Bruce Michael
Well-Known Member
Dear All,
I once knew a member of the TS Pasadena group who always warned about Leadbeater but never told me the full story. Now of course the cat is out of the bag.
Here is the quote from Gregory Tillett's book The Elder Brother:
Certain charges had been made against Leadbeater.
Br.Bruce
I once knew a member of the TS Pasadena group who always warned about Leadbeater but never told me the full story. Now of course the cat is out of the bag.
Here is the quote from Gregory Tillett's book The Elder Brother:
Certain charges had been made against Leadbeater.
Dr. Steiner was not surprised that Leadbeater had made such a 'slip' considering the path he had set himself upon."Further, it might also have involved 'indicative action', including
touch. This seems to have so shocked the Committee that far from
endeavouring to clarify what was meant, they promptly changed the
subject. Leadbeater later claimed that much of the evidence against him
in the transcript of the 1906 hearing had been 'fabricated' or was the
result of transcription errors. However, in the custody case over
Krishnamurti in Madras in 1913, Leadbeater again admitted that he had
taught boys masturbation (the precise meaning of the word 'taught' was
never fully explored). He denied touching the boys, but in answer to one
question talked about a case in which he had done so. He declared that
he gave specific sexual advice to boys on the basis of the thought forms
he could see hovering about them, indicating their sexual arousal and
emotional disturbance.
Claims that he had initiated sexual activities were specifically made by
two of his pupils in the USA in relation to the 1906 'troubles', when it
was claimed that he had indulged in mutual masturbation, alleging that
this would promote physical vigour and have occult results as well.
Hubert van Hook also alleged, in later years, that Leadbeater had
engaged in sexual relations with him. But other than these three boys,
and one in Australia, none of his pupils ever offered any public
suggestion of sexual irregularities. Mrs Besant had stated that sex was
not permissible for an Initiate, and the pupils all repeated that
Leadbeater stressed the importance of purity. There were, however, a few
things which might have led the suspicious to wonder. Why did Leadbeater
invariably sleep with a young boy in his bed? And why did he invariably
have a boy in the bath with him? It has been argued that his weak heart
necessitated such companionship for fear he might have some sort of
attack whilst alone; but does companionship require mutual nakedness in
close proximity? And why did Leadbeater insist on communal bathing for
his pupils at The Manor, with all of them in the bathroom, naked, at the
same time? He was given an enema every morning by one or other of his
pupils, in the presence of the others whilst they bathed. This, said the
close associate of Leadbeater's who told of the morning ritual, may have
given rise to misinterpretations. One could understand why.
All in all a dangerous process that had been warned about as far back as Moses.Furthermore, there was a strange occult relationship between Leadbeater
and some of his pupils, which seemed to have unhealthy implications. In
his article 'A modern Socrates', A.J. Hamerster recalled that the
pupil-teacher relationship often employed 'spiritual induction' whereby
the pupils not only receive something from their teacher, but give
'something from their vital energy whereby the ancient Teacher was
enabled to recuperate some of his failing strength'. In his own copy of
this article, bound in with his Collected Articles in the Adyar Library,
Hamerster has noted, in handwriting: 'Often was this phenomena observed
by me in C.W. Leadbeater's latter days in Adyar and many times I heard
it from the lips of his young disciples how they actually felt their
strength being drained from them.'
There were those who defended Leadbeater's 'teachings' (popularly
assumed in the TS to have been condoning masturbation) on grounds whichsuggested the teachings involved more than was commonly known. Somesuggested the teachings were given occultly in Mrs Besant's The Pedigree of Man. Others argued that it was a necessary means for humanity to return to the hermaphroditic state, and yet others said that it was too esoteric a system for anyone other than a disciple to understand. The O.E. Library Critic even suggested that Leadbeater's book, The Monad,
included a reference to some form of 'psychic orgasm'.
Eventually evidence was found that Leadbeater had taught a sexual
technique, other than masturbation in the sense understood by the 1906
enquiry, to a highly select group of his closest pupils, and that he
gave an occult and spiritual basis for this teaching. Details of the
teachings were contained within the diaries of one of Leadbeater's
closest pupils. Unfortunately, access to this material was closed almost
immediately it had been given; it does, however, provide a solution to
the mystery. That Leadbeater promulgated these teachings was later
confirmed by one of his closest associates, who was reluctant to give
the information, feeling that it would be misunderstood. He did not
regard Leadbeater's teaching as 'immoral' or improper, but, as
Leadbeater claimed, occult. In simple terms, Leadbeater taught that the
energy aroused in masturbation can be used as a form of occult power, a
great release of energy which can, first, elevate the consciousness of
the individual to a state of ecstasy and, second, direct a great rush of
psychic force towards the Logos for His use in occult work. Leadbeater
declared: 'The closest man can come to a sublime spiritual experience is
orgasm.'
