Theos-Talk Archives (August 2004 Message tt00405)

Aug 21 2004

Dear Daniel:

Thanks for catching that.

What I mean (meant) is that the mere statement "I said," or "I did," can in
some cases, be unique as an experience to a single individual -- perhaps a
result of fancy, desire or even wishful thinking. As such it demands
additional verification.

What I would call testimony and evidence is that which others can verify,
by duplicating the experiment, or reviewing the picture (?), or if that
fails by carefully reviewing the logic of the reported experience -- to see
how it fits in with universal laws: physical, psychic, intellectual and
metaphysical. 

I realize the way I phrased this originally was awkward.

Here is what HPB says in the S D I 272-3

" That it is the uninterrupted record covering thousands of generations of
Seers whose respective experiences were made to test and to verify the
traditions passed orally by one early race to another, of the teachings of
higher and exalted beings, who watched over the childhood of Humanity. That
for long ages, the "Wise Men" of the Fifth Race, of the stock saved and
rescued from the last cataclysm and shifting of continents, had passed their
lives in learning, not teaching. 

How did they do so? It is answered: by checking, testing, and verifying in
every department of nature the traditions of old by the independent visions
of great adepts; i.e., men who have developed and perfected their physical,
mental, psychic, and spiritual organisations to the utmost possible degree.
No vision of one adept was accepted till it was checked and confirmed by the
visions-so obtained as to stand as independent evidence-of other adepts, and
by centuries of experiences. "

Best wishes.

Dallas
 
-----Original Message-----
From: Daniel H. Caldwell [mailto:danielhcaldwell@yahoo.com] 
Sent: Saturday, August 21, 2004 9:11 AM
To: theos-talk@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Theos-World Dallas on "That is testimony not evidence."

Dallas, you wrote:

=======================================================

In any case, statements such as "I have been there." 
Or I (or others) have seen ---!" That is testimony 
not evidence. It is a type of one up-manship . . . .

=======================================================

Dallas, I am somewhat confused by your statement
above.

Testimony is certainly evidence. It's also
called testimonial evidence.

Most of our understanding of history is based 
on testimony. "I have been there." or "I (or
others) have seen ---- !"

If we deleted all the testimonial evidence from
Cranston's book on HPB, I don't think the book
would be very large!

Maybe in some cases there is "one up-manship"
but does that kind of label apply to HPB's testimony
and Olcott'testimony and Judge's testimony
about the Masters and the phenomena surrounding
the Masters?

Daniel
http://hpb.cc








 
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