THEOSOPHICAL TRICKERY.

NZ Truth, Issue 198, 3 April 1909, Page 7

THEOSOPHICAL TRICKERY.

THE JUGGLING OF JUDGE. Old Olcott Outrageously " Outed." WILLIAM Q. JUDGE ON THE THIRTY-THREE MAHATMAS. Annie Besant on the Mystery of "Precipitation." : ■ y No. iy/ '■-.-■:/.■ .

In our last issue we dealt with career of Annie besant prior to the death, of Madame Blavatsky. We have stated that, m our opinion, she finding that the life of a married woman living unsupported hy her husband was not "all cakes and ale," shuddered at the thought of having to go hack to the drudgery of the days apart from .her husband before shp met Atheist lecturer Bradlaugh, and ' experienced what she called his "generous love."/ Her actions make it sufficiently clear that she was no woman to adhere to a losing cause, that she had ' "a. keen eye to the 1 main chance" and an overbearing desire— jr>f almost feline intensity — to bask m the sunshine of prosperity. She does her best to convey a different impression ; but the facts that we have stated show, clearly, that, m leaving "" the Atheist Bradlaughites to take up with the Thebsophists, she simply deserted a sinking, or leaky, ship. We shall now have A LOOK AT ANNIE'S CARJJ^R qf_ 'charlatanry as a theosophist. Writing ill .Ma.dftnie:.BlavAtsky's "Lucifer^ ;pn ' December 15, i8»0j Mrs Besaht said, ■■•-'lt. there are no 'Mah'atraas, the Theosophical Society -is an absurdity. " It will; therefore, be we'll to consider the question of who aro the Mahatmas and where they "hang out.' Helena Petrovna Blavatsky alleged that the Mahatmas were holy men who lived '■ m that portion of the Himalayan Mountains that lies m Thibet. She said that they were adepts m "occult"' (hidden)' arts,; fesnefc that 'they bad commissioned her to reveal to people of . more accessible ; parts of the world some* of the hidden wisdom and i'secret doctrine" of these Mahatmas. The chief Mahatma was, -according to Helena Petrovna' Blavatsky, named Morya, and next to him was Koot Hoomi Lai Sing. There were other Mahatmas, and some of these were Thibetan Buddhist, priests. .It was alleged by Blavatsky that the Mahatmas could send their "astral bodies*^ to any" part of the world, while-their - ORDINARY FLESHY BOpIES remained m Thibet. She also alleged that the Mahatmas wrote ' letters and '^precipitated" them into the rooms of herself and her favorite disciples, or m front of . any person whom it was thought desirable by the . Mahatmas to impress. Practically, these Mahatmas, who were .sometimes called the Masters, and sometimes called the Adepts, were similar to the "White" Magicians m whom , the , necromancers and wizards of the Middle Ages professed to"^ believe. Indeed, Madame Btavatsky sometimes referred to them (inferentially) ~as White Magicians (the term has nothing to do with their skin-color), while .she alleged tha' Mere .also existed Mack 1 Magicians (with somewhat similar powers to those of the Mahatmas) who were inimical to her and to- the Adepts. Morya and Koot Hoomi Lai Sing, she called them both "the Masters." The Mahatmas were, spoken of as wearers of turbans (which arc not. worn m Thibet) and were.; apparently, colored men. ' -, „ .