From ???@??? Sun Jan 00 00:00:00 0000 Date: Wed, 28 Jul 1993 11:16:24 -0400 From: Donald DeGracia <71331.3517@compuserve.com> Subject: General Responces from Don Hi Everyone: 1. In responce to Leonard Cole's comment: I'm sending through CompuServe using WINCIM. I have one other e-mail format option that I am trying with this letter. Please let me know if this letter is better, or if its formatted correctly. 2. Leonard also says: I'm also new to internet mail. John has informed me that internet mail is not sequential, so it looks like we might have a learning curve here. Hopefull, as we all get more used to this format, a natural rythem will develop for us. 3.Leonard, thank you for the info about the Theosophy symbol. 4. I'd also like to say "Welcome!" to Judy Cilcain and Tom McFarlane! 5. To John Mead: If I need to become a member to be secretary (presuming others go for the idea!) then I think that'll be ok. I've teetered over the years about joining the TS and this is fine impetus to push me over the edge. How do I go about becoming a memeber? Can I call Wheaton and sign up? 6. To everyone: Usually, I write long letters when I do e-mail. Is this an inconvinience to anyone? Should I try to keep my letters shorter? If anyone has pros and cons about long letters, please state them. My natural tendency is to run off at the mouth . 7.Yes, lets nominate John Mead as secretary as re. Leonard's suggestion. 8. John recommends starting a discussion of Occult Chemistry. I'm all for this! To anyone who doesn't know, Occult Chemistry was a book published by Annie Besant and C.W. Leadbeater (1st edition 1909) in which they claimed to clairvoyantly see atoms and molecules. The book has many diagrams and pictures and describes a number of phenomena that scientists later discovered. In 1980, a physicist form UCLA, Dr. Stephen Phillips, published a book called "ESP of Quarks" in which he attempts to account for Besant and Leadbeater's observations in terms of modern particle physics. Phillips shows quite niely that Besant and Leadbeater's observations correlate well with modern physical theory. However, Phillips' work is not conclusive and there are still many open ends to the issue. Thast is to say, a hard core sceptic could still find reason not to take Occult Chemistry seriously. I, however, believe that Occult Chemistry is one of the most provocative aspects of Theosophy as a whole and holds great promise for vindicating the general teachings of Theosophy. So, there, a short into to the subject. If there are any takers, please comment! Hopefully, this is a suitable topic for the list. I myself, if it's not already apparent, have a complete bias in scientific directions, but I know that others do not. We may want to find issues that appeal to everyone, which I do not think will be impossible given the scope of Theosophical teachings. Occult Chemistry gets very technical quickly and it might not be a suitable topic for the nonscientific memebers of the list. Please comment on this everyone! 9. Also, this is my first attempt to send to Theo-l@char.vnet. net, so lets hope you all get this letter and it doesn't come back to my mail box with a "wrong address" message! Best to everybody! Don From ???@??? Sun Jan 00 00:00:00 0000 Date: Wed, 28 Jul 1993 00:54:23 -0400 From: "Leonard E. Cole" <71664.3642@compuserve.com> Subject: Electronic Theosophical Study Group - potpouri I'm having a difficult time keeping up with this "live-wire" group. Just when I am about ready to comment on something appearing in this stream of communication, something breaks down at my home requiring immediate attention, and taking me "off-line" for awhile. So now, finally, I will try to comment on a few things that have popped up in the messages during the past 10 days or so. I apologize for the disorganized pattern. I am referring to my notes made on the e-mail messages in roughly chronological order. John, regarding a suggested group name, I suggest "Electronic Theosophical Study Group." Even though you said it "sounds boring" it is descriptive of the group that seems to be developing. Of course by the time I view all my e-mail, I may find you have progressed beyond this point. Is anyone else having difficulty reading Don DeGracia's messages on screen? On my screen, the text runs far beyond the right margin and I must print the message in condensed font on my printer before I can read it. Don's messages are the only ones that affect my screen this way. Don, you asked about a description of the meaning of the symbols in TS' seal. I recall seeing a small pamphlet that covered this topic. If you are a TSA member, you could no doubt locate this pamphlet in the TSA Library. Call Librarian Elisabeth Trumpler, or a member of the Library staff, at 1-800-669-1571. John, re: establishing an officially recognized study center, I vote yes. I called TSA National Secretary Diane Eisenberg July 27 and asked some general questions about