Theos-Talk Archives (February 1994 Message tl00016)

Dear Arvind,

Another word on Sinnett.  What I mean is that HPB's letters to
him, especially those written as he prepared to write Incidents
in the Life of Mme. Blavatsky, are the most detailed
autobiographical information we have from HPB and present a
fairly coherent accounting of her past life including relations
with Masters.  Therefore they have been the backbone of every
orthodox bio since they were published
, as much relied on by Cranston today
as by Fuller or Murphet.  The BIG problem with this development
is that HPB's letters to Sinnett are a CYA carefully edited
version of the truth in which anything offensive to English
Victorian sensibilities is glossed over.  Thus no love life, no
associations with radicals, no nitty gritty on Morya-- all of
which appears abundantly elsewhere in printed sources.  But the
conflicting info is scattered in a bunch of sources whereas the
self-censored version to Sinnett comes packaged neatly in a
single book.  Scholarly laziness is as much to blame as
sectarian censorship for the distorted and "sanctified" HPB
Theosophists now believe in. I suspect the new publication of
more letters will show us HPB as she
presented herself to dozens of people, most of whom she liked
and trusted more than she did Sinnett.

What Jerry doesn't mention about Sinnett and Leadbeater is that
CWL served as APS's medium to KH before "Mary" and while HPB
was right there in Europe.  In other words, while HPB was alive
and kicking, Leadbeater was conspiring to convince Sinnett that
he, and not HPB, was the true channel to KH.  Strangely, there
is no evidence I know of that HPB ever found this out since
"KH" through Leadbeater and "Mary" told Sinnett never to tell.
Sinnett's autobiography, available through THF, tells all.