The History of the German Section of the Theosophical Society 1902-1913

GA 250 — 20 June 1904, Amsterdam

10. The Amsterdam Congress On June 19, 20 and 21, 1904

Report by Ludwig Deinhard “Der Vâhan”, Volume VI, No. 1, July 1904

It may have been twelve or fourteen years ago that a book anonymously published under the title “Rembrandt as a Tutor” was the subject of discussion in all of our literary circles. In this book, which quickly went through several editions, it was recommended to Germans in all keys that they should take their Low German compatriot, the ingenious Dutch master, as their model in every respect. I would like to tie in with this book, or at least with its title, which some readers of this magazine will certainly still remember, when I report on my impressions of the conference there today after returning from Amsterdam. Let us strike the name Rembrandt from this title – for unfortunately I must not mention him here, as much as it may annoy anyone coming from Amsterdam – and let us instead insert the three words: Our Dutch Colleagues, then the above book title would be changed to: Our Dutch Colleagues as Educators. As educators for what, you may ask, and my answer is: as educators for organizing fruitful congresses within the Theosophical movement. A few words about this first.

With at least as much justification as was used to recommend that Germans emulate Rembrandt, one can today advise every European section of the Theosophical Society to take its Dutch sister section as a model in organizing and holding a European Theosophical Congress. What are the qualities that make our Dutch colleagues particularly well suited for this task?

In the farewell words that Mrs. Besant addressed to them as President of the Amsterdam Congress, she said: “It may be that our Dutch brothers call their own a small country. But it is certain that they have a very broad heart. And it is better to have a small country and a broad heart than a large country and a narrow heart.” But our colleagues in Holland have, in addition to the quality of heart that Mrs. Besant praises, something else that makes them particularly qualified for the above task: namely, an amazing talent for languages, which developed early on and was vigorously cultivated, making their role as congress hosts exceptionally easy, enabling them to communicate fluently with every foreign congress guest in their national language.

If the Amsterdam Congress was characterized by an exceptionally warm atmosphere from start to finish, this prevailing mood was further enhanced and intensified by the introduction of a new and invigorating element.

“The element of aesthetics, of beauty in nature,” said Mrs. Besant in her presidential address, “into the theosophical movement is one of the main tasks of this congress. A theosophist can be just as much an artist as a thinker. Our movement, which is destined to permeate the entire spiritual life of the civilized world, will surely also be called upon to give rise to a new direction in music and the visual arts.

This new aspect of the theosophical movement, the aesthetic element, was indeed what gave the Amsterdam Congress its special character. Vocal concerts alternated with organ concerts, and at the end, works of Dutch poetry, such as those of a Multatuli, were also recited. In addition, members of the Theosofische Vereeniging organized an exhibition of all kinds of art objects, paintings, sculptures and arts and crafts, such as embroidery, precious book bindings, etc., which for the most part immediately revealed the circles of thought in which their creators live. And the credit for bringing this new aspect, this new conception into the theosophical movement, belongs to none other than our colleagues in the Netherlands.

It will probably be necessary to preface the report on the congress negotiations with a few words about the Dutch section, which held its annual meeting on June 18 under the chairmanship of its dynamic and experienced General Secretary W. B. Fricke. It currently has 727 members, of whom 130 joined last year. The propaganda trip undertaken last year by Johan van Manen, Honorary Secretary of the Congress, to the Dutch colony of Java, where he gave no fewer than fifty lectures over a period of six months, also deserves special mention. The headquarters of the section is located in one of the most beautiful districts of Amsterdam and comprises three houses (Amsteldijk Nos. 76, 79 and 80) with spacious reading rooms, an assembly hall, an office, apartments and a large garden.

A total of around 600 people attended the congress, including about 150 foreigners, with the British Section, represented by its General Secretary B. Keightley, sending the largest contingent. The German Section was represented by our General Secretary Dr. Steiner and about a dozen members. Likewise, the General Secretary of the French Section, Dr. Pascal, had appeared with a large number of French Theosophists. Neighboring Belgium was even more strongly represented. Whether members had also appeared from Italy, Spain, Scandinavia, Russia and so on, eludes my judgment.

The congress opened in the magnificent and spacious concert hall of the Amsterdam Concertgebouw. The section meetings took place in smaller rooms in the same building.

The speeches and lectures by Mrs. Besant, delivered with her well-known mastery, naturally constituted the main interest of the entire congress. The understanding of these lectures is supported by the powerful spiritual energy emanating from the speaker, by the strong mental vibrations that radiate from her. Ms. Besant pronounces each of her words with extraordinary clarity, making her easy to understand even for non-English listeners who would otherwise not be able to follow an English speech well. I do not wish to omit this point here, as it is important for Mrs. Besant's lecture tour of Germany planned for next September to be aware of this, so that no one is deterred from attending these lectures for the obvious reason that they do not understand English well. Since Mrs. Besant will only be giving public lectures in a few major German cities, it should be noted here that it is undoubtedly worthwhile to make a small journey to hear this speaker, who is admired throughout the world and whose writings are also becoming increasingly popular in Germany.

