Adepts
THE MASTERS OF THEOSOPHY
INTRODUCTION
The field of Theosophical knowledge is so vast, encompassing creation, death, and the evolution of Universes, human beings and atoms, that to attempt to briefly summarize it is like trying to bring the ocean home in a cup.
Even its most ardent critics must admit, that if nothing else, it makes one ponder subjects rarely thought of by average people.
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In the history of man there have always been those special people who had more talent, knowledge and skill than the average person. Those people have been alternatively known as Shaman, Priests, Wizards, gods and Demigods.
Throughout history there have always appeared in every society those people who imparted knowledge and skill to the society in order to help that society advance. Not the least of those have been people like Hermes Mercurius Trismegistus who may have been the greatest of all.
Hermes, like so many later great men came out of nowhere. He had no family, no history and seemed to just suddenly appear out of nowhere, first in the ancient Jewish Society and later in the Egyptian Society, among others.
When they appear in a Society that Society tends to deify these people as a way to emphasize that they are special. The Ancient Egyptians deified Hermes as their god Thoth, the Greeks deified him as the god Hermes and the Romans as the god Mercury.
In Theosophy it is no different. A special group of people appeared to help Helena Blavatsky and she called them Masters (Adepts or Mahatmas), who kept in touch with one another regularly and met once a year as a group somewhere in a hidden location in the Himalayas.
They telepathically communicated with her, mostly to suggest ideas and occasionally teleporting text that HPB used verbatim in her writings.
But were they real and were they really that special? That is what we will explore here.
WHAT IS AN ADEPT or MASTER IN THEOSOPHY?
Who and what are these “Masters” who have been referred to in Theosophy? An accurate understanding in this regard seems crucial to an understanding of Theosophy and the Theosophical Movement.
The very idea of the existence of such Masters was considered fantastical and ridiculous by many people of the time, just as it is today.
When it was discovered that numerous people were claiming to have received letters and written communications from these Masters, the conclusion of the skeptically inclined was that Madame Blavatsky (HPB) herself must have been engaged in forging hundreds of letters to people around the world to trick them into thinking they were in correspondence with those Beings.
In the words of HPB:
“Our MASTERS … are simply holy mortals, nevertheless, however, higher than any in this world, morally, intellectually and spiritually,” says H.P. Blavatsky in one of her articles. “However holy and advanced in the science of the Mysteries – they are still men, members of a Brotherhood, who are the first in it to show themselves subservient to its time-honoured laws and rules.”
In the chapter titled “The Theosophical Mahatmas” in the book “The Key to Theosophy,” HPB advises the enquirer:
“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 greater holiness of life. They are not ascetics in the ordinary sense, though they certainly remain apart from the turmoil and strife of your western world. … the philosophy preached by the “Masters” is one of the grandest and most beneficent philosophies once it is properly understood. …”
HPB further explained that the Masters were simply ordinary beings who had developed extraordinary powers and knowledge through long and dedicated practice and study. Most held ordinary jobs and lived ordinary lives. If you were run into them on the street you would never recognize them as “Masters”.
A rumor had grown around the Masters that they lived extraordinarily long lives, sometimes said to be 300 years or more. HPB nixed that rumor. She said that while some of the Masters had lived a long human lifetime, the majority of them had average lifespans. She expounded on that by saying that even if capable of living extraordinarily long lives, most chose not to do so.
HPB consented to allow the suspiciously minded Society for Psychical Research (SPR), to investigate into the matter for themselves, by analyzing all the evidence available and interviewing anyone willing who claimed to have either seen, met, or received letters from the Masters. Richard Hodgson’s report, published by the SPR in 1885, accused HPB of forgery and fraud, despite furnishing no actual proof or evidence of this.
HPB, knowing perfectly well that she was no fraud, wanted to take the SPR to court. Olcott, president of the Theosophical Society, would not agree to let her do so, fearing that it would result in even further scandal and public commotion which would damage and be detrimental to the Society’s aims, influence, and public reputation. HPB, caring more for truth and justice than public image and reputation, was dejected and disheartened by what she perceived as lack of support and lack of confidence on the part of Olcott and others and after that left India for Europe, never to return.
She herself received very few “Mahatma Letters” in comparison with others, as she was understood to be in regular telepathic contact and communication with the Adepts and thus had little need for written letters. She asserted that it would not be too long before scientists would acknowledge that no distance exists in the realm of mind and that there is nothing abnormal or supernatural about two harmoniously attuned minds being able to communicate at a distance with the same ease and clarity as two individuals in the same room.
Letters from the same Masters continued to be received in various ways after HPB’s death, less frequently but in the same handwritings and style and extolling the same principles and teachings as before, along with wise advice and in some cases prophetically accurate warnings about the condition and future of the Movement. The last known was in 1900, nine years after HPB had passed away, and at the very close of the 25 year end centennial cycle, when the Masters are said to have been in most frequent contact with non-Masters.
HPB spoke plainly about the Masters in a letter to Franz Hartmann of April 1886:
“As to … that portion of your letter where you speak of the “army” of the deluded – and the “imaginary” Mahatmas of Olcott – you are absolutely and sadly right. Have I not seen the thing for nearly eight years? Have I not struggled and fought against Olcott’ s ardent and gushing imagination, and tried to stop him every day of my life? Was he not told by me … that if he did not see the Masters in their true light, and did not cease speaking and enflaming people’s imaginations, that he would be held responsible for all the evil the Society might come to? …
“Ah, if by some psychological process you could be made to see the whole truth! … I was sent to America on purpose and sent to the Eddys (farm in NY where HPB first met Olcott). There I found Olcott in love with spirits, as he became in love with the Masters later on. I was ordered to let him know that spiritual phenomena without the philosophy of Occultism were dangerous and misleading. I proved to him that all that mediums could do through spirits others could do at will without any spirits at all. … Well, I told him the whole truth. I said to him that I had known Adepts, … That, whether they were called Rosicrucians, Kabalists, or Yogis, Adepts were everywhere. Adepts – silent, secret, retiring, and who would never divulge themselves entirely to anyone, unless one did as I did – passed seven and ten years’ probation and given proofs of absolute devotion, and that he, or she, would keep silent even before a prospect and a threat of death. I fulfilled the requirements and am what I am; and this no Hodgson, no Coulombs, … can take away from me. …
“When we arrived [i.e. in India], and Master coming to Bombay bodily, paid a visit to us … Olcott became crazy. He was like Balaam’s she-ass when she saw the angel! Then came … other fanatics, who began calling them “Mahatmas”; and, little by little, the Adepts were transformed into Gods on earth. They began to be appealed to, and made puja to, and were becoming with every day more legendary and miraculous. … Well, between this idea of the Mahatmas and Olcott’s rhapsodies, what could I do? I saw with terror and anger the false track they were all pursuing. The “Masters,” as all thought, must be omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent. … The Masters knew all; why did they not help the devotee? If a mistake or a flapdoodle was committed in the Society – “How could the Masters allow you or Olcott to do so?” we were asked in amazement. The idea that the Masters were mortal men, limited even in their great powers, never crossed anyone’s mind.”
