Col. Olcott’s Reply to Prof. Corson—A Confession of Faith.
Professor Corson’s review of the recent publications of the Theosophical Society is so unfair; it so misstates the attitude of that Society’s members toward Spiritualism; and is so at variance with the opinions of a number of our most influential Spiritualists, as conveyed to me in private conversation and correspondence, that I cannot suffer it to pass unnoticed.
I am quite sure that no unprejudiced person who has read those documents will say that they warrant Professor Corson’s rudeness; and I am equally certain that personal conference with my associates will reveal the fact that we regard ourselves as humble investigators of Nature, and not at all as expounders of her laws. No sentiment in the President’s Inaugural Address is more strictly true than this: “We seek, inquire, reject nothing without cause, accept nothing without proof; we are students, not teachers.”1
Review this address and the Society’s Preamble, or Declaration of Principles, carefully, and there will not be found a single line, or a word, which goes to show that we hold any other views respecting our duty. We say, “Whatever may be the private opinions of its members, the Society has no dogmas to enforce, no creed to disseminate. . . . Its only axiom is the omnipotence of truth, its only creed a profession of unqualified devotion to its discovery and propagation. . . . To all, however, are alike indispensable rectitude of principle and conduct, and love of truth and wisdom.” (Preamble, page 6.) . . . “The founders of the Theosophical Society begin their work with a solemn conviction of its importance. . . . Starting with a hope rather than a conviction of the attainment of their desires, they are animated solely by an earnest purpose to learn the truth, wheresoever it may be found; and esteem no obstacles so serious, no pains so great, as to excuse them for relinquishing it.” (Ibid.)
In my address, I say that we are “simply investigators, of earnest purpose and unbiased mind, who study all things, prove all things, and hold fast to that which is good.” After alluding to the incongruous elements of which our Society is composed, and hinting at the laws of mesmerism and spirit influence, I say, “These things being so, how can we expect that as a society we can have any very remarkable illustrations of the control of the adept theurgist over the subtle powers of nature? Introducing the qualifying word ‘alleged,’ I remark that “I say alleged, as president of a non-committal society of investigation; as an individual I should omit that word and give full credit where it is due.” This sufficiently answers one of the points made in Prof. Corson’s article and urged with offensive coarseness.
Now this person pretends to see in the following passage an indication that we expect that, after we have accumulated certain proofs, the world will accept them, per saltum [in a single bound], upon our authority: “. . . they (i.e., the founders) hope that by going deeper than modern science has hitherto done into the esoteric philosophies of ancient times, they may be enabled to obtain, for themselves and other investigators, proof of the existence of an ‘Unseen Universe,’ the nature of its inhabitants, if such there be, and the laws which govern them and their relations with mankind.”
If we succeed in obtaining proof—and when I say proof, I don’t mean the contradictory assertions of mediums, or spirits, but such evidence as would carry conviction in a court of justice or the debates of a scientific congress—that there is an unseen world (which my materialistic members deny); that it has inhabitants; that these inhabitants are employed; and that they and their relations with us are controlled by law—we must keep it to ourselves. To publish the facts would be to subject ourselves to the charge of propagandism and the chop-logic of Professor Corson. Could anything more absurd be imagined?
But there are professors and professors; and if Mr. Corson thinks that Spiritualism is destined to have any better success within the coming thirty years in “fusing and harmonizing,” as he calls it, “the now conflicting elements of the religious and scientific worlds,” his confreres do not agree with him. To say nothing of the whole host of materialistic philosophers, who are doing their best to construct a Universe of dry, de-spiritualized matter, and who are effectually destroying the lingering prestige of the Church, I fancy that Mr. Corson will look in vain to those scientists who believe in spirit intercourse with us for support of his doctrine. It is the multifarious contradictions; the failures of phenomena; the exaction of profound darkness; the alleged necessity to keep far away from the medium, and offer the most favorable opportunities for deception; the Brummagem philosophical dissertations; the endorsement (not so infrequent as the best friends of the cause would desire), by pretended human spirits, of Utopian social schemes, and their tolerance of immoral personal courses of life; the seeming impossibility to offer such conditions of investigation as the true scientist invariably exacts in pursuing any branch of study—it is all these which have combined to put further off, in 1876, the “fusing and harmonizing of the now conflicting elements,” etc., than it was when the raps first sounded upon the headboard of Kate Fox’s bedstead.
