Notice: I have written in other languages, many interesting articles that you
can read translated in English
in these links:
Part 1 and Part 2.


RICHARD HODGSON DESCRIBED BY WILLIAM BROWN

 
 
William Brown was a young Scottish man who became interested in Theosophy and he was living at the Headquarters of the Theosophical Society, in Adyar, when the commissioner of the SPR (The Society for Psychical Researc) went to India to investigate Blavatsky and the phenomena that occurred there,
 
And about this commissioner (i.e., Richard Hodgson), Mr. Brown pointed out the following:
 
 
« In the first place, let me say that I am well qualified to pass an important judgment on this matter, as I am acquainted with all the parties concerned. Being impressed by the truth and beauty of the Koot Hoomi letters in the Occult World, and having made Mr. Sinnett’s acquaintance in London, I went out to India in the latter part of 1883, for the express purpose of testing the truth of the Occult Philosophy and of the Theosophical phenomena.
 
I went out at my own expense and greatly against the wishes of my brothers and Scotch Presbyterian friends who wished me to go on with my profession, which is that of the law. I went out to the East in a quiet impartial spirit, neither pre-disposed to bolster up Madam Blavatsky nor to have satisfaction in proving her to be a fraud.
 
I remained in India fifteen months; travelled over the country; lived at head-quarters with Blavatsky and Olcott; became friendly with Damodar and the rest of the chelas; compared notes from time to time, with my fellow investigator, Dr. Hartmann, of Munich; made the acquaintance of Mr. Hodgson of the London S.P.R. when he came out to India, and tried to assist him in his investigations; and was a member of the Board of Control which dismissed the Coulombs from the Theosophical Society on the ground of fraud and corruption.
 
As regards the philosophy of self-moral culture and development, no one calls that in question. It is the same now as when Jesus worked his "miracles"; for natural laws do not change, though, for periods of time, they may escape human perception. Thus the task which lies before me is to dispose of the personalities in the case, if I can, in such a way as to show that the principles are unimpaired and to absolve the personalities themselves from false and unjust accusations.
 
So, to continuation I mention the facts:
 
 
On their own confession and statement the Coulombs are fraudulent deceivers. They were justly expelled from the Theosophical Society and their statements are out of court.
 
Mr. Hodgson of the S.P.R. is a young man of my own age (28), cultured and truth-loving. But he was quite unprepared to pass serious judgment regarding psychic facts and occult phenomena, for the reason that he did not recognize the existence of psychic faculties with which to see the psychic facts. A well meaning man, like the majority of the materialistic school he had no explanation for anything in the occult aspect of Nature but non-existence or fraud.
 
Colonel Olcott made a great mistake when he invited a member of a society of beginners to pronounce judgment upon the "miraculous" verities. He and the society have had good cause to realize his error in judgment and to profit by the experience.
 
No one calls the good faith of Colonel Olcott in question. My opinion of him is that he is a just, an eloquent and an honorable man.
 
Damodar, however, is supposed by some to have been an accomplice in deceit of Madam Blavatsky. To one who knows Damodar, as I do, this is simply absurd. Damodar is a vegetarian and total abstainer, and his writings show great truth and earnestness of purpose. He had to make great caste and pecuniary sacrifices on joining the Theosophical Society.
 
And for what?
 
For no visible reward. Not a single official of the T. S. receives a fraction of salary, and Damodar worked 7 hours a day as Joint Recording Secretary. Verily Damodar can say that virtue is its own reward and that it is a royal thing to do good and have evil spoken of one»
(The Religio-Philosophical Journal, October 16, 1886, p.2)
 
 
 
 
« When Dr. Richard Hodgson, of the Society for Psychical Research, declared that Madame Blavatsky was an arch-imposter; and when, at Madras, in India, Mr. and Mrs. Coulomb revealed to myself and others the trap-doors and sliding-panels, which they declared were prepared for the production of “phenomena,” under Madame Blavatsky’s own directions, I felt and knew that the ground had not been covered, and that there were psychical phenomena which neither Mr. Hodgson nor Mr. and Mrs. Coulomb could in any way explain»
(The Religio-Philosophical Journal, July 23, 1887, p.2)
 
 
 
 
« And though Colonel Olcott, Madame Blavatsky and Coulomb were not in the Headquarters of Adyar, we keep getting letters from masters.
 
For example, there were received on August 2nd, 1884, two letters in the well-known writing, one to Dr. Hartmann, F.T.S., and Mr. Lane-Fox, F.S.T., jointly, and the other to Mr. Lane-Fox alone. Copies of these letters taken by myself at the time are in my hands.
 
The letter to Dr. H. and Mr. L. F. refers to a dispute which had arisen between Damodar (the neophyte aforesaid) and myself.
 
« Damodar has undoubtedly many faults and weaknesses as others have. But he is unselfishly devoted to us and to the cause and has rendered himself extremely useful to Upasika (Blavatsky’s occult name). His presence and assistance are indispensably necessary at the Head Quarters. His inner self has no desire to domineer, though the outward acts now and then get that coloring from his excessive zeal, which he indiscriminately brings to bear upon everything whether small or great. It must, however, be remembered that inadequate as our ‘instruments’ may be to our full purpose they are yet the best available, since they are but the evolutions of the times. It would be most desirable to have better ‘mediums’ for us to act through; and it rests with the well wishers of the Theosophical cause how far they will work unselfishly to assist in her higher work, and thus hasten the approach of the eventful day.
 
Blessings to all the faithful workers at the Headquarters.
 