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It is fairly well known today that there are a few Yogis and ascetics in India who have puzzled and confounded scientists by their possession of unusual faculties of perception and abilities to control certain forces of Nature. Some of these cases have been reported worldwide in the news. Is it too unreasonable then to suppose that there may be Yogis, both of Indian and other nationalities, who possess and can demonstrate even more advanced powers and knowledge than this? Such are the Masters spoken of in Theosophy, whose non-existence would imply a break in the chain of evolution, an illogical gap in the natural order of things. But “if they were to come out openly and be heard of everywhere, they would be worshipped as gods by some and hunted as devils by others,” neither of these probable outcomes being desirable for them.
It is through “self-induced and self-devised efforts” over the course of many lifetimes that these souls have become Great Souls. They could never have become Masters of esoteric wisdom and knowledge had they not first mastered themselves, by entirely subjugating and renouncing their personal and passionate nature, in order to live solely to be of the utmost possible help and service to humanity.
Around thirty different people in various different parts of the world had reported and described having seen or met some of these Masters during HPB’s lifetime. In a few of these instances the Master or Masters were present in their physical body but for the majority they were in their astral body and appearing at a distance from wherever they may have been physically at that moment in time. Even some of the enemies of the Theosophical Movement admitted the existence of the Masters, especially as some of their visitations had occurred in front of whole groups of people, who had afterwards all testified in writing, under their own signatures and on their word of honor, to having witnessed the same thing. Sometimes the Masters were seen near HPB or in her presence and other times in entirely different countries or continents from where she was.
From 1880 to 1884, the Masters K.H. and M. maintained a written correspondence with A.P. Sinnett, a prominent upper class Englishman then living in India who had joined the Society and expressed the wish to help present and promulgate the Masters’ teachings. Their hundreds of letters to him were donated after his death to the oriental department of the British Museum in London and are now housed in the British Library, where anyone can see them by prior appointment. These letters, also published after his death in the book “The Mahatma Letters,” provided the basis and inspiration for Sinnett’s own books “The Occult World” and “Esoteric Buddhism,” which had the effect of drawing worldwide interest to Theosophy and the Movement.
The “Mahatma Letters” began publication in 1881 with information purportedly revealed by Master "Koot Hoomi" to Alfred Percy Sinnett, and were also influential on the early development of the tradition. Koot Hoomi, through Sinnett, revealed that high-ranking members of mystic organizations in India and Tibet were able to maintain regular telepathic contact with one another, and thus were able to communicate to each other, and also to Sinnett, without the need for either written or oral communications, and in a manner similar to the way that spirit mediums claimed to communicate with the spirits of the dead. The letters published by Sinnett, which proposed the controversial doctrine of reincarnation, were said to have been revealed through this means.
The following Mahatmas were the most important in Theosophical history. They are often referred to using abbreviations:
K.H. - Koot Hoomi (other spellings are sometimes found). Most of the Mahatma Letters to A.P. Sinnett were written by K.H.
M.- Morya. This was Blavatsky 's personal teacher wrote some letters to A.P. Sinnett.
S.- Serapis. An Adept-brother that was mostly involved with the Theosophical Society in its early days. He was instrumental in getting Blavatsky and Olcott to travel to India and corresponded with Col. Olcott in the New York days.
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Blavatsky died in 1891. Her co-founder of the Theosophical Society, Henry Steele Olcott died in 1907. After that the organization was run by the English Women’s Rights leader, Anne Bessant with the help of the occultist Charles W. Leadbeater. They expanded, some say fraudulently, the idea of the Masters and the Great White Brotherhood.
THE NON-HPB DEVEPOLEMENT OF THE STORIES ABOUT THE MASTERS
The idea of a secret organization of enlightened mystics, guiding the spiritual development of the human race, was pioneered in the late eighteenth century by Karl von Eckartshausen (1752-1803) in his book “The Cloud upon the Sanctuary”. Eckartshausen called this body of mystics, who remained active after their physical deaths on earth, the “Council of Light”. Eckartshausen's proposed communion of living and dead mystics, in turn, drew partially on Christian ideas such as the Communion of the Saints, and partially on previously circulating European ideas about secret societies of enlightened, mystical, or magic adepts typified by the Rosicrucian’s and the Illuminati.
They work on this plane through two kinds of agents: direct and indirect. Any person sincere and unselfish working in the line of the Masters' work may receive their inspiration even if they do not know it. Their direct agents are their accepted disciples, who work consciously with the Masters.
Arthur Edward Waite, in his 1898 Book of Black Magic and of Pacts, hinted at the existence of a secret group of initiates who dispense truth and wisdom to the worthy. A young Aleister Crowley, reading this, wrote Waite and was directed to read von Eckartshausen's book. Crowley's search for this secret wisdom eventually led him to become a neophyte in the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, which represented itself to be the visible and earthly outer order of the Great White Brotherhood. Within the Golden Dawn itself, its teachings claimed to be derived from a similar body of initiates which in that tradition were called the Secret Chiefs.
Eckartshausen's idea was expanded in the teachings of Helena P. Blavatsky as later developed by Charles W. Leadbeater, Alice Bailey and Helena Roerich. Charles W. Leadbeater, a close associate of Blavatsky and her successor in Theosophy, Annie Bessant, wrote that Sanat Kumara was the "King" or Lord of the World, and the head of the Great White Brotherhood of Mahatmas who had revealed the principles of Theosophy. (It is here that this tale starts to get a little weird, primarily because of the fantastical (some say iminagry) writings of Leadbeater and Bessant.)
The actual phrase "Great White Brotherhood" was used extensively in Leadbeater's 1925 book “The Masters and the Path”. Alice A. Bailey also claimed to have received numerous revelations from the Great White Brotherhood between 1920 and 1949, which are compiled in her books known collectively by her followers as the Alice A. Bailey Material. Since the introduction of the phrase, the term "Great White Brotherhood" is in some circles used generically to refer to any concept of an enlightened community of adepts, on earth or in the hereafter, with benevolent aims toward the spiritual development of the human race, and without strict regard to the names used within the tradition.
