Misplaced Pages

This article includes a list of references, related reading, or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations. Please help improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (January 2024) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

You can help expand this article with text translated from the corresponding article in German. (May 2015) Click for important translation instructions. View a machine-translated version of the German article. Machine translation, like DeepL or Google Translate, is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Misplaced Pages. Consider adding a topic to this template: there are already 2,147 articles in the main category, and specifying|topic= will aid in categorization. Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article. You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary is Content in this edit is translated from the existing German Misplaced Pages article at ]; see its history for attribution. You may also add the template {{Translated|de|Coulomb-Affäre}} to the talk page. For more guidance, see Misplaced Pages:Translation.

Part of a series on
Theosophy
There Is No Religion Higher Than Truth
Founders Helena Blavatsky William Quan Judge Henry Steel Olcott
Theosophists Annie Besant Isabel Cooper-Oakley Robert Crosbie Abner Doubleday Geoffrey Hodson Raghavan N. Iyer Wassily Kandinsky Archibald Keightley C. W. Leadbeater G. R. S. Mead Arthur E. Powell James Morgan Pryse Subba Row William Scott-Elliot Alfred Percy Sinnett Rudolf Steiner Brian Stonehouse Katherine Tingley Ernest Wood
Concepts Root races Seven rays Theosophical mysticism
Organizations Theosophical Society Theosophical Society Adyar Theosophical Society in America Theosophical Society in America (Hargrove) Theosophical Society Pasadena Theosophical Society Point Loma - Blavatskyhouse United Lodge of Theosophists
Texts At the Feet of the Master Book of Dzyan Esoteric Buddhism Isis Unveiled The Key to Theosophy The Secret Doctrine Theosophical Glossary The Voice of the Silence
Publications Lucifer Sunrise The Theosophist
Masters Kuthumi Maitreya Master Hilarion Master Jesus Morya St. Germain
Comparative Buddhism and Theosophy Christianity and Theosophy Hinduism and Theosophy Theosophy and literature Theosophy and visual arts Theosophy and Western philosophy
Related Agni Yoga Alice Bailey Anthroposophy Ascended Master Teachings Esotericism Gnosticism Hermeticism Jiddu Krishnamurti Liberal Catholic Church Masters of the Ancient Wisdom Mysticism Neo-Theosophy Neoplatonism New Age Occultism Order of the Star in the East Perennial philosophy Plane (esotericism)
v t e

The Coulomb Affair was a conflict between Emma and Alexis Coulomb, on one side, and Helena Blavatsky and the Theosophical Society, on the other.

Blavatsky met Emma and Alexis in 1871 in Cairo. They founded the short-lived Société Spirite. In August 1879, Emma and Alexis contacted Blavatsky because they had financial problems. They were stranded in Sri Lanka, and Blavatsky helped them to get to Bombay and tried to find a job for them. As she could not find a job for them, she provided them with a position in the Theosophical Society, where they did various chores, such as cooking and gardening. In February 1884, Blavatsky and H. S. Olcott travelled to Europe. After their departure, a conflict between the Coulombs and the Theosophical Society escalated. The Coulombs tried to blackmail and threaten Blavatsky, whereupon Blavatsky dismissed them. When the theosophists inspected Blavatsky's room after the Coulombs had to leave, they found secret doors in her room . Alexis claimed that he constructed these secret doors for Blavatsky. Theosophists have said that Alexis' constructions were obviously newly built, and the secret doors could not be opened or closed silently or without strong effort.

After the Coulombs were dismissed, they went to their Christian missionary friends of the Free Church of Scotland, and gave them letters that were allegedly written by Blavatsky to Emma. These letters suggested that Blavatsky was a fraud. The chaplain George Patterson published extracts from these letters in the Madras Christian College Magazine. The incident became well known all over India and also in America and Europe. Blavatsky immediately published a reply in several newspapers. Blavatsky and Olcott then travelled back to India at the end of 1884. Soon afterwards the Hodgson Report was published, which further damaged Blavatsky's reputation. The report also contained the allegations of the Coulombs.

In 1986 and 1997, Vernon Harrison of the Society for Psychical Research published a study on the Hodgson Report. The Blavatsky–Coulomb letters were destroyed by Elliott Coues, an enemy of Blavatsky, so that they cannot be studied.

See also

• Hodgson Report
• Incidents in the Life of Madame Blavatsky

Literature

• Besant, Annie: H. P. Blavatsky und die Meister der Weisheit. Theosophisches Verlagshaus, Leipzig 1924
• Coulomb, Emma: Some account of my association with Madame Blavatsky from 1872 to 1884. Lawrence Asylum Press, Madras 1884
• Harrison, Vernon: H. P. Blavatsky und die SPR, Eine Untersuchung des Hodgson Berichtes aus dem Jahre 1885. Theosophischer Verlag 1998; ISBN 3-930623-21-8
• Hartmann, Franz: Wahrheit und Dichtung, Die Theosophische Gesellschaft und der Wunderschrank von Adyar. o.O. 1906

External links

• "The Theosophical Movement 1875–1950" Archived 2009-10-26 at the Wayback Machine, Cunningham Press, 1951 (page 82ff.)
• "The Collapse of Koot Hoomi" by Rev. George Patterson, Madras Christian College Magazine (1884)
• "Statement of a Visitor" by Franz Hartmann, reprinted from Report of the Result of an Investigation into the Charges against Madame Blavatsky Brought by the Missionaries of the Scottish Free Church of Madras, and Examined by a Committee Appointed for That Purpose by the General Council of the Theosophical Society, 1885, pp. 139–144.
• "The Testimony of Emma Coulomb" by Emma Coulomb, from "The Report of the Committee Appointed to Investigate the Phenomena connected with the Theosophical Society," Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research, 1885.
• "The Coulomb Conspiracy Against Theosophy", ch. 13 in H. P. Blavatsky and the Theosophical Movement, by Charles J. Ryan, 1937

• Helena Blavatsky
• Theosophical Society