Theos-Talk Archives (February 1997 Message tl00360)

The Shantara paranoia Down Under reminds me of the time, about
ten years ago, when Jean Overton Fuller argued in print that my
paper on Sufism, Gurdjieff and HPB was a takeover effort.  I
was being used by Muslims who wanted to confuse Theosophists
into thinking that Islamic rather than Buddhist sources were
HPB's main inspiration.  This, preliminary to an Islamic
takeover of the TS.  As I said to Jim Santucci at the time,
what the hell does she think the Muslims want with the TS, and
what are they gonna do with it when they take it over?

Leslie Price explained this bizarre accusation on Miss
Fuller's part by saying that she had witnessed real takeover
efforts going on in H.I. Khan's Sufi Order in the West (I
think) and had gotten paranoid on the subject.  But since from
things Miss Fuller has said in my presence I think she's a ES
member, I have another theory about it that ties into the
Shantara fantasy.

A big, bad takeover *has* happened in the TS-Adyar: the ES has
taken over the society.  It happened long ago (exactly when
could be argued) but now that the ES control is established,
they're paranoid about losing it-- thinking someone
else might do to them what they did to the TS.

Of course, other takeovers *have* happened: the Holy Order of
MANS by Eastern Orthodoxy, John G. Bennett's Coombe Springs by
Idries Shah, for starters.  But I think this takeover business
on the part of certain ES loyalists is in fact based on the
unconscious knowledge that *they* have usurped all power in the
TS and subverted all its explicit objectives about democracy
and freedom of thought.  Equally unconsciously, they know that
karma is gonna catch up with them for it one day, and thus are always looking
over their shoulder for potential threats.

That's my half-baked theory for the day.

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