Another of Bloomfield-Moore's acquaintances also cooperated in her quest to promote Keely. I inspected a copy of her 1893 book in a private collection, that is inscribed by her as follows: "Howard Hinton Esq, from the compiler in grateful acknowledgment of aid in making known Keely's discoveries. October 9, 1893," and this leads us to the chance discovery of a writer with remarkable ideas: Charles Howard Hinton (1853-1907).
Hinton was the author of many essays about the fourth and other dimensions in space and time. These were collected in his Scientific Romances published in 1886 and Scientific Romances: Second Series, published in 1902. His interest was partly inspired by Edwinn Abbott's curious 1885 novel Flatland. Hinton wrote a novel about a circular, two-dimensional world, An Episode of Flatland in 1907. Hinton's many essays were an attempt to find a scientific rationale for the existence of ghosts. He also tried to imagine a four-dimensional God from whom nothing in the human world can be hidden. We may trace influences of Hinton's ideas to H.G. Wells' novel The Time Machine that was published in 1895." Interestingly, Hinton's 1904 book The Fourth Dimension is listed in an authoritative UFO bibliography in the group, "The search for extraterrestrial intelligence."100 As with Bulwer-Lytton's novels, The Fourth Dimension was obliged study material in Crowley's Argenteum Astrum.101
As was self-described Rosicrucian Francis Barrett and her acquaintance Astor, Bloomfield-Moore had always been intensely interested in aerial navigation. But apart from the 19th century esoteric milieu in which she was involved, the direct link between Bulwer-Lytton and Keely is to be found in her acquaintance with Disraeli, with whom she was "on very friendly terms."102 Disraeli had been involved in occult experiments and crystal gazing decades before with his friend Bulwer-Lytton.
Disraeli died the year that Bloomfield-Moore came to learn of Keely's existence by reading Babcock's pamphlet with its reference to The Coming Race.
Since their association was a very friendly one and given the nature of the intellectual pursuits of the two, Disraeli and Bloomfield-Moore may have discussed Bulwer-Lytton's strange legacy and undoubtedly in the course of their conversations Disraeli may have confided to her at least some of his beliefs in the existence of secret societies.
Would it be entirely coincidental then, that Bloomfield-Moore referred to the connection between Keely and Bulwer-Lytton when she wrote in 1893 that "When Bulwer wrote of 'a power that can replenish or invigorate life, heal and preserve, cure disease: enabling the physical organism to re-establish the due equilibrium of its natural powers, thereby curing itself,' he foreshadowed one of Keely's discoveries."103 It is therefore entirely possible that the assumption that Keely was influenced by the works of Reichenbach, which were published in 1862, and Bulwer-Lytton's 1871 The Coming Race is a valid one. If this is the case Keely probably obtained this knowledge from Bloomfield-Moore.
Thus, the initiates Bulwer-Lytton and Levi passed on the Rosicrucian tradition and provided the philosophical foundations upon which occultists and notably Blavatsky would build their own repertoire. Blavatsky was an admirer of and influenced by both Levi and Bulwer-Lytton; Bloomfield-Moore had been closely associated with Disraeli, Bulwer-Lytton's friend and companion in occult endeavors and experiments. Bloomfield-Moore became Keely's supporter and friend. Bloomfield-Moore and Blavatsky would develop a long and intimate friendship. Keely found his way in the pages of Blavatsky's The Secret Doctrine.
Keely was rejected by the scientific establishment, and history was quite ready to forget him, but through Bloomfield-Moore's efforts he found a warmer welcome in that other sphere of reality, the occult underground, especially with the theosophists. The Theosophical Society was founded in New York on November 17, 1875, by Blavatsky, Henry Steel Olcott, William Quinn Judge, J.S. Cobb, Seth Pancoast, H.J. Newton and Emma Hardinge Britten, who allegedly also was a member of the Hermetic Brotherhood of Luxor and from her days as a teenage medium belonged to more than one secret society that included important figures of occultism.104 Olcott was elected first president,105 Pancoast was elected vice president.106
Like Levi's occult heritage and Bulwer-Lytton's strange tales, Blavatsky's ideas would reverberate through the occult world, and this would eventually even transform the very language: the word "occultism" was unknown in the English language before its appearance in 1877 in Isis Unveiled.107 Through Blavatsky, who was one of the most influential people in the shaping of the 19th century occult framework, countless other occultists, theosophists and esoterists read about Keely and his discoveries.
