Chart Showing the
Four Step Process of Discovery as applied to Case D
OLCOTT'S ACCOUNT OF MEETING A MASTER AT THE GOLDEN TEMPLE
IN AMRITSAR ON OCTOBER 26, 1880
What is your interpretation of Olcott's testimony about this encounter with this Master?
| Step 1 Unexplained experience, phenomenon |
Step 2 Hypotheses, possible explanations for experience |
Step 3 Evidence (collected & analyzed) |
Step 4 Interpreting and drawing conclusions |
| "'...at a shrine where the swords, sharp steel discs,
coats of mail, and other warlike weapons of the Sikh warrior priests are exposed to view
in charge of the akalis, I was greeted, to my surprise and joy, with a loving smile by one
of the Masters, who for the moment was figuring among the guardians, and who gave each of
us a fresh rose, with a blessing in his eyes...." (Old Diary Leaves, Volume
III, pp. 254-255, 1974 printing.) In Olcott's own handwritten diary, the entry for October 26, 1880 reads: "...In the afternoon we went to the Golden Temple again & found it as lovely as before. Saw some hundreds of fakirs & gossains more or less ill-favored. A Brother there saluted H.P.B. and me & gave us each a rose."
|
1. Olcott perhaps was simply lying and this
whole experience never actually happened. 2. Olcott was possibly duped by a confederate hired by Blavatsky to personate a Master. 3. Olcott was perhaps hypnotized by Blavatsky to see this "imaginary" adept. 4. Olcott was maybe under the influence of drugs & hallucinated the whole experience. 5. Olcott possibly met a real physical man who was an adept. 6. ?????????? 7. ?????????? etc. |
Conclusion ??????: |
Back to Chart Showing Interpretations of Some of Henry S. Olcott's Encounters with the Masters