In Colonel H. S. Olcotts address in Simla, India, not long since, upon
Spiritualism and Theosophy (1), he tells
us why he ceased in 1874 to call himself a Spiritualist and took the name of
Theosophist. It was because, he says, he had seen Mad. Blavatsky produce at will and
in full daylight the most wonderful facts of mediumship. Here follows a list of the
wonderful things thus witnessed by him: I have seen showers of roses made to fall in
a room; letters from people in far countries to drop from space into my lap; heard sweet
music coming from afar upon the air, grow louder and louder until it was in the room, and
then die away again out in the still atmosphere until it was no more. I have seen
writing made to appear upon paper and slates laid upon the floor, drawings upon the
ceilings beyond any ones reach, pictures upon paper without the employment of pencil
or color; articles duplicated before my very eyes; a living person instantly disappear
before my sight; jet black hair cut from a fair haired persons head; had absent
friends and distant scenes shown me in a crystal; and in America, more than a hundred
times, upon opening letters upon various subjects coming to me by the common post from my
correspondents in all parts of the world, have found inside, written in their own familiar
hand, messages to me from men in India who possess the theosophical knowledge of natural
law. Nay, upon one occasion I even saw summoned before me as perfectly
materialized a figure as any that ever stalked out of William Eddys
cabinet of marvels. All this, he tells us, was done by the trained human
will.
Analyzing these so-called marvels, we find them naturally separating into two classes;
those due to jugglery, a little skillful prestidigitation; and those due to the
psychological power of Mad. Blavatsky upon the Colonels mentality. So far as
the supposed magic music is concerned, I have knowledge that Mad. B. had a music box
concealed in her house in New York, the music of which she palmed off on her dupes and
visitors as magic music. The effect of its gradual approach and dying away could
easily be produced by having the box carried gradually from a distant room to the
neighborhood of the one where the listeners were, and then as gradually carried away
again.
I have also knowledge that drawings and paintings previously purchased or prepared by
Mad. B. were on different occasions imposed on visitants and friends as instantaneous
productions of her magic power; I have knowledge that she at times hoodwinked Col. Olcott,
and that, at other times, the two united to hoodwink others. Mad. B. had painting
materials in her house all the time, and is a proficient in painting. As a specimen
of her impositions on the Colonel, I will state that, on the wall of his room in her house
(be it remembered that Col. Olcott lived with her for a long time before they went to
India together, while his wife resided in another house in the same city), --- on the
walls was painted an inscription, said by Mad. B. to have been done magically; and his
private room changed one day to another apartment in her house, during his absence Mad. B.
erased the inscription in the first room and repainted it in room No. 2, telling him, on
his return, the erasure and painting were accomplished by magic. It may be well to
state that I am in possession of many other facts in the inner life of this soi disant
magician, including her career in Paris prior to her arrival in America; her connection
with the demi monde there, and her proficiency in the use of argot or French slang,
with which her conversation in that tongue is ever so plentifully interlarded; her
marriage in Philadelphia before she met Col. Olcott, her separation from her husband, and
the great dread manifested for fear he should present himself at her New York residence;
her mysterious receipt of money at intervals, presumed by some to come from Jesuitic
sources. (In this connection it may be noted that Miss Emily Kislingbury, secretary
of the British National Association of Spiritualists, very shortly after her return to
England from an American visit, during which she was a protégé of Mad. Blavatsky, after
recommending Col. Olcott as a fitting leader of American Spiritualism, wound up by joining
the Roman Catholic Church, while Dr. C. Carter Blake, one of the most prominent English
Theosophists, who also claims to possess magic power, is likewise a Catholic); her violent
profanity, intemperance, cigar-smoking, and other coarse masculine habits, etc., etc.
The following named phenomena claimed to have been seen by Col. Olcott were, most
likely, juggling tricks of the Madams: Falling of roses; dropping of letters
in his lap; the music; writing on paper, slates, etc.; pictures without pencil; black hair
cut from fair haired persons; letters from India found in letters of ordinary
correspondents (in this case, probably, the Colonels letters were opened by the
Madam, the Hindoo letters slipped in and then resealed); and the materialized
spirit. Mad. B. is well known to possess considerable psychological power,
especially over Col. Olcott; and the remainder of the magic feats seen by him were
probably non-objective in character, had no existence in reality, but were impressed upon
his mind just as the mesmerist causes his subject to behold, as seemingly partial
realities, whatever he wills him to see.
