Mr. Felt and the Theosophical Society
Sir,—The enclosed letter, addressed to yourself from Mr. George Felt, whose acquaintance I had the pleasure of making in New York some three years ago, has been sent to me to forward. I do not doubt that as a mere act of justice, apart from the singular interest of the communication, you will willingly publish it. But to prevent misconception I may remind your readers that the doubt thrown by the writer upon the “so-called manifestations” of Spiritualists, is not in accordance with the known opinions of those other members of the Theosophical Society who have come before the English public. Engaged in intellectual pursuits, Mr. Felt appears not to have taken the trouble to inform himself of the reality of the phenomena which occur through mediums. For more experienced members of the society to which he belongs, and of which I believe him to be a distinguished ornament, the question is not one of fact, but of interpretation, by the light of other knowledge than these phenomena by themselves can impart. Without pretending to such knowledge myself, I may be allowed to express the hope that Mr. Felt’s testimony will be received with the respect which, his eminent scientific attainments should command for it.—Your obedient servant,
Temple, July 18.
Elementals and the Egiptian Zodiacs
New York, June 19th, 1878.
Sir,—My attention has but just now been called to certain articles published in your city, and one of them in your paper, which reflect upon statements made by friends of mine respecting the “Theosophical Society” and myself. One or more of the writers question whether such a person actually exists, or is but the creation of the brain of Madame Blavatsky and others.
Having very little in common with the public which supports your paper, I seldom see it, and would, perhaps, never have known of these statements if they had not been pointed out to me. I am engaged in mathematical pursuits, and take little or no interest in anything that cannot be exactly demonstrated, for which reason Spiritualists and myself have very few bonds of sympathy. I have so little faith in their so-called manifestations that I have long since given up trying to keep track of them.
The Theosophical Society was started under the mistaken impression that a fraternity of that kind could be run on the modern mutual admiration plan, for the benefit of the newspapers, but very soon everything was in confusion. There were no degrees of membership, nor grades; but all were equal. Most members apparently came to teach rather than to learn, and their views were thoroughly ventilated on the street corners. The propriety of making different degrees was at once apparent to the real Theosophist, and the absolute necessity of forming the society into a secret body. This reorganisation into a secret society, embracing different degrees, having been accomplished, all statements of what has transpired since the members were so bound in secrecy are, of course, to be viewed with suspicion, as, even if such statements were true, things may have been done in the presence of the illuminati of which many ex-members and novitiates had no knowledge. Of my own acts in and out of the society before this bond of secrecy I am at liberty to speak, but of my doings or the doings of others since that time I have no right to give evidence. Mr. Olcott’s statement about my experiments with elemental or elementary spirits, in his inaugural address, was made without consultation with me or my consent, and was not known to me until too long after its appearance for me to protest. Although substantially true, I looked upon it as premature, and as something that should have been kept within the knowledge of the society.
That these so-called elementals, or intermediates, or elementary, or original spirits were creatures that actually existed, I was convinced through my investigations in Egyptian archaeology. While working at drawings of several Egyptian Zodiacs, in the endeavour to arrive at their mathematical correspondences, I had noticed that very curious and unaccountable effects were sometimes produced. My family observed that at certain times a pet terrier and a Maltese cat, which had been brought up together, and were in the habit of frequenting my study and sleeping on the foot of my bed, were acting strangely, and at last called my attention to it. I then noticed that when I commenced certain investigations the cat would first appear to be uneasy, and the dog would, for a short time, try to quiet him, but shortly after the dog would also seem to be in dread of something happening. It was as though the perceptions of the cat were more acute, and they would both then insist on being led out of the room, trying to get out themselves by running against the French glass windows. Being released, they would stop outside and mew and bark, as though calling to me to come out. This behaviour was repeated until I was forced to the conclusion at last that they were susceptible to influences not perceptible to me.
I supposed at first that the hideous representations on the Zodiacs, &c., were “vain imaginations of a distempered brain;” but afterwards thought that they were conventional representations of natural objects.
After studying these effects on the animals, I reflected that as the spectrum gives rays, which though to our unaided sight invisible, had been declared by eminent scientists to be capable of supporting another creation than the one to us objective, and that this creation would probably also be invisible (Zollner’s theory), this phenomenon was one of its manifestations. As these invisible rays could be made apparent by chemical means, and as invisible chemical images could be reproduced, I commenced a series of experiments to see if this invisible creation, or the influences exerted by it, would be thereby affected. I then began to understand and appreciate many things in my Egyptian researches that had been incomprehensible before. I have, as a result, become satisfied that these Zodiacal and other drawings are representations of types in this invisible creation delineated in a more or less precise manner, and interspersed with images of natural objects more or less conventionally drawn. I discovered that these appearances were intelligences, and that while some seemed to be malevolent, and dreaded by the animals, others were not obnoxious to them, but, on the contrary, they seemed to like them, and to be satisfied when they were about.
I was led to believe that they formed a series of creatures in a system of evolution running from inanimate nature through the animal kingdom to man, its highest development: that they were intelligences capable of being controlled more or less perfectly, as man was more or less thoroughly acquainted with them, and as he was able to impress them as being higher or lower in the scale of creation, or as he was more or less in harmony with nature or nature’s works. Recent researches showing that plants possess senses in greater or less perfection have convinced me that this system can be still further extended. Parity of mind and body I found to be very powerful, and smoking and chewing tobacco and other filthy habits I observed to be especially distasteful to them.
I satisfied myself that the Egyptians had used these appearances in their initiations; in fact, I think I have established this beyond question. My original idea was to introduce into the masonic fraternity a form of initiation such as prevailed among the ancient Egyptians, and tried to do so, but finding that only men pure in mind and body could control these appearances, I decided that I would have to find others than my whiskey-soaked and tobacco-sodden countrymen, living in an atmosphere of fraud and trickery, to aet in that direction. I found that when these appearances, or elementals, could not be kept in perfect control they grew malicious, and despising men whom their cunning taught them must be debased, they became dangerous, and capable of inflicting damage and harm.
With one of the members of the society, a legal gentleman of a mathematical turn of mind, I accomplished the following, after the manner of Cornelius Agrippa, who claimed for himself and Trithemus that u at a great distance it is possible, without any doubt, to influence another person spiritually, even when their position and the distance are unknown.” (De Occulta Phil.) lib. III., p. 3.) Several times, just before meeting me, he observed a bright light; <... continues on page 7-206 >
Editor's notes
Sources
London Spiritualist, No. 309, July 26, 1878, p. 44