When Paul Twitchell suddenly died in September 1971, he left no word as to who his successor should be. But her email was the exact reason why i left. When youre traveling, you want to have fun; you want to see pretty things. Id really start believing Id had a spiritual experience, Id wake up feeling like, Wow! Eckankar works because it doesnt make you have experiences that are impossible to have., What about soul travel, visiting higher planes of existence? Lane swallows his pizza. They sent letters about me claiming I was the negative force, that I. He had to make it seem like its his own creation, because if he linked the two hed lose his potential clientele., It was to hide these past connections. Once we get to Del Mar, Lane pulls to the side of the road and examines a copy of Twitchells death certificate to get the exact address. May 1, 2023 6:30 AM. The religion seems to be centered around spiritual experiences, particularly experiencing the "Light and Sound of God." Eckankar got wind of the new edition, and their lawyers began corresponding with Garland. An Eckankar representative, claiming to be a member of the Berkeley-based anti-cult group Spiritual Counterfeits Project, asked Gruss for a copy of Peebless report. Two years later I got a letter from a guy in Canada saying hed discovered a genuine guru. When I leave Richardss office its dusk. What it means is that I ultimately dont know. The think any actual activ long time member of Eckankar is very happy with Eckankar. I stood up and said, You know, Im a member of the community, Im a coach in the Little League, Im involved with the schools. I gave a list of my involvements with the community, and then I said, Im an Eckist and I believe in God. Ellen Burstyn, maybe.) Lane does arrive, at one oclock Thursday afternoon, on time to the minute. I said, 'Where was John-Roger yesterday? The guy turned totally paranoid. Im a fool to want you, quivers Billie Holiday through my stereo speakers. Members receive a monthly discourse, which they have the option of studying alone or in classes. Last year, former cult member Peter McWilliams published a scathing tell-all, Life 102: What to Do When Your Guru Sues You; Novembers Vanity Fair linked Arianna Huffingtons allegiance to MSIA to her husbands unsuccessful senate campaign; and the March issue of Playboy ran a detailed expose. I had heard about this ability to get out of the body, where one can have an internal spiritual experience. I cant understand why he would be doing this, because the Eckists have never gone out of their way to hurt him; but he claims that they did, I think, in one regard. While Lane is in the bathroom, I try, to no avail, to get permission to photograph the event. In a husky voice, smooth as malt whiskey, she sings, Dont blame me for falling in love with you. Although the book was already typeset. He invited me to his house in Mandeville Canyon, a beautiful house, a mansion. Totally aware, she says seriously. Why I Left Eckankar The Courier-Journal magazine, to which he was a regular contributor, reported that he sold 1800 stories and articles in three years. We were suddenly in a marketplace with lots of bright burgundy-colored carpets. I get the sense his gentleness does not comes naturally, that it has been worked at, with great success. Then his widow, Gail Atkinson, had a vision in the night in which Twitchell named Gross. Sri Harold Klemp has immense financial resources available to guide the spiritual lives of his tens of thousands of believers. As we shake hands I notice hes wearing a gold ring with an embossed EK logo. Eckists left and right were smiling at the guy, stopping for long chats, and tossing money into his cup. When Fox settled the defamation lawsuit brought by Dominion Voting Systems for $787.5 million, the conventional wisdom was that it would alter little about . I would raise my head to the stage in rapt silence, devouring every word the Grosses spoke. Fie has a personal thing against Eckankar, he briskly replies. by. When I sit down on the cream-colored day bed, he suggests I might be more comfortable in the armchair facing him. Then he took the Ho, and he put the two words together. Lane phoned Hinkins to ask him about these charges. After she finishes, Gross says, She can belt one out, cant she? Recently I have had a spiritual crisis where I stopped believing in the concept of the Abrahamic God. Gross smiles to himself as he hits the vibes. Im under your spell, but how can I help it. There is a double edge to this torch song; from the way she keeps glancing affectionately over at Gross, it is the Masters spell that Driggs cant be blamed for