Coulomb Affair

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The Coulomb Affair refers to a conflict between Emma and Alexis Coulomb and Blavatsky and the Theosophical Society.

Blavtsky met Emma and Alex in 1871 in Cairo. They founded the short-lived Société Spirite. In August 1879, Emma and Alex contacted Blavatsky because they had financial problems. They were stranded in Sri Lanka, and Blavatsky helped them to get to Mumbai and tried to find a job for them. As she couldn't find a job for them, she provided them with a position in the Theosophical Society, where they were doing 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 decruited them. When the theosophists inspected Blavatskys 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 decruited, 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 then immediately published a reply in several newspapers. Blavatsky and Olcott then travelled back to India in the end of 1884. Soon afterwards the Hodgson Report was published, which also severely damaged Blavatskys reputation. The report also contained the allegations of the Coulombs.

In 1986 und 1997, Vernon Harrison of the SPR published a study on Hodgsons report. The Blavatsky-Coulomb letters were destroyed by Elliott Coues, an ennemy of Blavatsky, so that they cannot be studied today anymore. Adley Carrithers jr. (1924-1994) already remarked that the secret doors couldn't had been used by Blavatsky to deceive others.

[edit] See also

• Hodgson Report

[edit] 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

[edit] External links

• TS 1875-1950 ( page 82ff.)
• „Madras Christian College Magazine“
• The coulomb affair
• Franz Hartmanns
• Emma Coulomb