THE TRAVEL THAT SPENCER LEWIS AND 150 MEMBERS OF AMORC MADE IN 1937

In 1937, Spencer Lewis (the founder of AMORC) organized a tour for his members to Egypt, the Holy Land, and Europe; upon his return to the United States, he summarized the trip in his Rosicrucian Digest, August 1937, recounting the following:

SOME OF THE IMPORTANT FEATURES OF THE RECENT TOUR TO EGYPT, THE HOLY LAND, AND MEDITERRANEAN CITIES

By The Imperator

To gave even a brief summary of our entire itinerary would fill too many pages of too many issues of this magazine, and I believe that the majority of our members would prefer to have only an outline of the important and out standing features of this very unusual tour.

A large number of us left the Pacific Coast in special cars on Monday, January 25, and journeying in a zigzag method across the United States, we picked up many more members until a large party of us arrived in New York on the morning of January 29, and registered at the Rosicrucian Tour offices in the Hotel Martinique where we met scores of other members and tourists who were waiting for us, and who arrived throughout the day.

Crossing the Atlantic Ocean

Early in the morning of Saturday, January 30, we left the Hotel Martinique in a long caravan of taxicabs and went aboard the beautiful ship Rex of the Italian Line. After a few minutes exploration of the ship we were quite satisfied that the Rex was not only a very beautiful ship, but so conveniently and thoughtfully laid out in its arrangements of lounge rooms, library, deck space, and many other features, that we were certainly going to have an interesting trip.

About ten hours after we were out at sea a number of members began to make comments about the arrangement of the portholes in the various rooms, and this became quite an outstanding topic of humorous comment throughout the trip.

Those who believed themselves extra ordinarily fortunate in having a large, or an extra, number of portholes in their rooms soon discovered that these portholes meant little or nothing, because as the sea became high and the waves dashed against the side of the boat (without causing unnecessary disturbance) the portholes were closed with large metal plates in order to prevent any injury to the glass in the windows, and therefore the portholes became use less for sight-seeing.

We found the Rex very steady and satisfactory as a ship. Since we were touring in the winter months, it was to be expected that there would be a few days of stormy weather when the ship would roll a little, and a few members found it a little more convenient and comfortable to remain in their state-rooms —especially in a lying-down position— and there were a few days when the boat inclined one way or the other to a more or less unnecessary degree, and especially one afternoon when a few of us found it impossible to remain stationary on the deck or in the lounge rooms without sliding a bit.

Despite the fact that we were three or four weeks on the one ship going from port to port after a long journey across the Atlantic Ocean, there were very few of the approximately one hundred and fifty members in the party who could say that they were really ill, or suffering from mal de mer to the degree that is so humorously referred to. And there were no serious accidents, and certainly no serious delays in any feature of our itinerary.

As might be expected, the cuisine and service on the Italian Line ships were of the very highest grade. We received the most courteous attention, everything was scrupulously clean, and there was a kindness on the part of all of the officers and stewards on the boat that made the trip very enjoyable.

In fact, I may say at this point that at the conclusion of the tour a large majority of those in the party who had ever toured before on other ships and had crossed the Atlantic, agreed that if they ever went to Europe again or to any distant point, they would certainly use the Italian Line and its ships in preference to any other they had ever used.

I know that this is my decision, and the decision of my family, and we have made many tours on many ships, and are qualified to say that the Italian Line ships (three of which we used on this tour) and its services, and every feature, represent the utmost in every point. It makes cruising and touring a real pleasure along with safety and convenience.

Visiting the Mediterranean

I think that all of our members will agree with me in saying that one of the most picturesque and entertaining, as well as mystically inspiring, visits we made was at the Island of Madeira. It has a magnificent setting, is unique in the matter of scenery, gardens, gorgeous fields of flowers, customs, habits, costumes of the people, architecture, etc.

Then there was the wonderful luncheon at the top of the mountain that used to be the mountain of the Temple of Music in the times of the Lost Atlantis, and the mystical demonstration of music which AMORC was able to arrange and provide for, and which will probably never be forgotten by those who participated in it. This incident was talked about more throughout the tour than many of the more elaborate features.

Our stops and visits to Algiers, Naples, Athens, and other Mediterranean ports were instructive in both a mystical and educational way, but of course our week's visit in Egypt was the principal goal and inspiration of the tour.

Egypt

Our hotel accommodations at the largest and most luxurious hotel —the Heliopolis, located in the ancient Sun City of Egypt— represented a period of luxurious rest and enjoyment that will never be forgotten. But along with this interesting incident of our Egyptian visit were, of course, the visits to the Sphinx and the Great Pyramid, and then eventually to the Egyptian desert where we stopped overnight and had a mystical ceremony at midnight.

Here an unusual thing occurred when we all witnessed and participated in both a sandstorm on the desert and a heavy rainstorm — two Cosmic features added to the program without announcement, and quite unusual for the average tourist.

The jaunt across the desert on camels, the mystical ceremony, the ancient Egyptian adoration to the rising sun across the Nile in the morning, the camel ride around the Pyramids, and the climbing up the side of the Pyramid, are certainly features that our members will remember for a long time.

Those members representing the Hierarchy and highest circle of our members, including the Supreme Officers, were admitted by the Brotherhood in Egypt to a number of secret pasageways within the Pyramid, and of course this feature will always remain as an important event in their lives.

Incidentally, I am sure that our members throughout the country will be glad to know that the Supreme Colombe whom they so generously helped to participate in this tour, was honored at every point and place in a special man ner, and was permitted to go into the Pyramid, and into the most secret places in every mystical community that we visited. And she performed the duties of Colombe in the mystical ceremony not only at midnight on the desert in Egypt, but at a special service in th e Grand Lodge of Switzerland where she was robed and permitted to sit in the East as Colombe. She was also honored at banquets and secret meetings in European cities including Paris, Brussels and London.

Colombe Thelma was grateful every hour of the trip for the privileges that had come to her through the generosity of our members, and it is needless to say that all of us as Supreme Officers are deeply grateful for these courtesies made possible by the members of the organization who learned of the opportunity they had in helping in this manner, and participated so kindly.

