Category: The Key To Theosophy (1889): H. P. Blavatsky

"Enq:  It is just what they say. But is it not very painful to her to be publicly denounced as "the most accomplished imposter of the age, whose name deserves to pass to posterity", as is done in the Report of the "Society for Physical Research"?   Theo:  It might be painful if it were [...]

"Enq:  But if the Masters exist, why don't they come out before all men and refute once for all the many charges which are made against Mdme. Blavatsky and the Society?   Theo:  What charges?   Enq:  That they do not exist, and that she has invented them. That they are men of straw, "Mahatmas [...]

"Enq:  But this is medieval belief in witchcraft and sorcery! Even Law itself has ceased to believe in such things?   Theo:  So much the worse for law, as it has been led, through such a lack of discrimination, into committing more than one judiciary mistake and crime. It is the term alone that frightens [...]

"Enq:  This is very interesting. Tell me, have the Adepts thus inspired or dictated to many of your Theosophists?   Theo:  No, on the contrary, to very few. Such operations require special conditions. An unscrupulous but skilled Adept of the Black Brotherhood ("Brothers of the Shadow", and Dugpas, we call them) has far less difficulties [...]

"Enq:  But you will admit that Hypnotism does nothing so miraculous or wonderful as that?   Theo:  On the contrary, it is a well-established fact that a Hypnotist can affect the brain of his subject so far as to produce an expression of his own thoughts, and even his words, through the organism of his [...]

"Enq:  Is it true that these men inspire some of your writers, and that many, if not all, of your Theosophical works were written under their dictation?   Theo:  Some have. There are passages entirely dictated by them and verbatim, but in most cases they only inspire the ideas and leave the literary form to [...]

"Enq:  And why do you call them "Masters"?   Theo:  We call them "Masters" because they are our teachers; and because from them we have derived all the Theosophical truths, however inadequately some of us may have expressed, and others understood, them.   They are men of great learning, whom we term Initiates, and still [...]

"Enq:  Who are they, finally, those whom you call your "Masters"? Some say they are "Spirits", or some other kind of supernatural beings, while others call them "myths".   Theo:  They are neither. I once heard one outsider say to another that they were a sort of male mermaids, whatever such a creature may be. [...]

"Enq:  But you must surely make money by your books, magazines, and other publications?   Theo:  The Theosophist of Madras, alone among the magazines, pays a profit, and this has regularly been turned over to the Society, year by year, as the published accounts show.   Lucifer is slowly but steadily engulfing money, never yet [...]

"Enq:  These men, I have heard, are great Adepts, Alchemists, and what not. If, then, they can change lead into gold and make as much money as they like, besides doing all kinds of miracles at will, as related in Mr. Sinnett's "Occult World", why do not they find you money, and support the Founders [...]