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“The Secret Doctrine manuscript is not in the handwriting of H. P. B., but that of Countess Constance Wachtmeister. It contains 229 foolscap pages.<ref>Renumbered later.</ref> Its contents are as follows:
“The Secret Doctrine manuscript is not in the handwriting of H. P. B., but that of Countess Constance Wachtmeister. It contains 229 foolscap pages.<ref>Renumbered later.</ref> Its contents are as follows:


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<center>'''VERA P. de ZHELIHOVSKIY'''</center>
<center>1835-1896</center>
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{{Page aside|473}}
{{Style P-Title|APPENDIX II}}
{{Style P-Subtitle|MISCELLANEOUS MATERIAL}}
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Mr. de Zirkoff hoped to include in this volume certain items which had yet to be located. These included:


1) Marginal Notes by H. P. B. in printed copy of Emma Coulomb’s An Account, etc., the original being in the British Headquarters of the T.S. Mr. de Zirkoff said he had a microfilm and prints made, in a note dating back over a decade; but he added to this note in brackets: “Make no sense without lengthy excerpts of Coulomb’s own words.” This microfilm has not yet been located. However, recent research has been completed by Mr. Michael Gomes, and reprinted from The Theosophist (December 1984, January & February 1985) in a booklet called simply The Coulomb Case, 1884-1984. His article is the result of seven month’s investigation in Indian archives, and will do much to clarify this tragic episode which has only in this century been rectified by the Society for Psychical Research.<ref>See also Obituary; The “Hodgson Report” on Madame Blavatsky 1885-1960 by Adlai E. Waterman, Adyar, T.P.H., 1963 which refers the reader to Walter A. Carrither’s indictment of the S.P.R. printed in the July, 1962 issue of The Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research.</ref>


2) J. Ralston Skinner MSS. are hinted at by Mr. de Zirkoff. Much, indeed, if not all of the Blavatsky-Skinner correspondence has been located in the Harvard Andover Theological Seminary Archives. These letters will appear in the Collected Letters of H. P. Blavatsky at a future date, as part of the completed series.


3) Portions of H. P. B.’s English translation of her sister Vera P. de Zhelihovsky’s account of H. P. B.’s early life, partially published in Sinnett’s Incidents in the Life of Madame Blavatsky. In these portions H. P. B. appended notes and footnotes to her sister Vera’s text. Just as this portion of the book was about to be sent to the typesetter, Michael Gomes located it at Adyar!
The passages and notes of H. P. B. as compared to the 1886 original edition of A.P. Sinnett’s Incidents....are of such {{Page aside|474}}value we are basing their inclusion on the material Michael Gomes has typed out from the somewhat faded MS. copy of Vera’s journal. They begin on the following pages with an introduction based on Mr. C. Jinarajadasa’s foreword to extracts not used by Sinnett but selected by Mrs. Violet Christie for The Theosophist in 1926. Comparing her extracts from an earlier time helped fill in words which were found illegible. We are grateful to Mr. Gomes for this material as cited in various passages in the numbered footnotes, placed throughout the text. H. P. B.’s notes occur along with the separate pages still available, although the reader will note that some pages were missing in the archives.
In Mr. Jinarajadasa’s foreword to Mrs. Violet Christie’s article, “H. P. B.,”<ref>The Theosophist, Vol. XLVII, March 1926, pp. 733-38.</ref> he refers to a small part of H. P. B.’s MS. which had been given to him by Miss F. Arundale. He goes on to state:
....The principal fact which is interesting is that, as H. P. B. wrote her autobiography, she referred constantly to her link with the Masters. Mr. Sinnett evidently thought it morejudicious after the Coulomb attack to say as little as possible on this aspect of H. P. B.’s life. The manuscript is not worth printing in its entirety, as most of it has been utilized almost verbatim by Mr. Sinnett.—C.J.