KH »
 
 
The following passage is from the letter to Mr. Lane-Fox:
 
« Yes, you are right in your supposition. We leave each man to exercise his own judgment and manage his affairs as he thinks fit. Every man is the maker of his own Karma, and the Master of his own destiny. Every human being has his own trials to get through and his own difficulties to grapple with in this world; and these very trials and difficulties assist his self-development by calling his energies into action, and ultimately determine the course of his higher evolution. »
 
 
Now it is interesting to inquire:
 
 
Where was Madame Blavatsky when these notes were received?
 
She was in Europe.
 
 
Where was Col. Olcott?
 
He was in Europe also.
 
 
Where were Mrs. and Mr. Coulomb?
 
Coulomb had been expelled from the Theosophical premises.
 
 
Did Damodar write them?
 
Damodar is not the man to admit that he has any "faults and weaknesses" whatever.
 
 
So all those accusations that have been made that they wrote the teachers' letters are false.
 
_ _ _
 
 
I remained in India till January, 1885, and along with other investigators received the fullest satisfaction. Of the existence of the adept Koot Hoomi I obtained all the proof desirable, and was convinced of the soundness of the Theosophical teaching.
 
It only remains to add that I left India about the same time as Mr. Hodgson, the investigator from the English Psychical Research Society. I believe Mr. Hodgson to be quite sincere in the report which he prepared regarding the phenomena of the Theosophical Society, but am sorry that, by his incompetence for dealing with occult and psychic subjects (probably arising from a materialistic training), he has totally misled a very important body of thinkers»
(The Religio-Philosophical Journal, January 29, 1887, p.2)
 
 
 
 
 
 
SUBSEQUENT STATEMENTS
 
Unfortunately Mr. Brown later joined a very dogmatic Catholic congregation, and influenced by his new mentors, he totally changed his discourse, but contradicting a lot with his new assertions:
 
« It was in the year 1884 that the “Theosophists” came outright to grief. They were settled at this period about seven miles from the City of Madras in a bungalow, for which some Theosophists had paid when Blavatsky and Olcott resolved to take a trip to Europe. They left the “shrine,” as it appears, in charge of a housekeeper, by name Coulomb, who, while her employers were in England, disclosed to the Madras public certain “trap-doors” and “sliding panels” connected with the sacred edifice.
 
(Here Brown has already forgotten that he himself in his previous articles testified that Mrs. and Mr. Coulomb were expelled because it was discovered that they were constructing these traps to blame Blavatsky, and that although neither the Coulombs nor Blavatsky nor Olcott were in the following days in the Adyar Headquarters, even so he and the other members continued to receive the letters of the masters in a paranormal way.)
 
Indeed so many disclosures bearing on the subject did this domestic make that the Mahatmas or Magi concluded to withdraw altogether to Tibet, and, strange to say, have not since been heard from. Such estimation did Madame thereby secure in Madras that her return to that city would probably give occasion to public investigations which no right-minded Theosophist could contemplate without regret.
 
The “Society for Psychical Research,” is an association of well-meaning ladies and gentlemen, some of them having a reputation for learning. It owes its existence to the curiosity excited by Theosophy and other cults of the kind. Professor Sidgwick of Cambridge, Professor Barrett of Dublin, and other Psychical Researchers, were puzzled by the marvels of Tibetan magic, and they resolved to test, to the best of their ability, the pretentions of the magicians. To a great many persons their conscientious inquiries may have seemed superfluous — a waste of useful energy upon a transparently worthless subject. But they deserve whatever praise is due to the exposure of a delusion, which deluded no one except the utterly fatuous.
 
In the summer of the fatal year 1884, one of the “Psychicers,” Dr. Hodgson, of Cambridge University, for whose honesty and fairness of purpose we can vouch.
 
(Here Brown is contradicting himself because in his previous articles, he pointed out that Hodgson was very incompetent to investigate these phenomena, since he was a staunch materialist who classified everything paranormal as fraud.)
 
He left England for the East, armed with a mandate from his Society, to investigate the Hindu marvels. He was instructed to make himself acquainted with the Hindu neophytes, to hear all witnesses, to examine in person the Madras “shrine,” the Indian depot of the Tibetan phenomena.
 
Dr. Hodgson pursued his investigations as directed, obtained a variety of testimonies, more or less trustworthy, examined in person the “shrine” with its “sliding panels,” and, after some months, returned to England to make known the result of his inquiries. »
(The Catholic Lyceum of Dublin, November 1889, p.54-57)
 
 
 
This last thing that William Brown says is also false because the shrine had already disappeared months before Mr. Hodgson arrived, as William Judge pointed out:
 
« I went to India expressly to be concerned in the coming exposure by the Coulombs, and I took charge of everything the moment I arrived there. I had the final and exhaustive examination made. I myself removed the shrine to an adjoining room, from which that night it disappeared. This was months before Hodgson arrived in India. If he saw what he thought was a part of the shrine, it was a joke put on him by Dr. Hartmann, who would be pleased to lead such a wild investigator into a trap. No part of it was retained by Hartmann.
 
Again, he describes a hole in the wall behind the shrine. There was none, and he gets it all at second hand. There was an unfinished opening in the second wall, behind the shrine, having jagged projections of lath ends all around it, just as Coulomb had to leave it, when we stopped him. »
(Index Boston, March 11, 1886)
 
 
 
 
 
 
OBSERVATION
 
The falsehoods and contradictions that William Brown says in his last article, make me consider that there he is no longer being sincere, as instead it seems that he was in his first statements, which also coincide with other witnesses who also were in Adyar during that period.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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