Eckankar

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Eckankar Summary

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Eckankar

ECKANKAR was founded by Paul Twitchell (1909–1971) in California in the mid-1960s. Although the Hindi/Punjabi term Ek Onkar (literally "One God/Power") was most likely derived from Guru Nānak's Japjī (the first set of hymns in the Sikh holy book, Gurū Granth Sāhib), Twitchell altered its original phonetic spelling and definition, claiming that "Eckankar" was a Tibetan-Pali word meaning "co-worker with God." According to Twitchell, Eckankar was an ancient spiritual path with a lineage of 970 "Eck" Masters who trace back to Gakko, who brought the true teachings of soul travel from the city of Retz on the planet Venus. Twitchell alleged that through this bilocation philosophy a neophtye can leave his or her body via an inner light and sound and soul-travel to higher regions of consciousness, which lead ultimately to the supreme lord, Sugmad.

The Living Eck Master (occasionally retaining the more exalted title of Mahanta, "the highest state of God consciousness on earth") is central to Eckankar theology because it is through his guidance that the student (known as a chela) receives various levels of initiation, usually involving instructions into new sacred tones and other higher-level practices of contemplation. In an early article entitled "The Cliff Hanger" published in Psychic Observer in 1964, Twitchell explained the basis behind his new group:

Eckankar, which I formed out of my own experience, is the terms used for the philosophy I have developed for the Cliff Hanger. It is based on Shabd-Yoga, a way out form of yoga. The word is the Hindu locution for the cosmic sound current which is known in our vernacular as the cosmic river of God.

Twitchell attributed the evolution of his personal philosophy into a public spiritual path to his second wife, Gail Atkinson (whom he married in 1964 when he was fifty-four years old and she was twenty-one), saying, "The switchover from the Cliff Hanger to Eck began taking place after I met my present wife, Gail. She insisted that I do something with my knowledge and abilities" (quoted in Brad Steiger, In My Soul I Am Free [San Diego, 1974], p. 64).

Eckankar's organization and teachings have evolved since Twitchell died of heart disease on September 17, 1971, in Cincinnati, Ohio, shortly after giving a talk. Twitchell's widow, Gail Atkinson (his first wife, Camille Ballowe, whom he married in 1942, divorced him on the legal grounds of desertion in 1960), claimed to have had a dream in which her husband appointed Darwin Gross to be his spiritual successor and the leader of Eckankar. Gross, who eventually married and then divorced Atkinson, served as the Living Eck Master for ten years until 1981, when he appointed Harold Klemp to succeed him as the spiritual leader of the organization. Two years later, in 1983, there was an acrimonous split between Klemp and Gross, which resulted in the latter being excommunciated from Eckankar. A lawsuit was filed by the Eckankar organization against Gross for allegedly misappropriating funds and for trademark and copyright infringement. Gross subsequently cut off any formal ties with Eckankar and started his own group called ATOM (The Ancient Teachings of the Masters). Eckankar has more or less erased Gross's tenure (and books) from their official histories. After selling the copyrights of Twitchell's books to Eckankar, Gail Atkinson ended her association with Eckankar.

Under the present leadership of Klemp, Eckankar has expanded its core audience worldwide and has an estimated paid membership of anywhere between 40,000 and 100,000 members yearly (Eckankar does not provide exact numbers). Klemp has also produced a wide-ranging series of books and discourses and has moved Eckankar's former center of operations from Menlo Park, California, to Chanhassen, Minnesota, where he established the temple of Eck. According to its own accounting, Eckankar has members from over one hundred countries around the world.

During Klemp's tenure, Eckankar has also systematized its teaching and made it more accessible to the general reading public by lessening its emphasis on Twitchell's extensive use of Indian-influenced terminology (particularly Hindi/Punjabi). Eckankar's official website (http://www.eckan-kar.org) presents a codified version of its belief system:

Soul is eternal and is the individual's true identity. Soul exists because God loves it. Soul is on a journey to Self- and God-Realization. Spiritual unfoldment can be accelerated through conscious contact with the ECK, Divine Spirit. This contact can be made via the Spiritual Exercises of ECK and the guidance of the Living ECK Master. The Mahanta, the Living ECK Master is the spiritual leader of Eckankar. Spiritual experience and liberation in this lifetime are available to all. You can actively explore the spiritual worlds through Soul Travel, dreams, and other spiritual techniques.

Eckankar has weathered a fair storm of controversy since its inception, primarily because of questions concerning Twitchell's alleged plagiarism, biographical redactions, and purported historical antecedents. First, Twitchell claimed that while traveling in Europe and India he was taught Eckankar by the two former Masters who preceded him, Sudar Singh of Allahabad and Rebazar Tarzs, a supposed five-hundred-year-old Tibetan monk. However, there is no documented evidence proving that Twitchell had visited these countries when he claimed he did or that either Sudar Singh or Rebazar Tarzs are genuine historical figures. Rather, there is ample evidence (even from Twitchell's own pen) that he was associated with Swami Premananda of the Self-Revelation Church of Absolute Monism in Washington, D.C., from 1950 to 1955, when he was asked to leave the church compounds for personal misconduct. Additionally, Twitchell received initiation into Shabd Yoga in 1955 from Kirpal Singh, the founder of Ruhani Satsang in Delhi, India, while the guru was on his first tour of the United States. He kept in close contact with Kirpal Singh via correspondence for at least a decade and took his wife Gail to see the Indian guru and have her receive initiation from him in San Francisco in 1963. Twitchell also joined L. Ron Hubbard's Church of Scientology in the 1950s and eventually served for a short time as his press agent and wrote a number of articles for the group.

With the founding of Eckankar, however, Twitchell altered his biography and redacted references to his former teachers and replaced them with a hierarchy of Eck Masters. He even changed his birth date, claiming on his second marriage certificate that he was born in 1922, subtracting some thirteen years off his age. He also eventually denied his initiation under Kirpal Singh and threatened to sue his former gurū over what he considered defamatory claims concerning his discipleship.

A number of Twitchell's books on Eckankar contain large chunks of material appropriated from sources he failed to reference. Twitchell seemed particularly fond of plagiarizing whole passages from Radhasoami Satsang Beas author Julian Johnson, whose two books, With a Great Master in India (1934) and The Path of the Masters (1939), contributed to much of Eckankar's specialized terminology that draws extensively from the Sant Mat tradition of North India, an eclectic spiritual movement that includes such poet-saints as Kabīr, Dādū, and Tulsi Sahib. While Gross denied such appropriations for over a decade, the current Eck leader, Harold Klemp, has acknowledged some of Twitchell's plagiarism by calling him a "master compiler." Regardless of these continuing controversies, Eckankar has become an exceptionally successful religion with centers spanning the globe. Interestingly, Eckankar has a strong presence in Africa (particularly Nigeria) and in Europe, and it continues to draw thousands to its yearly conferences.

While Eckankar has been directly influenced by the Self-Realization Fellowship, Theosophy, Scientology, and particularly Sant Mat (via its specialized version of sound-current yoga), it has, in turn, influenced a number of new religious offshoots, including the Movement of Spiritual Inner Awareness (MSIA), founded by John-Roger Hinkins; MasterPath, founded by Gary Olsen; The Ancient Teachings of the Masters (ATOM), founded by Darwin Gross; the Divine Science of Light and Sound, founded by Jerry Mulvin; the Sonic Spectrum, founded by Michael Turner; and the Higher Consciousness Society, founded by Ford Johnson. Each of the founders of these groups was at one time a member of Eckankar, and they have all incorporated many Eck terms and ideas into their respective organizations. Eckankar's future looks bright as it enters its fifth decade of existence.