Coulomb affair

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Events in connection with Emma and Alexis Coulomb on the one hand and Helena Petrovna Blavatsky and the Theosophical Society (TG) on the other hand were designated as the Coulomb affair or Coulomb affair . It came to the publication of letters, which Blavatsky incriminated as a swindler and forger. The Hodgson Report, which came shortly thereafter, backed up these claims, and both of them mainly ruined the TG's reputation. The second part of the Hodgson Report in particular, relating to the Blavatsky-Coulomb and Meisterbriefe, was critically examined again in 1986 and 1997 by Vernon Harrison .

prehistory

In 1875 the Theosophical Society (TG) was founded in New York by Helena Petrovna Blavatsky , Henry Steel Olcott and others . This moved its headquarters to Mumbai in India in 1879 and again to Adyar near Chennai in 1882 . By 1884, when the Coulomb affair hit the headlines, the TG in India and Sri Lanka , after barely five years of activity in the country, had grown to around 100 lodges, with a daily growing membership. Since the TG primarily propagated the ethical and religious values ​​of Buddhism , but also Hinduism and, in contrast to the Christian mission , treated the traditional local culture with great respect, the organization represented serious competition for the missionary efforts of several Christian denominations in these countries .

This was accompanied by envy and resentment towards the TG, also because the attempts at conversion by Christians, despite centuries of efforts, were only moderately successful. The president of the TG was Henry Steel Olcott, but the real main character was Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, who was officially "only" the Corresponding Secretary (= PR officer or press spokeswoman ), but she was the real eminence . Blavatsky often made headlines through paranormal phenomena, which she is said to have demonstrated and which were often exaggerated as real miracles. In addition, Blavatsky and the TG provided topics of conversation through several Masters of Wisdom , who allegedly provided answers to upcoming questions and problems, even though they were not present, and were able to make related letters appear out of nowhere. These masters' letters mostly appeared in a certain cupboard, which was called "shrine" or "occult shrine" (= occult shrine), and were then also a main subject of the Coulomb affair and the later Hodgson report .

The Coulomb affair

Mutual assistance

In 1871, in Cairo , Blavatsky is said to have made the first acquaintance with the Englishwoman Emma Cutting and her French boyfriend at the time, Alexis Coulomb , who later married. Blavatsky received financial support from Emma at the time, and together they are said to have founded the short-lived Société Spirite (= Spiritual Society) there. In August 1879, Blavatsky received a written cry for help from the Coulombs in Mumbai because they were completely broke and stranded in Sri Lanka . Blavatsky then financed the Coulombs' crossing to Mumbai. She unsuccessfully looked for a job for the two of them and finally took them over as an employee for the Theosophical Society (TG), which they also joined as members. Emma Coulomb ran the kitchen and household from 1880 and took on occasional paperwork, Alexis Coulomb found work as a carpenter, gardener and caretaker, in a sense as a “girl for everything” in the TG. In the years that followed, there were several frictions with older TG employees who were subordinate to the Coulombs, as well as members who were reluctant to see that the Coulombs had befriended missionaries from the Free Church of Scotland in Chennai and there was the latest gossip the TG told.

Quarrel and dismissal

After Olcott had handed over the leadership of the TG to a control council, he and Blavatsky set off on a major European tour on February 20, 1884. Blavatsky had previously ordered that Emma Coulomb alone should keep her private rooms in order, and also gave her the keys to it. After the departure of Blavatsky, who had always defended the Coulombs, open hostilities broke out and in March the Control Council accused the Coulombs of gross negligence. Tele Graphically Blavatsky and Olcott were informed about the incidents, several telegrams were received between Europe, the Control Board and the Coulomb back and forth, but an agreement could not be achieved, on the contrary, the situation escalated more and more. The Coulombs finally offered to vacate the field for 2000 (3000?) Indian rupees and tickets to the USA , but this was refused. After Emma Coulomb had made an attempt at blackmail, accompanied by threats against Blavatsky, she ordered the Coulombs to be dismissed without notice and expelled from the TG on May 14 (17?) 1884.

On May 18, 1884, the discharge was carried out in Adyar , with all keys being handed in. During the inspection of Blavatsky's rooms at that time, the theosophists present discovered a number of secret doors and sliding walls as well as a wall breakthrough that represented a secret connection between Blavatsky's bedroom closet and the "shrine". Alexis Coulomb stated that he had carried out these installations on the instructions of Blavatsky, but this was not confirmed when she found out about it. The devices were also obviously brand new, wood shavings and remains of the wall were still scattered around. In addition, the secret sliding doors could only be opened with considerable effort, which resulted in considerable noise. This fact was later noticed by Richard Hodgson during his investigation and confirmed in the Hodgson Report .

