Theos-Talk Archives (April 1998 Message tl00103)

Thank you Paul for your reply.

Let me first quote what Hannah Wolff said about
Madame Blavatsky allegedly smoking hashish:

"It was evident from the first that she smoked
tobacco to great excess, frequently, as she
told me, using a pound a day.  I soon learned also
that she was addicted to the use of haschish.  She
several times endeavored to persuade me to try 
the effect upon myself.  She said she had smoked
opium, seen its visions and dreamed its dreams, but 
that the beatitudes enjoyed in the use of haschish
were as heaven to its hell.  She said she found 
nothing to compare with its effects in arousing and 
stimulating the imagination." THE RELIGO-
PHILOSOPHICAL JOURNAL, Jan. 2, 1892, P. 502

Albert Rawson gives his account of HPB and
her use of hashish in this short passage:

"She had tried hasheesh in Cairo with success, and
she again indulged in it in this city under the care
of myself and Dr. Edward Sutton Smith, who had a 
large experience with the drug among his patients at
Mount Lebanon, Syria.  She said, 'Hasheesh multiplies
ones life a thousandfold.  My experiences are real
as if they wer ordinary events of actual life.  Ah!
I have ean xplanation.  It is a recollection of my former
existences, my previous incarnations.  It is a wonderful
drug, and it clears up a profound mystery."
(FRANK LESLIE'S POPULAR MONTHLY, Feb. 1892, p. 202.)

I believe this is all of the testimony concerning
Madame Blavatsky's alleged use of hashish.  Is 
there more?

We can all agree that Rawson and Wolff 
gave testimony to Madame Blavatsky's
use of hashish.  They said it but should 
one believe them?

Compare this testimony to what W.E. Coleman said about
Madame Blavatsky drinking liquor.  Coleman had
4 witnesses including Mrs. Coleman and the famous
medium DD Home.  They said it but should one believe them?

And if one is inclined to believe the hashish accounts, 
why not ALSO believe the accounts of HPB drinking liquor?

Again compare the testimony of Rawson, Wolff, Mrs. 
Coleman, Home, etc. with the lengthy DETAILED 
testimony of Emma Coulomb and Vsevolod Solovyov
to Madame Blavatsky's alleged gross impostures.

Emma Coulomb gives page after page of alleged
evidence (if considered true) that would convict
HPB of faking occult phenomena as well as
faking the appearances of the Masters Morya 
and Koot Hoomi.  The same concerning Solovyov.
I wonder how many Blavatsky students (including
K. Paul Johnson) and skeptics have even read E. 
Coulomb's pamphlet?  

Should one believe Coulomb and Solovyov just
because they testified to these things?

But if one believes the accounts of HPB smoking
hashish and drinking alcohol, what about
the detailed accounts of HPB's imposture related
by Coulomb and Solovyov?  And it should be
pointed out that even Hannah Wolff in her account
also relates incidents of Madame performing
fake "occult" phenomena.

Unfortunately, not many Blavatsky students
are knowledgeable of all this negative testimony
about HPB.  Many just assume it must be false.

Again many skeptics of HPB just assume the negative
accounts must be true.  "Well, they said it, didn't 
they?  Only a fool or true believer would say otherwise!"

Few students and researchers take the time to actually
analyse the testimony, look for confirming evidence, etc.
etc.

How does one determine what is true and what is false?
Nowadays many Theosophical students don't care one way 
or the other! 

Daniel Caldwell

K. Paul Johnson wrote:
> 
> A digest or two ago there was yet ANOTHER post with my name in
> the header from Daniel.  Flattered to see that my name makes it
> into such a large proportion of his pieces, I must confess that
> I don't have any opinion of the accusations concerning HPB
> drinking, not having read the primary sources he mentions.
> 
> But why, Daniel, are you more interested in speculating what *I*
> might make of the evidence than in telling us what *you* make of
> it?   Why not explain and defend your own conclusions
> concerning HPB's use of alcohol and hashish?