In a letter, Dr. Franz Hartmann related two mysterious
events that happened to him:
« I left Wadhwan on the 15th of February in company with
Madame Blavatsky and Baboo Mohini M. Chatterjee. We were on our way to Bombay,
returning from a visit to His Highness, the Thakore Saheb of Wadhwan.
A few hours before we started,
Madame Blavatsky had read the said article, corrected a few words and returned
it to me.
I read if carefully to see what
corrections she had made, and whether I might not myself make some changes. I
only found a few words corrected, folded the paper, put it in my pocket-book,
deposited the pocket-book in my satchel, locked the same, entered the car and
put the satchel on my seat, where it never left me and never was out of my
sight, until the event which I am about to describe, occurred.
We travelled on, Madame Blavatsky
being in the same car. Towards evening Madame Blavatsky requested me to let her
see that article again. I took it out of my satchel, unfolding the paper before
handing it to her, and as I did so, imagine my surprise to find on it four long
lines written on a space which was blank before, in the well-known handwriting
of our Master, and in a different kind of ink than that used by Madame
Blavatsky.
How that writing could have been
done in my satchel and during the shaking of the cars, I do not pretend to
explain.
Another incident occurred when I
was alone by myself. On the morning of the 20th of February, I received a
curious Tibetan medal from our Master through Madame Blavatsky. I then
accompanied her on board the steamer on which she was to sail for Europe.
On my return to the shore I went
into a native jewelry shop and brought a locket to deposit my medal, but could
not find a chain long enough for my purpose. I then returned to my room, and
paced the floor, studying what to do in regard to the chain.
I finally came to the conclusion
that I would buy a rose-colored silk ribbon. But where to get it, being a
stranger in Bombay: that was the question.
My pacing the floor brought me
again in front of the open window, and there right before me on the floor lay
exactly the very silk ribbon, brand new, and just the one I wanted.
Bombay,
21st. Feb. 1884 »
(This letter was printed in The Theosophist magazine, Supplement,
April 1884, p.65)
And later Dr. Franz Hartmann wrote a note to clarify the
misconceptions that spiritists had regarding Blavatsky and the Masters:
« To answer the continual insinuations of the London "Light"
[journal] and others of our spiritualist friends, who, in the face of all
demonstrations to the contrary, insist on believing that the so-called occult
phenomena are produced by "spirits" through the
"mediumship" of Madame Blavatsky, I will state that the occurrence of
these phenomena has not ceased since the departure of Madame Blavatsky for
Europe.
She left Bombay on February 20,
1884, and since that time I have personally received three of the well-known
occult letters in the familiar handwriting of the Masters, and one of them
(from K.H.) enclosed in an envelope with Tibetan characters.
One of these letters was received
on March 22nd through the astral form of a high Chela, another one
on April 1st was written on a blank sheet of paper lying on a table,
and the third one, containing very important information about a subject, which
information was six weeks afterwards found to be correct, was transmitted to me
through Damodar Mavalankar on April 28th.
Besides many other phenomena have
happened, while neither of us has yet shown any symptoms of being a medium in
the usual acceptation of the term. »
(This note was printed in The Theosophist magazine, Supplement, July
1884, p.99-100)
And later, Dr. Franz Hartmann made a statement to the
Society for Psychical Research detailing more about those letters he received
from the Masters while Blavatsky was in Europe:
« Some of my experience in regard to occult phenomena has been told
in the “Journal of the Theosophical Society” and in my pamphlet entitled: “A
Report of Observations made during a nine months’ stay at the headquarters of
the Theosophical Society at Adyar.”
Besides the letters mentioned in these publications I have received
several others from Mahatma K.H. and other Mahatmas and their Chelas; but as
the contents of most of those letters were of a confidential character, and as
no one likes to submit his private correspondence to the gaze of the public, I
can only refer to the receipt of such additional evidence, without giving the
contents of the letters received.
Moreover, the majority of those letters bear no date, and as their
appearance was such a frequent occurrence as to form almost one of the habitual
incidents of our daily life, no particular notice was taken as to the date of
arrival. Anything that happens only once
in a lifetime may be looked upon as wonderful; but if the most wonderful things
happen every day, the wonder and astonishment ceases. What interested us was not so much the fact
that such letters can be sent as the intelligence they contained.
“Madame Blavatsky left Bombay on the 20th of February. I accompanied her on board of the steamer, and
after my return to the shore an incident happened, which is described on p.65 of the "Supplement to the Theosophist.“
From Bombay I went to Poona, and remained two days with Mr. A.D. Ezekiel.
