Adyar, 1884: The Report That Made and Unmade a Reputation

The Society for Psychical Research sent Hodgson to India at the end of 1884 to examine the phenomena reported at the headquarters of the Theosophical Society, where letters from hidden masters in Tibet were said to materialise in a shrine cabinet. He spent three months there, examined the cabinet and its sliding panel, took handwriting samples, and interviewed the household staff, including the couple whose accusations had precipitated the inquiry. His report, published by the society in 1885, concluded that the Mahatma letters had been written by Helena Blavatsky herself, with assistance, and that the shrine had been constructed to permit their delivery.

The conclusion effectively ended any hope the Theosophical movement had of scientific endorsement, and it made Hodgson's name as the society's most formidable investigator. It has not gone unchallenged. In 1986 the society published a long re-examination by Vernon Harrison, a specialist in questioned documents, which argued that Hodgson's handwriting comparisons were technically unsound, that he had reasoned from a conclusion he had reached early, and that the report should never have been treated as settled. The society printed the critique without withdrawing the report, and both are now cited.