forming study centers without mentioning this one specifically. We only need to specify a Secretary (person in charge) and have a minimum of 3 members. All recorded members of the study group must be TSA members, but anyone can participate as a "guest" or "visitor." I didn't ask about dual membership in other study centers or branches, but I think this is prohibited under the general rules. Of course, we have a unique situation which wasn't anticipated when the rules were made. We can ask for a waiver of the rules for our unique situation. Since you have been serving admirably as "Secretary" since inception of this group, may I nominate you as the official "Secretary"? Come on, gang, let's elect him by acclamation. John, I don't see an issue of conflict of interest as you suggested. We all, individually, commit our time where we have the most interest, and, as long as it is all to the betterment of service to humanity, what difference does it make where it is channelled as long as we honor all the commitments we have made. On the issue of voting, we can only vote as individual members anyway, not as delegates representing organizational units, and TSA Headquarters has good controls on this for national elections. In summary, we only need to ask for an exception to the rule regarding dual membership. Since participation in the electronic study group crosses geographical boundaries and would not create any administrative conflicts in local branches or study centers, we have a reasonable basis for reqesting approval. Regarding future proposals for TSA Headquarters' use of electronic media, I nominate several data bases as applications for onlin access: membership data, library catalog, publishing house booklist, and lecturers' program topics and itineraries. The City of Berkeley, California, Public Library has its catalog online along with an information network data bank. It is fantastic. John, you might find it useful to call Ruben Cabigting (Olcott's computer whiz) at 1-800-669-1571 and exchange ideas. I hope this has been helpful. Peace to all, leonard e cole 71664,3642 (compuserve) Berkeley, CA 510-527-2110 (voice) p.s. John, what does "+Postage Due+" in message subjects mean? Should I be sharing in the cost of this operation? I am rather ignorant about how this whole thing operates, so if I am remiss in not bearing my share of the load, just say so directly. From ???@??? Sun Jan 00 00:00:00 0000 Date: Wed, 28 Jul 1993 01:29:16 -0400 From: Thomas J. McFarlane Subject: Bio for Tom McFarlane Hello, I heard about this list and the approach of theosophy interests me so I thought I'd lurk a bit and see what's up here. Since it's such a small group, even a lurker like me gets noticed! My name is Tom McFarlane. I grew up in the Pacific Northwest and am now living in Seattle. I have a BS in Physics (Stanford, 1988) and will take a MS in Mathematics next year here at the University of Washington. As John Mead mentioned, I'm active in the bridge-l list that was created earlier this year. It's purpose is to discuss issues and questions relating to the idea that there is a truth common to all spiritual traditions. Some of you may be interested in lurking there, as a matter of fact. As far as my personal path is concerned, I don't identify myself with any particular religious creed, or, if you prefer, I identify myself with them all--at least the universal principles that I see expressed in them all. But I do have my personal leanings, of course. I'm kind of a philosophical kind of guy (which John no doubt has noticed from my posts on bridge) and really get inspired by stuff like Nagarjuna, Shankara, Plato, Pythagoras, and (if you know these more contemporary folks) Simone Weil, Franklin Merrell-Wolff, G. Spencer-Brown. Regards to you all, Tom McFarlane From ???@??? Sun Jan 00 00:00:00 0000 Date: Wed, 28 Jul 1993 10:59:04 -0400 From: MGRENIER.EAGAN@mhs.sp.paramax.com (Grenier, Michael W.) Subject: Re: formal study group... John wrote: "Of course Mike and Don need to be TS members (George is; I think Don is joining(?), and I *though* Mike was, but after reading his BIO, it implied he wasn't (did I get that right?))" Hmmm...I should do a better job writing BIOs :-) I'm a member. -Mike Grenier mgrenier@mhs.sp.paramax.com From ???