Theos-Talk Archives (November 2002 Message tt00038)

Steve, 

You stated that:

"The Shannon letter and the Gebhard letter are good candidates for 
evidence that some letters were delivered by phenomenal means."

Yes I agree with your statement. Keep in mind also the following.

Below is an example of how Madame Blavatsky "created" 
or "precipitated" handwriting on a blank page. Notice that if we 
take the account at face value, she did NOT physically "write" the 
letter with pen or pencil in the conventional manner.

Daniel

----------------------------------------------------- 

Henry S. Olcott 
June 19, 1882 
Baroda, India

In June 1882, H.P.B. and I accepted an invitation to visit Baroda, 
the flourishing capital of H. H. the Gaikwar. Judge Gadgil and other 
high officials met us at the station, and took us to a bungalow 
adjoining the new and splendid palace. We had many visitors [and] our 
reception room was] crowded with inquirers day and evening.

I had been out to see the Gaikwar, and on my return found [Mr.] 
Kirtane and [Judge] Gadgil standing at the threshold of H.P.B.'s open 
door, while she was in the middle of the room with her back towards 
us. Our two friends told me not to step inside, as Madame B. was 
doing a phenomenon and had just turned them out on the verandah where 
I found them. The next minute she came towards us, and, taking a 
sheet of paper from the table, told the gentleman to mark it for 
identification. Receiving it back, she said: "Now turn me in the 
direction of his residence." They did so. She then laid the paper 
between her palms (held horizontally), remained quiet a moment, then 
held it towards us and went and sat down. Cries of amazement broke 
from the two on seeing on the just before clean sheet of paper, a 
letter addressed to me in the handwriting and bearing the signature 
of the then British Resident at that Court. It was a most peculiar, 
small calligraphy, and the signature more like a tiny tangle of twine 
than a man's name.

They then told me the story. It seems that they were asking H.P.B. to 
explain the scientific rationale of the process of precipitating upon 
paper, cloth, or any other surface, a picture or writing, then 
invisible to the onlooker, and without the help of ink, paints, 
pencils, or other mechanical agents. She told them that inasmuch as 
the images of all objects and incidents are stored in the Astral 
Light, it did not require that she should have seen the person or 
known the writing, the image of which she wished to precipitate; she 
had only to be put on the trace and could find and see them for 
herself and then objectivate them. They urgently begged her to do the 
thing for them. "Well, then," she finally said, "tell me the name of 
some man or woman most unfriendly to the Theosophical Society, one 
whom neither Olcott nor I could have ever known." At once, they 
mentioned Mr . . . . the British Resident, who held us and our 
Society in especial hatred, who never missed the chance of saying 
unkind things of us, and who had prevented the Gaikwar from inviting 
HPB and myself to his enthronement, as he had otherwise intended, on 
the suggestion of Judge Gadgil. They thought this a poser. That it 
was not, the sequel proved.

I thought they would explode with laughter when they read the 
contents of the note. It was addressed to "My dear Colonel Olcott," 
begged my pardon for the malicious things he had said against us and 
said he wished to become a member of the Theosophical Society; it was 
signed "Yours sincerely" and with his name. She had never seen a line 
of the gentleman's writing nor his signature, never met him in the 
flesh, and the note was precipitated on that sheet of paper, held 
between her hands, as she stood in the middle of the room, in broad 
daylight, with us three witnesses looking on.

[Source: Olcott, Henry. OLD DIARY LEAVES, Volume II, pp. 363–7.
 
The above extracts have been transcribed from the original source but 
some material has been silently deleted. Explanatory words added by 
the editor are enclosed within brackets.]