Quest Magazine

Printed in the  Winter 2020  issue of Quest magazine. 
Citation:  Clewell, Andre, "Revisiting Theosophical Science" Quest 108:1, pg 9

By Andre Clewell

The subtitle of The Secret Doctrine is The Synthesis of Science, Religion, and Philosophy. H.P. Blavatsky devoted numerous pages in this work to the scholarly assessment of the science that was current in 1888. Since that time, great strides have been made demonstrating the connections between spirituality and science. Dean Radin of the Institute of Noetic Sciences has done much to bring this union to popular attention in several books, including Supernormal and Real Magic. In particular, Radin described research, published in reputable, peer-reviewed, scientific journals, which confirms that consciousness exists apart from the brain and body.

Spiritual traditions have long recognized an independently existing consciousness and variously designated it as spirit, soul, and psyche. Consequently, independently occurring consciousness, by whatever term it may be designated, is now accessible for scientific investigation. Such research will not be easy. Nobody, neither scientists nor Theosophists, can crisply define what consciousness is. We only know some of its attributes. But that impediment should not be daunting; physicists can’t define energy either, except as how it affects matter. 

Nearly all scientists ignore the published research, which establishes that consciousness can be extracorporeal. Such an admission would ruin their careers, and we will have to wait until their curious graduate students join the professorial ranks. Concomitantly, nearly all Theosophists have lost all but a passing interest in science since Blavatsky’s time. We may have to wait for the next generation of Theosophists to emerge before scientific interest will be rekindled as brightly as it was in 1888.

The Theosophical Society is saddled with a sticky conundrum if we attempt to meld science and Theosophy. The problem is that the science in The Secret Doctrine is hopelessly out of date. We just can’t jettison what Blavatsky wrote 132 years ago, because the entire edifice of Theosophy was constructed on its foundations. Academic scholars would gleefully attack us if we discredited passages in this work. Perhaps we can take a page from science and simply ignore the fantastic, outdated, and erroneous parts.

We are caught in a bind of our own making, because we will have to reinterpret what the Masters taught and state their concepts in modern parlance. If we are successful, bounteous truth and solid principles will remain. We will have to make a convincing argument, though, that seemingly erroneous information given to early Theosophists by the Masters is valid only in terms of archaic Victorian science. The Masters answered the questions that were asked of them in a manner that would be understood in the 1880s and not in the twenty-first century. We would ask them different questions today and receive very different answers based on contemporary knowledge.

We need accessible yet scholarly books authored by scientists who can explain clearly to other scientists (or their graduate students!) the plethora of scientific questions that bear investigation now that consciousness has been set free from the brain. I suggest Rupert Sheldrake’s book Science Set Free as an excellent model for this effort.

Andre Clewell, PhD, is president of the Tallahassee Study Group and of the MidSouth Federation of the TSA.

VOLUME 108, NUMBER 1

CONTENTS

Theosophy and Science: Do They Conflict?
Anti Savinainen

Yoga and the Future Science of Consciousness
Ravi Ravindra

Florence Nightingale's Scientific Spirituality
Janet Macrae

Technospirituaity: Shifting beyond the Flow
Lucy Oliver

The Priest and the Biologist: Teilhard de Chardin and Sir Julian Huxley
Rasoul Sorkhabi

Consult the Oracle
Grevel Lindop

Printed in the Fall 2019 issue of Quest magazine.
Citation: Smoley, Richard, "From the Editor's Desk " Quest 107:4, pg 2

This is an issue on ancient civilizations, but I hope you will indulge me if I talk about our present one.

Like me, many readers of this magazine came of age in the 1960s and ’70s, at the crest of the New Age movement. At the time many were hoping that civilization was advancing to a higher consciousness. This hope was fueled by the nascent environmental cause, the push for racial and gender equality, and a growing interest in alternative spirituality of the sort long embraced by Theosophy.

