Theos-Talk Archives (January 2002 Message tt00404)

Brigitte: "In his recent book about Blavatsky "The Book of Dzyan" Tim 
Maroney Blavatsky supposed to have shown the symptoms Dissociative 
Identity Disorder(DID), and that did played a decisive role in her 
experiences and behaviour.."

Jerry: " DID is associated with lack of conscious control of a 
central ego and is similar (but weaker) to what is called multiple 
personality disorder (MPD), where different ego-complexes take over 
conscious control periodically. MPD is usually caused by sexual abuse 
during childhood, but DID is a weaker version and can have other 
causes, and the central ego-complex usually does not lose 
consciousness when other ego-complexes communicate like it does in 
MPD. 

Now, the key phrase in DID and MPD as well as all other personality
disfunctions is "lack of conscious control." Mental illness, when 
diagnosed as such, generally implies an inability to function 
properly in society. 
When this same function (weakening or silencing of ego) is conducted 
consciously, even deliberately, it becomes a psychic power rather 
than a psychic dissociation.
Blavatsky wrote that she never lost consciousness during these 
episodes, and so we can rule out MPD. From everything that I have 
read, she also seems to have had a very strong central ego-complex, 
and so I think we can rule out DID (this usually occurs with weak 
ego's). This leaves us with the alternative of deliberately allowing 
one's ego to become conscious of "another" for brief periods of time."

Brigitte: The behavior of shamans in tribal society some cases can be 
close to the description as in this case you describe of Blavatsky, 
yet in these societys (as was probably with the shamanic tribes in 
the area where Blavatsky for some time grew up) mediumistic type 
behavior is appreciated, and like Franz Hartmann called Blavatsky in 
regards to the "Mahatmas" the "talking image." 

Blavatsky, was born in Russia in 1831. Her mother died while 
Blavatsky was young. She spent part of her childhood with her 
maternal grandmother and part in army camps where her father was 
stationed. There she was exposed to the crude language and brash 
attitudes that would become part of her character. Blavatsky was 
headstrong and independent, contrasting willful behavior and tantrums 
with a brilliant mind that easily learned music and foreign 
languages. She experienced trancelike visions, communed with nature 
spirits, often walked in her sleep, and talked with animals.

Later in life, Blavatsky stated that at eight or nine years of age, 
she began channeling the spirit of "Aunt T" which resulted in nearly 
ten volumes of dictated information gathered over the next six years. 
In her fourteenth year, Blavatsky discovered that Aunt T was still 
living, therefore could not possibly have been a spirit or have 
channeled anything to her. Blavatsky explained this six year 
adventure by saying it was a product of her own child mind (Mary 
K.Neff "Personal Memoirs of H.P.Blavatsky."1967). This prelude to her 
future channeling activities shows that she was capable of self 
delusion on a grand scale.

Helena's sister, Vera Jelihovsky, told how Helena would entertain 
them with tales of her invisible friends:

I well remember when stretched at full length on the ground, her chin 
reclining on her two palms, and her two elbows buried deep in the 
soft sand, she used to dream aloud and tell us of her visions, 
evidently clear, vivid, and as palpable as life to her ... our 
imagination galloped off with her fancy to a full oblivion to the 
present reality." Vera told how Helena told "the most incredible" 
stories with the "cool assurance and conviction of an eye witness. 
(Sinnett, "Incidents in ghe life of Madame Blavatsky") 

In another place Vera painted this picture of the same event:

It was her delight to gather around herself a party of us younger 
children, at twilight, and after taking us into the large dark 
museum, to hold us there, spellbound, with her weird stories. Then 
she narrated to us the most inconceivable tales about herself; every 
night, as she explained. Each of the stuffed animals had taken her in 
turn into confidence, had divulged to her the history of its life in 
previous incarnations or existences. (Vera P. Jelikovski, "The
Truth About Madame Blavatsky")

Blavatsky told at least four distinct versions of her acquaintance 
with "Morya", the member she supposed to have met in her youth in 
London. In "Caves and Jungles of Hindustan" he is "Gulab-Singh," the 
Hindu ruler of a small Central Indian state. According to this 
version, her first contact with him after their London meeting was 
through a letter he sent her in New York over twenty years later. The 
most frequently repeated story was that M. was a Buddhist living in 
Tibet where she studied with him for a long period in the late 1860s. 
But in yet another variation, she wrote to Prince Dondukov-Korsakov 
that her first contact with him after their London meeting was a 
letter he sent her in Odessa many years later, directing her to go to 
India. In this version, she never once saw the Master although he 
directedher itinerary by mail for more than two years. They were 
reunited at last inYokahama, Japan, where he had summoned her from 
New York. Finally, HPB wroteto her Aunt Nadyezhda that her Master was 
a Nepalese Buddhist living in Ceylon, with whom she had renewed 
acquaintance via a letter he wrote her in New York. With four 
mutually contradictory versions of the same character,all that can be 
concluded is that most if not all of HPB's stories about him
were false. It would be more accurate to say that the conflicting 
Morya stories cannot be true "and" about the same person, although 
they may contain true bits and pieces about several. Paul wrote this 
also many years ago but he couldn't figure it out that time. 

The sketchbook, presumably in storage in Russia during Blavatsky's 
travels, returned to its owner by her aunt, Madame N. A. de Fadeyev, 
in the mid-1880s of wich Blavatsky immediately cited the 1851 
entry: "the day I saw my blessed Master". 

However Constance Wachtmeister, one of Blavatsky's companions during 
1885, noted a contradiction; Blavatsky had regularly claimed that her 
first meeting with her Master had taken place in London, not in 
Ramsgate as the sketchbook suggested. In response to Wachtmeister's 
questioning, Blavatsky explained that the entry was deliberately 
obscurantist and that Ramsgate had been a blind to deflect the 
interest of any who may have discovered the book: the real encounter 
had taken place in Hyde Park, London. 

No mention is made in the sketchbook of the ethnicity of her 
Master, nor of the Theosophical Society which did not appear for 
another quarter of a century.

Brigitte