To facilitate correspondence with the Masters, a cabinet known as "The Shrine" was installed at the headquarters of the Theosophical Society in Adyar, India. This device allowed for the teleportation of letters with less energy expenditure.
However, the Coulombs (the domestic employees at this headquarters) took advantage of Blavatsky and Olcott's trip to Europe to build a passageway connecting the shrine to Blavatsky's bedroom so they could accuse her of fraud. However, they never finished the work because they were discovered and fired.
Below, I transcribe the testimonies of several people who inspected the room where the shrine was located and confirmed that there was no trickery. And the Coulombs' unfinished structure was later discovered.
_ _ _
The following evidence is taken from a Pamphlet prepared at Madras as “the Result of an Investigation into the charges against Madame Blavatsky, brought by the Missionaries of the Scottish Free Church at Madras”:
Facts regarding the “Occult Room” up to January, 1884, and after.
1. B. Casava Pillai
Inspector of Police in Nellore.
“When I was at Head-quarters at Adyar last January (1883), I went into the Occult room five or six times. Of these, on four occasions during clay time. On two of these occasions during the day there happened to come into the room several Theosophists from Southern India who were desired by Madame Blavatsky on one occasion and Mr. Damodar on the other to examine the shrine and the walls of the room. These persons, after very careful examination, found nothing suspicious. The shrine was found attached to a solid wall behind, and there were no wires or other contrivances which could escape the trained eye of a Police officer like myself who was watching close by.”
2. P. Puthnavelu
Editor of Philosophic Inquirer.
“I witnessed a phenomenon (on 1st April, 1883), a full account of which was published by me in the Philosophic Inquirer of the 8th April, 1883. I went up to the shrine with two sceptical friends of mine and the doors were opened for me to inspect closely. I carefully examined every thing, touching the several parts with iny hand. There was no opening or hole on this side of the cupboard (shrine). I was then led into the adjoining room to see the other side of the wall to which the shrine is attached. There was a large almirah standing against this wall, but it was removed at my request that I might see the wall from that side. I tapped it and otherwise examined it to see if there was no deception, but I was thoroughly satisfied that no deception was possible.
On 14th September, 1884, after reading the missionary article, I again went to see the room at 8 a.m. and was met by Mr. Judge, Dr. Hartmann, and Mr. Damodar, who took me upstairs. On the other side of the wall at the back of the shrine, I saw close to the wall an ingenious, furniture-like apparatus, to which was fastened a sliding door, which, when opened, showed a small aperture in the wall. Iuside of this there was hollow space large enough for a lean lad to stand in if he could but creep into it through the aperture and hold his breath for a few seconds. I attempted in vain to creep in through the opening, and afterwards stretched out my hand with difficulty into the small hollow to see the internal structure. There was no communication with the lack board of the shrine. I could see that the machinery had not been finished, and the sliding panels, etc., all bore the stamp of the freshness of unfinished work.”
3. H. P. Morgax
Major-General (Madras Army), retired.
19th August, 1884.
“I first saw the Occult room in August, 1883. Since then I have frequently examined the shrine and the wall at the back of the shrine up to January, 1884, when I left the Head-quarters, and I can safely affirm that any trickery was impossible. Mrs. Morgan was engaged in new papering the back wall of the shrine, and I frequently saw the work in progress in December last, so that any tampering with the back of the shrine would have been discovered then if anything of the kind had occurred.”
4. J. N. Unwalla (M.A.)
Hd. Master, Bhavnagar, High School.
3rd August, 1884.
“I had a scientific education in my younger days, and for the last 12 years or more I have been a teacher inter alia of Natural science. When I was in England in 1870, one of my favourite places of resort was the Polytechnic Institution where scientific lectures are delivered. One of these lectures was —I may mention— the raising of ghosts by Professor Pepper, and I am fully conversant with the appliances and apparatus he used to illustrate his lectures with. I have had considerable experience in Parlour Magic, Prestidigitation, etc.
In May, 1883, when I was a guest at the Head-quarters, I had many opportunities of being in the Occult room, and of examining it and the shrine, and once I very carefully examined the shrine at the desire of Madame Blavatsky before and after the occurrence of a phenomenon that I saw. I can safely say, without any equivocation or reservation, that in the Occult room, or anywhere within the precincts of the Head-quarters, I never could find any apparatus or appliances of any kind suggestive of fraud or tricks.”
5. C. Sambiah Chetty
Local Fund Engr., Guntoor.
I7th September, 1884.
“I went to the Head-quarters of the Theosophical Society, at Adyar, on 5th July, 1883. I examined the rear, top, bottom, and side planking of the shrine, as also the walls in its vicinity, most carefully and minutely, and found no cause to suspect fraud.”
6. Mrs. Morgan
"I can state for a fact, that during my stay at Adyar during December, 1883, Madame Blavatsky took Mr. C. and myself and showed us the back of the shrine and the wall she had built behind it, where there had been a door, and the people were welcome to inspect this and see it was barred and bolted, yet she thought it would remove the least occasion for suspicion, were it bricked up, and so had it done. The wall then presented a fine, highly polished white surface. This wall I shortly after saw papered, as I superintended the hanging of the paper.”
