Theos-Talk Archives (February 1997 Message tl00337)

Paul wrote
>
>In reply to Alan's and Christine's questions.  CK had said that
>TI-L might become a place for brainstorming about ways to work
>for Theosophy outside existing organizational frameworks.
>That's why I asked; I wanted to subscribe.

Great, that's what I was hoping.  What about anyone else who is interested
in a "brainstorm" going onto the TI-L list?  In a few days we could post a
question for discussion such as....

In what ways can we work for Theosophy outside existing organizational
frameworks?

..or some such question. (for me I would want to know what you guys mean by
Theosophy before I could even start with this question)

For those who have not used this technique, brainstorming can encourage a
great deal of lateral thinking and, as a result, creative solutions which no
single individual could have reached alone (the whole is greter than the sum
of the parts). The idea is that ideas can be expressed, cross polinated with
other's ideas and new ideas formed as a result of the group dynamic.
Ideas can be as crazy as you like and may be expanded on by others, but not
criticzed.

The normal brainstorming steps are

1.  Gather ideas
2.  Clarify and Categorize
3.  Eliminate duplicates
4.  Prioritize - select the top 3 to 5 in each category
5.  Develop action plans for the top 3 to 5.
6.  Propose action
7.  Loop back to 5 for the next 3 to 5.

We will have to creatively adapt this to suit the InterNet rather than a
room in which we are face to face.  For instance we would have to set a time
limit for the "gather ideas" phase but may need to vary it to accommodate
the speed at which people can respond, read each others ideas, come up with
new ones etc.  This will be much slower on this forum than face to face.

The rules are simple

> #1 - Keep it brief.  One or two sentences is best.  We elaborate later.
> #2 - No discussion or criticism. (extension of ideas is allowed)

How about it?

Christine

>JHE wrote
>Please excuse my curt answer.  I have been a member of the TS for
>almost 35 years and have seen the TS hierarchy do things again
>and again over the years that still give me nightmares.  But to
>be fair, I was not addressing the Shantara issue, but answering
>your question in more general terms, as a ten word summary of 35
>years experience with this organization.  Regarding the Shantara
>question, I can say that I have been in correspondence with
>people who were involved in the Danish and Canadian Section
>expulsions and Shantara was never an issue.  I would say that
>your suspicion of a bogeyman is right on.  The same thing was
>done with the Yugoslavian Section expulsion in 1984.  In that
>case, the accusations concerned the infiltration of the New
>Acropolis Organization.  That was not true either.

Thanks for this.  I also did agree with your curt summary -  just wanted
more detail if I could get it, as we are in the middle of a "bogeyman" fear
right now.

To all of you on this list, I thankyou for the input.  This list has
confirmed what I already knew, and I have made a decision for myself that I
will cut the umbilical to the TS.  I see it now as a black spot in my aura
against which I constantly have to battle.  Better to cut it off.  However,
I intend to feed whatever information comes from this list to someone else
in my Lodge who has been following up on all the legal aspects of our local
problems.  So I will continue to press for those when the opportunity arises.

Christine


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