Prof. Corson will not pretend to stand as high among scientific men as Wagner, of St. Petersburg, a zoologist whose opinions are quoted as authoritatively in London and Paris as they are in Moscow; and here is what Prof. Wagner says in the pamphlet he has just sent me: “In the eyes of Spiritualists, faith in our communication with spirits is reenforced by the circumstance that accounts are occasionally given in their messages of things transpiring in the present, and even presaging those which as yet have no existence. . . . But the powers of clairvoyance and prophecy are inherent in the human soul; which can sometimes foretell what will happen in remote cycles to come. No doubt future investigators will explain the nature of this soul-faculty, as they will also clear up that mystery which now so fascinates those who hunger after all that is extraordinary. . . . Every other now unraveled mystery which obstructs the road of human progress must, sooner or later, come within the domain of our conscious understanding; for such is the way of intellectual development, and there can and will be no other. . . . This way will in time bring us to the promised unseen land, which is now being dimly sketched out to us by the mediumistic phenomena. Labor, difficult, constant and patient—such is the only means to attain spiritual and mental progress.” While the manifestations coming under his notice changed him from life-long skepticism to a belief in a career for man beyond the tomb, they nevertheless struck him with their “childish absurdity, their simplicity and capriciousness,” to such a degree that the conversations of the spirits “seemed more like the phases coming to us in dreams, as reflections of our own thoughts.” And this is a man whose conversion from materialism fell upon European, but especially upon Russian, scientists with the force of a thunder-bolt; and whose profession of faith exacted from him a moral courage such as few scientists possess.
I forbear to quote the most of what he says about my methods of investigation, the completeness of my proofs, and the benefit conferred upon science by such labors as those of Mr. Crookes and myself; which, he is good enough to remark, have made out so strong a case for the believers in spiritual intercourse, that “conviction will not be shaken, until some other man like Crookes or Olcott shall upset them by counter investigations as weighty and conclusive as the researches of Olcott.” Suffice it that he regards my method as displaying “wonderful finesse in psychological analysis;” that he says that “by endorsing the Eddys and taking sides with the Spiritualists, he (I) made himself (myself) the subject of ridicule among those whom he (I) was accustomed to esteem and to be respected by;” and that, in my desire to do full justice to the subject, I “intrench myself behind an impregnable barrier of sworn affidavits and certificates of eye-witnesses, who are of totally different views and opinions upon all other questions, and who embrace among their number both confirmed Spiritualists, and such religious skeptics and materialists as, for example, Mr. Morrill of Massachusetts.”
Everywhere, Wagner speaks of the phenomena as “mediumistic”; nowhere as “spiritual.” While he now believes as thoroughly as myself in the reality of spirit return, he no more than I is content to sit quiet, and stop further investigation as soon as that fact is demonstrated. No more than I, is he willing to take the assertions of spirits as conclusive, until something more definite is known of the character of the spirits themselves. “It is all very well for you to hold the stakes,” said John Randolph, “but now tell us who will hold you?” When we have learnt when spirits can talk with us, how they talk; how much their ideas are colored by transmission through the atmosphere of their mediums; how far that atmosphere is affected by the magnetism of the circle; how the best conditions can be furnished to the good spirits we alone care to discourse with; and what different races of spirits come into relations with us, then, and only then, will Spiritualism be entitled to rank as a science; and even if science be satisfied to cease their demands for more light. Only then will that “most beautiful philosophy that the world has ever known,” and which, Mr. Corson says, “the teachings of Modern Spiritualism, disorganized as they are, involve,” be completed, and acknowledged by a materialistic world.
