Quest Magazine

Psychic Phenomena and the Early Theosophical Society

Printed in the Summer 2012 issue of Quest magazine. 
Citation: Sender, Pablo. "Psychic Phenomena and the Early Theosophical Society"Quest  100. 3 (Summer 2012): pg. 95-97.

by Pablo Sender 

Theosophical Society - Pablo Sender became a member of the Theosophical Society in his native Argentina and has presented Theosophical lectures, seminars, and classes around the world.In the early years of the Theosophical Society there was a strong proclivity towards psychic phenomena, a facet that was increasingly abandoned as the Society grew. Was this due to a change in the aims of the TS? Was this a response to the public reaction to such phenomena? Or was this just a natural result of the evolution of the Theosophical movement? Let us explore the formative years of the Society and see if we can throw some light on these complex questions.

H.P. Blavatsky was born with remarkable psychic abilities and a strong spiritual inclination. In 1849, when she was eighteen years old, she began to travel around the world in search of the ancient wisdom. About three years later she met Morya, an Indian initiate whom she had seen in visions during her childhood. He offered to take on Blavatsky as a disciple and train her in the occult sciences and the esoteric philosophy. This training would not be merely for the purpose of personal development, but to help in an attempt to promote a deeper spirituality in the world.[1]

At the end of the nineteenth century, Western civilization was being torn between the opposing influences of materialistic science and blind religious belief. Scientists claimed that, by the end of the century, they were going to be able to explain everything in terms of material reality, thus proving spirituality a fantasy. Religion, incapable of responding to the awakening intellectual interest of the masses, denounced scientific knowledge as evil and something to be rejected. An impassable chasm between science and religion had been created, and many (especially the educated class) were turning to atheism and materialism.

The Mahatmas were planning to spread the forgotten accumulated wisdom of the ages, which would offer humanity a much-needed synthesis between science and spirituality. It was for this task that they chose HPB as their agent.

After spending the next twenty years undergoing occult training, gaining knowledge, and traveling around the world, HPB was now ready to begin her mission. But where would she find ears willing to listen? Religious people were too dogmatic, and those attracted to science were too materialistic. One of the few options left was the spiritualist movement, which was quite popular at the time. Through the phenomena witnessed at sances, this group of people had become familiar with a reality that did not fit within the frame of conventional religion or science. Hence spiritualism seemed a logical place to start.

The problem was that although many of the spiritualistic phenomena were real, they were not what the mediums of the time believed them to be. HPB's first attempt was to explain the nature of phenomena from the deeper point of view of occult science. Thus, in 1871 in Cairo, Egypt, she formed the Socit Spirite ("Spiritist Society") for the investigation of the Spiritism of the French occultist Allan Kardec. Blavatsky's sister Vera de Zhelihovsky, who was in correspondence with her during these years, wrote that HPB chose to start in this way "since there was no other [philosophy available]; to give people a chance to see for themselves how mistaken they were. She would first give room to an already established and accepted teaching and then, when the public would see that nothing was coming out of it, she would then offer her own explanations"(Algeo, 21). However, the Socit Spirite did not succeed, as Blavatsky could not find honest and qualified mediums to do the kind of research she had envisioned.

In 1873 HPB received an order from her Indian teacher to go to the United States and to meet Henry Steel Olcott. He was quite a remarkable individual who had a notable career in agricultural science, served during the Civil War as a special commissioner investigating fraud and corruption, and became a successful lawyer. He was now about to become a journalist reporting on spiritualistic phenomena. It was in this capacity that, a year later, he met Blavatsky and they quickly became friends.

As Olcott began his instruction in the occult science and esoteric philosophy, he and Blavatsky started working together in connection with the spiritualist movement in the U.S., on similar lines to HPB's attempt in Egypt.

During this time, HPB performed many phenomena that were supposed to be possible only for disembodied spirits, and published articles in different spiritualistic journals explaining the origin and nature of these psychic incidents. Most spiritualists were not pleased with her attempt at reforming their theories, sometimes quite radically. Nevertheless, she gained the attention of the public and attracted people to her teachings and occult abilities.

Under orders of "T.B."(most likely Tuitit Bey, an adept belonging to the Egyptian section of the Brotherhood) Olcott and HPB formed an organization of their own.[2] The beginning of 1875 saw the formation of the "Miracle Club," where the phenomena of spiritualism would be studied, tested, and demonstrated. This attempt also failed, because the medium that was to be involved wanted to earn money from this endeavor, something HPB always opposed. (Olcott, Old Diary Leaves, 1:25-26)

After the failure of the Miracle Club, the Tibetan section of the Brotherhood came on stage. In July 1875, HPB wrote in her scrapbook: "Orders received from India direct to establish a philosophico-religious society and choose a name for it—also to choose Olcott"(Caldwell, 73). As we can see, the Mahatmas wanted the new society to be based not upon occult phenomena but upon spirituality and the esoteric philosophy. However, phenomena would still be prominent for about the next seven years.

