Theos-Talk Archives (January 1998 Message tl00059)

K. Paul Johnson wrote:

>According to Frank Reitemeyer:
>
> I add:
>
> When is TS (Adyar) going to allow independent research and opens
> "non-existing" files and diaries? Next maha-manvantara???
>
>It's not that simple.  Stephen Prothero, an "independent" scholar
>if by that you mean non-Theosophist, got archives access for
>research on The White Buddhist.  That of course included Olcott's
>diary, the thing I was most eager to see.  When I was in Adyar
>there were two other non-members of Adyar who were doing research
>in the archives.  All of these were on "safe" topics.  I, on the
>other hand, a member for some years whose manuscript was
>currently submitted to TPH--Wheaton, was denied access.  So was a
>French researcher highly placed in the French TS.  So was Edward
>Hower, a novelist writing about Olcott wanting to see his
>diaries, and a TSA member.  So have been many others.

>Bottom line is, does Radha want anyone digging into the
>particular subject under consideration.  If not, you can be
>the most loyal and respected theosophist and it makes no
>difference; you're out of luck.  If so, it matters not who you
>are.  Considering what HPB said about how the TS *should* support
>research (I'm forwarding separately to the list) the current
>situation is worse than deplorable.

>What's your experience with the roadblocks?

>Cheers,
>Paul
<

I asked Mrs. Burnier sometime in a letter about the letters of Judge to
both Olcott and Besant contained unregocnized for the public since over
hundert years. It would be helpful for the public and the Theosophical
community to be allowed to see those letters to better understand the shism
and other significant historical background. In a letter reply Mrs. Burnier
stated that Adyar holds no such letters!
But I know from several persons who were in personal contact with members
of the Adyar Library Staff over many years that this letters surely exist,
but the Adyar leadership fears the contents of the letters. A former
leading librarian of Adyar once said that the Judge letters are not stored
save in files or closets but they are in brown envelopes and rotting slowly
in the damp climate...
>From the newspaper a few days ago we learn that even the Vatican now
attempts to open his Secret Archives after 500 years of Inquistion...
Also important for historical research would be the diaries of Bishop
Leadbeater. But these items are secret, too. So everyone should come to his
own conclusions wether the Adyar body is a theosophical society in the
spirit of the Original Programme of the Founders or is merely a sect of
which H.P.B. warns in the "Key to Theosophy".

Ringding Frank
German Theosophical Central Archives