Theos-Talk Archives (January 2008 Message tt00159)

"It is a historical fact that more than twenty five individuals 
testified to having seen and been in contact with the Mahatmas during 
H.P.Blavatsky's lifetime. 

In this paper I have compiled most of these testimonies in 
chronological order.   The narratives have been transcribed from the 
original sources but material not relevant to the subject has been 
silently deleted. The original texts, however, can be found from the 
source references. Explanatory words added by the editor are enclosed 
within brackets.

For more background information, see:

The Mahatmas & Their Letters:  Online & Printed Sources 


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Case 1 
Nadyezhda A. de Fadeyev 
November 11, 1870
Odessa, Russia

I [will] narrate what happened to me in connection with a certain 
note, received by me phenomenally when my niece [H.P. Blavatsky] was 
at the other side of the world, and not a soul knew where she was?
which grieved us greatly. All our researches had ended in nothing. We 
were ready to believe her dead, when?I think it was about the year 
1870?I received a letter from him whom I believe you call Kouth-humi 
[Koot Hoomi]?which was brought to me in the most incomprehensible and 
mysterious manner, by a messenger of Asiatic appearance, who then 
disappeared before my very eyes. This letter begged me not to fear 
anything, and announced that she was in safety.

My niece spoke of [these Mahatmas] to me, and at great length, years 
ago. She wrote me that she had again met and renewed her relations 
with several of them, even before she wrote her Isis [Unveiled]. If I 
who have ever been, and hope ever to continue, to be a fervent 
Christian, believe in the existence of these men?although I may 
refuse to credit all the miracles they attribute to them?why should 
not others believe in them? For the existence of at least one of 
them, I can certify. Who, then, could have written me this letter to 
reassure me at the moment when I had the greatest need for such 
comfort, unless it had been one of those adepts mentioned? It is true 
that the handwriting is not known to me; but the manner in which it 
was delivered to me was phenomenal, that none other than an adept in 
occult science could have effected it. It promised me the return of 
my niece?and the promise was duly fulfilled.

[The letter from Koot Hoomi referred to in the above passage is 
preserved in the archives of the Theosophical Society, Adyar, Madras, 
India. A facsimile of it with background information is in C. 
Jinarajadasa's Letters from the Masters of the Wisdom, Second Series, 
3?5.]

Source: Theosophical Society, General Council. Report of the Result 
of an Investigation into the Charges against Madame Blavatsky Brought 
by the Missionaries of the Scottish Free Church of Madras, and 
Examined by a Committee Appointed for that Purpose by the General 
Council of the Theosophical Society. Madras, India: Theosophical 
Society, 1885, pp. 94?95.

Case 2
Henry S. Olcott. 
ca. February 1876
New York City 

Wonder treads upon wonder.  I wrote an account of my [first] 
interview with the Brother I took for a Hindoo Brahmin, and was sorry 
enough afterwards I had said a word about it, either in letter or 
lecture.  [Then] I began to doubt my own senses and fancy the scene 
had all been an objective hallucination but I have seen him again 
yesterday and another man was with him. 

Other persons have seen this man in New York.  He is not a Brahmin, 
but a swarthy Cypriote.  I did not ask him before of what country he 
was. 

I was reading in my room yesterday (Sunday) when there came a tap at 
the door.  I said "come in" and then entered the Brother with another 
dark skinned gentleman of about fifty with a bushy gray beard and eye 
brows. 

We took cigars and chatted for a while. 

He said he would show me the production of flowers as the adepts do 
it.  At the same time pointing to the air, fancy --- the shadowy 
outlines of flower after flower and leaf after leaf grew out of 
nothing.  The room was perfectly light; in fact the sun was shining 
in.  The flowers grew solid.  A beautiful perfume saturated the 
air.   They were suspended as the down of a thistle in the air; each 
separate from the other.  Then they formed themselves into bouquets 
and a splendid large one of roses, lilies of the valley, camelias, 
jessamine and carnations floated down and placed itself in my hand.  
Then the others separated again and fell in a shower to the floor.  I 
was stupefied with the manifestation. 

[Then] as he spoke [again] rain drops began pattering around us in 
the room and positively a drenching shower was falling about us.  The 
carpet was soaked and so were my clothes, the books on the table, and 
the bronzes, and clock, and photos on the mantel piece.  But neither 
of the Brothers received a drop. 

They sat there and quietly smoked their cigars, while mine became too 
wet to burn.   I just sat and looked at them in a sort of stupid 
daze.  They seemed to enjoy my surprise but smoked on and said 
nothing.  Finally the younger of the two (who gave me his name as 
Ooton Liatto) said I need not worry.  Nothing would be damaged. 

The shower ceased as suddenly as it had begun.  Then the elder man 
took out of his pocket a painted lacquered case.  Upon opening the 
case a round flat concave crystal was displayed to view.  He told me 
to look in it.  Holding it a few inches from my eye and shading my 
eye from the light so that there might be no reflected rays cast upon 
the glass, the box exhaled a strong spicy aromatic odor much like 
sandal wood but still not just that.  Whatever I wished to see, he 
said I need simply think of, only taking care to think of but one 
thing at a time.  I did as directed. 

I thought of my dead mother as she used to sit with me twenty years 
ago.  I saw as it were a door in the far distance.  It came nearer 
and nearer, and grew plainer until I lost consciousness of external 
objects and seemed to be in the very room I had in mind.  Details 
long forgotten, pictures, furniture, &c. came into view.  My mother 
sat there, and the conversation of twenty years ago was renewed. 

I thought of a landscape --- lo!  I stood upon the spot and mountain, 
valley, river, and buildings lay smiling before me.  I was there --- 
not in my room in 34th Street.  So for more than an hour, the thing 
went on.  I seemed able to flit from one clime to another with the 
speed of thought, and to call up any spirit I wished to talk with.  
Things too that had occurred to me when out of the body (all 
recollection of which had been obliterated upon the return of my 
spirit to flesh) were shown me.   But these were only a few and 
unimportant, for when I seemed to be growing inquisitive, some power 
prevented my seeing anything. 

Was I hallucinated?  No sir, I was not.  At least I can't imagine a 
person being hallucinated and still be in such a state of mental 
activity as I was in.  I have never been psychologized.  I am like 
cast iron so far as sensitiveness to mesmeric influence while I used 
to be a strong mesmeriser myself. 

The seance being over as I supposed, I asked Liatto if he knew Madam 
B.  He stared too.  But as I thought he ought to know her, since her 
flat was in the same house, I went on to discant [comment] upon her 
character, her virtues, her intellectuality, &c. &c.  The elder 
Brother asked me to present their compliments to Madam and say that 
with her permission they would call upon her. 

I ran down stairs, rushed into Madam's parlour and there sat these 
two identical men smoking with her and chatting as quietly as if they 
had been old friends.  Madam motioned to me as if I had better not 
come in, as if they had private business to talk over.  I stood 
transfixed looking from one to another in dumb amazement.  I glanced 
[at] the ceiling (my rooms are over Madame B's) but they had not 
tumbled through. 

Madam said,  "What the Devil are you staring at Olcott? What's the 
matter? You must be crazy."  I said nothing but rushed up stairs 
again, tore open my door and  the men were not there.  I ran down 
again; they had disappeared.   I heard the front door close, looked 
out of the window and saw them just turning the corner.  Madam said 
they had been with her for more than an hour.  And that is all she 
would tell me about them. 

When I showed her my wet clothes and the bouquet of flowers that 
remained in evidence that I had not been hallucinated, she only 
said, "That's nothing remarkable.   Ask me no questions for I shall 
tell you nothing.  Let the Brothers do what they please for you, I 
shan't have my name put out again as a medium." 

In a half hour from the time the two men left, there was not a drop 
of moisture in the room nor a shade of dampness to indicate that 
there had been a shower.  But my clothes stayed wet and had to be 
dried before the fire. 

Source:  

Case 3
Henry S. Olcott
March 1877
New York City

I say Isis [HPB] is a man. Let me add that she is (in my opinion) a 
Hindu man. At any rate, this thing happened tonight after my sister 
and her husband had gone home: Isis was leaning back in her chair, 
fooling with her hair, and smoking a cigarette. She got one lock in 
her fingers and pulled it, and fingered it in an absent way?talking 
the while, when lo! the lock grew visibly darker and darker until, 
presto! it was as black as coal. I said nothing until the thing was 
done, when suddenly catching her hand I asked her to let me have this 
neat specimen of miracle making as a keepsake. You ought to have seen 
her face when she saw what she had done in her brown study. But she 
laughed good-naturedly, called me a sharp Yankee, and cut off the 
lock and gave it to me. I will send you a bit of it as a talisman. 
Mind you, this was cut off of Isis's head in my sight and under the 
full blaze of the chandelier. This one lock showed against the blonde 
silky and crinkled hair of Blavatsky's head like a skein of black 
sewing-silk upon a light-brown cloth. Now what this teaches me is 
just this?The Blavatsky shell is a shell tenanted by a copper-colored 
Hindu Solon or Pythagoras, and in this moment of abstraction his own 
hair?previously there only in its astral condition?became 
materialized and now stays so. Mind you these are my private 
speculations.

Why, I can't tell you the number and variety of exhibitions of 
magical power she has given me and others during the past four 
months. They exceed all I had seen before. She has done her wonders 
before 4, 5, and 8 persons, some of them comparative strangers. On 
Monday night, in the presence of Dr. Billing, Dr. Marquette, Mr. and 
Miss Monachesi, Mr. Curtis, and myself, these things happened in full 
light; she made the music of a musical box to be heard in the air. 
The four of the party, happening to sit so they could look out of the 
window into the street (a room in second story of house), saw pass 
the window on the outside the forms of two men. One of them was a 
Brother I know well, and whose portrait was materialized instantly 
for me some months ago. The other was a younger Brother?an advanced 
pupil who can travel in his [astral] double.

I saw a splendid exhibition of willpower recently. Isis and I were 
alone after dinner, in the parlor, when she bade me turn the gas very 
low and sit quiet at the other side of the room. I made the light 
very dim, and upon looking at her through the gloom in a few minutes, 
I saw beside her dark figure (she was dressed in a dark gown) a man's 
figure in white, or light robes, and with a shawl wound in Eastern 
fashion about his head. She told me to look away for a moment, and 
then to turn up the gas. She sat there with the very shawl 
transferred to her own head, and no one else visible but us two. She 
gave me the shawl. It was powerfully perfumed with the familiar odor. 
In one corner was worked the name of the same Brother above alluded 
to, and in the same Zensar character. It is on his portrait, in my 
bedroom.

Source:  Quoted by Besterman 1934, 148?54.

Case 4a
Henry S. Olcott
1877
New York City

Our evening's work on Isis was finished, I had bade goodnight to HPB, 
retired to my own room, closed the door as usual, sat me down to read 
and smoke, and was soon absorbed in my book. All at once, as I read 
with my shoulder a little turned from the door, there came a gleam of 
something white in the right-hand corner of my right eye; I turned my 
head, dropped my book in astonishment, and saw towering above me in 
his great stature an Oriental clad in white garments, and wearing a 
head cloth or turban of amber-striped fabric, hand-embroidered in 
yellow floss silk. Long raven hair hung from under his turban to the 
shoulders; his black beard, parted vertically on the chin in the 
Rajput fashion, was twisted up at the ends and carried over the ears; 
his eyes were alive with soul fire, eyes which were at once benignant 
and piercing in glance. He was so grand a man, so imbued with the 
majesty of moral strength, so luminously spiritual, so evidently 
above average humanity, that I felt abashed in his presence, and 
bowed my head and bent my knee as one does before a god or a godlike 
personage. A hand was lightly laid on my head, a sweet though strong 
voice bade me be seated, and when I raised my eyes, the Presence was 
seated in the other chair beyond the table. He told me he had come at 
the crisis when I needed him, that my actions had brought me to this 
point, that it lay with me alone whether he and I should meet often 
in this life as co-workers for the good of mankind, that a great work 
was to be done for humanity, and I had the right to share in it if I 
wished, that a mysterious tie, not now to be explained to me, had 
drawn my colleague [HPB] and myself together, a tie which could not 
be broken, however strained it might be at times. He told me things 
about HPB that I may not repeat, as well as things about myself, that 
do not concern third parties. At last he rose, I wondering at his 
great height and observing the sort of splendor in his countenance?
not an external shining, but the soft gleam, as it were, of an inner 
light?that of the spirit. Suddenly the thought came into my 
mind: "What if this be but hallucination; what if HPB has cast a 
hypnotic glamour over me? I wish I had some tangible object to prove 
to me that he has really been here, something that I might handle 
after he is gone!" The Master smiled kindly as if reading my thought, 
untwisted the fehta [turban] from his head, benignantly saluted me in 
farewell and was gone: his chair was empty; I was alone with my 
emotions! Not quite alone, though, for on the table lay the 
embroidered head cloth, a tangible and enduring proof that I had not 
been "overlooked," or psychically befooled, but had been face to face 
with one of the Elder Brothers of Humanity. To run and beat at HPB's 
door and tell her my experience was the first natural impulse, and 
she was as glad to hear my story as I was to tell it. I returned to 
my room to think, and the gray morning found me still thinking and 
resolving. I have been blessed with meetings with this Master and 
others since then. 

[Note: Colonel Olcott elsewhere describes how the Master Morya left 
his room: "When I asked him to leave me some tangible evidence that I 
had not been the dupe of a vision, but that he had indeed been there, 
he removed from his head the puggri [turban] he wore, and giving it 
to me, vanished from my sight." H. S. Olcott, Theosophy, Religion and 
Occult Science (London, 1885), p. 123 ?D. C., Editor.] 

Source:  Olcott, Henry Steel. Old Diary Leaves: The True Story of the 
Theosophical Society. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1895. Vol. 1 
(1874?1878), 377, 379?81.