In September 1875 Olcott and HPB organized a lecture by G.H. Felt entitled "The Lost Canon of Proportion of the Egyptians,"in which Felt claimed to be able to make elemental spirits visible "by simple chemical appliances."Because of the interest raised by the lecture, Olcott proposed "to form a society to pursue and promote such occult research."This was the beginning of the Theosophical Society.

While the first years of the TS continued to show a marked interest in occult phenomena, there was also emphasis on the study of different philosophies, especially (though not exclusively) those of the East. In her first book, Isis Unveiled, published in New York in 1877, HPB wrote: "The object of its founders was to experiment practically in the occult powers of Nature, and to collect and disseminate among Christians information about the Oriental religious philosophies"(Blavatsky, Isis Unveiled, 1:xli).

In a circular entitled The Theosophical Society: Its Origin, Plan, and Aims, distributed on May 3, 1878, the idea of universal brotherhood was already described as central for the TS. The circular states, "The objects of the Society are various"and after a lengthy description of a variety of related aims, it closes with the following objective: "Finally and chiefly, to aid in the institution of a Brotherhood of Humanity, where in all good and pure men, of every race shall recognize each other as the equal effects (upon this planet) of one Uncreate, Universal, Infinite, and Everlasting Cause"(Blavatsky, Collected Writings, 1:376—77).

In December 1878, Olcott and Blavatsky departed for India, where they established the international headquarters of the TS. Soon after their arrival in Bombay they made the acquaintance of A.P. Sinnett, the editor of The Pioneer, the leading English daily of India. Sinnett was interested in spiritualism and psychic phenomena. Thinking that HPB and Olcott were spiritualists, he invited them to come visit him and his wife in Simla. During their second visit to the Sinnetts', in September 1880, Blavatsky produced some wonderful phenomena with the aid of the Mahatmas from the Tibetan section of the Brotherhood. (For a full account of these see Sinnett's book The Occult World.) It was at this time that Sinnett and A.O. Hume began their famous correspondence with two of the adepts—Koot Hoomi (K.H.) and Blavatsky's teacher, Morya (M.). Sinnett addresses his first letter "To the Unknown Brother"and suggests that the Brother produce an occult phenomenon that the world would be unable to deny or explain away. In reply, K.H. flatly refused to do any such thing. In his following letter Sinnett suggested a reorganization of the TS. He wanted to move away from the idea of universal brotherhood (which HPB and Olcott had evidently discussed with him) to focus on the occult. In October 1880 he received a second letter from K.H. saying: 

You have ever discussed but to put down the idea of a universal Brotherhood, questioned its usefulness, and advised to remodel the T.S. on the principle of a college for the special study of occultism. This, my respected and esteemed friend and Brother—will never do! (Chin, 8) 

This refusal must have sounded strange, since HPB had already produced many phenomena with the aid of these Mahatmas. Thus Hume wrote to K.H. saying that it was "the Brothers"who had set the stage for the phenomena that took place in Simla. In December 1880 K.H. answered: 

If it has been constantly our wish to spread on the Western Continent among the foremost educated classes "Branches"of the T.S. as the harbingers of a Universal Brotherhood it was not so in your case...The aspiration for brotherhood between our races met no response—nay, it was pooh-poohed from the first—and so, was abandoned even before I had received Mr. Sinnett's first letter. On his part and from the start, the idea was solely to promote the formation of a kind of club or "school of magic."It was then no "proposal"of ours, nor were we the "designers of the scheme."Why then such efforts to show us in the wrong? It was Mad[ame] B[lavatsky]—not we, who originated the idea; and it was Mr. Sinnett who took it up. (Chin, 30; emphasis here and in other quotations is in the original) 

The Mahatma then says that, in view of HPB's insistence, he had reluctantly given her his consent to try this approach: 

But, this consent, you will please bear in mind, was obtained solely under the express and unalterable condition that the new Society should be founded as a Branch of the Universal Brotherhood, and among its members, a few elect men would—if they chose to submit to our conditions, instead of dictating theirs—be allowed to begin the study of the occult sciences under the written directions of a "Brother."But a "hot-bed of magick"we never dreamt of. 

