Peace and Quiet

[John E. Mead]

I was asked why the site slowed up lately. Despite personally enjoying the grand lack of various warring factions ... I realized a couple items:

We have a lot of people on the sidelines and they do not know what they should post..   Total psychological meltdown as to what is acceptable. Without warring factions of philosophically biased esoteric/occult schools and "Master"-warring...  what else is there left to talk about?? the minds all went blank at the realization that no theosophical topic exists without the infighting....

This year is a real world-wide mental depression. Every (nearly) major country has a major election/power-shift. People are looking up and down the street trying to figure out what type, if any, government they will have in a few months.  (well, I sure am and know many who are). Attention seems focused inward not outward.

[Capt. Anand Kumar]

Very well said John. How to encourage those on the sideline to participate?

[M K Ramadoss]

Not very easy.

[Joe Fulton]

There is a lot to talk about.  Honestly, it seems that worshipping things is a waste of time.  Whether it is a stone, animal or some other contraption it completely misses the point that the journey, or whatever you call it is about learning and becoming a better part of the world that we're in.   You don't have to believe any specific way to be useful, although perhaps some beliefs may offer more comfort than others.  The fact is still one of us having the same time allotted every day and it is what we do with that time that is important.

I would contend that perhaps not everyone on the sideline is someone we would want present.  We don't want endless, dogmatic tomes.  What we do want is curiosity.  We we must do is convey our sense of curiosity.  The bottom line is that for people to want to come here we must give them what they want, in a manner consistent with our goals.

[Daniel Noga]

As a moderator both here and at other sites, and having dealt with the "How to get people to participate?" question for a handful of years, I've finally come to peace with the notion that quality is definitely desirable over quantity when it comes to activity. For one, there is only so much one can do--and there is a great deal being done here to support activity. This site gets an A+ for effort as far as that is concerned. Secondly, looking at some of the more active Ning sites reveals that oftentimes high activity comes at a huge sacrifice in terms of depth of content. Justin Bieber fansites see a lot of activity but that's not the kind of activity we're looking for...

We may be Theosophists, but alas, we are still human and as has been intimated here already, it seems that the times of highest activity are those times of conflict and controversy. At The Theosophical Community, there has never been a more active period than the 2008 International President controversies and the General Council shenanigans that followed. People who never posted anything before suddenly became forum warriors. As much as we may think of ourselves, our behavior does not always match our ideals. Nothing like a good argument to get a Theosophist going.  :-)

[M K Ramadoss]

Actively posting messages takes a lot time and in many forums I have seen that a few individuals tend to post a lot of the traffic and there is also the question of noise. That is the nature of the beast. All we can do is to bring ideas or news of interest and see if members respond. There is only so much that individuals can do. We shall keep trying to motivate active discussions and be prepared for ups and downs in traffic.

One of the main reasons for the intense traffic in 2008 elections and its aftermath is that there was only one independent internet forum outside the control of organizations to exchange information and views without interference from organizations and in the opinion of many, it saved the organization from taking a turn South.

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[Daniel Noga]

One of the main reasons for the intense traffic in 2008 elections and its aftermath is that there was only one independent internet forum outside the control of organizations to exchange information and views without interference from organizations and in the opinion of many, it saved the organization from taking a turn South.

Sorry, but that doesn't make sense to me--I was referring to a spike in activity at The Theosophical Community, a site that is funded by the TSA and not an independent site at all. How could that spike have been caused by the fact that there was only one independent Theosophical discussion site at the time? There's no logic that can explain that. Besides, I don't see how the independence or non-independence of a site is even relevant to the point that Theosophists like to argue. What does this comment have to do with the discussion at hand? If I didn't know any better, I would think that you are simply jumping on what you perceive to be a ripe opportunity for complaining (again) about forum moderation that took place years ago at a totally different website than this one. This does nothing to support the enrichment of activity here at Theosophy.net and seems rather childish to me. Just my opinion of course.

[M K Ramadoss]

Sorry, I missed you referred to theosophical community. I was referring to theos-talk on yahoo groups (which is outside the control of and financial support from organizations or their leaders) which had similar spike at that time. May be the general climate at that time was such that it encouraged traffic everywhere. As for internet forum moderation, I have been around internet and computer based forums for a long time and know there is bound to be moderation to one degree or the other. Anyone who is able to help with any ideas to enrich www.theosophy.net is very welcome to come up with ideas and suggestions. As everyone knows, I have been on this site from the early days and continue to support it. Let us see what is in store for the future.

[Daniel Noga]

Okay, then I owe you an apology for flying off the handle. If you simply misunderstood me, then this means I misunderstood and I apologize for the accusation that I made.

