Emma Coulomb
Emma Coulomb was an English woman who worked as a housekeeper for Helena Petrovna Blavatsky in India and betrayed her trust, causing the scandal known as the Coulomb Affair.
Personal life
Emma Cutting was an English woman whose early history is not known.
According to investigations by C. W. Leadbeater made in Egypt in 1884........
TO BE ADDED [1]
"The couple fled the country after an attempt at fraudulent bankruptcy, turning up in Calcutta in 1874 and moving on to Ceylon."[2]
Mme. Coulomb died on July 28, 1904 in Bombay, India.[3]
Meeting Madame Blavatsky
Late in 1871, Helena Petrovna Blavatsky arrived in Cairo, Egypt. There she formed a slight acquaintance with Miss Emma Cutting, who temporarily loaned her small amounts of money. H.P.B. formed the Société Spirite (“Spiritist Society”) for the investigation of the Spiritism of the French occultist Allan Kardec. However, Blavatsky could not find honest and qualified mediums to do the kind of research she had envisioned, so the Société was disbanded after about two weeks. Emma Cutting attended one séance, hoping to contact a dead relative.
In 1880, the Coulombs were living in Galle, Ceylon, trying to operate a boarding house. They heard of Blavatsky's arrival with Colonel Henry S. Olcott in Bombay to establish an Indian headquarters of the Theosophical Society that had been founded in 1875. Emma wrote to H.P.B. asking for a loan, but no funds were then available to help her. "To everyone's surprise the couple appeared at the Bombay headquarters on the evening of March 28, 1880, 'shoeless, penniless and starving.' H.P.B., generous to a fault, invited them to stay until they could get settled."[4]
Theosophical Society involvement
Within a week of their arrival in Bombay, the couple began to establish themselves within the Theosophists' household. Emma took on housekeeping tasks, and Alexis worked as a handyman. The General Membership Register of the Theosophical Society indicates that both Coulombs were admitted as members on April 3, 1880.[5]
The Coulombs gradually became indispensable, and they maintained the headquarters during the long absences of the Founders. When the headquarters was moved to Adyar near Madras at the end of 1882, the couple went along and continued in their same roles.
The Coulomb controversy
Over time, Emma came to be envious and dissatisfied. She slandered Madame Blavatsky viciously behind her back. In 1884, the Founders went to Europe, and Colonel Olcott, the President of the Theosophical Society, appointed seven men to serve as a Board of Control for the organization during his absence. Evidently Alexis was added to the board "because Mrs. Coulomb insisted to HSO that her husband was a proud man and his feelings would be hurt if he were left out."[6] Colonel Olcott later commented:
If I had had even an inkling of his real character, instead of making her husband ... a Committee man, I should have had our servants chase both of them out of our compound with bamboo switches.[7]
The Coulombs, with encouragement of Christian missionaries in Madras, worked to discredit Madame Blavatsky and the Theosophical Society. They had considerable influence and access in the running of the headquarters estate. Alexis altered Blavatsky's rooms to support an allegation that she had used fraud to produce precipitated letters from the Mahatmas. Board of Control members discovered that Emma Coulomb had been trying to borrow money from Indian members. Finally, the Board dismissed Emma and Alexis Coulomb from their positions.
Following this dismissal, in the Coulomb Affair and the Hodgson Report.
According to Readers Guide to The Mahatma Letters to A. P. Sinnett:
He was appointed by HSO to the Board of Control when the Founders went to Europe in 1884. This appointment was made because Mrs. Coulomb insisted to HSO that her husband was a proud man and his feelings would be hurt if he were left out. In ODL 3: 74, HSO comments: "If I had had even an inkling of his real character, instead of making her husband ... a Committee man, I should have had our servants chase both of them out of our compound with bamboo switches." The story of how these two, particularly Mrs. Coulomb, conspired with Christian missionaries to discredit HPB and funished false "evidence" to Richard Hodgson ... is told in numerous places - in greatest detail in Obituary - "The Hodgson Report" on Madame Blavatsky: 1885-1960, by Adlai E. Waterman. ML index; D, pp. 450, 573; SH index.[8]
Additional resources
- Charles J. Ryan, "Chapter 13: The Coulomb Conspiracy against Theosophy," H. P. Blavatsky and the Theosophical Movement (Pasadena, CA: Theosophical University Press, 1975). Available at Theosophical University Press Online.
Notes
- ↑ C. W. Leadbeater letter to Indian Mirror dated December 14, 1884. As presented in Michael Gomes, "The Coulomb Case" Theosophical History Occasional Papers Volume X (Fullerton, California: Theosophical History, 2005) 52.
- ↑ Michael Gomes, "The Coulomb Case" Theosophical History Occasional Papers Volume X (Fullerton, California: Theosophical History, 2005) 6.
- ↑ India, Select Deaths and Burials, 1719-1948.
- ↑ Michael Gomes, "The Coulomb Case" Theosophical History Occasional Papers Volume X (Fullerton, California: Theosophical History, 2005) 6.
- ↑ Theosophical Society General Membership Register, 1875-1942 at http://tsmembers.org/. See book 1, entries 288 and 289 (website file: 1A/17).
- ↑ George E. Linton and Virginia Hanson, eds., Readers Guide to The Mahatma Letters to A. P. Sinnett (Adyar, Chennai, India: Theosophical Publishing House, 1972), 224-225.
- ↑ Henry S. Olcott, Old Diary Leaves Volume 3, page 74.
- ↑ George E. Linton and Virginia Hanson, eds., Readers Guide to The Mahatma Letters to A. P. Sinnett (Adyar, Chennai, India: Theosophical Publishing House, 1972), 224-225.