It is understandable that Sinnett and Hume thought the TS was meant to be a "school of magic", since HPB had placed so much emphasis on phenomena. But why did she do this? And why did the Mahatmas agree to it? When asked about the purpose of occult phenomena some years later, HPB explained: 

They failed to produce the desired effect...It was supposed that intelligent people, especially men of science, would, at least, have recognized the existence of a new and deeply interesting field of enquiry and research when they witnessed physical effects produced at will, for which they were not able to account. It was supposed that theologians would have welcomed the proof of which they stand so sadly in need in these agnostic days, that the soul and the spirit are not mere creations of their fancy, due to ignorance of the physical constitution of man, but entities quite as real as the body, and much more important. These expectations were not realized. The phenomena were misunderstood and misrepresented, both as regards their nature and their purpose...An occultist can produce phenomena, but he cannot supply the world with brains, nor with the intelligence and good faith necessary to understand and appreciate them. Therefore, it is hardly to be wondered at, that [a] word came to abandon phenomena and let the ideas of Theosophy stand on their own intrinsic merits. (Blavatsky, Collected Writings, 9:47-50) 

The "word"could be a reference to a conversation one of the Mahatmas had with Blavatsky in February 1881. This visit took place a couple of months after the above mentioned letter to Hume. Olcott recorded in his diary: 

A Master visited her on the 19th...One result of this visit was that, on the 25th of the month, she and I had a long and serious discussion about the state of affairs, resulting—as my Diary says—"in an agreement between us to re-construct the T.S. on a different basis, putting the Brotherhood idea forward more prominently, and keeping the occultism more in the background."(Olcott, Old Diary Leaves, 2:294-95) 

Sinnett travelled to England and published his book The Occult World. Upon his return in July 1881, K.H. began to instruct him in the esoteric philosophy, and the TS shifted towards metaphysics and spirituality.

According to M., the TS was founded as an "experiment"to see how the world would receive the esoteric philosophy. But to be successful, this kind of attempt cannot be imposed or forced by "external agencies."This is why the Mahatma wrote to Sinnett: "It was stipulated, however, that the experiment should be made independently of our personal management; that there should be no abnormal interference by ourselves"(Chin, 125).

Thus the Mahatmas gave Blavatsky and Olcott general directions about what they wished, intervening only on relatively few and important occasions. In HPB's words:

The two chief Founders were not told what they had to do, how they had to bring about and quicken the growth of the Society and results desired; nor had they any definite ideas given them concerning its outward organization all this being left entirely with themselves...But if the two Founders were not told what they had to do, they were distinctly instructed about what they should never do, what they had to avoid, and what the Society should never become. (Blavatsky, Original Programme, 2—3)

The formative years of the Theosophical Society provide a wonderful story of trials and errors, failures and successes, of learning and rectifying. But they are ultimately a tale of philanthropy and selflessness, of a group of people who did not spend their energies, time, and skills to gain position, accumulate money, or work for self-gratification, but devoted themselves to foster the spiritual evolution of humanity.

References

 

Algeo, John, ed. The Letters of H. P. Blavatsky, vol. 1: 1861-79. Wheaton: Theosophical Publishing House, 2003.

Blavatsky, H.P. Collected Writings. Edited by Boris de Zirkoff. 15 vols. Wheaton: Theosophical Publishing House, 1977-91.

———. Isis Unveiled. 2 vols. Wheaton: Theosophical Publishing House, 1972.

———. The Original Programme of the Theosophical Society and Preliminary Memorandum of the Esoteric Section. Adyar, India: Theosophical Publishing House, 2002.

Caldwell, Daniel H. The Esoteric World of Madame Blavatsky. Wheaton: Theosophical Publishing House, 2000.

Chin, Vicente Hao, Jr., ed. The Mahatma Letters to A.P. Sinnett in Chronological Sequence. Manila: Theosophical Publishing House, 1998.

Olcott, Henry Steel. Old Diary Leaves. 6 vols. Adyar, India: Theosophical Publishing House, 1974-1975. 

 

[1] According to Theosophical teachings there is a Brotherhood of Mahatmas (also called Brothers, adepts, or Masters) established in different parts of the world, who work to help the spiritual evolution of humanity. For more information on this subject see Quest, Summer 2011.

[2] It is interesting to note that this work with the spiritualists was not so much under the guidance of the Tibetan Brotherhood (to which HPB's teacher belonged, and which would be involved in the future TS), but under the Egyptian "Brotherhood of Luxor."Some Theosophical authors suggest that this Brotherhood is connected with the fourth Root Race and its methods, which were principally psychic and theurgic. (Theurgy is a higher kind of spiritualism whereby the practitioner gets in touch with higher beings, especially with the aim of uniting with the divine.) These adepts are also said to have been behind the revival of spiritualism in the middle of the nineteenth century.

Pablo Sender has given Theosophical lectures, seminars, and classes in India, Europe, and several countries in the three Americas. He has published two books in Spanish and a number of articles in English and Spanish in several Theosophical journals. They can be found on his Web site, www.pablosender.com.

