72 Biography of a Yogiof forces in the ether of space— that “hypothetical medium,” as Webster
terms it, I maintain that it is neither fair nor wise to deny the levitation of
either fakir or table. Bodies oppositely electrified attract each other; simi-
larly electrified, repulse each other. Admit, therefore, that any body hav-
ing weight, whether man or inanimate object, can by any cause whatever,
external or internal, be given the same polarity as the spot on which it
stands, and what is to prevent its rising?^39This passage represents perhaps the most particular rationalization of super-
natural phenomena that we find in Blavatsky’s writings. This is not to say that
Blavatsky was unconcerned with metaphysics but only that rationalizing those
metaphysics on the level of gross materiality was near the bottom rung of her
priorities. She took for granted the notion of electromagnetism and its ethereal
substratum, and went the extra step— which was not an unreasonable one, given
that the unity of all forces had been proposed by minds far more scientifically
inclined than her own— of declaring them to be identical to the operations of
gravitation. Thus, she considered the levitating Yogis (or fakirs) of India were
just as scientifically feasible as the tipping tables of Victorian parlors, both being
totally accounted for by the magnetic manipulation of a universal force flowing
through the ether that modern scientific experimentation was only just begin-
ning to uncover.
Rather than the gross mechanics of supernatural phenomena, which were
after all rather mundane, Blavatsky was far more interested in the higher planes
of subtle embodiment and the levels of spiritual evolution to which these cor-
responded. To this end she yoked Swedenborgian notions of the human spirit
progressing though successively higher celestial spheres on its path to perfec-
tion with Indian cosmologies and a modified theory of reincarnation. This was
instrumental in Theosophy’s claim to universality in that the Mahatma was
understood in this context not as a special class of being specific to a given tra-
dition, but rather as an advanced adept of any background who had mastered
the occult sciences and ascended to a superhuman evolutionary state. More pre-
cisely, the Mahatma was “a personage, who, by special training and education,
has evolved those higher faculties and has attained that spiritual knowledge,
which ordinary humanity will acquire after passing through numberless series
of re- incarnations during the process of cosmic evolution.”^40 Superhumanity
was thus the birthright of all of humanity; the Mahatmas were simply a bit
ahead of the game.
According to Blavatsky, the subtle embodiment of a genuine Mahatma sig-
nificantly transcends the etheric or “astral” level of reality on which supernatural
phenomena occur. The latter term reflects a Neo- Platonic concept adopted by