The AMORC Rosicrucian order maintains that there is a difference between the "Great White Brotherhood" and the "Great White Lodge" (a name that appears to indicate that they imagine it constitutes an initiatory hierarchy similar to Freemasonry), saying that the Great White Brotherhood is the "school or fraternity" of the Great White Lodge, and that "every true student on the Path" aspires to membership in this Brotherhood. Some of Aleister Crowley's remarks appear to indicate that Crowley identified the Great White Brotherhood with his magical secret society.
According to C. W. Leadbeater (who, with great controversy and criticism expounded the idea of the Masters and the Brotherhood), Lord Sunat Kumara is an "Advanced Being" at the Ninth level of initiation who is regarded as the “Lord” or “Regent” of Earth and of the humanity, and is thought to be the head of the Spiritual Hierarchy of Earth who dwells in Shamballah (also known as “The City of Enoch”).
Leadbeater’s Ascended Masters (The great beings the original Theosophists called the "Masters of the Ancient Wisdom"), included such as the Master Jesus, Saint Germain, Megha Alcorn aka Megan Sebastian on Earth, Kuthumi, Hatton, Gopal Das and others that are working for the Spiritual Hierarchy of our planet, under the leadership of Lord Sanat Kumara, Gautama Buddha, and Maitreya. Some Leadbeater’s followers believe the "Masters" utilize the cosmic power of the Seven Rays to advance the Plan of the Masters to encourage the continual advance of civilization on Earth toward higher levels of consciousness.
The ancient India text of the Mahabharata says that it is Sanath Kumara who comes down to help the Divine Plan of Creation, when Lord Krishna came to be. He was born to Lord Krishna as his son, and he was named Pradyumna. Sanath Kumara incarnates himself through the Divine Mother Rukmini as Pradyumna. On completion of his work, he again went back to his original position to take a seat in Shambala as Sanath Kumara.
Shambala is said by the adherents to the Leadbeater Ascended Master Teachings, to be a floating city manifested on the etheric plane somewhere above the Gobi Desert in the borderlands of Mongolia.
Shambhala is allegedly ruled over by a line of Kings of Shambhala known as Kulika or Kalki Kings , a monarch who upholds the integrity of the Kalachakra Tantra (a/k/a Stanzas of Dyzan). In the teachings of Vajrayana Buddhism, the King of Shamballa is often metaphorically referred to as The King of the World. Shamballa was thought by the Tibetans to be somewhere north of Lake Manasarovar and its adjacent Mount Kailasa, a sacred mountain in Tibet where it is thought that all the dragon currents intersect.
According to Leadbeater, once Sanat Kumara arrived here from the etheric plane of the planet Venus to Earth 18,500,000 years ago. He directed the construction of the city of Shamballa on the etheric plane above the Gobi Desert to serve as his headquarters. The main temple of Shamballa is topped with a golden dome and is surrounded by seven smaller temples—one for each of the seven rays. These temples are located on a number of wide boulevards resembling the Champs-Elysees.
In the all organizations subscribing to the "Ascended Master Teachings", Sanat Kumara is presented as an Ascended Master. He is also currently, according to the Leadbeater Ascended Master Teachings, known as the "Regent Lord of the World" in deference to Gautama Buddha having taken the office of "Lord of the World". With Buddha taking on more of the day-to-day administrative tasks of governing the planet, this arrangement allowed Sanat Kumara more time for the long-range galactic planning and interstellar diplomacy that is necessary for him to prepare Earth for its eventual admission the Galactic Confederation of Planets.
Sanat Kumara's symbol of the authority of his office as Lord of the World is a 2-foot-long, 2-inch-wide magic wand called the Rod of Power made of the metal orichalcum, with cone-shaped diamonds on each end.
Lord Sanat Kumara conducts business in an enormous room in his palace called The Council Chamber of the Lord of the World. It is here that he regularly meets with Maitreya, the Maha Chohan, Djwal Khul, St. Germain, the Master Jesus and the other Masters of the Ancient Wisdom, of which it is said there are 24 principal council members, to assess the progress being made in implementing The Plan of the Masters to bring the human race to higher levels of consciousness. It is also here that he periodically personally receives ambassadors from other solar systems.
Sanat Kumara has many assistants who help him in his arduous task of spiritually governing Earth as its presiding Regent. These include The Watcher (also called the Silent Watcher or the Great Silent Watcher), whose function it is to continually watch the Akashic records and download daily all the information on them relevant to the life waves of Earth and forward it to the Custodian of the Hall of Records.
The Watcher is part of a special race of beings who fulfill this function that are posted on planets throughout the Cosmos ; the Lords of Karma.
The Karmic Board decides when souls that are between lives are to reincarnate again (if a disembodied soul desires to reincarnate somewhere or sometime else than where they have been assigned, they must file an appeal with the Karmic Board—each person has to file an appeal to the member of the board that handles the appeals for their soul ray).
The Custodian of the Hall of Records (called the Keeper of the Scrolls in the Ascended Master Teachings), the being who is in charge of the Hall of Records, an enormous administrative complex near Sanat Kumara’s palace in the etheric city of Shamballa—this is where the Recording Angels and those souls who are between incarnations who volunteer to give up their time in Summerland and help perform this work make visual records (utilizing the most advanced supercomputers on the etheric plane of Earth) of everything that happens in everyone’s lives on Earth. The raw data is first downloaded daily by The Watcher from the Akashic records and fed by him to the Custodian of the Hall of Records and thence forwarded to the recording angels and their volunteer helpers. These imprint records are sorted daily first into one of seven general files by the soul ray (see seven rays) of the soul that is reincarnating, and then downloaded from that general file into a special individual file for each soul that can be consulted by the Karmic Board if that soul makes an appeal before it.
The “Masters” are misunderstood by many people today due largely to their misrepresentation by later Theosophists after the time of HPB and by those persons within the New Age Movement who purport to be in contact with the same Masters and who call them “Ascended Masters” and portray them as some sort of disembodied angelic or god-like beings living in other realms and liberally dispensing sentimental commonplaces and inane quasi-Christian ideas, replete with all the latest New Age jargon and buzzwords, whilst flatly denying and contradicting all the teachings given out through HPB and in their own Letters.