Meeting with the dictator Mussolini

Of course, another outstanding event was the radiogram I received while our ship was at sea en route from the East to Nice, France, where we had planned to spend a week. That radiogram in vited my wife and myself, accompanied by the Supreme Officers, to a special reception granted to us by Mr. Mussolini in the Palace of Venezia in Rome.

We had to call a hurried meeting at eleven o'clock at night, and it was amusing to see how the members responded to the sudden and unexpected call in pajamas, robes, and other miscellaneous attire, and although most of them were drowsy and half asleep, they quickly awakened at the news and agreed that they would accompany us in a body to Rome, and abandon three of the seven days we had planned to spend in Nice.

We had al ready visited Rome, and this detour in our itinerary represented a cost in money and in effort, and in tiresome travel of an entire day. And so we cut short our visit in Nice after enjoying many wonderful sights, and went to Rome and participated in a number of important ceremonies in the one after noon and evening. All who were present at the time (practically every member of the party) received later a large size photograph of the group with Mr. Mussolini and my family and myself standing in the center of the group.

It was unanimously agreed later that what we had learned, observed, and witnessed in Italy most certainly contradicted all that we had read and heard in America through the newspaper and magazine propaganda. And we did not base our opinions on what was told to us by any propagandists in Italy, but on what we actually saw, and which could not have been prearranged.

It was the only country of all those we visited where we found real courtesy, kindness, a genuine spirit of optimism and hopefulness, a complete absence of war talk and war preparation, and a manifest desire for peace, and good will toward tourists of every land.

(Cid's observation: Italy joined World War II in June 1940.)

The reception of the Rosicrucians by Mr. Mussolini, and the fine talk that he made as an address to your Imperator and the Supreme Officers, the fine things that he said about the Rosicrucians and the AMORC, his many references to its history and its activities which he said he had investigated for some time, and his wholehearted welcome to Rosicrucians and Rosicrucianism. constitute some of the remarkable elements of growth and development of the Order in Europe. It will have a greater effect upon Rosicrucianism in Europe than any of our members can suspect at the present time.

More visits

Another honor that many look upon as one which I should consider a very personal thing, but which I shall always feel is like many others that have come to me —a greater honor to the Order— was the invitation I received while in Egypt to participate in an initiation of a unique nature by which I was admitted into a knighthood order of Egypt and decorated with a medal and ribbon, and given the title of "Prince of the Nile.” This title and decoration has never been conferred upon an American citizen or any other than an Egyptian citizen heretofore.

The several cases in the past when I have received knight hood titles in other countries —including the United States of America— have made me feel that these honors are really a compliment to our organization. I prefer to take an impersonal view of them, and I always feel like congratulating our members on assisting us in maintaining such high ideals and whole some practices and constructive services as have warranted this recognition of the Order and its officers on the part of the various knighthoods and distinguished organizations of various kinds.

Our visit in Venice and our hours on the canals in gondolas and otherwise represented a very fascinating feature of the tour, and despite the fact that it was wintertime, or early spring, the weather was fairly mild, and we were given an opportunity of witnessing the overflow of the canals on one occasion.

Our visits to many temples, synagogues, cathedrals, historical museums, grottos, caves, shrines, and places of un usual historical and mystical interest, kept our daytime hours quite busy; while on the other hand, there were Rosicrucian lectures, Forum sessions, sight-seeing lectures, mystical explanations, moving pictures, and amusements of all kinds to fill our evening hours.

Three times we visited Naples and went around and through the country of Italy, and then finally, on March 14, my family and a few of the officers and I separated from the main body of the tour and began an independent journey through Europe visiting the various national headquarters of the Order, and attending banquets and special sessions that had been arranged for us by the Rosicrucian Order, the Martinist Order, and the Federation of FUDOSI, and meetings of allied organizations and their leaders and Grand Councillors.

For forty or forty-five days we journeyed through many parts of Europe including Switzerland, Germany, France, England, Holland, Belgium, and returned through some of these again to board the steamer Rex of the Italian Line on April 29 at Villefranche, France. In all of the countries where the Rosicrucian Order is active, we found pleas ant reading rooms, temples, and assembly places, and very active members, highly enthused and working as diligently as our members here in America.

In Egypt the AMORC information bureau is in the heart of the city, and it became the central meeting place of all of our members while out on sight-seeing tours. It was here that all of the members received, on their first visit to the city of Cairo, a souvenir in the form of a pretty little box containing a rare scarab. Then later each member received a bottle of Egyptian or mystical perfume, incense, and there were even flowers for the ladies on their departure.

One of the interesting things noted by all of the members was that Rosicrucianism and the Order of AMORC and its Supreme Officers were very well known in practically every city and country where the Order has been in existence. Officers, members, and in many cases city and national dignitaries or officials, met the Imperator and his official group who were introduced to the general membership, or to the highest members in private sessions.

In Egypt the Grand Secretary made it his business to devote his time throughout the week to escorting the tourists individually and collectively to various parts of the city and to introducing them to high officials and to many secret places.

In Switzerland the Grand Lodge entertained us with a banquet, and then with a very wonderful mystical session in their beautiful temple, the walls and ceilings of which were frescoed with the colorful mystical designs that are to be found in that great book called The Secret Symbols of the Rosicrucians.

The Grand Master, Dr. Bertholet, and his staff of officers were extremely courteous in entertaining us, and made our visit to Lausanne very helpful and in spiring.

In Paris there were a number of important sessions and meetings attended by our officials, and in Brussels again there was a great banquet with a hundred or more present, with many interesting speeches.

In London the large Rosicrucian Sun shine Circle of the English jurisdiction of AMORC tendered our party a banquet at which there were several hundred present in the famous crown room where a very large picture was taken, affording all of our members a beautiful souvenir of the occasion.

Here we met the Grand Master Raymund Andrea, and Frater Michaud, and Frater James, and others who are so well known in the English jurisdiction, and they wished me to extend to all of our members their personal greetings. Once again it was a rare pleasure to spend many golden minutes with Frater Raymund Andrea.

