Theos-Talk Archives (October 1995 Message tl00097)

According to Jerry Hejka-Ekins:
>
> I'm sure that there are many who feel as you do. If Olcott
> wasn't doing a service it would not exist for very long. I'm
> Glad it meets your needs. But keep in mind that there are also a
> lot of us who have been turned off. Remember, more than 95% of
> those who join the Adyar TS quit within two years. Can we afford
> to ignore that 95%?
Appalling statistic indeed. But I think that our solutions to
that problem would be quite different. I'd say, "to retain
more members the TS should become more like the ARE, providing
group settings that nurture one's independent pursuit of the
spiritual path, and intellectual engagement with cutting-edge
trends in contemporary thought." Whereas mightn't you say "to
retain more members the Adyar TS should become more like the
Pasadena TS or the ULT, focusing more consistently on the
source teachings and deemphasizing subsequent developments"?
While neither of us would ignore that 95%, how to know what's
the right way to keep more of the them?

> the question has no meaning to me. But if you were to ask what
> would be different if Judge would have lived, was not discredited
> and pushed out of the Society by Besant and Olcott, and followed
> Olcott as President of the TS, I think things would have been
> vastly different.

That strikes me as a highly partisan way to state the
situation. If you were to ask me what would be different if
Judge had not successfully turned Besant against Olcott in an
effort to make him resign as President (to whose benefit?), and
if Olcott had not changed his mind about resigning, decided to
fight back, and with the help of a huge number of eminent
Indians and Sinhalese, won over Besant... you see the point.
It was Judge's ambition, Olcott's (mis?)perceived
vulnerability, Besant's indecisiveness and two-facedness, that
started the "split." Judge and Besant came mighty close to
dumping Olcott overboard, which if it had succeeded would be an
injustice to top that which befell Judge.

 First; the TS would not have split in half in
> 1895, and perhaps it would not have continued to split into
> warring factions. I would not have been campaigning for
> networking across the Movement for over ten years, and Wheaton
> finally sending greetings to ULT, Pasadena and Halcyon in 1995
> would not have been a significant event. Secondly; the TS would
> more likely have stayed on the original lines as outlined by HPB
> and the Masters. Thirdly; we would not have had the crises of
> 1930, and fourthly; the Theosophical Society would not be
> regarded by the public as a cult as it is today.
>
> >And finally, what would you do if another group of theosophists,
> >who did not agree with your ideas, formed a rival organization?
>
> Welcome and embrace them as Judge tried to do with Adyar.
>
> Jerry Hejka-Ekins
> Please reply to: jhe@toto.csustan.edu,
> and CC to jhejkaekins@igc.apc.org
>