“The mediumistic phenomena,” says Wagner, “contain within themselves the demonstration of the soul’s immortality; but they do not end the struggle between Spiritualism and Materialism. Science will sound the depths of Psychism only when its phenomena will be investigated and demonstrated with mathematical certitude. Only then will doubt disappear, and the spiritual world amalgamate (sda confondre) with the facts of human knowledge, and the high road be opened for the progress and development of the spirit of man.”
“Proof,” says Mr. Crookes, when speaking of certain spiritual phenomena, “must be absolute, and not based upon inferential reasoning;” and while he has spent years in his researches, and he is cited all over the world as one of the most devoted of spiritualistic champions, he has never yet admitted that he believes the phenomena to be caused by a disembodied human spirit. Upon the basis of investigation formulated in the above quoted sentence I stand; and that is where the Theosophical Society as a body also stands. I personally believe in the return of our relatives and friends to talk with us; it does not: it asks for the proofs. I believe in the existence of elementary spirits, and have seen them; it has not, and hence has no belief. Mr. Felt says he has made them visible to two dozen or more persons by a chemical saturation of a column of heated air, and that he is ready and willing to repeat the experiment in our presence; the Society says neither “yea” nor “nay,” but, true to their chosen part of the student, wait with increasing interest for him to make his promised demonstration. Mr. Corson himself admits that we give “not the least intimation,” of the character “of the wonders we hope to see, nor of the means to be employed.” If we assumed to be teachers, and so properly came under his censure, we would probably leave neither point in doubt. As it is, we have “no dogmas to enforce, no creed to disseminate.”
The scope of our studies is indicated in the following sentence from the Inaugural Address: “We should make ourselves familiar with the manifold powers of the human soul, and test the claims for the potency of the human will. Mesmerism, Spiritualism, Od, the Astral Light of the ancients (now called the Universal Ether) and its currents—all these offer us the widest and most fascinating fields of exploration. Does this look as if we hinged the existence of the Society upon any one man’s experiments, or those of any half-dozen men? If there are any so foolish as to believe the lying rumors of knavish enemies that it will soon be disrupted, let them do so: it is no concern of ours. New members are being elected at every meeting; applications are being received from eminent persons in this country, our little company is now united and earnest; we have the best wishes of many of the best Spiritualists for our success; we are assured of enough money to meet all our necessary expenses; our Treasurer is president of the New York Society of Spiritualists, and in full accord with us; we have representatives of a number of influential journals on our rolls; and there is no more doubt of the perpetuity of the Society than there is of your own existence at the present moment.
One more point of Mr. Corson’s letter demands reply. He quotes from the Society’s “Preamble” the paragraph in which occurs the following sentence: “It may almost be said that the conflict is between the Romanists and the Spiritualists—the former representing the idea of ultramontanism and intolerance: the latter that of the absolute sovereignty of the individual in the matter of belief as regards their assumed intercourse with a spirit-world, and, with many, that of unbridled license in the relations of the sexes.” He actually has the hardihood to attempt to make out of these words an assault by us upon the virtue of all Spiritualists! That there may be no doubt as to his meaning, I will quote his own words. “I come now,” says Mr. Corson, “to consider the last clause of the above extract, which charges Spiritualists with the doctrine of ‘unbridled license in the relations of the sexes.’ Such a charge should arouse a burning indignation in the breast of every true Spiritualist. You, Mr. Editor, in common with all enlightened representatives of Spiritualism, know that it is a base and wicked lie, a foul slander cast upon a cause that is doing more than any other agency of the day to bring about purity of sexual relation. It is of a piece with the charge of ‘intellectual whoredom,’ advanced by Prof. Tyndall; and which has recently been so triumphantly refuted by Mr. Epes Sargent.”
Did any one ever see greater injustice? Because the Preamble states the fact, known to every one familiar with mediums and their phenomena, that “in many cases” the notions of individual sovereignty run into unbridled license, we must be made to utter a sentiment as abhorrent to the views of every one of us as the gross and sweeping libel of Prof. Tyndall! But, whether these cases are many or few I shall not discuss, as that work is done by others already, and, nolens volens [like it or not], Spiritualism has been branded with the stigma of shame by some of its most obstreperous and brazen-faced advocates. Let the multitude of pure and good Spiritualists who have had their cheeks crimson at the coupling of the name of Spiritualism with those of disreputable public characters, fancy, how we Theosophists must feel at this shameful misrepresentation of our principles by our present antagonist.