If these so-called “Ascended Masters” have any existence at all outside of the imagination and hallucinations of their self-proclaimed channellers and worshippers, it is safe to say that they are most certainly not the same individuals as the Masters connected with HPB and the Theosophical Movement.
SPECIAL ACTS OF THE MASTERS
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While Clairvoyance (the power of discerning objects not present to the normal senses), clairaudience (the ability to hear spirits speak), thought-transference (mental telepathy), prophecy, dream and vision, levitation, apparitional appearance (teleportation/ materialization), are all powers that have been known for centuries in spiritualism and the occult. The abilities and powers of the Masters of Theosophy are such as to involve the faculties of clairvoyance, clairaudience, psychic perception, telepathy, the ability to bring about unusual phenomena such as producing sounds, sights, and materializations of objects without there being any discernible physical cause (holographic projection). Also an extensive use of the astral body, including perfection in such things as are now referred to as astral travel and astral projection (remote viewing).
HPB claimed that the materialization of a tea cup and saucer from the Masters. Others claimed that the Masters could make it rain inside a room, but when they left everything would be dry.The Masters were designated as having a plethora of special and magical powers.
Suffice it to say that some of them (reported by others –not HPB) were beyond belief and appear to be imaginary rambling of some deluded individuals.
LETTERS OF THE MASTERS
It would literally take volumes of books to reproduce all of the letters of the Masters, so here we will examine only one, as a sample of their work.
Below is an Excerpt from “The Mahatma Letters to A.P. Sinnett”,
compiled by A.T. Barker, Letter #12 by Master Koot Hoomi, p 24:
"No — you do not "write too much." I am only sorry to have so little time at my disposal; hence — to find myself unable to answer you as speedily as I otherwise would. Of course I have to read every word you write: otherwise I would make a fine mess of it. And whether it be through my physical or spiritual eyes the time required for it is practically the same. As much may be said of my replies. For, whether I "precipitate" or dictate them or write my answers myself, the difference in time saved is very minute. I have to think it over, to photograph every word and sentence carefully in my brain before it can be repeated by "precipitation." .....
Plato was right: ideas rule the world; and, as men's minds will receive new ideas, laying aside the old and effete, the world will advance: mighty revolutions will spring from them; creeds and even powers will crumble before their onward march crushed by the irresistible force. It will be just as impossible to resist their influx, when the time comes, as to stay the progress of the tide. But all this will come gradually on, and before it comes we have a duty set before us; that of sweeping away as much as possible the dross left to us by our pious forefathers. New ideas have to be planted on clean places, for these ideas touch upon the most momentous subjects. It is not physical phenomena but these universal ideas that we study, as to comprehend the former, we have to first understand the latter.
They touch man's true position in the universe, in relation to his previous and future births; his origin and ultimate destiny; the relation of the mortal to the immortal; of the temporary to the eternal; of the finite to the infinite; ideas larger, grander, more comprehensive, recognising the universal reign of Immutable Law, unchanging and unchangeable in regard to which there is only an ETERNAL Now, while to uninitiated mortals time is past or future as related to their finite existence on this material speck of dirt. This is what we study and what many have solved.
And now it is your province to decide which will you have: the highest philosophy or simple exhibitions of occult powers. Of course this is by far not the last word between us and — you will have time to think it over. The Chiefs want a "Brotherhood of Humanity," a real Universal Fraternity started; an institution which would make itself known throughout the world and arrest the attention of the highest minds..... Will you be my co-worker and patiently wait for minor phenomena? I think I foresee the answer. At all events the holy lamp of spiritual light burning in you (however dimly) there is hope for you, and — for me, also. ....... Meanwhile, being human I have to rest. I took no sleep for over 60 hours.
Ever yours truly,
KOOT' HOOMI.”
The London Museum actually tested one of the Mahatma Letters to see how it was written, what ink was used , etc. To their surprise they found that the words of the letter were not written on the letter, but were actually part of the paper of the letter. Further, the letters were not solid, as would have been had ink been used, but were instead made up of many tiny “dots”, which they could not then explain.
CONCLUSION
If there are in fact “Masters”, then I personally would ascribe to the description of them by HPB. That they were ordinary men with extraordinary powers. Such people do exist.
However, personally I would reject most descriptions of them by Olcott and all of them by Leadbeater. The latter having been subject to flights of fantasy in describing the Masters and their powers.
The Masters of HPB could telepathically communicate with one another and sometimes with ordinary people who had advanced training, like HPB. They were experts at “remote viewing”. The Masters could “precipitate” letters and other small objects, such as a tea cup, out of thin air and could perform various visual phenomena, like making it appear to rain in a room, but later it would not be wet.
In the 19th Century such feats appeared to be magical. Today anyone can communicate long distances with others using cell phones, we can remote view through SKYPE and other similar APPS. Likewise we can use a Holographic Projector to make it appear to rain in a room or to make it looks like whales or dinosaurs are suddenly appearing in a room from the floors or walls.
Were the Masters simply using such modern technology? If they were using the power of their minds to perform such things, how did they develop their minds to such an extent?
If they were using advanced technology then where did they get it? If it was purely mental, then we have to ask ourselves what kind of people were they, if in fact they were really “people” at all. Could it have been that they were actually from the future or were they from somewhere other than Earth? Legitimate questions which we cannot now answer.
If we accept at face value that the Masters did what they were reported to have done by HPB, Olcott, Sinnett and others, then we have some serious questions to resolve, if the questions are resolvable. If the questions are not resolvable then we just have to blindly accept as Dogma that they somehow did all the things that they were reported to have done without further question or inquiry. I am not prepared to do that.
If we accept the clear evidence of some very credible people then we must admit that there were/are “Masters” and they had/have the powers that they were reported to have had. The only questions that remain are “How did they do it and “Why”?
The “Why” is the easy part? They did it for the reason that they said that they did it. That was to help humanity advance into a better future.
We may never have the definitive answer as to “How” they did it, however we can narrow it down to a few possibilities.
The simple answer to the question who were “THE MASRES OF THEOSOPHY” is simple. They were who HPB said they were: extraordinary sentient beings with incredible powers or as she put it “…simply holy mortals, nevertheless, however, higher than any in this world, morally, intellectually and spiritually… who are still men, members of a Brotherhood, who are the first in it to show themselves subservient to its time-honoured laws and rules.” The Adepts are special old souls who must be in a human body, must be incarnate to be “Masters”, and, for now, we can go no further.
However, they only way to ever know is to explore that question, and that is what we will do.