Publication of the letters

After their release, the Coulombs sought and found acceptance with their friends in the Free Church of Scotland Mission and that seemed to be the end of the matter. The Coulombs then gave the chaplain of this church a series of letters which Helena Petrovna Blavatsky is said to have written to Emma Coulomb. These portrayed Blavatsky as a cheater and forger of the master craftsman's letters and the secret fixtures as an aid to simulate paranormal phenomena. Chaplain George Patterson published excerpts from these letters in the September and October 1884 editions of the Chennai monthly Madras Christian College Magazine , the mouthpiece of the Reformed Church in South India.

In carrying out this fraud, Blavatsky is said to have used the Coulombs as accomplices, who made use of the secret doors and sliding walls mentioned. As a result, the phenomena allegedly actually demonstrated by Blavatsky were presented as a cleverly engineered fraud. Among other things, some of these instructions related to the appearance of the above-mentioned master craftsman's letters in the "shrine". As a result, not only was the existence of the masters of wisdom in question, but their letters also appeared to have been forged by Blavatsky and then placed themselves in the "shrine" through the wall opening. Thereupon the "shrine" was burned by the theosophists so that it could not serve as (falsified) evidence, a mistake, as later turned out.

The publications in Madras Christian College Magazine quickly spread across India as other newspapers in the country eagerly picked up and embellished the articles and turned them into a real campaign. As if that weren't enough, British and American newspapers also published this news; after all , Blavatsky was widely known in these countries as an enfant terrible . When Blavatsky and Olcott, who were in England at the time, heard of the matter, Blavatsky immediately published a denial in several newspapers . The two theosophists then made their way back to India, with Blavatsky making a stopover in Egypt to make inquiries about the Coulombs, but this was unsuccessful. Olcott reached India as early as November 1884, Blavatsky only a month later, on December 20th (21st?). In the meantime, Emma Coulomb had also published a pamphlet in which they heavily loaded Blavatsky and himself as it were, in the emergency posed located command recipient.

Failed defense and the consequences

After deliberations with the Control Council in Adyar, Olcott decided not to take legal action against Madras Christian College Magazine or the Coulombs. This decision was eventually published in Madras Christian College Magazine , but it was seen as a tactical maneuver and reinforced the belief that the letters published were true and that Blavatsky was a fraud. Thereupon Blavatsky resigned on March 21, 1885 from her position as Corresponding Secretary of the TG. A few days later (between March 26th and April 7th, 1885, there are different information about the departure date) she left India forever and moved to London , where she arrived on May 1st, 1887 and there until her death on May 8th 1891 stayed. In London, she co-founded the Blavatsky Lodge , which was founded on May 19, 1887 and which, with her help, became a successful organization, and on September 15, 1887 she founded the magazine Lucifer .

The Hodgson Report

The situation was still significantly exacerbated by one of Richard Hodgson on behalf of the Society for Psychical Research (SPR) study carried out from December 1884 to April 1885, so at the very time when the Coulomb affair made waves, as Hodgson Report has been known . In this report, Hodgson came to the conclusion that Blavatsky was indeed a fraudster and a forger.

Investigations

Opposition and criticism were directed primarily against the Hodgson Report, since in it the allegations that emerged in the Coulomb affair were recorded in detail and in writing. Since the report was published in December 1885, numerous contradictions and false statements have been uncovered. Walter Adley Carrithers Jr. (1924–1994) claimed that the secret fixtures could not have been used by Blavatsky or her accomplices to deceive. His interpretations were ineffective. It was only through the work of Vernon Harrison in 1986 and 1997, which were published in the Journal of the Society for Psychical Research (SPR), that an attempt was made to rehabilitate Blavatsky. For more information, see the Hodgson Report .

Conclusion

The effects of the Coulomb affair and the subsequent Hodgson Report on the entire Theosophical Society (TG) were devastating. There were mass withdrawals from the TG, so numerous lodges were given up or had to be closed, including the German lodge Germania .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Manuel Gogos: The Sphinx of Occultism Madam Blavatska and the Theosophical Society . In: Studiozeit - From Religion and Society . Germany radio. Retrieved November 21, 2012.
  2. ^ Matthias Eckoldt: Occultism versus Enlightenment . In: Time Travel . Germany radio. Retrieved November 21, 2012.

literature

  • Besant, Annie: HP Blavatsky and the Masters of Wisdom . Theosophical publishing house, Leipzig 1924
  • Coulomb, Emma: Some account of my association with Madame Blavatsky from 1872 to 1884 . Lawrence Asylum Press, Madras 1884
  • Harrison, Vernon: HP Blavatsky and the SPR, An Examination of the 1885 Hodgson Report . Theosophical Publishing House 1998; ISBN 3-930623-21-8
  • Hartmann, Franz: Truth and Poetry, The Theosophical Society and Adyar's Wonder Cabinet . o. O. 1906
  • Sabine Doering-Manteuffel: The occult: a success story in the shadow of the Enlightenment; from Gutenberg to the World Wide Web , 1st edition. Edition, Siedler, Munich 2008, ISBN 3886808882 .

Web links