Case 4b
Henry S. Olcott
1877
New York City

I could name two cases where I have encountered the person both in 
the physical body and in the astral body.  There are also a number of 
instances in my experience where I have seen the person in the astral 
body but not in the physical, and in the physical but not in the 
astral; but in two cases I can state that I have known the person in 
both capacities. In both cases I saw them in the astral body first. 
The first case I will mention is the case already reported in the 
pamphlet called "Hints on Esoteric Theosophy --- No. 1," In that 
instance the person was my Teacher [Mahatma Morya] , whose photograph 
lies on the table here; and I now exhibit the turban which he took 
off his head, when I demanded of him some tangible proof of his 
visit. The man who visited me was instantly recognised by me from a 
portrait which I had in my possession --- the portrait which you see 
there.  He appeared when I was in my room before retiring at night.  
As it was my custom to lock my door, I presume that my door was 
locked at that time.  I know that the door was not opened, for I sat 
in such a way reading that the door could not be opened without 
immediately attracting my notice. My own conviction is --- in fact, I 
should be willing to affirm most positively --- that the door did not 
open and that the appearance and disappearance of my visitor occurred 
without using the means of ingress or exit.  The phantom man had a 
phantom turban on his head, and he fully materialised the turban only 
by drawing to it through the current --- electric, odic, astral, 
ethereal, or whatever you please --- which is constantly running 
between the projected phantasm and the body, all the residual coarser 
atoms of the head cloth upon the solid body left behind. He was a 
model of physical beauty, about 6ft. 6in. or 7in. in height, and 
symmetrically proportioned. Great stature is not so rare among the 
Rajpoots. I have seen very tall Hindus, for I have been through the 
Rajpoot country; but taking him all in all, he was the most majestic 
human figure I ever laid my eyes upon. 

Source:  


Case 5
Henry S. Olcott
January 1879
London

The most striking incident of our stay in London was the meeting of a 
Master by three of us as we were walking down Cannon Street. There 
was a fog that morning, so dense that one could hardly see across the 
street, and London appeared at its worst. The two who were with me 
saw him first, as I was next to the curb, and just then my eyes were 
otherwise occupied. But when they uttered an exclamation, I turned my 
head quickly and met the glance of the Master as he looked back at me 
over his shoulder. I did not recognize him for an acquaintance, but I 
recognized the face as that of an Exalted One; for the type once seen 
can never be mistaken. We three friends kept together in the City and 
went together back to Dr. Billing's house, yet on entering we were 
told by both Mrs. Billing and HPB that the Brother had been there and 
mentioned that he had met us three?naming us?in the City. Mrs. 
Billing described him as a very tall and handsome Hindu, with a 
peculiarly piercing eye which seemed to look her through. For the 
moment she was so staggered that she could not say a word, but the 
stranger said: "I wish to see Madame Blavatsky," and moved towards 
the door of the room where she sat. Mrs. Billing opened it for him 
and bade him enter. He did so, and walked straight towards HPB, made 
her an Oriental salutation, and began speaking to her in a tongue the 
sounds of which were totally unfamiliar to Mrs. Billing.

Source:  Olcott, Henry S. Old Diary Leaves: The Only Authentic 
History of the Theosophical Society. London: Theosophical Publishing 
Society, 1900. Vol. 2 (1878?1883), 4?6.

Case 6a
Henry S. Olcott
February-July, 1879
Bombay, India

Before leaving New York, I had written Hurrychund to engage for us a 
small, clean house in the Hindu quarter. We were taken to a house on 
Girgaum Back Road, standing in a comparatively forlorn compound, and 
adjoining his glass-roofed photographic studio.  The ladies of our 
friends' families called on HPB and a number of Hindu and Parsi 
gentlemen on our whole party; but the rush of visitors began the next 
morning.

On the evening of 17th February, a reception was held at the 
photographic studio, at which over 300 invited guests were present. 

We changed quarters, bought furniture and other necessaries, and on 
7th March settled ourselves down in the little house, 108 Girgaum 
Back Road, for the next two years. Every evening we held an impromptu 
durbar, when the knottiest problems of philosophy, metaphysics, and 
science were discussed. Visitors kept on crowding our bungalow, and 
stopping until late every evening to discuss religious questions. 

We were completely happy in our retired cottage under the cocoa-
palms. And under those umbrageous palms, we were visited in person by 
Mahatmas; and their inspiring presence made us strong to proceed in 
the path we were treading.

[On July 15, Mahatma Morya] visited me in the flesh at Bombay, coming 
in full daylight, and on horseback. He had me called by a servant 
into the front room of HPB's bungalow (she being at the time in the 
other bungalow talking with those who were there). He came to scold 
me roundly for something I had done in TS matters, and as HPB was 
also to blame, he telegraphed to her to come, that is to say, he 
turned his face and extended his finger in the direction of the place 
she was in. She came over at once with a rush and, seeing him, 
dropped on her knees and paid him reverence. My voice and his had 
been heard by those in the other bungalow, but only HPB and I, and 
the servant saw him.

[Note: In Colonel Olcott's diary for July 15, 1879, the following 
entry is written: "[I] had visit in body of the Sahib!! [He] sent 
Babula to my room to call me to HPB's bungalow, and there we had a 
most important private interview. Alas! how puerile and vain these 
men make one feel by contrast with them." ?DHC.]

Source: Hume, A. O. Hints on Esoteric Theosophy, No. 1: Is Theosophy 
a Delusion? Do the Brothers Exist? Calcutta, India: Calcutta Central 
Press, 1882.

Case 6b
Henry S. Olcott
July, 1879
Bombay, India

One day at Bombay I was at work in my office when a Hindu servant 
came and told me that a gentleman wanted to see me in Madame 
Blavatsky's bungalow --- a separate house within the same enclosure 
as the main building.  This was one day in 1879.  I went and found 
alone there my Teacher.  Madame Blavatsky was then engaged in 
animated conversation with other persons in the other bungalow.  The 
interview between the Teacher and myself lasted perhaps 10 minutes, 
and it related to matters of a private nature with respect to myself 
and certain current events in the history of the Society.  He put his 
hand upon my head, and his hand was perfectly substantial; and he had 
altogether the appearance of an ordinary living person.  When he 
walked about the floor there was noise of his footsteps, which is not 
the case with the double or phantasm. He was then stopping at a 
bungalow, not far from Bombay, belonging to a person connected with 
this brotherhood of the Mahatmas, and used by Mahatmas who may be 
passing through Bombay on business connected with their order.  He 
came to our place on horseback. I have seen him at other times. 

Source:  

Case 7
Emma Coulomb 
April 1880
Bombay, India

On the 5th of April [1880] Colonel Olcott came into my room and asked 
me if I would undertake to direct the domestic affairs, as the lady 
who looked after them did not wish to do so anymore.  I accepted with 
great pleasure this charge, as it gave me the chance of making myself 
useful.   We had already been initiated and had joined the 
[Theosophical] Society. 

Madame Blavatsky, seeing our earnest desire to please her in 
everything, one evening, taking hold of my arm and walking up and 
down in the library compound, all of a sudden said:  "Look here, run 
and tell the Colonel that you have seen a figure in the 
garden."  "Where is the figure?" I asked.  "Never mind," she 
said, "run and tell him so; we shall have some fun."   Thinking this 
to be a joke, I ran to him and told him.  As the Colonel came up 
Madame began to laugh, saying "See, she has been afraid of an 
apparition," and so they both went on laughing , and going up to the 
other bungalow, related the story to the rest of the people who were 
there.  I must conscientiously say that I did not know what they 
meant by this joke. 

[Later] in one of [her good] moods [Madame Blavatsky] called me up 
and told me:  "See if you can make a head of human size and place it 
on that divan," pointing to a sofa in her room, " and merely put a 
sheet round it; it would have a magic effect by moonlight."  What can 
this mean?  I wondered.  But knowing how disagreeable she could make 
herself if she was stroked on the wrong side, I complied with her 
wish.  She cut a paper pattern of the face I was to make, which I 
still have; on this I cut the precious lineaments of the beloved 
Master, but, to my shame, I must say that, after all my trouble of 
cutting, sewing, and stuffing, Madame said that it looked like an old 
Jew---I suppose she meant Shylock.  Madame, with a graceful touch  
here and there of her painting brush, gave it a little better 
appearance.  But this was only a head, without bust, and could not 
very well be used, so I made a jacket, which I doubled, and between 
the two cloths I placed stuffing, to form the shoulders and chest; 
the arms were only to the elbow, because, when the thing was tried 
on, we found the long arm would be in the way of him who had to carry 
it.  This beauty finished, made Madame quite another person.   

Let us see for what purpose the doll was made.  This was to give a 
convincing and material proof of the existence of the brothers [the 
Mahatmas], as their (said) invisible presence did not fully satisfy 
the truthseekers. 

Among the many apparitions to which this doll has been instrumental, 
I will choose one seen by Mr. Ramaswamier, in December, 1881.  The 
Mahatma he saw in his astral body on the balcony at the head-quarters 
of the Theosophical Society in Bombay, on the memorable night of 
December, 1881, was no one else than Monsieur Coulomb, with the 
doll's head on his own. 

The doll plays the greatest part in these apparitions, and, as I have 
already explained, it is carried on somebody's head; but at times it 
is placed on the top of a long bamboo, and raised to show that it is 
an astral body; but when the doll has not been at hand, even a white 
cloth wrapped round the person who was to perform the Mahatma was at 
times used, and answered the purpose. 

Source:  Coulomb  7-9, 30-1, 34-6, 46-8, 52-3.

Case 8
Damodar K. Mavalankar
June 23?July 1880
Ceylon and then on ship back to Bombay

In Ceylon [in a] particular village, HPB, Col. Olcott, and myself 
were the only three persons that stopped one night, the rest of our 
party having gone to a further place. We were all busy there 
initiating people and forming a branch of our [Theosophical] Society 
till about 12 in the night. HPB and Col. Olcott went to bed at about 
one. As we had to stay in the village only one night, we had got down 
in the Rest House where comfortable accommodation can be had only for 
two travelers. I had therefore to lie down in an armchair in the 
dining room. I had scarcely locked the door of the room from the 
inside and laid myself in the chair when I heard a faint knock at the 
door. It was repeated twice before I had time enough to reach the 
door. I opened it and what a great joy I felt when I saw [Mahatma 
Morya] again! In a very low whisper he ordered me to dress myself and 
to follow him. At the back door of the Rest House is the sea. I 
followed him as he commanded me to do. We walked about three quarters 
of an hour by the seashore. Then we turned in the direction of the 
sea. All around there was water except the place we were walking upon 
which was quite dry!! He was walking in front and I was following 
him. We thus walked for about seven minutes when we came to a spot 
that looked like a small island. On the top of the building was a 
triangular light. From a distance, a person, standing on the seashore 
would think it to be an isolated spot which is covered all over by 
green bushes. There is only one entrance to go inside. After we 
reached the island, we came in front of the actual building. There in 
a little garden in front, we found one of the Brothers sitting. I had 
seen him before, and it is to him that this place belongs. [Mahatma 
Morya] seated himself near him and I stood hefore them. We were there 
for about half an hour. I was shown a part of the place. How very 
pleasant it is! And inside this place he has a small room where the 
body remains when the spirit moves about. What a charming, delightful 
spot that is! What a nice smell of roses and various sorts of 
flowers! The half hour was finished and the time for our leaving the 
place was near. The master of the place, whose name I do not know, 
placed his blessing hand over my head, and [Mahatma Morya] and I 
marched off again. We came back near the door of the room wherein I 
was to sleep and he suddenly disappeared there on the spot.

I omitted to mention to you the two other places where I was taken. 
One of them is near Colombo, a private house of [Mahatma Morya], and 
the other one near Kandy, a library.

One evening on the steamer on our way back to Bombay [in July 1880], 
we finished our dinner [and] I went in [my cabin] and put on [my] 
coat. Without thinking I put my hands into my pockets as I usually do 
and lo! in the right-hand one I felt some paper. I took it out, and 
to my surprise I found a letter addressed to Mme. Blavatsky. I took 
it nearer to the light. The cover was open and on it were written in 
red the words: "For Damodar to read." I then read the letter. 
Thinking all the time of this matter, I lay down in my bed. Absorbed 
in deep thought, I was startled on the sound of footsteps in the 
cabin which I had locked from inside. I looked behind and there was 
[Mahatma Morya] again and two others! What a pleasant evening that 
was! Speaking of various things in regard to knowledge and philosophy 
for about half an hour!

Source:  Mavalankar, Damodar K. Damodar and the Pioneers of the 
Theosophical Movement. Comp. Sven Eek. Adyar, Madras: Theosophical 
Publishing House, 1965, 55?8.

Case 9
Henry S. Olcott
August 4, 1880
Bombay, India

On the evening of 4th August, Mahatma [Morya] visited HPB, and I was 
called in to see him before he left. He dictated a long and important 
letter to an influential friend of ours at Paris, and gave me 
important hints about the management of current [Theosophical] 
Society affairs. I was sent away before his visit terminated, and 
left him sitting in HPB's room.

[Olcott's actual handwritten diary for that date reads: 

"M [orya] here this evening & wrote to Fauvety of Paris. He says 5000 
English troops killed in Afghanistan in the recent battle. . . ." 
DHC. ]

Source:  Olcott, Henry S. Old Diary Leaves: The Only Authentic 
History of the Theosophical Society. London: Theosophical Publishing 
Society, 1900. Vol. 2 (1878?1883), 208.

Case 10
Damodar K. Mavalankar
September 1880
Bombay, India

[On] Aug. 27, 1880, HPB and Col. O. left Bombay for Simla and other 
places in the North [of India]. I worked all alone in HPB's 
compartments. [One day in September] at about 2 in the morning after 
finishing my work, I locked the door of the room and lay in my bed. 
Within about 2 or 3 minutes I heard HPB's voice in her room calling 
me. I got up with a start and went in. She said "some persons want to 
see you" and after a moment added, "Now go out, do not look at me." 
Before however I had time to turn my face, I saw her gradually 
disappear on the spot and from that very ground rose up the form of 
[Mahatma Morya]. By the time I had turned back, I saw two others 
dressed in what I afterwards learned to be Tibetan clothes. One of 
them remained with [Mahatma Morya] in HPB's room. The other one I 
found seated on my bed by the time I came out. Then he told me to 
stand still for some time and began to look at me fixedly. I felt a 
very pleasant sensation as if I was getting out of my body. I cannot 
say now what time passed between that and what I am now going to 
relate. But I saw I was in a peculiar place. It was the upper end of 
Cashmere at the foot of the Himalayas. I saw I was taken to a place 
where there were only two houses just opposite to each other and no 
other sign of habitation. From one of these came out the person [Koot 
Hoomi, who] ordered me to follow him. After going a short distance of 
about half a mile, we came to a natural subterranean passage. After 
walking a considerable distance through this subterranean passage, we 
came into an open plain. There is a large massive building thousands 
of years old. The entrance gate has a large triangular arch. Inside 
are various apartments. I went up with my Guru to the Great Hall. The 
grandeur and serenity of the place is enough to strike anyone with 
awe. While standing there, I do not know what happened, but suddenly 
I found myself in my bed. It was about 8 in the morning. What was 
that I saw? Was it a dream or a reality? Perplexed with these ideas, 
I was sitting silent when down fell a note on my nose. I opened it 
and found inside that it was not a dream but that I was taken in some 
mysterious way in my astral body to the real place of Initiation.  