Scott Ramsey
July 5, 2019
THE MASTERS OF THEOSOPHY
INTRODUCTION
The field of Theosophical knowledge is so vast, encompassing creation, death, and the evolution of Universes, human beings and atoms, that to attempt to briefly summarize it is like trying to bring the ocean home in a cup.
Even its most ardent critics must admit, that if nothing else, it makes one ponder subjects rarely thought of by average people.
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In the history of man there have always been those special people who had more talent, knowledge and skill than the average person. Those people have been alternatively known as Shaman, Priests, Wizards, gods and Demigods.
Throughout history there have always appeared in every society those people who imparted knowledge and skill to the society in order to help that society advance. Not the least of those have been people like Hermes Mercurius Trismegistus who may have been the greatest of all.
Hermes, like so many later great men came out of nowhere. He had no family, no history and seemed to just suddenly appear out of nowhere, first in the ancient Jewish Society and later in the Egyptian Society, among others.
When they appear in a Society that Society tends to deify these people as a way to emphasize that they are special. The Ancient Egyptians deified Hermes as their god Thoth, the Greeks deified him as the god Hermes and the Romans as the god Mercury.
In Theosophy it is no different. A special group of people appeared to help Helena Blavatsky and she called them Masters (Adepts or Mahatmas), who kept in touch with one another regularly and met once a year as a group somewhere in a hidden location in the Himalayas.
They telepathically communicated with her, mostly to suggest ideas and occasionally teleporting text that HPB used verbatim in her writings.
But were they real and were they really that special? That is what we will explore here.
WHAT IS AN ADEPT or MASTER IN THEOSOPHY?
Who and what are these “Masters” who have been referred to in Theosophy? An accurate understanding in this regard seems crucial to an understanding of Theosophy and the Theosophical Movement.
The very idea of the existence of such Masters was considered fantastical and ridiculous by many people of the time, just as it is today.
When it was discovered that numerous people were claiming to have received letters and written communications from these Masters, the conclusion of the skeptically inclined was that Madame Blavatsky (HPB) herself must have been engaged in forging hundreds of letters to people around the world to trick them into thinking they were in correspondence with those Beings.
In the words of HPB:
“Our MASTERS … are simply holy mortals, nevertheless, however, higher than any in this world, morally, intellectually and spiritually,” says H.P. Blavatsky in one of her articles. “However holy and advanced in the science of the Mysteries – they are still men, members of a Brotherhood, who are the first in it to show themselves subservient to its time-honoured laws and rules.”
In the chapter titled “The Theosophical Mahatmas” in the book “The Key to Theosophy,” HPB advises the enquirer:
“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 greater holiness of life. They are not ascetics in the ordinary sense, though they certainly remain apart from the turmoil and strife of your western world. … the philosophy preached by the “Masters” is one of the grandest and most beneficent philosophies once it is properly understood. …”
HPB further explained that the Masters were simply ordinary beings who had developed extraordinary powers and knowledge through long and dedicated practice and study. Most held ordinary jobs and lived ordinary lives. If you were run into them on the street you would never recognize them as “Masters”.
A rumor had grown around the Masters that they lived extraordinarily long lives, sometimes said to be 300 years or more. HPB nixed that rumor. She said that while some of the Masters had lived a long human lifetime, the majority of them had average lifespans. She expounded on that by saying that even if capable of living extraordinarily long lives, most chose not to do so.
HPB consented to allow the suspiciously minded Society for Psychical Research (SPR), to investigate into the matter for themselves, by analyzing all the evidence available and interviewing anyone willing who claimed to have either seen, met, or received letters from the Masters. Richard Hodgson’s report, published by the SPR in 1885, accused HPB of forgery and fraud, despite furnishing no actual proof or evidence of this.
HPB, knowing perfectly well that she was no fraud, wanted to take the SPR to court. Olcott, president of the Theosophical Society, would not agree to let her do so, fearing that it would result in even further scandal and public commotion which would damage and be detrimental to the Society’s aims, influence, and public reputation. HPB, caring more for truth and justice than public image and reputation, was dejected and disheartened by what she perceived as lack of support and lack of confidence on the part of Olcott and others and after that left India for Europe, never to return.
She herself received very few “Mahatma Letters” in comparison with others, as she was understood to be in regular telepathic contact and communication with the Adepts and thus had little need for written letters. She asserted that it would not be too long before scientists would acknowledge that no distance exists in the realm of mind and that there is nothing abnormal or supernatural about two harmoniously attuned minds being able to communicate at a distance with the same ease and clarity as two individuals in the same room.
Letters from the same Masters continued to be received in various ways after HPB’s death, less frequently but in the same handwritings and style and extolling the same principles and teachings as before, along with wise advice and in some cases prophetically accurate warnings about the condition and future of the Movement. The last known was in 1900, nine years after HPB had passed away, and at the very close of the 25 year end centennial cycle, when the Masters are said to have been in most frequent contact with non-Masters.
HPB spoke plainly about the Masters in a letter to Franz Hartmann of April 1886:
“As to … that portion of your letter where you speak of the “army” of the deluded – and the “imaginary” Mahatmas of Olcott – you are absolutely and sadly right. Have I not seen the thing for nearly eight years? Have I not struggled and fought against Olcott’ s ardent and gushing imagination, and tried to stop him every day of my life? Was he not told by me … that if he did not see the Masters in their true light, and did not cease speaking and enflaming people’s imaginations, that he would be held responsible for all the evil the Society might come to? …
“Ah, if by some psychological process you could be made to see the whole truth! … I was sent to America on purpose and sent to the Eddys (farm in NY where HPB first met Olcott). There I found Olcott in love with spirits, as he became in love with the Masters later on. I was ordered to let him know that spiritual phenomena without the philosophy of Occultism were dangerous and misleading. I proved to him that all that mediums could do through spirits others could do at will without any spirits at all. … Well, I told him the whole truth. I said to him that I had known Adepts, … That, whether they were called Rosicrucians, Kabalists, or Yogis, Adepts were everywhere. Adepts – silent, secret, retiring, and who would never divulge themselves entirely to anyone, unless one did as I did – passed seven and ten years’ probation and given proofs of absolute devotion, and that he, or she, would keep silent even before a prospect and a threat of death. I fulfilled the requirements and am what I am; and this no Hodgson, no Coulombs, … can take away from me. …
“When we arrived [i.e. in India], and Master coming to Bombay bodily, paid a visit to us … Olcott became crazy. He was like Balaam’s she-ass when she saw the angel! Then came … other fanatics, who began calling them “Mahatmas”; and, little by little, the Adepts were transformed into Gods on earth. They began to be appealed to, and made puja to, and were becoming with every day more legendary and miraculous. … Well, between this idea of the Mahatmas and Olcott’s rhapsodies, what could I do? I saw with terror and anger the false track they were all pursuing. The “Masters,” as all thought, must be omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent. … The Masters knew all; why did they not help the devotee? If a mistake or a flapdoodle was committed in the Society – “How could the Masters allow you or Olcott to do so?” we were asked in amazement. The idea that the Masters were mortal men, limited even in their great powers, never crossed anyone’s mind.”