falling under. ECKANKAR ~ Westernized Hindu / Buddhist Mind Control Cult Understandably, he changed the names of his sources, because he didnt want people to know about his past. But Lane had the jump on all of them when back in 1984 he wrote The J.R. Initially he refuses to come to the Hillcrest home where Im staying, preferring to meet in a nearby restaurant. What do Eckists believe? What is Eckankar? - CompellingTruth.org Not long afterward I joined Eckankar, unaware of the dissension. He had on a white turban with a gemstone right here in the middle. Yelman points to her bangs. I did my spiritual exercises daily as much as probably anyone in eckankar. Whenever I saw Gross and Atkinson, I would be seated in an auditorium, surrounded by thousands of avid followers, each hoping at some point to receive the darshan, the Masters gaze. Finally, he agrees to come to the house, but Im doubtful that he will really appear. If you were going to visit a new city, wouldnt you want a guide, wouldnt you want to stay away from the places where the prostitutes are, from the dark streets and the hoodlums? The Temple of Eck in Chanhassen [Minnesota] is open to people of all faiths to come, to attend the worship services, maybe just to enhance their own beliefs. What I found was so obvious that anybody could have discovered it. Simply put, Twitchell cut his connection with Radhasoami for good marketing reasons. All that junk you told him made me sick. His earlier writings didnt really talk about Rebazar Tarzs. (The 500-year-old bearded Tibetan monk Rebazar Tarzs wears a maroon robe, carries in his powerful right hand a huge walking staff, and speaks with a musical voice. Im sure of it. He taps his finger on the table. The disciples felt used and manipulated for spiritual reasons., After the secret meeting. Hes got his music. Around the same time, the Spiritual Counterfeits Project published its own journal, Eckankar, a Hard Look at a New Religion, based largely on lines manuscript, which they distributed to nearly every Eck center i in the world. Radhasoami is a yogic teaching that, according to Lane, is designed to enable the soul or consciousness to ascend beyond the physical body to higher spiritual regions by means of an internal sound or life current. Central to the teachings of Radhasoami, continues Lane, is the necessity of a living human master competent in initiating disciples into the practice and technique of listening to the inner sound, contemplating the inner light, and leaving the human body at will. The Indian guru Kirpal Singh figures prominently in Twitchells early writing. Understand that if you read the sacred works of all the religions, such as the Bhagavad-Gita, the Bible, or the Koran, youre going to see references almost exactly alike. He tells me a phenomenal story about an American writer and a European writer who, unbeknownst to one another, wrote identical books and sent them to the same publisher. Saturday afternoon, when we arrive at the hotel, Lane keeps disappearing into the bathroom. Maybe it was just some neurons firing in the right part of your brain or maybe you had too much dopamine in the frontal lobes or maybe you took an Excedrin four hours ago. We dont want that kind of explanation., Its a beautiful, sunny day. Those who become disheartened quit ECK for other paths that seem to require less drive and responsibility of them. They had this little tape recorder, and I was impressed I thought it was very professional. Lanes research into Eckankar is meticulously documented. Lets try to make it easy for them to at least understand what were doing, what were about, and what the potential of the teaching is. A lot of people would see Eckankar as a cult. They would say that in any college or institution. Lane is convinced John-Roger was involved. Nine years later she read Paul Twitchells Eckankar: Key to Secret Worlds. According to Lane, all three letters are printed in the same typeface with the same malfunctioning capital A. Lane can be such a card. The following article hopes to help you make more suitable choices and get more useful information In 1977, noting the similarities between Radhasoami and Eckankar, a religious movement founded in San Diego in 1965 by the late Paul Twitchell, Lane wrote a term paper comparing the two for an undergraduate religious studies class at California State University-Northridge. The perplexed beggar was in hog heaven. Here it is. Del Mars beach is amazingly clean. You need a guide who knows the city. Soul, being a spark of God, is on a journey to find its way home to God, or the Sugmad. ", The following year Lane wrote a second paper, The