Theos-Talk Archives (December 1996 Message tl00115)

In this last month of my TSA membership (at least for now) I've
been thinking about what one loses by letting go of it.  One
thing I asked myself was "What percentage of my friends are
Theosophists?"  I made a list of friends with whom I stay in
regular contact (meaning at least every couple of months or so, no
matter where they are in the world.)  Of the 25 people on it,
there were only two Theosophists, both on the outer fringes in
terms of frequency of contact.  We'll continue to be friends
regardless, but I started wondering how typical this was.
Can't recall a time in my 18 years of membership in the two
TS's that almost all of my friends *weren't* non-
Theosophists.  How common is that in a small organization like
this?  Anyone care to respond with a guess or personal report?
Maybe people with higher ratios of Theosophist to non-Theosophist
friends are much less likely to develop heretical ideas due to social
pressure?  Just a thought.

The scary thought was, of all the people who have been really
hateful to me in my adult life, what percentage was
Theosophists?  Well over half.  Don't intend to make any
generalizations based on that, since that tiny group is only
about 1% of the Theosophists I've known.  But it again makes me
wonder if this kind of thing is true in the experience of
others, and what it signifies.

Any ideas?