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It is fairly well known today that there are a few Yogis and ascetics in India who have puzzled and confounded scientists by their possession of unusual faculties of perception and abilities to control certain forces of Nature. Some of these cases have been reported worldwide in the news. Is it too unreasonable then to suppose that there may be Yogis, both of Indian and other nationalities, who possess and can demonstrate even more advanced powers and knowledge than this? Such are the Masters spoken of in Theosophy, whose non-existence would imply a break in the chain of evolution, an illogical gap in the natural order of things. But “if they were to come out openly and be heard of everywhere, they would be worshipped as gods by some and hunted as devils by others,” neither of these probable outcomes being desirable for them.
It is through “self-induced and self-devised efforts” over the course of many lifetimes that these souls have become Great Souls. They could never have become Masters of esoteric wisdom and knowledge had they not first mastered themselves, by entirely subjugating and renouncing their personal and passionate nature, in order to live solely to be of the utmost possible help and service to humanity.
Around thirty different people in various different parts of the world had reported and described having seen or met some of these Masters during HPB’s lifetime. In a few of these instances the Master or Masters were present in their physical body but for the majority they were in their astral body and appearing at a distance from wherever they may have been physically at that moment in time. Even some of the enemies of the Theosophical Movement admitted the existence of the Masters, especially as some of their visitations had occurred in front of whole groups of people, who had afterwards all testified in writing, under their own signatures and on their word of honor, to having witnessed the same thing. Sometimes the Masters were seen near HPB or in her presence and other times in entirely different countries or continents from where she was.
From 1880 to 1884, the Masters K.H. and M. maintained a written correspondence with A.P. Sinnett, a prominent upper class Englishman then living in India who had joined the Society and expressed the wish to help present and promulgate the Masters’ teachings. Their hundreds of letters to him were donated after his death to the oriental department of the British Museum in London and are now housed in the British Library, where anyone can see them by prior appointment. These letters, also published after his death in the book “The Mahatma Letters,” provided the basis and inspiration for Sinnett’s own books “The Occult World” and “Esoteric Buddhism,” which had the effect of drawing worldwide interest to Theosophy and the Movement.
The “Mahatma Letters” began publication in 1881 with information purportedly revealed by Master "Koot Hoomi" to Alfred Percy Sinnett, and were also influential on the early development of the tradition. Koot Hoomi, through Sinnett, revealed that high-ranking members of mystic organizations in India and Tibet were able to maintain regular telepathic contact with one another, and thus were able to communicate to each other, and also to Sinnett, without the need for either written or oral communications, and in a manner similar to the way that spirit mediums claimed to communicate with the spirits of the dead. The letters published by Sinnett, which proposed the controversial doctrine of reincarnation, were said to have been revealed through this means.
The following Mahatmas were the most important in Theosophical history. They are often referred to using abbreviations:
K.H. - Koot Hoomi (other spellings are sometimes found). Most of the Mahatma Letters to A.P. Sinnett were written by K.H.
M.- Morya. This was Blavatsky 's personal teacher wrote some letters to A.P. Sinnett.
S.- Serapis. An Adept-brother that was mostly involved with the Theosophical Society in its early days. He was instrumental in getting Blavatsky and Olcott to travel to India and corresponded with Col. Olcott in the New York days.
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Blavatsky died in 1891. Her co-founder of the Theosophical Society, Henry Steele Olcott died in 1907. After that the organization was run by the English Women’s Rights leader, Anne Bessant with the help of the occultist Charles W. Leadbeater. They expanded, some say fraudulently, the idea of the Masters and the Great White Brotherhood.
THE NON-HPB DEVEPOLEMENT OF THE STORIES ABOUT THE MASTERS
The idea of a secret organization of enlightened mystics, guiding the spiritual development of the human race, was pioneered in the late eighteenth century by Karl von Eckartshausen (1752-1803) in his book “The Cloud upon the Sanctuary”. Eckartshausen called this body of mystics, who remained active after their physical deaths on earth, the “Council of Light”. Eckartshausen's proposed communion of living and dead mystics, in turn, drew partially on Christian ideas such as the Communion of the Saints, and partially on previously circulating European ideas about secret societies of enlightened, mystical, or magic adepts typified by the Rosicrucian’s and the Illuminati.
They work on this plane through two kinds of agents: direct and indirect. Any person sincere and unselfish working in the line of the Masters' work may receive their inspiration even if they do not know it. Their direct agents are their accepted disciples, who work consciously with the Masters.
Arthur Edward Waite, in his 1898 Book of Black Magic and of Pacts, hinted at the existence of a secret group of initiates who dispense truth and wisdom to the worthy. A young Aleister Crowley, reading this, wrote Waite and was directed to read von Eckartshausen's book. Crowley's search for this secret wisdom eventually led him to become a neophyte in the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, which represented itself to be the visible and earthly outer order of the Great White Brotherhood. Within the Golden Dawn itself, its teachings claimed to be derived from a similar body of initiates which in that tradition were called the Secret Chiefs.
Eckartshausen's idea was expanded in the teachings of Helena P. Blavatsky as later developed by Charles W. Leadbeater, Alice Bailey and Helena Roerich. Charles W. Leadbeater, a close associate of Blavatsky and her successor in Theosophy, Annie Bessant, wrote that Sanat Kumara was the "King" or Lord of the World, and the head of the Great White Brotherhood of Mahatmas who had revealed the principles of Theosophy. (It is here that this tale starts to get a little weird, primarily because of the fantastical (some say iminagry) writings of Leadbeater and Bessant.)
The actual phrase "Great White Brotherhood" was used extensively in Leadbeater's 1925 book “The Masters and the Path”. Alice A. Bailey also claimed to have received numerous revelations from the Great White Brotherhood between 1920 and 1949, which are compiled in her books known collectively by her followers as the Alice A. Bailey Material. Since the introduction of the phrase, the term "Great White Brotherhood" is in some circles used generically to refer to any concept of an enlightened community of adepts, on earth or in the hereafter, with benevolent aims toward the spiritual development of the human race, and without strict regard to the names used within the tradition.