Source:  Damodar K. Mavalankar. Damodar and the Pioneers of the 
Theosophical Movement. Comp. Sven Eek. Adyar, Madras: Theosophical 
Publishing House, 1965, 58?62.


Case 11
A. P. Sinnett
October 19, 1880
Simla, India

I saw K. H. in astral form on the night of 19th of October. 1880?
waking up for a moment but immediately afterwards being rendered 
unconscious again (in the body) and conscious out of the body in the 
adjacent dressing room, where I saw another of the Brothers 
afterwards identified with one called Serapis by Olcott.

Source: Sinnett, A.P.  A Note.  The Mahatma Letters, 3rd ed., p. 10.

[Some four years later, while William Judge was in London and on a 
visit to Mr. Sinnett's home, the following interesting conversation 
ensued.  Mr. Judge wrote: 

"I asked him [A.P. Sinnett] about his sight of K.H. and he related 
thus: 'He was lying in his bed in India one night [October 19, 1880], 
when suddenly awakening, he found K.H. standing by his bed.  He rose 
half up, when K.H. put his hand on his head, causing him to fall at 
once back on the pillow. He then, he says, found himself out of the 
body, and in the next room, talking to another adept whom he 
describes as an English or European, with light hair, fair, and of 
great beauty.  This is the one [adept] Olcott described to me in 1876 
and called by name -------.  Please erase that when read. . . . S
[innett] says he [the European adept] is very high. . . ."  Letters 
That Have Helped Me, Theosophy Company edition, p. 196. ]


Case 12
Henry S. Olcott
Oct. 26, 1880
The Golden Temple
Amritsar, India

At a shrine where the swords, sharp steel discs, coats of mail, and 
other warlike weapons of the Sikh warrior priests are exposed to view 
in charge of the akalis, I was greeted, to my surprise and joy, with 
a loving smile by one of the Masters, who for the moment was figuring 
among the guardians, and who gave each of us a fresh rose, with a 
blessing in his eyes.

[In Olcott's own handwritten diary, the entry for October 26, 1880 
reads: 

"...In the afternoon we went to the Golden Temple again & found it as 
lovely as before. Saw some hundreds of fakirs & gossains more or less 
ill-favored. A Brother there saluted H.P.B. and me & gave us each a 
rose."  DHC.] 

Source:  Olcott, Henry S.  Old Diary Leaves, Volume III, pp. 254-255


----------------------------------------------------------------------
----------

Case 13
Henry S. Olcott
Febuary 19, 1881
Bombay, India

Hilarion is here en route for Tibet and has been looking over, in, 
and through the situation.  [He] finds Bombay something morally 
awful.  [Hilarion's] views on India, Bombay, the T.S. in Bombay, 
Ceylon. . ., England and Europe, Christianity and other subjects 
highly interesting.

Source:  Olcott, Henry S. Diaries.   Entry for Feb. 19, 1881.


----------------------------------------------------------------------
----------

Case 14
Martandrao Babaji Nagnath
April 1881
Bombay, India

I have had constant occasions to visit [Theosophical] headquarters at 
Breach Candy, Bombay. My connection with the Founders of the Society 
has been close, and my opportunity good for studying Theosophy. I am 
therefore inclined, for my satisfaction and for the information of 
students of Nature, to record here my experiences of certain 
phenomena, which came under my observation on several occasions in 
the presence of brother Theosophists and strangers. I have also had 
the rare privilege to see the so-called and generally unseen Brothers 
[Mahatmas] of the 1st section of the Theosophical Society. 

In the month of April 1881, on one dark night, while talking in 
company with other Theosophists with Madame Blavatsky about 10 p.m. 
in the open verandah of the upper bungalow, a man, six feet in 
height, clad in a white robe, with a white [turban] on the head, made 
his appearance on a sudden, walking towards us through the garden 
adjacent to the bungalow from a point?a precipice?where there is no 
path for any one to tread. Madame then rose up and told us to go 
inside the bungalow. So we went in, but we heard Madame and he 
talking for a minute with each other in an Eastern language unknown 
to us. Immediately after, we again went out into the verandah, as we 
were called, but the Brother had disappeared. 

On the next occasion, when we were chatting in the above verandah as 
usual, another Brother, clothed in a white dress, was suddenly seen 
as if standing on a branch of a tree. We saw him then descending as 
though through the air, and standing on a corner edge of a thin wall. 
Madame then rose up from her seat and stood looking at him for about 
two minutes, and?as if it seemed?talking inaudibly with him. 
Immediately after, in our presence, the figure of the man 
disappeared, but was afterwards seen again walking in the air through 
space, then right through the tree, and again disappearing.

Source:  Hume, A. O. Hints on Esoteric Theosophy, No. 1: Is Theosophy 
a Delusion? Do the Brothers Exist? Calcutta, India: Calcutta Central 
Press, 1882, 103, 104?105.

Case 15
Bhavani Shankar
July 13, 1881
Bombay, India

In a bright moonlight, on the night of the 13th July 1881, we were 
engaged in a talk with Madame Blavatsky as usual in the same 
verandah. Monsieur Coulomb and Madame Coulomb were present on the 
spot as also all the persons of the house and Madame Blavatsky's 
servant. While we were conversing with Madame B., the Mahatma, known 
as Mr. Sinnett's Correspondent and the Author of the letters 
published in the "Occult World," made his appearance in his "Mayavi 
Rupa" or "Double," for a few minutes. He was clad in the white dress 
of a "Punjabee" and wore a white turban. All of those, who were 
present at that time, saw his handsome features clearly and 
distinctly, as it was a bright moonlight night. On the same night, a 
letter was drafted to the "London Spiritualist" about our having seen 
the Mahatmas. As we were reading the letter in question, the same 
Mahatma showed himself again. The second time when he made his 
appearance, he was very near us, say at the distance of a yard or 
two. At that time, Monsieur and Madame Coulomb said, "Here is our 
Brother," meaning the Mahatma. He then came into Madame B.'s room and 
was heard talking with her and then disappeared. Monsieur Coulomb and 
Madame Coulomb signed the letter drafted to the "London 
spiritualist," testifying to the fact of their having seen 
the "Mahatma." Since Madame Coulomb now says that the Mahatmas are 
but "crafty arrangements of muslin and bladders" and her husband 
represented the Mahatmas, how are we to reconcile this statement with 
the fact that in "the London Spiritualist" of the 19th August 1881, 
appeared a letter signed by five witnesses, including myself, 
testifying to the fact of their having seen a Mahatma, while they 
were writing that letter; and that this document is signed by both 
the Coulombs? There is, therefore, no doubt that they were with the 
company who signed the paper. Who was it then that appeared on that 
occasion as a Mahatma? Surely neither Monsieur and Madame Coulomb 
with their "muslin and bladders" nor Madame B.'s servant who was also 
present, but the "double" of a person living on the other side of the 
Himalayas. The figure in coming up to Madame Blavatsky's room was 
seen by us "to float through the air," and we also distinctly heard 
it talking to her, while all of us, including her servant and the 
Coulombs, were at the time, together, in each other's presence. 

Source:  Theosophical Society. Report of the Result of an 
Investigation into the Charges against Madame Blavatsky Brought by 
the Missionaries of the Scottish Free Church of Madras, and Examined 
by a Committee Appointed for That Purpose by the General Council of 
the Theosophical Society. Madras, India: Theosophical Society, 1885, 
75-80.

Case 16
Mirza Moorad Alee Beg
August, 1881
Bombay

"Having just read in the London Spiritualist a review of Mr. 
Sinnett's book, `The Occult World,' I find in it more than a doubt 
expressed as to the reality of the `Brothers,' that body of mystics 
to which the personage known as `Koot Hoomi Lal Singh' belongs.  The 
Editor of the paper would have his readers believe that the said 
person is a creation of Madame Blavatsky's fancy.   `Mr. Sinnett,' he 
says, `has never seen Koot Hoomi, nor does he mention that any other 
Theosophist in India has had that privilege.' 

"As some persons may express the same doubts, and also some, while 
admitting their genuine character, may attribute them to agency other 
than that to which Madame Blavatsky refers them (the so-
called `Brothers,' &c.), I hereby declare that not only have I within 
the last few days seen one of the persons so designated at the 
Headquarters of the Society at Bombay, but that I have very good 
reasons (which I cannot go into more fully now) to know that the said 
persons are not `spirits' but real human beings exercising powers out 
of the ordinary.  Both before and after my connection with the 
Theosophical Society I have known and conversed with them personally 
and witnessed the most wonderful results (which would ordinarily be 
described as miraculous), but I must emphasise my declaration that I 
do not regard them as supernatural and am altogether materialistic 
(or rather naturalistic) in my conceptions of the agency producing 
them.  Further I testify that I have the strongest conviction, based 
on reasons which, though authoritative, are purely natural and 
physical, that the said `Brothers' are a mysterious fraternity, the 
ordinary location of which is the regions north of the Himalayas. 

Source:  " 'The Occult World' and the 'Spiritualist,' " The 
Theosophist, August, 1881, p. 230. 

Case 17
Damodar K. Mavalankar
August, 1881
Bombay

The criticisms upon Mr. Sinnett's book `The Occult World' force upon 
me the duty of testifying from personal experience and knowledge to 
the fact that those whom we call our `Brothers of the First Section,' 
of whom `Koot Hoomi Lal Singh' is one, and who possess the so-
called `miraculous' powers, are real and living beings and not 
disembodied spirits as the Editor of the Spiritualist would have his 
readers think.  It is but by a long course of study and training that 
such can be attained.  It is not belief with me but knowledge, for, 
if I have seen one of them, I have at least seen about half a dozen 
on various occasions, in broad daylight, in open places, and have 
talked to them, not only when Madame Blavatsky was in Bombay but even 
when she was far away and I here.  I have also seen them at time when 
I was travelling.  I was taken to the residences of some of them and 
once when Colonel Olcott and Madame Blavatsky were with me.  Further 
than that I cannot say, and shall not give any more information 
either about them or the places they reside in, for I am under a 
solemn obligation of secrecy and the subject is too sacred for me to 
be trifled with.  I may, however, mention that I know `Koot Hoomi Lal 
Singh' personally and have seen and conversed with him when Madame 
Blavatsky was here as also when she was far away.  But under what 
circumstances I am not at liberty to disclose. 

We Hindus who know the `Brothers' think it equally absurd and 
ridiculous to insinuate that either Madame Blavatsky is a lunatic or 
an impostor, or that persons like Mr. Sinnett could have ever become 
her dupes.  Neither is she a medium, nor are 
the `Brothers' `disembodied Spirits.' 


Case 18
Henry S. Olcott
Sept. 27, 1881
Ceylon

On the night of that day [Sept. 27th, 1881] I was awakened from sleep 
by my Chohan (or Guru, the Brother [Morya] whose immediate pupil I 
am).  He made me rise, sit at my table and write from his dictation 
for an hour or more. There was an expression of anxiety mingled with 
sternness on his noble face, as there always is when the matter 
concerns H.P.B., to whom for many years he has been at once a father 
and a 
devoted guardian.

Source: Hume, A.O. Hints On Esoteric Theosophy, No. 1, 1882, pp. 82-
83. 


Case 19
Bhavani Shankar
December 1881
Bombay, India

One night while I was sitting with some of my friends near Madame 
Blavatsky in the open verandah close to her writing room, a Mahatma, 
who was then near Bombay, came walking through the garden attached to 
Col. Olcott's bungalow and stood silent near a tree the distance of 
some eight or ten yards away from us. Madame Blavatsky then went down 
the wooden staircase leading into the garden, approached the Mahatma 
and saluted him by touching the back of his hands with both of her 
open palms. He delivered a packet to her and then disappeared. Madame 
B. came up afterwards and opened the packet and in it there was a 
letter from Allahabad. The envelope in question was quite 
unaddressed, but it bore the official stamp of the Allahabad Post 
Office of December the 3rd, 1881, and the official stamp of the 
Bombay Post Office of the same date, viz., 3rd December. The two 
places are 1,000 miles apart. 

Source:  Theosophical Society. Report of the Result of an 
Investigation into the Charges against Madame Blavatsky Brought by 
the Missionaries of the Scottish Free Church of Madras, and Examined 
by a Committee Appointed for That Purpose by the General Council of 
the Theosophical Society. Madras, India: Theosophical Society, 1885, 
75-80.


Case 20
Henry Olcott and Damodar K. Mavalankar
Dec. 28, 1881
Bombay, India

"The undersigned, returning a few moments since from a carriage ride 
with Madame Blavatsky, saw, as the carriage approached the house, a 
man upon the balcony over the porte cochere, leaning against the 
balustrade, and with the moonlight shining full upon him.   He was 
dressed in white, and wore a white Fehta on his head.  His beard was 
black, and his long black hair hung to his breast.  Olcott and 
Damodar at once recognised him as the `Illustrious.' [Master Morya.] 
He raised his hand and dropped a letter to us.  Olcott jumped from 
the carriage and recovered it.  It was written in Tibetan characters, 
and signed with his familiar cypher.  It was a message to 
Ramaswamier, in reply to a letter (in a closed envelope) which he had 
written to the Brother a short time before we went out for the ride.  
M. Coulomb, who was reading inside the house, and a short distance 
from the balcony, neither saw nor heard any one pass through the 
apartment, and no one else was in the bungalow, except Madame 
Coulomb, who was asleep in her bedroom. 