Making of a Spiritual Movement: The Untold Story of Paul Twitchell and Eckankar. I was obsessed, Lane admits. Then, Lane says excitedly, John-Roger committed the biggest mistake. We dont rely on the written word. So I sent my term paper to Eckankar, and then they turned around two months later and said they were going to sue me if I published it. Rosanne Cash sings, Some dreams die with dignity. We close our eyes and chant Hu together for several minutes. I imagine we have a wide spectrum. This must not be true. Yet it has a sweetness to it. Eckankar is cult just like Scientology. I was excited 20 years old, in the moment of discovering something new. Lane leans across the cafe table, excitedly tapping his straw. Signed, The Master. Another former Eckist named Gary Olsen started the MasterPath. Its even available for community events. But Eckists are such sweet people, I insist. I didnt know why it happened. To top it off, their white helmets bore an insignia that was remarkably similar to Eckankars circular EK logo. But if I belonged to an organization that did. So Harold said, Hey, why should we make this difficult for people? An example: I claim the reason I missed our appointment last night was because Elvis was on Venus and sucked me up into a space capsule. Moreover, people within John-Rogers group have confirmed that on the day of the robbery he was in San Diego., Lane didnt sue Hinkins, but he did go public with his story. Lane looks like hes swallowed a mouse, grinning and biting his finger. I called him my friend, she continues. He wanted to make my research more available. And I saw into the vast soft interior of the universe which was slowly and gently turning itself inside out. John-Roger was a follower of Eckankar, begins Lane. Though McMahon is obviously angry about Lane, he maintains a kind, gentle manner. Opinion | Tucker Carlson's Great Replacement - New York Times It may be a game for Lane, but believers are playing for high emotional and intellectual stakes. He focuses a lot on past things, Paul Twitchell and how much his writings look like the writings of a teaching Lane happens to be in. FFCA home - Ritual abuse The inner form of the Living Eck Master, known as the Mahanta, works with students in the dreamstate and during their spiritual exercises. Two different analysts verified they were all written by John-Roger Hinkins. In another lifetime I may have had a connection with Rebazar Tarzs, and so that would be a good way of linking me back in. An Independent Critique of Eckankar - Page 9 - Angelfire The similarities are there because they are both cults. Hed read the book and wanted me to visit him. He was a pro-bowler as well as a higher initiate in Eckankar. I said, Yeah, Geraldo, this guy robbed my house, he did this he did this he did that all on national TV. A few months later Gross and Twitchells widow married, sending more ripples of confusion throughout the fold. When Yelman was six, her family moved to Texas. Yelman received hers while at an Eck seminar in Hawaii. Eckankar and I finally reached a point where decades of lies, of half truths, of disappointments, finally came to a head. I became a teenager and all this other stuff was grabbing my attention., I keep looking around at Yelmans office. A line will leap out and inspire you. You know, just a natural progression. Second, everybody has to dream at night, or most people dream at night, and Eckists dream about Fubbi Quantz or Rebazar Tarzs or Paul Twitchell. So I may Ik damaging the organization, but the real essence of Eckankar is not the organization, its the Eck, that inner spirit., They read my book. The idea that people are leaving Eckankar based on what they read in a single book is IMO an advertizing tactic to sell more copies. When I get home, my hosts greet me with a Manhattan. Hes big, coughing, not in the best of health, and he doesnt have any money. 2023 San Diego Reader. Each year Eckankar holds three of these U.S. seminars, which can draw 6000-plus people. Its a bitchin house.. When it came out, I got a 25-page letter from a group called the Coalition for Civil and Spiritual Freedom. If you've checked out the lives of the Eck Masters and found problems, do the same thing to all these "occult experts" because a lot of them had their stories . I had the following experience, I was taken back to the crucifixion. Lane pays for my coffee and his Coke, and we sit down at a small, dark table. It was exciting, someplace to go! A friend from La Jolla gave me a copy of the article that David Lane is writing called the J. R. Controversy. Yelmans studies at UCSD brought her to San Diego in 1974. As late as