theos-talk.com

[MASTER INDEX] [DATE INDEX] [THREAD INDEX] [SUBJECT INDEX] [AUTHOR INDEX]

[Date Prev] [Date Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next]

Re: Theos-World Tacoma's membership dilemma

Mar 11, 2006 02:30 PM
by M K Ramadoss


Thanks for bringing uptodate what you are doing. I recall there was a very
active theosophist in your area. If I find his name I will post it here and
many you will find one more person who is seriously interested in studying
SD.

It is not uncommon to find people showing up to "theosophical" meeting/study
groups with their own agenda and try to recruit individuals for their own
line of study/work or whatever.

There are also ignorant ones who may be contacting with strange requests
such as how to become a certified Adept as if one can pay a fee and get a
certificate certifying the individual as an Adept like the diploma mills!
Dont be surprised.

mkr

On 3/10/06, krsanna <timestar@timestar.org> wrote:
>
> John wrote:  "When I finally actually talked to one of them on the
> phone they wouldn't give an address or any information about how a new
> member might join them. This sure was very strange to me, but now
> maybe I begin to understand how stifled and scared the membership
> might have become internal to their knowledge and how it become the
> icy cold clammy hand of death upon the growth at grass roots level of
> things. Perhaps a special Poll is necessary and questions that are
> pointedly directly configured to determine what fears are held against
> acceptance of new members that might place them in a position similar
> or same to the Tacoma Lodge."
>
> As regards the Tacoma Lodge, TSA added people to the Lodge' roster of
> which the Tacoma Lodge had no knowledge.  A group of any kind tends to
> develop its own identity, derived from individuals attracted to it.
> By getting to know an individual then voting to make that person a
> member gives both the individual and the lodge a chance to get to know
> each other.
>
> In the early days, I believe lodges selected at least one object as
> its focus.  Not all lodges elected to work on the same objects, and
> various lodges developed differently.
>
> In the case of one person that TSA added to Tacoma's roster, I was
> told he was a spiritualist who wanted to use the lodge to give
> spiritualist lectures.  He had little knowledge of theosophy, and may
> not have been interested in it in view of his proclaimed success with
> spiritualism.  Members of the lodge explained that they were not a
> spiritualist center and did not want to be used as one.  There's a
> spiritualist center near Tacoma that would be more appropriate to his
> interests.
>
> I have similar reasons for not making my study group in Montana open
> to everyone who calls me in the middle of the night.  When I realized
> how voluminous Blavatsky's writing were and how much I liked her, I
> started a study group with the explicit purpose of studying "The
> Secret Doctrine."  A number of people were invited by word of mouth.
> What showed up in my home was a collection of people, of which many
> tended to use the study group as a gathering to hawk their own
> believes and methods.
>
> These people met in my home at my expense and proceeded to compete for
> attention.  One woman introduced herself as a healer and repeatedly
> went back to one visual image of seeing a tiger spinning in a
> whirlwind when she healed.  She explained that she had not completed
> high school and did not believe she would be able to study "The Secret
> Doctrine," much less write a 2-page paper each month on the lessons.
>
> Another woman believed the spinning tiger healer was a phony and
> called her an embarrassment to Reike healing methods.  She could easly
> have done the study of "The Secret Doctrine," but was always busy with
> other things.  She attended the meetings but was not able to discuss
> the book, because she hadn't read it.
>
> So much time was spent competing for righteousness that little study
> of "The Secret Doctrine" was accomplished.  It seemed obvious that we
> could not discuss theosophy until we knew something about it, and "The
> Secret Doctrine" was the place to begin.
>
> When I put my foot down and said essentially what I have said on this
> list.  Psychics, saints and psychotics have been hearing voices since
> the beginning of time.  The trick is to get them to tell you the
> truth.  The study group needed to focus on the study we had all agreed
> on in the beginning.
>
> The spinning tiger lady and her friend were so offended by accusations
> of being a phony healer that they stopped coming.  The the phony
> healer accuser stopped coming.  Then her friend stopped coming.  The
> few who were left wanted to study "The Secret Doctrine," and we began
> to make headway.
>
> When people call me now, I make it clear that we are a study group.
> We study and use dictionaries.  If a person wants to work with us on
> that basis, they are welcome.  I have never turned away anyone who
> wanted to work on those terms.  This does not mean that we are
> entirely intellectual with no interest in the hidden powers.
>
> We decided to add energy work to our meetings, because one of the
> women had never heard of anything like that.  We used tuning forks the
> first time we worked with her, with the idea of demonstrating subtle
> energy functions.  When we were done, the woman began reading
> something we were talking about then realized she wasn't wearing her
> glasses.  She could see near and far without glasses for months.
> About 4 months later then mentioned that she had started needing her
> glasses again.
>
> She went home and told her husband we had tuned up her chakras, a new
> term for her.  She had so much energy that started cleaning house and
> singing.  Her husband later asked, "What did they tune up?"  She
> explained chakras as she had learned about them that day.
>
> We continue to do pragmatic work with the principles we study in "The
> Secret Doctrine," whenever possible. Over the last year, the "chakra
> tuning" had has confided several times that Theosophy is what she's
> really looking for.  She has become a Theosophist.
>
> I don't turn my time, energy, and home over to anyone who walks in the
> door and wants an audience.  Our study group has a focus, and we work
> with that focus.  Reike practioners are many, and they should work in
> centers that invite that focus.
>
>
> Best regards,
> Krsanna
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>
>
>
>


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]



[Back to Top]


Theosophy World: Dedicated to the Theosophical Philosophy and its Practical Application