Theos-Talk Archives (June 1996 Message tl00233)

This afternoon I posted a reply to Daniels questions on theos-news.
After seeing that Daniel had also posted my FAQ on theos-l it occurred
to me that it would be better to discuss my reply on theos-l.
Hence I reproduce my reply and add a little comment to it.

>>I reproduce below Martin's FAQ which I just happened to stumble across a few
>>minutes ago.
>>Martin, why didn't you tell us about this!  See his references to Theos-l
>>and alt.theosophy and
>>to TI.
>>
>>Daniel

Daniel, I DID tell theos-l folks about it. The first time I mentioned it
was october/november 1994 when I asked permission to add info about theos-l
to my FAQ. The second time was a couple of weeks ago when I talked about my
activities concerning the popularization of theosophy.

But, in one thing you're right, I do not blow the horn (trumpet?) about
this activity in theosophical circles. I may occasionally mention it
and then drop the subject.

Originally, the idea to post a FAQ containing theosophical references to
newsgroups was born with Paul Gillingwater. We had some E-mail exchanges
about my articles on theosophy, the world wide web and newsgroups.

My FAQ has grown and evolved during the years. It has undergone a major
change in format a couple of months ago.

My motive behind developing this FAQ has been twofold:

- to disseminate info about theosophy to a major newsgroup, and I chose
  talk.religion.newage because there may be many seekers for spiritual
  knowledge there (many confused because of the many pseudo-spiritual
  organizations that seem to exist)

- to disseminate info on spirituality, religion, philosophy, etc.
  in a more general sense (not specifically theosophical) as a service
  to the internet audience. By doing so I also wanted to show that there are
theosophists who don't confine themselves to a narrow circle of what to many
  seem to be an out worn , outdated, philosophy.


You may have gathered by now, that I'm not particularly satisfied
with the theosophical societies in this world. I think members have
not realized sufficiently that the theosophical teachings must be extended
(in several ways, one example being synthesizing modern psychological findings
in it, another way being to put theosophical teachings in a more easy-to-read
format). An important consideration is, IMO, that theosophists should not
think they have the monopoly on truth. The newage movement has effectively
taken over some of the original spiritual impulse, and, I may add, the newage
movement is *very* diverse, containing fresh ideas and practices and unavoidibly
lots of chaff amongst the wheat.


So, an open mind to new developments is *necessary* , imperative, in order
for theosophists to popularize and promulgate some of the teachings in the
light of new findings & developments. We must learn to connect to people,
to their ideas, take them seriously and see how we can contribute something.
Not always easy, and I would like to see the informed opinion of others
on this!

Added note: I really would like to see experienced theosophists write
some useful aricles for the internet-community, expose some of their
explorations of the spiritual and psychic worlds, help to establish some
extensions to theosophy, etc.

Martin