METAPHYSICS: THE PROBLEM
(part 2 - Horrible Examples)
COPYRIGHT: 1998 Alexis Dolgorukii

"What, in the name of sense and sensibility, do we do about it? "
 

That's how the previous"installment" of this essay ended .So let's start by really taking a look at what we're forced to deal with.
 

In this part of my exposition on the problem facing those of us who would seriously attempt to make sense out of metaphysics, I am going to be dealing with a demonstration of the kind of egregious roadblocks that almost completely prevent our being taken seriously by people who are both intelligent and completely sane.
In the first part of this exposition I outlined the problem, in this part of my essay I am going to demonstrate that I am not "making it all up" by showing to you all the face the so-called Metaphysical-Occult Community presents to the world.

Here in Northern California, there is a "throw away" magazine called "COSMIC LINK" that is given away gratis at many Natural Foods Stores, Bookshops, and shops catering to the New Age Community. It's name is certainly evidentiary of the kind of infantile pretentiousness so very common to this community. Each issue is a complete compendium of the kind of nonsense I call "the problem". "Channeled articles", and various health oriented rip-offs. One of the most common of all notes in this kind of thing is the outrageous charges these so-called practitioners make for their very highly questionable services.

I have chosen a two page advertisement to show you exactly what I mean. This is, without a doubt one of the most outrageously offensive things I have ever seen. It is an insult to the intelligence of anyone who reads it. Those who "buy" what it has to "sell" probably are either in need of psychiatric care or extremely ignorant. It did not "scan" too clearly, but I really wanted everyone to see it.
 

Now this advertisement, purporting to be for a "Wesak Festival" is a terribly pernicious thing. I don't regard it as wildly dangerous because it is far too ridiculous to be taken seriously except in a small coterie of people to whom reason and rationality are entirely irrelevant. What is "Wesak"? Well, in the part of the world that is Buddhist, it is a festival celebrated on the full moon day of the Indian month of Vaisakh which is called Wesak in Sri Lanka. It purports to be the simultaneous anniversary of ALL the major events of Gautama Siddhartha's life. I.e. his birth, his attainment of Buddhahood, and his death. Now of course this is no more true than is the belief that Gautama was born of a virgin named "Maya" or "illusion", all of that is just religious mythology.

Nonetheless this is a festival celebrated by all the multitude of Buddhist the world over. BUT, the people who placed this ad are not Buddhists, they are Occultists, and New Age Occultists at that. They are indulging themselves in an illusion which was, as my research indicates, first created by Charles Webster Leadbeater, the famous second generation Theosophical leader. His other claim to fame is that he was a life-long molester of little boys. I mention that because it gives us an indication, and a very clear one, of the nature of his ethics. The nature of a person's ethics gives us an indication of the clarity and depth of their intelligence. A truly intelligent person could never be comfortable in the act of using their position to get another person to do things they normally would not do. This is especially true as regards the sexual abuse of very young children.

There's an old saying in Latin "Ex Nihilo nihil fut", which means: "Out of Nothing, nothing comes." Well I'd like to propose a matching saying: "Out of Something negative, nothing positive ever comes". Charles W. Leadbeater was a totally bad man, nothing that came out of him is good. Now the fact that his "badness" mat have been, and most probably was, the product of insanity doesn't lessen the harm he did in any way. Insanity may explain Leadbeater's behavior but it doesn't mitigate it.
 

I am bringing the subject of Bishop Leadbeater up because a really goodly percentage of what is horrid about modern pseudo-metaphysics can be lain right at the feet of the Bishops Throne. I am talking about a problem which deeply effects, in a totally negative fashion, the practice and study of Metaphysics, and Bishop Leadbeater is the cause of most of that problem. Now Leadbeater was followed by others who were perhaps just as wrong but hardly as negative. These folks were entirely influenced by the Bishop's silly and harmful metaphysical fairy tales, and made up some of their own. They are Alice Bailey, Gottfried de Perucker, and latterly Elisabeth Clair Prophet. The man who is responsible for this advertisement quite clearly comes out of this tradition.

