| It
is hard to understand how Leon MacLaren
was able to perform the numerous tasks
as described. He suffered from ill health
all his life, including epilepsy, psoriasis,
and in later life also diabetes. In
the period 1982/83 he almost lost his
life due to a mysterious loss of white
blood cells and he spent his last years
in a wheel chair. His doctor said that
he had literally been kept alive for
a number of years by the devoted care
of his assistant.
The
time for him to withdraw came not,
as is generally believed, with the
appointment of his successor in 1992,
but three years earlier. In 1989 Leon
MacLaren was urged by the Board
of the Executive to replace the material
for Part One which he had written
in 1953 based on Ouspensky’s
System. The intake of new pupils had
been steadily declining and the Executive
thought that this was due to the material
being ‘out of date’. He
doubted it and to prove his point
went to take a Part One course himself
using his own material. It was a great
success. It was not that the material
needed to be changed, but the person
teaching it! However, it made no difference
and the request that the material
should be rewritten was repeated.
Leon MacLaren
eventually gave the task to a younger
man. It was a momentous decision,
for he said that the School belongs
to he who writes the Part One material.
This was when he handed over the School,
but for some reason he kept it quiet.
Yet it marked the end of an era. The
fact that the attendance declined
and that no one could do anything
about it was for him a sign to withdraw.
The heyday had passed. Interestingly,
the intake of new members never picked
up again.
From then on Leon
MacLaren performed his function
with great reluctance. He retreated
into silence more and more. It was
obvious that he was moving into a
different dimension, no longer interested
in the roles he had played. Only one
or two people witnessed this major
change in his approach. A generous
pupil offered him his seaside home
in Southampton, making it harder for
people to visit him and only a handful
stayed in touch. Regardless of his
weakened condition, three weeks before
his death he commenced his customary
lecture tour round the world. He got
as far as Durban in South Africa where
he was diagnosed with lung cancer.
The following words he spoke from
his hospital bed which severed the
last ties to his life’s work:
“The leadership
is now ended.”
He was brought
back to London where he died in a
hospital on 24th of June. He had played
his part to the full and taught the
best lesson to his pupils at the end,
that when the play is over, one simply
leaves the stage. |
