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Foundations
of Clinical Research
Applications to Practice
3rd Edition

Leslie G. Portney, DPT, PhD, FAPTA

Dean, School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences
MGH Institute of Health Professions
Boston, Massachusetts

Mary P. Watkins, DPT, MS

Professor Emerita
MGH Institute of Health Professions
Boston, Massachusetts
F. A. Davis Company
1915 Arch Street
Philadelphia, PA 19103
www.fadavis.com

Copyright © 2015 by F. A. Davis Company

Copyright © 2015 by F. A. Davis Company. All rights reserved. This book is protected by
copyright. No part of it may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any
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Printed in the United States of America

Last digit indicates print number: 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

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recommended treatments and drug therapies undergo changes. The author(s) and publisher
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 To
My teachers and mentors
who opened so many doors
Jane Carlin
Beverly Devine
Bob Lamb
Sol Levine
Eugene Michaels
Otto Payton
Freda Rebelsky
Steve Rose
Cathy Perry Wilkinson

and especially Mom and Dad

Skip, Devon and Lindsay

Who teach me the meaning of it all every day.

-LGP

To my students who became colleagues

and my colleagues who became students­
From all of you, I have learned
how to direct this book to the real world of clinical research.
T hank you.
-MPW
Contents

Preface xv

Acknowledgments xvii

Reviewers xix

PART I FOUNDATIONS OF CLINICAL RESEARCH 1

1 A Concept of Clinical Research 3

Defining Clinical Research 3

Measurement of Outcomes 4
Models of Health and Disability 6
Evidence-Based Practice 8
Sources of Knowledge 11
Types of Research 18
The Research Process 23
Understanding Method, Content and Philosophy 25
Commentary: Research and Evidence-Based Practice: Investigation vs. Clinical
Decision Making 26

2 The Role of Theory in Clinical Research 33

Purposes of Theories 33
Components of Theories 35
Development of Theories 38
Characteristics of Theories 39
Theory and Research 40
Theory and Law 44
Commentary: Applying Theory 44

v
vi CONTENTS

3 Ethical Issues in Clinical Research 47

Integrity of the Researcher 47

The Protection of Human Rights in Clinical Research 48
The Institutional Review Board 52
Elements of Informed Consent 53
Commentary: A Patient Care Perspective 58

PART II CONCEPTS OF MEASUREMENT 61

4 Principles of Measurement 63

Quantification and Measurement 64

The Indirect Nature of Measurement 64
Rules of Measurement 66
Commentary: Do I Really Care about the Level of Measurement? 72

5 Reliability of Measurements 77

Measurement Error 77
Reliability Coefficients 82
Types of Reliability 84
Generalizability 91
Pilot Testing 94
Commentary: What Is the True Score? 94

6 Validity of Measurements 97

Validity and Reliability 97

Validity of Inferences 98
Face Validity 99
Content Validity 101
Criterion-Related Validity 102
Construct Validity 105
Measuring Change 109
Criterion Referencing and Norm Referencing 113
Cross-Validation 114
Commentary: The Ongoing Pursuit of Validity 115

PART Ill DESIGNING CLINICAL RESEARCH 119

7 Asking the Research Question 121

Selecting a Topic 122

The Research Problem 123
 CONTENTS vii

Importance and Feasibility of the Research Question 126

Target Population 128
The Research Rationale 128
Variables 129
Research Objectives 133
Reviewing the Literature 136
Commentary: Putting the Horse before the Cart 138

8 Sampling 143

Populations and Samples 143

Sampling Techniques 146
Probability Sampling 148
Nonprobability Sampling 154
Recruitment 156
Commentary: Sampling, Like Life, Is a Compromise 157

9 Validity in Experimental Design 161

Characteristics of Experiments 162

The Research Protocol 165
Blinding 170
Design Strategies for Controlling Intersubject Differences 171
Threats to Validity 174
The CONSORT Statement 186
Commentary: The Relative Validity of Evidence 187

10 Experimental Designs 193

Clinical Trials 193

Design Classifications 194
Selecting a Design 194
Designs for Independent Groups 196
Repeated Measures Designs 206
Sequential Clinical Trials 213
Efficacy vs. Effectiveness 218
Commentary: Matching the Research Question and Design 220

11 Quasi-Experimental Designs 223

One-Group Designs 223

Multigroup Designs 228
Commentary: Generalization to the Real World 232

12 Single-Subject Designs 235

Structure of Single-Subject Designs 236

The Target Behavior 239
viii CONTENTS

Reliability 241
Experimental Control: Limitations of the A-B Design 242
Withdrawal Designs 242
Multiple Baseline Designs 246
Designs with Multiple Treatments 251
Data Analysis in Single-Subject Research 254
Generalization of Findings 268
Commentary: Documenting Wisely 271

13 Exploratory Research: Observational Designs 277

Retrospective and Prospective Research 278

Longitudinal and Cross-Sectional Research 279
Correlation and Prediction 280
Case-Control Studies 282
Cohort Studies 286
Evaluating Causality in Observational Studies 289
Methodological Research: Reliability and Validity 290
Historical Research 292
Secondary Analysis 294
Commentary: Advantages and Disadvantages of Exploratory Research 296

14 Descriptive Research 301

Developmental Research 302

Normative Studies 304
Qualitative Research 306
Descriptive Surveys 313
Case Studies 314
Commentary: First T hings First 318

15 Surveys and Questionnaires 325

Interviews and Questionnaires 325

Design of Surveys 327
Constructing Survey Questions 332
Scales 338
Q-Sort 348
Delphi Survey 349
Analysis of Survey Data 350
Informed Consent 351
Commentary: They Have a T housand and One Uses 352

16 Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis 357

Study Objective: Asking the Question 360

Selection Criteria 361
 CONTENTS ix

Search Strategy 364

Evaluating Methodologic Quality 365
Meta-Analysis 371
Appraisal of Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses 376
Find Out More 376
Commentary: A Guide for the Future 378

PART IV DATA ANALYSIS 383

17 Descriptive Statistics 385

Frequency Distributions 385

Measures of Central Tendency 390
Measures of Variability391
The Normal Distribution 399
Commentary: Description Is an Essential Beginning 403

18 Statistical Inference 405

Probability 405
Sampling Error 408
Confidence Intervals 411
Hypothesis Testing 416
Type I Error: Level of Significance 419
Type II Error: Statistical Power 421
Concepts of Statistical Testing 424
Parametric versus Nonparametric Statistics 429
Commentary: Statistical Significance versus
Clinical Significance 429

19 Comparing Two Means: T he t-Test 433

The Conceptual Basis for Comparing Group Means 433

The t-Test for Independent Samples 437
Thet-Test for Paired Samples 445
Inappropriate Use of Multiplet-Tests 447
Commentary: The Significance of Significance 449

20 Comparing More T han Two Means: Analysis of Variance 451

Analysis of Variance for Independent Samples:

One-Way Classification 451
Analysis of Variance: Two-Way Classification 458
Analysis of Variance: Three-Way Classification 467
Repeated Measures Analysis of Variance 467
Commentary: Beyond Analysis of Variance 476
X CONTENTS

