Theos-Talk Archives (August 2006 Message tt00251)

Interesting statement I found it on the Theosophical history site :
http://www.theohistory.org/thcovers/thscan104.html

Perry

WHY WE ARE INDEPENDENT
When "Theosophical History" was conceived, our relationship with the various 
Theosophical societies was carefully considered. We decided to be independent,, even of 
the Adyar Society, in which this editor is active. 

We thought, the task of persuading any existing group to launch such a journal might be 
difficult because of their natural prior commitments to their own journals, their limited 
finances - and the controversial subject matter that is history. 

We feared that ownership by one society might lose us the confidence of other societies. 
We did not want the officers of any Theosophical group to be the targets of pressure to 
stop or censor our publication. 

We were worried too, lest any of the fringe groups on the theosophical scene, some of 
them with limited sympathy for historical enquiry or free discussion, might use their 
influence to try to control our coverage.__

Fresh in the memory and even influencing the decision to set up the journal was the 
reception of Gregory Tillett's "The Elder Brother" (1982), the first full biography of C. W. 
Leadbeater. 

Although Leadbeater had been active in the Adyar T.S. and numerous fringe bodies, there 
was evidence, especially from America, that some journals were not reviewing the book, 
some theosophical bookshops not selling it and some theosophical libraries not making it 
available to their readers; behaviour likely to decrease sales, discourage authors and 
publishers, and inhibit discussion of historical matters. 

It might be argued that Theosophists should look to tile future rather than the past with 
its doubtful psychic episodes, but of course questions of truth and of authority are not 
totally separate from the history of the various theosophical claims. 

Even Krishnamurti has a historical context.__And although Leadbeater was the main focus 
of the Tillett book, every group has its own investment in particular persons or incidents in 
its own history which (if they controlled a historical journal) they might not want to see 
discussed.

 It is better for everybody that there should be an independent publication, in whose pages 
the different viewpoints can be expressed.__L. P.