[M K Ramadoss]

No need to apologize.We are all in this together and trying to see what we can contribute. At the end of the day, only our contributions which can help everyone counts. Thanks

[Joe Fulton]

Honestly gang, I am not at all interested in every Tom, D*** and Harry who can bang a keyboard posting here.  We are interested in people with innovative ways of looking at the world and exercising their imagination when examining those insights.  Sometimes we don't even need a lot of words, especially when the intuition is our most valuable faculty.  What we can do, however is to come up with interesting ideas and generate enough content that the discussions will follow.

Yes, doing a site like this is difficult.  Very few things done well are not difficult.  That's how it is.  You try something and it doesn't work, you try something else, it doesn't work either and maybe after a few times you find something that does work.

The key to all of this and the hardest thing to grasp is the central theme to "traditional theosophy", and that is the power and faculty of creative imagination.  In whatever culture you frame it creative imagination is the most powerful tool we have at our disposal.  It is where innovation and all of our magical powers lie.  Apply that to here and what we can do is limitless.

Now, once and for all let's stop being defeatist in our tone and demeanor.  Theosophy.Net is better than that.  I am expecting everyone here to come up with and execute ideas (some of which may need execution, but that's a completely different matter).  The trick is to come up with something, DO IT and if it doesn't work, figure out why and try again...or do something else.

Have funz.

[Michael A. Williams]

Yes, it is, sorry to say, the site has been on the downswing for some time, but all sites will have ups and downs. Has it ever occurred to the Inner Circle here that this site may not be the center of focus for most members lives? That they, and myself, are in the very midst of life in their personal lives and not just "sitting on the sidelines."

Most of the most active members that have been absent, myself included, have sites of their own they're centered around and probably have found other metaphysical sites they resonate with more. This is Joe's site and at the end of the day, when all is said and done, it's his show and we are all players in that(except maybe the "Inner Circle"). That's fine. No problem.

So, in the best tradition of Hermeticism(that Joe seems to have recently adopted), we all are "a center of divine operation." Meaning, we all have the birthright to be our own creative center, putting this site and others as players in our own evolving  show.

That being said, I think there are a few factors that figure in the exodus and non-participation of numerous members. One would be this campaign of Joe's of trying to take the word "theosophy" away from it's identification with the Theosophical Society. Certainly, it is technically correct that it's root is not in the TS, and Blavatsky, Judge, Olcott, et. al., adopted the word and it's variations, "Theosophist" "Theosophical," etc., 137 years ago. But over that time, those words have come to be associated with the TS, either with the HPB branches or the Besant/Leadbeater branches. For better or worse(a little of both), it has deeply seeped into the world culture and language as such.

I say leave it be as such, it's just too much wasted energy to have to explain outside this site that one is using "theosophy" in it's root meaning every time one uses it. It hasn't caught on with other metaphysical sites and I predict won't. Also, I personally don't want to be known as a "Theosophist" or "Theosopher," in any definition of the words. "Metaphysician," "Hermeticist"  will do just fine.The terms "metaphysical" and "spiritual" communicate to the vast majority of people much better.

All which ties in with how this root usages of the term "Theosophy" here is confusing to new members. Most new people see the word in this site's name and immediate think this has something to do with the TS, Blavatsky, Besant, Leadbeater, etc., join up and quickly find out they've been "bamboozled," so they never go any further. I know this won't be adopted, but a name change would go a long way in bringing in members who will participate now and again, at least.

Another point, the occasional "far left" political and social views here, with some implied approval by the leaders, I know has turned off some past key members who have dropped out. It's a slippery and dangerous slope when metaphysical/spiritual sites and groups start getting too involved in politics, left wing or right wing. Of course, one prominent past member stopped participating because it was thought this site wasn't socially/politically active enough. Like I said, you can't win in the end when politically taking sides all the time.

One last point is that there is much ballyhooed lip service paid to "intuition and imagination," but heaven help those who actually put them into daily use and place them above the intellect(as even Einstein advised). And with "intuition" I put the psychic and artistic faculties. Some of the finest psychic intuitive and artistic types here are long gone because of jeers and sneers in this direction. As a lengthy member, it's obvious that Intellectual gab fests have always been the real value here.

Joe will disagree and point to his praise of imagination in his previous post. That's a good start, certainly. I would say that Imagination is even more important than what he expressed, for it is the very ground and first cause of all so-called "realities." One of the basic principles of Hermeticism and in the East. Einstein said it plainly: "Imagination is your preview of coming events."

Intellectual scholarship has it's place and Joe has stated his long term goal is a magazine style site of entries of intellectual articles of  top new thinkers. I suggest another site devoted to that, and paying money for the articles, will be necessary for it to materialize, it won't happen here.

All this won't change anything, but I thought I'd get it down for the record.

[Joe Fulton]

Thank you for your opinions. 

While it is true that those items which are actionable may or will not be implemented immediately, or ever we do appreciate the time you took in putting your comments together.

I have given thought to many of the points that you have raised, however, as my energies are limited this site will have to do for now.

I am now one day back from my six week hiatus and we have a lot of work to do.  Let us all be constructive forces for change.