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The Theosophical Movement 1875-1925

By John Garrigues and others

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The Report Of The S.P.R.

Madame Blavatsky resigns from Theosophical Society when Coulomb charges made public - resignation refused by Olcott under pressure - H.P.B. writes London Times and Pall Mall Gazette pronouncing charges a conspiracy - H.P.B. and Olcott return to India at end of 1884 - H.P.B. insists charges most be met by court proceedings against the Coulombs - Olcott and the Hindus oppose legal action - the Adyar Convention declines to defend while affirming belief in her bona fides - Olcott and Sinnett already mistrust H.P.B. - she resigns from the Society and leaves India early in 1885 - Mr. Hodgson in India during the Convention and desertion of H.P.B. by Theosophists - powerfully affected by the luke-warmness and doubts of leading Theosophists - returns to England and submits his report to Committee of S.P.R. - Hodgson's findings adopted by Committee in June, 1885 - Report of the S.P.R. published following December - Conclusions reached - H.P.B.'s phenomena fraudulent - in a long-continued conspiracy to deceive public - Coulomb letters and Mahatma letters written by H.P.B. - declare H.P.B. "One of the most accomplished, ingenious, and interesting impostors in history" - the Report of the S.P.R. examined critically shows it to be wholly ex parte - no safeguards employed to ascertain and render justice - the investigation that of a rival society controlled by Spiritualists - the S.P.R. not interested in philosophy or ethics - avid for phenomena - ignorant of Occultism - contradictions and inconsistencies of S.P.R. Committee shown from its own Report - Committee relies wholly on Mr. Massey's suspicions, the Coulomb charges, and the opinions of the London handwriting experts - Mr. Massey's suspicions shown to be without tangible foundation - the Coulombs shown out of their own mouths to be lying tricksters - the handwriting experts shown as first declaring the Mahatma letters could not have been written by H.P.B. - then, at Hodgson's solicitation, changing their opinion to the contrary - the expert Netherclift shown to have sworn positively in the Parnell case to the opposite of the facts - the motives of all adverse witnesses shown to have been culpable and their testimony impeached - more than one hundred responsible witnesses affirm the genuineness of phenomena witnessed by them - the S.P.R. Committee declares these to have been victims of "hallucination" - Hodgson's findings examined - a mass of suspicions and contradictory conjectures to account for facts testified to - Hodgson recognizes necessity for showing a motive sufficient to account for H.P.B.'s alleged fraud during twenty years - rejects supposition that she was influenced by greed or ambition - submits theory that H.P.B. was a Russian spy - her Society and her phenomena a cloak to conceal her designs against British rule in India.