According to Gregory Tillet author of "The Elder Brother":

Leadbeater later claimed that much of the evidence against him in the transcript of the 1906 hearing had been 'fabricated' or was the result of transcription errors. However, in the custody case over Krishnamurti in Madras in 1913, Leadbeater again admitted that he had taught boys masturbation (the precise meaning of the word 'taught' was never fully explored). He denied touching the boys, but in answer to one question talked about a case in which he had done so. He declared that he gave specific sexual advice to boys on the basis of the thought forms he could see hovering about them, indicating their sexual arousal and emotional disturbance.

Claims that he had initiated sexual activities were specifically made by two of his pupils in the USA in relation to the 1906 'troubles', when it was claimed that he had indulged in mutual masturbation, alleging that this would promote physical vigour and have occult results as well. Hubert van Hook also alleged, in later years, that Leadbeater had engaged in sexual relations with him. But other than these three boys, and one in Australia, none of his pupils ever offered any public suggestion of sexual irregularities. Mrs Besant had stated that sex was not permissible for an Initiate, and the pupils all repeated that Leadbeater stressed the importance of purity. There were, however, a few things which might have led the suspicious to wonder. Why did Leadbeater invariably sleep with a young boy in his bed? And why did he invariably have a boy in the bath with him? It has been argued that his weak heart necessitated such companionship for fear he might have some sort of attack whilst alone; but does companionship require mutual nakedness in close proximity? And why did Leadbeater insist on communal bathing for his pupils at The Manor, with all of them in the bathroom, naked, at the same time? He was given an enema every morning by one or other of his pupils, in the presence of the others whilst they bathed. This, said the close associate of Leadbeater's who told of the morning ritual, may have given rise to misinterpretations. One could understand why.

Furthermore, there was a strange occult relationship between Leadbeater and some of his pupils, which seemed to have unhealthy implications. In his article 'A modem Socrates', A.J. Hamerster recalled that the pupil-teacher relationship often employed 'spiritual induction' whereby the pupils not only receive something from their teacher, but give 'something from their vital energy whereby the ancient Teacher was enabled to recuperate some of his failing strength'. In his own copy of this article, bound in with his Collected Articles in the Adyar Library, Hamerster has noted, in handwriting: 'Often was this phenomena observed by me in C.W Leadbeater's latter days in Adyar and many times I heard it from the lips of his young disciples how they actually felt their strength being drained from them.'

There were those who defended Leadbeater's 'teachings' (popularly assumed in the TS to have been condoning masturbation) on grounds which suggested the teachings involved more than was commonly known. Some suggested the teachings were given occultly in Mrs Besant's The Pedigree of Man. Others argued that it was a necessary means for humanity to return to the hermaphroditic state, and yet others said that it was too esoteric a system for anyone other than a disciple to understand. The O.E. Library Critic even suggested that Leadbeater's book, The Monad, included a reference to some form of 'psychic orgasm'.

Eventually evidence was found that Leadbeater had taught a sexual technique, other than masturbation in the sense understood by the 1906 enquiry, to a highly select group of his closest pupils, and that he gave an occult and spiritual basis for this teaching. Details of the teachings were contained within the diaries of one of Leadbeater's closest pupils. Unfortunately access to this material was closed almost immediately it had been given; it does, however, provide a solution to the mystery. That Leadbeater promulgated these teachings was later confided by one of his closest associates, who was reluctant to give the information, feeling that it would be misunderstood. He did not regard Leadbeater's teaching as 'immoral' or improper, but, as Leadbeater claimed, occult. In simple terms, Leadbeater taught that the energy aroused in masturbation can be used as a form of occult power, a great release of energy which can, first, elevate the consciousness of the individual to a state of ecstasy and, second, direct a great rush of psychic force towards the Logos for His use in occult work. Leadbeater declared: 'The closest man can come to a sublime spiritual experience is orgasm.' During masturbation, the mind should gradually be elevated towards the Godhead and, in his words, 'as soon as the seed can be felt in the tube', the consciousness should be so exalted that the great release of physical and psychical energy is directed to the Logos or to an image of Him. This occult knowledge of sex was regarded as too dangerous to give to the average person, or, indeed, to the average pupil of Leadbeater's. It was reserved for the select few, who were sworn to secrecy, and told that they were justified in not telling the truth about this highly occult matter should they be questioned. It was so secret and sacred a matter that a dual standard of morality - that of the ordinary man, and that of the spiritually evolved occultist - applied. The select pupils, on rare occasions, engaged in group ritual masturbation which was intended to send out especially powerful emanations.