- Amohg the Thebsophists ' whom ;Madi ame Blavatsky left behind her In New Yo»'v wKn she went to reside m India during the winter, and m London during t' p summer (fortunate charlatan!) was William Q. Judge. This fellow Xt- ins to have been as , IMPUDENT. AN IMPOSTQT? ...... : , :•. as Blavatsky herself, but with B©ss than her brain-power— she was emphatically no fool m spite of occasional errors of Judgment. Judge was appointed the Vice-President of the Theosopbical Society ; and was the head of the Ameriii.ii T'-eosophists m America. He Was a great believer m. Mahatmas, was Judge, and he even knew their, exact number, which was 33. ' This is a little item of knowledge that he alone among Thc.-«bphists appeared to. posstess. >Mprtc-r «. ( r is alleged that the Mahatmas' communicated directly with him, and that, indeed, they had, quite often, ma:'i'.aUy, inserted messages m letters written by him to various Theosbpbists. Now, when Madame Blavatsky died, which was on May 8, 1891, Judge deter ni *d to take a hand. He had not been precisely pleased with the fact that Blavatsky and Olcott had le'lt for India, and could, when they chose, put m their time m. London, while he was' -left to carry on the "work of the Mahatmas.'-'. m New York. , He now thought that he saw a chance of seizing supreme power m the Theosophical Society ; and he ti make the attempt. The obstacle was Olcott, but he believed that ho knew how to shoulder Olcott out of the way. There was Mrs Besant also to be considered, but her he believed, he could conciliate. His means of warfare Were to be alleged messages from The Masters (the Mahatmas). His messages from "The .faster" (Morya) ••weres'Vtp be authenticated by the seal of THa Master. There was a seal alleged to he from The Master, upon which the ; sftleged signature of Morya' had been engraved, and this seal had been m the possession ' of Helena z'etrovna Blavatsky, from whom tt t>:vl mysteriously passed Into Judge's possession; WHETHER HE STOLE 1% or it had been given to him is not known, but probably it was given to him by Blavatsky m order that he might with it fake messages to American Theosop'hists "from the Master." In 1888, Jud<*e was staying m London, m Lands-downe-road, when he observed, the seal. '•The Madame" when questioned about it said m her characteristic BlavatBkyah way, "It's only a flapdoodle of Olcott's." In that same year, Judge wrote a letter from Landsdowne-road, and, upon this letter, was an a'lllegßd message from The Master, authenticated with his signature ("M.") When Judge went back to New York this seal signature often appeared on alleged messages from The Master to American Theosophists. - M ■„ >. Very well. On May the 23rd— Madame Blavatsky died on the Bth— Judge rushed avet to London, beaWng Colonel Olcott, who was hurrying from India, but of course, could not reach Londbn as soon as Judge. The Theosophists were m some difficulty as to what they were to do. now that the cunning old charlatan who had pulled the wires of the organization was dead. A fortnight had passed and no light had been thrown unon the subject by The Masters. ; Mrs Besant it was understood, was to succeed the dead woman as head of the Esoteric Section (Inner Circle) ; but tms did nbt seem to satisfy the faithful ; they wanted direct instructions FROM THE MASTERS. Judge came to the rescue ;. afld Mrs iJcsatJt was quite «haf tried with his proposal Ho said that Madame Blavatsky had often, when m doubt, put a question i« an envelope and invited the Adepts', or Misters, to answer the question He suggested therefore, that he should write a question, put m m ah envelope, and shut it m a cabinet inviting The Masters to "precipitate" replies He did so; and Mrs Besant then Wctt out Of the room. Upon her return the anvelope wa« opened, and there.,