"Upon descending from the carriage, our whole party immediately went 
upstairs, but the Brother had disappeared. 

Source: Hume, A.O.  Hints on Esoteric Theosophy, No. 1, 1882, pp. 72-
73.


Case 21
Ross Scott et al
Jan. 5, 1882
Bombay, India

We were sitting together in the moonlight about 9 o'clock upon the 
balcony which projects from the front of the bungalow. Mr. Scott was 
sitting facing the house, so as to look through the intervening 
verandah and the library, and into the room at the further side. This 
latter apartment was brilliantly lighted. The library was in partial 
darkness, thus rendering objects in the farther room more distinct. 
Mr. Scott suddenly saw the figure of a man step into the space, 
opposite the door of the library; he was clad in the white dress of a 
Rajput, and wore a white turban. Mr. Scott at once recognized him 
from his resemblance to a portrait [of Morya] in Col. Olcott's 
possession. Our attention was then drawn to him, and we all saw him 
most distinctly. He walked towards a table, and afterwards turning 
his face towards us, walked back out of our sight.  When we reached 
the room he was gone. Upon the table, at the spot where he had been 
standing, lay a letter addressed to one of our number. The 
handwriting was identical with that of sundry notes and letters 
previously received from him.  

[The above statement is signed by: "Ross Scott, Minnie J.B. Scott, 
H.S. Olcott, H.P. Blavatsky, M. Moorad Ali Beg, Damodar K. 
Mavalankar, and Bhavani 
Shankar Ganesh Mullapoorkar."  This same event is described in 
Olcott's diary for Jan. 5, 1882: "Evening. Moonlight. On balcony, 
HPB, Self, Scott & wife, Damodar ....[etc]... M[orya] appeared in my 
office. First seen by Scott, then me....Scott clearly saw M's 
face....M left note for me on table in office by which he stood...." 
DHC]

Source: Hume, A.O. Hints On Esoteric Theosophy, No. 1, 1882, pp. 75-
76.


Case 22
Henry S. Olcott
Jan. 28, 1882
Bombay, India

M[orya] showed himself very clearly to me & HPB in her garden.  She 
joining him they talked together

Source:  Olcott, Henry S.  Diary for January 28, 1882.


Case 23
Bhavani Shankar
March 1882
Allahabad, India

In the month of March 1882, while I was stopping at Mr. Sinnett's 
house at Allahabad, some occult phenomena occurred independent of 
Madame Blavatsky, who was then at Bombay. One evening, Mr. Sinnett 
gave me a note addressed to my Master, "K.H." I took it to my room 
and kept it near my pillow. Every care was taken in bolting and 
fastening all the glass doors of the room where my bed was. I placed 
a lamp by my bed and began to read the article "Elixir of Life." But 
I was not able to devote my attention to the study of the article in 
question as it became wholly directed to the letter addressed to the 
Mahatma. It was between 10 and 11 P.M. that this letter disappeared 
and I saw my Master while he was leaving the room with the letter 
which was placed near my pillow. The doors of the room were well 
closed, and a light was burning by my bedside and there was no one 
else in the room. When I got up the morning next day, I found a reply 
from my Master to the address of Mr. Sinnett under my pillow and gave 
it to him. During my short stay at Allahabad with Mr. Sinnett, I had 
had independent communication with my Master while Madame Blavatsky 
was in another part of India. 

Source: Theosophical Society. Report of the Result of an 
Investigation into the Charges against Madame Blavatsky Brought by 
the Missionaries of the Scottish Free Church of Madras, and Examined 
by a Committee Appointed for That Purpose by the General Council of 
the Theosophical Society. Madras, India: Theosophical Society, 1885, 
75-80.


Case 24
William Eglinton
March 22?24, 1882, 
S. S. Vega, Indian Ocean, west of Ceylon

On the 22nd March, 1882, I was at sea [on board the S. S. Vega], 
having left [Colombo,] Ceylon about 6 p.m. the same day. I occupied a 
deck cabin forward under the bridge. About ten o'clock I was in this 
cabin undressing preparatory to sleeping on deck, my back being to 
the open door. On turning round to make my exit, I found the entrance 
barred by what I took, at first sight, to be a khitmaghur or native 
butler. 

Thinking he had come on some message, I waited for him to speak, but 
as he did not do so, and deeming his manner insolent from his not 
having demanded entrance, and not paying the deference usual to 
Europeans, I angrily told him, in Hindustani, to go away; whereupon 
he stepped into the cabin, grasped me by the right hand, and gave me 
the grip of a Master Mason before I had sufficiently recovered from 
my astonishment. I requested him to tell me why he had intruded upon 
me and to state his business. 

Speaking in perfect English, he deliberately informed me he was "Koot 
Hoomi Lal Singh," and I was at the moment so profoundly impressed 
with his general appearance, his knowledge of Freemasonry, and the 
statement that he really was the person, mystic, or Adept of whom I 
had heard so much during my residence in India, that without 
hesitation I accepted him as such. We then entered into conversation 
of some length, of no particular importance to anyone but myself, but 
it proved to me that he was intimately acquainted with both the 
Spiritualistic and Theosophical movements, as well as with friends of 
mine in India. 

He was in every respect an intelligent man, perfectly formed, and in 
nowise differing, in outward semblance at any rate, from the 
thousands of natives one sees in the East. Nor was it hallucination, 
for I was in full possession of all my faculties; and that it was not 
a subjective vision is proved by the grasp of the hand, and the very 
evident materiality of the figure. Some little thing attracted my 
attention from him for a moment, for I was criticizing him keenly, 
and when I turned my head again?he was gone! Two steps took me to the 
open door, where I had the advantage of scanning both the fore and 
aft decks, but I could observe no one in the act of retreating, 
although no living being could have in the time escaped from the 
range of my vision.

The next day I searched the ship, even going down into the shaft 
tunnel to find a person in appearance like the man I had seen on the 
previous night, but without obtaining the slightest clue to his 
identity, although my mind was then dwelling upon the possibility of 
a man having been commissioned to come on board at Ceylon on purpose 
to deceive me. But the more I reflected the more difficult I found it 
to accept such a theory.

"Koot Hoomi" had promised to take a letter to Mrs. Gordon, at Howrah, 
if I would write one when on board. I thought my having seen 
the "figure" a good opportunity to convey the news in the manner 
suggested, and I accordingly wrote, asserting my complete belief that 
the person I had seen was none other than the Great Master. 

Source:  Collated from:  Eglinton, William. Light (London), June 24, 
1882, p. 301, and January 30, 1886, pp. 50?1.


Case 25
Mrs. Alice Gordon
March 23?24, 1882, 
Howrah, a suburb of Calcutta, India

Colonel Olcott told me that he had had an intimation in the night 
from his Chohan (teacher) that K.H. had been to the Vega and seen 
Eglinton. This was at about eight o'clock on Thursday morning, the 
23rd [of March]. A few hours later a telegram, dated at Bombay 9 
minutes past 9 pm on Wednesday evening, came to me from Madame 
Blavatsky, to this effect: "K.H. just gone to Vega." It corroborated, 
as will be seen, the message of the previous night to Colonel Olcott. 
We then felt hopeful of getting the letter by occult means from Mr. 
Eglinton. A telegram [from Mme. Blavatsky] later on Thursday asked us 
to fix a time for a sitting, so we named 9 o'clock Madras time, on 
Friday 24th. 

At this hour we three?Colonel Olcott, Colonel Gordon, and myself?sat 
in the room which had been occupied by Mr. Eglinton. We had a good 
light, and sat with our chairs placed to form a triangle, of which 
the apex was to the north. In a few minutes Colonel Olcott saw 
outside the open window the two "Brothers" and told us so; he saw 
them pass to another window, the glass doors of which were closed. He 
saw one of them point his hand towards the air over my head, and I 
felt something at the same moment fall straight down from above on to 
my shoulder, and saw it fall at my feet in the direction towards the 
two gentlemen. I knew it would be the letter, but for the moment I 
was so anxious to see the "Brothers" that I did not pick up what had 
fallen. Colonel Gordon and Colonel Olcott both saw and heard the 
letter fall. Colonel Olcott had turned his head from the window for a 
moment to see what the "Brother" was pointing at, and so noticed the 
letter falling from a point about two feet from the ceiling. When he 
looked again the two "Brothers" had vanished.

There is no verandah outside, and the window is several feet from the 
ground. 

I now turned and picked up what had fallen on me, and found a letter 
in Mr. Eglinton's handwriting, dated on the Vega the 24th. We opened 
the letter carefully, by slitting up one side, as we saw that someone 
had made on the flap in pencil three Latin crosses, and so we kept 
them intact for identification. The letter is as follows: 

My Dear Mrs. Gordon, ?At last your hour of triumph has come! After 
the many battles we have had at the breakfast-table regarding K.H.'s 
existence, and my stubborn skepticism as to the wonderful powers 
possessed by the "Brothers," I have been forced to a complete belief 
in their being living distinct persons. I am not allowed to tell you 
all I know, but K.H. appeared to me in person two days ago, and what 
he told me dumbfounded me. 

[Colonel Olcott in his diary for March 24, 1882 pens the 
following: "At 9 the Gordons and I sat together. Morya and K.H. 
appeared at the windows and notes from Eglinton (from on board the 
Vega), Morya, K.H and H.P.B., tied together, dropped through the air 
on Mrs. Gordon's shoulder. A stupendous phenomenon all round. E. says 
in his note that he is sending it off by the Brothers to H.P.B. after 
showing it to a fellow passenger, Mrs. Boughton, and having her mark 
the envelope." DHC]

Source: Gordon, Alice. "Instantaneous Transmission of Another 
Letter." Psychic News (Calcutta, India), March 30, 1882, 60?1.


Case 26
Henry S. Olcott
August 18, 1882
Ceylon, (at a village on the way to Colombo)  

[I had a] night visit from M[orya] who directed telegram to be sent 
to A[llan] H[ume] about Fern's visions. . . . .

Source:  Olcott, Henry S.  Diaries.  Entry for Aug. 18, 1882.


Case 27
R. Casava Pillai
May-October 1882, 
Nellore, Bombay and Darjeeling, India.   

In 1881, I had the good fortune to come in contact with a chela, who 
was then in the lower stages of his spiritual development at Nellore. 
His friendship with me brought me in contact with Brother Damodar K. 
Mavalankar, F. T. S., early in 1881. Just at this time, the familiar 
and sacred face of my Guru Deva [Kut Humi] used to appear before me 
oftener in my dreams, and with a more gracious and approving 
countenance. 

Early in 1882, under the auspices of the chela I have above referred 
to --- who then happened to be at the head-quarters of the 
Theosophical Society at Bombay --- arrangements were made for the 
organization of the Nellore Branch. On an application from the 
members here, Madame Blavatsky and Colonel Olcott arrived at Nellore 
[in May, 1882], and this branch has been opened. 

Madame Blavatsky told me, while she was at Nellore, that 
the "Brothers had spoken to her about me, and that they were watching 
me long before this," and I replied "that I knew it to be the case." 
This conversation took place while T. Vijaraghava Charlu, F.T.S., and 
C. Kotiah Chetty Garu, F. T. S., and some others were present. It was 
after this that I really thought more seriously of the appearance of 
the Mahatmas before me in dreams and otherwise. I then began to 
concentrate my attention upon the beautiful features of the latter 
Mahatma, my most revered Guru Deva, whom I then knew to be Mahatma 
Kut Humi. It was not in vain I did so. Within four or five days I had 
a response to my prayer. The blessed Mahatma from that time forward 
used to give me instructions in my dreams --- not exactly dreams --- 
but a state of half-wakefulness, for want of a better word I call 
them dreams, and that in one of I believe, it was about the end of 
May --- I fervently prayed to Him that I might be allowed the 
happiness of seeing Him in his physical body, to which, after a 
moment's consideration, the Guru Deva replied that I should have to 
cross the Himalayas alone. 

I left Madras on the evening of the 11th September 1882 by the mail 
train, and reached the [Theosophical] Society's head-quarters at 
Bombay on the 13th September. 

That very night while I was going to bed in Col. Olcott's room, with 
all doors closed, and in good lamp light, I was startled to see 
coming out, as it were, of the solid wall, the astral form of my most 
revered Guru Deva, and I prostrated before him, and he blessed me and 
desired me to go and see him beyond the Himalayas, in good Telugu 
language. The conversation that passed between us is too sacred to be 
mentioned here. He disappeared in the same way as he appeared. 

On the following day, the 15th September, myself and Madame Blavatsky 
started for the North. We reached Chandernagore on the morning of the 
19th by the mail train. 

I there left Madame Blavatsky and her servant near the Railway 
Station,  and crossed the Hughly by a boat to the other side, and 
walked about 5 miles to the Nalhati Station, and then took the mail 
train for Siliguri, which I reached on the 20th early in the morning, 
and took the rail for Darjiling which place I reached about evening 
and met Babaji Dharbagirinath that very night just when I was in the 
greatest fix to find my way to the North. 

We were both together until the 28th. We travelled together, both on 
horse-back and on foot in Bhutan, Sikkim, &c. We visited 
several "Gumpas" (temples). 

In the course of these travels, just about Pari or Parchong on the 
northern frontier of Sikkim, I had the good fortune and happiness to 
see the blessed feet of the most venerated Masters Kut Humi and M
[orya] in their physical bodies. The very identical personages whose 
astral bodies I had seen in my dreams, &c., since 1869, and in 1876 
in Madras, and on the 14th September 1882 in the head-quarters at 
Bombay. Besides, I have also seen a few advanced chelas, and among 
them, the blessed Jwalkool who is now a Mahatma. 

In conclusion, let me say --- that I am, owing to the grace of my 
Guru Deva, in direct correspondence with Him and have received 
several letters from Him since 1882, and that even so late as January 
1885, I received a letter directly from Him, permitting me to publish 
an account of my travels. 

Source: Pillai, R. Casava.  "How a Hindu of Madras Interviewed a 
Mahatma at Sikkim." The Indian Mirror (Calcutta), Vol. XXV, March 3, 
1885, p. [2] and March 7, 1885, p. [2]. 


