A PERSONAL EXPERIENCE.
All the above stories are comparatively well-known, and may be found
in some of the books which contain collections of such accounts--most
of them in Dr. Lee’s _More Glimpses of the World Unseen_; but the
two instances which I am now about to give have never been in print
before, and both occurred within the last ten years--one to myself,
and the other to a very dear friend of mine, a prominent member of
the Theosophical Society, whose accuracy of observation is beyond all
shadow of doubt.
My own story is a simple one enough, though not unimportant to me,
since the interposition undoubtedly saved my life. I was walking
one exceedingly wet and stormy night down a quiet back street near
Westbourne Grove, struggling with scant success to hold up an umbrella
against the savage gusts of wind that threatened every moment to tear
it from my grasp, and trying as I laboured along to think out the
details of some work upon which I was just then engaged.
With startling suddenness a voice which I know well--the voice of
an Indian teacher--cried in my ear “Spring back!” and in mechanical
obedience I started violently backwards almost before I had time to
think. As I did so my umbrella, which had swung forward with the sudden
movement, was struck from my hand, and a huge metal chimney-pot crashed
upon the pavement less than a yard in front of my face. The great
weight of this article, and the tremendous force with which it fell,
make it absolutely certain that but for the warning voice I should have
been killed on the spot; yet the street was empty, and the voice was
that of one whom I knew to be seven thousand miles away from me, as far
as the physical body was concerned.
Nor was this the only occasion upon which I received assistance of
this supernormal kind, for in early life, long before the foundation
of the Theosophical Society, the apparition of a dear one who had
recently died prevented me from committing what I now see would have
been a serious crime, although by the light of such knowledge as I
then had it appeared not only a justifiable but even a laudable act of
retaliation. Again, at a later date, though still before the foundation
of this Society, a warning conveyed to me from a higher plane amid
most impressive surroundings enabled me to prevent another man from
entering upon a course which I now know would have ended disastrously,
though I had no reason to suppose so at the time. So it will be seen
that I have a certain amount of personal experience to strengthen
my belief in the doctrine of invisible helpers, even apart from my
knowledge of the help that is constantly being given at the present
time.
The other case is a very much more striking one. One of our members,
who gives me permission to publish her story, but does not wish her
name mentioned, once found herself in very serious physical peril.
Owing to circumstances which need not be detailed here, she was in
the very centre of a dangerous street fracas, and seeing several men
struck down and evidently badly hurt close to her, was in momentary
expectation of a similar fate, since escape from the crush seemed quite
impossible.
Suddenly she experienced a curious sensation of being whirled out of
the crowd, and found herself standing quite uninjured and entirely
alone in a small bye-street parallel with the one in which the
disturbance had taken place. She still heard the noise of the struggle,
and while she stood wondering what on earth had happened to her, two or
three men who had escaped from the crowd came running round the corner
of the street, and on seeing her expressed great astonishment and
pleasure, saying that when the brave lady so suddenly disappeared from
the midst of the fight they had felt certain that she had been struck
down.
At the time no sort of explanation was forthcoming, and she returned
home in a very mystified condition; but when at a later period she
mentioned this strange occurrence to Madame Blavatsky she was informed
that, her karma being such as to enable her to be saved from her
exceedingly dangerous position, one of the Masters had specially sent
some one to protect her in view of the fact that her life was needed
for the work.
Nevertheless the case remains a very extraordinary one, both with
regard to the great amount of power exercised and the unusually
public nature of its manifestation. It is not difficult to imagine
the _modus operandi_; she must have been lifted bodily over the
intervening block of houses, and simply set down in the next street;
but since her physical body was not visible floating in the air, it is
also evident that a veil of some sort (probably of etheric matter) must
have been thrown round her while in transit.
If it be objected that whatever can hide physical matter must itself be
physical, and therefore visible, it may be replied that by a process
familiar to all occult students it is possible to bend rays of light
(which, under all conditions at present known to science, travel only
in straight lines unless refracted) so that after passing round an
object they may resume exactly their former course; and it will at once
be seen that if this were done such an object would to all physical
eyes be absolutely invisible until the rays were allowed to resume
their normal course. I am fully aware that this one statement alone is
sufficient to brand my remarks as nonsense in the eyes of the scientist
of the present day, but I cannot help that; I am merely stating a
possibility in nature which the science of the future will no doubt
one day discover, and for those who are not students of occultism the
remark must wait until then for its justification.
The process, as I say, is comprehensible enough to any one who
understands a little about the more occult forces of nature; but the
phenomenon still remains an exceedingly dramatic one, while the name
of the heroine of the story, were I permitted to give it, would be a
guarantee of its accuracy to all my readers.
Another recent instance of interposition, less striking, perhaps, but
entirely successful, has been reported to me since the publication of
the first edition of this book. A lady, being obliged to undertake a
long railway journey alone, had taken the precaution to secure an
empty compartment; but just as the train was leaving the station, a man
of forbidding and villainous appearance sprang in and seated himself at
the other end of the carriage. The lady was much alarmed, thus to be
left alone with so doubtful-looking a character, but it was too late to
call for help, so she sat still and commended herself earnestly to the
care of her patron saint.
Soon her fears were redoubled, for the man arose and turned toward her
with an evil grin, but he had hardly taken one step when he started
back with a look of the most intense astonishment and terror. Following
the direction of his glance, she was startled to see a gentleman seated
directly opposite to her, gazing quietly but firmly at the baffled
robber--a gentleman who certainly could not have entered the carriage
by any ordinary means. Too much awed to speak, she watched him as
though fascinated for a full half-hour; he uttered no word, and did
not even look at her, but kept his eyes steadily upon the villain, who
cowered trembling in the furthest corner of the compartment. The moment
that the train reached the next station, and even before it came to a
standstill, the would-be thief tore open the door and sprang hurriedly
out. The lady, deeply thankful to be rid of him, turned to express
her gratitude to the gentleman, but found only an empty seat, though
it would have been impossible for any physical body to have left the
carriage in the time.
The materialization was in this case maintained for a longer period
than usual, but on the other hand it expended no force in action of any
kind--nor indeed was it necessary that it should do so, as its mere
appearance was sufficient to effect its purpose.
But these stories, all referring as they do to what would commonly be
called angelic intervention, illustrate only one small part of the
activities of our invisible helpers. Before, however, we can profitably
consider the other departments of their work it will be well that we
should have clearly in our minds the various classes of entities to
which it is possible that these helpers may belong. Let that, then, be
the portion of our subject to be next treated.