Due to the ravages of time this manuscript has now become faded and lacks completeness. Since the original 1886 edition is now rarely found,<ref>In 1976 ARNO press of N.Y. photo-offset Mr. Sinnett’s ed.</ref> we feel it worthwhile to provide as much of the unpublished parts as possible, as well as extracts from the book itself in cases where it supplies words unclear in the MS. Such words are found in brackets. A few pertinent H. P. B. letters, included by Sinnett, are quoted for the reader’s interest when bearing on Vera’s account. Where Violet Christie’s passages appear more complete they are rendered along with MS. references.
Minor details or facts generally known to 20th century Theosophists, or incorporated into Sinnett’s text are {{Page aside|475}}omitted. It is a selection based on historical and teaching value. Passages sent to us by Mr. Gomes have been compared with a copy of the original edition. It is to be hoped that this 1886 edition may be reprinted at a future date with the missing portions, before the MS. at Adyar becomes completely faded.
Violet Christie begins her 2nd series of selections with a new title, “H. P. B. and Spiritualism”,<ref>The Theosophist, Vol. XLVIII, May, 1926, pp. 194-99.</ref> to reflect the emphasis of these selections. The unprinted portion found on pp. 26-27 of the MS. shows how concerned Madame Blavatsky was that scientific investigators be provided objective research, rather than the vagaries and fanciful speculations, which, instead of allowing Spiritualism to become a Science, injure the medium’s health and “change a portion of humanity into a herd of half-crazy fanatics.”
{{Style P-Subtitle|FRAGMENTS FROM H.P.B.’s “MYSTICAL HISTORY.”}}
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[To the material Michael Gomes sent from Adyar included below, we have added in brackets any words or phrases either interpolated by him or found by us in comparing Mr. Sinnett’s text, other printed sources and those portions clarified in The Theosophist by Mrs. V. Christie. These sources have been footnoted separately from H. P. B.’s notes. The Blavatsky notes and footnotes appear directly in the text as Mr. Gomes found them: in connection with the pages of the manuscript (noted in parentheses) above H. P. B.’s notes. We are grateful for his synopsis of the passages to which her footnotes pertain. Large portions left out by Sinnett in the longer extracts are also shown by brackets. Mr. Gomes’ survey begins:]
This MS. is headed — Madame Blavatsky’s Mystical History (the words ‘Mystical History’ have been crossed out and under them H. P. B. has inserted in her handwriting: Fragments From Her Mystical History) Translated From The Russian.
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It runs 80 legal size pages, the first fourteen pages are not in H. P. B.’s handwriting though she has amended them and added footnotes.
After the heading, the MS. begins: “The name of H. P. Blavatsky is one of those best known to readers of contemporaneous periodical literature. When the articles speak well of her it is by chance. Woe unto her when they are written in an unfavorable spirit! To repeat a portion only of the “....here the paper has been cut off and page 54 of the MS. stuck on.
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{{Style P-No indent|(MS. p. 2 is missing).}}
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{{Style P-No indent|(MS. p. 3 begins with H. P. B.’s return to Russia during the winter of 1858, arriving at Pskoff where her sister, Vera, was temporarily residing with her late husband’s father “then the Marechal de Noblesse of Pskoff and his family.”*)}}
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<nowiki>*</nowiki>The representative of the nobility of the province, an honorary office to which will carry three years—one among the noblemen and their own class.
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{{Style P-No indent|(MS. p. 5 [See Sinnett’s Incidents.... 1886 ed., p. 80:] explaining the raps, sounds and mysterious manifestations that “had never ceased to follow her everywhere as in the early days of her infancy & youth”.)}}
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<nowiki>*</nowiki>[In those far off days, when Spiritualism had hardly begun in America, belief in “Spirits” as the only agency at work in such raps and knocks was accepted in Russia as elsewhere, since few are acquainted even now with the theories of the occultists. The author in answer to our query whether she believed herself in spirits and mediumship, as she used the term, answered she knew of no other names to express the faculty of producing such raps and phenomena.] “I now remember,” [Vera] said “that when addressed as a medium, she (Mme. Blavatsky) used to laugh and assure us she was no medium but only a mediator between mortal beings we knew nothing about. But I could never understand the difference” [Vera] added.
