Theos-Talk Archives (October 1995 Message tl00491)

>
>Thanks, Bee, for your postings on your lodge work in New Zealand. I find
>all of it very interesting. Keep up the good work!
>
>My only point on history (concerning quotes given by you and Liesel) was that
>history can given us a valuable and wonderful perspective on so many things
>and so many subjects. I agree that writers on history may be wrong on this
>or that or may distort this or that. What subject is exempt from such
>limitations and biases? My point was that a knowledge of history can enrich
>our lives by expanding our perspectives and perceptions. A knowledge of
>Theosophical history can also widen our perspectives on Theosophy. I think
>this is part of what Jerry HE has been trying to convey over many months.
>
>Sorry if I attributed the quote to you.
>My comments were directed more toward those on theos network who seem to
>be somewhat "a-historical" at least when it comes to Theosophy.
>
>ACtually we all do history and historical research everyday of our personal
>lives. We wake up each morning and reconstruct a own personal history and
>through out the day we do historical research (we don't call it that) answering
>such questions as "Who left the cap off the toothpaste?" or "Who threw that
>baseball through my living room window?", etc. We are continally
reconstructing historical events and asking Who? Where? When? Why? We
just don't call
>it "history" or "historical research" and we don't get PhDs and spent our
>professional life doing "history".

I agree but that is personal history and is seen through our own cloudy
lens. I recall the story told to me by a friend who was a police woman. She
recalled that during training there were 10 of them in a room and a guy
dressed in an overcoat, hat etc walked through the room. they were then
asked to describe him. She said that all 10 of them saw something slightly
different from each other. This surprised her because it was just one man
with not that much descriptive clothes on. How much history is accounts of
eye witnesses who are not trained to see objectively and how much is
reconstruction of old history in light of evidence come to light. The fact
that HPB went to such lengths to refute the Oriental scholars of her time
gives food for thought. People, then, probably believed the improbable
stories being published by travellers making sensational claims. An overview
of possible happenings in the past will do me. I must confess to having read
many fat historical novels in the past and enjoyed them as novels.
Regards. Bee
>
>P.S. to Jerry HE. I think some of us have found your descriptions of how you
>conduct class on Theosophy and the S.D. quite interesting. Could you maybe
>give us more insights based on your years of teaching Theosophy?
>
>Daniel Caldwell
>