Eckankar

Also known as "The Ancient Science of Soul Travel" and "The Religion of the Light and Sound of God," the religion known officially as Eckankar was founded in 1965 by Paul Twitchell (d. 1971). Twitchell was a religious seeker and dabbler in various new religious movements, including Scientology and The Self-Revelation Church of Absolute Monism. He seems to have been influenced significantly by the Sikh-related philosophy and spirituality of the Radhasoami tradition of India. Students and critics of Twitchell's movement have pointed out striking parallels between its cosmology and that of Kirpal Singh, who brought the Radhasoami to America via a movement known as the Ruhani Satsang.

Twitchell first established Eckankar—a word seemingly derived from a Punjabi term for God—in San Diego, California. Soon after that he moved its headquarters to Las Vegas, Nevada. The members were primarily people who had attended Twitchell's lectures or read his spiritual autobiography The Tiger's Fang. Twitchell was also made famous by Brad Steiger's biography In My Soul I Am Free. Twitchell claimed to be the "971st Living Eck Master"—the most recent in an unbroken succession of oracles of God sent to Earth by the "Vairagi Masters," who oversee the spiritual unfoldment of the planet. In 1969 Twitchell's publishing house Illuminated Way Press published what has become Eckankar's standard introductory volume, Eckankar: The Key to Secret Worlds. Twitchell instructed his followers, known as "chelas" and "Eckists," in spiritual exercises such as "soul travel" (also known as "bilocation") and hearing the "light and sound of God" in meditation. He also taught Eckists to chant the mantra "Hu," which he declared an especially holy word for God. Chanting Hu is believed to burn off karmic debt and bring Eckists into higher consciousness and union with Sugmad—another term for the God of Eckankar.

Twitchell died suddenly and unexpectedly in 1971. His successor as the Living Eck Master and spiritual leader of Eckankar was Darwin Gross, who moved the headquarters of the religion to Menlo Park, California. Gross's tenure as the 972nd Living Eck Master ended in 1983, when he was ousted by the board of Eckankar and replaced by his own appointed successor and "co-Mahanta" Harold Klemp (b. 1942). Guided by a "spiritual vision," Klemp and his lieutenant and president of Eckankar Peter Skelskey moved the headquarters of Eckankar from California to Chanhassen, a suburb of Minneapolis, Minnesota, in the mid-1980s. In spite of opposition from many citizens of Chanhassen, Eckankar built there an $8.5 million international worship center known as The Temple of Eck. The temple, with its golden step-pyramid "dome," rises conspicuously out of the surrounding prairie and suburban housing tracts.

Under Klemp, who is also known as the 973rd Living Eck Master, "the Dream Master," and "Wah Z" (his spiritual name on the "inner plane"), Eckankar has flourished and become a permanent part of the new religious landscape of North America and the world. Eckankar groups exist in many countries, and Eckankar is especially strong in Nigeria. Membership statistics are not published or revealed, but Eckankar president Skelskey claims that the religion has "tens of thousands" of followers worldwide.

Eckankar's appeal is primarily to religious seekers on the fringes of the amorphous New Age movement. The religion offers a spiritual home and community as well as structure to believers in reincarnation, paranormal experiences, and Eastern religious concepts who do not want to leave normal life to join a commune or obvious "cult." The religion claims to unlock the mystery and meaning of the "dream state," and that is another attraction for many Eckists.

See alsoChanting; Karma; New Age Spirituality; Paranormal; Scientology, Churchof; Sikhism.

Bibliography

Klemp, Harold. The Secret Teachings. 1989.

Lane, David Christopher. The Making of a SpiritualMovement. 1993.

Olson, Roger E. "Eckankar: From Ancient Science of Soul Travel to New Age Religion." In America's Alternative Religions, edited by Timothy Miller. 1995.

Twitchell, Paul. Eckankar: The Key to Secret Worlds. 1969; reprint, 1987.

Roger E. Olson