@??? Sun Jan 00 00:00:00 0000 Date: Wed, 28 Jul 1993 18:34:46 -0400 From: MGRENIER.EAGAN@mhs.sp.paramax.com (Grenier, Michael W.) Subject: Re: When the Theosophical movem Finally getting caught up with my mail...... John Mead writes: > I think if Paramax will support a Usenet News group, we > should do this! Usenet doesn't work that way. To create a new newsgroup would require weeks of polling the Usenet community to see if there is sufficient interest. With the other related newsgroups already in place, I question whether such interest could be found. Does compuserve provide access to Usenet newgroups? Otherwise, I can gateway some of this traffic through our mailing list and provide a way to post articles from the mailing list to the Usenet community. Remember, Usenet works through the cooperation of the each Usenet node to forward that various articles from each newsgroup. There is no central database which holds and manages a particular newsgroup (though there are news group moderators which can restrict the flow of articles into a newsgroup). Since any new newsgroup could conceivable result in considerable network (or phone) traffic which each site would pay for, any attempt to create a new group would require the approval of many people. Personally, I think we should wait and see if we have so much traffic to justify a new newsgroup. At this point, how many of us can even read the groups that already exist? Of course, a new group would be a way to announce to the world that Theosophy is here. I've been too busy to follow the Usenet groups to know whether that announcement has already been made. -Mike Grenier mgrenier@mhs.sp.paramax.com From ???@??? Sun Jan 00 00:00:00 0000 Date: Wed, 28 Jul 1993 19:37:09 -0400 From: MGRENIER.EAGAN@mhs.sp.paramax.com (Grenier, Michael W.) Subject: Re: +Postage Due+Re: +Postage D Don, I copied this to the mailing list. ( Don and I have been exchanging a fair bit of private email discussing various aspects of Theosophy ) You wrote : " What's interesting to me is that I've never been on a mail list before, like what John is trying to create. Maybe your used to it being on internet, but there's nothing like them here on Compuserve" Actually, on the internet, I haven't seen many use mailing lists. They tend to use USENET newsgroups and their sophisticated news readers. These news readers allow one to follow a thread of thought within a newsgroup without having other thoughts intruding (it rearranges the articles based on special reference tags which are generated by the news software when someone replies to an article and knows how to keep the thread together). I have my doubts on how well a public forum will work when all one sees are the words of the other people. I fear those who may try to derail the progress of others. I fear the release to the public of one's inner thoughts which can be used against you by those who hold quite different views - probably the majority of americans not to mention your boss? On the other hand, it does provide a means for theosophists to exchange ideas where they might not have the opportunity to do so otherwise. How does one weigh how to encourage others on our mailing list to ask questions or to respond to ideas against the need for some privacy. John's electronic group could be a great way to get people thinking about Theosophy. Besides, I think I've made some friends. Will we need to have an esoteric section someday :-) Tell me, which forums are there related to Theosophy which already exist on Compuserve? John mentioned setting up a BBS. I can probably set one up but that would either require long distance phone charges or the ability to telnet/ftp over the internet into the BBS. Can one telnet or anonymous ftp from a Compuserve account? Is mail the *only* means to share ideas across both the internet and Compuserve. Perhaps, we cheap internet users should bite the bullet and get a compuserve account? -Mike Grenier mgrenier@mhs.sp.paramax.com From ???@??? Sun Jan 00 00:00:00 0000 Date: Wed, 28 Jul 1993 19:41:32 -0400 From: MGRENIER.EAGAN@mhs.sp.paramax.com (Grenier, Michael W.) Subject: Re: Hi - current distribution. > 3) Persuade National to get "on-line" from Wheaton. > this could greatly help ALL study centers. Especially... Judy A. Cilcain writes further: "Item #3 is very important. And along these lines, will you invite other TS organizations as well?" Would there be any interest in a PC / MS-DOS email program that talks UUCP to other UNIX users in your area to forward mail. The only advantage is that the sending and receiving of internet email may then be free. How important is the cost factor in trying to tie in other study centers versus the additional technical administration needed in maintaining UUCP connections? -Mike Grenier mgrenier@mhs.sp.paramax.com From ???@??? Sun Jan 00 00:00:00 0000 Date: Wed, 28 Jul 1993 19:46:16 -0400 From: MGRENIER.EAGAN@mhs.sp.paramax.com (Grenier, Michael W.) Subject: Re: Theosophy Help file OK'd by Regarding Don's help file. Should we submit the help file to the Windows Software archive on ftp.cica.indiana.edu? People connecting there should know how to handle a help file and it might be interesting to use it as a way to introduce others to Theosophy. -Mike Grenier mgrenier@mhs.sp.paramax.com From ???@??? Sun Jan 00 00:00:00 0000 Date: Wed, 28 Jul 1993 20:24:45 -0400 From: Gerald Schueler <76400.1474@compuserve.com> Subject: Study Group/Branch Membership John, I am not now, nor have I ever been, a member of a branch or study group. I have always been a member-at-large. So this will be my one and only group within the TS. Thank you. Jerry