A Life Lived in Prison
Printed in the Winter 2022 issue of Quest magazine.
Citation: Chadwick , Wallace, "A Life Lived in Prison" Quest 110:1, pg 20-23
Printed in the Winter 2022 issue of Quest magazine.
Citation: Chadwick , Wallace, "A Life Lived in Prison" Quest 110:1, pg 20-23
Printed in the Winter 2022 issue of Quest magazine.
Citation: Krocker, Aaron, "A Discovery of Home" Quest 110:1, pg 18-19
By Aaron Krocker
The year 2012 will forever remain in my memory and be kept in my heart. While many looked for aliens, meteor showers, pole shifts, or the snake god Quetzalcoatl, I discovered my new home in the Theosophical Society.
The concept of home is an important one for me. It suggests permanence, establishes community, and fosters something to strive for within. These were all things that I had taken for granted, but for which I had little appreciation.
As a prisoner, I have felt like an outcast, unknown and uncared for by everyone except my family and friends. But I did it to myself. I allowed my life to be motivated by substances and influenced by factors outside of my true Self.
The seven years of confinement prior to discovering the Society were spent in search of meaning—for my life, for life in general, and for something greater than myself in which I could hopefully find redemption. I joined an Apostolic Bible study, but became disheartened by what I felt was a too exclusive culture. I attended a few Catholic masses and studies, only to find that Catholicism didn’t resonate with me.
In the prison library, I came across a life changing and life shaping book—very simply written, but containing numerous concepts I was new to but that immediately felt right. The book? We’re All Doing Time by Bo Lozoff. It led me to Eastern systems of thought and practice: breathing exercises, meditation, mantra repetition, and yoga, to name a few.
That same year I found out about Gurumayi Chidvilasananda and Siddha Yoga and started participating in a study course based upon Siddha teachings called “In Search of the Self.” Here I learned how to open my heart and tap into the vital energy of the Self. But it still wasn’t enough. I still recite the Siddha mantra om shivaya namah (I honor my inner Self), and continue to benefit greatly from the course, but there seemed to be much that I was missing.
It wasn’t until I transferred from a maximum security prison to a medium security prison that I stumbled upon a library book that would open the door to Theosophy: Ancient Wisdom, Modern Insight by Shirley Nicholson. I was hooked. I read more, finally excited to visit the prison’s library. Ideas were discussed over the phone with family and outside with a few other inmates. Eventually I found out about the Society’s Prison Program through a prisoner resource list and immediately sent away for more information. I was not disappointed.
The more I read and the more study lessons I completed, the more I realized that Theosophy was what I had been searching for. I had become disillusioned with religious dogma, but I didn’t get that from Theosophy, maybe because Theosophy isn’t a religion. It doesn’t confine one’s thinking, condemn nonbelievers, or claim to be the one and only true way to salvation.
Theosophy is more than a collection of philosophies and practices, of lectures and books and articles. Theosophy, or the Ageless Wisdom, is a vital and vibrant guide for living life. Many religions and systems of thought set forth prescriptions for living a wholesome life. What makes Theosophy different, at least in my own opinion, is that it doesn’t attempt to monopolize truth. Instead, it looks at the numerous sources and presents the gems found in each one.
This Ageless Wisdom has opened my eyes to many concepts that have improved my life, bettered my character, and brightened my future. Through the Theosophical Society’s prison correspondence courses, I have discovered my purpose, which, to simplify, is to live well. Easy to say, but difficult to explain, as there are so many factors involved. At some point, after much practice, it becomes easier, but life still throws its challenges. Yet these challenges strengthen character so that a sense of contentment can germinate within.
I have learned that I am an expression of the cosmos, which is a manifested aspect of the Source, the Absolute, the Divine. By right, all other “expressions” are my kin: brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles, mothers and fathers. By understanding this, I have come to appreciate the differences in others more and have grown to want happiness for all. This doesn’t mean that I don’t experience frustration, anger, or sadness, but when I do, the feelings are not as intense, nor do they last as long as they used to.
I’ve learned that whatever pain, frustration, cruelty, sorrow, or anger that I have either experienced or perpetuated is only the result of ignorance, either on my part or on that of others. Whatever has happened to me, for good or for ill, is merely the balancing of the karmic wheel. The good news is that balance can be achieved, and ignorance can be dissolved through experience and the application of wisdom.
Theosophy has taught me that the human experience is about evolving spiritually, mentally, physically, and wholesomely: unfolding from within into our truest and highest potential. This process is long and drawn out, but it enables one to benefit from a full and varied experience of being human.
These concepts have led me to an increased awareness that all beings are connected to one another. I have discovered a depth of potential within myself, and am beginning to feel it in others as well. Theosophy has humbled me, brought me to realize the inner truth, and inspired me to be better at being human.
Much is left to be learned, to be experienced, to be understood; but I am no longer afraid or confused about what my path is. Gratitude to my mentors, teachers, and role models along this path.
Aaron Krocker has been a participant in the TSA’s Prison Program since 2012.
Printed in the Winter 2022 issue of Quest magazine.
