Theos-Talk Archives (April 2006 Message tt00450)

Dear Friends,

For the first time since February, Daniel at least comments Paul Johnson's testimony on him, acording to which he may be a "troller" who impersonates imaginary persons. 

Yet Daniel still does not say whether he is "David Green", "Terry Hobbes" and  other "persons" who use to appear and disappear here and there. 

I will have to think it over. So far, I must thank Daniel for commenting the subject.

He might be a fraud, perhaps not, who knows --  but now at least Daniel  discusses that possibility with us.  That's progress.  

Best regards,  Carlos. 


De:theos-talk@yahoogroups.com

Para:theos-talk@yahoogroups.com

Cópia:

Data:Thu, 20 Apr 2006 21:31:44 -0000

Assunto:[Spam] Theos-World Carlos and Paul: Ad Hominem Distractions??

> Way back in January 1997 when Paul Johnson did
> an official reply to my HOUSE OF CARDS critique of
> his books, after dealing in some detail with
> some of my criticisms, he apparently couldn't resist
> ending his reply with what I viewed at the time
> as simply an "ad hominem" argument/distraction. He had
> to try to analyze my motives, etc. etc. I quote some
> of his words at the very end of this email with a
> link to his whole reply.
> 
> It made me smile at the time and still does when
> I read this sentence of his:
> 
> "Mr. Caldwell has ingratiated himself with Theosophical
> orthodoxy by leading the charge against my work."
> 
> One assumption piled upon another and another and another piled upon 
> those! The whole section is full of them!
> 
> Even if all of what he wrote was GOSPEL TRUTH, what does
> any of that [concerning my supposed motivations and actions] 
> have to do with the validity of my criticisms about his books?
> 
> At the time I decided to simply ignore his psychobabble speculation 
> about me and instead to reply to some of his "reply" dealing with 
> HPB and the Masters which was (believe it or not) the focus of my 
> HOUSE OF CARDS critique to begin with..... You can still read my 
> reply to his reply at:
> 
> http://blavatskyarchives.com/johnsonparanormal3.htm
> 
> Then last year we had dear Jerome Wheeler in the pages of FOHAT 
> write a "review" of my ESOTERIC WORLD OF MADAME BLAVATSKY and 
> instead of confining his comments to the contents of my book, he 
> choose to go "ad hominem" and suggest all sorts of dark motives, 
> etc. on my part, etc. etc.
> 
> Now of late, we have Paul's detective work posted once again by dear 
> Carlos.
> 
> Should I reply and what would be accomplished if I did? 
> 
> I must say that I feel just like I did in 1997. What is to gained 
> by answering any of it. Do I really care if Carlos or anyone else 
> considers me a decent guy or ... the worse of dugpas (sorry 
> Charlie...!!)??
> 
> As far as I can tell, all of this is simply DISTRACTION. Ad hominem 
> arguments by nature are designed to distract.
> 
> One of the most distinguished of our posters here on Theos-Talk 
> several years ago stated that Paul Johnson wrote his books to make 
> money or (what was the other reason?) to achieve some kind of fame 
> (I think!). But why write such "garbage"? Even if the assertions 
> were totally true, does that really tell us whether the contents of 
> Paul's books are valid or not? I don't think so.
> 
> I have over the years tried to make some contributions to 
> Theosophical knowledge, in my books, in some articles, in the 
> contents of my website. If interested inquirers and students find 
> value in any of that material, great...if not ....then so be it.
> 
> I have had an abiding interest in Blavatsky, the Masters and 
> Theosophy since 1968 and I suspect that interest will continue until 
> I exit this physical plane. I will continue to post on Theos-Talk 
> material that I think may be of interest to some readers and I will 
> continue to add content to my website as well as work on my 7 book 
> projects. And from time to time I will not be on Theos-Talk as the 
> deadline for each of my books comes closer.
> 
> Carlos and those of like mind can continue to yell slander and use 
> ad Hominem arguments and distractions about me as much as they 
> want. But I have more important things to do than respond to such 
> thins. If people want to judge me for that...one way or the 
> other....good do it. 
> 
> OBTW I have never gone out of my way to make friends or enemies of 
> Theosophists because I have noticed that there are unfortunately too 
> many cat fights among Theosophists to start with and I rather just 
> remain somewhat on the sidelines as far as interacting on a personal 
> level with Theosophists in general. I'm not saying that they are 
> not a friendly bunch of people. But I have lots of "regular" 