While we were in London I was asked to deliver a lecture on Rosicrucianism before the Bacon Society of England of which I am the only American Vice-President, and this meeting was held by special arrangement in the historical room in which many of Francis Bacon's meetings were held, and on the very grounds where the ancient Rosicrucians held many ceremonies. On the wall of this room hung a portrait signed at the bottom as of the Grand Master of the Rosicrucian Order that met in that room during the early part of the seventeenth century.

In London we also visited the editorial rooms of that new and wonderful magazine called The Modern Mystic, and enjoyed the usual afternoon tea.

No matter where you go in London — store, theater, office, hotel lobby, or open market, tea is served in the after noon as part of the regular routine of daily affairs. While at first this may seem to be quite a disturbing feature in the business scheme of things, it gradually becomes enjoyable and by the time we were ready to leave England we had quite decided that America might improve its business-social relations by having afternoon teas!

Return to the United States

The main body of touring members who returned to America ahead of the Imperator and his group, had a voyage of more or less rainy weather, but those who came back on the Rex, leaving France on April 29, had a sea that was as smooth as a lake for the entire seven days, and weather that was as delightful and balmy as even a day in California. We enjoyed every feature of the magnificent decks, salons, outdoor swimming pool, library, and every other feature of the first class section of the Rex, and it certainly made a happy ending to a long tour.

Many of the members had departed from the main body of tourists in the middle of March, and had gone up and visited some of our branches and grand lodges individually and in small groups. We were surprised to find at the banquet a few of the members to whom we had said farewell on the occasion of our departure from the main tour on March 14. Upon our return to America we met many others in New York who told us that they too had attended sessions of Rosicrucian lodges in Europe, and had contacted many members in various cities.

After a visit of four or five days in New York our official group of seven returned to California ending a hundred and nine day absence from San Jose. We were glad to get back and be at work again, and to assist in the preparations for the convention and the opening of the Rose-Croix University summer courses. As is usual with all of my personal and other group tours to Europe,

I had to buy additional luggage and trunks in order to bring back the many books, manuscripts, and rare documents that I obtained at the various Rosicrucian archives throughout Europe and Egypt. Even in Palestine I was able to contact the secret archives and obtain rare papers that will serve us magnificently in our work here in America.

Lewis promotes himself to sell more trips

Just before my departure from the main body of tourists on March 14, while approaching the Bay of Naples, a meeting was held in the evening by all the tourist members, and two wonderful resolutions were moved and passed unanimously, and then signed by all of the members of the touring party. In these resolutions the members thanked AMORC and its officials for their conduction of the tour, and the many special gifts and surprising special features that had been added to the itinerary, and for the benefits they had received throughout the tour. In one of the resolutions it was definitely stated that all of the members felt that they had received far more in travel, sight seeing, accommodations, entertainment, and instruction than they could possibly have paid for in dollars and cents through any other form of cruising or touring.

They agreed that it was the most economically priced, most perfectly conducted and inspiring tour that any had ever taken, and a great many of those present had toured Europe several times before and were familiar with methods of travel and sightseeing in foreign lands.

Throughout the tour there was the utmost harmony and peace, and I want to take this occasion again to express to the members of that tour my appreciation of their kindnesses, and especially of their many and constant demonstrations of the Rosicrucian spirit.

Our members on this tour represented every walk and position and condition of life in America, Canada, and other countries, and they were always kind and considerate, cultured and refined, appreciative and cooperative. I do not think that we ever associated with a finer body of men and women at any time in our lives. In many cities comment was made by the hotel managers, by the conductors of sight-seeing tours, by city officials, and others, that our group of approximately one hundred and fifty persons was the most intelligent, refined, and well mannered body of tourists that they have ever contacted or had to deal with.

Certainly the 1937 Rosicrucian tour to mystic lands, and mystic places ended gloriously, and every member has much to recall for years to come, and a marvelous amount of inspiration and instruction to assist in his journey along the path of life

But all of our other members who remained at home and were not able to be with us will receive benefits directly and indirectly through the lectures and monographs, articles and pictures that will be presented to them throughout the magazine and otherwise in the months and years to come, and we all look forward to the day, some time in the future, when another tour of this kind may be conducted by our organization, and when many who stayed at home this time may join us.

AMORC has distinguished itself in the past years not only by its contributions toward excavation and exploration funds in mystic lands, by its support of investigations and researches, but by actually conducting tours of this kind into foreign lands and revealing to its members the so-called secret and hidden places that are little known and little suspected by those who are students of other organizations. In fact, AMORC is the only organization of its kind in America that has so consistently offered this service and this help to its members.

(p.265-270)

 

OBSERVATIONS

I note several things:

Spencer Lewis lived a very good life at the expense of all those people he deceived with his false Rosicrucian organization AMORC.

Lewis was a compulsive liar because more than 20 years after founding AMORC, he still claimed to meet great Rosicrucian initiates and receive very valuable and secret documents; when in reality, all of this was purely his own invention.

Lewis was careless with the details because the title stated that they only visited Mediterranean cities, but a good part of the trip was up the Mediterranean.

Lewis took every opportunity to advertise and sell his products and services.

And Lewis showed great admiration for fascism, speaking highly of Mussolini, but this dictator was a bloodthirsty monster.

THE MASTERS MATERIALIZED SOME OF THEIR ANSWERS FOR OLCOTT INSIDE SEALED ENVELOPES

Regarding these phenomena, Colonel Olcott in his "Old Diary Leaves I" reported the following:

« Readers of Lane's Modern Egyptians, will recall the story of a young man who, upon visiting a certain wonder-working sheikh, obtained some marvelous proofs of his occult powers.

 

His father, then at a distant place, being somewhat ailing, the son asked that he might have news of his condition. The sheikh consenting, told him to write the father a note of enquiry; which was done, handed him by the anxious son, and by the sheikh placed under the back-pillow against which he was leaning.

 

Presently, the sheikh drew from the same place a letter answering the young man's enquiries. It was written by the father's own hand, and, if my memory serves — for I am trusting to recollection only — stamped with his seal.

 

At his request, also, coffee was served to the company in the father's own cups (fingdn), which he had every reason to believe had been at the moment of asking in the paternal house in that far-off village.