Case 28
S. Ramaswamier
September?October 1882
Darjeeling, India, and later in Sikkim

My health having been disturbed by official work and worry, I applied 
for leave on medical certificate and it was duly granted. One day in 
September last, while I was reading in my room [in the town of 
Tinnevelly, southern India], I was ordered by the audible voice of my 
blessed Guru, [Morya], to leave all and proceed immediately to 
Bombay, whence I had to go in search of Madame Blavatsky wherever I 
could find her and follow her wherever she went. Without losing a 
moment, I closed up all my affairs and left the station. Arrived at 
Bombay, I found Madame Blavatsky gone. Really not knowing whither I 
had best go, I took a through ticket to Calcutta.

On the 23rd [of September], I was brought by Nobin Babu from Calcutta 
to Chandernagore, where I found Madame Blavatsky, ready to start with 
the train. When the train arrived, she got into the carriage. I 
myself had barely the time to jump into the last carriage. 

[During] the first days of her arrival [at Darjeeling] Madame 
Blavatsky was living at the house of a Bengalee gentleman, a 
Theosophist [and] was refusing to see any one. To all our 
importunities we could get only this answer from her: that we had no 
business, to stick to and follow her, that she did not want us, and 
that she had no right to disturb the Mahatmas with all sorts of 
questions. 

In despair, I determined, come what might, to cross the frontier, 
which is about a dozen miles from here, and find the Mahatmas, or?
DIE. Without breathing a word of my intentions to anyone, one 
morning, namely, October 5, I set out in search of the Mahatma. The 
same afternoon I reached the banks of the Rungit River, which forms 
the boundary between the British and Sikkim territories.

That whole afternoon I traveled on foot, penetrating further and 
further into the heart of the Sikkim Territory, along a narrow foot-
path. I travelled before dusk not less than twenty or twenty-five 
miles. Throughout, I saw nothing but impenetrable jungles and forests 
on all sides of me, relieved at very long intervals by solitary huts 
belonging to the mountain population. 

At dusk I began to search around me for a place to rest in at night. 
After a sound sleep, undisturbed by any dream, I woke and found it 
was just dawning. When it became quite light, I wended my way on 
through hills and dales. 

It was, I think, between eight and nine am, and I was following the 
road to the town of Sikkim, whence, I was assured by the people I met 
on the road, I could cross over to Tibet easily in my pilgrim's garb 
when I suddenly saw a solitary horseman galloping towards me from the 
opposite direction. From his tall stature and the expert way he 
managed the animal, I thought he was some military officer of the 
Sikkim Raja. Now, I thought, am I caught. But as he approached me, he 
reined the steed. I looked at and recognized him instantly. I was in 
the presence of my own revered Guru. The very same instant saw me 
prostrated on the ground at his feet. I arose at his command and, 
leisurely looking into his face, I forgot myself entirely. I knew not 
what to say: joy and reverence tied my tongue. I was at last face to 
face with "the Mahatma of the Himavat" and he was no myth. It was no 
night dream; it is between nine and ten o'clock of the forenoon. 
There is the sun shining and silently witnessing the scene from 
above. 

He speaks to me in accents of kindness and gentleness. Nor was it 
until a few moments later that I was drawn to utter a few words, 
encouraged by his gentle tone and speech. Never have I seen a 
countenance so handsome, a stature so tall and so majestic. He wears 
a short black beard, and long black hair hanging down to his breast. 
He wore a yellow mantle lined with fur, and, on his head a yellow 
Tibetan felt cap.

When the first moments of rapture and surprise were over and I calmly 
comprehended the situation, I had a long talk with him. He told me to 
go no further, for I would come to grief. He said I should wait 
patiently if I wanted to become an accepted Chela.

The Mahatma, I found, speaks very little English?or at least it so 
seemed to me?and spoke to me in my mother-tongue?Tamil. I asked the 
blessed Mahatma whether I could tell what I saw and heard to others. 
He replied in the affirmative. He was pleased to say when I offered 
my farewell namaskarams (prostration) that he approached the British 
Territory to see [HPB]. 

Before he left me, two more men came on horseback, his attendants I 
suppose, probably Chelas, for they were dressed like himself, with 
long hair streaming down their backs. They followed the Mahatma, as 
he left, at a gentle trot. 

For over an hour I stood gazing at the place that he had just 
quitted, and then, I slowly retraced my steps. I had eaten nothing 
since the day before, and I was too weak to walk further. My whole 
body was aching in every limb. At a little distance I saw petty 
traders with country ponies, taking burden. I hired one of these 
animals. In the afternoon I came to the Rungit River and crossed it.  
I took another horse immediately and reached Darjeeling late in the 
evening. 

I could neither eat, nor sit, nor stand. Every part of my body was 
aching. My absence had seemingly alarmed Madame Blavatsky. She 
scolded me for my rash and mad attempt to try to go to Tibet, after 
this fashion. I recounted all that had happened to me.

Ramaswamier, S. "How a 'Chela' Found His Guru." Theosophist (Bombay, 
India) 4 (December 1882): 67?9. 


Case 29
Mohini M. Chatterji
December 1882
Bombay, India

I have seen apparitions of Mahatmas on several occasions --- five or 
six, I should think.  It was in the month of December, 1882, that I 
saw the apparition of one of the Mahatmas for the first time.   I do 
not remember the precise date, but it can be easily ascertained.  It 
was a few days after the anniversary of the Theosophical Society was 
celebrated in that year.   One evening, eight or 10 of us were 
sitting on the balcony at the headquarters of the Society.  I was 
leaning over the railings, when at a distance I caught a glimpse of 
some shining substance, which after a short time took the form of a 
human being.   This human form several times passed and re-passed the 
place where we were.  I should think the apparition was visible for 
four or five minutes [at a distance from me of] about 20 or 30 yards. 

It appeared at a place where there was a declivity in the hill, the 
house being at the top of the hill.  There was also a bend at the 
spot, so that if an ordinary human being had been walking there it 
would have been impossible for him to have been seen.  I saw the 
whole figure, however, so that it must have been floating in mid-air. 

[Other persons besides me also saw the figure.] One was Novin Grishna 
Bannerji, who is deputy collector at Berhampore, Moorshedabad, 
Bengal.   Another was Ramaswamier, who is district registrar at 
Madura, Madras.  A third was Pundit Chandra Sikir, who lives at 
Bareilly, N.W.P. 

It was first observed by Ramaswamier and myself. It seemed to us to 
be the apparition of the original of the portrait in Colonel Olcott's 
room, and which is associated with one of the Mahatmas. This occurred 
about half-past nine or 10 o'clock on a bright moonlight night. [The 
figure walked up and down] and then disappeared. It seemed to melt 
away. 

[The second time I saw an astral appearance was] two or three days 
after that.   We were sitting on the ground --- on the rock, outside 
the house in Bombay, when a figure appeared a short distance away.  
It was not the same figure as on the first occasion. This [astral 
figure] was the same shining colour as before. It seemed to float.   
There was no sound accompanying it. It seemed like phosphorus in the 
dark.  The hair was dark, and could be distinguished from the face. 

Colonel Olcott was present on the first occasion, and, as I have 
already stated, the apparition that appeared was that of his Master 
[Morya]. 

Sources:  Collated from:  "The Theosophical Mahatmas, " Mohini M. 
Chatterji, The Pall Mall Gazette (London), October 2, 1884, p. 2.  
and ADD SPR

Case 30
S. Ramswamier 
November 1882
Bombay, India   

At the end of the following year (1882), at the [Theosophical 
Society] headquarters at Bombay, several of us were together on the 
upper balcony. I am unable to recollect any of the others. I suddenly 
saw, at the distance of about 15 paces, a gleaming substance which 
assumed the figure of a man. It was not walking on the ground, but 
appeared to be gliding through mid-air among the top-most branches of 
the trees. It glided forwards and backwards four or five times. I 
could not recognise the person, could not see whether it had a beard 
or not, cannot say whether it was tall or not. The night was 
moonlight. Time between eight and nine p.m.

About the same time, at the end of 1882, I was sitting with Madame 
Blavatsky, Madame Coulomb, Norendra, Janaki, Nobin K. Bannerji, and 
others in a verandah adjoining Madame Blavatsky's writing-room.

On one side was a hill gradually rising to a top. The hill was 
covered with thorns. I saw something like a flash of light, and 
gradually it assumed the figure of a person about 20 feet distant. 
Time between 7 and 8 p.m. I cannot say whether it was moonlight or 
not. I did not recognise the figure; cannot say whether it had a 
beard or not; cannot say whether it had a turban or not. Madame went 
near the foot of the hill and exchanged some signs with the figure. 
Madame then went to her room by the path on our side, and the figure 
went in the direction of Madame's room by the other side.

Afterwards Madame came to us in great excitement and said that one of 
the delegates had polluted the house, and it was for this reason the 
figure could not come near us. Shortly after the figure again 
appeared on the hill, and suddenly vanished, leaving a brightness 
which gradually faded away.


Case 31
Nobin Krishna Bannerji 
November 1882
Bombay, India   

On the occasion of the seventh anniversary [convention of the 
Theosophical Society], in 1882, one evening before the anniversary 
celebration, at about 7 p.m., I was sitting in the balcony of the 
headquarters in Bombay, in company with Norendra Nath Sen, Mohini, 
Madame, Ramaswamier, and several others. We were talking when Madame 
said, "Don't move from your seat until I say," or something to that 
effect. This made us expect that something was about to happen. Some 
were standing near the railing of the balcony, others were seated a 
little back. After a few moments those standing near the rails saw 
something, and made some remarks which induced the rest of the party, 
excepting myself and Norendra, to get up and go towards the rails, 
and look at the object. We didn't stir, as nothing further was said 
by Madame, but kept turning our heads in expectation of seeing 
something. But we didn't perceive anything. Some four or five minutes 
after, we inferred from the remarks made, that the others had seen 
some luminous astral figure walking to and fro below the balcony on 
the side of the hill. It was not pitch dark. Objects could be seen at 
a distance, but not distinguished clearly.

The same party with the addition of Mr. Ghosal were sitting together 
on the north extremity of the bungalow facing the sea, at about 7:30 
p.m., when some remark of Madame's made us expect to see something 
immediately. Shortly after we saw a form standing on a rock close to 
the adjoining bungalow, about 10 yards distant. The light was about 
the same as on the previous occasion. There was no tree near and the 
figure could be seen clearly. The figure was dressed in a white 
flowing garment, with a light coloured turban, and a dark beard. The 
figure was that of a man of apparently ordinary size, but I could not 
recognise who it was. From my description Colonel Olcott recognised 
one of the Mahatmas. He mentioned the name, which we afterwards found 
to be correct, as Madame and Damodar corroborated it. The figure 
seemed faintly luminous, but I am unable now to recollect any further 
details concerning its description. The figure gradually vanished, 
and for a minute or two afterwards the place where it had been seemed 
to be gleaming with a milky brightness. The rock itself has some date 
and other trees upon it but the spot where the figure appeared was 
bare. The figure was standing still when we saw it.


Case 32
J.N. Ghosal 
November 1882
Bombay, India   

One evening, at the Bombay headquarters, on the 27th or 28th of 
November, 1882, about 9 or 10 p.m., Madame Blavatsky, Mohini, Chandra 
Sekhara, Damodar, Nobin Krishna Bannerji, Norendra Nath Sen, and a 
few others besides myself, were sitting in the balcony. Some of them 
had been called there by me, as I was then expecting that some 
phenomenon would take place. My attention was drawn by a sound among 
some trees down below, about 10 yards from the balcony. The sound was 
like the stirring of leaves. Immediately after I saw the tall figure 
of a man apparently more than 6ft. in height, clad in white, near the 
trees. It was a clear moonlight night. The figure was well-built. I 
could not distinguish the features very well, saw something like a 
beard, but not very distinctly. A white turban was on the head. The 
figure began to walk backwards and forwards for two or three minutes. 
Madame Coulomb joined the group, and the figure disappeared, making 
the same kind of sound, like stirring of leaves, which I heard before 
the appearance of the figure. But it appeared to me, and a few of 
those present were of the same opinion, that the figure walked over 
one of the trees and suddenly disappeared. Not being able to 
distinguish the features, I inquired of Madame, and was told it was 
the astral appearance of her Master.


Case 33
G. Soobiah Chetty 
December 24, 1882
Adyar, Madras, India   

HPB and Col. Olcott arrived in Madras on December 19, 1882. A few 
days after their arrival, on a Sunday morning, Madame Blavatsky was 
unpacking, assisted by "the boys" --- Damodar K. Mavalankar, 
Narasimhulu and Soobiah Chetty, and Krishnaswami, known as "Bhavaji." 
Among the articles were found two portraits; and Narasimhulu and 
Soobiah were examining them intently, as they recognised in one of 
them a sadhu they had seen some years before. Noticing them handling 
the pictures, HPB pounced upon them and forbade it, saying they were 
pictures of the Masters. The two brothers said they had seen the 
person portrayed in one of them. HPB declared this could not be true; 
but a fortnight later she was told that they had indeed seen the 
Master M. in 1874; that He had visited the city of Madras in His 
physical body; and that they were two of the four persons who had 
seen Him then. She asked them to describe the visit. 

They said that early one morning a sadhu entered their home 
unannounced. A strikingly tall man, clothed in a long white dress and 
white pagri, with black hair falling on his shoulders, and black 
beard, stood within the door. Of the three persons present one left 
the room, and the other two --- Narasimhulu and Soobiah --- drew near 
to him. He made certain signs which the brothers did not understand, 
but remembered vividly. He asked for one pice; and when they went to 
the money-box they found it contained exactly one pice, which they 
gave to Him. He turned and left the house, followed by the two 
brothers, and suddenly disappeared, to their great astonishment. They 
could find no trace of Him in the street. It was this sudden and 
mysterious disappearance that impressed the visit so deeply upon them 
that they always remembered it in detail. 

Source:  Chetty, G. Soobiah.  "Master M.'s Visit to Madras in 1874."  
Adyar Notes and News, October 25, 1928, p. 2. 