Many believed that the last quarter of the twentieth century was a precursor of this coming New Age. Once the third millennium arrived, these ideals would come to fruition.

Such has not apparently been the case. The twenty-first century has been a disappointment. In this country, the age has seen increasing division and turmoil. The 9/11 disaster looked (and still looks) like an omen of ills to come. The United States pursued unnecessary and criminal wars. Inequality of income increases. Environmental crisis is no longer a matter of speculation: it is a present reality. In some respects, the country is more divided than it has been since the Civil War.

So what happened? Did the New Age fail to show up? Was it yet another ridiculous hope to be dashed by the grim world? So it might appear, but I don’t think the answer is that simple.

Attitudes in America certainly have polarized furiously. The battle lines are drawn, and, it would seem, are being reinforced with every news report, every Facebook post. This trend does not appear to be abating, but that is illusory: all trends abate. Often they generate movements in the opposite direction. Everything reverses itself; every action has an equal and opposite reaction. This is as true in the affairs of humans as it is in Newtonian physics. I think it is unwise to ignore this fact, and yet we do this frequently. We assume the current trends are going to continue. But the only thing we can foresee about the future is that current trends will not continue. They are always forestalled by unforeseen events.

Nothing is more obvious, and nothing is more frequently forgotten. This truth might—and probably should—console those who despair about current events. But of course this sequence never stops: every event evokes a counterresponse, which provokes a counterresponse in turn. There is no end to this process, at any rate not on the plane of material reality.

In any case, many New Age ideas have entered the mainstream. Meditation is no longer regarded as an eccentricity. The need for environmental cleanup is evident to everyone who does not have a vested interest in pollution. Zen and Tao have become clichés. We see mindfulness practices taught in the workplace, and even occult subjects like the Tarot and the Kabbalah are familiar to millions. The organized religions are, for better or worse, caving in faster than anyone could have imagined.

Of course, even positive trends have their unfortunate sides. Corporate culture has embraced mindfulness to help staff deal with stress, but some have asked whether this isn’t a cynical way to avoid cutting the workloads of overtaxed employees. The Wall Street Journal informs us that “mindful snacking . . . is being promoted by companies who want to convince increasingly health-conscious customers that indulging in cookies, crackers and candy is OK to do sometimes.” Environmental solutions often come with their own costs: LED bulbs have cut power use, but they have enabled cities to put on many more streetlights, so that light pollution is far worse than it was even in 2010.

So the New Age has, in a sense, come. It was naïve to assume that it would come easily and simply; it has been a struggle, and a struggle that is far from over. The baby-boom generation—those born between 1945 and 1965—has been, so to speak, the field of Kurukshetra on which this battle is taking place. There are many ranged on each side. For reasons of my own, I suspect that this clash will reach a crisis point between now and the middle of the next decade.

After that, we shall see. The baby boom now rules the nation: every president since Bill Clinton has been a baby boomer. But this generation is now well into retirement age, and it is beginning to pass from the scene. I believe that many of these conflicts will pass with it.

What will be left? The millennial generation and Gen Z, whose values are quite different from those of their parents, and, I suspect, far less extreme and confrontational. In a 2015 study, the market-research firm Wildness said, “This is a generation of CCs (Culture Creators) . . . The CCs are empowered, connected, empathetic self-starters that want to stand out and make a difference in the world. They have created a new Cultural Currency that values uniqueness, authenticity, creativity, shareability and recognition. What’s different for this generation is not as simple as the internet or technology.”

The question is an ancient one: do problems get solved, or do they merely fade away?

Another question remains unanswered; maybe it is unanswerable. Civilizations have a lifespan of their own: they are born, mature, decay, and perish. Why? Possibly we can find an answer in the playroom. A child builds an elaborate structure with its blocks, admires it for a few minutes, then knocks it down and starts again. What if all of human history is like that?