A Blavatsky Revival: An Interview with Michael Gomes

Printed in the Summer 2012 issue of Quest magazine. 
Citation: Smoley, Richard. "A Blavatsky Revival: An Interview with Michael Gomes" Quest  100. 3 (Summer 2012): pg. 90-94.

by Richard Smoley 

Michael Gomes is one of the world's most distinguished scholars of Theosophy. A historian and author, he is also director of the Emily Sellon Memorial Library in New York. He is also one of today's most respected writers on esoteric movements, well known to both students of esoteric literature and to scholars of religion. His works include an abridged and annotated version of H.P. Blavatsky's Secret Doctrine (reviewed in Quest, Summer 2010) and an edition of The Secret Doctrine Commentaries: The Unpublished 1889 Instructions (reviewed in Quest, Spring 2011). After the publication of his book The Dawning of the Theosophical Movement he was awarded the Herman Ausubel Prize for historical achievement by Columbia University in 1989. He will be appearing at this summer's annual convention of the Theosophical Society (see ad on page TK) to conduct a workshop on writing your own lodge history. The following interview was conducted by phone and e-mail in February-March 2012.

—Richard Smoley

 

Theosophical Society - Michael Gomes is one of the world's most distinguished scholars of Theosophy. A historian and author, he is also director of the Emily Sellon Memorial Library in New York. He is also one of today's most respected writers on esoteric movements, well known to both students of esoteric literature and to scholars of religion. His works include an abridged and annotated version of H.P. Blavatsky's Secret Doctrine Richard Smoley: Could you say a little bit about how you came to Theosophy?

Michael Gomes: I was introduced to H.P. Blavatsky through a photograph. It was the well-known one of her and Colonel Olcott in London, in 1888/89: he with his long gray beard, and she with her tobacco basket before her. There was something that seemed to call to me, like a voice from the past. I was about fourteen or fifteen at the time, and everything that could be located in encyclopedias described Mme. Blavatsky as a discredited medium. When I was sixteen, I got my parents to give me a copy of Isis Unveiled for Christmas. I read through it voraciously, and a year later, in 1968, when I was seventeen, I joined the Toronto Theosophical Society. This lodge had a long and distinguished history, so many of its members being contributors to the arts and literature of Canada. Its charter was one of the last issued bearing HPB's signature.

     My interest in Theosophical history was fueled by the work of Beatrice Hastings, an Englishwoman who had taken up the case for Mme. Blavatsky in the 1930s, comparing what had been written about her with the documented events. Hastings had outlined a number of studies taking up some critical issues, but her death in 1943 brought the project to an end. My search for her books and papers led me to eventually catalogue her papers in my early twenties, and I wrote an introduction to one of her projected studies when it was printed in booklet form. This led me to continue my research at a number of great libraries throughout the world. I was able to use the great resources of the reference division on the New York Public Library, the old British Museum Library in London, and the Adyar Library and Archives of the Theosophical Society in Madras, where I would spend three years.

Smoley: Who would you list as influences on your work?

Gomes: Beatrice Hastings, certainly. She showed that a well-documented narrative need not be uninteresting. We all owe a debt to Boris de Zirkoff, the compiler of the Blavatsky Collected Writings series. Aside from his compiling Blavatsky's literary output in these volumes, the inclusion of his chronologies and biographies of the individuals involved were great time-saving devices. The chance to spend time with two of the leading researchers in the field of Blavatskiana, the late K.F. Vania in Bombay, India, and Walter Carrithers in Fresno, California, and our correspondence over the years helped shape my views on certain matters. The opportunity to work with so many distinguished colleagues on related panels over the years, and my exchanges with many of the independent researchers connected with this work could also be counted as influences.

Smoley: Of your books, what would you recommend to a new reader?

Gomes: The introduction to my edition of The Secret Doctrine puts Blavatsky and her theories in the context of her period. This being the twenty-fifth anniversary of the publication of my first book The Dawning of the Theosophical Movement, I cannot fail to mention it. For those who feel they are already familiar with the events that led to the meeting of Olcott and Blavatsky and the founding of the Theosophical Society, the book's final chapter on HPB's last days in New York will help make her seem more personable.

Smoley: What advice would you give to someone interested in researching this field?

Gomes: To be aware that aside from accessing the mental world that the people around Blavatsky existed in, there is the temporal aspect of the lives. The physicality of it, the place itself. This is why I have always stressed the value of on-the-ground research. Finding A.O. Hume's home in Simla, India, walking through its grounds, gave a spatial understanding about the events that had occurred when Blavatsky was his guest there. In knowing the limitations and extremes of these situations, one begins to understand and appreciate the remarkable contribution of these early members, who risked ridicule and scorn so we could enjoy freedom of belief.

My work has been for a better appreciation of Helena Petrovna Blavatsky. I hope that my contribution has been in the raising of awareness of how much documentation there is for Theosophy, and that I have helped by bringing some of this source material to light in my books and articles.

Smoley: What do you find most inspiring about Theosophy?

Gomes: That it offers freedom of thought in an area where belief is so strong. There is a great quote in Isis Unveiled that says, "It is not alone for the esoteric philosophy that we fight, but the inalienable right of private judgment." There has been this tension in Theosophy. Blavatsky had certain definite beliefs, but the Society itself is an open house for freedom of belief. Although, as one old lady told me here at the New York lodge, "It's freedom of thought as long as you keep it to yourself."