Case 34
Emma Coulomb 
March 1883
Adyar, Madras, India

I shall speak of the apparition which Mr. Sinnett saw on the terrace 
of Colonel Olcott's bungalow [at Adyar, Madras in March 1883]; and 
for precision's sake it behooves me to give here a short description 
of what took place on the arrival of Mr. Sinnett at head-quarters. 

Madame told me:  "What are we to do now? Mr. Sinnett wants to go and 
sleep in Colonel's bungalow."  To this I answered that I was very 
sorry, because I knew that Colonel did not like anyone to occupy his 
rooms; but Madame said, "He wants to go there because he expects a 
visit from the Mahatma."  I shrugged my shoulders.   A little later 
in the day she asked me to go upstairs.  I went.   "Come here," she 
said.  "See, Mr. Sinnett would go into the Colonel's bungalow to 
sleep, because, as I told you, he expects a visit from the Mahatma.   
Do you think it would be possible for Mr. Coulomb  to go quietly in 
the night, and through the window close to his bed pass a letter and 
go away, or even show himself at a distance.  Mr. Sinnett would never 
dare to move if I tell him not."  I answered that I would ask my 
husband, but that I was sure he would not do it, because Mr. Sinnett 
was not a simpleton:  he might go after the apparition and find out 
what is was, and then what would become of her?  I told my husband, 
and he refused point-blank, saying that he would not do it.  Whether 
anyone else did it instead, or not, this I could not say; but what I 
can affirm is, that Mr. Sinnett did not stay very long in the 
bungalow, and I heard him say that it was no use staying any longer.  
A few days after this, Madame asked to have Koot-Hoomi shown on 
Colonel's bungalow.   Baboula, Madame's servant, took the Christofolo 
[the nickname for the "doll"], all wrapped up in a shawl, and with 
Mr. Coulomb went all along the compound on the side of the swimming-
bath to the end of the pasture, returning in a straight line back to 
Colonel's bungalow up to the terrace, where it was lifted up and 
lowered down to give it a vapoury appearance.  I went up to Madame to 
say that all was ready, and found her at the window, in company with 
Mr. and Mrs. Sinnett, looking through an opera-glass; I was very much 
annoyed that she should be so imprudent, but this is her nature.  
Another day, she asked that the Mahatma should be taken to the island 
in the middle of the [Adyar] river opposite the main bungalow.  It 
was impossible to oblige her at this time, because the tide was high 
and the moonlight as bright as day, so that the servant, who had to 
carry the bundle, could not cross the river; consequently the 
apparition did not take place, to Madame's great annoyance, because 
she had already invited Mr. and Mrs. Sinnett to go up and see. 

Source:  Coulomb, pp. 7-9, 30-1, 34-6, 46-8, 52-3


Case 35
Damodar K. Mavalankar
April 1883
Adyar, Madras, India

Last night was a memorable one. Narasimhulu Chetty and myself were 
seated on a chair quite close to Mme. Blavatsky's bed, fanning her 
and talking together, so as gradually to induce sleep in her. 
Suddenly Mme. B. gave a start and exclaimed, "I feel him [Mahatma 
Morya]." She enjoined on us strictly not to leave our places, nor to 
get excited, but remain where we were and be perfectly calm and 
quiet. Suddenly she asked for our hands and the right hand of each of 
us was held by her. 

Hardly two minutes had elapsed and we saw him coming from the screen 
door of Mme. B.'s bed-room and approaching her. His manner of walking 
was so gentle that not a footstep, not the slightest sound, was 
audible; nor did he appear to move, by his gestures. It was only the 
change of position that made us see he had come nearer and nearer. He 
stood exactly opposite Mme. B.?not quite an arm's length from us. We 
were on this side of the bed; he on the other.

You know I have seen him often enough to enable me to recognize him 
at once. His usual long white coat, the peculiar Pagri [turban], long 
black hair flowing over the broad shoulders, and long beard were as 
usual striking and picturesque. He was standing near a door, the 
shutters of which were open. Through these the lamplight, and through 
the windows which were all open, the moonlight, were full upon him. 
And we being in the dark, i.e., having no light on our eyes?we being 
turned against the windows through which the moonlight came?we could 
see distinctly and clearly. 

He held out and put his hands twice over Mme. B.'s head. She then 
stretched out her hand which passed through his?a fact proving that 
what we saw was a mayavi rupa [apparitional body], although so vivid 
and clear as to give one the impression of a material physical body. 
She immediately took the letter from his hands. It crumpled, as it 
were, and made a sound. He then waved his hands toward us, walked a 
few steps, inaudibly and imperceptibly as before, and disappeared! 
Mme. B. then handed the letter to me, as it was intended for me. 
Never shall I forget last night's experience; so clear, so vivid and 
tangible it was! 

Source:  Mavalankar, Damodar K. "Echoes from the Past." Theosophist 
(Adyar), May 1907, 633?4. Reprinted in Damodar and the Pioneers of 
the Theosophical Movement, comp. Sven Eek.  Adyar, Madras: 
Theosophical Publishing House, 1965, 307?9. 

Case 36
G. Soobiah Chetty
Summer 1883 and later that year
Ootacamund, India & Mylapore, India

In 1883 H.P.B. spent the summer with General and Mrs. Morgan at "The 
Retreat" in Ootacamund. She invited or rather directed me to go 
there, and I obeyed the call with pleasure. I was glad to avail 
myself of the opportunity given me of having the rare privilege of 
living for some time under the same roof as H.P.B. and under her 
influence. H.P.B.'s intense desire was to attract the attention of 
men of position to Theosophy. For this purpose she worked hard and 
succeeded eventually. One day as we were discussing as to how this 
object could be secured, a very strong influence was felt. This was 
due to the appearance of Master M. in the room. He materialised 
partly, and I was able to see a hazy form and though hazy I saw His 
arm clearly handing something to H.P.B. My surmise that He had come 
there to give directions as to how the desired object could be gained 
was found to be correct. H.P.B. told me so. 

During the same year also Master K. H. appeared in my house in 
Mylapore. Early next morning when I met H.P.B. at Adyar, she told me 
that the same Master had appeared before her about the same time and 
presented her with yellow roses which she showed me. Let me say that 
yellow roses were then very rare, in fact unobtainable in Madras.

Source:  Collated from:  Chetty, G. Soobiah, "A Reminiscence of 
H.P.B.",  The Theosophist (Adyar, Madras, India), May 1924, pp. 244-
245; and "H.P.B.'s Birthday," The Theosophical World (Adyar, Madras, 
India), August 1937, pp. 173-174.


Case 37
William T. Brown
October?December 1883
India

After a railway journey [from Madras] of six and twenty hours, I 
joined Colonel Olcott at the town of Sholapur. 

We arrived at Jubbulpore [and] on the evening of the lecture, Colonel 
Olcott, Damodar, several fellows of the Society, and I drove together 
to the place of the public meeting. There the Colonel delivered an 
impressive address to a large audience. During the lecture some three 
or four majestic figures had attracted my particular attention. They 
did not seem to hang upon the lips of the speaker, as did the rest of 
the audience, but remained calmly dignified, occasionally only 
exchanging pleasant glances. I was not surprised to learn afterwards 
that some Mahatmas had been present at the meeting in astral form. 

And now let us proceed to Allahabad. At this ancient city a most 
stirring lecture was delivered. Here I saw and recognized the Mahatma 
[Koot Hoomi]. 

Although I was enabled to look at him but for a minute, I knew that 
it was he and recognized him by his portrait, which I had scrutinized 
some weeks before. On our return to the bungalow at which we were 
being entertained, my impression was corroborated by Damodar, who 
volunteered the remark that his master had been there. Damodar, I may 
remark, had not been at the lecture. 

The place to which our narrative really next pertains is the city of 
Lahore. Here, as elsewhere, Colonel Olcott delivered stirring 
addresses to large audiences; but Lahore has a special interest, 
because there we saw, in his own physical body, Mahatma Koot Hoomi 
himself. 

On the afternoon of the 19th November, I saw the Master in broad 
daylight, and recognized him, and on the morning of the 20th he came 
to my tent, and said, "Now you see me before you in the flesh; look 
and assure yourself that it is I," and left a letter of instructions 
and silk handkerchief. 

On the evening of the 21st, after the lecture was over, Colonel 
Olcott, Damodar, and I were sitting outside the shamiana (pavilion or 
pandal [temporary, open-sided shelter roofed with bamboo matting], 
when we were visited by Djual Khool, the Master's head Chela, who 
informed us that the Master was about to come. The Master then came 
near to us, gave instructions to Damodar, and walked away. 

On leaving Lahore the next place visited was Jammu, the winter 
residence of His Highness the Maharajah of Cashmere. 

At Jammu I had another opportunity of seeing Mahatma Koot Hoomi in 
propria persona. One evening I went to the end of the "compound" 
(private enclosure), and there I found the Master awaiting my 
approach. I saluted in European fashion, and came, hat in hand, to 
within a few yards of the place on which he was standing. After a 
minute or so he marched away, the noise of his footsteps on the 
gravel being markedly audible. 

Source: Brown, William T. Some Experiences in India. London: London 
Lodge of the Theosophical Society, 1884, 5?7, 10?11, 12, 13, 15?17.


Case 38a
Henry S. Olcott
Nov. 19?20, 1883
Lahore, India

My camp was thronged with visitors during the three days of our stay, 
and I gave two lectures under the largest shamiana to multitudes, 
with great pots of fire standing along the sides to modify the biting 
November cold.

I was sleeping in my tent, the night of the 19th, when I rushed back 
towards external consciousness on feeling a hand laid on me. The camp 
being on the open plain, and beyond the protection of the Lahore 
Police, my first instinct was to protect myself from some possible 
religious fanatical assassin, so I clutched the stranger by the upper 
arms, and asked him in Hindustani who he was and what he wanted. It 
was all done in an instant, and I held the man tight, as would one 
who might be attacked the next moment and have to defend his life. 
But the next instant a kind, sweet voice said: "Do you not know me? 
Do you not remember me?" It was the voice of the Master K.H. A swift 
revulsion of feeling came over me, I relaxed my hold on his arms, 
joined my palms in reverential salutation, and wanted to jump out of 
bed to show him respect. But his hand and voice stayed me, and after 
a few sentences had been exchanged, he took my left hand in his, 
gathered the fingers of his right into the palm, and stood quiet 
beside my cot, from which I could see his divinely benignant face by 
the light of the lamp that burned on a packing case at his back. 
Presently I felt some soft substance forming in my hand, and the next 
minute the Master laid his kind hand on my forehead, uttered a 
blessing, and left my half of the large tent to visit Mr. W. T. 
Brown, who slept in the other half behind a canvas screen that 
divided the tent into two rooms. When I had time to pay attention to 
myself, I found myself holding in my left hand a folded paper 
enwrapped in a silken cloth. To go to the lamp, open and read it, was 
naturally my first impulse. I found it to be a letter of private 
counsel. On hearing an exclamation from [Brown's] side of the screen, 
I went in there and he showed me a silk-wrapped letter of like 
appearance to mine though of different contents, which he said had 
been given him much as mine had been to me, and which we read 
together.

The next evening, after the visits to Mr. Brown and myself, we two 
and Damodar sat in my tent, at 10 o'clock, waiting for an expected 
visit from Master K.H. The camp was quiet, the rest of our party 
dispersed through the city of Lahore. We sat on chairs at the back of 
the tent so as not to be observed from the camp: the moon was in its 
last quarter and had not risen. After some waiting we heard and saw a 
tall Hindu approaching from the side of the open plain. He came to 
within a few yards of us and beckoned Damodar to come to him, which 
he did. He told him that the Master would appear within a few 
minutes, and that he had some business with Damodar. It was a pupil 
of Master K.H. Presently we saw the latter coming from the same 
direction, pass his pupil?who had withdrawn to a little distance?and 
stop in front of our group, now standing and saluting in the Indian 
fashion, some yards away. Brown and I kept our places, and Damodar 
went and conversed for a few minutes with the Teacher, after which he 
returned to us and the king-like visitor walked away. I heard his 
footsteps on the ground. Before retiring, when I was writing my 
diary, the pupil lifted the portiere, beckoned to me, and pointed to 
the figure of his Master, waiting for me out on the plain in the 
starlight. I went to him, we walked off to a safe place at some 
distance where intruders need not be expected, and then for about a 
half hour he told me what I had to know. There were no miracles done 
at the interview, just two men talking together, a meeting, and a 
parting when the talk was over. 

[In Colonel Olcott's diary for Tuesday, November 20, 1883, the entry 
reads: "1:55 a.m. Koot Hoomi came in body to my tent. Woke me 
suddenly out of sleep, pressed a note (wrapped in silk) into my left 
hand, and laid his hand upon my head. He then passed into Brown's 
compartment and integrated another note in his hand (Brown's). He 
spoke to me." DHC]

Source:  Olcott, Henry S. Old Diary Leaves: The Only Authentic 
History of the Theosophical Society. London: Theosophical Publishing 
Society, 1900, 1929. Vol. 3 (1883?1887): 37?9, 43?5.

