Theos-Talk Archives (January 1997 Message tl00912)

Couple of years ago, one of the frequent attendees of our lodge mentioned to
me about Pryse's experience with HPB. Since I have never seen it, she
graceously provided me with a copy. BTW, she was not a member of TS nor did
she joined it. My grateful thanks go to her. Here is the account.

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MEMORABILIA OF H. P. BLAVATSKY

By James Morgan Pryse


When the editor of the Canadian Theosophist asked me, several years ago, to
write my memoirs of H.P.B. I declined to do so explaining that an account of
my personal experiences with H.P.B. would necessarily be a tale of two
worlds. Since then other friends have kept urging me to write the memoirs,
and finally I have reluctantly consented to write them.

As a personality "the Old Lady" as we affectionately called her, was like a
mother to me; but if my reminiscences were to be confined to that
personality, dealing only with happenings and doings in the physical world,
they would be of little interest and would convey an utterly false
impression of the real H.P.B. with whom I was acquainted. So I must tell
this tale of two worlds, however strange and incredible it may seem to many,
if not most, theoretical Theosophists. It is a true narrative, but those who
are unable to accept it as such are at perfect liberty to regard it as a
romance or fairy-tale, and let it go at that. Whether they believe it or not
is no concern of mine. But there are some Theosophists who have passed
beyond the stage of theoretical study, and my story is especially for them.

In narrating my experiences with H.P.B. it is of course necessary to include
myself in the narrative when I would greatly prefer to say nothing whatever
about myself. That is one of the reasons why I have hitherto refused to
write my memoirs.

During the most impressionable years of childhood I lived in a Welsh
community in Minnesota among a people who believed in fairies, saw ghosts
occasionally and had other psychic experiences, of which they spoke freely.
Being of the same race myself, I had similar experiences. Few Theosophists
realize how inseparably the psychic and the physical worlds are conjoined.
When a child it was sometimes difficult for me to distinguish the one from
the other.

In those days while yet but a small boy, I first came into mental contact,
vaguely with H.P.B. In my father's library there was on old "Dictionary of
Biography" Goodrich's, if I remember correctly. It gave brief biographical
sketches of ancient worthies and unworthies, and was illustrated with many
small woodcut portraits. There was one of Paracelsus, the great Swiss
Occultist and it fascinated me so that I gazed at it long and often. The
text characterized him as a charlatan or impostor; but as I read it I knew
that it was false, and that he was one of the best men that ever lived. This
was not merely a psychometric impression such as I received from some of the
other portraits in the book. It was a haunting sense of familiarity, a
conviction that I had known him when he was on earth and would meet him
again incarnated. Years afterward while doing newspaper work in Nebraska I
read a brief despatch from New York stating that Mdme. Blavatsky and Col.
Olcott had started a society for the study of Oriental Literature. Again
came that haunting sense of familiarity and I wanted to write to that Mdme.
Blavatsky (whose name I then read for the first time); but the despatch gave
no address. Later in Philadelphia, I met Mrs. Verplanck ("Jasper Niemand"),
who was closely associated with Mr. Judge with whom I came to be well
acquainted "in the astral" after I had settled in Los Angeles in 1886.

In those days many Theosophists were ambitious to become "Chelas" or "lay
chelas" by getting into communication with the Masters whom H.P.B.
represented. Having no doubt that the Masters were being pestered by so many
applicants I refrained from any attempt to reach H.P.B. or her Master or to
attract their attention to my unimportant self. But my mind kept dwelling on
Paraceleus, with a distinct impression that he was again incarnated; so I
resolved to find him, if possible, and in my daily meditation concentrated
my mind on him. One evening while I was thus Meditating the face of H.P.B.
flashed before me. I recognized it from her portrait in Isis, though it
appeared much older. Thinking that the astral picture, as I took it to be,
was due to some vagary of fancy, I tried to exclude it; but at that the face
showed a look of impatience and instantly I was drawn out of my body and
immediately was standing "in the astral" beside H.P.B. in London. It was
along toward morning there, but she was still seated at her writing desk.
While she was speaking to me, very kindly, I could not help thinking how odd
it was that an apparently fleshy old lady should be an Adept. I tried to put
that impolite thought out of my mind, but she read it, and as if in answer
to it her physical body became translucent, revealing a marvellous inner
body that looked as if it were formed of molten gold. Then suddenly the
Master M. appeared before us in his mayavi-rupa. To him I made profound
obeisance, for he seemed to me more like a God than a man. Somehow I knew
who he was, though this was the first time I had seen him. He spoke to me
graciously and said "I shall have work for you in six months." He walked to
the further side of the room, waved his hand in farewell and departed. Then
H.P.B. dismissed me with the parting words, "God bless you." and directly I
saw the waves of the Atlantic beneath me; I floated down and dipped my feet
in their crests. Then with a rush I crossed the continent till I saw the
lights of Los Angeles and returned to my body, seated in the chair where I
had left it. Thus by looking for Paracelsus, while resolved not to intrude
on H.P.B. and the Master M. I found them all. For H.P.B. simply was
Paracelsus, and in my ignorance of that fact I had blundered, happily
stumbling upon a triumphant outcome vastly beyond anything I had expected.

