Published by The Blavatsky Archives Online. Online Edition copyright 2000.
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First S.P.R. Report on H.P.B.APPENDIX XVIII.
_______This evidence has been commented on in our Report.
Account by Mrs. Gordon, from “Hints on Esoteric Theosophy.”
No. 1, vide pp. 109-125.[Extract.]
“Colonel Olcott had told me that he had had an intimation in the night from his Chohan (teacher) that K. H. had been to the Vega and had seen Eglinton. This was at about eight o’clock on Thursday morning, the 23rd. A few hours later a telegram, dated at Bombay 22nd day, 21 hour 9 minutes, that is to say 9 minutes past 9 p.m. on Wednesday evening, came to me from Madame Blavatsky, to this effect: --- ‘K. H. just gone to Vega.’ This telegram came as a ‘delayed’ message, and was posted to me from Calcutta, which accounts for its not reaching me until midday on Thursday. It corroborated, as will be seen, the message of the previous night to Colonel Olcott. We then felt hopeful of getting the letter by occult means from Mr. Eglinton. A telegram later on Thursday asked us to fix a time for a sitting, so we named nine o’clock Madras time, on Friday, 24th. At this hour we three --- Colonel Olcott, Colonel Gordon, and myself --- sat in the room which had been occupied by Mr. Eglinton. We had a good light, and sat with our chairs placed to form a triangle, of which the apex was to the north. In a few minutes Colonel Olcott saw outside the open window the two ‘Brothers’ whose names are best known to us, and told us so; he saw them pass to another window, the glass doors of which were closed. He saw one of them point his hand towards the air over my head, and I felt something at the same moment fall straight down from above on to my shoulder, and saw it fall at my feet in the direction towards the two gentlemen. I knew it would be the letter, but for the moment I was so anxious to see the ‘Brothers’ that I did not pick up what had fallen. Colonel Gordon and Colonel Olcott both saw and heard the letter fall. Colonel Olcott had turned his head from the window for a moment to see what the ‘Brother’ was pointing at, and so noticed the letter falling from a point about two feet from the ceiling. When he looked again the two ‘Brothers’ had vanished.
“There is no verandah outside, and the window is several feet from the ground.
“I now turned and picked up what had fallen on me, and found a letter in Mr. Eglinton’s handwriting, dated on the Vega, the 24th; a message from Madame Blavatsky, dated at Bombay, the 24th, written on the backs of three of her visiting cards; also a larger card such as Mr. Eglinton had a packet of, and used at his Seances. On this latter card was the, to us, well-known handwriting of K. H., and a few words in the handwriting of the other ‘Brother,” who was with him outside our windows, and who is Colonel Olcott’s Chief. All these cards and the letter were threaded together with a piece of blue sewing silk. We opened the letter carefully by slitting up one side, as we saw that some one had made on the flap in pencil three latin crosses, and so we kept them intact for identification.”
Mrs. Gordon thus sums up the more salient features of the phenomenon: ---
“(1) Mr. Eglinton was personally unknown to Madame Blavatsky and Colonel Olcott, the former having not even written to him once, the latter once only --- in acknowledgment of a letter of introduction from a London friend. Mr. E.’s views and theirs respecting mediumistic phenomena were in conflict. Collusion, therefore, was out of the question. (1) Mr. E.’s personal ‘Spirit-guide,’ using the direct voice while the medium was entranced, told me that he had now become acquainted with the ‘Brothers,’ and would try to do a phenomenon after Mr. Eglinton’s departure by steamer from Calcutta. (3) A corroborative intimation came to me from the ‘Brothers’ through Madame Blavatsky, by telegram after Mr. E. had left Howrah, and while his vessel was in the stream. (4) At 8 a.m. on the 23rd, Colonel Olcott informed us that during the night his ‘Guru’ had told him that K. H. had visited the Vega; a telegram received later in the day from Bombay corroborates this statement. (5) By appointment we sit in Mr. Eglinton’s late bed-chamber at a designated hour. Colonel O. sees the doubles or astral forms of two Brothers whom he names; one extends his arm towards me and at the same instant a packet of papers falls vertically upon my shoulder; (it falls not from, but towards Colonel Olcott and Colonel Gordon, therefore it was not thrown by either of them). (6) A good light was burning and we could see each other’s movements. (7) In the packet were a letter from Mr. E., dated the same day, on the Vega, and announcing that he should read the letter to a certain lady on board, and ask her to mark the envelope; [see endnote A] also a note from Madame Blavatsky, dated at Bombay, the 24th, certifying to the reception of the letter from Mr. E.; and (on one of Mr. E.’s own blank cards) messages from the two Brothers whom Colonel Olcott saw outside our windows. All these points the sceptic must dispose of: to account for any one or two will not suffice. Though every other item were brushed away, the phenomenal delivery of the papers would stand as a marvellous example of the power enjoyed by our mystical Chiefs over the forces of Nature.”
A few days later she published the following certificate which reached her by post on the 28th March: ---
“At 8 p.m. (Bombay time), on Friday, the 24th March, 1882, we were spending our time with Madame Blavatsky in the room as the wind was blowing powerfully outside. Madame told us that she felt that something would occur. The whole party, consisting of seven persons, then adjourned on the terrace, and within a few minutes after our being there, we saw a letter drop as if from under the roof above. Some of us saw the letter coming slanting from one direction and drop quite opposite to where it came from. The letter on being opened was found to contain a closed envelope to the address of Mrs. Gordon, Howrah; on the reverse side were three crosses ††† in pencil. The envelope was of bluish colour and thin. The open letter written in red pencil contained certain instructions to Madame Blavatsky, and accordingly she put the envelope together with three visiting cards, and strung them all with a blue thread of silk and put the packet as directed on a book case, and within five minutes after it was put there it evaporated, to our no small surprise.
“K. M. Shroff,
“Vice-President Bombay T. S.
“Gwala K. Deb, F.T.S.
“Damodar K. Mavalankar, F.T.S.
“Martandrew B. Nagnath, F.T.S.
“Dorab H. Bharucha, F.T.S.
“Bhavani Shankar, F.T.S.”
“The packet was taken away from the book case at 21 minutes past 8 p.m. (9, Madras time). A letter from Mr. Eglinton to myself was also received by me. In it he confesses to a firm belief in the ‘Brothers.’ Speaks of K. H. having visited him two nights ago (the 22nd) on the Vega, &c.“H. P. Blavatsky.”
_______
Endnote
(A) It should be noted that the envelope marked by this lady was for some reason opened, and the three crosses, which was a different mark to hers, put by Mr. Eglinton on a new envelope in the presence of witnesses. There was therefore no proof of identity between the letter received and that shown on the Vega.