The AMORC Rosicrucian order maintains that there is a difference between the "Great White Brotherhood" and the "Great White Lodge" (a name that appears to indicate that they imagine it constitutes an initiatory hierarchy similar to Freemasonry), saying that the Great White Brotherhood is the "school or fraternity" of the Great White Lodge, and that "every true student on the Path" aspires to membership in this Brotherhood. Some of Aleister Crowley's remarks appear to indicate that Crowley identified the Great White Brotherhood with his magical secret society.
According to C. W. Leadbeater (who, with great controversy and criticism expounded the idea of the Masters and the Brotherhood), Lord Sunat Kumara is an "Advanced Being" at the Ninth level of initiation who is regarded as the “Lord” or “Regent” of Earth and of the humanity, and is thought to be the head of the Spiritual Hierarchy of Earth who dwells in Shamballah (also known as “The City of Enoch”).
Leadbeater’s Ascended Masters (The great beings the original Theosophists called the "Masters of the Ancient Wisdom"), included such as the Master Jesus, Saint Germain, Megha Alcorn aka Megan Sebastian on Earth, Kuthumi, Hatton, Gopal Das and others that are working for the Spiritual Hierarchy of our planet, under the leadership of Lord Sanat Kumara, Gautama Buddha, and Maitreya. Some Leadbeater’s followers believe the "Masters" utilize the cosmic power of the Seven Rays to advance the Plan of the Masters to encourage the continual advance of civilization on Earth toward higher levels of consciousness.
The ancient India text of the Mahabharata says that it is Sanath Kumara who comes down to help the Divine Plan of Creation, when Lord Krishna came to be. He was born to Lord Krishna as his son, and he was named Pradyumna. Sanath Kumara incarnates himself through the Divine Mother Rukmini as Pradyumna. On completion of his work, he again went back to his original position to take a seat in Shambala as Sanath Kumara.
Shambala is said by the adherents to the Leadbeater Ascended Master Teachings, to be a floating city manifested on the etheric plane somewhere above the Gobi Desert in the borderlands of Mongolia.
Shambhala is allegedly ruled over by a line of Kings of Shambhala known as Kulika or Kalki Kings , a monarch who upholds the integrity of the Kalachakra Tantra (a/k/a Stanzas of Dyzan). In the teachings of Vajrayana Buddhism, the King of Shamballa is often metaphorically referred to as The King of the World. Shamballa was thought by the Tibetans to be somewhere north of Lake Manasarovar and its adjacent Mount Kailasa, a sacred mountain in Tibet where it is thought that all the dragon currents intersect.
According to Leadbeater, once Sanat Kumara arrived here from the etheric plane of the planet Venus to Earth 18,500,000 years ago. He directed the construction of the city of Shamballa on the etheric plane above the Gobi Desert to serve as his headquarters. The main temple of Shamballa is topped with a golden dome and is surrounded by seven smaller temples—one for each of the seven rays. These temples are located on a number of wide boulevards resembling the Champs-Elysees.
In the all organizations subscribing to the "Ascended Master Teachings", Sanat Kumara is presented as an Ascended Master. He is also currently, according to the Leadbeater Ascended Master Teachings, known as the "Regent Lord of the World" in deference to Gautama Buddha having taken the office of "Lord of the World". With Buddha taking on more of the day-to-day administrative tasks of governing the planet, this arrangement allowed Sanat Kumara more time for the long-range galactic planning and interstellar diplomacy that is necessary for him to prepare Earth for its eventual admission the Galactic Confederation of Planets.
Sanat Kumara's symbol of the authority of his office as Lord of the World is a 2-foot-long, 2-inch-wide magic wand called the Rod of Power made of the metal orichalcum, with cone-shaped diamonds on each end.
Lord Sanat Kumara conducts business in an enormous room in his palace called The Council Chamber of the Lord of the World. It is here that he regularly meets with Maitreya, the Maha Chohan, Djwal Khul, St. Germain, the Master Jesus and the other Masters of the Ancient Wisdom, of which it is said there are 24 principal council members, to assess the progress being made in implementing The Plan of the Masters to bring the human race to higher levels of consciousness. It is also here that he periodically personally receives ambassadors from other solar systems.
Sanat Kumara has many assistants who help him in his arduous task of spiritually governing Earth as its presiding Regent. These include The Watcher (also called the Silent Watcher or the Great Silent Watcher), whose function it is to continually watch the Akashic records and download daily all the information on them relevant to the life waves of Earth and forward it to the Custodian of the Hall of Records.
The Watcher is part of a special race of beings who fulfill this function that are posted on planets throughout the Cosmos ; the Lords of Karma.
The Karmic Board decides when souls that are between lives are to reincarnate again (if a disembodied soul desires to reincarnate somewhere or sometime else than where they have been assigned, they must file an appeal with the Karmic Board—each person has to file an appeal to the member of the board that handles the appeals for their soul ray).
The Custodian of the Hall of Records (called the Keeper of the Scrolls in the Ascended Master Teachings), the being who is in charge of the Hall of Records, an enormous administrative complex near Sanat Kumara’s palace in the etheric city of Shamballa—this is where the Recording Angels and those souls who are between incarnations who volunteer to give up their time in Summerland and help perform this work make visual records (utilizing the most advanced supercomputers on the etheric plane of Earth) of everything that happens in everyone’s lives on Earth. The raw data is first downloaded daily by The Watcher from the Akashic records and fed by him to the Custodian of the Hall of Records and thence forwarded to the recording angels and their volunteer helpers. These imprint records are sorted daily first into one of seven general files by the soul ray (see seven rays) of the soul that is reincarnating, and then downloaded from that general file into a special individual file for each soul that can be consulted by the Karmic Board if that soul makes an appeal before it.
The “Masters” are misunderstood by many people today due largely to their misrepresentation by later Theosophists after the time of HPB and by those persons within the New Age Movement who purport to be in contact with the same Masters and who call them “Ascended Masters” and portray them as some sort of disembodied angelic or god-like beings living in other realms and liberally dispensing sentimental commonplaces and inane quasi-Christian ideas, replete with all the latest New Age jargon and buzzwords, whilst flatly denying and contradicting all the teachings given out through HPB and in their own Letters.
