There is nothing of cant or humbug about the above articles. A society founded for the prosecution of such researches seems laudable enough. Oriental scholars and scientists have been working in this field for many years. But the investigations, as conducted under the Blavatsky régime, have savored so of charlatanism that many earnest, truth-seeking Theosophists have withdrawn from the Society.
After seeing the Society well established, Madame Blavatsky went to India. Her career in that country was a checkered one. From this period dates the exposé of the Mahatma miracles. The story reads like a romance by Marie Corelli. Let us begin at the beginning. The headquarters of the Society was first established at Bombay, thence removed to Madras and afterwards to Adyar. A certain M. and Mme. Coulomb, trusted friends of Madame Blavatsky, were made librarian and assistant corresponding secretary respectively of the Society, and took up their residence in the building known as the headquarters—a rambling East Indian bungalow, such as figure in Rudyard Kipling’s stories of Oriental life. Marvellous phenomena, of an occult nature, alleged to have taken place there, were attested by many Theosophists. Mysterious, ghostly appearances of Mahatmas were seen, and messages were constantly received by supernatural means. One of the apartments of the bungalow was denominated the Occult Room, and in this room was a sort of cupboard against the wall, known as the Shrine. In this shrine the ghostly missives were received and from it were sent. Skeptics were convinced, and occult lodges spread rapidly over India among the dreamy, marvel-loving natives. But affairs were not destined to sail smoothly. There came a rift within the lute—Madame Blavatsky quarreled with her trusted lieutenants, the Coulombs! In May, 1884, M. and Mme. Coulomb were expelled from the Society by the General Council, during the absence of the High Priestess and Col. Olcott in Europe. The Coulombs, who had grown weary of a life of imposture, or were actuated by the more ignoble motive of revenge, made a complete exposé of the secret working of the Inner Brotherhood. They published portions of Madame Blavatsky’s correspondence in the Madras Christian College Magazine, for September and October, 1884; letters written to the Coulombs, directing them to prepare certain impostures and letters written by the High Priestess, under the signature of Koot Hoomi, the mythical adept.[5] This correspondence unquestionably implicated the Sibyl in a conspiracy to fraudulently produce occult phenomena. She declared them to be, in whole, or in part, forgeries. At this juncture the London Society for Psychical Research sent Mr. Richard Hodgson, B. A., scholar of St. John’s College, Cambridge, England, to India to investigate the entire matter in the interest of science.
He left England November, 1884, and remained in the East till April, 1885. During this period Blavatskyism was sifted to the bottom. Mr. Hodgson’s report covers several hundred pages, and proves conclusively that the occult phenomena of Madame Blavatsky and her co-adjutors are unworthy of credence. In his volume he gives diagrams of the trap-doors and machinery of the shrine and the occult room, and facsimiles of Madame Blavatsky’s handwriting, which proved to be identical with that of Koot Hoomi, or Cute Hoomi, as the critics dubbed him. He shows that the Coulombs had told the plain unvarnished truth so far as their disclosures went; and he stigmatizes the Priestess of Isis in the following language:
“1. She has been engaged in a long continued combination with other persons to produce by ordinary means a series of apparent marvels for the support of the Theosophic movement.
“2. That in particular the shrine at Adyar through which letters purporting to come from Mahatmas were received, was elaborately arranged with a view to the secret insertion of letters and other objects through a sliding panel at the back, and regularly used for the purpose by Madame Blavatsky or her agents.
“3. That there is consequently a very strong general presumption that all the marvellous narratives put forward in evidence of the existence of Mahatmas are to be explained as due either (a) to deliberate deception carried out by or at the instigation of Madame Blavatsky, or (b) to spontaneous illusion or hallucination or unconscious misrepresentation or invention on the part of the witnesses.”
The mysterious appearances of the ghostly Mahatmas at the headquarters was shown, by Mr. Hodgson, to be the work of confederates, the cleverest among them being Madame Coulomb. Sliding panels, secret doors, and many disguises were the modus operandi of the occult phenomena. In regard to the letters and alleged precipitated writing, Mr. Hodgson says:
“It has been alleged, indeed, that when Madame Blavatsky was at Madras, instantaneous replies to mental queries had been found in the shrine (at Adyar), that envelopes containing questions were returned absolutely intact to the senders, and that when they were opened replies were found within in the handwriting of a Mahatma. After numerous inquiries, I found that in all cases I could hear of, the mental query was such as might easily have been anticipated by Madame Blavatsky; indeed, the query was whether the questioner would meet with success in his endeavor to become a pupil of the Mahatma, and the answer was frequently of the indefinite and oracular sort. In some cases the envelope inserted in the Shrine was one which had been previously sent to headquarters for that purpose, so that the envelope might have been opened and the answer written therein before it was placed in the Shrine at all. Where sufficient care was taken in the preparation of the inquiry, either no specific answer was given or the answer was delayed.”
A certain phenomenon, frequently mentioned by Theosophists as having occurred in Madame Blavatsky’s sitting-room, was the dropping of a letter from the ceiling, supposed to be a communication from some Mahatma. In all such cases conjuring was proved to have been used—the deus ex machina being either a silk thread or else a cunningly secreted trap door hidden between the wooden beams of the bungalow ceiling, operated of course by a concealed confederate.
Madame Blavatsky’s favorite method of impressing people with her occult powers was the almost immediate reception of letters from distant countries, in response to questions asked. These feats were the result of carefully contrived plans, preconcerted weeks in advance. She would telegraph in cipher to one of her numerous correspondents, East Indian, for example, to write a letter in reply to a certain query, and post it at a particular date. Then she would calculate the arrival of the letter, often to a nicety. Her ability as a conversationalist enabled her to adroitly lead people into asking questions that would tally with the Mahatma messages. But sometimes she failed, and a ludicrous fiasco was the result. Mr. Hodgson’s report contains accounts of many such mystic letters that would arrive by post from India in the nick of time, or too late for use.