Hodgson Report

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The Hodgson Report or Hodgson Report is an investigation carried out by Richard Hodgson into the allegedly paranormal phenomena surrounding Helena Petrovna Blavatsky and the Theosophical Society (TG). The investigation initiated by the Society for Psychical Research (SPR) in 1884/85 to clarify the Coulomb affair convicted Blavatsky of forging letters from secret "masters" ("Mahatmas"), whereupon she left India forever. In the course of these controversies, theosophy split into several competing communities.

In 1986, Vernon Harrison published a criticism of the investigative methods of the Hodgson Report in the journal of the SPR, which did not prove that the "Meister" letters were forged.

prehistory

The Theosophical Society

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 . During this time, especially from 1880 in India and Sri Lanka , the TG expanded strongly. Numerous lodges were founded and within a few years the organization represented serious competition for the mission of several Christian denominations in these countries, as the TG primarily propagated the ethical and religious values ​​of Buddhism and Hinduism. In addition to Olcott as president, Blavatsky was the main figure within the TG. She often made headlines through paranormal phenomena, often exaggerated as downright miracles that she is said to have performed. Blavatsky, like the TG, also provided topics for conversation through several Masters of Wisdom , who supposedly provided answers to pending questions and problems, although they were not present, and were able to make letters appear out of nowhere. These master craftsmen's letters mostly appeared in a particular cabinet called a "shrine", and were then also a main subject of both the Coulomb affair and the Hodgson Report.

The Coulomb affair

Emma and Alexis Coulomb had been employed by the Theosophical Society (TG) since 1880, but after a few differences they were dismissed on May 14 (17?) 1884 without notice. During an inspection on May 18, the theosophists present discovered a number of secret fixtures in Blavatsky's private rooms and at the "shrine". It was obvious that the devices were brand new, the operation of the fixtures was only possible with difficulty and considerable effort, and there was considerable noise. This fact was later confirmed by Richard Hodgson during his investigation and mentioned in his report. After their release, the Coulombs were accepted into the Free Church of Scotland Mission in Chennai. 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. This news spread at lightning speed in India and subsequently all over the world, the reputation of the TG was badly and permanently affected. For more information, see the Coulomb affair .

The Hodgson Report

The Society for Psychical Research

During this time Blavatsky was on a major European tour with Olcott and other theosophists. Reports of extraordinary paranormal phenomena had been published regularly in the press for several years. In England , Olcott made contact with the Society for Psychical Research (SPR), this organization founded in 1882, engaged in the scientific research of parapsychological events. The SPR then formed a committee from its members, which, in addition to Hodgson, consisted of Edmund Gurney , Frederic WH Myers , Frank Podmore , Eleanor Mildred Sidgwick , Henry Sidgwick and John Herbert Stack . The committee held a series of conversations with Blavatsky, Olcott, and other Indian and British theosophists from May to December 1884 . In any case, the interviews increased the interest of the SPR when the Coulomb affair became known in England in September 1884 and the suspicion arose that Blavatsky was a fraud.

As a result, Richard Hodgson was appointed as a member and representative of the SPR to go to India to carry out the investigation there. Meanwhile, the SPR Committee published an internal paper in December 1884, the 130-page First Report of the Committee of the SPR , about the results of the talks, the doubts about the Coulomb affair and the Reasons justifying the investigation. Hodgson arrived in India on December 18, 1884, stayed there for about three months and returned to England in April 1885. The almost 200-page report of the Committee Appointed to Investigate Phenomena Connected with the Theosophical Society, which he wrote, was then examined by the committee, unanimously declared to be right and right, and approved by the committee provided a conclusion. Read at the general assembly of the SPR on June 24, 1885, the whole thing met with approval and was published in December 1885 in the proceedings (= minutes of the meeting) of the SPR. The name "Hodgson Report" was later established for the report.

