the stray fragments of its
teaching which now and then broke loose in barely intelligible shapes. But to
doubt the existence of such a school now is equivalent, really to doubting the
statement about the nebula in Orion, according to the illustration I adduced
just now. It can only arise from inattention to the facts of the whole case as
these now stand, -from reluctance to take that trouble to examine these
thoroughly, which still, as a sort of hedge, separates the Theosophical Society
from the general community in the midst of which it is planted. Regarded in the
light of an occult barrier, -as an obstacle which corresponds, in the case of
the lay-chela to the really serious ordeals
which have to be crossed by the regular chela,
- the necessity of taking this trouble can hardly be regarded as a hedge that
it is difficult to traverse. And on the other side there lies a wealth of
information concerning the mysteries of Nature which clearly lights up vast
regions of the past and future hitherto shrouded in total darkness for critical
intelligences, and the prey for others of untrustworthy conjecture. For those
who once thoroughly go into the matter, and obtain a complete mastery over all
the considerations I have put forward, -who thus obtain full conviction the
Brothers certainly exist, that they must be acquainted with the actual facts
about Nature behind and beyond this life, that they are now ready to convey a
considerable block of their knowledge to us, and that it is ridiculous to
distrust their bona fides in doing this, -for all such true Theosophists
of the Theosophical Society, nothing, at present, connected with spiritual
success is comparable in importance with the study of the vast doctrine now in
process of delivery Into our hands.
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