21 Multiple Comparison Tests 479

The Type I Error Rate: Per Comparison versus Family 480

Statistical Ratios for Multiple Comparison Tests 482
Tukey's Honestly Significant Difference (HSD) 483
Newman-Keuls Method 484
Scheffe Comparison 488
Bonferroni t-Test 488
Multiple Comparison Procedures for Factorial Designs 491
Multiple Comparisons for Repeated Measures 493
Trend Analysis 496
Commentary: Choices, Choices, Choices 500

22 Nonparametric Tests for Group Comparisons 503

Criteria for Choosing Nonparametric Tests 504

Procedure for Ranking Scores 505
Test for Two Independent Samples: Mann-Whitney U-Test 506
Test for More Than Two Independent Samples: Kruskal-Wallis One-Way Analysis
of Variance by Ranks 509
Tests for Two Correlated Samples: Sign Test and Wilcoxon Signed-Ranks Test 513
Test for More Than Two Correlated Samples: Friedman Two-Way Analysis
of Variance by Ranks 517
Commentary: The Debate 520

23 Correlation 523

Scatter Plots 523

Correlation Coefficients 524
Linear versus Curvilinear Relationships 525
The Correlation Matrix 527
Pearson Product-Moment Correlation Coefficient 528
Correlation of Ranks: Spearman Rank Correlation Coefficient 531
Correlation of Dichotomies 532
Interpreting Correlation Coefficients 533
Commentary: The Stork Was Busy 537

24 Regression 539

Linear Regression 539

Assumptions for Regression Analysis 547
Outliers 549
Accuracy of Prediction 551
Analysis of Variance of Regression 553
Restrictions on the Interpretation of Linear Regression Analysis 554
Nonlinear Regression 555
Analysis of Covariance 557
Commentary: If Only It Were That Simple 566
 CONTENTS xi

25 Measures of Association for Categorical Variables: Chi-Square 569

The Chi-Square Statistic 570

Goodness of Fit 571
Interpreting Significant Effects: Standardized Residuals 573
Tests of Independence 575
McNemar Test for Correlated Samples 579
Coefficients of Association 581
Commentary: Uses of Chi-Square 583

26 Statistical Measures of Reliability 585

Reliability Theory and Measurement Error 585

Intraclass Correlation Coefficient {ICC) 588
Agreement 598
Internal Consistency 605
Response Stability 608
Alternate Forms: Limits of Agreement 612
Commentary: Which Reliability Coefficient Do I Use-and When
Is It Enough? 616

27 Statistical Measures of Validity 619

Validity of Diagnostic Tests 619

Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) Curves 635
Clinical Prediction Rules 639
Measuring Change 644
Commentary: How Much Is Better? Finding Meaning in Numbers 653

28 Epidemiology: Measuring Risk 659

The Scope of Epidemiology 659

Descriptive Epidemiology: Measures of Disease Frequency 660
Analytic Epidemiology: Measures of Association and Risk 666
Analytic Epidemiology: Measures of Risk Based on Treatment Effect 675
Commentary: A New View of Outcomes 681

29 Multivariate Analysis 685

Partial Correlation 685

Multiple Regression 687
Logistic Regression 696
Discriminant Analysis 702
Factor Analysis 705
Cluster Analysis 715
Multivariate Analysis of Variance 716
Survival Analysis 720
Commentary: Can We Keep It Simple? 725
xii CONTENTS

30 Data Management 727

Confidentiality and Security of Data 727

Monitoring Subject Participation 727
Statistical Programs 728
Data Collection Forms 728
Data Coding 729
Data Entry 731
Data Cleaning 732
Data Modification 733
Data Analysis 736
Commentary: "Anyone can analyze data, but to really mess things up takes
a computer!" 737

PART V COMMUNICATION 739

31 Searching the Literature 741

Library Resources 741

Search Engines 742
Databases 742
Search Strategies 748
Finding References for Evidence-Based Practice 755
Keeping Up with the Literature: Email Alerts 757
Commentary: Is the Evidence Not T here-or Can't We Find It? 757

32 Writing a Research Proposal 759

Components of the Research Plan 760

Plan for Administrative Support 766
Presentation of the Proposal 768
Commentary: Review, Revise, Edit, Revise, Review 768

33 Reporting the Results of Clinical Research 771

The Journal Article 771

The Poster Presentation 781
The Oral Presentation 782
Commentary: Taking the Final Step 785

34 Evaluating Research Reports 787

Journal Quality 788

Evaluating Components of Research Studies 788
Critically Appraised Topics (CATs) 795
Commentary: The Reader's View 799
 CONTENTS xiii

Appendices
A. Statistical Tables 801
B. Relating the Research Question to the Choice of Statistical Test 823
C. Power and Sample Size 830
D. Transformation of Data 856
E. Sample Informed Consent Form 860

Glossary 863

Index 880
Other documents randomly have
different content
Garrett’s articles only so far as they apply to the charges against Mr.
Judge, and for these I have documentary evidence produced under a
legal hand, and duly witnessed. With Mr. Garrett’s method of
presenting the facts I am by no means in sympathy. I do not lose
sight of the fact that, however mistaken or misled many of the
Theosophical Society may be, as regards the traditional “Mahatmas”
and their supposed “communications,” they are nevertheless as
sincere in their beliefs as many of their more orthodox fellows, and
have as much right to respectful consideration. I regret particularly
that Mrs. Besant should have been placed in this awkward public
position by the present exposure. Her intention I believe to have
been perfectly honest, but I think she made a fatal mistake in
avoiding the publication of the full facts, and in allowing the
misconception to endure concerning her own and Mr. Judge’s
connexion with the Mahatmas.

MME. BLAVATSKY AND THE MAHATMAS.

Of Madame Blavatsky I speak as I knew her. At the time I made

her acquaintance she had forsworn all “phenomenalism,” so that I
never saw any occult phenomena at any time. I believe that for her
the Mahatmas existed, and I believe she thought them to be
embodied personalities. Colonel Olcott has another theory, and
others have their own. Personally, I believe in the extensibility of
human faculty, and in the existence of an order of intelligences
higher than our own, but I do not require that they are embodied or
terrestrial in any sense of the word. Finally, I have been through the
Theosophical Society with my eyes open, and for more than five
years have been, officially and unofficially, as fully “in the
Theosophical Society” as one can well be; and while I am certain that
many are fully convinced of the truth of their own beliefs in these
matters, I am also fully assured that a large number are in the
position of persons self-deceived, who have unfortunately committed
themselves too far to review their position without almost disastrous
consequences to themselves and others. But that of which I have the
fullest conviction and the greatest amount of presentable proof is the
fact that no such thing as evidence of the existence (in an ordinary
sense) of the Mahatmas, or of their connexion with the T.S. as a body
or with its members individually, is obtainable by a person pursuing
ordinary methods of investigation.
For those who are willing to found their beliefs upon the mere
statement of another, without question of possible interestedness on
the one hand, or self-deception on the other, the position is of course
otherwise. For such persons proofs have no value whatever, what
they are pleased to call their “beliefs” and their “knowledge” being
determined or determinable from the moment they sign away their
independence of judgment and freedom of thought.—Yours
sincerely,
Walter R. Old.

