Vernon Harrison's Examination of The Hodgson Report
In 1986, Vernon Harrison, a research worker of disputed documents, did a research on the Hodgson report. According to Harrison's examination, the Hodgson Report is not a scientific study, it "is flawed and untrustworthy" and "should be read with great caution, if not disregarded." (Harrison 1997) Harrison stated:
- "I cannot exonerate the SPR committee from blame for publishing this thoroughly bad report. They seem to have done little more than rubber-stamp Hodgson's opinions; and no serious attempt was made to check his findings or even to read his report critically. If they had done so (...) the case would have been referred back for further study. Madame H. P. Blavatsky was the most important occultist ever to appear before the SPR for investigation; and never was opportunity so wasted."
Harrison says about the Hodgson Report that "whereas Hodgson was prepared to use any evidence, however trivial or questionable, to implicate HPB, he ignored all evidence that could be used in her favor. His report is riddled with slanted statements, conjecture advanced as fact or probable fact, uncorroborated testimony of unnamed witnesses, selection of evidence and downright falsity."
He concluded that Hodgson's case against Blavatsky is not proven, and that there is no evidence that the Mahatma Letters were written by her. However, the Hodgson report did not just deal with forgery, but addressed the crude psychic tricks used by Blavatsky such as her seances where spirits respond to her with "raps" on the table, the dropping of Mahatma Letters from the ceiling and onto peoples heads, and various letters written by Blavatsky incriminating herself, and the actions of Theosophists to cover up the fraud.
The Vernon Harrison report excoriates Hodgson on his failure to conduct himself as if he were in a court of law. However, Mr. Hogdson was not in a court of law, but was a spiritualism investigator sent to India and reporting back to the Society of Psychical Research. It is likely Hodgson had hoped to find the phenomena true. Harrison does not address the evidence that Blavatsky was simply another fraudulent medium using "spirit rapping" such as that uncovered by the Seybert Commission in 1887. The investigations of mediums in the late 1880s dealt a blow to spiritualists worldwide.
The Madras Christian College Magazine made a similar analysis of fraud on the part of Blavatsky in "The Collapse of Koot Hoomi" by Rev. George Patterson and addresses Blavatsky's ruses because the Madras Christian College had previously written positively concerning Blavatsky.
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