The investigation

Hodgson's study was mainly devoted to two subjects:
1) The phenomena allegedly brought about by Blavatsky. In this context, Hodgson examined all objects and facilities that had secret fixtures and fittings. To illustrate, he made several drawings or plans of the rooms with the locations of the furniture examined.
2) The Blavatsky-Coulomb letters and, in connection with them, the master craftsmen's letters. Here Hodgson subjected the letters to a font comparison with letters that can be proven to have been written by Blavatsky. He had some of these incriminating letters checked by other people, whose statements ultimately agreed with his own. Two facsimiles of manuscripts were attached to this part of the investigation .

Hodgson's testimony was supported by Emma and Alexis Coulomb, who were the main witnesses, as well as by the Russian ex-theosophist Vsevolod Sergeevich Solovyoff , from whom Hodgson took the claim that Blavatsky was a Russian spy . As a result of his investigation, Hodgson saw as proven that Blavatsky had written the masters letters, with a disfigured handwriting, as well as the letters to the Coulombs. Hodgson saw the purpose of the secret devices and fixtures in simulating paranormal phenomena, such as making certain noises or making the masters' letters appear out of nowhere. In conclusion, he saw Blavatsky to be significantly involved in deceptions and forgeries with fraudulent intent.

Examination by the SPR committee

The SPR committee, after examining Hodgson's investigation, concluded:
1) The Blavatsky-Coulomb letters were undoubtedly written by Blavatsky. This proved that she and other people were using ordinary means to produce what appeared to be miracles to aid the Theosophical Movement.
2) That especially the "shrine", of which it was claimed that the masters of wisdom would have their letters (the masters' letters) appear there, had a device specially attached to the back in order to be able to insert the letters secretly. This device was regularly used by Blavatsky and her assistants for this purpose.
3) This led to the assumption that all narratives in connection with miracles, which are supposed to prove the existence of the Masters of Wisdom, are either

a) were a deliberate deception by Blavatsky or were instigated by her or
b) Was a casual illusion or hallucination or unconscious twist or an invention of the Witnesses.

4) After examining the surveys conducted by Richard Hodgson, we (the SPR Committee) believe that the evidence of miracles is by no means sufficient, both in extent and in character, and in relation to the above-mentioned assumptions. So we think it would be a waste of time to expand the investigation.

With reference to Ms. Blavatsky herself, the committee came to the conclusion:
From our point of view, we do not consider her the mouthpiece of invisible prophets or an ordinary adventurer; we believe that she has a right to be remembered as one of the most accomplished, ingenious, and most interesting swindlers in history.

This sentence above all, the conclusion of the entire study, has shaped public opinion to this day and has found its way into history and reference works. The Hodgson Report was often considered a prime example of scientific work , it was awarded the attributes of a masterpiece , honest , conscientious , impartial , etc.

Effects

On March 21, 1885 Blavatsky resigned 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 .

For the TG itself, the effects of the Coulomb affair and the Hodgson report were devastating. There were mass resignations, numerous lodges were given up or had to be closed, including the German lodge Germania . The hindrance to expansion in the following decades cannot be estimated.

criticism

Unsuccessful exams

It should be mentioned in advance that before the publication of the Hodgson Report, neither Blavatsky nor the TG were given the opportunity to inspect or even to comment. The appearance of the report caused a sensation, mainly because of Blavatsky's fame. Right from the start there was at times violent contradictions, both from the theosophical and from an independent perspective. Several examinations of the master craftsman's certificates as well as Hodgson's evidence led to different results or revealed serious inconsistencies in the report. In 1893, Hodgson was forced to publish a justification in the proceedings of the SPR. At more or less regular intervals, essays or books appeared that dealt with the topic and always brought new inconsistencies to light.

The work of Walter Adley Carrithers jr. (1924–1994), he also published under the pseudonym Adlai E. Waterman , in the 1950s and 1960s. The focus of Carrither's investigation was on the first part of the Hodgson report on the secret fixtures and fittings. In a meticulous textual review of the report and the events connected with it, he showed more than 100 contradictions, omissions, distortions and false statements. He then claimed that it was impossible that Blavatsky or his accomplices could have used the criticized secret devices for deception. This was hardly noticed.

