Theos-Talk Archives (December 2009 Message tt00186)

Paul,   An organization is only the sum of its members and the  truth is 
that the folk who make up the TS now are a peculiar lot.  I've  seen worse in 
other organizations which have no spiritual leanings at all and  thus I have 
long been of the opinion that what we are seeing is actually normal,  human 
nature and what it does in a hothouse environment.
 
Chuck the Heretic
 
_www.charlescosimano.com  

 
In a message dated 12/26/2009 7:17:13 A.M. Central Standard Time,  
kpauljohnson@yahoo.com writes:

 
 
 
--- In 




_ (http://www.charlescosimano.com/) _theos-talk@yahoogrotheos-t_ 
(mailto:theos-talk@yahoogroups.com) , preethi muthiah  <seeker_preethi@see> 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

_ (http://www.charlescosimano.com/) 



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