Citation: Bruce, David P., "Up from Rock Bottom: The TSA Prison Program" Quest 110:1, pg 16-17
VOLUME 110, NUMBER 1
CONTENTS
Up from Rock Bottom: The TSA Prison Program
David Bruce
A Discovery of Home
Aaron Krocker
A Life Lived in Prison
Chadwick Wallace
Franz Hartmann: A Pioneer of the Theosophical Movement
Susanne Hoepfl-Wellenhofer
Blavatsky, Christian Theosophy, and Russian Orthodoxy
David William Parry
The Ancient Wisdom in Africa
P.G. Bowen
From the Editor's Desk
Richard Smoley
Viewpoint: Unifying the Rainbow
Barbara Hebert
Members' Forum: The Crisis Was the Catalyst
Tim Wyatt
Printed in the Fall 2021 issue of Quest magazine.
Citation: Abdill, Ed, "Recollections of Dora Van Gelder Kunz" Quest 108:4, pg 10-11
Members’ Forum
Ed Abdill
I was just twenty-four years old when I joined the New York Theosophical Society, and I met Dora Van Gelder Kunz on the very first members’ meeting that I attended. In those days, we had a vegetarian dinner before the meeting, and Dora was in the serving line. We soon formed a friendship that lasted about forty years.
Dora was born in Java, Dutch East Indies (present-day Indonesia), in 1904. Her parents were members of the Theosophical Society, and as soon as Dora was old enough to join, she did. Like her mother, Dora was born clairvoyant. Since she and her family lived on a remote sugar plantation owned by her father, neighbors were not close by, and she had no playmates. When Dora saw a recently deceased person, so did her mother. Consequently, Dora thought everyone saw what she and her mother saw. It was only as an older child that she realized that clairvoyance is rare. In later life, Dora was elected president of the New York Theosophical Society, and then president of the Theosophical Society in America, where she served four terms from 1975 to 1987. With Dolores Krieger, she founded the healing modality Therapeutic Touch (see review on page 40). She died in 1999.
As a gifted clairvoyant, Dora helped hundreds, if not thousands, of people deal with physical and psychological problems. I consulted her on a few occasions and was amazed at her ability to spot my problems immediately. On one occasion I thought I might have prostate cancer, so while at Pumpkin Hollow, I asked Dora to take a look at me. Rather than mention the possible cancer, she immediately said, “Eddie, you are depressed. You don’t want to do anything now, do you?” I had not realized I was depressed, but when she said that, I realized I was. She said, “When you go back to New York, look at the trees, and see how beautiful they are.” Then she told me there was no cancer in the prostate, and she was right.
When I got home, I did as Dora recommended and looked at the beautiful trees. The next Wednesday, when I came into the NYTS, Dora looked at me and said, “Oh, Eddie, you look so much better.” Of course I did not look any better physically. Dora had seen the improvement in my emotional field. I responded, “Of course I do, Dora. I did what you said.”
Dora had a great sense of humor, and as I also have a good sense of humor, we had many laughs together. Dora’s laughter was a cackle. Occasionally, she would laugh at something that none of us got, but her cackle soon had everyone laughing. Although her sense of humor was great, her feelings of compassion for all who suffered were even greater. Dora was not sentimental. She could work with anyone in pain, do what she could for them, and never fall into pity. She knew that pity would not help, and worse, that it would drag her down to a point at which she could not help anyone.
One amusing incident that showed her clairvoyant ability happened one night at a members’ meeting. We had an extremely difficult member who made it clear that she, and she alone, “understood Theosophy.” After a member spoke, she would often say, “You said, but Theosophy clearly teaches . . .” One night, when the annoying member was being particularly difficult, Dora was in the library on the floor above the meeting room. Just when we were all quite irritated at the difficult member, Dora appeared in the room, and she calmed everything down. Later, I asked Dora why she appeared when we needed her most. She said, “Well, I was sitting in the library, and all this prickly stuff kept coming up through the floor. I thought, is that a Theosophical meeting going on down there?”
Dora had an enormous vocabulary, but her strength was not in words. Often she would not complete a sentence, and just as often would use the wrong words. Yet she was able to impress the minds of most with her meaning.
Meditation was an important part of Dora’s life, and she helped many to learn how to meditate. I learned from her, and am eternally gratefully that I did. Dora conducted a meditation class just before member meetings. She was able to stimulate something deep within students that awakened them to the meditative experience.
Once, just before meditation, Dora made a pejorative remark about the Liberal Catholic Church, in which I am a priest. No sooner did we begin to meditate than I got the strongest impression of her saying, “Don’t worry about it. That was just my personality,” and it was.
While Dora was not a member of the LCC, she knew the value of the church, and she could see its services clairvoyantly. Once our bishop asked Dora to observe a mass said in the evening to see why C.W. Leadbeater, one of the church’s founders, said it should only be said between midnight and noon, as the church did until about 1955. She did, and she reported that angels appeared and participated, that the elements were consecrated, but when the Host was broken after consecration, the energy did not spread out over the neighborhood to bless the people. Rather, it was grounded through those present. The energy was lost.
As the title of her biography, A Most Unusual Life, suggests, Dora did indeed have a most unusual life. I vetted her biography and wrote an endorsement for it. To learn more about my dear friend Dora, I highly recommend that you read A Most Unusual Life: Dora van Gelder Kunz, Clairvoyant, Theosophist, Healerby Kirsten Van Gelder and Frank Chesley (Quest, 2015).
Ed Abdill joined the Theosophical Society in 1959. He has served as president of the New York Theosophical Society, and he served on the national Theosophical Society in America board, both as a director and as vice president. He has lectured for the Society throughout the United States and internationally. Ed has authored two books, The Secret Gateway: Modern Theosophy and the Ancient Wisdom Tradition and Masters of Wisdom: The Mahatmas, Their Letters, and the Path.
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