Theos-Talk Archives (December 1996 Message tl00125)

K. Paul Johnson wrote:
>
> 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

MKR: Was there any change in the percentage after you published the
Masters Revealed book? If so what was your estimated percentages before
and after? Just curious.

     Just to add my 2 cents worth, I have run into a lot of good people
among the membership of TS and am yet to run into a dishonest one. I am
more likely to trust a T/theosophist than one who is not -- I guess the
exposure to the T/theosophy does affect individuals. Others may have had
a different experience.

	Once in a while, one runs into the proverbial "bad apple" who cannot be
trusted -- and such a "bad apple" could be one who may have been a
member for many years, may be very well read, intelligent, and may even
have held offices. So I tend to start off with trust and see if the
actions increase the level of trust or decrease the level of trust -- as
a high level of trust takes a lot of time to build and quick to destroy.
Once destroyed, it is almost impossible to rebuild.


	


> 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?