Theos-Talk Archives (December 2009 Message tt00184)

--- In theos-talk@yahoogroups.com, preethi muthiah <seeker_preethi@...> wrote:

And what, O Truth Seeker, is FEAR doing in an organization that declares TRUTH as its Motto? Doesn't the contradiction and dichotomy of it hit you, MKR?
> 
> Why is there SO MUCH FEAR in the Theosophical Society? Why is there the FEAR of the President? Where did that FEAR take root?
> 

Dear Preethi:

These are profound questions which go to the heart of my own experience as an author and former member of the TS.  I have worked with library boards throughout my career, but also have served as a board member and officer for local organizations devoted to river preservation, fine arts programs, etc.  Never in all those involvements did I encounter levels of tension and mistrust within an organization that I saw with Theosophists.

You might say it's because the TS is a spiritual organization and things brings out different problems than purely secular organizations have.  True enough, and as an ARE member I saw plenty of infighting and power struggles akin to those of the TS.  But never the kind of pervasive fear of the internal or external enemy that one finds in the TS.

I presume that it all goes back to what we would call childhood trauma if the TS were an individual.  The infighting among the founders, the division into multiple sects, the humiliation of the Hodgson investigation, all within the first generation of the movement, seems to have left an indelible mark.

The readiness of Theosophists to denounce other Theosophists as not being real Theosophists, or being bad Theosophists, or being instruments of enemies of the movement, is absolutely astonishing in comparison to other movements I've observed.  It seems to come from a very deep-seated fear of subversion by internal enemies.  Kind of a spiritual McCarthyism with wild claims about Jesuits and dugpas.

HTH,

Paul