Some notes on "The Secret Doctrine" By Charles J. Ryan
Strong evidence for changes, additions and omissions in the so-called Third Volume is provided by Mrs. Alice L. Cleather in The Canadian Theosophist, December 1937. Mrs. Cleather was one of H. P. Blavatsky's Inner Group of pledged students and she possessed a copy of the original report of the oral teachings received directly from H. P. B. These oral teachings form part of the private Instructions published in the "Third Volume" between pages 433 and 594, which Mead cynically said that he "persuaded" Annie Besant to insert in order to fill it out, and incidentally, as he hoped, to break up her Esoteric School. These Instructions had been entrusted to the recipients under the seal of strict secrecy — perhaps with the object of testing their worthiness!
Mrs. Cleather published a facsimile of page 559 in The Canadian Theosophist mentioned above, on which she marked the large number of alterations made on that single page. They consist of changes in arrangement, construction of sentences, capitalizing, the use of synonyms in place of original words, and above all of omissions and additions. One addition is significant as it seems to reflect psycho-occult teaching that Mrs. Besant is believed to have received from Brahmans after she threw off the restraining influence of William Q. Judge. This addition reads: "The head should not be covered in meditation. It is covered in Samadhi." Hardly one line on this page is left without some alteration.
On summing up all the information to hand on the subject of the so-called "Volume III" it is not easy to find any valid justification for calling this collection of miscellaneous writings by H. P. Blavatsky an integral part of The Secret Doctrine as conceived by H. P. B. and the Masters, although as said it contains most valuable and obviously authentic H. P. B. material. We are, however, in no position accurately to judge how seriously the matter has been revised and altered, or whether H. P. Blavatsky would have permitted much of it to be published without a great number of alterations and additions which she alone was qualified to make.
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