P.S.—One misstatement of fact appears in your issue of November

3. What Mr. Garrett refers to as “Madame Blavatsky’s Rosicrucian
signet-ring” was not a ring, but a jewel, used as a pendant. Also, the
“dark gentleman” who delivered the two £10 notes to Mr. Judge
made his call (so we were told) in the early afternoon, not in “the
evening” as stated in Mr. Garrett’s text. I am bound to add that,
whatever may be my annoyance and regret at the tone of the articles
and of some of the inferences, as regards that part of the evidence
which is known to myself, I have noticed so far no other substantial
error of fact.

[These slight corrections have been made in this reprint.—F. E. G.]

FROM MR. A. P. SINNETT: “OCCULTISTS MAY NOT TELL FIBS.”

Sir,—The circular bearing this title—referred to in your leading

columns yesterday—was issued last July, and directly affects some
questions you have lately been discussing. Under the circumstances,
I hope you will kindly consent to give it fuller publicity. It was
addressed to students of Occultism, and ran as follows:—
The inevitable mystery which surrounds Occultism and the Occultist has given
rise in the minds of many to a strange confusion between the duty of silence and
the error of untruthfulness. There are many things that the Occultist may not
divulge; but equally binding is the law that he may never speak untruth. And this
obligation to Truth is not confined to speech; he may never think untruth, nor act
untruth. A spurious Occultism dallies with truth and falsehood, and argues that
deception on the illusory physical plane is consistent with purity on the loftier
planes on which the Occultist has his true life; it speaks contemptuously of “mere
worldly morality”—a contempt that might be justified if it raised a higher standard,
but which is out of place when the phrase is used to condone acts which the “mere
worldly morality” would disdain to practise. The doctrine that the end justifies the
means has proved in the past fruitful of all evil; no means that are impure can
bring about an end that is good, else were the Good Law a dream and Karma a
mere delusion. From these errors flows an influence mischievous to the whole
Theosophical Society, undermining the stern and rigid morality necessary as a
foundation for Occultism of the Right Hand Path.
Finding that this false view of Occultism is spreading in the Theosophical
Society, we desire to place on record our profound aversion to it, and our
conviction that morality of the loftiest type must be striven after by every one who
would tread in safety the difficult ways of the Occult World. Only by rigid
truthfulness in thought, speech, and act on the planes on which works our waking
consciousness, can the student hope to evolve the intuition which unerringly
discerns between the true and the false in the supersensuous worlds, which
recognises truth at sight and so preserves him from fatal risks in those at first
confusing regions. To cloud the delicate sense of truth here is to keep it blind there;
hence every teacher of Occultism has laid stress on truthfulness as the most
necessary equipment of the would-be disciple. To quote a weighty utterance of a
wise Indian disciple:—
“Next in importance, or perhaps equal in value, to Devotion is Truth. It is
simply impossible to over-estimate the efficacy of Truth in all its phases and
bearings in helping the onward evolution of the human soul. We must love truth,
seek truth, and live truth; and thus alone can the Divine Light which is Truth
Sublime be seen by the student of Occultism. When there is the slightest leaning
towards falsehood in any shape, there is shadow and ignorance, and their child,
pain. This leaning towards falsehood belongs to the lower personality without
doubt. It is here that our interests clash, it is here the struggle for existence is in
full swing, and it is therefore here that cowardice and dishonesty and fraud find
any scope. The ‘signs and symptoms’ of the operations of this lower self can never
remain concealed from one who sincerely loves truth and seeks truth.”
To understand oneself, and so escape self-deception, Truth must be practised;
thus only can be avoided the dangers of the “conscious and unconscious deception”
against which a Master warned his pupils in 1885.
Virtue is the foundation of White Occultism; the Pàramitàs, six and ten, the
transcendental virtues, must be mastered, and each of the Seven Portals on the
Path is a virtue, which the Disciple must make his own. Out of the soil of pure
morality alone can grow the sacred flower which blossoms at length into
Arhatship, and those who aspire to the blooming of the flower must begin by
preparing the soil.
H. S. Olcott, A. P. Sinnett, Annie Besant, Bertram Keightley, W. Wynn
Westcott, E. T. Sturdy, C. W. Leadbeater.
 I do not propose to discuss the merits of the case against Mr.
Judge, but we who signed this paper—without prejudging in their
personal aspect accusations which it had then been found impossible
to thresh out thoroughly—conceived it desirable to remind all fellow-
students of Occultism that no beneficial results along that path could
possibly be attained except by a course of life which, whatever else it
might be, should be strictly in harmony with the dictates of ordinary
morality.
The Theosophical Society has grown in a few years to such
extraordinary proportions, and is so loosely jointed, that it cannot be
correctly thought of as a homogeneous association all parts of which
are equally represented by the officers nominally at its head. But it
ought at this crisis to be generally understood that the many persons
of culture and earnest purpose to whom spiritual progress along the
original lines of Theosophic teaching is the main object of existence
are guided by evidence concerning the possibilities of their higher
evolution that is of a kind utterly unlike that which you not
unreasonably discredit. A great block of such evidence is in our
possession concerning not merely the existence but also the
attributes of the great initiates, and to those of us in a position to
appreciate this the foundations of Theosophic knowledge are quite
unshaken by such incidents as those on which you have been
commenting.—I am, Sir, yours, &c.,
A. P. Sinnett.

November 17.

WHOM DID THE CIRCULAR REFER TO

[In reference to the subject of Mr. Sinnett’s letter, the following is an extract
from the Westminster Gazette under the heading;—“More Theosophistry: A
Belated Piece of Bluff.”]
In the current number of the Review of Reviews a letter appears
signed by the Dr. Keightley who lately wrote to The Westminster
Gazette as a professed representative of Mr. W. Q. Judge, Vice-
President of the Theosophical Society. The letter is worthy of some
attention as an illustration of the tactics of Mr. Judge’s friends, and
of the line which they were taking towards any allusion in the Press
to certain events before the appearance of the recent exposure in this
journal.
The letter is dated October 25, and was therefore written at the
time when the Theosophists still hoped to maintain the great “hush
up” inaugurated at the Convention of last July, and before they
dreamed that all London would presently be discussing the facts
which had been so industriously buried.
The occasion of the letter appears to have been a comment of Mr.
Stead’s in the last number of the Review on a circular lately issued
under the title of “Occultism and Truth.” This circular was issued just
after the so-called “Enquiry into Certain Charges against the Vice-
President,” and (to this office, at any rate) it was enclosed under one
cover with the pamphlet report of that “Enquiry.” The substance of it
is an assurance to the Theosophical world, on the part of some
prominent Theosophists, that occultists have no more right than
ordinary people to fib. Coming at the time when it did, and signed as
it was by all the principal official Theosophists, with the one
exception of the vice-president, the Editor of the Review of Reviews
very naturally interpreted it as having some connexion with the
charges against the last-named gentleman, and with what his
colleagues evidently felt to be their apparent condonation of the
“occult methods” ascribed to him.
The following is the substantial passage in the letter thereupon
addressed to the Review of Reviews by Mr. Judge’s representatives:
—
Allow us to make a very necessary correction.... Mrs. Besant, who originated the
circular, was asked directly whether it was connected with the charges or whether
it was in any way aimed at Mr. Judge. She gave an emphatic denial to both
questions to many who took the same view expressed by you.
Another fact is not generally known, and leads people—yourself among others—
into unconsciously committing an injustice. The charges against Mr. Judge were
never substantiated, and the committee appointed to inquire into them declared
that they were illegally laid.
(The letter then concludes with a high tribute to Mr. Judge’s
character for truthfulness and every other virtue.)
Now, as regards the statement about the intention of the Circular,
we will only say that one co-signatory of it at least has committed
himself to the precise view of it which this letter denies. Nor is it
obvious why the heads of any society should issue a round robin to
say it is naughty to tell taradiddles, unless some current reference
were intended to the affairs of the society.
Besides this, however, there is unmistakably conveyed the
impression that Mr. Judge’s accusers failed to substantiate their
case, and that there was something actually “illegal,” in the ordinary
sense of the word, about some part of their conduct.
As readers of “Isis Very Much Unveiled” are aware, both these
things are absolutely untrue. The simple fact was that, owing to the
objections raised by Mr. Judge, no opportunity was given for the
charges to be either substantiated or the reverse; while the only
justification for the statement that they were “illegally laid” is such as
can be squeezed out of the fact that the Theosophical Pickwickians
were persuaded by Mr. Judge that inquiry was forbidden by the
constitution of their society.
It only remains to add, to complete the disingenuousness of this
very Theosophistical letter, that its signatories authenticate its
statements by flaunting the title of “Members of the Committee of
Investigation”; the committee referred to being the one which met
only to decide that it could not investigate, and the members of it as
such having no knowledge whatever of the evidence either on one
side or the other!
 III.—LETTERS FROM MINOR OFFICIALS
AND PRIVATE MEMBERS.

