Theos-Talk Archives (February 2002 Message tt00155)

Paul: "Now, along come Brigitte and Steve, who
actually are reviving some old issues, and Dallas and
Adelaisie start attacking historical inquiry about HPB
in general"

Actually, they like the idea of their own opinions
being "confirmed" (a word which seems to be a
technical or vernacular term among Theosophical
Fundamentalists.) It is only ideas that are dissonant
with their own that they attack, and not merely the
ideas, but the bearers and their right to speak
freely.

As for me "reviving some old issues," my perception of
it is that Daniel posted an interesting account of an
Olcott encounter with Ootan Liatto which I had never
seen before and asked for comment. I read the story
and saw that the incident could be a miracle as Daniel
says it was (I cannot prove that it was not, in other
words), but that the fact that herbs were burning in
the room compromised the story as scientific evidence
of a miracle, since we do not know what those herbs
were. On closer reflection, it became obvious that
the herbs were in fact the key to the whole story, and
that Olcott's account bore striking resemblance to a
drug induced experience. Then the flashbulbs started
popping in my mind and I realized all sorts of things
Blavatsky and others said tied in directly with this
insight. Many of her miracles were, in other words,
connected with botanical substances, as she says
herself. Someone should add to the title page of
Isis: "THIS BOOK SMOKES!" Dallas' objection
apparently was not to "historical inquiry" but to
someone pointing out this obvious fact and not joining
in the conspiracy of silence to cover it up.

In that connection, let me quote one of his own
statements:

Dallas; "Don't mistake me, or what I say for the whole
of what is named THEOSOPHY. I only know a little of
it."

I fully agree with the last sentence so far as the
author is concerned, and wish personally to know the
rest of it, including how those miracles were
performed. That is why the iniquitous interest in
historical inquiry.

As for Gerald's statement that:

Gerald: "Brigitte and Steve are secure with their own
ideas of Theosophy and Blavatsky which they feel is
based on their own unbiased research.

The truth is, I am still learning and dislike mental
security if that means one's mind is made up for once
and for all. I had no idea before Daniel posted the
Ootan Liatto story that hashish smoke was the probable
explanation of many of the THEOSOPHICAL miracles and
that they were not the product of THE THEOSOPHICAL
MONAD or whatever a certain fellow thinks they were. 
They frankly baffled me until I read Daniel's email. 
Thanks, Daniel!

Steve

--- kpauljohnson <kpauljohnson@yahoo.com> wrote:
> Here's a paragraph from Charles Tart's Mind Science
> that merits 
> considering:
> 
> "Once we have an idea, a concept of something, that
> concept tends to 
> strongly bias the construction of our perceptions,
> so we see the 
> construct. When something fearful comes along, for
> example, it tends 
> to constellate fear. It organizes, constellates
> everything around 
> itself to reinforce fearful qualities, and of course
> the fear is then 
> much worse. Most of all our attention is sucked up
> into a highly 
> charged construction that may seriously distort our
> understanding of 
> the actual state of the world."
> 
> I'll apply this to Dallas and myself. He has gotten
> an idea, a 
> concept of what my books are about, what my approach
> to HPB is, that 
> so strongly biases his perceptions that nothing I or
> anyone else can 
> say-- even a friend of his like Daniel-- can ever
> compete with the 
> construct. And it seems extremely unlikely that he
> ever actually 
> read any of my books to check them against this
> construct. He 
> perceives a dichotomous world in which authors are
> either 
> resurrecting old charges against HPB, or exalting
> her. They're 
> either seeking to make money and gain notoriety, or
> they're trying to 
> serve the Masters. Now, although my books say very
> little about 
> HPB's private life and morality, although they are
> noncommittal about 
> the paranormal claims concerning her, and although
> many other 
> Theosophical readers perceive them as friendly to
> HPB, none of that 
> matters. Dallas has a mental construct,
> constellated with fear, of 
> authors who are reviving old attacks and out to harm
> HPB and 
> Theosophy. That highly charged construction is so
> powerful that the 
> actual state of reality has no chance of being
> perceived.
> 
> Now, along come Brigitte and Steve, who actually are
> reviving some 
> old issues, and Dallas and Adelaisie start attacking
> historical 
> inquiry about HPB in general, and I get dragged in
> and post a lot in 
> defense of the principle of independent historical
> inquiry. (And 
> denouncing those who have stifled it or tried.) 
> Without actually 
> reading any of my posts, Dallas decides that they
> are along the same 
> lines as Brigitte's presumed attacks on HPB, and
> equally disgusting 
> by the same criteria. Bottom line: Dallas, the
> "Paul Johnson" who 
> disgusts you is a creation of your own imagination,
> and if you 
> actually read my books or my posts you'd learn that.
> You were loaded 
> for bear before I ever came along, and when I did
> you saw me as a 
> bear and have been shooting intermittently ever
> since.
> 
> As to how this applies to me: my own construct of
> fundamentalist 
> fanaticism running rampant everywhere does tend to
> constellate fear. 
> Whatever movement one looks into, the hydra-headed
> fundamentalist 
> monster can be found trying to stamp out independent
> thought. But 
> even though such a construct and constellation gives
> some comfort, 
> helps me understand why so many people in so many
> faith traditions 
> are being so relentlessly hateful to those they
> perceive as heretical 
> internal enemies, it also tends to stereotyping. It
> leads one to 
> react towards the perceived pattern rather than the
> individual 
> argument. To seeing people as agents of something
> diabolical. In 
> fact, while a pattern does exist, perhaps the only
> way to prod people 
> loose from fundamentalist fanaticism is to deal with
> them as 
> individuals and address their individual concerns.
> 
> PJ
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to
> http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ 
> 
> 


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