 

 

H.P.B. gave me one evening, without fuss or parade, a fact of the first of these two orders. I wished to hear from a certain Adept upon a certain subject. She made me write my questions, put them in a sealed envelope, and place the letter where I could watch it for the time being.

 

This was even better than the Egyptian sheikh incident, for in that case the letter was hidden from the enquirer by the back-pillow. As I was sitting at the moment before the grate, I put my letter behind the clock on the mantel, leaving just one edge of the envelope projecting far enough for me to see it.

 

My colleague [H.P.B.] and I went on talking about a variety of things for perhaps an hour, when she said my answer had come. I drew out the letter, found my own envelope with its seal unbroken, inside it my own letter, and inside that the answer in the Adept's familiar manuscript, written upon a sheet of green paper of peculiar make, the like of which — I have every reason to believe — was not in the house. We were in New York, the Adept in Asia.

 

This phenomenon was, I submit, of a class to which the theory of trickery could not apply, and therefore has much weight. There is just one explanation possible — a very lame one — besides that which I conceive to be the true theory.

 

Granting H.P.B. to be possessed of extraordinary hypnotic power, she might have instantaneously benumbed my waking faculties, so as to prevent my seeing her rise from her chair, take my letter from behind the clock, steam the gum, open the cover, read my letter, write the reply in forged hand-writing, replace the contents of the envelope, refasten it, place it back again on the mantel-shelf, and then restore me to the waking state without leaving in my memory the least trace of my experiences!

 

But I had and still preserve a perfect consciousness of having carried on the hour's conversation, of her moving about hither and thither, of her making and smoking a number of cigarettes, of my filling, smoking, and refilling my pipe, and, generally, doing what any waking person might do when his senses were alert as to a psychical phenomenon then in progress.

 

If some forty years of familiarity with hypnotic and mesmeric phenomena and their laws go for anything, then I can positively declare that I was fully conscious of what was going on, and that I have accurately stated the facts.

 

Perhaps even twice forty years' experience on the plane of physical Maya [illusion] would not qualify one to grasp the possibilities in Oriental hypnotic science. Perhaps I am no more capable than the tyro of knowing what really passed between the times of writing my note and getting the answer.

 

That is quite possible. But in such case what infinitesimally little weight should be given to the aspersions of H.P.B.'s several hostile critics, learned and lay, who have judged her an unmitigated trickster, without having had even a fourth of my own familiarity with the laws of psychical phenomena!

 

In the (London) Spiritualist for January 28, 1876, I described this incident with other psychical matters, and the reader is referred to my letter for the particular. »

(Chapter 23)

William Judge said that Blavatsky could hypnotize without people realizing, but this phenomenon where the Master responds inside a closed envelope was carried out on multiple occasions, with other people, and sometimes without Blavatsky being present.

And in the Spiritualist magazine the following text appeared about these phenomena:

« In more than twenty cases, found the familiar writing of a certain spirit friend inside letters delivered to me by the postman, upon my opening the envelopes—the letters coming from correspondents in various parts of the world, and some from persons who knew nothing and cared less about Spiritualistic phenomena.

(Cid's note: Colonel Olcott initially believed that the Adepts were spirits.)

In Lane’s Modern Egyptian you will find an account of the experience which two visitors had with a famous sheikh, part of which bears upon this question. One of them desired an answer to a sealed letter, which he handed the sheikh and which was addressed to his own father, then living in a place far distant from the locality when the seance was occurring. The sheikh placed the letter behind one of the cushions of his divan, and shortly after turning down the cushion the visitor found his own letter gone and another addressed to himself, in his father’s familiar handwriting, replying to his questions and giving him unsought information about things that moment transpiring at home.

Once this happened to me. I wrote a letter to a dear • friend of mine who resided several thousand miles away from here—in India. I laid it, sealed, upon the mantel-shelf, where I could have it under my eye the whole time. In about an hour I looked and found my own envelope with unbroken seal, my own note inside, and inside that, and upon a sheet of coloured paper unlike anything in my own possession, and nulike anything that I ever saw letters written upon in America, was a reply from my correspondent, in his own handwriting. »

(p.45)

COLONEL OLCOTT'S REFLECTIONS ON PHENOMENA IN SPIRITISM

Colonel Olcott sent this letter to the editor of the London spiritualist magazine "Spiritualist" in which he reflects on the phenomena that occur in spiritualism:

COLONEL OLCOTT ON PSYCHOLOGICAL PHENOMENA

Sir,

Mr. C. C. Massey makes an important omission in his account of our seance with Dr. H. Slade, in this city, on the evening of October 14th, which I beg to supply. 

Writing phenomena

He describes the direct writing obtained when the medium and I held the slate under the edge of the table, and when the pencil was laid upon the table and the slate covered it over, and no one touched it. But we made one other experiment which I regarded as peculiarly satisfactory. I placed the pencil between Mr. Massey's two new slates, and held them in my own hand, at my right side —away from Dr. Slade and next to Mr. Massey— and the writing was obtained as easily as before.

As I have no mediumistic power whatever, and as under the circumstances deception was impossible, it is a fair inference that the force exerted by or through Slade can operate for the production of written messages independently of his personal contact with the thing to be written upon.

I have had the same phenomenon occur in the presence of other persons similarly endowed ; as, for instance, where pencil writing has come upon the under-side of a card upon whose face I was scribbling at the time, and inside a note-book placed in my bosom to try the experiment. I have also, in more than twenty cases, found the familiar writing of a certain spirit friend inside letters delivered to me by the postman, upon my opening the envelopes—the letters coming from correspondents in various parts of the world, and some from persons who knew nothing and cared less about Spiritualistic phenomena.

In Lane’s Modern Egyptian you will find an account of the experience which two visitors had with a famous sheikh, part of which bears upon this question. One of them desired an answer to a sealed letter, which he handed the sheikh and which was addressed to his own father, then living in a place far distant from the locality when the seance was occurring. The sheikh placed the letter behind one of the cushions of his divan, and shortly after turning down the cushion the visitor found his own letter gone and another addressed to himself, in his father’s familiar handwriting, replying to his questions and giving him unsought information about things that moment transpiring at home.

