Den första delen av nedanstående citat från hennes tvåvolymsverk Isis Unveiled från 1877 skulle nästan kunnat varit hämtat från Vetenskap och Folkbildnings forum...
"True, the great majority of "spiritual" communications are calculated to disgust investigators of even moderate intelligence. Even when genuine they are trivial, commonplace, and often vulgar. During the past twenty years we have received through various mediums messages purporting to be from Shakespere, Byron, Franklin, Peter the Great, Napoleon and Josephine, and even from Voltaire.
The general impression made upon us was that the French conqueror and his consort seemed to have forgotten how to spell words correctly; Shakespere and Byron had become chronic inebriates; and Voltaire had turned an imbecile.
Who can blame men trained to habits of exactitude, or even simply well-educated persons, for hastily concluding that when so much palpable fraud lies upon the surface, there could hardly be truth if they should go to the bottom? The huckstering about of pompous names attached to idiotic communications has given the scientific stomach such an indigestion that it cannot assimilate even the great truth which lies on the telegraphic plateaux of this ocean of psychological phenomena. They judge by its surface, covered with froth and scum. But they might with equal propriety deny that there is any clear water in the depths of the sea when an oily scum was floating upon the surface.
Therefore, if on one hand we cannot very well blame them for stepping back at the first sight of what seems really repulsive, we do, and have a right to censure them for their unwillingness to explore deeper. Neither pearls nor cut diamonds are to be found lying loose on the ground; and these persons act as unwisely as would a professional diver, who should reject an oyster on account of its filthy and slimy appearance, when by opening it he might find a precious pearl inside the shell."
Redan i slutet av detta citat ser man förstås att hon inte var speciellt VoF:ig. Om man läser vidare ser man att hennes förklaringar till spiritismens andemeddelanden till stor del ändå var ockulta, även om hon genomgående inte accepterade att det var de döda som talade...
Den negativa synen på spiritismen råder än idag i TS Pasadena, den ena av de två största teosofiska organisationerna. I den kanske största, TS Adyar, modifierades den tidigt. Till stor del pga Charles Webster Leadbeater, som i sin bok Spiritualism and Theosophy från 1928 öppnade dörren till tron på möjligheten att kommunicera med döda.
Ett udda, men intressant ämne, som jag kanske återkommer till i någon form.
Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, cirka 1877
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