Theos-Talk Archives (October 2002 Message tt00219)

I don't think Alice Bailey was a fake, in the sense that her writings have 
an overarching continuity, and are obviously not "constructed" in the 
sense that a conscious fake would be.

That the to frequent 19th century racial remarks in "The Mahatma 
Letters" show they might indeed be a (constructed) fake, is I think 
among many other issues clear from the complaints by one of the two 
main recepients of the Mahatma letters (Hume) to whom "K.H." (whose 
writing Harrison claimed is consistant in all the letters to Sinnet) 
answerred: 

"You cannot think that we, who have such tremendous odds against the 
acceptance of our doctrine would deliberately go on inventing Races and 
sub-races were not they a matter of undeniable fact." 

K.H. And The Secret Doctrine consistantly place the "degraded" 
descendants of the Lemurians among the indigenous peoples of 
Australia. Moving into the even more complicated subdivisions of branch 
or family races and located present-day northern Europeans in the fifth 
(Teutonic) subrace of the Fifth or Aryan Root Race. Not just once, but 
many times.

K.P.Johnson in an interview from two years ago (a copy of it is on my 
web site) stated: Harrison allows for the possibility that in altered states 
of consciousness HPB wrote in handwritings so different from that of her 
normal waking personality that they could not be recognized as coming 
from the same hand, even by experts. Given Olcott's testimony to this 
effect, and abundant references to HPB as "amanuensis" of the Masters, 
it seems to me the most plausible explanation of the physical origin of 
most of the Mahatma letters. There are two particular logical problems I 
find in Harrison's study, specifically in his Replies to Criticism. First, he 
distinguishes between Hodgson's thesis that HPB was "an ingenious but 
common fraudster and impostor having no supernatural powers 
whatever" who produced the KH letters with intent to deceive and the 
alternative that the writing was "received automatically, in trance, sleep, 
etc., unknown to the conscious personality until he or she reads it." 
These are presented as mutually exclusive alternatives that exhaust the 
possibilities. I think the evidence leads us rather to consider that 
different letters were produced in different circumstances, and that no 
one-size-fits-all assumptions about those circumstances can be 
stretched to accommodate the various instances of questionable 
authorship. 
Second, Harrison asks "if we accept Olcott's testimony as evidence that 
HPB could write in altered states of consciousness, do we accept his 
further testimony" about a specific paranormal event he witnessed, 
and "if not, why not? I do not see how you can select or reject evidence 
to suit your argument. Olcott's testimony is that HPB possessed psychic 
powers in abundance. You cannot accept both Olcott and Hodgson." My 
response to this is to say that we can accept Olcott's testimony as 
evidence of what he believed he had witnessed without accepting that 
his interpretation of his experience was accurate. That HPB appeared to 
be writing in a trance state from which she emerged with no memory, 
that she behaved as if this were the case, can be accepted as fact based 
on Olcott's testimony and others from the period. That she "possessed 
psychic powers in abundance" is Olcott's inference and not at all in the 
same category of evidence. Contemporary scholars cannot accept either 
Hodgson or Olcott as infallible interpreters of evidence, nor as unbiased 
reporters of that evidence. But each is a crucial primary source, and the 
testimony of each must be included in the process of sifting and 
weighing evidence for and against HPB's claims. Each deserves full, 
skeptical scrutiny. Neither can be assumed to be always right or always 
wrong. But the gist of Harrison's study, as I see it being "spun" by 
Theosophists, is to dismiss Hodgson across the board and allow 
continued acceptance of Olcott's and HPB's claims as entirely reliable. 

Brian: A) "Spirit writing" (in handwriting that appears other then that of 
the "medium") is very common in spiritualist circles. 

B) There is also the question why W.Q. Judge had so little difficulty 
immitating the "Mahatma Letters" hand writing ? (Described in "Isis Very 
Much Unveiled" by Garrett, published in fact by the TS but currently 
suppresed, made to dissapear.)

See also: http://mailbox.univie.ac.at/~muehleb9/mhoax2.html


--- In theos-talk@y..., "Morten Nymann Olesen" <global-
theosophy@a...> wrote:
> Hi all of you,
> 
> Some of the Mahatma Letters are fake !
> That must be true.
> 
> from
> M. Sufilight
> 
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "brianmuehlbach" <brianmuehlbach@y...>
> To: <theos-talk@y...>
> Sent: Saturday, October 26, 2002 7:24 PM
> Subject: Theos-World Not only the 3e, but the 4e races had 
to "dissapear"...
> 
> 
> In Theosophy all things are graded according to their status along an
> evolutionary trajectory leading from ensconcement in matter to
> absorption into "Spirit", so too humans are graded by the level of their
> advancement from the proto-simian to the perfected. In "The Mahatma
> Letters" therefore we have an extrame form of racism that:
> 
> "The highest race (physical intellectuality) is the last sub-race of the
> fifth -- yourselves the white conquerors. The majority of mankind
> belongs to the seventh sub-race of the fourth Root race, -- the above
> mentioned Chinamen and their off-shoots and branchlets (Malayans,
> Mongolians, Tibetans, Javanese, etc., etc., etc.) and remnants of other
> sub-races of the fourth -- and the seventh sub-race of the third race. 
All =
> 
> these, fallen, degraded semblances of humanity." (Mahatma K.H.)
> 
> Such a teleological position is inherently corruptible, and subsequent
> events have proved the dangers of accepting this theory as 
scientifically, =
> 
> historically, and religiously justified; this triplicity, it appears, is
> especially potent. And led to extraordinarily abominable practices
> throughout the colonised world.
> 
> A. Baily/Dwal Khul, proclaimed on the day that the atom bomb was
> dropped on Nagasaki that it was ushering in a new age by releasing
> cosmic energy, linking the nuclear flash with the Light of the initiate.
> Surely even more disturbing is the ex theosophists view on the effect 
of
> using the atomic firestorm on thousands of living Japanese. "Bailey / 
D.
> K. go on to say that the Japanese, whose nervous system is of the 4th
> root-race, were due to be destroyed" . and the consequent release of
> their imprisoned souls is a necessary happening; it is the justification 
of=
> 
> the use of the atomic bomb on the Japanese population." (A. Baily, The
> Externalization of the Hierarchy, p. 497) And where does that leave all
> the others "whose nervous system is of the 4th root-race" living in the
> US itself, Europe, and elsewhere in the world? This only to show the
> influence Blavatsky's racist teachings had on others, and A. Baily was
> certainly influenced by Blavatsky's teachings.
> 
> http://mailbox.univie.ac.at/~muehl=
> eb9
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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