Theos-Talk Archives (February 2003 Message tt00023)

--- In theos-talk@yahoogroups.com, "Daniel H. Caldwell 
<inquire@b...>" <inquire@b...> wrote:
> Steve, can you summarize Hodgson's "half a dozen points" and 
briefly 
> show how these points are flawed?

We are talking about a book length Report here, so the request is not 
reasonable. Let me take just one as an example. He insisted Damodar 
was a confederate, charlatan, con artist, and so on. Yet Damodar 
made pilgrimage to Tibet in 1885 and died in the attempt, his frozen 
body being reecovered from the snow. Whatever he was and without 
deciding whether he was right or wrong, Damodar believed in the 
mahatmas and their Tibean stronghold. One of Hodgson's major 
premises is therefore mistaken and the conclusions which depend on it 
are missing a factual basis. In saying this I am not defending 
anyone or anything or getting hysterical but merely pointing out a 
serious problem with his hypothesis. There are similar problems with 
his theory about how objects were deposited in the shrine through a 
sliding door, whether Christofolo ever existed, and so on. There are 
also problems with the reasoning echibited by Theosophists.