Firstly, this board is NOT the same thing as Erik’s teachings nor is it all his work, or even a cult focused primarily ON his work – it’s a group endeavour, and the product of everyone who posts or participates at all.
I find the jumbling up of both concepts in your OP frankly a bit annoying - which I’m sure isn’t intended, but I’m just being honest 
- that said, if the same people are against BOTH the concept of teaching magick like any other skill via marketing and open access, AND they hate this forum because it supports that, and is open and friendly to newbies - then fuck 'em, I’ll gladly take the hit, both as a member & LHP magician, and also a volunteer mod trying to keep elitism and bullshit off the boards.
I’ve had many discussions with members who’ve had breakthroughs on this forum as a result of the help they got from different members here (this forum fosters a diverse approach and no one school of thought or approach is considered the ONLY one), and others from people who have hired E.A. or another member of the business and had great results, but since I’m not going to name and screen-grab all those individuals, that leaves it on the same vague footing as yours, being “many” people.
I’ve also – tellingly – never once heard a single complaint about E.A.'s work nor that of anyone currently on his team, but I can’t prove that, either, so really this is just two people’s own versions of hearsay.
May I suggest that if you want to speak for thought-leaders in metaphysics, you either name them, link to their criticisms, or have them speak for themselves?
Maybe, better yet, get them to contact E.A. to debate with him publicly instead of whingeing to anyone who’ll listen, an offer he made ages ago which afaik is still standing, and yet which only ONE person so far has had the integrity to take up?
whether it's due to his marketing or personality, i have no idea. but he rubs people the wrong way in a very similar way to maxine dietrich's JOS position in the lhp a decade ago. when erik was arrested a while ago, i was frankly turned off by the amount of schadenfreude in the occultnik circles, but it really makes you think when you see how steadily mages have been antagonistic toward this board.
Clarity, please – this board, OR the work and personality of E.A. Koetting, or both?
Also, those mages – how many of them are trying to make a living out of magick? Do you really expect competing business interests, people for whom their work places the bread on their tables, to speak in glowing terms of a competitor?
BALG also skews rather newbie-friendly.
BALG the business, afaik, that’s intentionally so – offering magickal teachings to people for whom they’d otherwise be out of reach because of geographic location, lack of contacts, or culture of their home town that means they’d never get to meet a real magician. I’ve never discussed the business model with Timothy, but that’s what I’m taking from what I’ve read and seen.
BALG the forum, hell yes it’s newbie-friendly – I did request that Timothy start a section for Member Journals to give more experienced people a place to post long-term threads detailing their work and findings (it would also obviously be open to newbies) but he decided he didn’t want to make any new additions to the forum right now, as it may be due an upgrade soon.
Really, though, I don’t see the issue – no-one is prevented from posting highly-advanced material, just because newer members on this forum are also posting their questions.
i noticed a long time ago that adepts and those coming into power tend to pack up and leave BALG as soon as they get their magicks rocking.
Yes, this is a forum people come to to learn magick… that some then leave once they feel proficient is no real big deal, it wouldn’t seem bizarre on a language forum (hosted by a company selling language courses) and if you take magick as a skill that can be taught, for a fee, that becomes obvious.
If you take a forum like StudioArcanis which is the opposite to newbie-friendly, it’s mainly an “old guard” (and that’s evidently how they like it, so that’s fair enough) and completely different to this one in most ways.
I’ve always believed and gone out of my way to support the idea of diversity, in terms of different forums serving different groups - this IMO is healthy and correct, no one forum can serve the needs of literally every person who happens to come across it and join. That’s JMO and not a “moderator statement” or anything like that, but it’s something I feel strongly about.
Forums aren’t a closed group in a small town, where people leaving means the group withers away - they’re open to the entire internet and people come and go as they choose – there’s no agenda behind the actions of disparate individuals, and it’s natural that some people will move on once they’ve learned what they came here for.
a couple have confessed to me they didn't feel welcome here as soon as they came into real spirit contact
Seriously? Most of the time any post on here where people post about a genuine spirit contact will get likes, comments, questions… more than anything, I’ve heard people complaining on-list and off that they get too overwhelmed with questions once they start posting about their ability.
It’s on them (IMO) to be able to say “sorry, I can’t help you, I don’t have time” but it’s what I’ve heard most often.
and one swore to me that this board is blind leading the blind, which frankly surprised me.
No-one’s leading anyone on here – and maybe that’s the issue.
That this forum is NOT a graded heirarchy, so people who get experience don’t suddenly get somehow “promoted” in a way that flatters their egos?
If someone truly believes they have a key to magick that “the blind” on here just aren’t seeing, why not start a thread about that? (Or a site, or a forum, or a business?)
Could it not just be the classic case that people get their first true rush of knowledge, power and experience, start feeling their oats a bit, and decide that everyone else and everything else is beneath them, and that they could do better?
Because that’s just human nature and it happens in almost every area of human endeavour at some stage, which is why college-leavers habitually think they know better than everyone else on the planet, including politicians and their own parents!
thoughts?
If someone’s seriously unhappy with a specific thing about the board and feels that it breaches rules or is somehow out of line, take it to a moderator or Timothy – there’s an appeals procedure clearly outlined in Official Announcements.
For anything less serious, if for example you think the forum is “the blind leading the blind” then start being a leader yourself – share your methods and results, open up about your techniques, discoveries, UPG, big-ass realisations – instead of sitting back with a sneer expecting someone else to do the heavy lifting for you.
Obviously no community made of imperfect people will ever BE perfect, we all rub up against people and you can’t like everyone you meet online, but this forum is for discussing magick, and not meant to be all things, to all people. No forum can be, nor should it try.
That’s my 2¢ anyway, for whatever it’s worth.
