imperfections of my work were only too glaring, the consequence
of all this idle and malicious talk was, that my enemies
and critics inferred—as they well might—that either these invisible
inspirers had no existence, and were part of my “fraud,” or
that they lacked the cleverness of even an average good writer.46
The idea of writing by dictation from unseen teachers was
so supernatural-sounding that such rumors about Isis Unveiled
easily arose. Blavatsky points out, however, that there is nothing
supernatural about it. She affirms that the teachings come from
her Eastern Masters, and “that many a passage in these works
has been written by me under their dictation.” She explains:
In saying this no supernatural claim is urged, for no miracle is performed
by such a dictation. Any moderately intelligent person,
convinced by this time of the many possibilities of hypnotism
(now accepted by science and under full scientific investigation),
and of the phenomena of thought-transference, will easily
concede that if even a hypnotized subject, a mere irresponsible
medium, hears the unexpressed thought of his hypnotizer, who can
thus transfer his thought to him—even to repeating the words read by
the hypnotizer mentally from a book—then my claim has nothing
impossible in it. Space and distance do not exist for thought; and
if two persons are in perfect mutual psycho-magnetic rapport,
and of these two, one is a great Adept in Occult Sciences, then
thought-transference and dictation of whole pages, become as
easy and as comprehensible at the distance of ten thousand
miles as the transference of two words across a room.47
14 Isis Unveiled: A Perspective
Blavatsky stresses repeatedly that her teachers are living
men, not disembodied spirits. She, while living in New York,
could easily receive dictation from them, living in Tibet, since
distance is no barrier to this. She also received dictation from
other teachers, living in other places, for use in Isis Unveiled. As
described by her co-worker, Colonel Olcott, their ability with
English varied greatly, so that sometimes he had to make several
corrections per line, and other times hardly any. The unique
work of one of these teachers is described by Olcott as follows:
Most perfect of all were the manuscripts which were written for
her while she was sleeping. The beginning of the chapter on the
civilisation of Ancient Egypt (vol. i, chap. xiv) is an illustration.
We had stopped work the evening before at about 2 A.M. as usual,
both too tired to stop for our usual smoke and chat before
parting; she almost fell asleep in her chair while I was bidding
her good-night, so I hurried off to my bedroom. The next
morning, when I came down after my breakfast, she showed me
a pile of at least thirty or forty pages of beautifully written H.P.B.
manuscript, which, she said, she had had written for her by—
well, a Master, whose name has never yet been degraded like
some others. It was perfect in every respect, and went to the
printers without revision.48
The material for Isis Unveiled was thus given to Blavatsky
piece by piece, without system. When it began, she had no idea
that it would eventually become a book. The material was later
arranged and rearranged. She often commented on its lack of
system, saying about the resulting book:
. . . it looks in truth, as remarked by a friend, as if a mass of
independent paragraphs having no connection with each other,
had been well shaken up in a waste-basket, and then taken out
at random and—published.49
According to the Mahatma K.H., her own contributions to
Isis Unveiled were similarly unsystematic, and her explanations
were unclear.
Isis Unveiled: A Perspective 15
She . . . is unable to write with anything like system and calmness,
or to remember that the general public needs all the lucid
explanations that to her may seem superfluous.50
For these reasons, and the several reasons given above that
errors entered Isis Unveiled, the Mahatma K.H. remarked:
It really ought to be re-written for the sake of the family honour.51
Blavatsky in fact did start to rewrite it in the mid-1880s, and
announced it as such. But this was soon transformed into an
altogether new book, The Secret Doctrine, because she was able to
give out so many more truths in clear terms. Already in 1882,
the situation had changed significantly. She then says:
When Isis was written, it was conceived by those from whom the
impulse, which directed its preparation, came, that the time was
not ripe for the explicit declaration of a great many truths which
they are now willing to impart in plain language. So the readers
of that book, were supplied rather with hints, sketches, and
adumbrations of the philosophy to which it related, than with
methodical expositions.52
By 1886, the situation had changed greatly. She writes:
And I tell you that the Secret Doctrine will be 20 times as learned,