The first edition of The Secret Doctrine sold out quickly, necessitating a new printing. William Thomas Stead, who received his copy from Blavatsky herself, wrote in a letter dated December 8, 1888: "I have read only your preface and the chapter on Keely, in whose discoveries I am much interested."108 Like Hardinge Britten, Randolph, Blavatsky, Olcott, Colville and Newbrough, Stead was an advocate of spiritism. He also edited the spiritualistic publication Borderland between 1893 and 1897.109 At one time, Stead invited Cheiro, who visited Keely in 1890, to inspect a haunted house.110
Much like Theodor Reuss, the co-founder of the Ordo Templi Orientis who was a police spy, Stead is said to have been an informant. He was also a journalist and as editor of the then-radical and sensational London Pall Mall Gazette. He gave heavy coverage to the gruesome Whitechapel murders committed by Jack the Ripper. In this capacity, he accepted articles on the Whitechapel murders by Robert Donston Stephenson.111 In this strange, dark, and haunting figure we again see a spider-thin thread leading to Bulwer-Lytton.
Stephenson, who also called himself Dr. Roslyn D'Onston and had as his occult pen-name 'Tau Tria Delta,' led a mysterious life riddled with strange coincidences. He studied chemistry in Munich — where he could have met Hartmann who studied medicine there. Stephenson also studied in Paris where he could have met Kellner who studied natural sciences with a special emphasis on chemistry in the same city. What is certain is that Stephenson did have some doings with certain Italian secret societies — the kind of which Disraeli sternly warned against — as he fought with the revolutionary Garibaldi. Stephenson also pursued occult studies under Bulwer-Lytton, and in later years he allegedly lectured on the occult. In 1890, he was living with Mabel Collins, novelist and editor of Lucifer, the journal of the Theosophical Society. There are some vague allusions to his practicing ritual magic. Whatever the truth, Stephenson published a curious booklet in 1904 that consisted of comparative Biblical studies. After this, he just vanished from the pages of history.112 Like Astor, Stead would die during the tragic Titanic disaster in 1912.113
Tesla and Edison also learned of Keely through Blavatsky's book.114 Tesla had other sources of information as well, but both refused to visit Keely. Apparently this led to no hard feelings, since Bloomfield-Moore quotes both Tesla and Edison in her book. A quotation of the latter she borrowed from one of Blavatsky's writings: "I don't believe that matter is inert, acted upon by an outside force. To me it seems that every atom is possessed by a certain amount of primitive intelligence."115
The fact that Edison was quoted by Blavatsky is not that surprising, considering his membership in the Theosophical Society since April 4, 1878, a few months after Keely extended an invitation to him.116 A little-known facet of Edison's character was that he was a believer in reincarnation117 and was interested in other psychic matters as well.118
Blavatsky's statements about Keely would continue to appear, even after the publication of The Secret Doctrine. In an article, published four months after her death, her views on Keely were once again put forth, together with a hint of a possible disintegration experiment: "Add to this the forthcoming long-promised Keely's
vibratory force, capable of reducing in a few seconds a dead bullock to aheap of ashes."119 It demonstrates that like Bloomfield-Moore, she kept her faith in the reality of Keely's discoveries since the day that she first came to know of him.
