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Richard L. Thompson
This post is in honor of Sadaputa Prabhu (aka Richard l. Thompson). Although he was not a member of the Theosophical Society, I consider him a Theosophist in the larger sense of the term. (Some of the links below may be inactive.)
Richard Leslie Thompson, also known as Sadaputa Dasa, (1947 – September 18, 2008) was a mathematician, academic, author and American Vaishnava. He published several books and articles, including Forbidden Archeology: The Hidden History of the Human Race (1993), co-authored with Michael Cremo. With his writings on cosmology, Darwinism and religion, he is sometimes identified as a Vedic Creationist. Richard L. Thompson was a member of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (popularly known as the Hare Krishna movement or ISKCON) and a disciple of the movement’s founder A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. He was also a founding member of the Bhaktivedanta Institute, an ISKCON academic think tank.
He was born in Binghamton, New York, in 1947. In 1974, Thompson received his Ph.D. in mathematics from Cornell University. He specialized in probability theory and statistical mechanics. Later, he conducted research in quantum physics and mathematical biology at the La Jolla Institute in San Diego, the State University of New York at Binghamton, and Cambridge University in the United Kingdom. He authored seven books on science and philosophy, and wrote many articles for scientific journals and for Back To Godhead, the official magazine of ISKCON.
In 1993 Thompson co-wrote Forbidden Archeology. The book claims that humans have lived on the earth for millions, or billions, of years, and that the scientific establishment has suppressed the fossil evidence for extreme human antiquity.[1] The authors speak about a knowledge filter (confirmation bias) as the reason for this suppression. Forbidden Archeology has attracted attention from creationists and paranormalists,[2] but has been labeled as “pseudoscience” and “antievolutionism” by representatives of the mainstream archaeological and paleoanthropologist community.[3][4][5][6] Meera Nanda in the Indian magazine Frontline called Cremo and Thompson “the intellectual force driving Vedic creationism”.[7] In the ‘science and religion’ community he was known for his articulation of the ISKCON’s view of science. Danish historian of religion Mikael Rothstein described Thompson as “the single dominating writer on science” in ISKCON whom ISKCON has chosen to “cover the field of science more or less on his own.” C. Mackenzie Brown, professor of religion at Trinity University, San Antonio, Texas, described him as “the leading figure” in the ISKCON’s critique of modern science.
In 1996 Thompson and Cremo appeared on the NBC special The Mysterious Origins of Man, which was widely criticized by the scientific community. The book Forbidden Archeology provided much of the content for the program.
Thompson also researched UFO phenomena. In 1993 he wrote Alien Identities in which he explored parallels between modern UFO accounts and descriptions found within the ancient Sanskrit writings of India.[8]
He wrote two books on Hindu cosmology, Vedic Cosmography and Astronomy (1989) and Mysteries of the Sacred Universe (2000). In the latter work Thompson argued that the cosmology of the Bhagavata Purana, one of the classical texts of Hinduism, is “a sophisticated system, with multiple levels of meaning that encode at least four different astronomical, geographical, and spiritual world models.”[9][10]
In his final book, Maya: The World as Virtual Reality (2003), Thompson utilized virtual reality as a metaphor for the Hindu concept of maya:
“The basic theme is that what we can imagine doing in a virtual reality system may actually be happening in nature on a vastly greater scale. Nature may be like a computer simulation interfaced with conscious observer / participant.”[11]
The virtual reality model is also employed to show “how both paranormal phenomena and religious experiences can be reconciled in a natural way with the laws of physics.”
He died on September 18, 2008.
References
- ^ “Michael (A.) Cremo”. Contemporary Authors Online. September 23, 2002. Retrieved on August 17, 2008.
- ^ “Cremo, Michael”. Chambers Dictionary of the Unexplained. Ed. Una McGovern. Chambers, 2007. p. 135.
- ^ Hidden History, Hidden Agenda, Bradley T. Lepper
- ^ Creationism: The Hindu View, Colin Groves
- ^ Forbidden Archaeology : Antievolutionism Outside the Christian Arena, Wade Tarzia
- ^ “[Forbidden Archeology] is premised on the assumption that modern science is a prisoner of Western cultural and religious biases…” Scientific Values and Civic Virtues, Noretta Koertge, Oxford University Press
- ^ Nada, Merra. “Vedic creationism in America“. Frontline. January 14–27, 2006. Retrieved on August 18, 2008.
- ^ Alien Identities
- ^ Vedic Cosmography and Astronomy
10. ^ Mysteries of the Sacred Universe
11. ^ Maya: The World as Virtual Reality
Works by Richard L. Thompson
- Mechanistic and Nonmechanistic Science: An Investigation Into the Nature Of Consciousness and Form
- Vedic Cosmography and Astronomy
- Alien Identities: Ancient Insights into Modern UFO Phenomena
- Mysteries of the Sacred Universe: The Cosmology of the Bhagavata Purana
- Maya: The World As Virtual Reality
- God and Science: Divine Causation and the Laws of Nature. [Selected essays]
Who is Alcyone?
At the Feet of the Master is a book attributed to Jiddu Krishnamurti, authored when he was fourteen years old. Written under the name Alcyone, it was first published in 1910. It has since gone through dozens of editions, and has been translated in many languages.
The identity of the author has been the subject of debate. It has been proposed that C.W. Leadbeater, Krishnamurti’s mentor, was the actual producer of the work; Leadbeater had assigned him the pseudonym (Alcyone). Although it has been claimed that Krishnamurti never admitted authorship, research by S. Lloyd Williams in “Did J. Krishnamurti Write At the Feet of the Master?” has established that prior to 1934, Krishnamurti repeatedly admitted authorship of the work:
“Over many years Krishnamurti asserted countless times in print that he wrote At the Feet of the Master. He also asserted it in his own handwriting with his original signature. He started teaching the book’s teachings and discussing them with others even before the book was published.”
Krishnamurti also promoted the book during his leadership of The Order of the Star in the East:
“He spent two decades ardently advocating the book as his basic spiritual statement. Krishnamurti was over 30 years old when he required his most earnest followers to sign their acceptance of the book’s teachings as the ideals of their lives. He published and promoted At the Feet of the Master “by J. Krishnamurti” when he was in his 30s, and he earned royalties from its sales. He was still advertising and selling his own editions of his book when he was 35 years old, even after he dissolved the Order of the Star.”
Admittedly, the following is stated in the foreword: “These are not my words; they are the words of the Master who taught me.” This statement is apparently related to Leadbeater’s claim that the so-called Master Kuthumi was “releasing” the spiritual instruction that makes up the work to young Krishnamurti while the latter was asleep.
Krishnamurti’s attitude towards the book changed over time. S. Lyoyd Williams quotes Krishnamurti’s May 29, 1946 letter to Hadjipetros:
“At the Feet of the Master is not copyrighted and so anyone can translate as they please. We feel we shall not be responsible for it as it is not copyrighted, and as there have been considerable changes in our thought since it was written. The main principles in it, such as Karma, good behavior etc., are undeniable, but all the frame round it about the masters, initiation, and so on, seems an impediment to real understanding.”
The book is considered a theosophical classic, and as of 2010, it has never been out-of-print. As of the same year, early editions of the work were in the public domain within several jurisdictions.
Posted in History
Tagged Alcyone, At the Feet of the Master, Krishnamurti, Theosophy
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