Instantaneous Transmission of Letters.
by Alice Gordon
[Reprinted from Psychic Notes (Calcutta), April 13, 1882, pp. 66-67.]
The accompanying certificate came by post on the 28th instant.
"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. H. SHROFF,
Vice-President
Bombay, T.S.Gwala K. Deb, F.T.S.
Damodar K. Mavalankur, 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."
By the last mail I received a long letter from the gentleman whose letter was brought on January 15th to Mr. Meugens. He begs his name may not be published, but I will give a few extracts from his letter. He says: "I was much pressed for time when I last wrote to you, and so could only beg of you not to bring before the public the most extraordinary occurrence of my unfinished letter finding its way to India. Being now at leisure, I send you a full account. On Sunday the 15th of January I had been thinking much of my kind friend, Mr. Meugens, and a friend having lent me a Crystal, I, to amuse an idle moment looked into it, to my amazement I distinctly saw as in a little picture, Mr. Meugens and Mr. Eglinton sitting under a verandah, and also the name of "Gordon." I thought I would write to Mr. Meugens, and began to do so, when I was called away for a moment, and on my return could not find my letter, though I hunted for it everywhere. I had no time then to write another, as I had to be off to church, but the following day I wrote again to Mr. Meugens a hurried note telling him of the occurrence, but never dreaming anything would come of it. I remember remarking on the darkness, there being a fog at the time. Four days after I was visiting a friend, Mr. Wedgwood, when he was told by my guide that she had taken the note, and she exactly described where it was found. He unknown to me (as he knows I am not at liberty to publish my name) sent an account to Light, which has since been verified word for word, in such a way as to leave no doubt on the most sceptical mind ***. The manifestation being quite unsolicited on my part, and indeed proving rather embarrassing, I am sure you will see, that as it is quite out of the question for me to be in any way public with respect to the phenomena of Spiritualism it would never do to publish this wonder." As the wonder has been published there is no breach of etiquette in publishing this letter without name. I think any person who carefully considers the two cases of instantaneous transmission which I have recorded will find great difficulty in accounting for the facts as due to collusion. In the first instance it has to be supposed that a young man who neither wishes for publicity nor gains money has lent himself to fraud, and that Mr. Meugens has either done the same, or been the victim of a stupidly concocted plot to deceive him. There are but two explanations possible. On the collusion and fraud theory, either Mr. Eglinton brought the letter dated January 15th out with him early in October, or Mr. Meugens received it by post in the envelope which reached here on January 12th by post. If the matter depended on Mr. Eglinton only it would be a different thing, motives for fraud may exist in his case, but no one can suppose that Mr. Meugens and the gentleman whose letter was brought have anything to gain by lending themselves to such. Besides, the letter speaking of the darkness and coldness of January 15th bears in this case internal evidence of the truthfulness which can be verified; fogs in January are not so common as to make a hit probable. Then the sceptic must bear in mind that there are numbers of such transmissions of letters and other things, certified to by Spiritualists. And we have the letter just received from Mr. Eglinton, in this case there must be 10 confederates brought in, not counting Col. Gordon and myself. There is an absurdity in supposing that persons of ordinary honesty and sense, would take the trouble to contrive, even if it were possible, such an elaborate fraud. Even the worst people have some motive underlying their nefarious actions, what motive can any connected with this last phenomenon have in perpetrating such a fraud? And the only reason which exists for suspecting false play is, because such facts are too wonderful to be believed. This may not be the fault of the facts.
A. GORDON.