Dr. Hubbe Schleiden on a
Letter from the Mahatma K.H.
[Reprinted from the First Report of the Committee of the Society for Psychical Research, Appointed to Investigate the Evidence for Marvellous Phenomena offered by Certain Members of the Theosophical Society, Appendix XXXII, pp. 115-116, London, 1884. This online edition is reprinted by permission of the
Society for Psychical Research, London.]
APPENDIX XXXII.
_______The following is from Dr. Hubbe Schleiden, who is a well-known German savant and publicist, author of “Ethiopien,” and other works. We have already pointed out the importance of his evidence in commenting on Mr. Mohini’s. It will be seen from Dr. Hubbe Schleiden’s letter to Mr. Myers that Madame Blavatsky was in England at the time of the incident.
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Elberfeld, August, 1884.
Dear Madam, --- You requested me to state to you the particular circumstances under which I received my first communication from Mahatma K.H. I have much pleasure in doing so.
On the morning of the 1st of this month Colonel Olcott and I were travelling by an express train from here to Dresden. A few days before I had written a letter to the Mahatmas which Colonel Olcott had addressed and enclosed to you, which, however, as I now hear, never reached you but was taken by the Masters whilst it was in the hands of the post officials. At the time mentioned I was not thinking of this letter, but was relating to Colonel Olcott some events of my life, expressing also the fact that since my sixth or seventh year I had never known peace or joy, and asking Colonel Olcott’s opinion on the meaning of some striking hardships I have gone through. In this conversation we were interrupted by the railway-guard demanding our tickets. When I moved forwards and raised myself partly from the seat in order to hand over the tickets, Colonel Olcott noticed something white lying behind my back on that side of me which was opposite to the one where he was sitting. When I took up that which had appeared there it turned out to be a Tibetan envelope, in which I found a letter from Mahatma K.H., written with blue pencil in his well-known and unmistakable handwriting. As there were several other persons unacquainted to us in the compartment, I suppose the Master chose this place for depositing the letter near me where it was the least likely to attract the unwelcome attention and curiosity of outsiders. The envelope was plainly addressed to me, and the communication contained in the letter was a consoling reflection on the opinion which I had five or ten minutes ago given on the dreary event of my past life. The Mahatma explained that such events and the mental misery attached to it were beyond the ordinary run of life, but that hardships of all kinds would be the lot of one striving for higher spiritual development. He very kindly expressed his opinion that I had already achieved some philanthropic work for the good of the world. In this letter were also answered some of the questions which I had put in my first-mentioned letter, and an assurance was given me that I was to receive assistance and advice when I should be in need of it.
I dare say it would be unnecessary for me to ask you to inform the Mahatma of the devoted thankfulness which I feel towards him for the great kindness shown to me, for the Master will know of my sentiments without my forming them into more or less inadequate words --- I am, dear madam, in due respect, yours faithfully,
HUBBE SCHLEIDEN.
To Madame Blavatsky, Elberfeld, Platzhoffstrasse, 12.
Elberfeld, 9/11/84.
Dear Sir, --- In reply to your question about the letter from Mahatma K.H., which I received in a railway carriage of an express train while in motion, I beg to say that it appears to me absolutely impossible that the letter could have been brought into the train by any supposed agent of Madame Blavatsky’s. It is true we had not changed carriages since leaving Elberfeld, but the letter did not at all fall out of the air, but was found behind my back when I moved, and must, therefore, have been deposited between my back and the cushion of the seat against which I was lying. There was no possibility of getting there for any matter in one of the three or four aggregate states known to our Western science. Besides, Madame Blavatsky could have nothing to do with this letter, which was a reply to questions which I had written on Tuesday, the 29th July, and which left Elberfeld on that or the following day for London, addressed to Madame B. Now, these questions could not have been delivered in London before Thursday or Friday of that week, and a reply could, in the ordinary postal way, not have been in Elberfeld before Saturday or Sunday. The event of my receiving the reply of the Mahatma, however, occurred on Friday morning, the 1st August. I may mention here that Madame B. assured me she never found my questions enclosed in the letter to her; these must have been taken out while in the hands of the post. My best proof of the genuineness of this phenomenon, I find, though, is the contents of the letter, for it was not only a reply to the said questions, but also referred to the conversation I was just at that time having with Colonel Olcott. I cannot doubt that this handwriting of the Mahatma must, therefore, have been precipitated by him at that very instant and transmitted to me by a magic process which lies beyond the power of ordinary man. --- I am, dear sir, yours very truly,
HUBBE SCHLEIDEN.
To F.W. H. Myers, Esq., Cambridge.
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