Phenomena and Madame H. P. Blavatsky

H. P. Blavatsky

As Henry Steele Olcott reminded in the second volume of Old Diary Leaves (1900), there occurred in proximity to his friend and Theosophical Society co-worker Helena Petrovna Blavatsky (1831-1891) phenomena that "happened in the presence of many witnesses . . ."

Olcott noted that although his autobiographical articles had been appearing in the Theosophist journal since March 1892, the only suggested modification of his accounts by these witnesses had been made "by Mr. Massey as to some particulars of the butterfly-elemental story" in an early chapter.

Olcott observed about HPB, "My colleague was always talking about her 'occult nose,' yet it very seldom helped her to smell a traitor or a predestined enemy who came under the guise of seeming friendliness."

The second book in the six-volume "history of the Theosophical Society" Old Diary Leaves chronicled, as Olcott summarized in the following book, ". . . our adventures in India and Ceylon, the formation of Branches, the giving of lectures, healings of the sick by hundreds, occult phenomena produced by H.P.B., etc., and brings us down to the autumn of 1883 . . ."   The statement about phenomena having been "produced" by HPB was clarified by a declaration she made that was quoted by Olcott in the book.  The healings had been facilitated by Olcott after commencing unplanned during his tour to promote the Theosophical Society.  

Olcott commented about the first instance of healing that involved a half-paralyzed lecture attendee in Galle: "I had known all about Mesmerism and Mesmeric Healing for thirty years, though I had never practiced them, save to make a few necessary experiments at the beginning, but now, moved by a feeling of sympathy . . . I made some passes over his arm, and said I hoped he might feel the better for it."  The news of Olcott's successful healing soon spread.  Olcott wrote:

. . . I frankly confess my belief that I could not have gone through such a great and sustained outpouring of my vitality, unless I had been helped by our Teachers, although I was never so told by them.  What I am forced to realize is that I have had not had so phenomenal a healing power since I got my order to stop the work, i.e., towards the close of 1883; and I am convinced that, though I should ever try so hard, I should fail to cure those desperate cases which I would then dispose of with the greatest ease within a half-hour or even less.

These remarks suggest that Olcott's "vitality" served as a conduit in regard to the healings.

Olcott and HPB had arrived in Bombay in February 1879 with the first phenomenal incident reported as having occurred on their first evening ashore in a house belonging to Arya Samaj President Mr. Hurrychund and in the company of Mr. Ross Scott, an Irishman who had become friends with them during the voyage by steamer from Liverpool.  He teased HPB about her not having given him the least proof of psychical powers.

"What shall I do for you?" she asked.  He snatched the handkerchief she was holding in her hand, and, pointing to her name "Heliona" embroidered across one corner, said: "Well, make that name disappear and another to take its place."  "What name do you want?" she rejoined.  Looking towards us, where we stood at a distance of a few paces, he pointed to our host and said: "Let it be Hurrychund's."  We came over to them on hearing this, and saw what was done.  She gave Scott to hold tight in his hand the embroidered corner of her handkerchief, retaining the opposite corner herself.  After a minute or so she told him to look.  He did so, found the substitution of names had been made, Hurrychund's being there in the same kind of embroidery, and in the first impulse of excitement, cried out: "Where is your physical science now?  This beats all the professors in the world!"

Other mysterious occurrences mentioned include HPB having "pulled some black hair from her own head," the ringing of unseen "astral bells," and, upon request, the instantaneous duplication of "a magic mirror with a black frame and handle" received from a Master (or 'Mahatma' — known by Olcott to sometimes mentally 'overshadow' HPB).  During one eventful evening, HPB commanded the flame of a lamp to "Go up!" and down  in intervals with success.  Olcott divulged about this incident: "She said it was very simple: A Mahatma was there, invisible to all but herself, and he had just turned the lamp up and down while she spoke the words."

Olcott affirmed about the Mahatmas: ". . . their inspiriting presence made us strong to proceed in the path we were treading . . ."  Troubling events included police surveillance and a variety of accusations about them and the Theosophical Society that Olcott found slanderous.  He reflected, "We knew not, but those Adepts knew, that we two were to serve as the necessary nuclei for the concentration and diffusion of that âkâshic stream of old Aryan thought which the revolution of cycles had brought again into the focus of human needs . . ."

Olcott recalled that beginning on March 29, 1879 there were a series of strange occurrences witnessed by their friend and fellow Theosophical Society member Mooljee Thackersey.  These events express the aspects of HPB's life that she never explained.  As Mooljee told Olcott afterwards, on the date in question Mooljee fetched a horse and buggy for HPB.  She directed him to tell the driver when to make each turn without offering him any clue about their destination.  They eventually reached the seashore and "the gate of a private estate, with a magnificent rose-garden in front and a fine bungalow with spacious Eastern verandas in the back ground.  H. P. B. climbed down and told Mooljee to await her there . . . he waited in a complete puzzle; for such a property he, a lifelong resident of Bombay, had never heard of before."  The report continued:

H. P. B. had walked straight up to the house, had been received cordially at the door by a tall Hindu of striking and distinguished appearance, clad entirely in white, and had gone inside.  After some time the two reappeared, the mysterious stranger bade her farewell, and handed her a great bunch of roses which one of the gardeners brought to his master for the purpose, and H. P. B. rejoined her escort, re-entered the buggy, and ordered the driver to return home.  All that Mooljee could draw out of H.P.B. was that the stranger was an Occultist with whom she was in relation and had business to transact that day.  The roses, she said, he had sent by her to myself.