What matters “Truth or Falsehood?”

Sir,—My husband and myself are two of the officials in one of the
local branches of the Theosophical Society. I write in his name and
my own to say that we have read with some interest your voluminous
attack on the personal characters of some of our leading members.
We were also amused by the ingenuous surprise of your reporter,
that the Blavatsky Lodge meeting in London, which he attended, was
spent in philosophic study, not in the discussion of psychic
phenomena or of the personal characters of members.
You say (Chapter II.):—“This society as such must stand or fall
with its Mahatmas.” This is not so. The Theosophical Society is
entirely neutral on the question of the existence or non-existence of
such beings, and the reason why the charges, of which you have
published a more or less correct statement, were not gone into by the
authorities of the T.S. was, that to have done so would have entailed
an infringement of that neutrality.
The question whether Mrs. Besant was misled when she made the
statement at the Secular Hall in 1891 has been answered by her own
clear withdrawal of that statement.
The question as to Mr. Judge is entirely one as to his own truth or
falsehood, and may be well left to him to answer or not. It is not
necessary for the public or for the members of the Theosophic
Society to judge him.—Faithfully yours,
Sarah Corbett.

Manchester, November 6.
 A Protest against “Condoning.”

Sir,—Having read the revelations your correspondent has been

pleased to give to the public, and presuming them to be correct, it
seems to me that there are now three parties at fault in place of two
as I had supposed, viz., Mr. Judge for imposing (whether consciously
as a deceiver or unconsciously) as a medium obsessed by a spirit of
ambition and the communicator of the facts (if a member of the
inner circle) for breaking his solemn pledge not to reveal or betray
the affairs of that circle. The recent correspondence now adds others
as condoning the offence of Mr. Judge—and all this has come from
the love of pre-eminence and the mere dabbling (child’s play) with
the occult. Clearly, if the offence was proved, the officers of the
society were bound in truth and honour to expel the offender, and all
would then have been clear and straight. My advice to the society
would be to stick to their programme, which is a highly laudable one,
and let no word from an invisible and unknown be taken as of any
external value, but judged only by its internal worth.
The society, it seems to me, can no longer pretend to condemn the
communication with Spirits as a dangerous thing, nor cry out against
the occasional frauds of mediums, in conscious or unconscious state,
seeing how heavily they have fallen into the same snare, nor can they
point the finger to frauds or delusions in other bodies whether
Catholic or non-Catholic. A greater strictness and more uniform
abstinence from flesh-eating and tobacco, as well as alcohol (which
last they eschew) should be enjoined on all its members by their
authorised officers, and their own three objects steadily pursued—
separating from the third all spurious imitations of magical
wonders; and, above all, the spirit of truth which accepts nothing on
this or that authority without careful verification should be
cultivated. A want of bravery to do the right, to tell the truth, and
face the consequences, is the only thing that can be laid to the charge
of the presiding officers of the Indian and English sections. Are all
societies and Churches free from this? Has not a natural tenderness
from long friendship, and sympathy in noble and useful work, been
often the cause of much to be deplored? And in this instance, is not
such over-tenderness of noble, unsuspicious, and honourable souls,
worthy rather of regret than of too severe censure.—Yours,
 A Theosophist.

“Abandon the T.S. in Disgust.”

Sir,—I see Mr. Mead is reported as saying that “what the articles
[in The Westminster Gazette] would do, if they did anything, was
to sift the society of those who had simply joined for the sake of the
marvellous.”
This remark shows the same utter oblivion of the appreciation of
truth that has unhappily shown itself in the society’s record before. It
is not a question of phenomena; it is one of good faith; and if this is
the line taken, not the phenomena-hunters merely, but seekers for
truth and respecters of it, who expected to find it in the Theosophical
Society, will abandon that body in disgust.
Mr. Mead continues:—“Theosophists could no more divulge
secrets without violating every sense of honour than a Mason could.”
To compare the Theosophical Society, as at present constituted,
with an honourable body like the Masons, is an insult to the latter,
goose-guzzling and luxuriant as they may have tended to become in
these latter days.
There is a profound difference between hiding secrets, which are
entrusted to one, and which concern certain (perhaps) important
facts in the nature of man, and taking part in proceedings to gull a
number of fellow-students and the outside public. This is practically
what has been done before, and the dissatisfied either disappeared
altogether or were well howled at as traitors to “the cause,” whereas,
in verity, they were doing their best for the disowned cause of truth;
or, again, they were coerced by the solemn warning of “your pledge,
take care of your pledge,” and thereby intimidated from seeing that
they were making themselves parties to a continuous
misrepresentation of facts and a deliberate fraud upon their less-
informed fellow-members, not to mention the public. “What have
our troubles to do with the public?” has been the question. I reply,
“Everything,” for it is to the public that constant appeal is made and
amongst its ranks that proselytes are sought.
 Nothing has, so far, been exposed in these articles that any right-
thinking truth-seeker would wish to have cloaked. The public are not
being made acquainted with any arcane wisdom; but if one-third of
the statements made in The Westminster Gazette are supported by
documentary and other evidence, then the world certainly ought to
be warned against a society that takes as its motto, “There is no
religion higher than TRUTH” and forthwith allows its leading
members to play such antics and engage in such grotesque jugglery
without bringing them sternly to book. As for continuing to work
with these people in the establishment of a “universal brotherhood,”
rather will it become a universal imposture to expose which were a
service to the glorious old Wisdom of the Venerable East, which it
dishonoured by its sham Mahatmas.
Those who are publishing the facts, if facts they be, are doing a
service to the cause of truth, and should have the thanks and
gratitude of all of us in the Theosophical Society whose motive in
being there is to seek TRUTH, and to combat error and fraud in
religion, mysticism, or anything else.—I am, &c.,
A Fellow of the Theosophical Society and
Member of the E.S.T.

