Theos-Talk Archives (October 2004 Message tt00072)

Someone posted a question recently about how Leadbeater developed 
his "psychic powers." So far as I know, Leadbeater never put any 
methods in writing, although Brigitte Muehlegger said he did teach 
people personally, including Dora Kunz, who did claim to be psychic. 
Brigitte would not say what the methods were and the other parties 
are all dead as doornails, so there is no way to confirm any of 
this. I used to talk to doornails but tried to avoid doing so in 
public, heh, heh. The way he "taught" Besant to look at atoms 
clairvoyantly is clearly a clever use of hypnotic suggestion, which 
anyone can do with no occult power at all.

It has occurred to me that in his book CHAKRAS Leadbeater made a 
comment about how his clairvoyance had "cost me more work than most 
people would be willing to expend" or something to that effect. That 
statement has the ring of truth to it. I do not believe for a moment 
that Leadbeater was the great seer he pretended to be. But it is 
possible he was introduced to some development methods, worked hard 
at it, was unable to get much in the way of results, and became a 
charlatan rather than let failure or meager result get in the way of 
his ambitions. I am speculating here but that does fit the known 
facts. He claimed to have studied under two teachers in Burma, which 
suggests they would have belonged to the southern school of Buddhism, 
and there were teachers of this nature in Burma then. Whether the 
art has survived all the political turmoil there is impossible to 
say. If memory serves me correctly, I think Jack Kornfield said this 
sort of thing is still taught there.

Perhaps of more interest is Steiner, who both claimed to be 
clairvoyant and had the courage to share his presumed methods. That 
puts Steiner in a different class from Leadbeater. Steiner may have 
been a crank, or he may not, but he at least believed his methods 
could be disclosed without he himself being disclosed as a 
charlatan. It is questionable whether Leadbeater had that same 
degree of confidence.

It also puts him in a different class from Blavatsky, although in her 
case there are enough statements to make it clear she developed her 
clairvoyance with mirror gazing. By the time she visited 
Wachtmeister it appears she could dispense with a physical mirror and 
concentrate her gaze at a point in space, along with certain other 
practices which Wachtmeister briefly discusses. There are some other 
methods Blavatsky is known to have used, but she left no detailed 
description of how her followers could follow her path.

Steiner started describing his methods such as they were with THE WAY 
OF INITIATION and then INITIATION AND ITS RESULTS, then combining 
those into KNOWLEDGE OF THE HIGHER WORLDS AND ITS ATTAINMENT. THE 
STAGES OF HIGHER KNOWLEDE was published as an extension of the latter 
work. Later he seems to have edited this information and published A 
ROAD TO SELF-KNOWLEDGE. All except the first two titles are 
available at:

http://www.elib.com/Steiner/Holdings/books.php

There is also a book out entitled GUIDANCE IN ESOTERIC TRAINING which 
is a paperback and includes his formerly secret ES materials. I 
cannot say that I care much for Steiner's methods and have not worked 
with them. I therefore cannot say whether they work or not. 
Brigitte Muehlegger said one time that Steiner's methods did NOT 
work, but one thinks if they were completely useless that information 
would have come out in the century since they were published and that 
the Anthroposophists would have swept them under the rug. If anyone 
has any information about this (i.e., whether they work or not) 
please share.

It also may be worth mentioning in connection with Frank's recent 
reference to the so called "Adyar Manifestation" that it was this 
incident, the politlcal shenanigans that followed, and the 
Krishnamurti nonsense, which allegedly motivated Steiner to break 
with the society, taking the German section with him.