File:Hours with the ghosts, or, Nineteenth century witchcraft - illustrated investigations into the phenomena of spiritualism and theosophy (1897) (14776085824).jpg

Identifier: hourswithghostso00evan (find matches)
Title: Hours with the ghosts, or, Nineteenth century witchcraft : illustrated investigations into the phenomena of spiritualism and theosophy
Year: 1897 (1890s)
Authors: Evans, Henry Ridgely, 1861-1949 Harry Houdini Collection (Library of Congress) DLC
Subjects: Blavatsky, H. P. (Helena Petrovna), 1831-1891 Spiritualism Theosophy
Publisher: Chicago : Laird & Lee
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: The Library of Congress

View Book Page: Book Viewer
About This Book: Catalog Entry
View All Images: All Images From Book
Click here to view book online to see this illustration in context in a browseable online version of this book.

Text Appearing Before Image:
rests of the estate. Here, inthis House of Usher, the Sibyl lived and dreamed, andat this period exhibited many abnormal psychic pe-culiarities, ascribed by her orthodox governess andnurses of the Greek Church to possession by the devil.She had at times ungovernable fits of temper; shewould ride any Cossack horse on the place astride amans saddle; go into trances and scare everyone fromthe master of the mansion down to the humblestvodka drinker on the estate. In 1848, at the age of 17, she married GeneralCount Blavatsky, a gouty old Russian of 70, whomshe called the plumed raven, but left him aftera brief period of marital infelicity. From thistime dates her career as a thaumaturgist. Shetravelled through India and made an honest attemptto penetrate into the mysterious confines of Thibet,but succeeded in getting only a few miles from thefrontier, owing to the fanaticism of the natives. In India, as elsewhere, she was accused of being aRussian spy and was generally regarded with suspi-
Text Appearing After Image:
Im. 53— MAHATMA LETTEB. THE PRIESTESS. 223 cion by the police authorities. After some months oferratic wanderings she reappeared in Russia, this time in Tiflis, at the residence of a relative, Prince . It was a gloomy, grewsome chateau, well suited forSpiritualistic seances, and Madame Blavatsky, it isclaimed, frightened the guests during the long winterevenings with table-tippings, spirit rappings, etc. Itwas then the tall candles in the drawing-room burntlow, the gobelin tapestry rustled, sighs were heard,strange music resounded in the air, and luminousforms were seen trailing their ghostly garments acrossthe tufted flooi. The gossipy Madame de Jelihowsy, in her reminis-cences, classifies the phenomena, witnessed in the pres-ence of her Sibylline sister, as follows: 1. Direct and perfectly clearly written and verbalanswers to mental questions—or thought reading. 2. Private secrets, unknown to all but the inter-ested party, divulged, (especially in the case of thosepersons who me

Note About Images