If these so-called “Ascended Masters” have any existence at all outside of the imagination and hallucinations of their self-proclaimed channellers and worshippers, it is safe to say that they are most certainly not the same individuals as the Masters connected with HPB and the Theosophical Movement.
SPECIAL ACTS OF THE MASTERS
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While Clairvoyance (the power of discerning objects not present to the normal senses), clairaudience (the ability to hear spirits speak), thought-transference (mental telepathy), prophecy, dream and vision, levitation, apparitional appearance (teleportation/ materialization), are all powers that have been known for centuries in spiritualism and the occult. The abilities and powers of the Masters of Theosophy are such as to involve the faculties of clairvoyance, clairaudience, psychic perception, telepathy, the ability to bring about unusual phenomena such as producing sounds, sights, and materializations of objects without there being any discernible physical cause (holographic projection). Also an extensive use of the astral body, including perfection in such things as are now referred to as astral travel and astral projection (remote viewing).
HPB claimed that the materialization of a tea cup and saucer from the Masters. Others claimed that the Masters could make it rain inside a room, but when they left everything would be dry.The Masters were designated as having a plethora of special and magical powers.
Suffice it to say that some of them (reported by others –not HPB) were beyond belief and appear to be imaginary rambling of some deluded individuals.
LETTERS OF THE MASTERS
It would literally take volumes of books to reproduce all of the letters of the Masters, so here we will examine only one, as a sample of their work.
Below is an Excerpt from “The Mahatma Letters to A.P. Sinnett”,
compiled by A.T. Barker, Letter #12 by Master Koot Hoomi, p 24:
"No — you do not "write too much." I am only sorry to have so little time at my disposal; hence — to find myself unable to answer you as speedily as I otherwise would. Of course I have to read every word you write: otherwise I would make a fine mess of it. And whether it be through my physical or spiritual eyes the time required for it is practically the same. As much may be said of my replies. For, whether I "precipitate" or dictate them or write my answers myself, the difference in time saved is very minute. I have to think it over, to photograph every word and sentence carefully in my brain before it can be repeated by "precipitation." .....
Plato was right: ideas rule the world; and, as men's minds will receive new ideas, laying aside the old and effete, the world will advance: mighty revolutions will spring from them; creeds and even powers will crumble before their onward march crushed by the irresistible force. It will be just as impossible to resist their influx, when the time comes, as to stay the progress of the tide. But all this will come gradually on, and before it comes we have a duty set before us; that of sweeping away as much as possible the dross left to us by our pious forefathers. New ideas have to be planted on clean places, for these ideas touch upon the most momentous subjects. It is not physical phenomena but these universal ideas that we study, as to comprehend the former, we have to first understand the latter.
They touch man's true position in the universe, in relation to his previous and future births; his origin and ultimate destiny; the relation of the mortal to the immortal; of the temporary to the eternal; of the finite to the infinite; ideas larger, grander, more comprehensive, recognising the universal reign of Immutable Law, unchanging and unchangeable in regard to which there is only an ETERNAL Now, while to uninitiated mortals time is past or future as related to their finite existence on this material speck of dirt. This is what we study and what many have solved.
And now it is your province to decide which will you have: the highest philosophy or simple exhibitions of occult powers. Of course this is by far not the last word between us and — you will have time to think it over. The Chiefs want a "Brotherhood of Humanity," a real Universal Fraternity started; an institution which would make itself known throughout the world and arrest the attention of the highest minds..... Will you be my co-worker and patiently wait for minor phenomena? I think I foresee the answer. At all events the holy lamp of spiritual light burning in you (however dimly) there is hope for you, and — for me, also. ....... Meanwhile, being human I have to rest. I took no sleep for over 60 hours.
Ever yours truly,
KOOT' HOOMI.”
The London Museum actually tested one of the Mahatma Letters to see how it was written, what ink was used , etc. To their surprise they found that the words of the letter were not written on the letter, but were actually part of the paper of the letter. Further, the letters were not solid, as would have been had ink been used, but were instead made up of many tiny “dots”, which they could not then explain.
CONCLUSION
If there are in fact “Masters”, then I personally would ascribe to the description of them by HPB. That they were ordinary men with extraordinary powers. Such people do exist.
However, personally I would reject most descriptions of them by Olcott and all of them by Leadbeater. The latter having been subject to flights of fantasy in describing the Masters and their powers.
The Masters of HPB could telepathically communicate with one another and sometimes with ordinary people who had advanced training, like HPB. They were experts at “remote viewing”. The Masters could “precipitate” letters and other small objects, such as a tea cup, out of thin air and could perform various visual phenomena, like making it appear to rain in a room, but later it would not be wet.
In the 19th Century such feats appeared to be magical. Today anyone can communicate long distances with others using cell phones, we can remote view through SKYPE and other similar APPS. Likewise we can use a Holographic Projector to make it appear to rain in a room or to make it looks like whales or dinosaurs are suddenly appearing in a room from the floors or walls.
Were the Masters simply using such modern technology? If they were using the power of their minds to perform such things, how did they develop their minds to such an extent?
If they were using advanced technology then where did they get it? If it was purely mental, then we have to ask ourselves what kind of people were they, if in fact they were really “people” at all. Could it have been that they were actually from the future or were they from somewhere other than Earth? Legitimate questions which we cannot now answer.
If we accept at face value that the Masters did what they were reported to have done by HPB, Olcott, Sinnett and others, then we have some serious questions to resolve, if the questions are resolvable. If the questions are not resolvable then we just have to blindly accept as Dogma that they somehow did all the things that they were reported to have done without further question or inquiry. I am not prepared to do that.
If we accept the clear evidence of some very credible people then we must admit that there were/are “Masters” and they had/have the powers that they were reported to have had. The only questions that remain are “How did they do it and “Why”?
The “Why” is the easy part? They did it for the reason that they said that they did it. That was to help humanity advance into a better future.
We may never have the definitive answer as to “How” they did it, however we can narrow it down to a few possibilities.
The simple answer to the question who were “THE MASRES OF THEOSOPHY” is simple. They were who HPB said they were: extraordinary sentient beings with incredible powers or as she put it “…simply holy mortals, nevertheless, however, higher than any in this world, morally, intellectually and spiritually… who are still men, members of a Brotherhood, who are the first in it to show themselves subservient to its time-honoured laws and rules.” The Adepts are special old souls who must be in a human body, must be incarnate to be “Masters”, and, for now, we can go no further.
However, they only way to ever know is to explore that question, and that is what we will do.
Scott Ramsey
July 5, 2019