Part 14

Madame Blavatsky never succeeded in penetrating into Thibet, in whose sacred "lamaseries" and temples dwell the wonderful Mahatmas of modern Theosophy, but William Woodville Rockhill, the American traveller and Oriental scholar, did, and we have a record of his adventures in "The Land of the Laas," published in 1891. While at Serkok, he visited a famous monastery inhabited by 700 lamas. He says (page 102): "They asked endless questions concerning the state of Buddhism in foreign lands. They were astonished that it no longer existed in India, and that the church of Ceylon was so like the ancient Buddhist one. When told of our esoteric Buddhists, the Mahatmas, and of the wonderful doctrines they claimed to have obtained from Thibet, they were immensely amused. They declared that though in ancient times there were, doubtless, saints and sages who could perform some of the miracles now claimed by the Esoterists, none were living at the present day; and they looked upon this new school as rankly heretical, and as something approaching an imposition on our credulity."

"Isis Unveiled," and the "Secret Doctrine," by Madame Blavatsky, are supposed to contain the completest exposition of Theosophy, or the inner spiritual meaning of the great religious cults of the world, but, as we have seen, they are full of plagiarisms and garbled statements, to say nothing of "spurious quotations from Buddhist sacred books, manufactured by the writer to embody her own peculiar views, under the fictitious guise of genuine Buddhism." This last quotation from Coleman strikes the keynote of the whole subject. Esoteric Buddhism is a product of Occidental manufacture, a figment of Madame Blavatsky's romantic imagination, and by no means represents the truth of Oriental philosophy.

As Max Mueller, one of the greatest living Oriental scholars, has repeatedly stated, any attempt to read into Oriental thought our Western science and philosophy or to reconcile them, is futile to a degree; the two schools are as opposite to each other, as the negative and positive poles of a magnet, Orientalism representing the former, Occidentalism, the latter. Oriental philosophy with its Indeterminate Being (or pure nothing as the Absolute) ends in the utter negation of everything and affords no clue to the secret of the Universe. If to believe that all is _maya_, (illusion), and that to be one with Brahma (absorbed like the rain drop in the ocean) constitutes the _summum bonum_ of thinking, then there is no explanation of, or use for, evolution or progress of any kind. The effect of Hindoo philosophy has been stagnation, indifferentism, and, as a result, the Hindoo has no recorded history, no science, no art worthy the name. Compared to it see what Greek philosophy has done: it has transformed the Western world: Starting with Self-Determined Being, reason, self-activity, at the heart of the Universe, and the creation of individual souls by a process of evolution in time and space, and the unfolding of a splendid civilization are logical consequences. In the East, it is the destruction of self-hood; in the West the destruction of selfishness, and the preservation of self-hood.

Many noted Theosophists claim that modern Theosophy is not a religious cult, but simply an exposition of the esoteric, or inner spiritual meaning of the great religious teachers of the world. Let me quote what Solovyoff says on this point:

"The Theosophical Society shockingly deceived those who joined it as members, in reliance on the regulations. It gradually grew evident that it was no universal scientific brotherhood, to which the followers of all religions might with a clear conscience belong, but a group of persons who had begun to preach in their organ, _The Theosophist_, and in their other publications, a mixed religious doctrine. Finally, in the last years of Madame Blavatsky's life, even this doctrine gave place to a direct and open propaganda of the most orthodox exoteric Buddhism, under the motto of 'Our Lord Buddha,' combined with incessant attacks on Christianity. * * * Now, in 1893, as the direct effect of this cause, we see an entire religious movement, we see a prosperous and growing plantation of Buddhism in Western Europe."

As a last word let me add that if, in my opinion, modern Theosophy has no right to the high place it claims in the world of thought, it has performed its share in the noble fight against the crass materialism of our day, and, freed from the frauds that have too long darkened its poetical aspects, it may yet help to diffuse through the world the pure light of brotherly love and spiritual development.

List of Works Consulted in the Preparation of this Volume

AKSAKOFF, ALEXANDER N. =Animism and Spiritism=: an attempt at a critical investigation of mediumistic phenomena, with special reference to the hypotheses of hallucination and of the unconscious; an answer to Dr. E. von Hartmann's work, "Der Spiritismus." 2 vols. Leipsic, 1890. 8vo. (A profoundly interesting work by an impartial Russian savant. Judicial, critical and scientific.)

AZAM, DR. =Hypnotisme et Altérations de la Personnalité.= Paris, 1887. 8vo.

