Yours faithfully,
K. H.
Letter No. 55 (ML-89) Rec. March 24, 1882
This letter concerns the young English medium, William Eglinton (1857-1933) who went to India with the avowed purpose of investigating Theosophy. He had heard of Madame Blavatsky and the "Brothers" and he wanted to find out for himself whether she was reliable and the Brothers real beings, or whether the whole thing was a hoax. He refused to believe in the "Brothers" because his "Guide" (Ernest) had not informed him of their existence, and he considered H.P.B. just another medium who pretended to be something higher. In India he was at this time staying with Lt. Col. and Mrs. W. Gordon, who lived in Howrah, a suburb of Calcutta. The Gordons were spiritualists, but also members of the Theosophical Society, devoted to H.P.B. and Olcott and loyal to the Society. However, Eglinton saw nothing of either Col. Olcott or H.P.B. all the time he was in India and was not to meet them until two years later, when they were in London. Hume became interested in him and considered inviting him to Simla; it seemed that the Mahatmas themselves had some thought of bringing him there for training, since they were trying to find someone who could act for them in place of H.P.B. This did not work out and Eglinton remained in Calcutta while he was in India. He returned to England sailing on March 15, 1882, on the SS Vega, still skeptical concerning the existence of the Mahatmas.
On the 22nd, some hours after the Vega had left Ceylon (its first port of call out of India) K.H. visited Eglinton in his mayava rupa (illusory body which the Mahatmas were able to create) and they had a long conversation. Two days later, on the 24th, when the Vega was 500 miles out at sea, letters were transmitted instantaneously (or practically instantaneously) from the Vega to Bombay; and from there (along with some other items), again, almost instantaneously, to Howrah, to the home of Col. and Mrs. Gordon.
Mrs. Gordon describes the phenomenal delivery of Eglinton's letter. She stated that Col. Olcott had left Bombay on March 17 for another city and had gone from thence to Howrah, so that he was present when the letter was received from Eglinton. On the 22nd, H.P.B. sent a telegram to Mrs. Gordon, which arrived on the 23rd, saying that K.H. had seen Eglinton on the Vega. This wire corroborated a previous one sent by Olcott on the preceding evening. A still later telegram asked the Gordons and Olcott to fix a time when they could be together. They named 9 o'clock, Madras time, on the 24th. The three sat in a triangle with the apex to the north. In a few minutes, Olcott saw, outside the open window, the Mahatmas M. and K.H. One of them pointed into the room, over Mrs. Gordon' s head, and a letter dropped. The Mahatmas then vanished. Mrs. Gordon relates what happened next:
I now turned and picked up what had fallen on me, and found a letter in Mr. Eglinton's handwriting, dated on the Vega the 24th; a message from Madame Blavatsky, dated at Bombay on the 24th, written on the backs of three of her visiting cards; also a larger card, such as Mr. Eglinton had a packet of and used at his seances. On this latter card was the, to us, well-known handwriting of K.H. and a few words in the handwriting of the other "Brother" who was with him outside our window, and who is Colonel Olcott' s chief. All these cards and the letter were threaded together with a piece of blue sewing silk . . .
The letter from Eglinton follows and affirms his now "complete belief" in the "Brothers."
As an additional interesting note, there was a postscript signed by six persons affirming that they had seen the arrival, in Bombay, of the letter from Eglinton.
In a letter written to Sinnett by Eglinton from England dated April 28, 1882, Eglinton says: "I am certain if I were in any other position than that of a medium gaining his living by his gifts, the Bros. would be enabled to manifest with great clearness and certainty." The Mahatma K.H. inserted a note in this letter, in transit, saying: "This — to prove that living men can appear — thro' such excellent mediums — in London, even tho' themselves at Tsi-gadze, Tibet."
Received Allahabad March 24th, 1882.
Private.
Good friend, I will not, in sending forth the letter, reiterate again the many remarks that might be made respecting the various objections which we have the right to raise against Spiritual phenomena and its mediums. We have done our duty; and, because the voice of truth came thro' a channel which few liked, it was pronounced as false, and along with it — Occultism. The time has gone by to argue, and the hour when it will be proved to the world that Occult Science instead of being, in the words of Dr. R. Chambers — "superstition itself," as they may be disposed to think it, will be found the explanation and the extinguisher of all superstitions — is nearby. For reasons that you will appreciate, though at first you will be inclined to consider (in regard to yourself) unjust, I am determined to do that, for once, which hitherto I have never done; namely, to personate myself under another form, and, perhaps — character. Therefore, you need not grudge Eglinton the pleasure of seeing me personally, to talk with me, and — be "dumbfounded" by me, and with the results of my visit to him, on board "The Vega." This will be done between the 21st and the 22nd of this month and, when you read this letter, will be a "vision of the past," — if Olcott sends to you the letter to-day.
"All things being are in mystery; we expound mysteries by mysteries" — you may perhaps say. Well, well; to you as to one forewarned it will not be one; since, for several reasons — one more plausible than the other — I take you into my confidence. One of them is, — to save you a feeling of involuntary envy (the word is queer isn't it?) when you hear of it. As he will see somebody quite different from the real K.H., though it will still be K.H., you need not feel like one wronged by your trans-Himalayan friend. Another reason is, to save the poor fellow from the suspicion of boasting; the third and chiefest, though neither least nor last, is, that theosophy and its adherents have to be vindicated at last. Eglinton is going home; and were he upon his return to know nothing of the Brothers, there would be a sore day of trial for poor old H.P.B. and H.S.O. Mr. Hume twitted us for not appearing to Eglinton. He chuckled and defied us to do it before Fern and others. For reasons which he may or may not be able to appreciate — but that you will — we could not or rather would not do so, as long as E. was in India. No less had we very good reasons to forbid H.P.B. to either correspond with him, or take too much notice of him in the Theosophist. But now that he is gone, and will be on the 22nd hundreds of miles away at sea; and that no suspicion of fraud can be brought against either of them, the time for the experiment has come. He thinks of putting her to test — he will be tested himself.