Theos-Talk Archives (July 2005 Message tt00140)

Dear Konstantin,

I am beginning to find this discussion about people writing books some 
consider unfriendly to Theosophy out of a motivation to make money a bit 
disturbing. Big selling fiction books are written for money. Danielle 
Steele's romance novels and Steven King's thrillers sell in the millions 
of copies and make their authors very wealthy. On the other hand, Greg 
Tillett's Elder Brother and Paul Johnson's Masters Revealed are hardly 
in that league. Rather, it is likely that the little bit of money they 
made from those books hardly covered the time and expenses they incurred 
in order to do the necessary research need to write them the first 
place. Also, please note that The Elder Brother has been out of print 
with the publisher and was remaindered for some ten or fifteen years 
now. Therefore, Tillett as made nothing on any book sales since it was 
remaindered. Considering the above, money cannot be a realistic 
motivation for people to write books such as these which have so limited 
an audience. In truth, Gregory Tillett's book began as a dissertation 
as partial requirement for a Ph.D. The original dissertation is 1200 
pages long and published in three volumes. I have a copy of it and in 
my opinion, the dissertation is far more damaging to CWL than the cut 
down book version which came out later. So, Tillett's original intent 
was clearly to create a work of scholarship in order to earn his Ph.D. 
Since Dr. Tillett's committee indeed awarded him his Ph.D., the 
dissertation must have passed the standards for scholarship. 
As for Paul Johnson's The Masters Revealed, it was published by the 
State University of New York, which is a peer reviewed press. 
Therefore, his work also had to pass certain standards of scholarship. 
Whether or not we agree with Tillett's and/or Johnson's conclusions, 
both produced works which are recognized as scholarly contributions to 
our knowledge of the Theosophical Movement. Those who find fault with 
their documentation or other aspects of their scholarship are free to 
write their own peer reviewed books in order to overthrow the 
conclusions of the previous writers. That is how scholarship works--it 
is a progressive search for the truth of the matters in question. If 
you decide to write such a book proving that Tillett's and/or Johnson's 
conclusions are wrong, then you will make a contribution to human 
knowledge which will in turn be read and analyzed. I will be among the 
first to purchase a copy of your book and read it--and my purchase will 
bring you a whole dollar or so in royalties. 
I look forward to your book and wish you wealth.

Best wishes,
Jerry








Konstantin Zaitzev wrote:

> --- In theos-talk@yahoogroups.com, "Daniel H. Caldwell" 
> <danielhcaldwell@y...> wrote:
>
>
>
> > What are you suggesting here? That Dr. Tillett has made money or 
> > fame in this "good business of exposing Leadbeater" and therefore we 
> > should suspect base motives on his part? Just what are you getting 
> > at? "Exposing Leadbeater"? Or has Tillett only been searching for 
> > the truth about Mr. Leadbeater and trying to set the record 
> Of course, he is making money. Otherwise he would put his book online, 
> but he just advertizes it. It's the case similar with that of Johnson 
> who makes similar business on exposing Blavatsky.
>
>
>
> > I view your remarks as "ad hominem" in nature and am somewhat 
> > surprised that you would even write them. 
> Exactly as those used by Tillett and his followers -
> The books by Leadbeater are wrong because he was a sexual maniac and 
> faked his birthdate.
>
>
>
>
>
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