On Sunday, June 19, at 10 o'clock in the morning, the congress was officially opened. First there was a choral piece sung by ladies, then speeches by W. B. Fricke, Annie Besant and J. van Manen. This was followed by a public lecture by Mrs. Besant at 8 o'clock in the evening in a church-like building intended for “de vrije Gemeente” (the free community). She spoke about “the new psychology”, under which title she presented the research results of the Society for Psychical Research, the interesting psychological studies by Professor Pierre Janet and Colonel A. de Rochas in Paris, and finally touched on the question of survival after death and re-embodiment.

On Monday, June 20th, and Tuesday, June 21st, the section meetings took place. Unfortunately, the progress of these meetings was continually delayed by the fact that the lectures given were still being summarized in Dutch and sometimes in English. The program provided for the following section divisions:

A. Brotherhood; B. Comparative Religion; C. Philosophy; D. Science, including Occult Psychology; E. Art; F. Propaganda and Methods; G. Occultism.

The papers on the above subjects, called for by the Congress Committee, formed the material presented at the section meetings. Since only a few of the authors of these works appeared in person, most of these treatises had to be read by the chairpersons or at least summarized. The official report of the congress committee, which is expected to be published in a few months, will contain all of these works in full, of which only the content or even the title can be given here.

Discussed in Section A:

1. Emma Weise (Paris) on the topic: Fraternity as found in the totemic laws of primitive races. Mme Weise is of the opinion that the customs of the totemic religions of certain primitive races prove that they form a well-thought-out religious system created for the purpose of protecting primitive races from destruction, and that this system cannot be considered the product of these races themselves. It can be concluded from this that the primitive human races of prehistoric times had teachers of great wisdom who, by setting up these far-sighted and subtle precepts, guided the development of the individual personalities - which, of course, is in line with the teachings of Theosophy.

2. Commander Courmes (Paris): Le droit de suffrage dans les nations. This essay points out that the individuals forming a nation are souls or individualities at extremely different stages of development and that this great diversity should also be taken into account when granting the right to vote. However, it will be very difficult to establish a criterion of development that could be applied in practical life, which the author also seems to recognize.

3. S. Edgar Aldermann (Sacramento, Cal.): Practical Brotherhood. A defense of democracy as the only possible and desirable basis for building true brotherhood.

Section B

1. Purnendu Narayana Sinha (India): The religion of the future - An aspect of Vaishnavism. Vaishnavism is based on the idea of awakening and strengthening the feeling of love as the surest way to religious development. This requires a systematic cultivation of associations based on love, which are to be extended to embrace all of humanity. Excerpts from numerous Sanskrit scriptures from Vaishnava literature are cited to support this view.

2. C. Jinarajadasa (Milano): The Bhagavad Gita. A critical examination of this ancient Indian didactic poem in terms of its age, language and content.

3. D. van Hinloopen Labberton (Buitenzorg): Gazzhali's “Kitab Tasaoep”. Gazzhali, who lived around 1400 AD, is considered the founder of orthodox Islamic mysticism. His moral teachings were published in Dutch India in numerous editions. They correspond in many respects with the teachings of today's theosophy.

Section C

1. Dr. R. Steiner (Berlin): Mathematics and Occultism. According to the Gnostics, the Mathesis, the knowledge, is that pure wisdom according to the pattern of mathematics. The Gnostics did not demand that one should become a mathematician in order to become an occultist, not actual mathematics, but a mathematics-like knowledge. They demanded that one should become free in one's own being from what clings to the ordinary person, from all covetousness, all that is emotional.

2. Bhagavän Däs (Benares): The relation of the self and the not-self. The well-known author of “The Science of the emotions” here contrasts Hegel's threefold stage of world knowledge with that ancient Indian world knowledge, which is expressed in the combination of the three letters a, u and m.

3. Gaston Polak (Bruxelles): Symetrie et rythme dans la nature. The investigation of the world as perceived by the senses, in as far as it is within the bounds of natural science, shows phenomena of symmetry and rhythm in all fields. The purpose of this well-thought-out work is to demonstrate the same phenomena in the field of the life of the mind and spirit. The teaching of reincarnation also contains such a rhythm.

4. Decio Calvari (Roma): Un filosofo ermetico italiano del Secolo XVII.

5. G.R.S. Mead (London): As above so below.

These last two papers were only read in the title.

Section D

1. Dr. Th. Pascal (Paris): Conscience, subconscience et superconscience. The Secretary General of the French Section gives here a clear summary of the present-day psychological views on conscience, which, according to him, only finds a truly satisfactory explanation in the doctrine of reincarnation.

2. Ludwig Deinhard (Munich): “Multiplex Personality”, a suggestion. The suggestion of the speaker is that he asks the members of the Theosophical Society who are endowed with supernormal abilities to examine the interesting phenomena of the “multiplex personality” more closely, since the fact of re-embodiment can be directly proven from these, as the latest research by A. de Rochas has shown.

3. Ludwig L. Lindemann (Köln): Zwei psychische Erfahrungen. Was only read in the title.

Likewise, [the] speaker is unfortunately not able to provide more detailed information about the following three papers. They all relate to the fourth dimension.