When Mooljee tried to retrace the route to the seaside bungalow, he found himself completely baffled.

On a trip to Karli Caves, Olcott and HPB were taken to the Government rest-house in Khandalla.  On the evening of their arrival Mooljee visited the railway station to talk to the station-master, an old acquaintance.  When a train from Bombay stopped at the platform, Mooljee heard his name loudly called.  "Looking from carriage to carriage he saw a Hindu beckoning and went to his window.  The unknown proved to be the personage whom H. P. B. had visited!"  He handed Mooljee a bouquet of roses.

"These," said the gentleman, as the train moved on, "are for Colonel Olcott; give him them, please."  So Mooljee brought them to me and told his story.  An hour later I told H. P. B. that I should like to thank the Adept for his courtesies to our party, and if she could get it delivered, should write him.  She assented, so the note was written and given her.  She handed it to Mooljee and requested him to go down the public road before us and deliver it.  "But," he asked, "to whom, and where; it bears no name nor address on the cover?"  "No matter; take it and you will see to whom you must give it."  He accordingly moved off down the road, but after ten minutes came running back, breathless and exhibiting every sign of surprise.  "It's gone!" he faltered.  "What?"  "The letter, he took it."  "Who took it?" I inquired.  "I don't know, Colonel, unless it was a pisâcha: he came up out of the ground, or so it seemed to me.  I was walking slowly along, looking to right and left, and not knowing what I must do to carry out H. P. B.'s orders.  There were no trees or bushes for a person to hide in, but just the white, dusty road . . ."


". . . It was the man of the rose-bungalow, the man who gave me the flowers for you at Khandalla station, and whom I had seen carried away in the train towards Poona!"  "Nonsense, man," I replied, "you've been dreaming."  "No, I was as wide awake as I ever was in my life.  The gentleman said: 'You have a letter for me—that one in your hand; have you not?'  I could hardly speak, but I said: 'I don't know, Maharaj, it has no address.'  'It is for me, give it.'  He took it from me and said: 'Now, go back.'  I turned my back for an instant and looked to see if he was there, but he had disappeared; the road was vacant!  Frightened, I turned and ran, but had not got away fifty yards when a voice at my very ear said: 'Don't be foolish, man; keep cool; all is right.'  This frightened me still more, for no man was in sight.  I fled, and here I am."  Such was Mooljee's story, which I repeat exactly as he told it to me.  If appearances go for anything, he must have spoken truth, for his fright and excitement were too evident to have been simulated by so clumsy an actor as he.

During the visit to Karli Caves the next day, as Olcott related,  "H. P. B. told us that from one of the cubicles in one of these small caves, a secret door communicated with other caves in the heart of the mountain, where a school of Adepts lived, but whose existence was not even suspected by the general public . . ."  HPB's half-hour interlude with an Adept in his secret chambers without explanation leaves the reader wondering what always will be considered when any form of 'occult' or 'supernatural' interaction is promulgated — is the source of information accurate and could circumstances have been exaggerated in any way?  The visit to the caves resulted with "an order, telepathically received" according to HPB that they should go to Rajputana in the Punjab.  At Bhurtpore, Rajputana, Olcott received a letter answering his own: "It was a beautifully worded and, to me, most important letter, inasmuch as it pointed out the fact that the surest way to seek the Masters was through the channel of faithful work in the Theosophical Society."

Olcott described part of his discourse from the lectures he presented during this period:

I see by my notes that I described the true Universal Brotherhood to be a common kinship between all sentient beings that had the divine spark manifested in them in whatsoever degree, the ant and the elephant had it as well as man, and all men of every race and kindred had it in common, only in various degrees of manifestation; it behooved us  to be kind to our fellow-men and, for the same reason, to be tender to the animals in the proportion of their helplessness . . .

One anecdote about the clairvoyance of HPB involved letters found to contain 'Mahatmic writing.'  Before opening them, Olcott recalled:

. . . I asked H. P. B. to lay them against her forehead to see if she could find any Mahatmic message in either of them.  She did so with the first few that came to hand, and said that in two there were such writing.  She then read the messages clairvoyantly, and I requested Professor Smith to open them himself.  After again closely scrutinizing them, he cut open the covers, and we all saw and read the messages exactly as H. P. B. had deciphered them by clairvoyant sight.

Olcott commented about HPB in the Introduction of the book: ". . . she was from the first and continued to the end an insoluble riddle . . . On the hypothesis that she was a medium for the Great Teachers . . . then the riddle is easy to read; for then one can account for the alterations in mind, character, tastes, and predilections which have been touched upon in previous chapters . . . ."