I have a question, Joshua David Stone calls himself a "Dr.", but I must ask what kind of Dr. is he, and where did he get the degree that is supposed to accompany such a use.   Unfortunately for all of us, we must be suspicious when someone claims the right to use a title that should be hard-earned but in all too many cases, especially in the new-age/occult/metaphysical community, these degrees, while technically legal (perhaps) are not ethically valid. One can buy a perfectly legal PhD from "The Universal Life Church", it is legal but Meaningless. This is true too of many other Diploma Mills which disfigure the face of the New Age Community. Joshua David Stone calls himself "Doctor" but I personally feel I need some proof that it is a valid Doctoral Degree and not merely a legal one. It could also be simply a self-awarded title, there are far too many of those in the New Age Community, I have encountered so-called Reiki Masters who call themselves Doctor. The problem I have with Joshua Stone's use of the title Dr. both for himself and his associate Mikio Sankey is that to all too many people the term Dr. Implies an individual worthy of respect, one whose word can be relied upon, one who knows what he's talking about, ergo seeing these two "Dr." involved, people will give more attention to what they are saying than what they are saying deserves. In other words, their "titles" lend verisimilitude to their words.
 

Now let's look at those words.
 

At the top of the flyer we have a row of "esoteric symbols" meaning in aggregate absolutely nothing. Below those symbols we find the title: "THE MELCHISEDEK SYNTHESIS LIGHT ACADEMY" what a lot of pretentious twaddle that is! The occult community has always used the name Melchisedek to gull the gullible and impress the ignorant. Melchisedek is an entirely mythical and probably fictional personage. In the great body of fiction created over the years by Occultism, he is considered a very great magician and teacher of magicians. Aside from the presence of this name in the identification of their group, the other words add up to nothing! Absolutely nothing! Each word, including the name, means something when standing alone, but put them together and they add up to pretentious twaddle.
 

Now, the flyer itself starts with these words:
 

"The 1997 Wesak Celebration in Mt. Shasta was a tremendous success. It was a magical event with over 1200 high level disciples, initiates, and ascended beings."
 

What an unconscionable ploy that is to appeal to the egos and insecurities of the ineffectual people who tend to go to events of this type. He is saying clearly that everyone who attended this meeting was either a "high level disciple", or an "initiate", or an "ascended being". How utterly absurd. It would be funny were it not so very pathetic.
 

I would also like to know what Joshua Stone means by saying "IN" Mt. Shasta. On it, or near it, or at it, would make sense, but "In" it? Did they hold their convocation in a cave? I am not aware of the existence of such a space within this dormant volcano. But the choice of Mt. Shasta is evidentiary. Many people in the New Age Community firmly believe that the mountain is now the site of the Headquarters of the "Great white Brotherhood" and that, in addition, it is a "Space Base" where flying saucers land and are based.
 

The entire concept of "high level disciples", "initiates", and "ascended beings" is invalid, it is anti-rational twaddle, and it's all based on lies.
 

There's something else at work here too. It's something I believe is more than a little ugly. You will notice that Joshua Stone bills himself and the presenter of all this What do you think he's trying to tell us about himself? After all, being the person who makes all this "glory" possible puts him into a position in which he is inferring that he is at least such an individual himself, if not one even more important. You know, he's charging 300.00 per person to attend this group ego trip and that makes simple profit not an unimportant motivation. (1,200 x 300.00 = 360,000.00) That's a lot of motivation! However, I do believe that Joshua Stone is in this as much, if not more so, for ego gratification as he is for the extensive profit. What he, in common with all the other people like him, has failed to understand is the simple fact that if what he was doing was anything even remotely real there would be no charges whatsoever accruing to attendance.
 

The second paragraph reads as follows: "At the 1997 Wesak Celebration there were not only There were not only 1200 high level initiates from around the globe in attendance, there were also 55,000 inner plane Planetary and Cosmic Ascended Masters and Angelic Beings. The Masters told me also that there were another 100,000 inner plane Masters and Angels who tapped in at different times throughout the weekend"
 

Now, this is an example of the "Metaphysical Problem" in it's worst possible aspect. This is obviously either insanity or a scam or, and personally, I think this the most likely answer; it is a combination of both. What is being "sold" here is a fantasy, and the fantasy is this: If you can afford to waste $300.00 on this weekend, you belong in the illustrious company which Joshua Stone is claiming will be present.  The important reality with which we all must deal is this: "High level Initiates" and "Inner plane Masters and Angelic Beings" are, for all we know entirely fantasy or fictional things. There is no pragmatic proof that such things are real, nor can there be! But what an ego trip this stuff is!
 