Once this happened to me. I wrote a letter to a dear • friend of mine who resided several thousand miles away from here—in India. I laid it, sealed, upon the mantel-shelf, where I could have it under my eye the whole time. In about an hour I looked and found my own envelope with unbroken seal, my own note inside, and inside that, and upon a sheet of coloured paper unlike anything in my own possession, and nulike anything that I ever saw letters written upon in America, was a reply from my correspondent, in his own handwriting.

Reflections

I might multiply stories of personal experience like this, but these will suffice to illustrate my point, viz.: That there are certain subtle forces, which can be controlled by will-power to produce written com munications, even at great distances. Now, what are these forces, and how does will-power control them? Can any Spiritualist, with only such knowledge as he has obtained in circles or through mediums, explain?

They can give vague theories, but only theories. It is not pretended that the writing is done, like ordinary writing, by a spirit’s tracing the characters with ink or pencil. I have heard them say it is a chemical effect; but how produced, pray? Some time since I sat with the President of the Photographic Section of the American Institute, to witness the slate writing of a certain Doctor Cozine, which is far more wonderful than Slade’s. The communications came upon the slate in bright blue and red colours, and no pencil or crayon was used by us, and I held one end of the slate myself. In my own experience I have seen the writing in pastil, ink, lead-pencil, and slate pencil, to say nothing of the direct paintings of figures, flowers, and other objects on paper and satin ; how are these done?

Who do spiritualists communicate with?

Another point I wish to call attention to. In your issue of the 26th ultimo, I read some very sensible talk by Mr. Jencken (as, indeed, what he says generally is) about the cause of the lying communications given by spirits. He puts this query. “ Why was this? Was it that the messages came from very inferior beings, who surrounded particular individuals ?” And he truthfull y adds —  “circumstances such as these very much opposed the progress of Spiritualism.”

No more pertinent question has been asked; no truer assertion made. It is high time that this question should be pondered by every intelligent person interested in the subject. We have gone on for nearly thirty years, receiving communications and viewing phenomena, and taking it for granted that all those which are genuine are made by disembodied human spirits. This has caused all the trouble, and made all the odium.

But the Eastern people make no such mistakes. They do not believe that all their communications are from departed friends, nor all their physical phenomena produced by them. They know better. There is not a hungry fakir or tattered sheikh who could not have taught us where to seek for the truth. They could have shown' us how to produce slate writing ourselves, or any other form of physical manifestation, by controlling the currents of the “Universal Ether” by will power, and calling in the help of the elementary beings who exist in its bosom. They could have taught us what a direful calamity it is to yield to physical mediumship to the extent of perfect passivity—which is the same as saying to give oneself over as the helpless slave of the “elementarles.” Let us hope that when men of such character as Mr. Jencken formulate questions like that which I have quoted above they will be pondered over.

A few of us in this country have organised the Theosophical Society for the express purpose of looking into the science which, so far as we can discover, is alone competent to afford ns this desired knowledge.

One would suppose that the inquiry was a proper one, and that, if we could prove to Spiritualists that these “very inferior beings” of Mr. Jencken’s do surround certain individuals —individuals known as physical mediums—and made them lie, and cheat, and indulge in immoral practices, we should be doing a very great service. But no sooner did I broach the idea that the “ elementaries” of the Theosophists, the “ Dwellers of the Threshold ” of Bulwer, and these “inferior beings’’ were identical, than I was set upon and gibed at by every noisy creature who could handle a quill and gain access to the Spiritualist papers.

Worse than that; I, who had been thickly besmeared with praise for my previous writings, was openly charged with conspiracy to cheat a virtuous publlc; and some of these dogs —for their behaviour shames the human species— fell to slandering good people, and circulating all sorts of calumnies about their private characters.

(Cid's observation: The spiritists hated theosophists when they claimed that most of the spirits with whom mediums communicate in seances are not the souls of disembodied humans but deceptive astral entities.)

But I, at least, am not the man to be turned aside from the accomplishment of a lawful purpose by any such means; and now that we have begun our investigations, we mean to pursue them until we get at the truth which lies at the bottom of this filthy well. We look to the brave and true souls in Great Britain, in France, in Russia, and all over the world, for sympathy and help.

We want you, above all, as representing the better portion of English Spiritualism, to feel that not one of us has the slightest sympathy with Free Love or Free Lovers, that we have no selfish ends to promote, no dogmas to inculcate; that while we have deep sympathy for the misfortunes of the unhappy people who are under the dominion of “inferior beings,” we neither consult them as guides to philosophy nor as oracles of our departed friends. We study their cases as the physician more patient; their phenomena as the scientific observer any other manifestation of natural law. Our bread is cast upon the waters: will you send it back to us after many days?

Henry S. Olcott.

The Theosophical Society,

Mott Memorial Hall, 64, Madison-avenue, New York.

(This letter with this title was published in the Spiritualist, January 28, 1876, p. 45. While I added the subtitles to make them easier to read.)

PORTRAITS ELABORATED PHENOMENALLY BY BLAVATSKY

 

 

(This is chapter 23 of the Colonel Olcott book "Old Diary Leaves I".)

 

 

 

PRECIPITATION OF PICTURES

 

 

Master's response within a closed envelope

 

Readers of Lane's Modern Egyptians, will recall the story of a young man who, upon visiting a certain wonder-working sheikh, obtained some marvelous proofs of his occult powers.

 

His father, then at a distant place, being somewhat ailing, the son asked that he might have news of his condition. The sheikh consenting, told him to write the father a note of enquiry; which was done, handed him by the anxious son, and by the sheikh placed under the back-pillow against which he was leaning.

 

Presently, the sheikh drew from the same place a letter answering the young man's enquiries. It was written by the father's own hand, and, if my memory serves — for I am trusting to recollection only — stamped with his seal.

 

At his request, also, coffee was served to the company in the father's own cups (fingdn), which he had every reason to believe had been at the moment of asking in the paternal house in that far-off village.

 

 

H.P.B. gave me one evening, without fuss or parade, a fact of the first of these two orders. I wished to hear from a certain Adept upon a certain subject. She made me write my questions, put them in a sealed envelope, and place the letter where I could watch it for the time being.