“It all comes of not Sticking to Vegetables.”

Sir,—With every word of Brother Old’s letter of to-day’s issue I beg

to express my fullest sympathy. I deprecate the tone of the
“revelations,” but of the necessity of making the public fully
acquainted with the facts I have not the least doubt. As to the
existence of “Mahatmas,” I can only say I do believe in the existence
on this earth of a higher order of beings who, by total abstinence
from and abhorrence of flesh-eating, alcohol, and tobacco, and other
evil and impure customs, and by adherence to a fixed rule of life,
retiring early and early rising, with daily ablutions, and by certain
studies and training of body and mind, have acquired certain
attributes and powers so far in advance of ordinary human beings as
to be regarded by them as miraculous. Of this I have had evidence,
not from Theosophists, but from personal friends resident in India
before ever they heard of the name of Theosophy. Whether any of
these have anything to do in the direction of the Theosophical
Society is quite another matter. There is Theosophy and Theosophy,
and one of these I would rather term “Theophilosophy,” i.e., “the love
and wisdom of God,” or “love and wisdom religion”—and not wisdom
only as is implied in the term “Theosophy.” Readers of “The Perfect
Way” and its companion volume, “Clothed with the Sun,” by that
noble woman Anna Kingsford and her colleague, will know what I
mean. Now, what about the future of the Theosophical Society? I
believe its officers may fall, but its work must endure. No doubt of
that. The founders have had their weaknesses and foibles like other
mortals, but I hope none will ever forget the gratitude they owe to
Madame Blavatsky, especially to the blessings she has conferred in
founding the Theosophical Society and giving through its means to
all hungry and thirsty souls such priceless stores of knowledge and
suggestive thought (from the Oriental religions and philosophies
which have made such deep impress on the millions of the East) as
are contained in the grand volumes of “The Secret Doctrine,” with its
index and glossary, and her other publications. None can read these
volumes, but must ask themselves, What manner of woman must she
have been who devoted so many long years of labour, from 7 a.m. to
7 p.m. daily, in their production, and that amidst incredible
difficulties and opposition and worry? Nor must we forget the debt
that we owe to Colonel Olcott and Madame Besant for having made
this knowledge accessible to all minds and conditions by their
lectures and booklets.
What can be more noble than the promotion of universal
brotherhood irrespective of sex, colour, caste, or creed, united in the
study of the ancient religions of East and West, and of all that
pertains to the hidden powers in man, and their development for the
good of the race? But these last, I say again, will not be attained in
purity but by prayer, and abstinence from flesh meal, alcohol, and
tobacco, and other evil customs of society, and the disuse of all
things gotten by cruelty to, or oppression of, our fellow-creatures the
lower animals, and by pure surroundings.—Yours,
I. G. Ouseley, O.G.A. and F.T.S.
Evelyn-terrace, Brighton,
November 9.

“Folly and Fraud: but of such is the Kingdom.”

Sir,—No one should blame you, or resent the publication of the

facts. Truth is the first consideration, and though we who have
interested ourselves in the philosophy promulgated by the society
may bitterly regret that folly and fraud are to be found within its fold
—as elsewhere—yet we can rest assured that whatever there is in this
philosophy which appeals to the enlightened intelligence of mankind
will remain when the superstructure raised by designing intriguers
or unwise enthusiasts shall have crumbled away. It is in consequence
of this belief that the writer, with others in the society, can read with
calmness, and not without some sense of amusement, this
unpleasant disclosure; not doubting but that a great deal of it is true,
and that all may be so; and while feeling unmixed contempt for the
“informer,” can acknowledge that any editor is well within his rights,
and a public benefactor, when exposing fraud wherever it is found.
Would that this feature were more pronounced in journalism
generally, and not indulged in only when such exposures fall in with
public prejudice!
For several years the writer of this letter has been absent from the
Avenue-road centre: among other reasons, from a feeling of
disapproval of certain follies which may be called incipient relic
worship, and which no sensible person could tolerate for long. So it
will be seen that all Theosophists have not fallen under the spell of
Mrs. Besant’s rash enthusiasm, which has done, and is doing, so
much to discredit her, now as heretofore, in the eyes of the world.
Yet, in spite of her indiscrimination and lack of sound judgment,
which has alienated many, the writer would rather stand in the
pillory of public opprobrium with her than sit at a banquet with the
“informer” and those who can rejoice over the failings of a beautiful
soul. For it may be said of her, and a few others, “Of such is the
Kingdom of Heaven.” That there is to be found even one of these
among Theosophists may lead a few to suspect that there is
something more in Theosophy than can be discovered in your
articles, and that, though fraud should be proved, there may
nevertheless be real occultists and true phenomena. Thus, what at
first sight appears a serious blow to our cause will perhaps induce
further inquiry among your readers, while doing useful work in
destroying errors and growing superstition.
F. T. S.
PART III.
 LAST SHREDS OF THE VEIL OF ISIS.

A REVIEW OF SOME THEOSOPHISTRIES.

As yet, “Isis Very Much Unveiled” remains very much unanswered.

The oracles are dumb. “No Dolphin rose, no Nereid stirred”; no
Mahatma “precipitated” a reply (as one of them did with such
edifying results in the case of the Kiddle plagiarism), nor
disintegrated by psychic force the damaging documents in my
possession; Mrs. Besant, whose “astral body” has flitted across
oceans to visit Mr. Herbert Burrows “on pre-arranged evenings,”
gave no sign from Australia; Colonel Olcott, president, in India,
disdained the more commonplace agency of the cable; and Mr.
William Q. Judge, vice-president, whose official adytum is but five
days away at New York, neglected to avail himself of the ordinary
post, whatever he may have done about the astral one.
Moreover, accustomed as are all these three officials to scouring
the earth, with all expenses paid, no intimation has been made public
as to the date when we may expect to receive anyone of them back
from the various regions to which they sped immediately after
launching the report of their peculiar “Enquiry.” Their colleagues in
England continue to speak as if a trip to New York carried one to the
bourn from which no traveller returns.
But what of these colleagues themselves? Where is the “Voice of
the Silence” of Avenue-road, St. John’s Wood? At point after point,
the Story of the Great Mahatma Hoax touched matters to which one
or other or all of them must have been privy. It told of missives
which they had accepted as genuine, orders which they had acted
upon, decisions in which they had agreed, fact after fact of which
they had full cognisance. When Mr. Mead, the European secretary,
gave out that he did not reply because he was not attacked, I did my
best to oblige him; I began at the beginning, and challenged him at
once as having been present and taken part in the “Judge’s-plan-is-
right” decision; and I added that when he had denied my version of
that I would supply him with further matter for denial. Whereupon
the discreet European secretary subsided altogether.

The “Sacred Oath” Humbug.

