Theos-Talk Archives (November 1998 Message tl00125)

Eldon wrote:

>In the context of this organizational structure,
>when he died, and no one emerged who was immediately
>recognized as a bona fide successor, the Cabinet,
>in charge of the T.S., ran it for three years. It
>was headed by Iverson L. Harris.
>
>When the three years were up, the Cabinet appointed
>Arthur L. Conger as the new President, as an
>administrative head of the T.S. To the dismay of
>many senior E.S. members, he assumed esoteric control
>>of the society too, and soon had most of the lodges
>shut down, and the E.S. leaders locked out of their
>own offices.

Dear Eldon,
yes the Point Loma model was hierarchical, it was so since HPB's time when
she established her European Section and Esoteric Section with her as
President independent from Olcott in Adyar. But consider that GdeP himself
altered this model. His testimony was reprinted in the ECLECTIC. It was his
wish that the Cabinet of twelve should elect a new Leader by simply major
vote. That was the matter with the TS. You have mentioned the esoteric
successorship of the O.H. , the envoy position. From HPB on to Judge to KT
and down to GdeP all O.H. were recognized by special arrangements from the
pupils who have grasped more or less of the occult laws by own experiences.
Long and Conger changed this method when Conger took E.S. chair with brutal
force and not following the methods that were used by HPB, KT, Judge and
GdeP. That is important, don't. For me we have the similar situation today
with the seven years old Panchen Lama, who was recognized and accepted by
the present Dalai Lama. The Chinese Secret Service kidnapped him and the
Communist party presented an innocent little boy of a party member as the
"real" (Chinese) Panchen Lama. All who holds to the occult method have been
and are still persecuted. The same was with Long and Conger who assumed
headship over the E.S. and cancelled Iverson Harris, Elsie Benjamin, Emmett
Small, Helen Todd and nearly all old members who were true followers since
decades under Judge, KT and GdeP. One must come to the conclusion that the
Pasadena TS is a new model and not a continuation of the old TS. Perhaps
that is the reason why Long and the present leader are much engaged to
shorten and alter the texts of GdeP. We need a movement that requires
unaltered, verbatim texts of GdeP. Every Theosophist of today should be
intelligent enough to come to his own conclusion with genuine texts as it is
so self-evident with the texts of HPB.
The book of Charles Ryan (HPB and the Theosophical Movement) of Point Loma
Publication has an appendix which deals with the Long/Conger affair.

Frank
>