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{{Style P-No indent|(MS. p. 10 [Sinnett, p. 86fn.]...enumerating the phenomena during the stay of Mme. Blavatsky in Pskoff.)}}
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<nowiki>*</nowiki>Thus, a governess, named Leontine, who wanted to know the fate of a certain young man she had hoped to be married to—learnt what had become of him—his name that she had purposely withheld being given in full—from a letter written in an unknown handwriting she found in one of her locked boxes placed inside a trunk equally locked...
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{{Style P-No indent|(MS. breaks off in the middle of page 14 with Leonide trying to move a table. Page 15 is missing.)}}
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{{Style P-No indent|(MS. p. 16 is in H. P. B.’s handwriting, and describes the methods of communication used in those days) [See Sinnett, pp.94-95]:}}
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<nowiki>*</nowiki>From the first, that’s to say almost from her childhood and certainly in the days mentioned above, H. P. Blavatsky would, in such cases, see either the actual, present thoughts of the party which questioned, or its paler reflection—still quite distinct for her—of an event or a name or whatever it was in the past as though hanging around the person— generally in the vicinity of the head. She had but to copy it consciously, or allow her hand to do so mechanically. At any rate, she never felt herself helped or led on by an external power; i.e. no “Spirits” helped her in this process ever since she returned from her first voyages, she tells us. It seemed an action entirely confined to her own will, more or less consciously exercised by her, more or less premeditated, and put into play. Whenever the thought of a person had to be communicated through raps the process changed. She had first of all to read, sometimes to interpret the thought of the querist, and having done so, to remember it well after it had often disappeared; watch the letters of the alphabet as they were read or pointed out; prepare the will current that had to produce the rap at the right letter, and then have it strike at the right moment, a table, or any other object chosen as the medium for the repercussion of sounds or raps. A most difficult process & far less easy than direct writing.
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{{Style P-No indent|(MS. p. 17 [Sinnett, p. 96fn.]: The word “Zaitchik” is rapped out for H. P. B.’s father.)}}
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<nowiki>*</nowiki>Zaitchik—means literally “a little hare”—while Zaity is the Russian term for any hare. In the Russian language, every noun, substantive and adjective may be made to express the same thing only in a smaller form. Thus—a house is dom, while the idea of a small house is expressed by the word domik, etc.
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{{Style P-No indent|(MS. p. 20 [Sinnett, p. 100fn.]: “During that time never was Mme. Blavatsky’s invisible helper or helpers found mistaken in one single instance!”*)}}
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<nowiki>*</nowiki>Indeed not; for it was neither a “Spirit” nor “Spirits” but a living man who can draw before his eyes the picture of any book or manuscript wherever existing, and in case of need, even that of any long forgotten and unrecorded event. The astral light, the storehouse & record book of all things and deeds has no secrets for such men.
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{{Style P-No indent|(MS. p. 23 [Sinnett, p. 104fn.]: Raps in H. P. B.’s presence describe the events of a local murder.)}}
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<nowiki>*</nowiki>Mme B. denies point-blank any intervention of spirits in this case. She tells us she had the picture of the whole tragedy and its subsequent developments before her from the moment the Stanovoy (district officer) entered the house. She knew the names of the murderer, the confederate and of the village, for she saw them interlaced, so to say, with the visions. Then she guided the raps and thus gave the information. She would not have done so except for being defied.