GE.

written upon the letter ,"in v the wellknown script of The Master" (said Mrs. Besant), was the Word "Yes;" and, appended' to this was a seal impression of The Master's 'signature. All the Theosphists, including Mrs Besant, professed to believe, at once, that this word "Yes" and the signature had come from an Adept named Morya, whose b#dy was then either m the Himalayan Mountains m Thibet, or m an oasis m the Desert of G-obi. So much for May the 23rd. Judge at onoe was . admitted to , the Esoteric Section (although he had not taken the oath required from members of that section) and he proposed that Olcott shoudd be deposed from the presidency, and that he (Judge) and Mrs Besant should be made Joint Outer Heads pf 1 the Society. Mrs Besant was the occupant of the chair at. the meeting of the section, and on turning over j her papers, a little piece of .paper fluttered out, from, among the others, upon which . there were, m red chalk, the \ words, , , ♦. ; — "JUDGE'S PLAN IS RIGHT." with- the signature ol the Mahatriia Morya. This settled it. and Judge took his seat by Mrs Besant's side. " Mrs ' Besant had been mafoe the owner of the Theosophical. periodical "Lucifer" upon the death , of Blavatsky, and she had become the Teacher and Expounder and head of . the Esoteric Section ; she was now to be made Joint-President with Judge. She was quite agreeable ; and was, so she alleged, completely convinced that the messages had come 'from The Master. Upon this childish evidence the woman— an experienced and logical debater, let it be remembered, who had often defeated m public : argument men of great natural acuteness— declared that the Mahatmas were .again communicating with the "elite" of Theosophy. We shall see how far she ■- went with this declaration presently. The messages were received m May ; by August, she had had plenty of time to? think them over as the trumpery, pieces of clumsy deceit that they really ', were ; yet this keen woman actually '.spoke as. follows at the Hall of Science on August the 30th:— •-I tell you'; that ' since" Madame Bla* vatsky left, I have had letters m the ■ same handwriting as the letters which • she received. (Sensa-tion),. Unless you think dead persons can,, write, - surely that is a, remarkable .-fact,. You are . surprised ; 'I "do. not ask you to believe me; but I tell you' it is so. AH the . evidence; I had of the , existence of Madame Blavatsky's teachers pf the so-called i abnormal power?/ came through her. It is hot so' now. Unless . a" person can at the same time be sane and insane, I have exactly the same certainty for the truth of the statements I have made as 1 know that you are here. '".It will ,be observed that, Mrs Besant said that the letters were m • ; THE SAME HANDWRITING as the letters . that Madame . Blavatsky received. But there, were alleged to be two handwritings, . that of Koot Hoomi, and that of Morya ; most ;of /"the letters were attributed 'to '" ' Koot Hoomi Lai Sing, and 7 ifi -is .. hot .believed, I. that Mrs Besant had. seen any of-the, few attributed to Morya. Yet she. spoke p| a letter allegedly from -Mofya befflg ""in" the same handwriting": as >the> letters which could only be tho^^atSibiitedVfd 'IC6bt Hoomi. -Her speech ; to' the Freethinkers as the Hall of Science -reads very .much like humbug; but what about, this, an interview with ', a •:'■■ v'PalL Mall Gazette" representative,r on September the 'lst : — Mrs Besant : ' The letters I receive ' from the Mahatmas' are "precipitated." ■: . _■■ ■; ■, .. ■.. : Reporter : How "precipitated" ? Mrs Besant : Well,, you. can hear voices by th» telephone, and * receive a telegram which is actually written by the' needle, not indicated by the ticks. The Mahatmas go a step further. W. ith 1? great knowledge of natural laws, they ate .able to communicate with us without using any apparatus at all. \ : : Reporter : Butt can^you jgive any de.tails' ol ; , the pfeteipitatibn? - ' Mrs Besant i 'No; the x Mahatmas t only communicate with people who will not unwisely divulge anything. You : can easily imagine the reason why this knowledge should, be kept so secret. Were it possessed by a criminal, . it might bey put ito/ 1 dreadful purposes. Now both the' messages ; about ■ which Mrs Besant. made such a fuss had been •written by ' Judge,: himself j as Mrs-- Besant afterwards declared. Yet she spoke' of them as coming by a mysterious process that she knew all about, but to divulge which would only encourage crime !.,, Possibly it would have encouraged crime-^the crimes of' fraud and" forgery as practised by Judge. Mrs Besant showed herself m her remarks to the. "Pall Mall Gazette" interviewer to be a thorough-paced humbug and hypocrite. She mouths much, m her autobiography, about her alleged hatred of hypocrisy and lying, yet we find her, . upon evidence that would not deceive an infant, let alone a woman of the KEEN AND TRAINED INTELLECT possessed by Mrs Besant, trying to •humbug the people of England into believingi that she' possessed the ■ proof of miracles having been performed by the alleged Mahatmas, beings whose actual existence has never been proved, and who, we have no hesitation m saying, do not exist. Mrs Besant backed up Judge as perfectly genuine, and supported him m his determination to seize the position held by Olcott. When it was proposed that Judge should be elected to the position merely for a term, she arose m her "eloquent" wrath, and metaphorically "wiped • the floor" 'With those- who had proposed that he should be elected for any short term ; he should be elected for life, she said; and Judge was then elected life . president. Suddenly, however, a change came over Mrs Besant •, and she denounced J udge as . having written the messages himself. - Why this sudden ' change ? Well, as we have said, every change of belief on the part of Mrs Besant has been under, the influence of some man or other. This time the man was A '.'CULLUD GEMMEN," an Allahabad Hindu named Chakravarti. The extent to which the influence of this man Hinduised her whom Indians call "Annabai" (Mrs Besant), and the discomfiture and downfall of Judge that followed, will be narrated m our next issue. . :.

The deadly reaction that .comes after a man has gone too far m love and wine, feels sb much like real repentance that be is almost inclined tb bfe conceited about It. • General Botha, Premier of the Transvaal. the idea pf a referendum oh the Federation scheme is too dangerous, yuite go. 'mere are St».l a fair quantity of Britishers m South Africa.