Smoley: So there's a kind of tension here between belief and the freedom to believe what you like.

Gomes: That has kept the movement healthy. In other groups, you believe this or you're anathema. You can believe all kinds of crazy things if you're a Theosophist. That much said, a lot of what Blavatsky writes about you'll find in Neoplatonism, Mahayana Buddhism, Brahmanism, so there is this tradition. She took on the whole academic world; she took on leading orientalists like Max Muller. The irony is that she's still being discussed while they've been superseded.

Then there's the number of people she influenced.You always keep discovering new people. One of the pioneers of Mayan studies in America, William Gates (not to be confused with Bill Gates of Microsoft), was a Theosophist. The Buddhist scholar Edward Conze once told Mircea Eliade that he believed Blavatsky was the Tibetan master Tsongkhapa reincarnated.

Smoley: What do you admire most about Blavatsky?

Gomes: Her tenacity. Her remarkable contribution in opening the field up to women. There were other figures—Anna Kingsford, the women of the Golden Dawn, Emma Hardinge Britten—but no other big theorist who was able to pull it all together. None of the books by these other figures speak to people today.

I've seen Blavatsky's picture in Manhattan penthouses and garlanded with marigolds in family shrines in little Indian villages; her influence has been far-reaching. Should I live long enough, I would like to address some of the other charges against her, as I did in my monograph on The Coulomb Case, such as plagiarism. It's ironic: Blavatsky is charged with inventing her teachings, and at the same time she's charged with plagiarizing.

Today she is finally starting to get the recognition she deserves. Twenty years ago, she was just considered a fraud, but today there's an increased interest in her in academe. Mitch Horowitz has quoted me as saying that we're in the throes of a Blavatsky revival. [See "New Yorkers Get a New Look at Madame Blavatsky," Quest, Spring 2012.] I would say that today there's more of an attitude that, "Well, she had this impact, and that we know for sure," as opposed to "she was just a fraud." But the fields of esoteric studies has changed too. Most of the people who are taking their degrees in these fields are coming from a practitioner's viewpoint, so they're more open to these ideas.

Smoley: The language of the classic Theosophical works by Blavatsky and others have a highly Eastern flavor, with many Sanskrit terms and so on. Yet many academic scholars see Theosophy as fundamentally a part of the Western esoteric tradition. Where do you think the truth is?

Gomes: Modern Theosophy is a good example of the hybrid spirituality that characterizes so much of the later manifestations. Its roots lie in the evolving spiritual tradition of the West, but it used Eastern terminology when no English equivalents existed. The ideal of the Mahatma harks back to Pico della Mirandola's magus of the Renaissance—the idea that individuals could control their destiny. This was a powerful idea. But in truth there is no Western or Eastern esotericism, just gradations and aspects, as Blavatsky would have it, of the same theme.

Smoley: What is the connection between Theosophy and Western traditions such as Gnosticism and Kabbalah?

Gomes: As time moves on, the Theosophical movement has taken on an image of a classical example of modern esotericism. As a set of beliefs, some of the ideas presented could be traced back to the emanationism and theurgy of the Neoplatonists; the correlation of human and astral bodies owed much to Paracelsus. It is interesting to see what one of the modern exponents of the Kabbalah, Gershom Scholem, had to say about Blavatsky in a 1944 letter to a colleague: 

You are certainly too harsh on Madame Blavatsky, it is surely too much to say that the meaning of the cabala has been forgotten in the Secret Doctrine. After all, the Lady has made a very thorough study of Knorr von Rosenroth in his English adaption [sic], and of Franck's "Cabale Juive."[1] She certainly knew more about cabalism than most of the other people you mention...I think it would be rather interesting to investigate the cabalistic ideas in their theosophical development. There is, of course, a lot of humbug and swindle, but, at least in Blavatsky's writings, yet something more.

 

Smoley: One of the most powerful themes in Theosophy is human evolution as part of a much larger process of evolution of consciousness. This is a theme that seems to be absent from the esoteric traditions before Theosophy came along. Where did this idea come from, and what, if anything, does this concept of evolution owe to older traditions?

Gomes: Perhaps the early Theosophists like Blavatsky saw that in the coming century, space would be the final frontier, and that part of the esotericist's work was to present an enduring mythos that could withstand materialistic science and dogmatic religion. The Greco-Roman world had precise systems of cosmology, but it hadn't been relegated to the realm of esoteric, the fringe of belief. In India, cosmic origins permeate the tradition, especially Samkhya philosophy, which Blavatsky was certainly familiar with. Remember Giorano Bruno was burned only two and a half centuries earlier for expounding his cosmological beliefs.

Smoley: Could you talk a little bit about Blavatsky's connections with Tibet? Do you think she actually visited the country?

