Theos-Talk Archives (March 1994 Message tl00005)

Mike Grenier,

     Tillett documents CWL's statements in his biography THE
ELDER BROTHER.   If you want copies of the actual documents that
he cites, you should be able to find this stuff at the National
Library at Wheaton.  If they can't help you, I will be able to
make you copies of most things he referenced in such sources as
THE THEOSOPHIST, THEOSOPHIC MESSENGER, MERCURY, HERALD OF THE
STAR, etc., but I'm sparse on the LCC publications.  Just let me
know which citations in Tillett's book you want copied.

     As for the truth about CWL's family circumstances, Tillett
located Leadbeater's actual birth certificate, that showed the
discrepancies concerning his age, younger siblings, father's
occupation etc.  The Birth Certificate is reproduced in the
Biography.

     Leadbeater was an initial attraction for me also about
thirty years ago.  I lost interest in him long before the
Biography was published, when I found, among other things, that
he made no distinction between nebulas and galaxies. They were
all local phenomena to him (as they were to science until about
1925).  I soon found a richer source of information in Blavatsky,
who endorsed the idea of "island universes."

     Even if Leadbeater had been truthful concerning his family
information, his clairvoyant observations concerning such things
as Martian cities (presently existing, not ancient) are a bit
hard to justify in light of modern knowledge.

     Sorry you are disappointed, but I hope you don't give up on
Theosophy.  The early (pre Leadbeater) literature is still a gold
mine of exciting material--much of it only (relatively) recently
accessible.  Every once in a while someone comes up with an
interesting current work also.

Jerry Hejka-Ekins