Theos-Talk Archives (November 1998 Message tt00195)

> I REALLY REALLY REALLY want to beleive HPB and Sinnett etc. Like Mulder
>I WANT TO BELEIVE. But I'm afraid that personal experience doesnt always
>match up to dead letter words, especially English. I want my beliefs
>challenged - I want to work through them and expand my horizons. I see two
>major paths for this - heated debate and reasoned argument. I personally
>prefer heated debate because everyone that involves themselves in reasoned
>argument seems to be a pompous ass and rarely moves from a stated position.
>My beliefs are exremely fluid, but they are all based on experience.
>

D, its been my understanding that you should always go with experience.
There is a human need for some kind of mental framework upon which
we can compare our experiences and make sense of them. Some call
this world view, others belief system, but whatever we call it, we need
it for our mental health. The interesting thing about this is that it
doesn't
seem to matter what the belief system is, or what the world view is, so
long as we have one that allows us to make sense of our experiences.

In a very real sense then, reality is relative. As we experience new things,
we have to periodically adjust our world view to accommodate them. Big
changes are hard to make, and require what I call a significant emotional
event or SEE.  A SEE (cognitive dissonance is a mild SEE) will effect us in
one of two ways: either we find a new world view or we die. I have never
seen any kind of compromise work for very long.

My own experiences led me away from Christianity and into yoga and
Buddhism. Even when I came into Theosophy, I approached it slowly
and carefully. However, I have remained a Theosophist all these years
largely because its world view allows me to make sense of my
experiences more than any other world view that I have studied yet
(although the Great Perfection school of Tibetan Buddhism comes very
close).

I am also familiar with Crowley and his work. He also used drugs to
obtain Gnosis, and had very good results. But he also needed to
find a proper world view, and since nothing was available he made
his own (which is supposed to be the work of every true Magus).
There is a lot of similarity between Theosophy and Crowley (albeit
most, if not all, Theosophists will refuse to accept this). But I have
found that their currents (atmospheres or major psychic vibrational tone)
are quite different. The Theosophical current is soft, feminine, loving,
and accepting (ULT possibly excepted). The OTO current is hard
and masculine.  Which current one likes best is subjective and personal.
I have found good stuff working with both. But either current can go too
far. The feminine current can get too spineless or wishywashy while
the masculine can get selfish. There is good and bad in both. The
important thing is to find a world view that works for you.

Jerry S.