Theos-Talk Archives (January 2005 Message tt00278)

M. Sufilight wrote:
> Do you support CWL being promoted Bart?
The truthful answer to that would imply a lie. The question appears 
simple on its face, but it actually contains several issues, so I will 
answer them individually. If that is not sufficient, then I'm sorry, 
because it's all you're going to get.

1) Do I believe that Leadbeater's teachings are valid?

The answer to that is that I think that Leadbeater oversimplifies, 
takes continua and turns them into discrete units, and inserts his own 
prejudices far too often to make his teachings very useful. However, he 
has written a number of things which, in specific instances, can be 
quite useful. I have given copies of "TO THOSE WHO MOURN", for example, 
to a number of people who have lost someone close to them. In addition, 
SCIENCE OF THE SACRAMENTS is a major but not well-known source of the 
neo-pagan movement, so I have used it with neo-pagan friends as a 
stepping stone to Theosophical concepts.

2) Do I believe that Leadbeater's writings should be considered 
"mainstream" theosophy?

No. I consider him to be someone who took basic Theosophical concepts, 
and tried to simplify and extend them.

3) Do I think that Leadbeater was a child abuser?

As you pointed out, it depends on your definition of child abuse, and 
your belief in the accusations against him. Certainly, he taught young 
men to masturbate as a way of relieving sexual tension at a time when 
having sexual tension was considered to be evil, and relieving it was 
worse. I don't personally consider that to be, in and of itself, child 
abuse. As far as having actual sexual relations with children, Dora 
Kunz, who was with him since 1910, has told me that, to her knowledge, 
it never happened, and others have told me that Fritz Kunz has said the 
same thing.

4) Do I believe that the accusations against Leadbeater is a good reason 
for the Theosophical Society not to hold him as an authority?

Here's where it gets tricky. I think that people have been led astray 
by Leadbeater's writings. I have seen people take Leadbeater as an 
authority, to the point where when scientific investigation shows him to 
be accurate up to a point, they believe that the inaccuracies are on the 
part of the scientific investigators rather than Leadbeater. I try and 
use the primary literature as a starting point, and examine the works of 
those who have done the same, and consider Leadbeater to be one of those 
writers, and certainly consider his work to be lesser than the primary 
literature (When I say primary literature, I am considering ISIS 
UNVEILED, THE SECRET DOCTRINE, H.P. BLAVATSKY COLLECTED WRITINGS, and 
THE MAHATMA LETTERS).

I think that the best attitude is that Leadbeater was accused of sexual 
misconduct, but, whether or not this is true, he has come out with some 
interesting, sometimes useful and certainly influential works.

Bart