Thus it was no mere coincidence that in 1896 during a theosophical conference in New York
, "a high regard for Keely" was being exhibited. During the convention, acting president of the Theosophical Society J.D. Buck read a paper in which he stated that, "No one holding firmly to the mechanical theory of the universe has advanced a single step in any real discovery or apprehension of the essential truths of cosmic or human evolution. The single exception is J.E.W. Keely of Philadelphia. J.E.W. Keely seems to combine the intuitions of the seer with the practical knowledge of mechanics, and is at once a scientist and a philosopher. Though he has nowhere completely formulated the old philosophy to which I have referred, his conception of the constitution of matter and the correlation of force is in complete harmony with it. In his apprehension of the working powers of nature he has no equal in his generation."120
And a month later, during a marriage ceremony, English Theosophical President Hargrove alluded to Keely in connection with ancient Egyptian knowledge, which was now theosophical doctrine: "In those days they understood the meaning of vibration. ...Remember too, that the sounds you will hear...are vibrations, and they, too, belong to the magic of antiquity, which it will before long become our duty to revive."121
Eventually through Blavatsky's writings the whole occult world learned about Keely. Even today those wishing to learn more can read Blavatsky's comments side by side with Bloomfield-Moore's statements about him in The Secret Doctrine. The book remains in print and the passages about Keely are still to be found in its pages. The Theosophical Society was to become Keely's domain after his death, but his alleged exposure would cause ripples on the serene lakes of theosophical content even there.
Apart from contemporary newspaper accounts, it is in the slowly yellowing pages of theosophical pamphlets and magazines like Lucifer and The Theosophist that an interesting change in tone may be gathered from these writings about Keely. After his alleged exposure by Clarence Moore, Keely was to become temporarily degraded to a marginal and humiliating footnote in the writings of the theosophical superstars.
When news of his alleged exposure reached the theosophical camp, Olcott was quick to write an apology for Blavatsky's favorable writings about him, for these had become a big problem. The exposure led several French esoterists — and from this we have a confirmation that information about Keely was not only available but also studied by some of the French occult scene — to question the veracity of Blavatsky's writings; certain theosophists of the French section demanded to know how it was possible that the discovery of Keely's discredited inter-etheric force was treated in the The Secret Doctrine as "a great fact," whereas it was a complete swindle; and how far this contradicts the declaration that the book was "inspired, directed and corrected by the Masters of Wisdom."
Olcott wormed his way out of this embarrassing position, and thus providing us some insight into Blavatsky's sources of information by stating that: "Of her own knowledge she knew nothing about Keely and the validity of his pretensions, she got her facts at second and third hand, from Mrs. Bloomsfield-Moore, Mr. Evans, and other old patrons of Keely."
Olcott admitted that there might be something extraordinary about Keely after all "at least in the beginning, Keely possessed some extraordinary psychical powers, however much he may have cheated later, when possibly those forces in him were exhausted, than that he was a scamp throughout. .. .It is sheer nonsense to say that such superior scientists as Prof. Leidy, Mr. Wilcox and others, and the master mechanics of railways and other skilled mechanics who examined and reported favorably on the Keely motor of Philadelphia, when his first syndicate was formed to utilize the invention for railways, were suddenly stricken blind and mentally paralytic."
