Theos-Talk Archives (December 2002 Message tt00070)

wry wrote:
> It is obvious to me that if theosophy is a dwindling movement and is 
> losing members, especially when there is a world-wide renewal of 
> interest in the kind of material that theosophy covers, there must be a 
> reason. 

True. But that doesn't mean that all possible reasons are correct. For
example, there is also a growth of movements that derive from Theosophy,
but market themselves to people's emotions rather than intellect, and
make all sorts of promises that the Theosophical Society cannot make,
such as enlightenment in this lifetime, or if you follow the precepts of
the organization, you will have "good karma" which will translate into
material wealth in this lifetime. Look up, for example, Gresham's Law,
and realize that it applies to knowledge as well as gold. 

> I know you are sincere, but you make certain assumptions which are a 
> little naive. If real knowledge could be obtained from studying a book, 
> we would all have it by now, as such knowledge would come with its own 
> payoff, which would be very profound.

The number of people who are gulled by con artists using
well-documented scams demonstrates that your assumption is wrong. Hell,
the fact that the gambling industry is as large as it is demonstrates
that your assumption is wrong. 

Bart