Theos-Talk Archives (March 1997 Message tl00153)

In message <9703182223.AA24818@toto.csustan.edu>, Jerry Hejka-Ekins
<jhe@toto.csustan.edu> writes
>As Doss has shown, personal testimony is one side of the
>question.  But does the testimony of those who "loved and revered
>CWL" count as convincing testimony for CWL's innocence to alleged
>acts they were not present to witness?  Of course not: but they
>do give testimony to the powerful influence CWL had upon others.
>Though their testimony does not make the documents wrong, nor the
>actual witnesses liars, they do give evidence of another aspect
>of CWL that also needs to be acknowledged

There is also, I suspect, the testimony of a) those who loved or revered
CWL (eg. Ernest Wood?) and b) Those who disliked him and thought him a
bad influence (vide Helen Dennis?).

In the case of both of those named in the above paragraph, there is also
written testimony; Wood with his book, and Helen Dennis (a former E.S.
luminary, remember) in her letters.

The testimony of Mary Lutyens is worth taking note of, as well, and is
also available in her writings.

Another (verbal) testimony of hers, two extracts from a BBC Radio
broadcast of April 1986, follows:

"He had very prominent eye teeth, and ge made me think of a vampire
[chuckling]. He seemed to me to be a man of power; I cannot help saying
that because he was a powerful person, there's no question at all about
that!  Everybody looked *to* him for guidance of some kind,
enlightenment in some ways.  If he hadn't occult powers, he had such a
*glorious* imagination.  I think that he could have been [said in an
amused tone] a very successful writer."

"... as for the Masters, I think he made a good deal of that up."

Comments in square brackets are my own, on relistening to her words,
words spoken from her knowledge and acquaintance of CWL.  The point here
perhaps is that there were or even still are people who knew CWL
personally whose view of him and his behavior was not always
complimentary to him, who presented a different perspective than that of
the "party line."

I might sum up my own impression of him by saying that he told a great
many lies. But they were lies he probably believed himself, and being
lies about the truth, they have helped many thousands of people in their
search for it.

Alan
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