Case 38b
Henry S. Olcott
Nov. 19?20, 1883
Lahore, India

I have seen Mahatma Koot Hoomi in the body.  While at Lahore I 
received from the Mahatma Koot Hoomi, through one of his associates --
- a former pupil --- an intimation that he would visit me in the 
body.  On the second night of my stay, I was awakened while asleep in 
my tent by someone putting his hands upon me.  In the instant of 
awaking, having a vague impression that this might be an intruder, I 
seized him with both hands, at the same time asking him in 
Hindustanee who he was.  He replied, "Do you not remember me?"  The 
tone of the voice immediately recalled the Mahatma Koot Hoomi, and it 
then flashed across my memory that I was to have been visited by 
him.  In the next moment I was in full consciousness, and let go my 
hold of him, slipping my hands down the whole length of his arms to 
his hands, having first caught him by the shoulders.  So I felt the 
substance of his arms all the way down.  A brief colloquy ensued, and 
he then, as I lay in bed, took my left hand, and placing the fingers 
of his right hand into contact with my palm, I felt growing up, as it 
were, some substance underneath his fingers.  In another moment he 
closed my hands upon this substance, said something more to me, bade 
me "Good-night," and went out of the tent.  I then got up, and, going 
to the light burning in the tent, found that what he had left me was 
a small package enveloped in Chinese silk.  On opening the package, I 
found within a letter in a Chinese envelope to my address.  The note 
is of a personal character, and need not be printed; but I will allow 
you gentlemen to read it.  The handwriting of the communication is 
identical with that of the many communications received at various 
times by Mr. A. P. Sinnett and many other persons.  Madame Blavatsky 
was at Madras at that time, a distance of perhaps 2,500 or 3,000 miles

Source:


Case 39
Damodar K. Mavalankar
Nov.?Dec., 1883
Lahore, India and later at Jammu, Kashmir

While on my tour [of northern India] with Col. Olcott, we reached 
Lahore, where we expected to meet in body my Master [Koot Hoomi]. 
There I was visited by him in body, for three nights consecutively 
and, in one case, even went outside the house meeting [the Master] in 
the compound, re-entering the house with him, offering him a seat, 
and then holding a long converse. Moreover, him whom I saw in person 
at Lahore was the same I had seen in astral form at the Headquarters 
of the Theosophical Society, and the same again whom I, in my visions 
and trances, had seen at his house, thousands of miles off, to reach 
which in my astral Ego, I was permitted, owing, of course, to his 
direct help and protection. In those instances with my psychic powers 
hardly developed yet, I had always seen him as a rather hazy form, 
although his features were perfectly distinct and their remembrance 
was profoundly graven on my soul's eye and memory; while now at 
Lahore, Jammu, and elsewhere, the impression was utterly different. 
In former cases, when making pranam (salutation) my hands passed 
through his form, while on the latter occasions they met solid 
garments and flesh. 

I shall not here dwell upon the fact of his having been corporeally 
seen by both Col. Olcott and Mr. Brown separately, for two nights at 
Lahore. [Later at] Jammu I had the good fortune of being sent for, 
and permitted to visit a sacred ashram where I remained for a few 
days in the blessed company of several of the much doubted Mahatmas 
of Himavat and their disciples. There I met not only my beloved 
Gurudeva [Koot Hoomi] and Col. Olcott's Master [Morya], but several 
others of the Fraternity, including one of the highest. Thus, I saw 
my beloved Guru not only as a living man, but actually as a young one 
in comparison with some other Sadhus of the blessed company, only far 
kinder, and not above a merry remark and conversation at times. 

Thus on the second day of my arrival, after the meal hour I was 
permitted to hold an intercourse for over an hour with my Master. 
Asked by Him smilingly, what it was that made me look at him so 
perplexedly, I asked in my turn: "How is it, Master, that some of the 
members of our Society have taken into their heads a notion that you 
were `an elderly man,' and that they have even seen you clairvoyantly 
looking an old man passed sixty?" To which he pleasantly smiled and 
said that this latest misconception was due to the reports of a 
certain pupil of a Vedantic Swami. As to his being perceived 
clairvoyantly as an "elderly man," that could never be, he added, as 
real clairvoyance could lead no one into such mistaken notions; and 
then he kindly reprimanded me for giving any importance to the age of 
a Guru, adding that appearances were often false, etc., and 
explaining other points. 

Source: Damodar K. Mavalankar. "A Great Riddle Solved." Theosophist 
(Adyar), December 1883?January 1884, 61?2. Reprinted in Damodar and 
the Pioneers of the Theosophical Movement, comp. Sven Eek. Adyar, 
Madras: Theosophical Publishing House, 1965, 334?6


Case 40
Mohini M. Chatterji
February, 1884
Adyar, Madras, India

Since an attempt is now being made by the opponents of the 
Theosophical Society to discredit the whole movement by circulating 
the report that the "Mahatmas," or Eastern Adepts, are but "crafty 
arrangements of muslin and bladders," I ask permission to say a 
word.   I have sacrificed all my worldly prospects, as is well known 
in my native city of Calcutta, to devote myself to the propagation of 
the esoteric philosophy of my race, in connection with the Society so 
unjustly slandered.  Needless to say I should not have taken this 
step, with many others of my countrymen, if the Theosophical Society 
were but a sham, and the Mahatmas vulgar "concoctions of muslin and 
bladders."  

To a Brahman, like myself, it is repugnant to speak of the sacredly 
confidential relationship existing between a spiritual teacher and 
his pupil yet duty compels me in this instance to say that I have 
personal and absolute knowledge of the existence of the Mahatma who 
has corresponded with Mr. Sinnett, and is known to the Western world 
as "Koot-Hoomi."   I had knowledge of the Mahatma in question before 
I knew Mdme. Blavatsky, and I met him in person when he passed 
through the Madras Presidency to China last year.

I have [also] seen apparitions of Mahatmas on several occasions --- 
five or six, I should think.  

[One] instance which I will describe was the last that occurred just 
before my leaving India.  We were sitting in the drawing-room on the 
first-floor of the house at Adyar.  It was about 11 o'clock at 
night.  The window looks over a terrace or balcony.  In one corner of 
the room there appeared a thin vapoury substance of a shining white 
colour.  Gradually it took shape, and a few dark spots became 
visible, and after a short time it was the fully-formed body of a 
man, apparently as solid as an ordinary human body.   This figure 
passed and re-passed us several times, approaching to within a 
distance of a yard or two from where we were standing near the 
window.  It approached so near that I think that if I had put out my 
hand I might have touched it. [This figure was Mr. Sinnett's 
correspondent, Koot Hoomi.]  

After a while I said that as I should not see him [Master Koot Hoomi] 
for a long time, on account of my going to Europe, I begged he would 
leave some tangible mark of his visit.  The figure then raised his 
hands and seemed to throw something at us.  The next moment we found 
a shower of roses falling over us in the room --- roses of a kind 
that could not have been procured on the premises.   We requested the 
figure to disappear from that side of the balcony where there was no 
exit.  There was a tree on the other side, and it was in order to 
prevent all suspicion that it might be something that had got down 
the tree, or anything of that kind, that we requested him to 
disappear from the side where there was no exit.  The figure went 
over to that spot and then disappeared.  It passed us slowly until it 
came to the edge of the balcony, and then it was not to be seen any 
more. [The disappearance was sudden.]

The height [of the balcony] was 15 or 20 feet, and moreover, there 
were people downstairs and all over the house, so that it would have 
been impossible for a person to have jumped down without being 
noticed.  Just below the balcony there is an open lawn.  There were 
several persons looking at the moment, and my own idea is that it 
would have been perfectly impossible for a person to have jumped 
down. There is a small flight of steps just below the balcony, and if 
a man had jumped from the balcony he must have fallen upon the steps 
and broken his legs.  

When the figure passed and re-passed us we heard nothing of any 
footsteps.  Besides myself, Damodar and Madame Blavatsky were in the 
room at the time. 

[On the balcony there was] the moonlight, and the figure came to 
within so short a distance that the light, which was streaming out of 
the window, fell upon it.  This was at the Madras [Theosophical 
Society] headquarters, about either the end of January or the 
beginning of February last; in fact, just before I left Madras. 

Sources:  Collated from "The Theosophical Mahatmas, " Mohini M. 
Chatterji, The Pall Mall Gazette (London), October 2, 1884, p. 2.  
and ADD SPR

Case 41
Bhavani Shankar
January 1884
Jubbulpore, India

During my travels in the north, I have received communications from 
my Master [Koot Hoomi] direct, independent of anybody else and have 
seen the Mahatmas in their "double". 

In the month of January 1884, I was at Jubbulpore and putting up with 
Brother Nivaran Chandra Mookerjee, who was then the Secretary of the 
Bhrigu Kshetra Theosophical Society. One night, while I was with him, 
I was explaining to some twenty-seven members of that Branch, the 
article "Elixir of Life" and they were listening to me with great 
attention. On a sudden, there was death-like silence for some time. I 
then felt the influence of Madame Blavatsky's Venerated Master, and 
it was so strong that I could not bear it. The current of electricity 
generated by an electro-magnetic battery is nothing when compared 
with that current generated by the trained Will of an Adept. When a 
Mahatma means to show himself to a Chela, he sends off a current of 
electricity to the Chela indicating his approach. It was this 
influence which I felt at that time.  A few minutes after, the 
Mahatma (Madame B's Master) was actually present in the room where 
the meeting of the members was held and was seen by me and Bro. 
Nivaran while some of the members only felt the influence. All the 
members would have seen him much more vividly, had it not been for 
the fact that he did not materialize himself much more objectively. 

I have seen the same Mahatma, viz., Madame B's Master, several times 
in his double during my travels in the North. Not only have I seen 
Madame B's Master in his double but also my Venerated Guru 
Deva "K.H."  I have also seen the latter, viz., my Master in his 
physical body and recognized him. 

Source: Theosophical Society. Report of the Result of an 
Investigation into the Charges against Madame Blavatsky Brought by 
the Missionaries of the Scottish Free Church of Madras, and Examined 
by a Committee Appointed for That Purpose by the General Council of 
the Theosophical Society. Madras, India: Theosophical Society, 1885, 
75-80.


Case 42
Franz Hartmann
December 1883?February 1884
Adyar, Madras, India

On the evening of December 4, 1883, I arrived at Madras and was 
kindly received by Mr. G. Muttuswami Chettyar, who conducted me to 
his carriage, and away we went towards Adyar, situated in a suburb of 
the city of Madras, about six miles from the landing place of the 
steamer.

Before retiring to rest, I expressed a desire to see the pictures of 
the Mahatmas, these mysterious beings, superior to man, of whom I had 
heard so much, and I was taken upstairs, to see the "shrine" in which 
those pictures were kept. The pictures represented two men with 
oriental features and in corresponding dress. The expression of their 
faces was mild and yet serene.

[Some time later] I [saw] Mahatma [Morya] in his astral form. He 
appeared to me, accompanied by the astral forms of two chelas. His 
presence left an exhilarating and elevating influence, which did not 
fade away until several days after.

The impaired health of Madame Blavatsky had rendered it desirable 
that she should have a change of air, and the physicians which were 
consulted, advised her to go to Europe, where Col. Olcott was called 
on account of some official business. Madame Blavatsky therefore 
resolved to accompany Col. Olcott.

Two days before Madame Blavatsky left, February 5th, 1884, I went 
unasked up to her room to speak with her in regard to Society 
matters. 

After this conversation, the thought came in my mind to ask her 
opinion in regard to a certain subject of which I had been thinking. 
Madame Blavatsky advised me to apply to the [Master Morya] himself, 
to ask him mentally, and that the Master himself would answer my 
question. A few seconds later she said she felt his presence, and 
that she saw him writing. I must say that I too felt his influence 
and seemed to see his face, but of course this circumstance will 
carry conviction to no one but myself. 

Just then another lady came in, to my great annoyance, and expressed 
her wish to have a pair of pincers, which was needed for some 
purpose, and remembering that I had such a pair of pincers in the 
drawer of my writing desk, I went downstairs into my room to get 
them. I opened the drawer, saw the pincers and a few other things in 
there, but no vestige of any letter, as I had removed my papers the 
day before to another place. I took the pincers and was about to 
close the drawer, when?there lay in the drawer a great envelope, 
addressed to me in the well-known handwriting of the Master and with 
the seal bearing his initials in Tibetan characters. On opening it, I 
found a long, very kind letter treating of the identical questions 
about which I had just been talking with Madame Blavatsky, besides 
giving a detailed and satisfactory answer to the very question which 
had so perplexed my mind, and a satistactory explanation of certain 
matters, which for some time had been foremost in my mind, but of 
which I had said nothing at all. 

Moreover, there was in the same envelope a photograph, cabinet-size, 
of the Master's face, with a dedication to me at the back. 

Now, if I know anything at all, I know that my drawer contained no 
such letter, when I opened it, and that there was nobody visible in 
my room at that time. The letter, giving a detailed answer to my 
question, must have been written, sealed and put into the drawer in 
less than four minutes, while it took exactly forty minutes to copy 
it the next day; and finally, it treated a very difficult problem in 
such an elaborate and yet concise manner, that only an intelligence 
of the highest order could have done the same. 

Source:  Collated from:  Hartmann, Franz. Report of Observations Made 
during a Nine Month Stay at the Headquarters of the Theosophical 
Society at Adyar (Madras), India. Madras, India: Printed at the 
Scottish Press by Graves, Cookson, and Co., 1884, 11?2, 13?5, 28?30; 
Hartmann, Franz. "Phenomenal." Supplement to Theosophist (Adyar) 5 
(April 1884): 65. 

Case 43
Mary Gebhard
April 7, 1884
London

On the 7th of April last, being, at a meeting of the Theosophical 
Society at Mr. Finch's rooms, Lincoln's Inn, I had a vision, in which 
I saw the Mahatma M.  At the moment I was listening attentively to 
Colonel Olcott's opening speech to the Society.   I saw standing on 
my right side, a little in front, a very tall, majestic-looking 
person, whom I immediately recognised to be the Mahatma, from a 
picture I had seen of him in Mr. Sinnett's possession.  He was not 
clad in white, but it seemed to me to be some dark material with 
coloured stripes, which was wound round his form.  The vision lasted 
only a few seconds.  As far as I could learn, the only persons 
besides myself who had seen the Mahatma were Colonel Olcott, Mr. 
Mohini, and, of course, Madame Blavatsky.

Source:  First S.P.R. Report on H.P.B., 1884, Appendix XXXIX, p. 


Case 44
Vera P. de Zhelihovsky 
May 1884
Paris, France

We were four of us at Rue Notre Danle des Champs, 46?Mme. N. A. de 
Fadeyev, Mme. Blavatsky, the eminent Russian author, M. Solovyov, and 
I?having tea at the same table of the little drawing-room, about 11 
pm. Mme. B. was asked to narrate something of her "Master," and how 
she had acquired from him her occult talents. While telling us many 
things, she offered us to see a portrait of his in a gold medallion 
she wore on a chain round her neck, and opened it. It is a perfectly 
flat locket, made to contain but one miniature, and no more. It 
passed from hand to hand, and we all saw the handsome Hindoo face in 
it, painted in India. 

Suddenly our little party felt disturbed by something very strange, a 
sensation which it is hardly possible to describe. It was as though 
the air had suddenly changed, was rarefied?the atmosphere became 
positively oppressive, and we three could hardly breathe. HPB covered 
her eyes with her hand, and whispered: "I feel that something is 
going to happen. Some phenomenon. He is preparing to do it."