BERNHEIM, HIPPOLYTE. =Suggestive Therapeutics=: A study of the nature and use of hypnotism. Translated from the French. New York, 1889. 4to.

BINET, A. AND FÉRÉ, C. =Animal Magnetism.= Translated from the French. New York, 1888.

BLAVATSKY, MADAME HÉLÈNE PETROVNA HAHN-HAHN. =Isis Unveiled=: A Master-key to the mysteries of ancient and modern science and theology. 6th ed. New York, 1891. 2 vols. 8vo. (A heterogeneous mass of poorly digested quotations from writers living and dead, with running remarks by Mme. Blavatsky. A hodge-podge of magic, masonry, and Oriental witchcraft. Pseudo-scientific.)

=The Secret Doctrine=: The Synthesis of science, religion, and philosophy. 2 vols. New York, 1888. 8vo. (Philosophical in character. A reading of Western thought into Oriental religions and symbolisms. So-called quotations from the "Book of Dzyan," manufactured by the ingenious mind of the authoress.)

CROCQ FILS, DR. =L'hypnotisme.= Paris, 1896. 4to. (An exhaustive work on hypnotism in all its phases.)

CROOKES, WILLIAM. =Researches in the Phenomena of Spiritualism.= London, 1876. 8vo, (pamphlet).

=Psychic Force and Modern Spiritualism.= London, 1875. 8vo, (pamphlet). (Very interesting exposition of experiments made with D. D. Home, the spirit medium.)

DAVENPORT, R. B. =Death Blow to Spiritualism=: True story of the Fox sisters. New York, 1888. 8vo.

DESSOIR, MAX. =The Psychology of Legerdemain.= _Open Court_, vol. vii.

GARRETT, EDMUND. =Isis Very Much Unveiled=: Being the story of the great Mahatma hoax. London, 1895. 8vo.

GASPARIN, COMTE AGÉNOR DE. =Des Tables Tournantes, du Surnaturel et des Esprits.= Paris, 1854. 8vo.

GATCHELL, CHARLES. The methods of mind-readers. _Forum_, vol. xi, pp. 192-204.

GIBIER, DR. PAUL. =Le Spiritisme= (fakirisme occidental). Étude historique, critique et expérimentale. Paris, 1889. 8vo.

GURNEY, E., MYERS, F. W., AND PODMORE, F. =Phantasms of the Living.= 2 vols. London, 1887. (Embodies the investigations of the Society for Psychical Research into Spiritualism, Telepathy, Thought-transference, etc.)

HAMMOND, DR. W. H. =Spiritualism and Nervous Derangement.= New York, 1876. 8vo.

HARDINGE-BRITTAN, EMMA. =History of Spiritualism.= New York. 4to.

HART, ERNEST. =Hypnotism, Mesmerism and the New Witchcraft.= London, 1893. 8vo. (Scientific and critical. Anti-spiritualistic in character.)

HOME, D. D. =Lights and Shadows of Spiritualism.= New York, 1878. 8vo.

HUDSON, THOMAS JAY. =The Law of Psychic Phenomena.= New York, 1894. 8vo.

=A Scientific Demonstration of the Future Life.= Chicago, 1895. 8vo.

JAMES, WILLIAM. =Psychology.= New York, 1892. 8vo, 2 vols.

JASTROW, JOSEPH. =Involuntary Movements.= _Popular Science Monthly_, vol. xl, pp. 743-750. (Interesting account of experiments made in a Psychological Laboratory to demonstrate "the readiness with which normal individuals may be made to yield evidence of unconscious and involuntary processes." Throws considerable light on muscle-reading, planchette-writing, etc.)

=The Psychology of Deception.= _Popular Science Monthly_, vol. xxxiv, pp. 145-157.

=The Psychology of Spiritualism.= _Popular Science Monthly_, vol. xxxiv, pp. 721-732.

(A series of articles of great value to students of psychical research.)

KRAFFT-EBING, R. =Experimental Study in the Domain of Hypnotism.= New York, 1889.

LEAF, WALTER. =A Modern Priestess of Isis=; abridged and translated on behalf of the Society for Psychical Research, from the Russian of Vsevolod S. Solovyoff. London, 1895. 8vo.

LILLIE, ARTHUR. =Madame Blavatsky and her Theosophy.= London, 1896. 8vo.

