Theos-Talk Archives (May 2007 Message tt00047)

Dear Cass
Thank you once again for your comments.

You write:

"Perhaps I should have written that Leadbeaterism may have put some 
Christians on the path of pseudo-theosophy, which is a tad preferable 
to dogmatic christianity.  Although I take your point that CWL 
introduced dogma into theosophy, at least the precepts were more 
eastern in thinking."

Yes, good points...but only just a tad for me:)

You write:

"Luckily for me when I was first introduced to CWL's works I found 
them to be too authoritarian and egotistical in tone, so I never 
placed much value on what he was saying."

If only I had been so perceptive! As a young male used to authority,  
each of these aspects with its accompanying egocentricities, my 
mindset resonated well with his writings at first. And herein lies 
another of the more insidious aspects of his work. Some men may feel 
comfortable with it as it asserts the "authority" of maleness. Some 
women may feel comfortable if they're looking for a "knight in 
shining armour." 
And so the age-old stereotypical paradigm is once again re-inforced 
despite it being a woman who originally brought us the teachings.
I say "some" and "may" as certainly not all are attracted for these 
reasons. 

You write:
 
"I guess I am writing from a sense of frustration, the world is 
currently in the throws of some enormous changes resulting in fear 
and confusion for many..." 

Agreed and well understood. From my perspective, the doomsdayers and 
apocalyptic merchants are speculative promoters of fear and are doing 
great harm to the mindsets of many. Such energies can contribute to 
the effect of "self-fulfilling prophecy" for those so consumed. This 
fear-based living in the future can completely distort or even 
destroy the only important time there is, the here and now. 

You write:

"...and I believe that when energy is directed to things of the past 
it prevents us from focussing on the now..."

Yes, true indeed. However, if Bishop Leadbeater's influence was only 
in the past it might not be such a problem. In my experience though, 
the vast majority of Adyar Society members who are remotely 
interested in theosophy are predominantly followers of his version. 
Even many current members I know are still devoted to his work. And 
it is for this reason I feel the need to occasionally expose his 
frauds and fallacies for the sake of those who may be unaware, to at 
least provide them with an alternative perspective.  Moreover, I am 
only too cognisant of how difficult it has been for me and others to 
unlearn some of his distortions. His energies have a long-lasting 
effect particularly where they are still promoted to this day and 
will be for long years into the future.


You write:   

"When I think about CWL, I can feel my blood pressure rise and I am 
sure, attract many negative thoughts to myself."

Yes, I can relate to this too. It gives me no pleasure at all to 
speak about and challenge his work. In fact I often feel a sense of 
uncleanness afterwards.
I guess the positives for me include the opportunity to be unattached 
to those negative emotions (not easy!), the extreme wariness of all 
forms of authority and the aforementioned opportunity to warn others 
of the many and varied traps the Bishop sets for the unwary mind.