She meant by "He," her guru-master, whom she considers so powerful. 

At that moment Mr. Solovyov fixed his eyes on a corner of the room, 
saying that he saw something like a ball of fire, of oval form, 
looking like a radiant golden and bluish egg. He had hardly 
pronounced these words when we heard, coming from the farthest end of 
the corridor, a long melodious harp?a melody far fuller and more 
definite than any of the musical sounds we had previously heard. 

Once more the clear notes were repeated, and then died away. Silence 
reigned again in the rooms. 

I left my seat and went into the passage hall, brightly lighted with 
a lamp. Useless to say that all was quiet, and that it was empty. 
When I returned to the drawing room I found H. P. Blavatsky sitting 
quietly as before at the table between Mme. de Fadeyev and Mr. 
Solovyov. At the same time, I saw as distinctly as can be, the figure 
of a man, grayish, yet quite clear form, standing near my sister, and 
who, upon my looking at him, receded from her, paled, and disappeared 
in the opposite wall. This man?or, perhaps, his astral form?was of a 
slight build, and of middle size, wrapped in a kind of mantle, and 
with a white turban on his head. The vision did not last more than a 
few seconds, but I had all the time to examine it, and to tell every 
one what I distinctly saw, though, as soon as it had disappeared, I 
felt terribly frightened and nervous. Hardly come back to our senses, 
we were startled with another wonder, this one palpable and 
objective. HPB suddenly opened her locket, and instead of one 
portrait of a Master, there were two?her own facing his! 

Source:  Sinnett, A. P. Incidents in the Life of Madame Blavatsky.  
Compiled from Information Supplied by her Relatives and Friends. 
London: George Redway, 1886, 266?9.

Case 45
Laura C. Holloway
July 1884
London 

Mr. [Hermann] Schmiechen, a young German artist, [was] residing in 
London [and] a number of Theosophists gathered at his studio. Chief 
among Mr. Schmiechen's guests was HPB, who occupied a seat facing a 
platform on which was [Schmiechen's] easel. Near him on the platform 
sat several persons, all of them women, with one exception. About the 
room were grouped a number of well-known people, all equally 
interested in the attempt to be made by Mr. Schmiechen. 

Strange to relate that though the amateur smoker considered herself 
an onlooker it was her voice which uttered the words "begin it," and 
the artist quickly began to outline a head. Soon the eyes of every 
one present were upon him as he worked with extreme rapidity. While 
quiet reigned in the studio and all were eagerly interested in Mr. 
Schmiechen's work, the amateur smoker on the platform saw the figure 
of a man outline itself beside the easel and, while the artist with 
head bent over his work continued his outlining, it stood by him 
without a sign or motion. She leaned over to her friend and 
whispered, "It is the Master KH; he is being sketched. He is standing 
near Mr. Schmiechen." 

"Describe his looks and dress," called out HPB. And while those in 
the room were wondering over Madame Blavatsky's exclamation, the 
woman addressed said: "He is about Mohini's height; slight of build, 
wonderful face full of light and animation; flowing curly black hair, 
over which is worn a soft cap. He is a symphony in greys and blues. 
His dress is that of a Hindu?though it is far finer and richer than 
any I have ever seen before?and there is fur trimming about his 
costume. It is his picture that is being made." 

HPB's heavy voice arose to admonish the artist, one of her remarks 
remaining distinctly in memory. It was this "Be careful, Schmiechen; 
do not make the face too round; lengthen the outline, and take note 
of the long distance between the nose and the ears." She sat where 
she could not see the easel nor know what was on it. 

How many of the number of those in the studio on that first occasion 
recognized the Master's presence was not known. There were psychics 
in the room, several of them, and the artist, Mr. Schmiechen, was a 
psychic, or he could not have worked out so successfully the picture 
that was outlined by him on that eventful day. 

The painting of the portrait of the Master "M" followed the 
completion of the picture; both were approved by H.P. B., and the two 
paintings became celebrated among Theosophists the world over. They 
are a source of inspiration to those who have had opportunity to 
study the wonderful power and expression depicted in them by Mr. 
Schmiechen.

 Source:  Langford, Laura C. "The Mahatmas and Their Instruments." 
Word (New York) 15 (July 1912): 204?6.


Case 46
C. Ramiah
Madras, India
1884

In the year 1864 I was working in another district when one night in 
a dream I saw a Mahatma seated high in the air with a very brilliant 
star for his ring, and he pointed me out to his Chela standing near, 
and beyond this, nothing further occurred.

About the year 1880, one night, I was carried in my dream to a rural 
village at the foot of a great chain of mountains; and there I saw a 
Mahatma dressed in a Buddhist's gown and hood, with bare feet. I at 
once prostrated myself at his feet, when he bade me rise, placed his 
two hands on my head, and directed me to persevere in the mode of 
life I have been following. A few months rolled away and nothing 
particular occurred.

In the year 1881, the newly established Theosophic Society attracted 
the attention of all people; and hearing that a Mahatma was favorably 
disposed to its successful working, I prayed that I may be favored 
with faith. I repeated this prayer every night; and it so happened 
that one night, in my dream, I was carried to the same chain of 
mountains, when I perceived the same Mahatma (who already appeared to 
me in the Buddhist's gown) standing on an isolated rock; and there 
was a deep chasm between him and me. Not being able to go nearer, I 
prostrated on the ground, when I was ordered to rise and was asked 
what I wanted. I repeated the prayer that I wanted to know more of 
faith, when, to my surprise, a large volume of brilliant fire burst 
forth from his breast with several forked tongues, and a few 
particles of fire flew in my direction and they were absorbed in my 
person. The Mahatma disappeared after this, and here ended my second 
dream.

In the middle part of the year 1883, one night, I was carried in my 
dream to a great chain of mountains when some one led me into their 
recesses. There I found a great rock temple in the form of a hall of 
oblong size, and I perceived the same Mahatma, who had shown himself 
to me on the two previous occasions, seated on a low stool with a 
shrine opposite to him, and there were two rows of Mahatmas, one on 
each side, all dressed in Buddhist's gown except the Chief. I 
prostrated as usual and was ordered to rise. I was then told to go 
round the shrine, and some one led me round, and there I found two or 
three ladies in deep devotion.  I came back to the Chief, and after 
prostrating before him once more, I left the place.

I was thinking over these dreams, and at last my mind became so heavy 
with these thoughts that I prayed to the Mahatmas for relief. In my 
dream again about two months ago, I was told to go to Mr. T. Subba 
Row, the worthy President of the Madras Branch of the Theosophical 
Society, and to him I went after the voice repeated itself a second 
time. To him I explained my whole experience, and he kindly asked me 
to call at the Head-Quarters of the Theosophic Society in order to 
see if I could recognize the features of the Mahatma who appeared to 
me in my dream.

I went thither the same evening, and at about 4 P.M., the "Shrine" 
doors were opened, and to my surprise I identified in the photo of 
the Illustrious Mahatma K. H. the exact features of the Mahatma of my 
dreams. 

After identifying the Mahatma of my dreams with the Mahatma K. H., 
whose picture graces the shrine at Adyar Head-quarters, I resolved to 
call to my mind the form of the Mahatma, and after a few determined 
trials I succeeded in impressing my mind with his exact features, not 
omitting even the Buddhist's gown and bare feet. I willed this often, 
and each time the features became more and more clearly defined. At 
one time the Mahatma appeared seated, oftentimes standing, and on a 
few occasions he appeared standing on an elevated place; and in my 
efforts to approach him from the low land, in which I then fancied I 
was, he extended his hand as if to help me in climbing up. All the 
above were visions in open day time during my hours of prayer, and 
they were not dreams. 

As time rolled on I observed the features of the Mahatma to wear an 
expression of sorrow, and this I thought was due to my sinful life.  
A change, however, came over me soon, and to my extreme regret I 
perceived that mental clouds intervened between the Mahatma and me, 
hiding him altogether from my view; and they followed each other in 
rapid succession. When they were dispersed by an effort of the will, 
the internal light which enabled me to see the Mahatma with my mind's 
eye became so intense and displayed such variegated colors, that I 
was not able to see any thing. On other occasions this same internal 
light became so unsteady that an effort to see him pained the mind's 
eye.

I felt very sorry for the above interruption, when one day, while in 
prayers, I perceived a ray of light of golden hue shine within me, 
and as I followed it, it grew in intensity, and the golden hue was 
diffused all over in me. It did not however stop here, and it 
extended itself to the whole earth, and even went beyond it, lighting 
up as far as the mind's eye can reach or comprehend. In this light I 
perceived worlds moving and all sorts of matter and human and other 
forms moving in this ocean of light. The vision was splendid to 
behold, and after a lapse of about five minutes the light gradually 
contracted itself to the original single ray, and in the light which 
it diffused, I perceived the sublime and glorious form of the 
Mahatma. I must, however, add here that so long as this ray of light 
of golden hue was seen by me, neither the clouds, nor the intensely 
strong light with variegated colors, nor unsteadiness of light, 
disturbed the vision.

I have no control over this splendid ray of light as it appears when 
I am unaware, and does not appear when I want it to appear. Its 
duration is also not fixed nor its intensity either.

I mentioned all this to my esteemed friend Mr. Soobba Row, and he 
advised me to see well and distinguish what objects I saw in that 
glorious light, and I did not waste the advice.

One day while at prayers the golden ray of light appeared, and in 
seeing through it I perceived the figure of the Mahatma; and as I 
found my mind's eye upon him he receded. I followed him, and steadily 
he walked over an ascent, and then I perceived that a mountainous 
country was at hand. He went up mountains and down again, now turning 
to the right and then to the left, until at last he came upon a broad 
river and then disappeared. Instinctively I walked alongside of the 
bank of the river in the hope of finding a ford, and came to its 
narrowest part. There was a rude bridge of reeds here spanning the 
river, and trusting myself to the protecting care of the Mahatma, who 
brought me so far, I made a venture, and before I was aware of my 
dangerous position, I found myself on the other side. Here was up and 
down hill work again, and when I perceived that I was much exhausted, 
a large lake was disclosed to my view, the margin of which was graced 
with clusters of beautiful trees, with a sprinkling of rudely built 
houses on the shore; and on my nearer approach I perceived they were 
inhabited. (1)

Thirsty and hungry, I ventured into the house nearest to me, and with 
one voice all the inmates greeted me and made me participate in their 
meals. After this, they clothed me in a gown and hood of pale yellow 
color, and after similarly clothing themselves, they took me to the 
rock temple in "Husthagerry" where to my surprise and infinite joy I 
found the Mahatma K. H. seated before the altar on the same low stool 
as before. We all prostrated before him, and thus ended this 
interesting vision. 

About the latter part of last August I was in prayers as usual when 
the golden ray of light having appeared the Mahatma stood in it in 
all his glory. He receded again, and I followed him close, and after 
traversing the same path over mountains as before, he disappeared at 
the lake. There were no persons living on the borders of the lake and 
the houses were all empty. Without knowing the why or the wherefore I 
tried to reach the rock temple, but I missed my way. After traversing 
many mountains and dangerous valleys, I came upon a broad tableland 
and at some distance I perceived a cluster of fine tall trees beneath 
the shadow of which there stood a neat house facing eastward. Thither 
I went, and at its entrance I saw Mahatma K. H. seated alone, and my 
mind told me it was his own house. I mentioned this curious vision to 
Mr. Damodar K. Mavalankar, and he told me that I must try and see 
what more I can; and this resolve I at once made. (2)

Three or four days after this interview, the same vision appeared to 
me, and facing the house of the Mahatma K. H. there appeared another 
cluster of trees with a house under, with a distance of about a mile 
or two between the houses; and there was also a small temple with a 
circular dome half way between them. This other or second house I 
learnt by intuition belonged to another Mahatma.(3)

There was no exchange of words between the Mahatma and myself in any 
one of the visions.

I am sorry I am not an artist or I would have sent you a sketch of 
the scenery of the two houses with the picturesque temple half way 
between the houses.

Endnotes to C. Ramiah's account by the Editor of The Theosophist

(1) The correspondent could not have described the place more 
accurately, if he had seen it physically. If he had persevered a 
little and gone further, only a short distance, he might have seen a 
certain place allowed to be visited only by initiates. Perhaps to 
prevent his approaching it his course might have been diverted on the 
way. -- Editor.

(2)  This is a correct description, as far as it goes, of the house 
of the MAHATMA. -- Editor.

(3) This description corresponds to that of the house of the other 
MAHATMA, known to Theosophists. -- Editor.

Source: Collated from:   Ramiah, C. "Dreams about Mahatmas Realized 
[PartI], Supplement to The Theosophist, September, 1884, pp. 125-126; 
Ramiah, C. "Psychological Experiences" [Part II], Supplement to The 
Theosophist, October, 1884, pp. 138-139.


Case 47
Vsevolod S. Solovyov 
August 26?27, 1884
Brussels, Belgium and then later at Elberfeld, Germany 

Having received a letter from my countrywoman, Madame Helena 
Blavatsky, in which she informed me of her bad health and begged me 
to go to see her at Elberfeld, I decided to take the journey. But as 
the state of my own health obliged me to be careful, I preferred to 
stop at Brussels, which town I had never seen, to rest, the heat 
being unbearable. 

I left Paris on the 24th of August. Next morning, at the Grand Hotel 
in Brussels, where I was staying, I met Mlle. [Justine de Glinka] 
(daughter of [a] Russian ambassador and maid of honour to the Empress 
of Russia). Hearing that I was going to Elberfeld to see Mme. 
Blavatsky, whom she knew and for whom she had much respect, she 
decided to come with me. We spent the day together expecting to leave 
in the morning by the nine o'clock train. 

At eight o'clock, being quite ready to depart, I go to Miss [de 
Glinka's] room and find her in a great state of perplexity. All her 
keys, which she always kept about her person in a little bag and that 
she had in this bag on going to bed, had disappeared during the 
night, although the door was locked. Thus, as all her baggage was 
locked, she could not put away the things she had just been using and 
wearing. We were obliged to postpone our departure to the one o'clock 
train and called a locksmith to open the largest trunk. When it was 
opened, all the keys were