Theos-Talk Archives (February 2005 Message tt00206)

Hey,

Thanks to JHE for the lengthy and informative reminiscence. As a 
bit player in the Networking events of the 1980s I can add the East 
Coast perspective. Michael Revere, a ULT associate from New York, 
published for a short time a magazine encouraging Theosophical 
networking, which came to my attention around 1985. John and Nancy 
Coker, then of Maryland and now of the Pasadena HQ, had already been 
networking on a local level with Adyar and ULT Theosophists, and I 
joined them in some cooperative programs. Claire Walker was then in 
Maryland and very pro-cooperation. We had a series of conferences 
in the region in the mid-80s and Michael came down for one in 1986. 
(Later other ULT members participated but alas made nasty scenes a 
couple of times leaving the other participants with a bad taste.)

He, the Cokers, and I all participated in the Theosophical Network 
magazine with Rick Nurrie and Ken Small. (Somehow I never met 
Eldon, which I regret.) We were inspired by the cassette tapes of 
the Ojai 1984 conference, and Michael traveled across the country 
meeting people in all branches of the Theosophical Movement. I got 
especially interested in Theosophical history and attended three 
conferences in London organized by Leslie Price in the late 1980s. 
All were attended by a mixture of various types of Theosophists and 
non-Theosophists; Leslie was an important figure in the Networking 
developments of the decade.

The impression I got from Pasadena HQ at first was that some members 
were disturbed by our effrontery in organizing such cooperative 
events, but Grace Knoche was supportive and invited us to Pasadena 
for a day of discussion with staff in 1986. The 1988 SD conference 
was a clear indication of Pasadena's subsequent commitment to 
networking.

But in the 1990s, despite some official cooperation as for example 
in the Parliament of Religions, the energy behind the Networking 
movement dissipated. With the Cokers' move to Pasadena and mine to 
south-central Virginia, the Frederick and Tidewater branches of the 
Pasadena TS withered away. Michael Revere married and started a 
family and I haven't heard anything from him in years. Rick Nurrie 
and Ken Small had a falling out and Rick left the Theosophical 
movement entirely, focusing his energies on a magazine he and his 
wife founded. I continued to lecture regularly for the DC and 
Maryland lodges and the Charlotte Study Center in the 90s, but the 
latter failed to survive the departure of John and Louise Mead, and 
invitations from the former stopped in 1999. Betty Bland had 
attended the last one I gave and was very friendly to me, but I 
suspect some Wheaton influence behind the ending of invitations from 
the two Adyar lodges.

The feeling I got, based on some confidential conversations with 
various people, is that Wheaton "befriended" the Networking effort 
only to undermine it, and that John Algeo was regarded as the person 
who behind the scenes most opposed it. The majority of those most 
active in the 1980s efforts to insure the healthy survival of the 
Theosophical movement have fallen by the wayside. Our initial 
enthusiasm was characteristic of the baby boomer generation we 
belong to; our eventual disappointment/alienation was characteristic 
of many generations of would-be reformers in the Movement.

HTH,

Paul