Theos-Talk Archives (December 1995 Message tl00336)

ET

>We have two extreme views from all-powerful
>angels on the one hand to exceptional ordinary people as depicted in
>Paul Johnson's books. I'd tend to put them [existing Masters] somewhere in
the >middle on the scale.

RI

Eldon It's dangerous to draw Paul in on my side against you . . .

Perhaps if you could list three or four specific concrete things you think
an existing Master of your conception would be able to DO as a result of
advanced knowledge development etc. that let us say a Jerry Schueler is
not able to do it would be helpful in determining whether or not we have
something to disagree on.

Naturally I am always ready to confer some degree of Adept status on anyone
whose meditative or other transcendental practice has enabled him or her to
be more successful in life than he or she would have been without it.

ET

>The reality of something in the world does not depend upon how easy
>it is for us to personally validate it. If something is not true unless
>a majority of people can readily validate it then much of what we'd
>call scientific knowledge would have to be rejected. Many would take
>more than a single lifetime to acquire the necessary knowledge to
>understand much less experimentally verify the more advanced areas
>of science. But science does not become untrue and the more advanced
>researchers are not followers of a closed private view about life.
>

RI
But the history of science shows us that most "scientific knowledge" *does*
get rejected reformulated or replaced by something better doesn't it?
Anyway even advanced researchers have something to SHOW or at least
mathematically demonstrate to other advanced researchers. However even if
I accepted all of your reasoning on this subject it would still not satisfy
me: I would simply like the people within the Theosophical Society who talk
so knowledgeably about and sometimes implying intimacy *with* a
"Brotherhood" of existing Masters guiding events from behind the scenes etc.
to either forthrightly say they have seen heard felt smelled etc. Them
"category two" or that have a strong theosophical conviction "category
one" about Them. I do not care if the Masters *could* be apprehended in
this way or that--only if someone *is* currently apprehending Them in any way
at all.

If no one is then I vote for this as the subject which the Theosophical
Society needs to put itself at the most "official distance" from. It is
important to distinguish here however that we are talking about *existing*
Masters and not those of H.P.B.'s association. Of the people I have tried
to interest in the Society over the years by far the biggest stumbling block
has been when they have encountered things like Radha's "calling for the
blessings" of Those who continue to guide the Society etc. I have tried to
explain that this was just certain people's private belief within the Society
etc. but with little success. To the newcomers it seemed like *Existing
Masters* was the "official" or at least the most popular view and I may as
well have been trying to convince them to join a society based upon Dora's
fairies or whatever.

Best wishes

Richard Ihle