December 1993, Gross sent out a memo to all his readers defending Paul Twitchell and the corporation he started against Lanes attacks. In Texas, she says, a disembodied being began visiting her. Peebles, says Lane, got so disgruntled when he realized there was some kind of fraud being perpetuated that he wrote Eckankar himself about these findings. Peebles returned to his Baptist roots and sent his paper to Professor Ed Gruss of the Los Angeles Baptist College. Thats his axe to grind with Eckankar. They were gods to me, and one doesnt question the mating patterns of gods. Lane tells me that former Living Eck Master Darwin Gross is appearing February 11 at the Best Western Hanalei Hotel. His only interest was getting the message out about the light and sound of God., McMahon doesnt blame anyone for being skeptical. The report made claims of tax irregularities and personal misconduct by an Eckankar leader. Disillusioned Eckists left the movement in droves. Im a surfer, so I had this surfer hair and a turtleneck. With all this information you have, you could start your own thing. I go, Jerry, I cant do that third-eye patch, turban, the flowing robe I cant do it.. I dont have a real axe to grind., At a Hillcrest cafe, Lane confides, The people who scare me are John-Rogers people, not Eckankars. John-Roger Hinkins, founder of the Church of the Movement of Spiritual Inner Awareness (MSI A, pronounced Messiah), has gotten a lot of bad press lately. There was music and noise and clamor, and I turned to look at my friend. When he finishes the song, he takes off his shoes to be closer to the keys. The atmosphere in the room is homey and protective. The program Lane and I attend at the Best Western Hanalei is called The Universal Basics of Life Through Music. It costs $35 at the door. I wrote to him, and he wrote a real nice letter back, saying that we should get together and talk. Do you think it would be an easy thing to do?". So I asked, 'Who is this enlightened being? It was Jerry Mulvin! Sure! But when we go to the Hillcrest Village parking garage to retrieve Lanes car he cant find it. He was kind of dark complexioned. What is Eckankar? | Eckankar is Love, Wisdom & Spiritual Freedom Aside from the fact that Eckankar has techniques and tools that are incredible and not really matched by other groups, I think the freedom that is allowed to the members is a wonderful thing.". Lane has tears in his eyes. Whereas Sudar Singh [another memorable character in Twitchells cosmology] isKirpal Singh. In The Making of a Spiritual Movement, Lane quotes many passages from Twitchells magazine articles written in the 60s in which Twitchell cites Swami Premananda, Kirpal Singh, Meher Baba, Guru Nanak, Kabir, and even Jesus. I figure Lane knows plenty about this. Incredibly, I was awake, but still in my inner world at the same time. Sri harold klemp is the 973rd living eck master in an unbroken line of eck masters. Theres lots of stuff I know about Eckankar, lots of stuff that is real juicy and real scandalous, but I wanted to limit my book to some major salient features about plagiarism and cover-up. Let's just say that on a relative scale, Jim Jones and Jonestown is the worst and that Mother Teresa of Calcutta is the best in that range Eckankar is kind of in the middle, and I dont think it should rank with the most dangerous of cults. Eckankar does not help people find God. You got it. Twitchell was living in Point Loma in 1965 when he started teaching workshops and selling booklets on how to leave your body. Those answers were so far-reaching in their depth and breadth, they still help me today, nine years later. WHY I LEFT THE MASTER. I was teaching at UC-San Diego at the time. Same with Shamus-i-Tabriz. When I came back to the States, I read a book by Paul Twitchell called The Tigers Fang. I'd sign this but you SCUM BAGS aren't worth much more of my effort, just a bit more EFFORT and then it ends. David Lane lives in the San Diego area, but the location is a closely guarded secret. His voice changed, Well, we cant reveal that information. Was he in San Diego? No reply. In the course of his research, Lane discovered information that led him to believe that Twitchell copied whole chapters from Radhasoami texts, lied about biographical details, and misled people concerning the origin of Eckankars doctrines. He looks like Santa, I think, like a fallen Santa. Im greeted by a tall, handsome black man with a mustache and short-cropped hair graying slightly at the temples. We talk about the Hu as a prayer song or a love song to God, instead of saying its a chant or mantra. Clearly Lane is not a blind follower. Well, the