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Voice of the Silence by H.P. Blavatsky
Excerpts of inspirational passages from disciples seriously on the path in the East.
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Blavatsky Net - Theosophy
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This
site focuses on Madame Blavatsky and her teaching -
Theosophy. It features an introduction to Theosophy,
study aids, research tools, original text,
supporting evidence, membership, and visitor interaction.
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Rebuttal to Hodgson Report - Conclusion
published in Journal of the Society for Psychical Research, April
1986:
CONCLUSION
I have
concentrated on the handwriting aspect of the Hodgson Report, partly
because it forms a major part of his thesis and I am here playing on
my home ground, but more importantly because every thing I have stated
can be checked independently. We do not have to rely on the testimony
of long-dead witnesses. The witness here - and an eloquent one - is
the Hodgson Report itself.
As
detailed examination of this Report proceeds, one becomes more and
more aware that, whereas Hodgson was prepared to use any evidence,
however trivial or questionable, to implicate HPB, he ignored all
evidence that could be used in her favour. His report is riddled with
slanted statements, conjecture advanced as fact or probable fact,
uncorroborated testimony of unnamed witnesses, selection of evidence
and downright falsity.
As an investigator, Hodgson is weighed in the balances and found wanting.
His case against Madame H. P. Blavatsky is not proven.
I cannot exonerate
the SPR committee from blame for publishing this thoroughly bad report.
They seem to have done little more than rubber-stamp Hodgson's opinions;
and no serious attempt was made to check his findings or even to read
his report critically. If they had done so, its errors of procedure,
its inconsistencies, its faulty reasoning and bias, its hostility
towards the subject and its contempt for the 'native' and other witnesses,
would have become apparent; and the case would have been referred
back for further study. Madame H. P. Blavatsky was the most important
occultist ever to appear before the SPR for investigation; and never
was opportunity so wasted. Nor
can I exonerate the quondam Council of the Theosophical Society for
their failure to allow their founder fair defence. They seemed concerned
only with saving their own reputations. Whether she was impostor or
not, HPB was entitled to a fair hearing. She never had it.
Had she been allowed the legal and
expert help she begged for, both Hodgson and the Society for Psychical
Research would have been in dire trouble. It
is a thing most wonderful that Hodgson was able so completely to bamboozle,
not only Netherelift and Mr. Sims of the British Museum, but also
men and women of the calibre of Myers, Gurney and Mrs. Sidgwick-not
to mention several generations of psychical researchers since the
1885 Report was published.
On l4 January 1886, Madame Blavatsky wrote:
'That
Mr. Hodgson's elaborate but misdirected inquiries, his affected precision,
which spends infinite patience over trifles and is blind to facts
of importance, his contradictory reasoning and his manifold incapacity
to deal with such problems as those he endeavoured to solve, will
be exposed by other writers in due course - I make no doubt.'
I
apologize to her that it has taken us one hundred years to demonstrate
that she wrote truly.
"No Religion Higher Than Truth"
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