> friends and most of them don't even know that much about my interest 
> in Theosophy. Recently my friend Shawn whom I have known for about 
> 5 years told me he has several books by HPB and has even read and 
> studied THE SECRET DOCTRINE. What a surprise!! I had no idea he was 
> even interested in the subject and it had never come up in any of 
> our conversations, etc. 
> 
> Anyway, in the future if I have comments to make it will be directly 
> concerning the subject matter of Blavatsky, the Masters, 
> Theosophical history in general and of course the Theosophical 
> teachings. 
> 
> Enuff for now. I don't even have time right now to proofread my 
> jottings above. So consider it a very rough draft. Sorry.
> 
> And for the next 4 days I will not be posting much of anything since 
> I have to work on the 50 plus colored illustrations for my new book.
> 
> Anyway below is Paul's wonderful speculations and a link to his full 
> reply from 1997.
> 
> Daniel
> 
> http://members.tripod.com/~dlane5/pjimp.html
> 
> 
> ================================================
> Why has Mr. Caldwell devoted such passionate
> effort to discrediting my work, at the same time that he
> promotes as reliable almost every other book on Theosophical
> history produced by Theosophists? More puzzling to me, why
> does he virtually ignore the large body of works that are
> hostile to Blavatsky and dismissive of the Masters' existence,
> while spending years publicly bombarding me, a basically friendly
> Theosophical author, with blame and disdain? During the last
> three and a half years that I have been regularly attacked by
> Mr. Caldwell, these questions have arisen again and again, and
> they remain perplexing. One likely incentive suggests itself:
> Mr. Caldwell has ingratiated himself with Theosophical
> orthodoxy by leading the charge against my work. Since he and
> John Algeo have emerged as the chief denouncers of my books,
> Dr. Algeo has announced that under his editorship Theosophical
> Publishing House will reprint Mr. Caldwell's compilation of
> laudatory accounts of HPB. Theirs is to be the official party
> line (in which criticism of HPB is minimized) whereas my work
> is to be the officially repudiated "house of cards."
> The behavior of Mr. Caldwell and Dr. Algeo in response to
> my work conveys an air of desperation. Not content to point
> out a few flaws and praise a few strengths, they ignore the
> evidence on behalf of the hypotheses offered ("No evidence" is
> repeated like a mantram in Dr. Algeo's reviews) and attempt to
> demolish my credibility. Such extreme tactics directed toward
> a member of the same spiritual organization suggest that they
> perceive the stakes to be very high. Why is my work perceived
> by them as more "dangerous" than others which address the same
> topic? What they are defending has all the earmarks of a true
> "house of cards": a complex structure resting on a chain of
> inferences and rooted in demonstrably false assumptions. (That
> HPB and Olcott's accounts of the Masters are consistent and
> reliable, most notably.) My hypotheses provide a paradigm
> shift in approaches to the Masters, a shift that is extremely
> unwelcome in orthodox circles. If the Theosophical movement
> advances toward recognizing the need to sort out truth from
> fiction on the topic of the Masters, many things become
> subject to question. Most notably for Mme. Burnier and Dr.
> Algeo, these are the legitimacy of the Esoteric Section based
> on its alleged sponsorship by the Masters, since the TS remains
> dominated by this secret inner group. Most importantly for Mr.
> Caldwell, it might become necessary to reevaluate the spiritual
> status of Mme. Blavatsky and her Masters and the authority of
> texts he considers sacred. In order to forestall such
> developments, they have chosen to kill the messenger through
> an intellectualized form of character assassination. I can
> only hope that perceptive readers will recognize such tactics
> and what they reveal about those who use them. They strain
> at the gnat of my minor errors, while swallowing the camel
> of HPB's total credibility. This is their only strategy for
> propping up the house of cards in which orthodox Theosophists
> have been living for the past century. Until they can offer
> their own explanation of the evidence I have presented, and
> arguments for their interpretation of HPB, it will be obvious that 
> they
> are more interested in defending dogmas than in searching for truth.
> This, in the words of the Gospel of Matthew, is the behavior of
> "blind guides."
> ===========================================================
> 
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> Yahoo! Groups Links
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