upshot of it is, we were friendly for five years, and then in 1983 four of his closest disciples defected. I need it. I called John-Roger immediately. "Dummie's Guide to Why People Leave Eck" by Sri Harold Klemp - narkive 40 people in a hotel named Hanalei in San Diego for a man who used to draw thousands. . It was like in my imagination. He does that all the time. With the popularity of the Ghostbusters logo. Hes touring the Southwest, as we speak. But Im amazed that after all the dirt hes dug up on religions, he could be seriously involved in any spiritual path. Here's something you might be interested in. Lane, like his counterpart Houdini, seems shackled. Sipping his virgin strawberry margarita, Lane says, I got a sense of authenticity when he played his vibes, like thats who he really was, a musician, instead of trying to be a master. I dont remember it looking this way, he says pensively. The lover has lied to you, but the lover is oh so seductive and satisfying, and submission is so thrilling. And they said, He taught you everything he could teach you, and you agreed that it was complete. It was so satisfying, it was so true, really true, true to the core of my being., So was your childhood teacher an Eck Master?. A job as a correspondent for Our Navy took him to Washington, D.C. in 1945. I was confident that soon James would see the light and become a disciple of Eckankar. Writing this summary of beliefs, I consulted Eckankar materials, but I didnt need to. Eckankar, the Ancient Science of Soul Travel, was officially founded. At this stage of the game I cant buy the crap that permeates religion, not just new religions, but religion in general. 2 Bud Light Executives on Leave After Promotion With Dylan Mulvaney It is mainly because eckankar systematically schools the follower to be dependent on the person of the living eck master and his organization as the only "reliable" source of information and to suppress a mature and less naively subjectivistic view on his own experiences, with suggestions of severe repercussions and spiritual loss in case he acts He is Shamus-i-Tabriz (a living Eck Master of 400 years ago who now teaches on the Causal Plane at the Sakapori Temple of Golden Wisdom in the city of Honu). Eckankar is one of the New Age religions, started in 1965 by journalist Paul Twitchell. Ex-Initiator's Guide to Eckankar Initiations - narkive Etznab, Why I left Ecknkar - alt.religion.eckankar.narkive.com On an Internet alternative religion bulletin board, a former Eckist writes that after reading Lanes book, I felt as if someone had just torn out my insides and served them to me over rice. Losing ones cult is like losing the love of ones life. Six DC firefighters, EMS personnel on leave after video shows Life after ECKANKAR for former ECKists - Google Groups Two figures emerge from the stilted style: the protean Paul Twitchell and his young, vivacious wife Gail, who, after Twitchells death, married his successor, Darwin Gross, in a Dynasty-like power play that troubled and thrilled the faithful. I dont think so. As we wander aimlessly back and forth between the second and third levels of the garage, I smile at my surfer companions inability to negotiate this concrete urban maze. I found it increasingly difficult to live a life that was a lie. A representative at the Eckankar international office assured me that no one is turned away for lack of funds. I dont know what that is.. If he cant take your soul back to God, he improves your bowling game, money-back guarantee. We both laugh so loudly at Lanes joke, the couple at the next table, who have been covertly eyeing the tape recorder, stare at us openly. Classic. Why is Eckankar not uplifting? - YouTube It is the force that sustains and supports all life throughout the worlds or SUGMAD [God]. The 69-year-old joined the broadcaster in 2008 after 22 years in football management. Friday afternoon I visit 22-year veteran of Eckankar Kevin McMahon in his Cardiff home. Valentines Day, my birthday, is only three days away. Eckankar first caught my attention by how matter-of-fact and logical it was. And I dont mean fun in a mean way, I mean, I find Paul to be incredibly imaginative and very interesting to investigate.. An example is Jagat Ho. I taped them for five hours. The accusations leveled against Hinkins included embezzling money, plagiarizing from the teachings of Paul Twitchell and others, skirting zoning laws, illegally obtaining airfare discounts, setting up tape recorders throughout his house to obtain information that he would later use to appear psychic, and sexual misconduct.
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