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{{Style P-No indent|(MS. p. 24 [Sinnett, p. 105]: “We arrived very soon at the conviction that the forces at work—as Madame B. constantly told us— had to be divided into several distinct categories. While the lowest on the scale of invisible beings<ref>Elementáis, of course, for we know that Mme. B. will have nought to do with shells or the Elementaries.</ref> produced most of the physical phenomena, the very highest among the agencies at work<ref>This looks, as though some of the living chelas if not the Masters themselves had been at work around Madame B. so far back as in the years 1857-9.</ref> condescend but rarely to a communication or intercourse with strangers.”)}}
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{{Style P-No indent|(MS. p. 24 [Sinnett, p. 105]: ...“the effects produced in physical manifestations seemed to depend but little on the will or volition of the ‘medium’.”*)}}
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<nowiki>*</nowiki>[Quite the contrary, we believe, and if so, then how about the best physical phenomena produced during the greatest hubbub and confusion in the room, as the author tells us a few pages before? Had Mme. B.’s will nothing to do in the production of the manifestations then would harmony & quiet be the chief requisites, as well as complete passivity on her part—which was only as learnt later—only apparent. It is evident that while she could exercise a power over the Elementáis, she had but to sit passive and quiet when the “higher intelligences” or as the author calls them agencies— i.e. the will of the living chelas or their Masters was the means by which the phenomena were produced.] (Publisher)
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{{Style P-No indent|(MS. p. 25 [Sinnett, p. 106fn.] ¡...complaining of a lack of phenomena when they wished to impress sceptics.)}}
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<nowiki>*</nowiki>Simply because she was tired & disgusted with the ever growing thirst for phenomena. As in 1880—so in 1850 and 1860. People are never satisfied with what they get but ever crave more.
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{{Style P-No indent|(MS. p. 26 [Sinnett, p. 108]: ...in those days whenever my sister Mme. B. sat, to please us, for ‘communications through raps’ we were asked by her to choose what we will have—‘Shall we have the mediumistic, the spook<ref>In Russian—Kikimora.</ref> raps, or the raps by clairvoyant proxy?’ she asked.’’<ref>[Compare below with Sinnett, pp. 109-10]:<br>
To make it intelligible we must give here Madame Blavatsky’s explanation of the difference. She never made a secret that she had been since her childhood until nearly the age of 25 a very strong medium, though after that period, owing to a regular psychological & physiological training under her Master she was made to lose this dangerous gift, and every trace of mediumship outside her will or beyond her direct control—made to disappear. She was taught to discern between the shell and the Elemental, and had two distinct methods of producing communications through raps. [The] one consisted in sitting nearby entirely passive and permitting the influences to act at their will: at which time the brainless elementáis—shells would rarely, if ever, be allowed to come, owing to the danger of the intercourse—chameleon-like would reflect more or less chaotically the thought of those present and follow in a half silly way the suggestions found by them in Madame B.’s mind. The other method used very rarely, for reasons of her intense dislike to meddle with really departed entities—or rather to enter into their “currents of thought” as she expresses it—is this, so far as we are able to understand. She composed herself, and seeking out with eyes shut, in the astral light that current that preserved the genuine impress of some well known departed entity she identified herself for the time being with it, and guiding the raps made them to spell out that which she had in her own mind. Thus if the rapping “spirit” pretended to be a Shakespeare, it was not in reality that great personality but only the echo of the genuine thoughts that had once upon a time moved in his brain and crystallized themselves, so to say, in his astral sphere when even his shell had departed long ago—the imperishable thoughts alone remaining. Also [Not] a sentence, not a word spelt by the raps that was not formed at first in her brain, in its turn the faithful copy of that which [was] also found by her spiritual eye in the luminous Record-book of departed humanity. The [so to express it,] crystallized essence of the mind of the once physical brain was there before her spiritual vision, her living brain photographed it and her will dictated it by guiding the raps which thus became intelligent. [If, leaving aside the mediumistic routine of the spirits of the Spiritualists every genuine medium shaking off his passive torpor should carefully watch sensations and recording his impressions give them out truthfully to scientific investigators, to the biologists & the physiologists then would Spiritualism become indeed—a Science. For it would help on humanity, throwing a bright light of fact upon its dark pathway, instead of allowing it to lose itself in the deep bog of mere fanciful speculation which injures the physical & mental status of the medium, impedes progress of psychological sciences and changes a portion of humanity into a herd of half-crazy fanatics.]</ref>)}}
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