Theos-Talk Archives (May 2000 Message tt00109)

In a message dated 4/26/00 11:11:41 AM Eastern Daylight Time, 
ramadoss@eden.com writes:

<< We have seen comments relating CWL & K. As one interested in both of them,
 the only adverse comment I have seen from K regarding CWL is from a
 correspondence from Mary Lutyens (the biographer of unquestioned integrity)
 to Gregory Tillett and the latter's interview with her in 8/1979.
 
 Tillett writes:
 
 "To Mary Lutyens, when told about this biography and asked for his
 comments, he said simply: "Leadbeater was evil", and refused to discuss the
 matter further beyond the comment that he found even thinking of him, or
 hearing his name, distasteful."
 
 I am pointing this quote so that the reader can make his or her own mind on
 this issue.
 
 mkr >>

mkr,

About Tillett:  I found it enormously interesting that T's rag bio of CWL 
accuses the latter of  being a perverse, immoral person; he does this almost 
from cover to cover.  A very big reason for that assessment is the sexual 
improprieties that were impugned against CWL, to which T dedicates 
practically the whole book, with several chapters specifically on the 
subject.  Yet, ACCORDING TO TILLETT, no one ever found any evidence of such 
presumed impropriety.  Here's how he does that:

T tells us that law enforcement agencies on three continents were hell-bent 
on getting some sort of conviction against CWL (or is it four continents? 
We're talking of England, India, Australia, and the U.S.).  As we all know, 
the planet's "finest," everywhere, have intrinsically suspicious minds.  
Otherwise, they would not be cops.  But these were no ordinary cops.  These 
were VICTORIAN cops.  As a group, they absolutely hated anything & everything 
having to do with the TS.  They REALLY wanted CWL, & they "wanted him BAD," 
as they say now in movie scripts about cops.

According to T, they interviewed dozens of people in all three continents, & 
collaborated with each other, to make sure they would "get their man."  The 
result of all this razzle-dazzle?  ACCORDING TO TILLET (and I quote):

"The Inspector General, prior to passing the report to the Crown Solicitor, 
added the comment:

    "The evidence in the possession of the Police does not appear to call for 
any     independent action against Leadbeater at present but sufficient is 
disclosed in    the accompanying papers to justify his conduct being kept 
under observation.

"The Crown Solicitor concluded:  'There is not much doubt that Leadbeater has 
in the past practised, and probably does still advise Masturbation, but save 
as above there is no evidence available.'  And he felt that there was 'not 
enough evidence available here to obtain a conviction on any charge.' "  THE 
ELDER BROTHER, p. 200.

So ACCORDING TO TILLETT, the only thing that police departments in three (or 
four) continents were ever able to come up with, is that CWL had advised SOME 
(not all) boys to practice masturbation.  But this, of course, is what CWL 
himself had said all along, explaining that he had presumably seen the auras 
of some of these boys clairvoyantly, & could see that a physical release 
without sexual visualization would be healthier in their cases, than for them 
to pursue the latter.  Or, alternatively, they could go to prostitutes, which 
was then, as now, common everywhere, even among the planet's finest, and 
perhaps among some of his accusers (hypocrisy was not a prosecutable crime in 
Victorian times).

Further, T tells us throughout his book (again, dedicating some chapters 
largely to this subject) that CWL "taught sexual practices" to his disciples. 
 I have been fortunate enough to meet some of these people, & also to read 
their statements on this subject.  They all said the same thing:  There was 
no such teaching.  But apart from that, T himself tells us what the evidence 
is, on which he bases his relentless attack against CWL.  He saved giving the 
actual "evidence" of this alleged further crime of CWL's till his last 
chapter.  Therein, the reader discovers for the first time in T's book what 
that evidence is.  Again, I quote (please note how T AFFIRMS that "Leadbeter 
taught" this practice, even though he never gives any evidence for making 
such an assertion):

"Once the sexual passions were aroused, Leadbeater taught, they should be 
properly directed, and not wasted.  Such sexual exercises could lead to the 
development of psychic powers and experiences of 'Nirvana' and the higher 
worlds.  One thus re-reads a passage in his book, CLAIRVOYANCE, with a 
somewhat different understanding:

    "Let a man choose a certain time every day -- a time when he can rely 
upon    being quiet and undisturbed, though preferably in the day time rather 
than at     night -- and set himself at this time to keep his mind for a few 
moments entirely    free from all earthly thoughts of any kind whatever and, 
when that is achieved, to   direct the whole force of his being towards the 
highest spiritual ideal that he     happens to know.  He will find that to 
gain such perfect control of thought is     enormously more difficult than he 
supposes, but when he attains it it cannot but  be in every way most 
beneficial to him, and as he grows more and more able to    elevate and 
concentrate his thought, he may gradually find that new worlds are  opening 
before his sight."  ELDER BROTHER, p. 282.

And that, my friends, is Tillett's COMPLETE evidence for CWL's "immoral" 
teaching.  I would deeply appreciate ANYONE to explain to me where exactly 
Mr. T finds such teaching in that quote.  I fail to see any connection 
whatsoever.  One might as well say this quote is THE EVIDENCE that CWL was 
the head of a Colombian cocaine cartel (the fact that such cartels did not 
exist in CWL's time, apparently, would not disturb his accusers; that would 
be explained as just "a minor detail").  Yet, this is what T tells us, 
immediately after giving us that quote:

"Does this, on its 'inner side,' reference to anything more than meditation 
in an intellectual sense?
"From THIS SEXUAL TEACHING [my own emphasis] of Leadbeater's two interesting 
themes can be followed..."  ELDER BROTHER, p. 282.

Let us recall that T prides himself in being thoroughly acquainted with ALL 
of CWL's vast corpus of writings.  On p. vii, T tells us about CWL's books 
that he "read them all," so he "began an investigation that is still not 
completed, twelve years and many thousands of miles later."  So T is telling 
us that the above quote is THE BEST evidence he could find, in all of his 
research, for CWL's presumable nefarious teachings (which now can be seen to 
be more in the eyes of the beholder than in the facts & evidence).

>From the two references above, it seems to me that T has come about as close 
as anyone ever has to PROVING two things:

1.  CWL never committed any perverse sexual acts (unless masturbation is 
considered such).

2.  CWL never taught any perverse sexual teaching to his disciples.

This is not my opinion.  I haven't researched the subject anywhere nearly as 
much as T has.  This is TILLETT'S OPINION.  If it were not, he would give us 
solid evidence for his CLAIMS, which can now be seen to be based exclusively 
on T's own expectations, & on an enormous amount of innuendo not based on any 
facts or evidence.

I just want to add this:  I am not a CWL fan.  There were things in his 
personality I do not have a particular liking for.  I also see aspects of 
theosophy differently than he did.  On the other hand, the facts & evidence 
are the facts & evidence.  I find it fascinating that almost every single 
author who has written about this subject, has relied on this excrescential 
book -- including the venerable Mary Lutyens, "the only biographer of 
unquestioned integrity."  (I use the word "excrescential," of course, in the 
sense of "growing abnormally, superfluous.")

It is to an important extent because of authors' reliance on highly dubious 
materials, such as T's, that The Inner Life of K was written.

In good cheer,

Aryel

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