Of course, some excuse had to be offered, and we have been told

that what happens at meetings of the Esoteric Section is sacredly
secret. Now, first, that only covers a small part of my story, some of
which dealt with circumstances surrounding official acts of the
society or its three sections. Secondly, the excuse is eminently one
that accuses, by implying that what I say happened at those meetings
did happen; for presumably members take no oath to keep secret
what does not occur? But, thirdly, this alleged secrecy is a mere
pretext; else how could Mrs. Besant publicly refer on platforms to
“supernatural” experiences at those meetings; and Messrs. Old and
Edge (the latter to this day holding office) raise questions about one
such matter in print in Colonel Olcott’s journal; and Mrs. Besant, the
Colonel, and a full council of officials notify Mr. Judge that in a
certain eventuality (which did afterwards occur) they would make a
“full publication covering all the details” of that matter, and others
concerning the sacred Mahatma messages?
Whatever may be the “quasi-Masonic oath” of which we now hear,
they evidently held that it did not bind them to conceal, with their
eyes open, a fraud upon their fellow-members; and those who do so
interpret it only throw a very suggestive light on their own action in
willingly taking such an oath. Was Mrs. Besant quite right when she
gave the public what she confesses was a “misleading account” of
these secrets, and only in the wrong when, along with Colonel Olcott
and the rest, she proposed to give what she now knew to be the
correct one? Is the position that a Theosophist may “tell”—anything
he likes, except the truth?

A Survey of the Present Situation.

 The absence of Colonel Olcott and Mrs. Besant does not alter the
fact that he with others made, and she publicly adopted, certain
charges against Mr. Judge, vice-president. And the silence of their
colleagues in England does not disguise the fact that my account of
the details has not been challenged as to one single event, letter, or
facsimile. The published “Report of an Enquiry” cries aloud for some
explanation: the explanation of “Isis Very Much Unveiled” holds the
field untouched. It leaves the vice-president only able to exculpate
himself, if at all, by further inculpating them. The “full rebuttal
evidence held in reserve,” therefore, at which his professed
representative in England hints, can be formidable only to the
Theosophical Society, not to its critics. I am bound to say, however,
that if the would-be impressive fragments of it which have been
privately adumbrated to me are fair samples of the rest, it is not
calculated to be formidable to anybody. When the “affidavits” hinted
at have been published, or otherwise submitted to examination, I can
promise them all the attention they deserve. To say that any affidavit,
until cross-examined upon, is worth exactly as much as the paper it
is written on would be an uncalled-for slight upon the paper-maker.

The Excommunication of “Brother Old.”

A word or two about the attempt to create a diversion by attacking

the character of the one Theosophical official who has had the
honesty to resign office rather than shut his eyes to a fraud on the
public. The attack on Mr. Old cannot in any case discredit the story I
have narrated. First, because the largest and most important part of
that story is from the undenied written evidence of persons still
holding office in the society, and especially of its “President-
Founder.” Secondly, because, even as regards Mr. Old’s part, the
character of a witness is only a relevant consideration where the
truth of his testimony is disputed. What I am now about to say is
said, therefore, merely in justice to Mr. Old himself. The attack on
him has two lines. It is said that he had to perjure himself to give any
information whatever. It is hinted that what information he did give
was given for money. The former charge turns entirely on the “sacred
oath” humbug, which I have discussed already. As to the latter, it is
true to my knowledge that for the part he has taken in fulfilling what
he regards as a public duty to truth, Mr. Old neither asked nor
received any consideration whatever. My own acquaintance with Mr.
Old began in an odd way, not without bearing on the question of his
sincerity. At the time of the Salvation Army riots at Eastbourne, a
gallant old Englishman, who could not bear that women, under any
provocation, should be publicly assaulted in English streets, went
down there to stand up for the “Hallelujah lasses.” He asked, through
the Pall Mall Gazette, for five hundred Englishmen to help. He got
five. This Quixotic gentleman, this modern Sieur de Marsac, was my
friend Mr. Charles Money, of Petersfield. I went myself to see that he
did not get his head broken more than was necessary. His company,
as seedy a lot of knights-errant as ever I saw, consisted mainly of
Cockney journalists who did not believe in God. But one—a spruce,
slight youth—declared himself a Theosophist. The adventurers
spouted to a yelling mob, got off with whole skins, and by testimony
of the local police actually achieved their end. But Mr. Money and
one other were knocked about a bit in the crowd. That other—he
quitted himself like a man—was Mr. W. R. Old, Theosophist. I may
be wrong: it was but a street row; but I regard that as a more
practical service on Mr. Old’s part to the “Universal Brotherhood of
Humanity” than all the hundredweights of vapid moralising on the
subject ever vomited from “The H.P.B. Press.”

Stewing in the Judge Juice.

Except Mr. Old, one prominent Theosophist, and one alone, has so
far publicly faced the facts. Mr. Herbert Burrows has had the honesty
and the courage to say out that this thing must be answered by Mr.
Judge, and fully, or he for one will quit the society. Mr. Burrows
forgets that others besides Mr. Judge have made themselves
answerable. Other correspondents, again, represented other factions,
and showed how the society is seething with distrust and shame. But
the mass of the letters only serve to prove that, whatever else the
“occult powers” of the Theosophists may be, they do not include a
command either of plain English or of straight argument. If “Isis”
does not yet stand before us absolutely like Hans Breitmann’s
“maiden mit nodings on,” it is a painfully thin fabric of
Theosophistries which alone shelters her from the cold wind of
public contempt. Let us examine it.

The Theosophistry about Proving a Negative.

“After all, you have not proved that Mahatmas do not exist, nor
that occult phenomena cannot occur.”
Certainly I have not, nor did I ever propose to try. I am quite
prepared to believe in both when evidence for them has been
produced, and has stood the test of such ordinary evidential canons
as have been applied to kindred subjects—for instance, by the
Psychical Research Society. All that I have said is that certain
evidence on which the Theosophical Society has been building proves
nothing whatever, except the existence of a hotbed of humbug within
the society itself. As for the Mahatmas, there is no difficulty about
conceiving that illiterate, twaddling, and mendacious beings of a
second-rate order of intelligence, such as those reflected in the
“missives” which I have reproduced, may exist in Tibet as they
unhappily do elsewhere. But when we are told that these beings have
acquired powers which rise superior to time and space, and that they
use these for communicating “in a quasi-miraculous manner” with
the Theosophical Society, we ask for facts; and we get—such facts as
were investigated by Dr. Hodgson and his colleagues, and such facts
as have been exposed in “Isis Very Much Unveiled.” What else is
there? One Theosophist directs me to “our literature on the subject,
which is copious.” I don’t doubt it; but it is not “literature” that I am
in search of. Another declares “it does not all depend on Madame
Blavatsky and Mr. Judge; others have seen Mahatmas.” It seems that
Mrs. Besant has been telling her Australian audiences that she
herself has been so favoured (just as she told the Hall of Science
audience that she had been favoured with supernatural missives).
Well, how did Mrs. Besant know her Mahatma? By his “portrait,” I
suppose, as others have done. And how was that portrait produced?
When Madame Blavatsky began to spell spiritualism “Theosophy,”
and turned her “spirit-control” “John King,” of whom Colonel Olcott
tells, into Master Koot Hoomi—whom she again subordinated, after
the Kiddle exposure, to Mahatma Morya, whom she, in turn, after
the S.P.R. Report, left over for exploitation by Mr. Judge—when
Madame started the Mahatma on this chequered career, it was one of
her earliest steps to secure a counterfeit presentment of her creation.
Various artists and amateurs were set to paint portraits under occult
inspiration. The results may all have resembled the Protean
Mahatma; some of them were strikingly unlike each other. The two
best were done by Mr. Schmiechen, now a society portrait-painter,
partly out of his head, partly from directions given by Madame, and
partly from a photograph of a typical Hindu which she gave him for
the purpose. Madame identified one as Koot and the other as Morya,
and declared they were speaking likenesses—an opinion which
nobody else was in a position to contradict. They hang to-day in the
“Occult Room” at Adyar, and are declared to have been painted from
the respective “astral bodies” of their subjects. Colonel Olcott,
president, who knows their origin perfectly well, exhibits them
reverently to barefoot disciples doing “puja.” Photographs from the
fancy portrait of “M,” in locked cases, have been distributed to the
Esoteric few; Mrs. Besant always works with one facing her; Madame
Blavatsky made it part of a chela’s course to spend some time daily
staring at the image, and deliberately trying to “visualise” it in
corners of the room. What wonder if some of them have succeeded?
It would have been contrary to all experience of the phenomena of
self-hypnotic hallucination if they had not. The thing only begins to
call for examination when the figure thus “visualised” leaves
something not entirely psychic behind him. The Master who left a
shower of roses once at Adyar turned out to have been M. Coulomb,
eked out with a mask, a bladder, and some white muslin; and the
roses were traced elsewhere than to Tibet. And the Master who
precipitated the Judge missives?——But perhaps the Theosophists
would prefer not to put him forward. When they have something
better, I shall be glad to hear of it.

