Theos-Talk Archives (August 1998 Message tt00323)

Paul and Jake:

For some reason I didn't receive Jake's remarks
about schools and HPB.  Could someone send me
a copy!

Thanks.

Daniel

K. Paul Johnson wrote:
>
> Dear Jake,
>
> I won't cut and paste from such a long digest, but want to reply
> to the gist of your remarks about schools and HPB.  What you said
> about a single claim by her constituting *proof* of the nature of
> her associations with occult schools is based on three
> assumptions none of which I can accept:
> 1)  That HPB always told the truth about who and what the Masters
> were, how she knew them, and how they knew one another.
> If you make that assumption you immediately remove the subject
> from any scholarly analysis and place it squarely in the domain
> of "things accepted on faith."  Which would be quite in
> opposition to what HPB, Olcott and the Masters' letters say we
> should do with such topics.  It is "cutting the Gordian knot" as
> she liked to say.
> 2)  That HPB would not only always told the truth but always
> clearly understood the issues under discussion; i.e. that she
> couldn't through misunderstanding end up misrepresenting things.
> 3)  That all HPB's statements on this topic are to be taken at the
> same literal level of historical truth, and that there is no need
> to weigh them and evaluate some as more symbolic/mythical than
> others.
>
> These are all debatable assumptions, as I hope you will agree.
>
> Cheers,
> Paul
>
>