 

This was even better than the Egyptian sheikh incident, for in that case the letter was hidden from the enquirer by the back-pillow. As I was sitting at the moment before the grate, I put my letter behind the clock on the mantel, leaving just one edge of the envelope projecting far enough for me to see it.

 

My colleague [H.P.B.] and I went on talking about a variety of things for perhaps an hour, when she said my answer had come. I drew out the letter, found my own envelope with its seal unbroken, inside it my own letter, and inside that the answer in the Adept's familiar manuscript, written upon a sheet of green paper of peculiar make, the like of which — I have every reason to believe — was not in the house. We were in New York, the Adept in Asia.

 

This phenomenon was, I submit, of a class to which the theory of trickery could not apply, and therefore has much weight. There is just one explanation possible — a very lame one — besides that which I conceive to be the true theory.

 

Granting H.P.B. to be possessed of extraordinary hypnotic power, she might have instantaneously benumbed my waking faculties, so as to prevent my seeing her rise from her chair, take my letter from behind the clock, steam the gum, open the cover, read my letter, write the reply in forged hand-writing, replace the contents of the envelope, refasten it, place it back again on the mantel-shelf, and then restore me to the waking state without leaving in my memory the least trace of my experiences!

 

But I had and still preserve a perfect consciousness of having carried on the hour's conversation, of her moving about hither and thither, of her making and smoking a number of cigarettes, of my filling, smoking, and refilling my pipe, and, generally, doing what any waking person might do when his senses were alert as to a psychical phenomenon then in progress.

 

If some forty years of familiarity with hypnotic and mesmeric phenomena and their laws go for anything, then I can positively declare that I was fully conscious of what was going on, and that I have accurately stated the facts.

 

Perhaps even twice forty years' experience on the plane of physical Maya [illusion] would not qualify one to grasp the possibilities in Oriental hypnotic science. Perhaps I am no more capable than the tyro of knowing what really passed between the times of writing my note and getting the answer.

 

That is quite possible. But in such case what infinitesimally little weight should be given to the aspersions of H.P.B.'s several hostile critics, learned and lay, who have judged her an unmitigated trickster, without having had even a fourth of my own familiarity with the laws of psychical phenomena!

 

In the (London) Spiritualist for January 28, 1876, I described this incident with other psychical matters, and the reader is referred to my letter for the particulars.

 

(Cid observation: William Judge said that Blavatsky could hypnotize without people realizing, but this phenomenon where the Master responds inside a closed envelope was carried out on multiple occasions, and sometimes without Blavatsky being present.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Colonel Olcott's long strand

 

I am not aware of there being a special class of hirsute phenomena, but if there is, then the following incident may be included in it, along with that of the sudden elongation of H.P.B.'s hair at Philadelphia, described in one of my earlier chapters.

 

After having shaved my chin for many years I began to grow a full beard, under medical advice, as a protection to a naturally delicate throat, and at the time I speak of, it was about four inches long.

 

One morning, when making my toilet after my bath, I discovered a tangle of long hair under my chin next the throat. Not knowing what to make of it, I very carefully undid the mass at the expense of almost an hour's trouble, and found, to my great amazement, that I had a lock of beard, fourteen inches long, coming down as far as the pit of the stomach!

 

Whence or why it had come no reading or experience helped me to guess; but there it was, a palpable fact and permanent phenomenon.

 

Upon my showing it to H.P.B., she said it had been purposely done by our Guru while I slept, and advised me to take care of it as it would serve me as a reservoir of his helpful aura.

 

I showed it to many friends, but none could venture any better theory to account for it, while all agreed that I ought not to cut it back to its former length. So I used to tuck it away inside my collar to hide it, and did so for years, until the rest of the beard had grown to match it.

 

This account for the "Rishi beard," so often mentioned in friendly allusions to my personal appearance, and explains why I have not yielded to my long-felt wish to clip it into a more convenient and less conspicuous shape. Whatever the fact may be called, it assuredly is not a Maya [illusion], but a very real and tangible verity.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Blavatsky precipitates writing on a slate

 

In the department of precipitation* of writings and pictures, H.P.B. was exceptionally strong, as will have been inferred from all that has preceded. It was one of M.A. Oxon's strong points likewise.

 

(* A term, originally of my own invention, which seems to convey best of all an Idea of the method employed.)

 

On an evening of 1875 I sat at the house of the President of the Photographic Section of the American Institute, Mr. H.J. Newton, with a. private medium named Cozine, to witness his slate-writings, which were far more wonderful than Dr. Slade's.

 

The communications came upon the slate in bright blue and red colors; no pencil or crayon was used in the experiment, and I myself held one end of the slate. Upon mentioning this to H.P.B., she said: "I think I could do that; at any rate, I will try."

 

So I went out and bought a slate and brought it home; she took it, without crayons or pencil, into a small, pitch-dark closet bed-room and lay upon the couch, while I went out, closed the door, and waited outside. After a very few minutes she reappeared with the slate in her hand, her forehead damp with perspiration, and she seeming very tired.

 

"By Jove!" she exclaimed, "that took it out of me, but I've done it; see!"

 

On the slate was writing in red and blue crayons, in handwritings not her own.

 

M.A. Oxon once wrote me an account of a similar experience of his own, save that in his case Imperator was the agent and he the passive medium, which is quite another affair. At his request Imperator wrote messages to him in various colored inks, one after the other, inside the pocket-book he had in the breast pocket of his coat at the time. Imperator being still the .v of Oxon's psychic life, perhaps it was the ethereal body of my friend which precipitated the colored writings to appease the clamorous scepticism of his physical brain-consciousness, in which case his phenomenon and H.P.B.'s would be somewhat akin.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Portrait of Stainton Moses

 

(William Stainton Moses, who used the pseudonym of M.A. Oxon, was an English medium guided by a spirit called "Imperator".)

 

Elsewhere I have mentioned H.P.B.'s having done for me a precipitated picture on satin, which showed me the stage that Oxon had reached in his attempt to gain the power of projecting his Double by force of concentrated will-power. I had better now give the details:

 

One evening, in the autumn of 1876, she and I were working, as usual, upon Isis, at opposite sides of our writing-table, and dropped into a discussion of the principles involved in the conscious projection of the Double.