Renewed considerations

On July 19, 1968, Time magazine published the article Cult of the Occult . Among other things, it said that the SPR had accused Blavatsky of being a fraudster, forger and spy. The SPR thereupon sent a letter dated July 25, 1968 to the editor of Time magazine, in which it requested correction and designated the respective authors as responsible for all publications of their society. The revocation was refused by Time-Magazine and since the SPR did not take any further steps, this had no consequences.

In the decades before and after this event, the SPR gradually came to a differentiated view of the Hodgson Report. The criticism of Hodgson and the increasing distance in time made it possible to look at the whole matter again. Nevertheless, the official SPR hesitated to withdraw the Hodgson report.

Vernon Harrison's review

In the early 1980s, Vernon Harrison began an examination of the Hodgson Report on his own initiative, and later John Beloff , as editor of the SPR Journal, assured his support in the publication of this examination. Harrison published his first investigation in 1986 under the heading "J'Accuse" (= I accuse). In 1997, the second part of his work appeared under the title "J'Accuse d'autant plus" (= I accuse all the more), both together also appeared in German translation in 1998.

Harrison concentrated his investigations on the second part of the report, that is, the Blavatsky-Coulomb letters and the masters letters. He came to the conclusion that this part had tendentious assertions and speculations, evidence had been left out and misinterpreted, and theses had been made based on incorrect arguments.

Literature and Sources

  • [1] Harrison, Vernon: HP Blavatsky and the SPR, An Examination of the Hodgson Report from 1885 . Theosophical Publishing House 1998; ISBN 3-930623-21-8
  • Hastings, Beatrice: Defense of Madame Blavatsky (Volume 2). The Hastings press, Worthington 1937
  • Hubbell, Gabriel G .: Fact and fancy in spiritualism, theosophy, and psychical research . The R. Clarke company, Cincinnati 1901
  • Kingsland, William: The real HP Blavatsky, a study in theosophy and a memoir of a great soul . JM Watkins, London 1928
  • Sinnett, Alfred Percy: The "occult world phenomena". G. Redway, London 1886
  • Society for Psychical Research (Ed.): The Society for Psychical Research report on the Theosophical Society . Arno Press, New York 1976; ISBN 0405079753
  • Solovyoff, Vsevolod Sergeevich: A modern priestess of Isis . Arno Press, New York 1976; ISBN 0405079761
  • Vania, KF: Madame HP Blavatsky, her occult phenomena and the society for physical research. Sat Publishing Co., Bombay 1951
  • Waterman, Adlai E. (pseudonym of Walter Adley Carrithers jr. ): The "Hodgson report" on Madame Blavatsky, 1885-1960, re-examination discredits the major charges against HP Blavatsky . Theosophical Publishing House, Madras 1963

Web links

Pro Blavatsky

Against Blavatsky

The Hodgson Report is not available online to date (March 2006), but is available in print - see literature.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ An allusion to Émile Zola's open letter to President Félix Faure on the Dreyfus affair .
  2. ↑ "In" J'Accuse "I wrote:" While Hodgson was willing to use any evidence, however trivial and questionable it may be, to incriminate HPB [short for Helena Petrovna Blavatsky], he ignored any evidence, His account is riddled with tendentious allegations, assumptions put forward as fact or proven fact, unconfirmed testimony from unnamed witnesses, misappropriation of evidence and utter falsehood. ”If that seems excessive, I reply that now - having had the opportunity to reread the Hodgson account in the light of the clear evidence that remains to us (the Masters' Letters in the British Library) - the Hodgson account is even worse than I had thought The Hodgson report is not - as has been assumed for more than a century - a model for impartial and conscientious investigation: it i is the work of a man who drew his conclusions early on during his investigation and then - withholding and distorting evidence - did not hesitate to use incorrect arguments to support his thesis. ", [1], foreword, page x)