Once the sexual passions were aroused, Leadbeater taught, they should be properly directed, and not wasted. Such sexual exercises could lead to the development of psychic powers and experiences of 'Nirvana' and the higher worlds. One thus re-reads a passage in his book, Clairvoyance, with a somewhat different understanding:

"Let a man choose a certain time every day - a time when he can rely upon being quiet and undisturbed, though preferably in the day time rather than at night - and set himself at this time to keep his mind for a few moments entirely free from all earthly thoughts of any kind whatever and, when that is achieved, to direct the whole force of his being towards the highest spiritual ideal that he happens to know. He will find that to gain such perfect control of thought is enormously more difficult than he supposes, but when he attains it it cannot but be in every way most beneficial to him, and as he grows more and more able to elevate and concentrate his thought, he may gradually find that new worlds are opening before his sight."

Does this, on its 'inner side', have reference to anything more than meditation in an intellectual sense?

From this sexual teaching of Leadbeater's two interesting themes can be followed. The first is that it fits in with a considerable 'movement' in aesthetic and religious circles at the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth century in which a spiritual relationship, with sexual implications, between Teacher and Pupil was exalted to a sacred degree. Timothy d'Arch Smith, in his study of 'Uranian' poets, began by noting:

" ...between the eighteen nineties and the nineteen thirties a boy was a very quiet, self-effacing and unobtrusive creature indeed. The Uranians' adoration of such a person was not therefore immediately suspect as it is in modern society where the state is intolerant of any intrusion into her prerogative of wet-nurse or where certain Sunday newspapers are as thoughtlessly swift to condemn such relationships as they are immorally prompt to arouse their young readers' erotic ardour with pictures of near nude females, and it is probable that the Uranians' love of boys gave genuine help and affection where no official organization or counsel existed outside the home or school."

The term 'Uranian' was coined, d'Arch Smith notes, by those who advocated 'boy love' in the period from the 1880s to the 1930s, and included such figures as Oscar Wilde, Edward Carpenter, John Addington Symonds, William Johnson Cory and Ralph Nicholas Chubb. Of the last named, it was said he endeavoured 'to raise paederasty to a form of religious devotion'. Amongst the religious figures d'Arch Smith includes Fr. Ignatius of Llanthony, George Reader, Frederick Widdows, Frederick Samuel Willoughby (who consecrated Wedgwood), and Leadbeater. Obviously Wedgwood and some of his associates should also have been included. Many of the Uranians were characterized by a retrospective longing for the days of classical Greece, when the teacher-pupil relationship, including a sexual relationship between an older and a younger man, was held to be the pinnacle of culture. One recalls the irony in Leadbeater's frequent reference to his own last incarnation in ancient Greece, as the pupil of One of Pythagoras' disciples. And one wonders whether Leadbeater felt as d'Arch Smith suggests Ralph Nicholas Chubb did: 'This spiritualizing of paederasty absolves him from the guilt which makes him hate society and turn into a recluse. His is no longer a common human weakness, for he has felt the cleansing fire of divinity.'

But his sexual teachings did not only link Leadbeater with an aesthetic and religious 'movement'. they also relate directly to an occult and magical tradition which employed sexual activities In a ritual context. Even more relevant, the magical use of masturbation is not unknown in some traditions of western occultism.

(2) These powers lie 'buried' beneath some 'barrier' which

conscious control cannot penetrate, but which can be overcome by

a variety of techniques, including to some extent drugs and alcohol;

(3) This 'barrier' can be penetrated through heightening the

physical, emotional and intellectual focus of the body by sexual

stimulation', leading to a 'break through' at the point of orgasm,

at which energy is released.

Techniques employed are heterosexual, homosexual or autosexual.

In the case of autosexual techniques, the aim was usually to

heighten the consciousness of the magician and focus and stimulate

his magical power, culminating in the release of energy at the

point of orgasm. The English artist and magician Austin Spare

employed a technique of 'magical masturbation' as a means of

concentrating, releasing and directing magical energy. Aleister

Crowley also employed magical sexual techniques - of every

imaginable variety - in his occult work, and in the Ordo Templi

Orientis, of which he was a member, 'magical masturbation'

was taught as the technique of one of the higher degrees. Precisely

how, or indeed if, Leadbeater's teachings related to or derived

from any of these traditions is unknown, since the sources of

information are now effectively closed.