Six months afterward the Master's promise was made good. My brother John and
I, returning from a trip to South America landed in New York City. We found
Mr. Judge perplexed by a difficult problem. H.P.B. had directed him to send
her Instructions to all the American members of the E.S. but had sent him
only one copy, and he had no facilities for making the many copies needed.
We solved that problem for him by establishing the Aryan Press and printing
the Instructions in book form. Then, in response to a cable from H.P.B. I
went to London to do the same work there, and started the H.P.B. Press. When
I met H.P.B. we did not need to "become acquainted". It was as if we had
known each other always. She invited Dr. Keightley and myself to eat
Christmas dinner with her; and after dinner we played whist, H.P.B. taking
the dummy. But these unimportant events in the outer world are not memorabilia.

At lunch one day Mrs. Besant became a bit angry because some stationery had
been delivered at a side door instead of at the back door, for which she
blamed Mr. Mead. I explained that I had ordered the stationery for Mr. Mead
and therefore was to blame for its being delivered at the wrong door. I had
not known that it made any difference. Mrs. Besant immediately became
pleasant again and all was serene. But that afternoon it passed through my
mind that as a successor to H.P.B. Mrs. Besant was too immature to be
entrusted with the guidance of the T.S. The thought was not tinged with the
slightest ill-will, and I dismissed it quickly, without dwelling upon it.
When I awoke next morning and sat up preparatory to jumping out of bed I saw
a written page in the air in front of me. I recognized H.P.B.'s writing and
guessed that she meant to reprove me for doubting Mrs. Besant's fitness to
become her successor; so I refused to read the writing. At that she sent a
powerful electric current up my spine to compel me to read the writing. Then
as I obstinately refused to read it, she spoke to me audibly, saying that I
was wrong in my estimate of Mrs. Besant, who was her "personal pupil" and
would do great things for the society. I held to my original opinion, but
said nothing. Immediately after dressing I went to Mr. Mead's office and
right afterward H.P.B. came in from an adjoining room. After greeting us she
said to me, 'Well, Pryse, have you seen any more visions lately?" My scalp
was still sore from the current she had sent up my spine, but I ignored her
covert reference to that morning's little tilt between us and said, "O Yes,
as usual." She then asked me why I had not been in the drawing-room for
several evenings past, but when I started to explain that I had been doing
night work on the instructions, she threw out her arms and gazed fixedly
into space. Her face took on a look of horror and she uttered a
half-suppressed scream and cried 'No! no!". She was seeing a vision and
standing beside her I saw it too, not visually, but as a series of vivid
mental pictures. That vision foreshowed the fate of the T.S. after her
death; the dismemberment of the Society, the deplorable doings of its
misguided members, and the fakery, falsification and folly of the various
factions. When the vision ended she let her arms fall and looked at me to
see if I had shared it. My gaze met hers and she knew from the look on my
face that I also had seen I the harrowing vision. Without a word she turned
and with bowed head tottered back to her room.  I take it that until then
she had not been permitted to foresee the future of the T.S.; but when she
tried to impose on me an optimistic view of it the actual future was
revealed to her, and incidentally to me. Who showed her the vision I do not
know.