LIPPITT, F. J. =Physical Proofs of Another Life=: Letters to the Seybert commission. Washington, D. C., 1888. 8vo.

MACAIRE, SID. =Mind-Reading, or Muscle-Reading?= London, 1889.

MOLL, ALBERT. =Hypnotism.= New York, 1892. 8vo.

MATTISON, REV. H. =Spirit-rapping Unveiled.= An Exposé of the origin, history theology and philosophy of certain alleged communications from the spiritual world by means of "spirit-rapping," "medium writing," "physical demonstrations," etc. New York, 1855. 8vo.

MYERS, F. W. H. =Science and a Future Life=, and other essays. London, 1891. 8vo.

OCHOROWICZ, DR. J. =Mental Suggestion= (with a preface by Prof. Charles Richet). From the French by J. Fitz-Gerald. New York, 1891. 8vo.

OLCOTT, HENRY S. =Old Diary Leaves.= New York, 1895. 8vo. (Full of wildly improbable incidents in the career of Madame Blavatsky. Valuable on account of its numerous quotations from American journals concerning the early history of the theosophical movement in the United States.)

PODMORE, FRANK S. =Apparitions and Thought-Transference=: Examination of the evidence of telepathy. New York, 1894. 8vo. (A thoughtful scientific work on a profoundly interesting subject.)

REVELATIONS OF A SPIRIT MEDIUM; or, =Spiritualistic Mysteries Exposed=. St. Paul, Minn., 1891. 8vo. (One of the best exposés of physical phenomena published.)

ROBERT-HOUDIN, J. E. =The Secrets of Stage Conjuring.= From the French, by Prof. Hoffmann. New York, 1881. 8vo. (A full account of the performances of the Davenport Bros. in Paris, by the most famous of contemporary conjurers.)

ROARK, RURICK N. =Psychology in Education.= New York, 1895. 8vo.

ROCKHILL, WM. W. =The Land of the Lamas.= New York, 1891. 8vo.

SEYBERT COMMISSION ON SPIRITUALISM. =Preliminary Report.= New York, 1888. 8vo. (Absolutely anti-spiritualistic. The psychical phases of the subject not considered.)

SIDGWICK, MRS. H. =Article "Spiritualism" in "Encyclopædia Britannica,"= vol. 22. (An excellent resumé of spiritualism, its history and phenomena.)

SINNETT, A. P. (_Ed._) =Incidents in the life of Mme. Blavatsky.= London, 1886. 8vo. (Interesting, but replete with wildly improbable incidents, etc. Of little value as a life of the famous occultist.)

=The Occult World.= London, 1885. 8vo.

=Esoteric Buddhism.= London, 1888. 8vo.

SOCIETY FOR PSYCHICAL RESEARCH: =Proceedings.= Vols. 1-11. [1882-95.] London, 1882-95. 8vo. (The most exhaustive researches yet set on foot by impartial investigators. Scientific in character, and invaluable to the student. Psychical phases of spiritualism mostly dealt with.)

TRUESDELL, JOHN W. =The Bottom Facts Concerning the Science of Spiritualism=: Derived from careful investigations covering a period of twenty-five years. New York, 1883. 8vo. (Anti-spiritualistic. Exposés of physical phenomena: psychography, rope-tests, etc. Of its kind, a valuable contribution to the literature of the subject.)

WEATHERLY, DR. L. A., AND MASKELYNE, J. N. =The Supernatural.= Bristol, Eng., 1891. 8vo.

WILLMANN, CARL. =Moderne Wunder.= Leipsic, 1892. 8vo. (Contains interesting accounts of Dr. Slade's Berlin and Leipsic experiences. It is written by a professional conjurer. Anti-spiritualistic.)

WOODBURY, WALTER E. =Photographic Amusements.= New York, 1896. 8vo. (Contains some interesting accounts of so-called spirit photography.)

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Introduction to Herrmann the Magician, his Life, his Secrets, (Laird & Lee, Publishers.)

[2] Spiritualism and nervous derangement, New York, 1876. p. 115.

[3] The Bottom Facts Concerning the Science of Spiritualism, etc., New York, 1883.

[4] Communication to _New York Sun_, 1892.

[5] NOTE--These letters were purchased from the _Christian College Magazine_ by Dr. Elliot Coues, of Washington, D. C.

[6] "Old Diary Leaves"--_Olcott_.

Transcriber's Notes:

Passages in italics are indicated by _italics_.

Passages in bold are indicated by =bold=.