Olcott then revealed the fact that Blavatsky and Bloomfield-Moore were on friendly terms for Blavatsky met Bloomsfield-Moore a decade later in London, and developed a relation that he describes as a "long subsequent intimate association," during which Blavatsky "deepened the first conviction" by learning more about Keely, after which she simply "sailed away...."122
Since Olcott considered Blavatsky's belief in Keely another easy target for her critics, he again vented his dissatisfaction with the whole affair as a bitter footnote, while praising Blavatsky's Isis Unveiled and The Secret Doctrine. This time he left out any information in favor of Keely: "I think she would have felt deeply mortified if she had lived to read the scathing and complete exposure of Keely's fraudulent demonstrations of his 'Inter-Etheric Force,' in her own magazine, the Theosophical Review, of May (1899), after what she had written about it in The Secret Doctrine (p 556-566, first ed.). She knew nothing personally about Keely, taking her impressions and facts at second hand from a friend in Philadelphia — a shareholder in Keely's original company, and from Mrs. Bloomfield-Moore, his enthusiastic disciple and backer; ...so, without stopping to test Keely's theories or verify Mrs. Moore's alleged facts, she flew off on a tangent into a most instructive essay on cosmic forces, and by her unguarded halfendorsement of the now-proven charlatan, exposed one more large joint in her armor to the shafts of the sneering enemies." And Olcott concluded: "But what does it matter after all?"123
It would take two years for another theosophist, A. Marques, to correct the errors in Olcott's apology, obviously made in a time when a direct answer was apparently needed, since Olcott could have found the answers that justified Blavatsky's opinion in The Secret Doctrine, Marques reasoned: "In the domain of Natural Philosophy, H.P.B.'s positive announcement has proved absolutely correct, namely, that in spite of all his genius, and in spite of his working on the most accurate basis, J.W. Keely, the discoverer of the 'Inter-Etheric Force and Forces,' would fail to make a success of his invention and discoveries. When she wrote, in 1888, the world, especially America, was anxiously awaiting the harnessing of a new power, the so-called 'dynaspheric force,' and its inventor was at the height of his most sanguine expectations for using psychic force and the latent faculties of the super-physical regions of the Ether. Yet H.P.B. boldly asserted that, although Keely was a natural-born occultist or magician, although his theory was perfectly correct and quite on occult lines, yet he would never be allowed (his italics) to perfect his discovery, though with no apparent reason for the failure except, as she stated, that 'the fifth and sixth planes of the Etheric, or Astral Force, will never be permitted (his italics) to serve for purposes of commerce and traffic' (S.D.I. 613), and because the discovery of mis 'terrible sidereal force,' the 'Mash-mak' of the Atlanteans is 'by several thousand — or, shall we say — hundred thousand years too premature' (S.D.I., 615), and liable to bring disaster instead of help to humanity, while 'terrible secrets, untimely discoveries' are often due to the nefarious influence of the 'Brothers of the Shadow' (S.D.III, 488)...And truly, poor Keely, after many more years of unsuccessful efforts — towards the end of which he probably was driven to use trickery in order to make his financial backers wait patiently for the delusive accomplishment which he always felt just within his grasp — had to be buried, branded as an impostor or a fraud, while his only guilt was really to have been born ahead of his time."
In direct reply to Olcott's apology, Marques wrote: "But the curious part of the matter has been that when his failure became patent, and in harmony with H.P.B.'s prediction, her memory was assailed and she was taken to task for the very failure she had announced, while her pupils and friends could find only the lamest apology for her defense (Theosophist, XX, 687), taking her 'mistakes' and of her 'ignorance' of scientific discoveries, when in fact everything she said about Keely was quite correct — the only one who took up the proper justificative argument being Dr. Franz Hartmann (ibid., 764)."124
Franz Hartmann (1838-1912), theosophist and author of books on the Rosicrucians, occult symbolism and magic, and close associate of Blavatsky and acquaintance of Bloomfield-Moore, made several statements about Keely. He also met him at least twice. We've already seen Hartmann's sordid medical career, but in the fields of the occult he was more successful. He became president of the German branch of the Theosophical Society in 1896, headquartered in Berlin. In 1902
, Rudolf Steiner would become its secretary. Hartmann also wrote Magic, White and Black, published in 1888, a long and curious digression on occult topics such as invisible beings, sound, the fourth dimension, music and harmonies, Akasha, the astral spheres and planes. Hartmann is also said to have founded a highly secret Rosicrucian Order in Switzerland.125 Like Bulwer-Lytton, it is asserted that he was frightened with the prospect of premature burial.126
In 1905, Hartmann founded the Esoteric Order of the Rosicross together with German occultist and cabalist Leopold Engel. Leopold Engel (1858-1931), who called himself a "nature doctor and magnetopath," was obsessed with the order of the Bavarian Illuminati and in 1897 founded his own Order of the Illuminati in the German town of Dresden. In 1906 he published his influential history of the Illuminati order, the Geschichte des Illuminatenordens.
Free Energy Pioneer- John Worrell Keely Page 33