12 August 2013
Dear Bahá’í Friend,
The Universal House of Justice has received your email letter of 5 January 2013 in which you seek guidance about posting online the pilgrimage accounts of ... and we have been directed to convey the following.
Shoghi Effendi permitted the sharing, among the believers, of the notes taken down by pilgrims. At the same time, however, he discouraged widespread dissemination of the notes through publishing them and indicated that it would not be appropriate to give them out to members of the general public. As explained in a letter written on his behalf:
The notes of all pilgrims, whoever they may be, taken during the time of the Master or hence, are merely personal impressions of the pilgrim and have to be considered as such. They have no special significance. Everything which either the Master or Shoghi Effendi desired to communicate to the friends they have mentioned in their letters. Hearsay and notes of pilgrims have only a personal value, because they reawaken past impressions. In many cases Shoghi Effendi has gone a step further and even discouraged publishing them....
...The interests of the Cause have often suffered from reports taken over by pilgrims — not untruths, but misunderstandings — and it is our duty to do our utmost for that aim. (From a letter dated 19 February 1929 written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi to an individual)