Theos-Talk Archives (February 2002 Message tt00193)

Steve:

"Dallas and Adelaisie start attacking historical inquiry about HPB 
in general"

Actually, they like the idea of their own opinions
being "confirmed" (a word which seems to be a
technical or vernacular term among Theosophical
Fundamentalists.) It is only ideas that are dissonant
with their own that they attack, and not merely the
ideas, but the bearers and their right to speak
freely.

As for me "reviving some old issues," my perception of
it is that Daniel posted an interesting account of an
Olcott encounter with Ootan Liatto which I had never
seen before and asked for comment. I read the story
and saw that the incident could be a miracle as Daniel
says it was (I cannot prove that it was not, in other
words), but that the fact that herbs were burning in
the room compromised the story as scientific evidence
of a miracle, since we do not know what those herbs
were. On closer reflection, it became obvious that
the herbs were in fact the key to the whole story, and
that Olcott's account bore striking resemblance to a
drug induced experience. Then the flashbulbs started
popping in my mind and I realized all sorts of things
Blavatsky and others said tied in directly with this
insight. Many of her miracles were, in other words,
connected with botanical substances, as she says
herself. Someone should add to the title page of
Isis: "THIS BOOK SMOKES!" Dallas' objection
apparently was not to "historical inquiry" but to
someone pointing out this obvious fact and not joining
in the conspiracy of silence to cover it up.

In that connection, let me quote one of his own
statements:Dallas; "Don't mistake me, or what I say for the whole
of what is named THEOSOPHY. I only know a little of
it."

I fully agree with the last sentence so far as the
author is concerned, and wish personally to know the
rest of it, including how those miracles were
performed. That is why the iniquitous interest in
historical inquiry.- I had no idea before Daniel posted the
Ootan Liatto story that hashish smoke was the probable
explanation of many of the THEOSOPHICAL miracles and
that they were not the product of THE THEOSOPHICAL
MONAD or whatever a certain fellow thinks they were."

Brigitte: But don't forget this Blavatskyan Monad idea didn't come 
from N. India, but from the West.

Bri.