1. Emilio Scalfaro (Bologna): Spazzio, forme e materia a più dimensioni.

2. Arturo Reghini (Italia): II mecanismo della visione e la quarta dimensione.

3. Mrs Sarah Corbett (Manchester): Regular four-dimensional hypersolids.

4. Dr. Viriato Diaz-Perez (Madrid): El termino «Anitos» (Una clave para la mitologia arcaica filipina). The author claims that the word “Anitos”, used in the Philippines, means “ghost” or “spectre” and contains an ancient linguistic root that can be regarded as a relic of the lost Atlantis.

5. Alfred R. Orage (Leeds): The development of a secondary personality. The author provides a valuable contribution to the illustration of known psychic phenomena such as attention, absent-mindedness, and bad mood, and reveals the relationship that exists between the process of falling asleep and the appearance of a second personality.

6. Samuel van West (Haarlem): Criminality and Karma. The author demonstrates that the concepts of karma and reincarnation necessarily follow from the results of current criminal anthropological research (Lombroso's school).

7. Dr. Jules Grand (Paris): The respective roles of the different kingdoms of nature in terms of human nutrition. A defense of vegetarianism based on the physiology of plants, animals and humans.

Section E

1. Jean Delville (Brussels): The mission of art.

2. Mrs Margaret Duncan (Manchester): A plea for symbolism in art.

3. Mme Amélie André (Paris): Application de quelques enseignements théosophiques à l'art du chant.

4. Fidus-Höppener (Berlin): Theosophy and Art. The author of this paper is the much-mentioned and admired former illustrator of the “Sphinx,” Fidus, who was actually the first artist to put his crayon at the disposal of the Theosophical movement.

Section F

Mrs. Ivy Hooper (London): The faith to come. The speaker, a poetess of theosophical novellas esteemed in England and known to the readers of the “Theosophical Review” under the pen name Michael Wood, understands by the faith to come a Christianity freed from today's dogmatism and imbued with esoteric views.

Section G

1. Annie Besant: Occultism. The speaker here outlines the development of the “would-be occultist”, that is, the one who wants to become an occultist. “Through deep study and continued contemplation,” she said, “he must practice his mental powers and strive to gain control over them. Until he has achieved this, his intellect is useless for occult research. For he will wander about, dragging his owner with him, until he drags him down into a state of degradation, driven by what attracts and repels him, and which should leave the true occultist completely untouched. He recognizes the workings of the Divine Spirit in all Nature, and nothing can repel him. But before the stage of the true occultist can be reached, life must be purified. No one who is not completely pure, who is not able to lead a completely unselfish life, should dare to approach occultism; for every fault and weakness he possesses will otherwise be fanned into new life. All these defects will assail him and prepare pitfalls for him everywhere and at every opportunity. And as long as he has not learned to control his senses and emotions, the finer bodies, in which he will have to work because they are so much lighter and so much more agile than the physical body, will expose himself and those close to him to the most terrible temptations and dangers."

2. C. W. Leadbeater: Occultism. A presentation by this well-known Theosophist from California of the impressions that the astral seer receives when certain compositions by Beethoven, Wagner, Schumann, etc. are performed. These remarks by Leadbeater concluded the Section meetings.

The Congress was closed on Tuesday evening at five o'clock, just as solemnly and ceremoniously as it had been opened. Once again, there was singing by a ladies' choir, followed by speeches of thanks from the various general secretaries, each in their own language. The location of next year's congress (London) was then announced, and Mrs. Besant gave a closing speech.

At eight o'clock in the evening, a public lecture was held again in 'de vrije Gemeente', which was given by the Dutch physicist Dr. J.J. Hallo. He spoke about the human aura, which he demonstrated with the help of slides that were based on Leadbeater's well-known work.

On Wednesday afternoon, the congress participants met at the headquarters to bid each other farewell.

In the above, I have tried to sketch an approximate picture of the Amsterdam Congress in the briefest terms possible. However incomplete this account may be, it may perhaps give some readers the impression that the claim made by the author of this report at the beginning – the claim that the representatives of Theosophy in all countries could learn a thing or two from their colleagues in the Netherlands in terms of how to organize fruitful congresses – was not as completely unjustified as it might have seemed to the reader at first glance. This congress was fruitful in that it gave the Theosophical movement a new aspect, one might perhaps say a new face - a face whose features may in future appear more appealing to many than has been the case so far, once the idea of beauty has now transfigured them.

But I would like to end with a word that came from Mrs. Besant's mouth during her first address, a word that perhaps has a greater significance for the German Section of the Theosophical Society than for any other section. It was: “The Theosophical movement approaches science and says to it that it may open its heart to further possibilities than it has done so far.”

Certainly, the Theosophical movement does this. Only, so far, science has remained deaf to all the movement's coaxing. It may fall to the German Section to pave the way for the necessary mutual understanding in this regard, in other words to establish the desirable relationship between science and theosophy, in a manner similar to that in which the Dutch Section successfully strived between art and theosophy at the Amsterdam Congress. This is because in no other country in the world does science represent such an important and decisive cultural factor as it does here in Germany.