Eckankar?

[AЯAB]

My father has been into Eckankar for a couple years now. He has never forced anything upon me or tried to teach me anything of it. Today he asked me if I wanted to go to a seminar with him next weekend. I know it will make him happy if I tag along but I have some doubts. I know Eckankar is mainly about soul travel and astral projection and what not. To be honest, I'm kind of scared. All that astral projection stuff never really made sense to me and I don't want were I'm at right now to get messsed up. I however know it's good to be open to things so I will still go but I would like to know if any bums know anything about this spiritual path, Eckankar. Thanks a lot everyone (:

 

 

BTW thank you all for replying to my last post, I greatly appreciate it and took all of your views into consideration. I know everything will turn out the way it should, thank you (:

[fiveelementtao]

My father has been into Eckankar for a couple years now. He has never forced anything upon me or tried to teach me anything of it. Today he asked me if I wanted to go to a seminar with him next weekend. I know it will make him happy if I tag along but I have some doubts. I know Eckankar is mainly about soul travel and astral projection and what not. To be honest, I'm kind of scared. All that astral projection stuff never really made sense to me and I don't want were I'm at right now to get messsed up. I however know it's good to be open to things so I will still go but I would like to know if any bums know anything about this spiritual path, Eckankar. Thanks a lot everyone (:

 

 

BTW thank you all for replying to my last post, I greatly appreciate it and took all of your views into consideration. I know everything will turn out the way it should, thank you (:

 

It's a cult. Paul twitchell stole some things from Sikh mysticism and repackaged it with a completely false history.

the name "Eckankar" comes directly from the Sikh mystic mantra "Ek Ong Kar Sat Nam Siri Wahe Guru"

 

The Sikh mysticism it came from is very cool, but the eckankar version is very different. I would be very cautious...

 

Google a search on eckankar cult and you will find alot of info about people who have been severely damaged by the cultic aspects of the religion. link

[oat1239]

My father has been into Eckankar for a couple years now. He has never forced anything upon me or tried to teach me anything of it. Today he asked me if I wanted to go to a seminar with him next weekend. I know it will make him happy if I tag along but I have some doubts. I know Eckankar is mainly about soul travel and astral projection and what not. To be honest, I'm kind of scared. All that astral projection stuff never really made sense to me and I don't want were I'm at right now to get messsed up. I however know it's good to be open to things so I will still go but I would like to know if any bums know anything about this spiritual path, Eckankar. Thanks a lot everyone (:

 

I was curious about the Eckankar group several years ago so I did some research into it. Its history is quite a messy story. The group was started in the early 60's by a guy named Paul Twitchell who claimed to be one of a long line of 'Eck Masters' who are here to teach spiritual cultivation according to this tradition. Twitchell went on to write various books on 'Eckankar', some of which were used as this group's primary religious teachings. Later on some members of this group noticed that some of the writings in these books by Twitchell were identical in large sections to earlier writings by a guy named Julian Johnson. A university student later investigated this further and found that the plagiarisms in some of Twitchell's books were actually quite extensive. Some of the main books that were plagiarized from were books by a guy named Julian P. Johnson who had studied Sant Mat (specifically 'Radha Soami') in India and wrote extensively about this and his experiences. At the time I was looking into Eckankar, I obtained copies of a few of Twitchell's books in question and compared to a couple of Julian Johnson's books ('With a Great Master in India' and 'The Path of the Masters') and confirmed for myself that there were in fact extensive plagiarims made by Twitchell from these writings, and I have seen evidence posted by others that Twitchell also plagiarized works from various other authors such as Kirpal Singh, Lama Govinda, Walter Russell, L. Ron Hubbard, H. P. Blavatsky, Alan Watts, etc.

 

It would seem that Twitchell, who was once a follower of L. Ron Hubbard (Scientology), used various esoteric books available at the time as a source to help write his own religion writings. Twitchell's writings appear to draw heavily from Julian Johnson's descriptions of Radha Soami, but also seem to have a lot other stuff thrown in from some of the other authors mentioned. At the time Twitchell did this, most people in the West knew next to nothing about Eastern religions and related, so Twitchell's writings probably seemed unique and mysterious to many followers joining the group, but in later years as more and more people began to read up more on such things they began to find numerous similarities and plagiarisms (some were extensive) made by Twitchell from other books. There were a number of people who left Eckankar when this was discovered, but some members stayed on and continued to downplay these significant plagiarisms. There used to be a number of personal accounts on line by former members of this group regarding this and other things that went on in Eckankar, but I don't know if all these accounts are still around on the net.

 

Since your father is apparently interested in this group, you may not want to mention this stuff to him unless you check into the details for yourself first and confirm what information is still out there on this, but I can confirm that I did personally compare a few of Twitchell's books with Julian Johnson's writings and I did find quite extensive word for word plagiarisms by Twitchell from Johnson's books. The other information you may find is based on accounts by various former members of this group, so that is much harder to confirm as fact. You may want to think carefully about mentioning any of this to your father if you think it might strain relations between you.

Edited September 16, 2011 by oat1239

[Dainin]

I don't know much about the original Sikhs that this type of "sound and light" practice began with, but their progeny appear to be rather strange:

 

Sri Darwin Gross

 

Sri Gary Olsen

 

Supreme Master Ching Hai ("God's Direct Contact")

[fiveelementtao]

I don't know much about the original Sikhs that this type of "sound and light" practice began with, but their progeny appear to be rather strange:

 

Sri Darwin Gross

 

Sri Gary Olsen

 

Supreme Master Ching Hai ("God's Direct Contact")

The Sikhs have their roots in Vedic and Hindu beliefs. The Sikh belief of the Shabda or primal divine sound is just an extension of the Vedic belief that Divine sound is what creates and maintains the Universe. Twitchell just apporpriated the idea and used it for his own purposes...

[ralis]

I don't know much about the original Sikhs that this type of "sound and light" practice began with, but their progeny appear to be rather strange:

 

Sri Darwin Gross

 

Sri Gary Olsen

 

Supreme Master Ching Hai ("God's Direct Contact")

 

I did a weekend with Gary Olsen in Albuquerque. There were about 1,000 people in attendance. The strange thing about him is the tan. He claims it is a result of his meditation practice. A solar tan without the sun.

 

Olsen was caught plagiarizing some of the Sant Mat books and was forced to apologize.

[billb]

I don't know much about the original Sikhs that this type of "sound and light" practice began with, but their progeny appear to be rather strange:

 

Sri Darwin Gross

 

Sri Gary Olsen

 

Supreme Master Ching Hai ("God's Direct Contact")

 

How did Supreme Master Ching Hai have anything to do with Eckankar? Another cult leader for sure though and thanks for the laughs. I guess going blonde was just a natural effect of her enlightenment.

[Dainin]

How did Supreme Master Ching Hai have anything to do with Eckankar? Another cult leader for sure though and thanks for the laughs. I guess going blonde was just a natural effect of her enlightenment.

 

She probably didn't have anything to do with Eckankar , but I think that she was influenced by the same type of Sant Mat Sikh teachings that Eckankar drew from, meditations on inner sound and light...