Theos-Talk Archives (April 2008 Message tt00157)

Excellent points.? In fact, we used to refer to them as exactly that, "professional Theosophists."? It all brings to mind a story about a gathering at Olcott when John was the US National President.? The guest was from France and the subject of TS politics came up.? She made the usual point about the President being both an administrator and being regarded as a spiritual authority.? Everyone laughed, to her surprise, and John said, "One thing no US society President ever has to worry about is being regarded as an authority figure of any kind."

Chuck the Heretic


http://www.geocities.com/c_cosimano 


-----Original Message-----
From: kpauljohnson <kpauljohnson@yahoo.com>
To: theos-talk@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Sat, 19 Apr 2008 4:01 pm
Subject: Theos-World Professional Theosophists






This is in response to themes mentioned by several of you, an insight 
that your comments inspired. It seems to me that what Radha and John 
have in common, and what is disastrous to the health of the 
organization, isn't just that they are octogenarians but professional 
Theosophists. People who have been involved in the TS for well over 
half a century and been in the inner circle of leadership almost that 
long. I had a much more positive personal relationship with Grace 
Knoche than either John (negative) or Radha (nonexistent) but she 
exemplified the same pattern. Born into Theosophy, no meaningful 
professional engagement outside the Theosophical world, in the inner 
circle her entire life. 

My experience with ARE was quite unlike that with the TS in that no 
one ever said or wrote a critical word about my book on Cayce. It 
just didn't inspire controversy despite being in some ways the most 
critical book ever written about him. But it was very much like the 
TS experience in that there was a cadre of professional Cayceites who 
ran everything and always would and outsiders would forever be so. 
One had normal conversations with all the other members, but there 
was always something strained for me with the professional AREers or 
the professional Theosophists.

I conclude that in both these cases and most others, the self-styled 
elites are in fact parasites who could not make it in the real world 
yet presume to preach to those who can and do. (Algeo's success in 
linguistics acknowledged as a sign that he's more than *just* a 
professional Theosophist.) Term limits are the only way to prevent 
takeovers by parasitical elites. Every library board, every 
nonprofit board I've ever belonged to had term limits, and none of 
them ever had the kind of problems I've seen with so-
called "spiritual" organizations. 



 


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