The Theosophistry of Throwing Over the Mahatmas.

“What matter even if the Mahatmas do not exist, and the

phenomena are frauds? There still remain those sublime ideas
which,” &c., &c.
I was quite prepared for this particular Theosophistry. That was
why I started, at the very beginning of my story (Chapter II.), by
showing what an enormous practical part the Mahatmas and their
miracles have played in the movement. It is easy for this Theosophist
or that to protest that they never attracted him. The fact remains that
the big accessions to the society’s numbers have always followed on
the miracle “booms,” alike under Madame Blavatsky and under Mrs.
Besant. Moreover, it is not possible, even argumentatively, to
dissociate “those sublime ideas,” &c., from the Mahatmas on whose
authority Madame Blavatsky gave them out. If she spoke truth, they
were the real authors of “Isis Very Much Unveiled” and of “The
Secret Doctrine.” If she lied, and the authority for those teachings is
her own, what is that lying authority worth? I need not labour the
point, as it was conclusively proved long ago by Mrs. Besant herself.
In an article in Lucifer of December, 1890, addressed apparently to
certain Theosophical schismatics who showed a tendency to throw
over alike their foundress and her “Masters,” Mrs. Besant
accomplished the easy task of showing that the society was tied hand
and foot to both. It was founded by Her at the bidding of “Them”;
They have been the deus ex machinâ whenever She was in a fix, and
the society has so accepted Them. It can be “neutral” about Them,
and Their miracles, and Their prophetess, only when an heir is
neutral about his own title-deeds. As Mrs. Besant puts it in a
nutshell: “If there are no Masters, then the Theosophical Society is
an absurdity.”

The Theosophistry of Throwing Over the “Inner Group.”

“The Esoteric Section is a private body, not officially connected

with the Theosophical Society; so the Society is not responsible for
miracle-mongering in the Section.”
The so-called Esoteric Section or E.S.T. (“Eastern School of
Theosophy”), of which the High-priesters and the Vice-President are
now quarrelling for the headship, and, in the words of the latter
official, “the core of the Theosophical Society.” The Inner Group,
again, is the core of the E.S.T. Both were the special creation of the
Society’s foundress. The Group was to contain her top pupils. The
members of the group are almost to a man officials of the Society,
living at the Society’s expense. With the one exception of Colonel
Olcott, practically all the high panjandrums are included in it. Lastly,
if it has been the centre of the Mahatma communications, it is a
centre that has radiated them in all directions to the society’s
circumference. The plop of a missive sends a ripple from the Inner
Group to the Esoteric Section, from the Esoteric Section to the
society at large, and from the society to the public.
Well, the yolk of an egg is not officially connected with the outer
portion; but when the yolk is bad, we call it a rotten egg without
further parley.

The Theosophistry of Throwing Over the Society’s Personnel.

But that brings me to the most barefaced Theosophistry of all:

“Even if all our officials be proved to have lied and cheated, there
still remains untouched their grand ethical teaching!”
I simply state this, and leave it. Like the coster when his barrow
broke down, “Friends, I ain’t ekal to it.” I cannot do justice to such
colossal impudence. “Truth survives all attacks”; she does; she will
even survive Theosophical defences. “The noble religions and
philosophies of the East exist”; they do, as they did long centuries
before the Theosophical Society was heard of, and will do long
centuries after it has been forgotten. But when Mahatmas, and
miracles, and the founders, and the officials, and the official acts of
the Theosophical Society are all thrown over—What remains of the
society? “We have absolutely no creed,” the European secretary told
an interviewer the other day—(all unfettered by the fact that he
distributes broadcast Mrs. Besant’s “Introduction to Theosophy”
with a complete pseudo-Buddhistic cosmology about the Seven
Planes, &c., authenticated by direct reference to the Masters, and
particularising, for instance, that “Devachan” lasts “for average
persons some fifteen centuries”!)—“Absolutely no creed.” “You would
simply call yours a moral or religious society, then?” asked the
puzzled interviewer. To which Mr. Mead naïvely replies, “I don’t
exactly know what you would call it.”—(Sunday Times, Nov. 11.)
Since scholarship has opened the stores of the East to Western
culture, there has been a natural awakening of popular interest in
Eastern directions. While that lasts, people discussing each other’s
souls will continue to sprinkle their remarks, harmlessly enough,
with those mingled jargons which make a true Orientalist smile. If
“Theosophy” means that, “Theosophy” has certainly some life before
it; but as for the Theosophical Society—“why cumbereth it the
ground?” It is an organised machine for taking in the Honest
Enthusiast at one end, passing him through the stages of the Willing
Dupe and the Conscientious Humbug, and turning him out at the
other end at worst a conscious fraud, at best a dreary and
disillusioned cynic.
Enough of the logical and ethical fog that Theosophy diffuses!—the
Mahatmosphere, as one might call it. It is a relief to escape from it
into the fresh air of common honesty and common sense.
POSTSCRIPT.
 A MAHATMA AT BAY:

THE VICE-PRESIDENT’S TRUMP CARD.

