Theos-Talk Archives (August 1996 Message tl00355)

Keith Price writes:
>I taped a radio show by a group of fundamentalists regarding the
>New World Order conspiracy which  was started (according to
>them) by HPB.  I replayed it recently and they mention Blavatsky
>as having written something called "A MANUAL FOR REVOLUTION"
>where she (again according to this writer on the occult roots of
>the New Age) called for the assassination of world leaders.
>Sirhan SIrhan requested the Secret Doctrine after he was jailed
>and Hitler (again according to them) kept the SD on his
>nightstand as a guide and a justification for the Master Race
>ideal as spearhead of evolution etc.
>
>Is anyone familiar with the work: MANUAL FOR REVOLUTION. I've
>never seen it our lodge library. Is it a forgery or hoax.


JHE
If anything, the survival of this story gives credence to an
expression quoted by HPB that: Error run on an inclined plane.

The Story of HPB writing the MANUAL FOR REVOLUTIONARIES began
following the June 1968 democratic primary.  I remember that it
was abound 1:30 in the morning, and I had stayed up to listen to
Robert Kennedy's speech.  By that time it was pretty clear to the
convention that he would be our next President, providing someone
didn't put a bullet through his head like they did with his
brother.  That memory was still fresh in my mind and I was a bit
apprehensive about this convention.  Sure enough, as he finished
his speech and turned to escape the crowds through a hotel
kitchen, Sirhan Sirhan nailed him through the head right in front
of the cameras.   The football player Rosie Greer then jumped
Sirhan.  It was pandemonium over the next week.  Sirhan was
jailed and the news broadcasts kept the public informed of
everything he ate and said.  It was the next evening that the
media told the world that Sirhan requested from his jailers a
copy of THE SECRET DOCTRINE and TALKS ON AT THE FEET OF THE
MASTER.  The media ignored the Leadbeater book and focused on
Blavatsky.  John Chancellor announced on the NBC Evening News the
same evening that Blavatsky was a the founding leader of a cult
called the Theosophical Society and was a revolutionary.  She
called for the assassination of world leaders to bring about a
better world.  Further, that she had published a book called the
MANUAL FOR REVOLUTIONARIES.   Walter Winchell followed up in his
syndicated newspaper column the same information.  You have to
keep in mind that Winchell was the biggest name in news writing
and went back to the radio days.  He did his television show with
the sound of teletypes in the background, giving the viewing
audience the impression that he is some kind of demigod with
every possible world event pouring through those infallible
teletypes.   In other words, he gave the illusion of having had
one hell of a lot more credibility then any human could possibly
have.

NBC followed up the next week (June 13) with Johnny Carson
interviewing Truman Capote on the Tonight Show.  Capote was the
author of a best selling and thoroughly gruesome book called IN
COLD BLOOD.  Capote repeated The story about Blavatsky and her
authorship of the MANUAL, and added that the MANUAL details how
the assassination of prominent figures paved the way to
revolution.  All of the major Stations and Newspapers followed
up, repeating the story and replaying Capote's interview.
Representatives and individuals from all of the Theosophical
Organizations responded to the reports and in one or two cases
got spots on day-time television and radio shows to refute the
story.  But it was Winchell, Capote and Steinbacher that got 99
plus percent of the attention.  By late June, a writer for the
John Birch Society, who went by the name Rex Westerfield,
published an Analysis of the assassination events for a magazine
called "The Review of the News."  Here he describes "Mrs.
Blavatsky" as a Russian Princess and founded the "illuminist
Theosophical Church" in New York "in the 1880's."  He also
mentions Bishop James A. Pike and former Secretary of Defense
Robert S. McNamara as "two of the present leaders of the New York
Theosophical Church."  In July, John Steinbacher had a small book
out called "Robert Frances Kennedy: The Man: The Mysticism: The
Murder."  The book repeated the same allegations.  By September,
THE BOOKMANS WEEKLY, a trade journal for book dealers was filled
with ads from dealers all over the country begging for copies of
the MANUAL FOR REVOLUTIONARIES.  The WEEKLY called the MANUAL
"the nonsuch book."  Other publications followed.  One by W.S.
McBirnie, published a little book called "The Assassins."  Here
he also cites the NBC Newscast and Walter Winchell as source for
the information that Blavatsky wrote a book called MANUAL FOR
REVOLUTION.

Without going into the endless details, It turned out that Walter
Winchell cited John Steinbacher as the source of his information.
Steinbacher's publisher later inserted an errata sheet in his
book to disclaim the story of HPB writing the alleged MANUAL FOR
REVOLUTIONARIES.  Robert Welch, then founder and head of the John
Birch Society leaves the responsibility of the story to Rex
Westerfield.  Westerfield stuck to his story but never
substantiated it.  McBirnie also claimed to have received his
information from Steinbacher.  Steinbacher cites the "Dictionary
of American Biography" for 1929 as the source of the information
about the MANUAL FOR REVOLUTION.  No such reference has even been
found.  Where John Chancellor got his information on the June 6th
NBC broadcast is another mystery.  He claims that it was on a
slip of paper handed to him just before the Broadcast.  From
there the trail fades out.

Walter Winchell's son committed suicide on Christmas day 1968 and
Winchell went on an "indefinite vacation" and never returned to
broadcasting.  Truman Capote became a drug addict and lost all
credibility with the public before dying a few years later.
Johnny Carson is now retired.  Rex Westerfield is alive and well
and living under his real name in Central California.
Steinbacher seems to have disappeared.
Keith, I would deeply appreciate a copy of your tape of that
radio show, and will gladly pay for your expenses and trouble.


Jerry

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   |Jerry Hejka-Ekins,                      |
      |Member TI, TSA, TSP, ULT                |
         |Please reply to: jhe@toto.csustan.edu   |
            |and CC to jhejkaekins@igc.apc.org       |
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