Gomes: The remarkable thing about Blavatsky's Tibetan narrative is how little she says about the matter. She briefly mentions visiting Shigatse, the seat of the Panchen Lama, but little else. Seven years is usually the length given for her stay in that country, but, as she points out, it was not continuous. We must remember that at the time of her Tibetan journey, areas such as Ladakh went under the name of "Little Tibet." This is one of those mysteries in her life that may never be resolved. Then we have the testimony of Major-General Charles Murray, who was stationed in the Darjeeling hills in 1854-55 and remembers having to bring Mme. Blavatsky back from the Tibetan border. Beatrice Hastings believes that she was coming out of Tibet at the time.  

Smoley: What do you think are the most common misconceptions about Blavatsky?

Gomes: That she was a medium, in the spiritualist sense, that is, a channel for the deceased to communicate with the living. In that case, no, her situation was closer to the "mind to mind contact" that is practiced by some occult groups. As she reminds the practitioner, "Space and distance do not exist for thought," so it's not impossible for individuals in sympathy to be able to exchange ideas.

Smoley: Where do you stand on the debate about the Masters? What kind of historical authenticity would you be inclined to grant them?

Gomes: I believe that the wide range of interpretation on the subject is the sign of a healthy movement. When I was in India I gathered together all the accounts by Indian members who had met the Mahatmas physically. I had the opportunity to meet some of their descendents, and the family tradition upholds their testament. This research was published by the Adyar Lodge of the Theosophical Society in 1992 as Indian Chelas on the Masters. I hope one day to write more on this subject.

Smoley: What do you think are the most common misconceptions about Theosophy today?

Gomes: That it is some kind of religion or cult. This is the prevalent portrayal online at present. Usually after attending a Theosophical meeting people find that this is not the case.

Smoley: On the basis of your historical knowledge, where do you see the Theosophical movement headed at present? What kind of future does it have?

Gomes: I think we are in one of the most exciting periods in the history of the movement. To an extent, the Society's outer work to educate the world that such as a thing as Theosophy exists is done. Hopefully the movement will become a smaller and more cohesive inner group that works to uphold the beacon light of Theosophy in an ever-changing world. The opportunity to be part of history lies before each of us.


[1] Scholem is referring to The Kabbalah Unveiled, translated by S.L. MacGregor Mathers and published in 1887. This was an translation of parts of Christian Knorr von Rosenroth's 1684 work Kabbala denudata. Adolphe Franck's Kabbale juive ("The Jewish Kabbalah"), first published in 1843, is available in various English editions under the title The Kabbalah: The Religious Philosophy of the Jews. The Scholem quotation is taken from Boaz Huss, "The Sufi Society from America," in Huss et al., Kabbalah and Modernity: Interpretations, Transformations, Adaptations (Leiden: Brill, 2010), 190. —Ed.

Viewpoint: The Clarity of Coincidence

Printed in the Spring 2012 issue of Quest magazine. Citation: Boyd, Tim. "The Clarity of Coincidence" Quest  100. 2 (Spring 2012): pg. 42. 

By Tim  Boyd 

Theosophical Society - Tim Boyd was elected the president of the Theosophical Society Adyar in 2014. He succeeded Radha Burnier.One of the consistent experiences of people who have had a near death experience (NDE) is the life review where in one form or another the important actions and pattern of a lifetime are made clear. The review it is often the case that what in one's ordinary life had appeared meaningless or insignificant, is shown to be vitally important. Frequently this review of the events of an entire lifetime takes place in a few seconds of "real time". The immediate aftereffect of this experience is commonly a sense of purpose and direction.

 This extraordinary capacity for a vision which sees the whole and unerringly illumines with the light of a wholistic understanding is one expression of the spiritual intuition — in theosophical terminology, buddhi. While this expansive and illuminating intuition is an ever present potential for us, in our normal lives it seems inaccessible, or at best, sporadic. 

Certainly the drama and intense clarity of the NDE review will not be the norm for many of us, but our access to intuitive insight is perhaps more common than we acknowledge. It has a way of appearing in subtle ways and unsought moments . Often people access this part of themselves is in those moments of gratitude, absorption, or admiration - of the colors of Fall, a sunset, watching a baby take its first steps. Or it may come  in moments of crisis, or even despair, those times when we  momentarily stop recycling our list of worries, wants, and frustrations, allowing the blinding constraints of self-centeredness to briefly slip away. In those moments what is unveiled is a very pure vision — a dimension of the illumined mind (manas taijasi) — an inherent quality of the mind that knows without knowing why,  unobstructed by the noise and activity of our usual personal emotion and thought. 

When we look closely we can sometimes become aware of a mysterious pattern in our lives. Intuitions, synchronicities, promptings — the many forms for the whisperings of the inner self — seem to mark our lives, revealing a web of connection with a greater life. 