Richard Smoley

Printed in the Fall 2019 issue of Quest magazine.
Citation:  Craig, Carol, "Members’ Forum: Nurturing New Students of Theosophy " Quest 107:4, pg 8

By Carol Craig

The Theosophical Society of Wichita, Kansas, became a certified study center in February 2018. It is not easy to start a new study group in America’s Bible Belt, and developing a core group of committed students to study Theosophy is an even greater task. But I am happy to report that we have a dedicated, enthusiastic study group and we are learning from each other at every meeting.

The majority of our Wichita membership heard about our group from the newsletter of the bookstore where we hold our meetings. We have a few people who have heard, or read, the word theosophy somewhere. When they googled it, they found the Theosophical Society in America website, which led them to our local group. We are the only TSA group in the entire state of Kansas. We have one member who travels two hours, in both directions, to come to a meeting,

The TSA recommends that to become a certified study center, the new group must study and complete John Algeo’s Theosophy: An Introductory Study Course. This was certainly a blessing here in Wichita, because every person who came to our group—whether only once, twice, or regularly—was absolutely brand-new to Theosophy. Most had never even heard of it before. Algeo’s excellent course introduces basic Theosophical concepts without going so far over your head that you give up!

Now in our second year, we are soon to finish Robert Ellwood’s Theosophy: A Modern Expression of the Wisdom of the Ages (A prudent next step after Algeo’s introductory course, as Ellwood’s book takes the basic concepts to the next level, and all of our members, who are new to Theosophy, need to have a solid background before moving on). Recently we were discussing that it is time to start thinking about what we want to study next as a group. I heard myself say, “You know, after only one year of studying Theosophy, by this time y’all are way ahead of where I was in my understanding of basic Theosophical concepts.”

If the TSA lodge I originally joined had recommended Algeo’s course to me in the beginning, a lot of things would have come together for me much sooner. For quite some time, most of the public lectures, and members’ meetings, were over my head. The course would certainly have been of great assistance to me as a new student of Theosophy by giving me understanding and confidence as I started on this journey.

I say that to encourage all TSA groups around the world to pay particular attention when someone comes to their meetings who is absolutely new to Theosophy. Because I started attending meetings at an established group—as opposed to a newly formed group that would be studying Algeo’s course first—I just had to jump in and tread water alone for years.

We must do our part to introduce those who are  ready to hear about and study Theosophical concepts. When the student is ready, the teacher will come. How long has it been since you introduced Theosophy to your community? To those who are ready and waiting to hear?

Therefore plant the seed for studying the Ancient Wisdom: consider putting flyers around town—particularly in metaphysical bookstores—announcing an introductory course in Theosophy by your group. Older, more established groups might even offer the introductory course periodically at a separate time from the regular meetings, so that new students who have joined during the year will not feel so intimidated and will be able to grow and develop with confidence as new Theosophists.

This article applies not only to study centers that are already formed but to those who would like to start a Theosophy study center in their communities. Even though the TSA website offers us many wonderful ways to study Theosophy alone (which I did for almost two years after moving away from my longtime TSA group), it was very important to me to have a group to study with.

Algeo’s introduction says:

H.P. Blavatsky has been reported as saying that the study of the great universal principles of Theosophy requires a special kind of mental effort that involves “the carving out of new brain paths.” It is not always easy for us, with our conditioned minds, to submit to so rigorous an undertaking, but once we have overcome our reluctance and inertia, we may find it the most exciting adventure of our lives.

All new students of Theosophy should be nurtured so that they do not become overwhelmed, or frustrated, and walk away. Therefore I suggest that all new students of Theosophy should be offered the opportunity to start that journey with Algeo’s course.

I am always open to suggestions of ways to introduce Theosophy to new students and would be very happy to share the way it was done here in Wichita. You can find me on the TSA website under Local Groups, Central District.

As the spring 2019 issue of Quest so enthusiastically states, “Together, we can elevate the consciousness of our world. YOU can be the change!”

Carol Craig is secretary of the Wichita Study Center of the TSA.