So much for the Theosophical Society and its prospects; now a word or two concerning my own views, which have been strangely, and, to me, incomprehensibly distorted. I have actually been asked by correspondents if I believed in the immortality of the soul, when everything that I have been writing for a year and a half has gone to show that I do. Let me, to save you and myself some trouble, put my belief into a few simple paragraphs:
First: I believe in the existence of a First Cause, the source of all things visible and invisible.
Second: I believe in the doctrine of Evolution, and believe that it applies to both sides of the Universe—spirit and matter. It has produced man upon this sphere, and it follows him beyond the death of the body.
Third: I believe that in the course of this Evolution of man, successive forms of spiritual entities were brought into existence, just as there have been a countless succession of physical forms of plant and animal.
Fourth: I believe that, after the death of the physical body, man’s spirit survives; and that, under favoring conditions, he can communicate with those whom he has left behind. This manifestation may be made either through mediums or in other ways.
Fifth: I believe, as the result of study and of personal observation of practical experiments, that the human mind can control the occult forces of Nature, and subjugate all spiritual beings lower than himself in the scale of Evolution, just as he has natural dominion over all the lower animals.
Sixth: I regard Modern Spiritualism, in its present form, as only a record of sporadic phenomena; which do not occur except under conditions not of our choosing; which cannot be controlled; and which are accompanied with so much that is contradictory and untruthful, that more investigation is necessary before we can be said to know anything definite about the laws of spiritual intercourse. But, still I believe that, even under such unfavorable conditions as are now furnished us by our uninstructed mediums, disembodied spirits are often drawn into communication with us by the attraction of our intense love for them.
Seventh: I regard Mesmerism and Spiritualism as portions of a broader and a demonstrable science—that of Magic. This science was known to the ancients, has been practiced for countless ages, and is now practiced in the Orient.
Eighth: I believe that the forces known as Animal Magnetism, Odyle, the magnet, psychic force, and the spiritual force, are all various manifestations of the same force—the Astral Light. This is the medium of which our spiritual bodies, the astral bodies of animals, and the vital force of plants, are portions; and the varying vibrations of which (under the name of “Ether,”) are severally designated as light, heat, electricity, and chemical action.
Ninth: While I believe that, often, human spirits have appeared to us in materialized form, more frequently a lower order of beings have appeared in the forms of persons who are called dead. Spiritualists have no means of distinguishing between these spiritual beings; Cabalists have, and need never make mistakes.
I hope that I have now been sufficiently explicit. At any rate, it is all I shall say, for I have other things to do than to write letters for newspapers.
As for the Theosophical Society, our recent experience with a certain person, who shall be nameless since his conduct has been such as to forfeit his right to recognition, has been a lesson that we mean to profit by. We are considering a proposition to organize ourselves into a secret society, so that we may pursue our studies uninterrupted by the falsehoods and impertinences of outside parties. When we have secured the proof palpable of the Unseen Universe and its laws, we may publish it to the world, unless we should then be satisfied that some other critic as courteous and fair as Mr. Corson would denounce us as guilty of “assumption,” “pretension,” or “brag.”
Henry S. Olcott.
New York, Jan. 17th, 1876.
1. Inaugural Address of the President of the Theosophical Society, page 21, second paragraph.
[Note: In her Scrapbook, H. P. Blavatsky wrote the following in the margin of her pasting of this article: “Till the row with Sotheran the Society was not a secret one, as will be seen by this. But he began to revile our experiments & denounce us to Spiritualists & impede the Society’s progress & it was found necessary to make it secret.” This note contradicts statement #1 in “To The Public,” Banner of Light, April 21, 1877, that “The Theosophical Society has been from the first a secret organization.”]