H.P. Blavatsky and the SPR – An Examination of the Hodgson Report of 1885

By Vernon Harrison (1912 - 2001).

78 Pagina's | Published in 1997 | Hardcover | Theosophical University Press, Pasadena, California | ISBN: 1557001189.

Dutch translation: H.P. Blavatsky en de SPR - Een Onderzoek van het Hodgson Rapport uit 1885 | Uitgegeven in 1998 | Theosophical University Press, Pasadena, California | ISBN: 9789070328467.

By the Editor of the Journal of The Society for Psychical Research.

Although, as it has been repeatedly pointed out, The SPR holds no corporate opinions, it has widely been regarded as responsible for endorsing the 'Hodgson Report' (as we shall hereafter refer to the report as a whole) and hence as being on record as condemning Mme. Blavatsky.

In this issue of our Journal, coming as it does almost exactly one hundred years after the publication of the Hodgson Report, we are happy, in the interests of truth and fair play, and to make amends for whatever offense we may have given, to publish here on such critical analysis by a handwriting expert. His expertise is of special relevance in this instance since much of the Hodgson Report concerns the authorship of certain letters, which Hodgson claims were forged by Mme. Blavatsky herself. Dr. Vernon Harrison, a past President of the Royal Photographic Society, was, for ten years, Research Manager to Thomas De la Rue, printers of banknotes, passports and stamps, etc., so there is probably not much thathe does not know about forgery. He is not a member of the Theosophical Society but he is a long-standing member of the SPR.

From Part I - 'J'Accuse  - An Examination of the Hodgson Report of 1885' (p. 4):

" The 'REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE APPOINTED TO INVESTIGATE PHENOMENA CONNECTED WITH THE THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY' (commonly called the Hodgson Report) is the most celebrated and controversial of all the reports published by the Society for Psychical Research. It passes judgment on Madame H.P. Blavatsky, the founder of Theosophy; and the final sentence in the 'Statement and Conclusions of the Committee' has been quoted in book after book, encylopedia after encyclopedia, without hint that it might be wrong:

'For our own part, we regard her neither as the mouthpiece of hidden seers, nor as a mere vulgar adventuress; we think that she has achieved a title to permanent remembrance as one of the most accomplished, ingenious, and interesting impostors in history'. "