7. Harisingjee Roopsingjee
1st September, 1884.
“I have very often been at the Head-quarters at Adyar before 18th May, 1884, and have been in the Occult room and seen the shrine many a time. I have carefully examined the walls and floor of the room, but have never found any secret door, window or trap of any kind.”
8. A. Gr. Balkrishna Iyer
14th September, 1884.
“Examined the trap doors, which very clearly appear to have been newly made, and in such a clumsy manner that they could not be used at all.”
9. W. Batchelor
2nd October, 1884.
“I have now seen two of the so-called sliding panels, evidently manufactured not with the purpose to assist phenomena, but with the object of bringing discredit on them.”
10. Babaji Dharbagiri Nath
30th August, 1884.
“Previous to 18th May, 1884, I had examined the Occult room several times along with the shrine and its surroundings. I had an interest in so examining, as I wanted to be able to give my unqualified testimony conscientiously to a prominent sceptical gentleman at Madras who knew me well, and who urged me to state all my experiences about phenomena. Madame Blavatsky herself asked me on several occasions to examine. I knew more of the phenomena of Madame Blavatsky than any outsider. Madame Coulomb was herself treating me as a real friend, and telling me things which she would not tell to others. I have no hesitation in stating it for a fact that any contrivances like trap-doors, etc., had nothing at all to do with Madame Blavatsky, who had not the remotest idea of them. The Coulombs are the sole authors of the plot.
I have witnessed the phenomena of the Mahatmas at different times and places where there was not the least possibility of having trap-doors or practising any trickery. I have seen and known the exalted sages who are the authors of these phenomena, and I could therefore confidently assert that the phenomena that used to take place at Adyar were all genuine.”
11. Damodar K. Mavalankar
19th August, 1884.
“I was present on several occasions when witnesses to Occult phenomena examined the shrine. There was a wardrobe on the other side of the wall behind the shrine, and this was removed on two occasions in my presence that some Theosophists, who wanted to satisfy themselves, might examine the wall. In July, 1883, Madame Blavatsky went to Ootacamund. During her absence, every week without fail, I used to take out all the things from the shrine and clean it myself from the inside with a towel. I cleaned it several times in the presence of Madame Coulomb, and on other occasions in the presence of others. I used to rub hard the frame with a towel, and had there been any workable panel at the time, it would not but have moved under the pressure. It was during that time that General Morgan saw the phenomenon of the broken saucer, and it was also during that period that Mr. Shrinivas Bow put in his letter in the shrine and received an instantaneous reply. In December, 1883, owing to the observation made by a visitor, Madame Blavatsky asked me to examine the shrine, and I and Mr. Subba Bow very carefully examined it as well as the wall behind; and we were both thoroughly satisfied that there was no ground for trickery.”
12. Dr. Franz Hartmann
Dr. Hartmann on the very day of his arrival (4th December, 1883), expressed a desire to see the shrine and was taken there. He states:
“The so-called shrine was a simple cupboard hung loosely to a wall in Madame Blavatsky’s room. I examined it on this occasion, and more carefully afterwards, and found it like any other cupboard, provided with shelves and a solid unmovable back, hung upon an apparently solid and plastered wall.”
13. Colonel Henry Olcott
Apart from the numerous instances on which. Col. Olcott had occasion to see the shrine, he states he had twice the opportunity of distinctly seeing the surface of that part of the wall where the cabinet (shrine) was hung up. About the 15th of December, 1883, he returned from his northern tour, and two days after his arrival, feeling much indisposed, he slept in the Occult room upstairs. He had been told to try a certain experiment by making some marks “on the spots of the wall corresponding to the centre and four corners of the cupboard.”
This he did by having the cupboard moved by the assistance of servants. After the anniversary was over he went to Ceylon, whence he came back to Adyar on the 13th of February, 1884, and was there up to the 15th. At this time he again had the shrine moved to examine the marks.
Col. Olcott, therefore, could distinctly state that from the 17th of December, 1883, up to the 15th February, 1884, there was no hole or opening of any kind in the surface of the wall which touched the back board of the “shrine.”
14. Mr. Gribble
Mr. Gribble, the gentleman employed by the missionaries as an expert, states as follows:
“I was also shown two of the sliding doors and panels said to have been made by M. Coulomb after Madame Blavatsky’s departure. One of these is on the outside of the so-called Occult room upstairs. Both of these have been made without the slightest attempt at concealment. The former is at the top of a back staircase, and consists of two doors, which open into a kind of bookshelf. This gives the idea of having been constructed so as to place food on the shelves inside without opening the door. The other contrivance is a sliding panel which lifts up, and opens and shuts with some difficulty. It is evidently of recent construction. Certainly, in its present state, it would be difficult to carry out any phenomena by its means. Neither of these two appliances communicate with the shrine, which is situated on the cross wall dividing the Occult room from an adjoining bedroom.”
(This is the Appendix of Alfred Sinnett's book "The Ocult World Phenomena and the Society for Psychical Resarch", p.55-60)
No comments:
Post a Comment