We thus see that the two qualities possessed by Mad. B., clever jugglery and strong
psychological power, are sufficient to account for all the seeming marvels falsely
attributed to magical control of the sub-human elementals and elementaries none of which
have any existence save in the imaginations of those unwise enough to believe in
them. And for this Col. Olcott renounced Spiritualism, and now asserts that none of
the spiritual phenomena are produced by the spirits of the dead, --- all being due to the
exercise of trained will power of the adept, assisted by the elementaries.
Materialization he explains as being caused thus: The soul of the living medium,
unconsciously to his physical self, oozes out, and by its elastic and protean nature takes
on the appearance of any deceased person whose image it sees in a visitors
memory. The mediums body being entranced, and his active vitality transferred
to his inner self, or double, that double can make itself appear under the
guise of a dead lady or gentleman, and catch and comment upon the familiar incidents it
finds in the relative magnetic atmosphere. With all due respect to the Colonel I
feel compelled to dissent from this extreme position, until I see more convincing proof of
its truth. I have no doubt those cases of materialization where a second
form the exact image of the medium is seen apart from the medium, are produced by the
double of the medium; but even then I am of opinion that outside spirits aid
in the manifestation of the mediums double, assisting it in the
production of the phenomena. In cases, however, where the forms seen are unlike the
mediums, of different sex, color or nationality, or variant in other respects, I
think the double has no part in the phenomena. The double
must be the counterpart of the person to whom it pertains. Is it reasonable to
suppose that a female form or the form of a child, can be the double of a
fully grown man? In cases where two or more spirits of different sexes,
ages, sizes, nationalities, etc., manifest themselves at once through one medium, as I
have seen in genuine materializations witnessed by me, is it not absurd to suppose that
the double of a man could divide itself up into three or four fully formed
persons, with a distinct individuality in each, and all different in appearance and mental
traits from the medium? Again, where the medium is not entranced, but even engages
in conversation with the materialized forms as I have seen in genuine materializations,
the theory of the double is ruled out. Attention is invited to the
significant fact that a few years ago, Col. Olcott asserted that the materializations were
produced by elementary, non-human spirits, who impersonate the spirits of the dead; now we
are told that it is not elementaries but the spirit of the medium himself who impersonates
the spirits of the dead. This is a characteristic sample of the continual changes in
theory which the Occultists have been making ever since the rise of this nineteenth
century superstition. After we were first told that non-human spirits, sylphs,
gnomes, undines, and salamanders, produced the manifestations, in a year or two we were
told that a mistake had been made; it was not the non-human elementals, but the spirits of
former human spirits, --- spirits of men and women who by an impure life had lost their
immortality --- who simulated materialization. Now we have a third hypothesis, the
mediums double. The next, a fourth theory of Col. Olcotts, will probably
be the truth one, --- partly the double, and partly disembodied spirits. A gradual
advance towards the truth may be seen in each theory: First, spirits who never had
been human, but would in time attain to the prerogative of human immortality; secondly,
spirits formerly human, who had lost their immortality; thirdly, spirits of the
mediums. Or, first, non-human; second quasi-human; third, strictly human, in the
body. The fourth will perhaps be, human spirits, out of the body. Even
Theosophists make progress towards the truth. There is still hope for them.
There is a foundation of truth in the vagaries of Theosophy. Spirits in the body
do perform some of the phenomena attributed to the spirits disembodied. If the
Theosophists would drop their absurdities about elementaries and elementals and go to work
to demonstrate the action of the occult forces of the human spirit on earth, they would be
doing valuable work --- work much needed. But as it is the little truth they have is
so encumbered with nonsense and charlatanry that their influence upon the world is more
injurious than beneficial. Occultism and Theosophy rightly directed would be
eminently servicable to Spiritualism and the world. Let us hope that in time its
services may be thus utilized.
Presidio of San Francisco, Cal.
Endnote
(1) See "Spiritualism and Theosophy," by Henry S.
Olcott, The Theosophist (Bombay, India), Volume II, November 1880, pp. 36-41 and
December 1880, pp. 49-52.---BA Editor.