Theos-Talk Archives (March 2002 Message tt00432)

Who would be foolish enough to believe in "real
visitors" (real adepts)if the following incident
really happened?? This incident (if accepted as such)
shows that in New York Blavatsky was engaged in
STAGING at least one encounter involving "a special
messenger" from the Brotherhood of adepts. 

R. B. Westbrook wrote:

"About 10 o’clock the scene suddenly changed; the bell
of the outside door rang, as if its brazen cheeks
would crack. The door of our upper chamber opened, and
into our very midst appeared a being of strange form
and manners. It was evidently a woman’s figure, though
so concealed by head-gear and other drapery that Alger
compared he, she or it, to "the man with an iron
mask." Mrs. Westbrook thinking it might be a
washer-woman who had got into the wrong house,
undertook to take he, she or it, by the shoulder and
rid our select company of the mysterious intruder, but
failed. With tragic air and rapid motion it heartily
saluted the Madame, handed her a letter --- and as
suddenly left the room, rushed down stairs, slamming
the front door behind it."

"Olcott seemed white with astonishment and reverently
whispered, "an elementary" --- while the Madame
affected great indignation that the "Brothers" should
send a special messenger on such unimportant business
(she having hastily opened the letter), and as Olcott
approached with profound curiosity to know what it all
meant she relieved his suspense by informing him that
Dr. Pancoast had been refused admission to the Secret
Brotherhood in India. It should be known in passing
that the celebrated Philadelphia occultist denies that
he ever made application for admission. Dr. Alger
preserved his clerical dignity, but in leaving me at
the front door soon after, contemptuously whispered in
my ear, "a put up job"! The Madame grew more
indignant as she realized that Alger had failed to be
favorably impressed by the "elementary" visitor, and
she had failed to make converts."

"But how do I know that we had not been visited by an
extemporized "angel unawares?" The whole thing was
transparently a fraud and a clumsy trick. Of course
this strange visitor was talked about, and discussed
pro and con. But a few months later I met a prominent
New York Spiritualist, who informed me that he was in
possession of facts that satisfied him that the Madame
had attempted to deceive Mr. Alger, at our rooms, by
hiring an Irish servant girl (to whom he could send me
for verification) to personate the "elementary," and
had agreed to pay her five dollars for her services,
but failing to pay the money, the girl had "gone back"
on her and confessed her share in the attempted fraud.
I did not go to see the girl as I had suffered enough
from the abuse of our hospitality and from this
disgraceful attempt to impose upon the confidence of
my distinguished clerical friend, and I already knew
that a mean trick had been attempted and had failed."

Quoted from:
http://www.blavatskyarchives.com/westbrook.htm





=====
Daniel H. Caldwell
BLAVATSKY ARCHIVES
http://blavatskyarchives.com/introduction.htm
"...Contrast alone can enable us to appreciate things at
their right value; and unless a judge compares notes and
hears both sides he can hardly come to a correct decision."
H.P. Blavatsky. The Theosophist, July, 1881, p. 218.

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