The following collection of information is the condensed
result from my years of investigation of eckankar, a teaching
created by Paul Twitchell in the field of spirituality, as well
as from the discussions about this topic on the internet newsgroup
alt.religion.eckankar (henceforth called ARE), as seen from my point
of view.
The critique contained therein is not to be understood as an alliance
with other groups that are interested in pointing
at eckankar as an
epitomy of cultism for their own benefit. In particular, I draw a
sharp line between my intention and that of all fundamentalist or even
slightly absolutistic christians and their organizations (which are
usually much worse than eckankar) as well as that of society as a
whole in their criticism of the movement. In fact, the study of the
problematic side of eckankar is a study of the problematic side of
human societies in general, as all the dishonesty, dependence and
mind-control that happens in so called cults occurs in the general
public also, only on a larger scale with much more cruel and far
reaching effects, including wars and Third World exploitation. And so
it seems that society's and fundamendalists' obsession with hunting
cults as scapegoats mainly serves to divert the attention from their
own and very similar structures and to provide a vent for
autoaggressive emotions from within.
Moreover, there is no reason to consider treading paths with a questionable orientation towards spiritual liberation (whatever that means at this point) as worthless. In fact, the path to liberation has to work with our present apparent confusion in a scientifically unbiased manner, so we will definitely go erroneous ways no matter which tradition we follow. Whether or not our path is liberating, therefore depends mainly on our motivation and our capacity to observe and acribically test the results of that path unbiased and without any preference for any pleasant or flattering outcome. So it seems as if there is no liberation without running into a couple of archetypical dead-ends, without reaching absolute certainty by way of exactly those mistakes that traditions have warned us of. Herein also lies the value of eckankar, it provides us with a method to test its value, and as such it is far from being the worst experiment. It is most likely worse to stick to a belief with no experimental procedure while at the same time finding fault with eckankar.
However, if a follower of eckankar has reached, for example, a so called higher initiation which according to the teaching means having already transcended all dualism and reached self-realization, and at the same time cannot see the realizations that according to the teaching should have occurred on even lower levels of initiation, like looking into past lives at will (with verifiable results), or if he hasn't even, like most higher initiates, achieved control over their animalic desires at least to the extent of not hurting others with them, let alone freedom from them, then that higher initiate should, in case he continues to be attached to eckankar, face the fact that he has left the arena of an unbiased and serious quest for spiritual liberation and inhabits the field of loyalty for the sake of a feeling of safety, belonging and - no matter how rewarding or high-flying - paranormal phenomena and impressions. There's nothing wrong with this as long as one is keenly aware of it and admits it to himself, and if that is your attitude you may as well not read any further, in fact I urge you not to.
As an example for the many replies I received on email about articles I posted on ARE, I include a comment from an ex-eckist (Exist) below. The reason I do is simply to make it clear that I do all this because there are people that want and need to hear it, not mostly as a safety valve for my anger. That motivation has worn out months and months ago:
"Hi,Part of the reason I write is that people like this also get to see a healthier side of spirituality than the one they have known so far, and to present it along with the disillusionment about eckankar. I hope this turns the cynicism into an even deeper resolution to continue the quest for truth, but this time with less naivety and more awareness as to the dimension of the changes to be expected during a genuine spiritual transformation: it is truly not something to be dealt with frivolously (or else one doesn't deserve anything else than a pseudo-master).
"You have not reveled to me any new facts, relatively, but the meaning of it for a spiritual life has grown considerably. I also have tried to look away, explain away, "I will understand it later as 9 Init." thing.
"What feels bad is not myself in this situation, put but to think of the people I have led to the path. What is my responsibility to them? During the last 5-6 years I have not been doing any missionary work, just studying other stuff besides eck.
"There is somewhere a saying in an PT book, that if you make it to the higher init. 5- and upwards and blow it, you have to go back to the mineral stage of consciousness, because you blew everything that you have learned thru all incarnations. That is heavy burden to accept when you take the 5th init, it does not belong to the init. ceremony, but this is mentioned in a book. I can't find the book in which this mentioned."
[why he doesn't write about it, for example on ARE:]
"I don't feel strong enough to go out and proclaim it. There is still some fears in my mind and heart about this things. But you can use it if you like, if you don't mentioned my name. If it is usefull without a personal face? To be wrong or misled in a subject like this, is to doubt 80 % of your life. [...]"In my life eckankar is not a an accute pain, it is getting numb. But sorry to say that cynicism is or might be the result.
"I got some material about Andrew Cohen where he addresses this subject, about cynicism setting in after that you have found out that your master, guru etc. doesn't live up to the high standards that her/his position would require."
As someone who has spent 13 years in earnest study and practice of Eckankar and reached the 4th level of "initiation", who has had many of the experiences described in the eck works but who nevertheless has come to an understanding of the pseudo-spiritual as well as partly even psychologically destructive nature of Eckankar, I have been the major opposing writer on ARE.
Some of my articles were not one hundred percent free from aggressive energy which was a spontaneous reaction to the evading stereotypes which many Eckists (members of eckankar) habitually and sometimes unconsciously use to scatter the attention so that the point of discussion gets out of sight. I had been led astray with this kind of technique for a decade, and so my aggression reflected a genuine emotion which needed to be addressed, for me personally as well as representative of all those Eckists who raise a doubt but never manage to cut through such rhetoric devices. It was this aggressive energy that I slowly tried to turn into precision of argumentation, an attempt that has succeeded to a satisfying degree, and so it turned out to be something quite useful. It may still be detected among the informations below in the purified form of an uncompromising determination to seperate true from false, goodwill from persuasive fishing for confirmation.