One evening at the dinner-table gloom was cast over the Headquarters' staff
by the announcement that H.P.B. was so ill that the doctor did not expect
her to live till morning. Pondering sadly on this when I had retired to my
room, I decided to try a certain experiment. In years past I made hundreds
of mesmeric experiments, with different subjects, sometimes using my prana
as a healing force. As H.P.B. was dying for lack of this vital force, while
I, a young man had plenty of it, I determined to transfer, by a mesmeric
process, half my prana to H.P.B. It is analogous psychically to the
transfusion of blood physically. As I began concentrating to make the
transfer H.P.B. called to me, physically but audibly. "Don't do it; it's
black magic." Undeterred, I cabled back to her "Very well, Old Lady, black
magic or not, I'm going to do it anyway" and I did. Next morning I felt
decidedly feeble; but that was a matter of no lasting consequence, as it
took but a few days to renew my strength. At the breakfast table we had good
news; H.P.B. was recovering having made a sudden remarkable improvement
which nonplussed the doctor. I relate this incident only because it led to a
very significant one several years later.

H.P.B. passed away suddenly, seated in a chair. As I helped carry the body
over to a lounge I had a distinct impression that she had not "died" but had
deserted the body instantly for a set purpose. She had told Claude Wright
that she did not want to come back as a baby, and so the chelas were looking
for a body which she could appropriate at the moment it was vacated by the
soul, though still organically in good condition. Several years afterward,
however, Mrs. Besant and Mr. Judge gave out a statement that H.P.B. had
reincarnated. One day Mrs. Besant said to me "James, since H.P.B. has
reincarnated, wouldn't it be a good plan for you to meditate and try to find
her?" I said that I was willing to try. She suggested that I should meditate
in H.P.B.'s room evenings; and as the room was kept locked she gave me the
key. The first evening I meditated there, seated on the lounge, I saw
nothing but irrelevant the lounge, I saw nothing but irrelevant pictures in
the astral light and it was the same the second evening. When I meditated
the third evening I had the unusual experience of seeing nothing whatever,
though I concentrated on H.P.B. for about two hours. Convinced that she had
not reincarnated, I got up and started to leave the room. The lounge on
which I had been seated was on the side of the room opposite the door. It
was midnight and the room was totally dark. But when I had walked about
halfway to the door the room was suddenly lighted up, and I saw a young man
standing about three feet from me. He was of medium height, strongly built,
and his face was attractive and forceful. I took him to be a university
student. Surprised at his sudden appearance, for apparently he was a man in
the flesh, and wondering how he had entered the room noiselessly while the
door was securely locked, I for the moment overlooked the phenomenal
lighting up of the room. I was about to speak to him, but just then a
brilliant aura flashed around him, and a series of pictures appeared in it
revealing that he was H.P.B. He was in the mayavi-rupa, which faithfully
reproduced his outer form. He said not a word but suddenly vanished, and I
stood alone in the darkness. I kept the matter secret, as he evidently
expected me to do so.

At one time during the well-known "Judge row" which justified my secrecy, I
was completely worn out with overwork and the strain of those dreadful days.
I would crawl into bed late at night, sleep like a log, and awake in the
morning unrefreshed and utterly weary. One night as I was retiring I
thought, "A week or two more of this will be the end of me." I awoke in the
morning feeling half dead and uncertain whether I had strength to get up. It
was broad daylight and the sun was shining through the windows. Then I saw
the young man whom I had seen in H.P.B.'s room. Standing at the foot of my
bed, he stretched out his arms above my feet. A powerful electric current,
shock after shock went all through my body for several minutes. Then he drew
back his arms and vanished. I sprang out of bed with all my strength and
energy renewed. Thus H.P.B. repaid my loan of prana. With the assistance of
Mrs. Lloyd, a good amateur artist and quite clairvoyant, I obtained an
excellent oil portrait of the reembodied H.P.B. but I gave his face the
Rajput colouring to match that of his Guru, the Master M. This is the
portrait which Mr. Judge said was that of his 'Higher Self" (his imaginary
Hindu double). With my permission Mr. Judge had a copy of it made, which he
and his followers exploited as that of "the Rajah." Of the real man, H.P.B.
re-embodied, known to me in this life as "Old Lady" and long ago as
Paracelsus, whom I followed and still follow, I shall for the present say no
more. My tale of two worlds is finished.

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