Theos-Talk Archives (March 1995 Message tl00094)

Dear Jerry--

I don't have the galleys here, but can summarize the material
about ADN off the top of my head.
1) She MIGHT have met HPB as her first contact with the TS was
in London in 1889 (I think)-- anyway, before HPB's death.
2) But she didn't join the TS until after HPB's death, 1891 I
think, after having spent some time in a Paris Group called The
Supreme Gnosis.
3) Daniel Caracostea has unearthed correspondence suggesting
that ADN applied to Annie Besant to join the ES, but did
further research finding that she never actuall
4) ADN continued to be an active TS member through her first
extended period in India and Ceylon in 1912.  But after a long
stay at Adyar, she (like P.D. Ouspensky who went there around
the same time) became disillusioned with Besant and the TS, and
never said much about Theosophy thereafter.
5) Her great exploits in Tibet therefore postdate her 21 years
of active Theosophical involvement.  She does mention that her
Tibetan teachers were amused and surprised by the idea of
precipitation of letters, apportation of objects, etc. being
associated with their practices, and considered the thought an
irreverent joke.

That's the gist of it.  Interesting re HPB is that the present
Dalai Lama has called ADN the first to bring true knowledge of
Tibet to the West.