Mr. Ezekiel is a great sceptic, and he made me promise that if any occult
phenomena should happen after my return to headquarters, I would let him know
it. Therefore, when soon after my return a letter from the Mahatma K.H. was
received, I wrote to Mr. Ezekiel about it. After sealing my letter another
phenomenon happened. I therefore opened my letter again and added the new
occurrence. I then put my letter in the mail bag, after which again an occult
incident took place, in consequence of which I had to re-open my letter a
second time.
Ever since then, during the last seven months and during Madame
Blavatsky’s absence, I have on many occasions received occult letters, and they
arrived in various ways.
- One letter was from Mahatma K.H., handed to me by Damodar, who received it in my presence from the hands of the astral form of a Chela.
- One letter was enclosed in a Tibetan envelope and written by another Mahatma, I found lying on my writing desk, when after a moment’s absence I returned to my room.
- One letter written by a Chela, and approved by Mahatma K.H., I found in my tobacco box, which a moment before contained nothing but tobacco, and there was nobody visible in the room except Damodar and myself.
- One letter I found in a drawer, which contained no papers whatever when I opened it, but when I was about to close it, there lay the letter, and there was nobody in the room but myself.
- I received letters from Damodar while he was in Ootacamund, to which were added annotations and remarks by K.H., to say nothing of letters received from Madame Blavatsky and Colonel Olcott, in which another Mahatma had made annotations.
An attempt to go into all the details would be useless, because these
letters did not come for the purpose of giving test phenomena under scientifically
prepared conditions. Their genuineness rests upon the perception by the senses
of him who witnesses them, and upon his own common sense, experience, and
discrimination, but their recital cannot carry conviction to the quarrelsome
sceptic.
Far from being desirous to convince such sceptics, I do not even
consider it desirable that they should be convinced; I therefore only state the
facts, having been requested to do so, and whether the public will believe them
or not is entirely immaterial to me.
Respectfully
FRANZ HARTMANN, MD. »
(Source: First Report of the
Committee of the Society for Psychical Research, Appointed to Investigate the
Evidence for Marvelous Phenomena offered by Certain Members of the Theosophical
Society, Appendix 37, p.122-123, London, 1884.)
And in his autobiography, Dr. Franz Hartmann gave more details about his
experiences in Adyar:
« I, as well as others, received numerous “occult letters”
which have been written by the Masters of the Himalayas. Such letters were seen
to form themselves suddenly in the air, or they were found unexpectedly upon
the table or in closed drawers, and they contained orders and directions for
the management of affairs. Some were written in red ink, others in blue, and
some in green, and they usually appeared when some advice was needed.
These letters were not received under test conditions, but as I stated
above, they appeared in miraculous ways, and it may have been put there surreptitiously
by a complicit; but if I had any doubts in regard to the possibility of the “precipitation”
of such letters from the astral plane or the formation of physical objects by magical
powers, the following incident served to destroy my suspicions.
Madame Blavatsky started on her voyage to Europe and I accompanied her to Bombay. I went with her on board the steamship and afterwards returned to my room.
Before leaving Adyar she had given me a keepsake as coming from the Mahatma, a sort of amulet in the shape of a coin with inscriptions in Tibetan letters.
Now while I was alone in my room
at Bombay, I paced the floor, thinking of buying a gold chain or
something with which to wear that amulet around my neck. Just then the thought struck me that a silk ribbon would answer the same purpose, and
as I meditated upon it, something fluttered through the air and fell to the floor before my feet.
It was a rose-colored silk ribbon of exactly the required length, with the ends twisted and ready for use. It was not a “phantasm” and did not disappear; for I
wore it for many months.
Of other phenomena which occurred
on this voyage, I will only mention that while I was travelling on the railway
with Madame Blavatsky she asked me to show her a manuscript which I had written
that morning and which was locked up in my satchel.
I took it out and handed it to
her. She looked it over without moving her hands, but when she returned it to me,
I saw that some remarks in black writing ink had been added to it in some mysterious
way.
Madame Blavatky and Coronel
Olcott were absent more that nine months of Adyar, and during all this time “occult
letters” continued to appear; they dropped from the ceiling or were found in
locked drawers and desks.
It seems strange that if Madame
Blavatskv (although absent in Europe) should have had anything to do with the
writing of these letters. »
(Extracts of his autobiography
published in the Occult Review, January
1908, p.24-27)
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