I say that the only "eck masters" that ever existed (except for those that the founder thoughtlessly stole from other teachings) are Paul Twitchell, Darwin Gross and Harold Klemp. Eckankar is an invention of the unsuccessful science-fiction-writer Twitchell. It has never been the interest of the leaders of eckankar to bring about a significant spiritual change in the direction of actual freedom in their following. The teaching is designed to feed one's illusions and childish hopes, so one functions better as a servant for its cause. The sole intention of eckankar is the continuation of its own existence, which financially, but more importantly psychologically, serves the leading personalities.
I realize that a strong personality can go through eckankar untouched by its negative aspects (which is not the case in other organizations which are much worse) and even make spiritual progress up to a certain point. The strong personalities are not in the majority anywhere, however, and if what I write stirs an otherwise hidden emotion in one then he does not belong to that group. I write for those that feel dependent on Eck and need help against Twitchell's brutal suggestions, for genuine truth-seekers which would prefer spiritual awakening over cherished views and the illusion of safety, as well as for people outside of Eck who want to see an inside view that an outsider never gets to see.
My motivation clarified, one might ask what I have to say contentwise,
and how to best approach this maze of information which also contains
discussion of common counter-arguments from the side of eckankar. In
order to get an impression of my central points of critique on
organization, teaching and leaders of eckankar, see the file
The various sub-topics relating to this will be branching out from there, so that the best orientation is found in that chapter.
Since I know that there are many who basically cling to eckankar
because they know of nothing better for spiritual advice, I included -
besides the chapter destruct5.html - a list of books and some texts as
an introcution to a more healthy and genuine approach to spirituality
in the chapters
There is the deep subject of religious experiences which seem to prove, at least subjectively, what has been refuted by evidence and common sense. This - along with deep fears - is a major factor which keeps a large percentage of intelligent eckists inside the movement despite all its negative aspects and despite all consequences of reason.
The chapters
The chapter
The chapter
An excerpt from the book "The Making of a Spiritual Movement - The
Untold Story of Paul Twitchell and Eckankar" by David Lane can be
found in
Although my findings have been largely independent from those of David Lane, I recommend eckists to read the whole paperback available at
Del Mar Press P.O. Box 2508 Del Mar, CA 92014 USA
("Editor's" Note: As of 2001, this book is as far as I know, according to two bookstores, no longer available from the publisher. It is available free on the internet at: http://www.geocities.com/eckcult. -- svc)
It would be a step in the direction of maturity for eckankar to begin to cope with critique in an adult manner instead of reactions as the above, even if it would mean dissolution. There is the precedent of a christian sect - in Corea if I remember right - who predicted the last day on a certain date. So before that day all the members gave their stuff away, especially to the leaders. However, doomsday didn't come, and so the leadership was honest enough to admit that they were wrong, apologized, gave back whatever they still had to the members and dissolved the whole sect.
I'm not saying eckankar should dissolve, but that the organization should assume the same attitude of honesty even if it meant dissolving. This is the first prerequisite for an organization to be healthy, let alone spiritual. .
As another example of an organization that takes critique in a mature manner, let's listen to Paul Johnson on ARE: .
"As some of you know, my motive for participating here (ARE) has been mainly due to similarities between my work and David Lane's, which has made me interested in observing the way people have dealt with his revelations. Some of the things said about him here have made me frightened that I would be dealing with the same kind of resistance."Last weekend, my book The Masters Revealed was published, and I went to the annual meeting of the Theosophical Society in Wheaton, IL to promote it (among other reasons). The experience was 100% positive. Although there were some reactions of caution and concern due to the demythologizing nature of my research, everyone seemed to welcome it as a good step in the search for truth. Indeed, the whole thrust of the meeting was toward a more balanced and sane appreciation of the Masters, and a more scholarly approach to Theosophical tradition.
"Admitted, there are major differences between my work and Lane's. Although we both reject many claims about the Masters who allegedly inspired our respective subjects, I write as an insider, a Theosophist for 16 years who aims to successfully prove that Blavatsky's Masters really existed. I think that my discoveries are good news for Theosophy, despite their being hard to swallow for the more orthodox members. Whereas it's hard to imagine Lane's findings being seen as good news for Eckankar.
"Nevertheless, the open-mindedness of Theosophists in accepting my revisionist historical research is, I think, a model of healthy appreciation of scholarship. I'd like to see Eckankar move in the same direction."
Other files with Lane-material are
ylanelive*.html (containing some of Lane's personal participations on ARE)
ylane+darw.html (about the power war between Harold Klemp and his predecessor)
ylane+ramana.html (Chapter One, about the great Sri Ramana Maharshi, of Lane's book:"The Enchanted Land - With the Saints of India")
ylane+faqir*.html (excerpts from Lane's book:"The Unknowing Sage: Life and Work of Baba Faqir Chand")
In my eyes, the central figures of the last two files are also
epitomies of a very healthy approach to the spiritual life.
