Theos-Talk Archives (January 2005 Message tt00406)

Gregory Tillett: "Why did Leadbeater invariably 
sleep with a young boy in his bed?"

Gregory Tillett wrote in THE ELDER BROTHER:

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T. H. Martyn, a leading
Australian Theosophist, had invited CWL to live in his home
after his own son's tutor had gone to war in 1915. CWL stayed
until 1917. One day, Mrs. Martyn [said]....

"I saw Oscar [Kollerstrom, an adolescent] in a state of nudity
in the bed with Mr. Leadbeater and Heyting also naked. He
walked out of the room naked to his bed which was on the
verandah...and I saw Mr. Leadbeater getting into bed where
Oscar was and the light extinguished."(p. 198)

T.H. Martyn
concluded from observation of CWL and boys that "Mr. Leadbeater
as as a motive and apart from any philanthropic purpose the
gratification of a perverted sex impulse...his relations with
some boys (probably not all the boys around him) has been for
his personal sex gratification....

.....Why did Leadbeater
invariably sleep with a young boy in his bed? And why did he
invariably have a boy in the bath with him? It has been argued
that his weak heart necessitated such companionship for fear he
might have some sort of attack whilst alone; but does
companionship require mutual nakedness in close proximity? And
why did Leadbeater insist on communal bathing for his pupils at
the Manor, with all of them in the bathroom, naked, at the same
time? He was given an enema every morning by one or other of
his pupils, in the presence of the others while they bathed.
This, said the close associated of Leadbeater's who told of the
morning ritual, may have given rise to misinterpretations. One
could understand why."(280)
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