Theos-Talk Archives (January 2005 Message tt00950)

Dear Pedro and all,

I dislike the inquisitorial method often used here, backing people 
into corners, playing the prosecutor. So will just state my 
disagreement with two notions in recent posts and ask for responses 
from anyone interested.

--- In theos-talk@yahoogroups.com, "prmoliveira" <prmoliveira@y...> 
wrote:
> 
> I suppose that because they were isolated geographically, even when
> Geoffrey Hodson (New Zealand), Phoebe Bendit (England) and Dora 
Kunz(USA) checked and confirmed, with their own investigations,
> Leadbeater's basic descriptions of auric fields, including the 
etheric double, INDEPENDENTLY OF HIM,

Even if they weren't capitalized those three words would leap off 
the page. In what sense can Adyar Theosophists whose clairvoyant 
investigations confirmed CWL's be considered "three independent 
investigators"? Not in any meaningful sense I can think of. 
Suggestibility plays far too large a role in such "perceptions" for 
me to accept any of these three as independent of CWL. Don't know 
anything about Bendit but surely Kunz and Hodson were as 
Leadbeaterian as any modern Theosophist could be. They saw what 
they were looking for.

As for the argument that Perry is being unbrotherly to a deceased 
Theosophical author by "calling him" a liar, etc. If CWL was in 
fact a liar, which has been clearly proven, what do we owe his 
memory in terms of denying or ignoring that fact? How does the duty 
to treat dead Theosophists in a brotherly manner (that is, overlook 
their faults) dovetail with the second and third Objects which 
require a devotion to truth? The latter are duties to the living, 
which outweigh IMO any alleged duty to the dead. 

My own answer is that it is inappropriate to rant and rave about 
CWL's misdeeds, or to obsessively confront Theosophists on the 
issue. But it is just as inappropriate to shield him from scrutiny 
and criticism or attack an author whose investigation of him is 
entirely fair and honest. The denial and avoidance of Adyar powers-
that-be concerning CWL actually feeds and keeps alive the outrage 
among other Theosophists, so 70 years after his death Leadbeater's 
shadow still hangs over the Movement. 

Cheers,

Paul