 

Through lack of early familiarity with those subjects, she was not good then at explaining scientific matters, and I found it difficult to grasp her meaning.

 

Her fiery temperament made her prone to abuse me for an idiot in such cases, and this time she did not spare her expressions of impatience at my alleged obtuseness.

 

Finally, she did the very best thing by offering to show me in a picture how Oxon's evolution was proceeding, and at once made good her promise. Rising from the table, she went and opened a drawer from which she took a small roll of white satin — the remnant, I believe, of a piece she had had given her at Philadelphia — and laying it on the table before me, proceeded to cut off a piece of the size she wanted; after which she returned the roll to its place and sat down.

 

She laid the piece of satin, face down, before her, almost covered it with a sheet of clean blotting-paper, and rested her elbows on it while she rolled for herself and lighted a fresh cigarette.

 

Presently she asked me to fetch her a glass of water. I said I would, but first put her some question which involved an answer and some delay. Meanwhile I kept my eye upon an exposed edge of the satin, determined not to lose sight of it.

 

Soon noticing that I made no sign of moving, she asked me if I did not mean to fetch her the water.

 

I said: " Oh, certainly."

 

"Then what do you wait for?" – she asked.

 

"I only wait to see what you are about to do with that satin," – I replied.

 

She gave me one angry glance, as though seeing that I did not mean to trust her alone with the satin, and then brought down her clenched fist upon the blotting-paper, saying: "I shall have it now — this minute!"

 

Then, raising the paper and turning over the satin, she tossed it over to me. Imagine, if you can, my surprise! On the sheeny side I found a picture, in colors, of a most extraordinary character. There was an excellent portrait, of the head only, of Stainton Moses as he looked at that age, the almost duplicate of one of his photographs that hung "above the line" on the wall of the room, over the mantel-shelf.

 

From the crown of the head shot out spikes of golden flame; at the places of the heart and the solar plexus were red and golden fires, as it might be bursting forth from little craters; the head and the place of the thorax were involved in rolling clouds of pure blue aura, be speckled throughout with flecks of gold; and the lower half of the space where the body should be was enwrapped in similarly rolling clouds of pinkish and greyish vapor, that is, of auras of a meaner quality than the superior cumuli.

 

 

At that stage of my occult education I had heard nothing about the six chakrams, or psychical evolutionary centres in the human body, which are mentioned in Yoga S'astras, and are familiar to every student of Patanjali.

 

I therefore did not grasp the significance of the two flaming vortices over the cardiac and umbilical regions; but my later acquaintance with the subject gives this satin picture an enhanced value, as showing that the practical occultist who made it apparently knew that, in the process of disentangling the astral from the physical body, the will must be focused in succession at the several nerve-centres, and the disengagement completed at each in turn before moving on to the next centre in the order of sequence.

 

I take the picture to mean that Stainton Moses' experiment was being conducted as an intellectual rather than as a spiritual process, wherefore he had completely formed and got ready for projection his head, while the other parts of his astral body were in a state of nebulous disturbance, but had not yet settled into the stage of rupa, or form.

 

The blue clouds would represent the pure but not most luminous quality of the human aura — described as shining, or radiant; a silvery nimbus.

 

The flecks of gold, however, that are seen floating in the blue, typify sparks of the spirit, the "silvery spark in the brain," that Bulwer so beautifully describes in his Strange Story; while the greyish and pinkish vapors of the inferior portions show the auras of our animalistic, corporeal qualities.

 

This grey becomes darker and darker as a man's animalism preponderates over his intellect, his moral and spiritual qualities, until in the wholly depraved, as the clairvoyants tell us, it is inky black. The aura of adeptship is described as a blended tint of silver and gold, as some of my readers, I am sure, must know from personal observation, and as the poets and painters of all ages have depicted in their sublimer flights of spiritual perception.

 

This Téjas or soul-light, shines out through the mystic's face, lighting it up with a glow which, once seen, can never thereafter be mistaken. It is the " shining countenance " of the Biblical angels, the " glory of the Lord," the light that beamed in the face of Moses when descending from the Mount with such splendor that men could not bear to look upon his countenance; a radiance that even transfigures the wearer's robes into " shining garments."

 

The Hebrews call it shekinah, and I once heard the term used by some Bagdad Jews to describe the face of a spiritual-minded visitor on that occasion. So, too, the word "shining" is applied similarly by various other nations; the pure spirits and pure men glow with the white light, the vicious and evil ones are veiled in blackness.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Portrait of yogi Tiravalla

 

In the case of another precipitated portrait, made by H.P.B., there was no aura shown: I refer to that of an Indian yogi, which is described in Sinnett's Occult World and Incidents in the Life of Mme. Blavatsky; the documents respecting which were originally published in the Spiritualist shortly after the occurrence of the incident. It happened in this wise:

 

On my way home to "The Lamasery" one day, I stopped at the Lotos Club and got some of the club note-paper and envelopes to use at home as occasion might require. It was late when I reached the house, and H.P.B. was at the dinner table already, with Mr. Judge and Dr. Marquette as guests.

 

I laid the package of stationery on my desk in the writing-room (between which and the dining-room there was a dead wall, by the way), made a hurried toilet, and went to my seat at the table. At the close of the dinner we had drifted into talk about precipitations, and Judge asked H.P.B. if she would not make somebody's portrait for us. As we were moving towards the writing-room, she asked him whose portrait he wished made, and he chose that of this particular yogi, whom we knew by name as one held in great respect by the Masters.

 

She crossed to my table, took a sheet of my crested club-paper, tore it in halves, kept the half which had no imprint, and laid it down on her own blotting-paper. She then scraped perhaps a grain of the plumago of a Faber lead pencil on it, and then rubbed the surface for a minute or so with a circular motion of the palm of her right hand; after which she handed us the result.

 

On the paper had come the desired portrait and, setting wholly aside the question of its phenomenal character, it is an artistic production of power and genius.

 

Le Clear, the noted American portrait painter, declared it unique, distinctly an "individual" in the technical sense; one that no living artist within his knowledge could have produced.

 

 

The yogi is depicted in Samaddhi, the head drawn partly aside, the eyes profoundly introspective and dead to external things, the body seemingly that of an absent tenant.