The following appeared in the Westminster Gazette, under the

headings: “OPEN SPLIT BETWEEN THEOSOPHICAL OFFICIALS”;
“RIVAL REVELATIONS FROM THE SAME MASTER”; “MR.
JUDGE GETS A MISSIVE DEPOSING MRS. BESANT”:—
Just as the Story of the Great Mahatma Hoax is going to press in
its collected form, just in the nick of time to be included, comes the
material for a new chapter of more extravagant humour than all the
rest. Readers of the “Isis” chapters will recall that the Theosophic
embroglio has gone through the following stages:—(1) The vice-
president’s “Mahatma” makes reflections on the president. (2) The
president and other officials make charges of “forging” Mahatma
missives against the V.P. (3) Mrs. Besant, after some vacillation,
adopts these charges, and joins with the others in offering the V.P.
the choice of retiring quietly or an exposure. (4) The V.P. bluffs them
all into silence, and they all join in inducing the “Convention” of last
July to separate without looking further into the matter. (5) Mrs.
Besant and the V.P. “join hands,” in public, on her statement that
though he wrote the alleged missives “with his own hand,” yet he had
“psychically received” their contents from the Mahatma. (6) In
private, Mrs. Besant separates herself from the V.P. by dissolving
their joint headship of the Esoteric Section (“the core of the
Theosophical Society,” as Mr. Judge justly calls it below): Mr. Judge,
V.P., to retain the American section of the section, and she herself
the European, to which she has since added the Indian.
Now we learn Phase 7. Seven is a highly Theosophical numeral,
and this phase is certainly a rich one. Mr. Judge sends round to the
Esoteric Section a pamphlet in which he announces that Mrs. Besant
is, in effect, possessed of a devil, and that the Mahatma (under whose
direction she also professes to be acting) has ordered him to depose
her altogether, and take over the whole thing himself!! Which, in a
formal “Order,” he accordingly proceeds to do.
The pamphlet, which among other things professes to give the
Judge version of the true inwardness of the abortive “Enquiry” in
July, has just been sent round to the Esoteric Theosophists. Copies
were not sent to some who were considered dangerous; but the
recent unveiling has made a good many so who were safe enough,
from the Judge point of view, before, and thanks to one of these who
does not acknowledge any headship of Mr. Judge over the European
Esotericists since Mrs. Besant’s dissolution thereof, it is possible to
give to mankind what was meant by Mr. Judge for a party. The
following are the salient passages, followed by the Order deposing
Mrs. Besant (the titles in capitals are Mr. Judge’s; the paragraph
headings are not):—

BY MASTER’S DIRECTION.

I now send you this, all of it being either direct quotations from the messages to
me, or else in substance what I am directed to say to you, the different details and
elaborations being my own....
We have now to deal with the E.S.T. and with our duty to it and to each other;
and among those others, to Mrs. Besant....

The Greatness of Wm. Q. Judge.

I am not a pledged member of the E.S.T., and never made a pledge in it, as my
pledges were long before to the Master direct. I was one of its founders, with
H.P.B., and she, at the beginning, made me manager and teacher in it from the
first, under her, for the American part especially. You can remember all she said of
that. I wrote the rules of the E.S.T. myself in London in 1888 at H.P.B.’s request,
and under the direction of the Master. Those were not altered by her, but after
reading them and further consulting the Master she added some general
paragraphs. I am the only one standing in that position. Mrs. Besant and all other
members are pledged and certified in the ordinary way....
An Inner Group was later on formed by H.P.B. at London, so that she might give
out teachings to be recorded by the members, and, if possible, teach them practical
Occultism. Of this Mrs. Besant, with George Mead to help her, was made the
Secretary, because she had great ability in a literary way, was wholly devoted, and
perfectly fit for the task. But this did not make her a teacher....

The Littleness of Mrs. Besant.

The death of H.P.B. destroyed, of course, any further value in the office of
“Recorder.”
The conversations of H.P.B. with the Inner Group were taken down in a more or
less fragmentary form by the different members, in notes, and later Mrs. Besant
and George Mead wrote them out, as Secretaries. I have a complete copy of these,
and so has each member of the Inner Group, and those copies comprise all the
“Instructions” left in the possession of Mrs. Besant or the Inner Group. In my
possession, and within my control, is a large body of instructions given to me all
the time from 1875, which I shall give out and have given out, as far as I am
directed....
Mrs. Annie Besant has been but five years in this work, and not all of that time
engaged in occult study and practice....
Since 1889 she has done great service to the T.S. and devoted herself to it. But all
this does not prevent a sincere person from making errors in Occultism, especially
when he, as Mrs. Besant did, tries to force himself along the path of practical work
in that field. Sincerity does not confer of itself knowledge, much less wisdom....

Singular Disinterestedness of Wm. Q. Judge.

I wish it to be clearly understood that Mrs. Besant has had herself no conscious
evil intention: she has simply gone for awhile outside the line of her Guru (H.P.B.),
begun work with others, and fallen under their influence. We should not push her
farther down, but neither will the true sympathy we have blind our eyes, so as to let
her go on, to the detriment of the movement. I could easily retire from the whole
T.S., but my conceptions of duty are different, although the personal cost to myself
in this work is heavy, and as I am ordered to stay I will stay and try my best to aid
her and everyone else as much as possible. And the same authority tells me that
“could she open her eyes and see her real line of work, and correct the present
condition in herself as well as the one she has helped to make in the T.S. and
E.S.T., she would find herself in mental, spiritual, and physical conditions of a kind
much better than ever before, for her present state is due to the attacks of the dark
powers, unconsciously to her.”

Black Magic and the Plot Behind the Scenes.

 And now it becomes necessary under instructions received to give the members
of the School some account of the things behind the scenes in connexion with the
recent investigation attempted at London upon the charges against me....
I was made the object of an attack in the guise of an attempt to purify the
Society, and Mrs. Besant was thrown forward as the official accuser of myself—a
friend who was certified to her by H.P.B., her teacher, well known as working for
the T.S. for many years. All this needs light, and the best interests of Mrs. Besant
and of the E.S.T. demand that some of the secret history shall be given out,
however disagreeable it may be, in order that the very purgation which was
improperly directed to the wrong quarter shall take place now. The difficulty arose
when in January or February Annie Besant finally lent herself unconsciously to the
plot which I detail herein....
The plot exists among the Black Magicians, who ever war against the White, and
against those Black ones we were constantly warned by H.P.B. This is no fiction,
but a very substantial fact. I have seen and also been shown the chief entity among
those who thus work against us....

How Mr. Judge’s Master Caught Out Mrs. Besant’s Friend.

The name of the person who was worked upon so as to, if possible, use him as a
minor agent of the Black Magicians, and for the influencing of Mrs. Besant, is
Gyanendra N. Chakravarti, a Brahman, of Allahabad, India, who came to America
on our invitation to the Religious Parliament in 1893. He permitted ambition to
take subtle root in his heart; he is no longer in our lines. He was then a Chela of a
minor Indian Guru, and was directed to come to America by that Guru, who had
been impressed to so direct him by our Master.... While in that relation he was
telepathically impressed in Chicago with some of the contents of a message
received by me from the Master. It corroborated outwardly what I had myself
received. It was, however, but a part, and was, moreover, deficient in matter,
Chakravarti himself being only aware of it as a mental impression, and I am
informed that at the time he was not fully aware of what he was doing. His ability
to be used as an unconscious vehicle was made known to me when he was made to
receive the message. Although he was not fully aware of it, not only was the whole
of his tour here well guarded and arranged, but he was personally watched by the
agents of the Master’s scattered through the country unknown to him, who
reported to me. On several occasions he has taken people into his confidence,
believing that he was instructing them, when in fact they were observing him
closely from the Lodge, helping him where right, and noting him fully, though they
did not tell him so. This was also so in those parts of his tour when he believed
himself alone or only with Mrs. Besant....

“If I am a Fraud so are H.P.B. and the Masters.”

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