 In recent days I have found myself thinking about a time when the workings of this unconscious knowledge subtly, but profoundly affected my own life. At the relatively young age of nineteen, like most of my friends, I found myself in college stumbling through life, having a mixed bag of experiences, and trying to figure things out. Spirituality and consciousness were not on the radar for me. It would be safe to say that I fit the stereotype of the clueless teenager, thinking I knew a lot and at the same time feeling lost. With the clarity of hindsight it is easy to see signs of an inner movement and a series of "coincidences" that were subtly preparing me for what lay ahead. 

 The first in a series of coincidences occurred when a friend dropped me off at the bus station to return to college. In a casual conversation he mentioned fasting. He did not know anything about it, and I knew less. I think he had seen something about it on TV. When I got back to school I became the talk of the campus when for the next week I would come to the cafeteria at meal times and fill my tray with 4 or 5 glasses of juice and nothing else. On the bus back to school I had developed the firm conviction that I would try to fast, and in my mind a weeklong fast seemed like a reasonable time.

 There is the expression that "God looks after babies and fools". Looking back on my fasting episode, I can attest to the truth of it. During the week of my initial fast I continued to play vigorous sports, even competing in a basketball tournament. When I broke my fast it was with a stack of blueberry pancakes covered with Aunt Jemima syrup! Clearly the actions of a fool. Remarkably, in spite of my bad form, during the time I was fasting I experienced periods of clarity and mental focus that let me know there was something to this process. I would later discover a body of literature that addressed both the health and spiritual dimensions of fasting. 

Soon after my fasting episode I soon decided to become a vegetarian, not for health reasons, or because of the cruelty involved in an animal diet. I did not know, and had never known anyone who was an actual practicing vegetarian. At the time that I made the decision I was not impelled by any clear logic or base of knowledge. It was just something I felt I had to do. One immediate result was that I felt better — a little more energetic, a little more clear. Again, I later came across facts to support my findings. 

In one of those late night conversations that college students are famous, I remember my roommate and I recounting tales of all the fascinating, hip, and cool things we imagined we were doing and arriving at the conclusion that we really had it all together. The only thing we were missing, in our estimation, was that, we need direction! We both laughed at the incongruity of our braggadocio and the unvarnished realization that fundamentally we were lost. Although this exchange could have ended up as merely another idle college conversation, when I heard myself say those words I had the sense that a profound yearning had found its way to the surface. What to do about it? I did not have the faintest idea, but the recognition of the need stayed with me in an uncomfortable way. It is one thing to be lost and not know it — to be blissfully ignorant; it is something completely different when you know. 

Two months later found me traveling from my home in New York City to Chicago for spring break where, in what could be thought of as an utterly coincidental chain of events, I would meet a man I had not known existed who for the next thiteen  years would come to fill a role that had been unknown to me— that of  spiritual teacher. 

The term divine discontent, or divine discomfort has been used to describe the in-between state of "knowing" that there is something more, yet feeling separated from it. In the terminology of Buddhism we become aware that ordinary living is "unsatisfactory" — incapable of satisfying the newly sensed deeper need—and that only a radical restructuring of our outlook and approach will address it. One of the problems with awareness is that once you know something you cannot unknow it. Certainly many of us develop coping mechanisms to try to deny or forestall the necessary changes that a dawning awareness indicates. One strategy which is often employed is busyness. We involve ourselves in a host of activities — family, job, community, social pursuits — and convince ourselves that we just don't have time for inner work,  that maybe later when our schedule eases up we will address it. Ultimately the intense effort required to mask the discomfort is futile. In quiet and unexpected moments it breaks through. 

Francis Thompson's poem "The Hound of Heaven" describes the attempt to escape from the pursuing divinity (symbolized by the Hound) : 

I fled Him, down the nights and down the days;
  I fled Him, down the arches of the years;
I fled Him, down the labyrinthine ways
  Of my own mind; and in the mist of tears
I hid from Him

 The result of the effort is also described in various lines of the poem:  "All things betray thee, who betrayest Me." "Naught shelters thee, who wilt not shelter Me." "Lo naught contents thee, who content'st not Me."

 Most of us expend a lot of energy trying to avoid discomfort. If we were honest with ourselves, we could acknowledge that the times in our lives when we have experienced our greatest inner growth have often been times of extreme discomfort marked by crisis, uncertainty, even despair. These times in our lives seem to invite unexpected realizations. When the quick fix and the practiced response fall short, we find ourselves thrown back on deeper resources. At times like these some people do not merely call out for an answer, but take the unfamiliar step of also listening for a response. In this humbled state where the mind's capacity for the ready answer is superceded, we listen intently for the utterings of the "still small voice" of the intuition. The Sufi mystic Jallaludin Rumi said about this state, "Every need brings in what is needed. Having nothing produces provisions". Those provisions often arrive in circuitous and unexpected ways. 

