THE ENCOUNTERS THAT COLONEL OLCOTT HAD WITH HILARION

 

IN 1876 IN NEW YORK

Colonel Olcott recounted an encounter he had with two adepts (and it is most likely that one of them was Hilarion):

« I was reading in my room yesterday (Sunday) when there came a tap at the door. I said “come in” and then entered the Brother [probably Hilarion] with another dark skinned gentleman of about fifty with a bushy gray beard and eye brows. We took cigars and chatted for a while.

. . .

He said he would show me the production of flowers as the adepts do it.  At the same time pointing to the air, fancy – the shadowy outlines of flower after flower and leaf after leaf grew out of nothing.

The room was perfectly light; in fact the sun was shining in. The flowers grew solid. A beautiful perfume saturated the air. They were suspended as the down of a thistle in the air; each separate from the other.

Then they formed themselves into bouquets and a splendid large one of roses, lilies of the valley, camelias, jessamine and carnations floated down and placed itself in my hand. Then the others separated again and fell in a shower to the floor. I was stupefied with the manifestation.

Then as he spoke again, rain drops began pattering around us in the room and positively a drenching shower was falling about us. The carpet was soaked and so were my clothes, the books on the table, and the bronzes, and clock, and photos on the mantel piece.

But neither of the Brothers received a drop. They sat there and quietly smoked their cigars, while mine became too wet to burn. I just sat and looked at them in a sort of stupid daze.

They seemed to enjoy my surprise but smoked on and said nothing. Finally the younger of the two (who gave me his name as Ooton Liatto) said I need not worry. Nothing would be damaged.

. . .

The elder Brother asked me to present their compliments to Madam [Blavatsky] and say that with her permission they would call upon her.

I ran down stairs, rushed into Madam’s parlour and there sat these two identical men smoking with her and chatting as quietly as if they had been old friends.

Madam motioned to me as if I had better not come in, as if they had private business to talk over. I stood transfixed looking from one to another in dumb amazement.

I glanced at the ceiling (my rooms are over Madame B’s) but they had not tumbled through.

Madam said, “What the Devil are you staring at Olcott? What’s the matter? You must be crazy.”

I said nothing but rushed up stairs again, tore open my door and the men were not there. I ran down again; they had disappeared. I heard the front door close, looked out of the window and saw them just turning the corner.

Madam said they had been with her for more than an hour. And that is all she would tell me about them. When I showed her my wet clothes and the bouquet of flowers that remained in evidence that I had not been hallucinated, she only said, “That’s nothing remarkable. Ask me no questions for I shall tell you nothing.” »

(https://blavatskytheosophy.com/is-smoking-a-sin-in-occultism/)

Colonel Olcott says that his apartment was above the apartment where Blavatsky lived, so that meeting must have happened in the building located at 433 West 34th Street, where Blavatsky lived on the first floor and Olcott on the second floor.

Blavatsky and Olcott moved into this building in early 1876, and in June 1876 they left it to go and live at the Lamasery.

And from what Colonel Olcott recounted, it seems that those two adepts were physically conversing with Blavatsky, but at the same time they projected their doubles to also visit and converse with Olcott.

IN 1881 IN BOMBAY

Colonel Olcott, in his personal diary, in the entry for February 19, 1881, wrote:

« Hilarion is here on his way to Tibet and has been analyzing the situation. He considers Bombay to be morally horrific.

His views on India, Bombay, the Theosophical Society in Bombay, Ceylon, England and Europe, Christianity, and other subjects are extremely interesting. »

Hilarion was on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus and in February 1881 he traveled to India, disembarking at the port of Bombay.

There he went to the headquarters of the Theosophical Society, which was then located in Bombay, to greet Colonel Olcott, and from there he continued his journey to Tibet to meet with the masters who were in this region.

And this testimony from Olcott is supported by a letter that Master Kuthumi wrote to Mr. Alfred Sinnett in February 1881, in which, among other things, he revealed that:

« Missus B. [Blavatsky]'s trouble is (apart from physical ailment) that she sometimes listens to two or more of our voices at once; e.g., this morning while the "Disinherited," [Djwal Khul]  whom I have accommodated with space for a footnote — was talking with her on an important matter, she lent an ear to one of ours, who is passing through Bombay from Cyprus, on his way to Thibet — and so got both in an inextricable confusion. »

(ML 8, p.36)