 

There is a beard and hair of moderate length, the latter drawn with such skill that one sees through the upstanding locks, as it were — an effect obtained in good photographs, but hard to imitate with pencil or crayon.

 

The portrait is in a medium not easy to distinguish; it might be black crayon, without stumping, or black lead; but there is neither dust nor gloss on the surface to indicate which, nor any marks of the stump or the point used: hold the paper horizontally towards the light and you might fancy the pigment was below the surface, combined with the fibres.

 

This incomparable picture was subjected in India later to the outrage of being rubbed with India-rubber to satisfy the curiosity of one of our Indian members, who had borrowed it as a special favour "to show his mother," and who wished to see if the pigment was really on or under the surface! The effect of his vandal-like experiment is now seen in the obliteration of a part of the beard, and my sorrow over the disaster is not in the least mitigated by the knowledge that it was not due to malice but to ignorance and the spirit of childish curiosity.

 

 

The yogi's name was always pronounced by H.P.B. "Tiravalla," but since coming to live in Madras Presidency, I can very well imagine that she meant Tiruvalluvar, and that the portrait, now hanging in the Picture Annex of the Adyar Library, is really that of the revered philosopher of ancient Mylapur, the friend and teacher of the poor Pariahs.

 

As to the question whether he is still in the body or not I can venture no assertion, but from what H.P.B. used to say about him I always inferred that he was. And yet to all save Hindus that would seem incredible, since he is said to have written his immortal "Kural" something like a thousand years ago!

 

He is classed in Southern India as one of the Siddhas, and like the other seventeen, is said to be still living in the Tirupati and Nilgiri Hills; keeping watch and ward over the Hindu religion. Themselves unseen, these Great Souls help, by their potent willpower, its friends and promoters and all lovers of mankind. May their benediction be with us!

 

In recalling the incidents for the present narrative, I note the fact that no aura or spiritual glow is depicted around the yogi's head, although H.P.B.'s account of him confirms that of his Indian admirers, that he was a person of the highest spirituality of aspiration and purest character.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Portrait of master Morya

 

The same remark applies to the first portrait of my Guru, the one done in black and white crayons at New York by M. Harrisse: there is no nimbus. In this case at least, I can testify to the likeness, along with others who have had the happiness of seeing him. Its production was, like that done in oils at London in 1884 by Herr Schmiechen, an example of thought-transference.

 

I think I have never published the facts before, but in any case they should have a place in this historical retrospect.

 

One naturally likes to possess the portrait of a distant correspondent with whom one has had important relations; how much more, then, that of a spiritual teacher, the beginning of relations with whom has substituted a nobler for a commonplace ideal of life in one's consciousness.

 

I most earnestly wished to be able to have in my room at least the likeness of my reverend teacher, if I might not see him in life; had long importuned H.P.B. to procure it for me; and had been promised it at a favorable time. In this case my colleague was not permitted to precipitate it for me, but a simpler yet most instructive method was resorted to: a non-medium and non-occultist was made to draw it for me without knowing what he was doing.

 

M. Harrisse, our French friend, was a bit of an artist, and one evening when the conversation turned upon India and Rajput bravery, H.P.B. whispered to me that she would try to get him to draw our Master s portrait if I could supply the materials.

 

There were none in the house, but I went to a shop close by and purchased a sheet of suitable paper and black and white crayons. The shopkeeper did up the parcel, handed it me across the counter, took the half-dollar coin I gave him, and I left the shop.

 

On reaching home I unrolled my parcel and, as I finished doing it, the sum of half a dollar, in two silver pieces of a quarter dollar each dropped on the floor! The Master, it will be seen, meant to give me his portrait without cost to mi-self.

 

Harrisse was then asked by H.P.B. to draw us the head of a Hindu chieftain, as he should conceive one might look. He said he had no clear idea in his mind to go upon, and wanted to sketch us something else; but to gratify my importunity went to drawing a Hindu head.

 

H.P.B. motioned me to remain quiet at the other side of the room, and herself went and sat down near the artist and quietly smoked. From time to time she went softly behind him as if to watch the progress of his work. but did not speak until it was finished, say an hour later. I thankfully received it, had it framed, and hung it in my little bed-room. But a strange thing had happened.

 

After we gave the picture a last glance as it lay before the artist, and while H.P.B. was taking it from him and handing it to me, the cryptograph signature of my Guru came upon the paper; thus affixing, as it were, his imprimatur upon, and largely enhancing the value of his gift.

 

But at that time I did not know if it resembled the Guru or not, as I had not yet seen him. When I did, later on, I found it a true likeness and, moreover, was presented by him with the turban which the amateur artist had drawn in the picture as his head-covering.

 

Here was a genuine case of thought-transference, the transfer of the likeness of an absent person to the brain-consciousness of a perfect stranger.

 

Was it or was it not passed through the thought of H.P.B.?

 

I think so.

 

I think it was effected in the identical way in which the thought-images of geometrical and other figures were transferred to third parties in the convincing experiments recorded by the S.P.R. in its earlier published reports. With the difference, however, that H.P.B.'s own memory supplied the portrait to be transferred to Harrisse's mind, and her trained occult powers enabled her to effect the transfer direct, viz., without an intermediary; that is to say, without the necessity of having the drawing first made on a card, for her to visualize it in her own mind and then pass it on to the recipient brain.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Portrait of masters Kuthumi and Morya

 

The painting by Schmiechen, of the magnificent portraits in oils of the same and another Master, which now hang in the Adyar Library, was an even more interesting circumstance, for the likenesses are so perfect and so striking as to seem endowed with life.

 

Their eyes speak to one and search one to the bottom of his heart; their glance follows one everywhere as he moves about; their lips seem about to utter, as one may deserve, words of kindness or of reproach. They are an inspiration rather than an illustration of thought-transference.

 

The artist has made two or three copies of them but not one has the soul in it that is in the originals. They were not done in the divine mood of inspiration, and the Masters' will-power is not focused in them. The originals are the palladium of our headquarters: the copies, like images seen in a mirror, possess the details of form and color, but are devoid of the energizing spirit.