In the course of the last thirty years I have been doing research into the metaphysical community and, in the course of that research, I have, unfortunately attended "meetings" of this kind. The best I can say for them is that they are silly, and that the people who attend them are, for the most part losers. Most of these so called "High Level Initiates" are simply disaffected housewives who are adding glamour to their lives by fantasizing status. Surprisingly enough, there are rarely many males at these events.
 

In the course of that same thirty years of research I have learned a great deal more than I really wanted to about these mystical magical mythical and totally fictional creatures they talk about, and because of that I am almost totally bemused by the really contextually ignorant way Joshua Stone uses the names of these fairy tale figures. Couldn't he have done some research to at least get his lies straight?
 

In the last paragraph of the first page, and in the opening paragraph of the first page there is a listing of the illustrious sponsors of this event....this is all totally twaddle! Many of the individuals enumerated are fictional, others are taken in the wrong definition of the words, and some are merely synonyms for one another. This could never have been produced by anyone who seriously studied either religion, or occultism, or even basic history for that matter..

We are told that "The Cosmic Masters" Melchisedek, Mahatma, Metatron, the Divine Mother, and the Arch Angel Michael among others, are personally sponsoring and "overlighting" this event. Oh????
 

"Cosmic Master" what sort of nonsense is this? By itself "Master" is bad enough, but "Cosmic Master" what a lot of childish braggadocio. The reality behind the name Melchisedek we have already discussed. The he says "The Mahatma" and here his ignorance or stupidity is revealed. Mahatma means "Great Soul" in Sanskrit, and the Theosophists used the term Mahatma in connection with their putative "Masters" but here was never any singular person called "The Mahatma" except for Mohandas K. Gandhi who was a politician who lived in our century. The Indian people have a much less glamorized view of the meaning of Mahatma than theosophists and occultists do. But clearly by saying that "The Mahatma" is a "sponsor" of this event Joshua Stone reveals his ignorance. Now there is a fantasy individual in the occult hierarchy called the Mahachohan, but Joshua Stone clearly doesn't know that.
 

Now we come to "Metatron" this is an archangel invented by the Kabbalists to be their "special angel". Neither the Roman Catholic nor any other "angelology" contains any reference to this "arch-angel". Of course, the existence of "angels" is highly debatable.   Then he goes on to brag of the participation of "The Divine Mother" as well as The Virgin Mary, Isis. And Vesta...but if he knew anything at all of the histories behind those names he'd have realized that for most folks and most theologians The Divine Mother and the Virgin Mary are identical, and for those who really study the history of religion these female principle figures are of the same identity. They do this a lot. They go fishing for "Divine Names" and print out synonyms as separate names. This is true of Maitreya, Sananda, and Christ, they are all the same fictional figure but these are different names given them in different times and different places, I am very surprised that Issue Botatso isn't listed as a patronizing deity. (That's the Japanese version of Jesus Christ), Then of course there's Djwahl Khul who was Alice Bailey's pet spook, and poor St. Germain, who I will bet is seen as a Saint named Germain rather than as a actual Historical figure called by his pseudonym; the Count de Saint Germain. And then there's an amazing identity the "Akasha-Angel Being" which is something I can't even try to identify. "Akasha" is the Sanskrit word for the energy field which is the reality of all things, but what the "Akasha-Angel Being" might be I have no idea, I guess it's some "Channels" pet spook. And then there's my own particular favorite; Commander Ashtar-Athena who seems to be a sort of compendium of the Goddess Athena, the Goddess Ishtar (who is completely different than Athena) and a Spaceship pilot or commander.
 

Can you see how insane this all is?
 

This is a really devastating part of the problem. Is it not easy to see how those of us who are seriously trying to make sense out of metaphysics are damaged and shamed by this kind of lunatic nonsense.
 

That ends Part 2 of my essay METAPHYSICS: The problem.
 

There's lots more to come.