Theos-Talk Archives (August 2004 Message tt00374)

Hi Paul,

You missed out on the Krishnamurti biography by Jean Overton Fuller,
published by TPH-London (a very inactive publisher to be sure. Fuller
payed for the publication herself, I'm told). Published 2003. It is
very theosophy-based and includes reference to Tillett's Elder
Brother. Very good book. I mentioned it briefly here:
http://www.katinkahesselink.net/faq/ex_alcy.htm 

Katinka
--- In theos-talk@yahoogroups.com, "kpauljohnson" <kpauljohnson@y...>
wrote:
> Dear Perry,
> 
> Thanks for your story and congratulations for escaping the Watchtower
> folks. My point of comparison is the Baha'is, with whom I was
> affiliated from age 15 to 20. Many years later I participated in
> Internet discussions with Baha'i scholars, and witnessed the
> repercussions from their extremely theocratic organization. The JWs
> outdo even the Baha'is in terms of denying intellectual freedom for
> their members.
> 
> Despite some unpleasant experiences I've had with the TS, I'd answer
> your question with a resounding yes. There is a huge difference
> between the TS and the JWs or the Baha'is. JWs, Mormons, Baha'is, and
> many other groups are overtly dogmatic and authoritarian and make no
> effort to deny it. The Adyar TS is explicitly and overtly
> anti-dogmatic and anti-authoritarian. Its dogmatism and
> authoritarianism are implicit, sneaking in through the back door of
> the ES and hidden control mechanisms. But local lodges and study
> centers have a lot of autonomy and in years of regular speaking
> engagements I never picked up any clues that Adyar or Wheaton were
> trying to control members' thinking at the local level. It's only
> where the levers of national and international power are concerned
> that dogmatic and authoritarian tendencies are observable. (This is
> only one man's opinion and others' mileage may vary.)
> 
> You wrote:
> 
> > I told my father about the Ray Franz book and asked if he'd read 
> > it ,he said something to me that burned into my memory and that 
> > was `Perry your mother and I have been in this religion for the past 
> > 40 years and your telling us its all been wasted".
> 
> People are amazingly frank about their cognitive dissonance. "This
> evidence has implications that are challenging to my comfort level,
> therefore I won't look at it." I fail to see what kind of
> psychological security people can derive from that stance.
> 
> > Its not an easy call to make all those years all those friends that 
> > reputation of being a "strong witness" 
> > What do you say? How do you respond?
> > The lesson has been a huge one for me, a life's work and association 
> > and you find out much of it, if not all of it was fantasy!
> > 
> > You can imagine my amazement to find the TS no different to the JWs 
> > once the rubber hit the road.
> > Platitudes are great but if they are not backed up by action….
> > There's no dharma higher than truth ….what an ask !
> > 
> I'll end with what for me was a startling discovery. Amazon.com has
> in recent months introduced an indexing feature, so now you can search
> a name and find out where the person is mentioned in books that have
> been indexed in the database. I've learned of many books in which my
> own are cited or mentioned-- which total more than 50 at last count. 
> These vary tremendously, from very serious scholarship (most recently
> Mark Sedgwick's Against the Modern World, a study of the
> Traditionalists just out from Oxford University Press) to really flaky
> New Age books (most recently one about a guy who claims to be the
> reincarnation of Cayce.) What is completely missing is any citation
> in Theosophical publications save a brief mention in Sanat's
> Krishnamurti book. When I delved deeper I found no other original
> work in Theosophical history published since 1995 by any Theosophical
> publisher (or by any Theosophist author as best I can tell) in
> English. There have been compilations, reprints, and one study of the
> Hodgson report, but no histories or biographies. Compared to the
> previous decade, this is a huge change.
> 
> I suspect that Theosophical history itself, and not any particular
> work of history, has become anathema to the powers that be. The
> controversy about the handling of the HPB letters (see Deveney's
> interesting review in the latest TH) publication is very interesting
> as a symptom of the historyphobia of Adyar/Wheaton. More on that later.
> 
> Cheers,
> 
> Paul