Thanks again Cass
Best wishes
Nigel    


> nhcareyta <nhcareyta@...> wrote:
>           Dear All and Cass
> 
> Cass, I both understand and respect your position that you would 
> prefer to "put the dilemma to bed" as being well considered as 
usual, 
> kind and generous, and don't wish this posting to be in any way 
> construed as an attempt to draw you into further discussion. 
> 
> That said, please allow me to use some remarks from one of your 
> previous postings to highlight some points which are often raised 
by 
> others as well and which seem important to me and perhaps to fellow 
> students of T/theosophy.
> 
> 1) "Even though Leadbeaterism and Besantism et all is not pure 
> theosophy, I
> imagine it has helped souls by putting them in the right direction, 
> especially
> Christians."
> 
> 2) "it (challenging Bishop Leadbeater and his teachings) causes 
> negative energy for theosophy at best, wasted energy at worst."
> 
> This idea, that the world is a better place as a result of the 
> teachings of Bishop Leadbeater, Dr Besant et al, is very much a 
moot 
> point that friends and I from the Adyar Society discussed every 
week 
> for more than a year, some years ago. 
> Subsequently, each of us helped establish the Theosophical Academy 
> where the Theosophy of Madame Blavatsky and her teachers became the 
> focus of our study. Some of the reasons for this included the loss 
of 
> trust in many of the pronouncements and activities of Bishop 
> Leadbeater and Dr Besant, a recognition that Madame Blavatsky and 
her 
> teachers had something significantly special and different to say 
and 
> a growing disillusionment with the Adyar Society, from our 
perception 
> that it was not an organisation of entirely free speech after all. 
> There were other contributing factors which are somewhat irrelevant 
> to the current discussion.
> 
> From my perspective, on balance I believe the Adyar Society and 
> Theosophy in general would have been better off without Bishop 
> Leadbeater and his teachings despite his many works and with many 
> claiming they were initially drawn to the subject through his 
> writings, myself included. Moreover, I have met and shared with 
many, 
> many Adyar theosophical students who were and/or are fine, 
upstanding 
> people. I have also met quite a few who were not, as is to be 
> expected in a large organisation.
> It seems unproductive to fully reiterate Bishop Leadbeater's lies, 
> deceptions and often fanciful, romantic ideas with little basis in 
> fact other than his own illusory sense of authority, as these have 
> been fairly well covered in this forum throughout the past couple 
of 
> years. However there are some other aspects which dovetail in with 
> the aforementioned which deserve attention. 
> 
> A rationale is often put forward that Bishop Leadbeater's writings 
> helped simplify the Theosophy of Madame Blavatsky and her teachers. 
> But did they really, or did they and their accompanying occult 
> energies actually draw students away from it. In my experience, the 
> overwhelming majority of students who started with Bishop 
> Leadbeater's theosophy i.e. his teachings, his mindset and his 
> energies are still entranced and enamoured by it. 
> His often romanticised ideas and powerfully deceptive energies 
cause 
> many to become adoring followers, usually blind to demonstrable 
proof 
> and in such states of denial and defensiveness as to disallow any 
> possibility of a reasoned debate concerning the contradictory 
nature 
> of his teachings in comparison with those his followers claims he 
> simplified. 
> Whilst this reactive mindset is largely the province of each 
> individual, nevertheless this powerfully influential occult teacher 
> who dishonestly represented another's works has had, and still has 
a 
> significantly detrimental, ongoing effect on the mindsets of 
> unwitting students as well as on the original Theosophical 
teachings 
> themselves.
> 
> For those unaware of the many contradictions between the teachings 
of 
> Madame Blavatsky and her teachers and those of Bishop Leadbeater 
and 
> Dr Besant please go to:
> http://blavatskyarchives.com/thomas/index.htm
> 
> Whatever way we might interpret Madame Blavatsky and her teachers' 
> wishes for their Society and their version of Theosophy, they 
> certainly did not want mesmerised, closed-minded followers. They 
> certainly did not want a "theosophical" church complete with an 
> authoritarian hierarchy. Nor did they want a Bishop or priest 
acting 
> as intermediary between parishioners and their true selves or the 
> outrageous discrimination afforded women through their disallowance 
> to perform the sacraments because their vehicles were, according to 
> Bishop Leadbeater and his subsequent representatives, unsuited to 
the 
> task.
> 
> If Madame Blavatsky had wanted a manifestly simplified version of 
> Theosophy she would have written one. She and her teachers did not 
> want Theosophy simplified. They wanted us to think and to think 
> deeply, further and further into the awesome profundities of nature 
> and the cosmos. They wanted to expand our minds to breaking point 
and 
> beyond, into the realms of the formless, where we might begin to 
> learn the actual constructs of the cosmos and eventually become 
> cosmocratores. 
> 
> A mind satisfied with simple explanations usually rests on its 
> laurels, feeling secure it has found the truth. This mindset almost 
> inevitably turns these explanations into a dogma and eventually may 
> even become the basis for a church. 
> This is what occurred as a result of Bishop Leadbeater's version of 
> theosophy and his influential mindset.
> 
> For these and other reasons already stated in previous posts, my 
> perspective for what little it's probably worth, is that Bishop 
> Leadbeater and his teachings caused immeasurable harm to Madame 
> Blavatsky and her teachers' Theosophy, as well as to the Adyar 
> Theosophical Society itself. His legacy and influence in this 
> organisation has always been very strong with high-ranking clergy 
> also filling its positions of seniority.
> Where there is so much contradiction, dishonesty and deception 
> between teachings it begs the question as to how those in authority 
> can reconcile this.
> 
> It is for these reasons that I do not think that exposing lies and 
> hypocrisies is promoting negative energies, in fact quite the 
> opposite. As long as there are inquiring students eager to learn 
> about Theosophy I will continue as and where able to offer what I 
> believe to be an honest and fair assessment of the differing 
versions 
> and motivations. 
> 
> Regards to all
> Nigel
> 
> 
> 
>          
> 
>  	      
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