During masturbation, the mind should gradually be elevated
towards the Godhead and, in his words, 'as soon as the seed can be felt
in the tube', the consciousness should be so exalted that the great
release of physical and psychical energy is directed to the Logos or to
an image of Him. This occult knowledge of sex was regarded as too
dangerous to give to the average person, or, indeed, to the average
pupil of Leadbeater's. It was reserved for the select few, who were
sworn to secrecy, and told that they were justified in not telling the
truth about this highly occult matter should they be questioned. It was
so secret and sacred a matter that a dual standard of morality - that of
the ordinary man, and that of the spiritually evolved occultist -
applied. The select pupils, on rare occasions, engaged in group ritual
masturbation which was intended to send out especially powerful
emanations.
Once the sexual passions were aroused, Leadbeater taught, they should be
properly directed, and not wasted. Such sexual exercises could lead to
the development of psychic powers and experiences of 'Nirvana' and the
higher worlds. One thus re-reads a passage in his book, Clairvoyance,
with a somewhat different understanding:
Let a man choose a certain time every day - a time when he can rely upon
being quiet and undisturbed, though preferably in the day time rather
than at night - and set himself at this time to keep his mind for a few
moments entirely free from all earthly thoughts of any kind whatever
and, when that is achieved, to direct the whole force of his being
towards the highest spiritual ideal that he happens to know. He will
find that to gain such perfect control of thought is enormously more difficult than hesupposes, but when he attains it it cannot but be in every way most beneficial to him, and as he grows more and more able to elevate and concentrate his thought, he may gradually find that new worlds are opening before his sight.
Does this, on its 'inner side', have reference to anything more than
meditation in an intellectual sense?
From this sexual teaching of Leadbeater's two interesting themes can be
followed. The first is that it fits in with a considerable 'movement in
aesthetic and religious circles at the end of the nineteenth and the
beginning of the twentieth century in which a spiritual relationship,
with sexual implications, between Teacher and Pupil was exalted to a
sacred degree. Timothy d'Arch Smith, in his study of 'Uranian' poets,
began by noting:
between the eighteen nineties and the nineteen thirties a boy was a very
quiet, self-effacing and unobtrusive creature indeed. The Uranians'
adoration of such a person was not therefore immediately suspect as it
is in modern society where the state is intolerant of any intrusion into
her prerogative of wet-nurse or where certain Sunday newspapers are as
thoughtlessly swift to condemn such relationships as they are immorally
prompt to arouse their young readers' erotic ardour with pictures of
near nude females, and it is probable that the Uranians' love of boys
gave genuine help and affection where no official organization
or counsel existed outside the home or school .
I felt it was best to quote the entire passage in order to make the matter clear.The term 'Uranian' was coined, d'Arch Smith notes, by those who
advocated 'boy love' in the period from the 1880s to the 1930s, and
included such figures as Oscar Wilde, Edward Carpenter, John Addington
Symonds, William Johnson Gory and Ralph Nicholas Chubb. Of the last
named, it was said he endeavoured 'to raise paederasty to a form of
religious devotion'.
Amongst the religious figures d'Arch Smith includes Fr Ignatius of
Lianthony, George Reader, Frederick Widdows, Frederick Samuel Willoughby
(who consecrated Wedgwood), and Leadbeater. Obviously Wedgwood and some of his associates should also have been included. Many of the Uranians were characterized by a retrospective longing for the days of classical Greece, when the teacher-pupil relationship, including a sexual
relationship between an older and a younger man, was held to be the
pinnacle of culture. One recalls the irony in Leadbeater's frequent
reference to his own last incarnation in ancient Greece, as the pupil of
one of Pythagoras' disciples. And one wonders whether Leadbeater felt as
d'Arch Smith suggests Ralph Nicholas Chubb did: 'This spiritualizing of
paederasty absolves him from the guilt which makes him hate society and
turn into a recluse. His is no longer a common human weakness, for he
has felt the cleansing fire of divinity.'
But his sexual teachings did not only link Leadbeater with an aesthetic
and religious 'movement'; they also relate directly to an occult and
magical tradition which employed sexual activities in a ritual context.
Even more relevant, the magical use of masturbation is not unknown in
some traditions of western occultism. The theories of sexual magic can
be summarized:
(1) Man possesses hidden powers (often identified with the subconscious
mind) which give him greater perception, raise him to states of ecstasy,
expand his consciousness, stimulate increased physical, emotional and
mental powers;
(2) These powers lie 'buried' beneath some 'barrier' which conscious
control cannot penetrate, but which can be overcome by a variety of
techniques, including to some extent drugs and alcohol;
(3) This 'barrier' can be penetrated through heightening the physical,
emotional and intellectual focus of the body by sexual stimulation,
leading to a 'break through' at the point of orgasm,
at which energy is released.~
Techniques employed are heterosexual, homosexual or autosexual."
Br.Bruce