In times of need, of "having nothing", an open and intense attention comes easily. The great teachers and mystics suggest that this is more than an emergency option. It can be a way of life, as dependable as the morning sunrise. Most of us will find this self emptying process daunting. We are not looking to feel uncomfortable or uncertain. But in the words of a Chinese saying, "To be uncertain is uncomfortable, but to be certain is ridiculous". There is a higher pattern of possibilities which reveals itself from moment to moment in all of those life events which can appear trivial, mundane, or coincidental. Let us try to embrace uncertainty with a watchful mind, patiently waiting for the clarity which must come.

From the Editor's Desk Spring 2012

Printed in the Spring 2012 issue of Quest magazine. Citation: Smoley, Richard. "From the Editor's Desk" Quest  100. 2 (Spring 2012): pg. 42. 

Looking in a bookstore in 2005, I came across a curious artifact: a finely bound volume containing the major works of Charles Darwin. Darwin's works are classics and certainly deserve a deluxe edition, but there was something strange about this one. It looked like an attempt to create a kind of Darwinian bible—a counterweight to the tide of theocracy that was supposedly sweeping the U.S. at that time.

Darwinism seems an odd thing to create a religion around. But a religion it has become, complete with its prophet (Darwin himself), scriptures, and orthodoxies like those of conventional Christianity. Today the best-known positions on the origins of life are the pure Darwinism of the true believers and the creationism or "intelligent design" of thinly disguised Christian apologists. From an esoteric point of view, both are inadequate.

It is true, as materialists argue, that science has discarded any need for a clockmaker God to interfere in the developments that cause species to originate. And yet there is something in the materialists' arguments that gives one pause. It is the relentless claim that the whole process is utterly blind and mechanistic. Purely blind processes don't explain the teleology of evolution&mdsh;the fact that it appears to be aimed in a certain direction, toward greater complexity and intelligence. If the process were exclusively random, evolution would be far more haphazard and would not necessarily produce greater complexity.

From an esoteric point of view, evolution is by no means random, but has a purpose and goal: the development of consciousness. Consciousness, as I've said in previous articles, can be defined as the capacity to relate self and other. This is not merely a dull, static awareness but involves an intense interaction between the self and the "other" that is the world.

Theosophy sees evolution as part of a much larger process that also includes involution. While the Theosophical literature discusses this dynamic in great depth, I would like to describe it in a slightly different way here.

The relationship between self and other is a multifarious one, encompassing many levels of reality. At subtle, nonphysical levels, the distinction is not as rigidly drawn as it is in the physical world. Here the interaction between self and world is fluid and, shall we say, shapeless; "I" and the world do not crystallize as they do in our dimension. This could correspond to what Indian philosophy calls the "formless" (arupa) realm.

As this relationship between self and other becomes increasingly fixed and static, the world manifests itself more clearly but also more rigidly. Forms arise, hence the realm of "form" or rupa. Even so, this level of existence is somewhat fluid. It is no doubt something like the world of dreams: the dreamer sees forms and shapes, but these are far more malleable than they are in waking reality, with things and even people often shifting and changing identities.

Finally, there is the level at which the polarity between self and other is at its most fixed. Here is where the world seems solid and (relatively) static, where individuals retain a consistent identity and things don't arbitrarily change into other things. This is the familiar physical world, and this is the stage at which involution, this process of increasing rigidity and solidity, begins to reverse itself.

Our current embodiment is thus the culmination of an immensely long process of involution. Evolution, whereby consciousness progressively detaches itself from its view of the world as solid and fixed, will also take place over eons, of which life on earth forms only a tiny part. The physical reality that we know is not the only one we have inhabited or will inhabit. Eventually, reality will begin to become fluid and permeable again. In our lives today this manifests as mystical experience, which usually only lasts for a few moments before evaporating. According to esoteric theory, however, what we now experience briefly and erratically will become more and more predominant. Our consciousness and embodiment will grow subtler and more rarefied, and we will be transformed in ways that we cannot now imagine.

In modern times this vision was first articulated by H. P. Blavatsky and her successors, but since then it has been expressed by many different philosophers,in the "creative evolution" of Henri Bergson, in the theories of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, and in the thought of Sri Aurobindo. From these sources it has taken root in the human potential movement, whose theorists, when they speak of evolution, do not mean a mechanistic Darwinian process but something in which we as individuals can consciously participate.

Sometimes this awakening of human potential is characterized in terms of superior functioning, of superhuman achievements and paranormal capacities, but this is only part of the picture. In order to progress in a complete and genuine way, human evolution has to encompass the ethical dimension as well. It is not merely a matter of reading minds or breaking Olympic records but also a superior moral functioning, in the development of compassion and empathy that are now manifest only in the behavior of saints and illuminates. In the esoteric sense, "survival of the fittest" does not mean the survival of the strongest or the cruelest, but the triumph of the highest and best aspirations of the human soul.

Richard Smoley

  1. Occultism and Occult Training
  2. The TS Archives: Bringing History into the Present
  3. Stewards of Eternity
  4. Does God Evolve?

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