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. Star Wars was no ordinary action flick, we concluded, but a profound spiritual saga. On the Marie Vega [TV] show in Los Angeles, I said, John-Roger Hinkins robbed my house. He threatened to sue the TV station for a million dollars if they ever ran the program again. I was a member for almost 15 years, but thanks to the internet, I found out the truth about it and got out. Because that was my condition if I could just study in the closet, then I would join. I need it. He lives in the San Diego area, but the location is a closely guarded secret. Gross actually received the mantle on the inner planes when he was handed, not a flower, but the Rod of Power. Yelman is stunning tall and extremely thin, clad in a pale-beige pantsuit, her natural blond hair pulled back into a bun, the bangs teased like feathers across her forehead. Although the book was already typeset. I urge, Come on, Dave, its starting. I practically have to pull him into the concert. In Eckankar, since everyone is Soul, everyone is worthy. Lane can be such a card. Burley, who . I get the sense his gentleness does not comes naturally, that it has been worked at, with great success. He does that all the time. Lane pauses and thinks for a bit. I think they expected somebody who was more academic looking. He looks professional but not stuffy in his blue suit jacket, gray shirt, and black boots. Eckankar got wind of the new edition, and their lawyers began corresponding with Garland. Tucker Carlson's Great Replacement. Any of these 900-plus masters may appear to spiritual seekers on the inner planes or in the physical world, often in disguise. I keep discovering more and more offshoots, in India as well as here its like a virus, it keeps reproducing itself., You know the ins and outs of how religions are organized, and you're a charismatic person. I saw myself very clearly as the roman centurion responsible for maintaining order and preventing any trouble. I think it was a resistance to being in the physical world and being fully embodied, and so I tried to exit a few times. There is, indeed, something ethereal about this frail woman. Lane has tears in his eyes. The transaction was conducted ethically but the Left's attacks on Justice Thomas have nothing to do with ethics. All, I have been an official member of Eckankar for 10 years. Everybody has an IQ of 80 or loweruuurrrrrrrrrr, lets go, lets start a religion. , Our pizza arrives, and Lane politely allows me to take the first piece. David Lane has his own personal agenda. He resigned in June 1993 following a direct threat to kill from another member, Ebenezer Egunjobi, and a series of violent and disorientating mind control attacks emanating from the leader, Harold Klemp. This time the arm doesnt budge no matter how hard she pushes down on it. Not the truth itself. A skeptic goes to an Eckankar meeting, or anybodys meditation meeting, and says, Well, now wait a second, are you sure you saw the astral body of Rami Nuri? Lane leans across the cafe table, excitedly tapping his straw. As we shake hands I notice hes wearing a gold ring with an embossed EK logo. We close our eyes and chant Hu together for several minutes. Here it is. So he puts up a thousand bucks and out comes this funky. When I get home, my hosts greet me with a Manhattan. Lanes research into Eckankar is meticulously documented. When it came out, I got a 25-page letter from a group called the Coalition for Civil and Spiritual Freedom. All that junk you gave Lane to write down came out of your own filthy minds, and mouths and you know filthy mouths must be cleaned out don't you. box that John-Roger had personally paid for. I would not put it past Twitchell to have simply coined the name from one of his trips to Baja.. His only interest was getting the message out about the light and sound of God., McMahon doesnt blame anyone for being skeptical. In 1950 the Twitchells moved to the church compounds, but five years later Twitchell was asked to leave the church for personal misconduct. That same year he and his wife separated. The air is cool as I listen to the soft lapping of waves. You can get in a debate over whether one paragraph in one of Paul Twitchells writings looks like a paragraph in somebody elses writings, but that has nothing to do with your spiritual experiences and the confirmation you get personally through the teachings and your work with the inner master. I dont know what that is.. Why you can trust Sky News Sky Sports pundit Graeme Souness is to step down after 15 years. He took to unmasking frauds, but always with the hopes of finding a true medium. In 68 he was a convener, which means he held Eck satsangs [classes) in his home in Rosemead, California. Spirit can express itself as sound or as bright or even colored lights. Hes a character who has seized the imaginations of Eckists as completely as Ahab or Falstaff has seized ours.) Their divorce was final in 1960. Known the world over as the Eckankar mafia because of slippery manoeuvring behind the scenes wrecking marriages friendships livelihoods and demographics where ever they plant themselves. Twitchell coined the word Eckankar (a Punjabi word meaning "One God" or "Supreme Reality") from Guru Nanak's Japji, as found in the Sikh's holy scriptures, Guru Granth Sahib. I wrote to Jerry, way to go, Jerry! No. 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. But even in his formality I instinctively trusted him. Its a bitchin house.. 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. After she finishes, Gross says, She can belt one out, cant she? It was difficult coming to this country, trying to figure out the language, the new culture, and what to do. But Eckists are such sweet people, I insist. The Mahanta is respected but not worshiped . Anyway, there was an intensification of that, and I knew undoubtedly something was going on. The spiritual exercises are a form of prayer. You can imagine how I felt, exclaims Lane. He had on a white turban with a gemstone right here in the middle. Yelman points to her bangs. Houdini longed to communicate with her beyond the grave. A job as a correspondent for Our Navy took him to Washington, D.C. in 1945. You can explain it in a lot of different ways. I would just close my eyes and he would be there, and I would be there with him too. I said, Yeah, Geraldo, this guy robbed my house, he did this he did this he did that all on national TV. It may be a game for Lane, but believers are playing for high emotional and intellectual stakes. He tells me hes currently working on a second book about Eckankar, entitled Gakko Came from Venus: Exploring the Hidden World of Eckankar, an Unauthorized Expedition. Like so many children of the 1960's, my awakening began with marijuana and LSD. I used to be in Eckankar, I tell him. Eckankar teaches that the soul is eternal, it exists because God loves it, and it is journeying to self-realization and God realization. I was never able to penetrate Richardss reassuring politeness until I turned the conversation from Eckankar to Freud, Adler, and lung. The waiter arrives with our check, and Lane and I bicker over whos going to pay for it. Through a process that Lane himself does not completely understand, someone photocopied this manuscript and circulated it around the country. We dont rely on the written word. It wasnt like this last time around. I figure Lane knows plenty about this. . The walls are covered with Andrea Zuills dramatically lit oil paintings of monstrous chalky-fleshed zombies. ECKANKAR. I would ask a question and get an answer, and I would jot it down. There are ECK Temples, ECK Centers, and reading rooms in cities and towns across the . Yelman received hers while at an Eck seminar in Hawaii. Actually in the moment it was okay, I hardly noticed it. When word got around that I was doing this article, I got an odd phone call from Don Ginn, the California Regional Eck Spiritual Aid. Clearly Lane is not a blind follower. Outsiders would think they had stumbled into a convention of traveling salesmen. Eckankar threatened a lawsuit for the inappropriate use of their trademark symbol on the books cover. I had heard about this ability to get out of the body, where one can have an internal spiritual experience. Yelman flickers in her pink-and-cream chair like a pale flame. Some letters contained threats against me and my informants. Two years later I got a letter from a guy in Canada saying hed discovered a genuine guru. For a year and a half or two years, says Lane, it was a shoestring operation. The way to get more income is to have new material, speculates Lane. His critique was instrumental in my dropping out of Eckankar in the early 80s. Rebazar Tarzs, she says reverently. Finally, as a last resort, Lane suggests we exit the parking garage and then walk down the ramp where we drove in. This was 79, 15 years ago. He read thousands and thousands of books, and he was a spiritually hungry man. According to Lane, members of various cults have threatened lawsuits, written him letters with skeletons on them, broken into his apartment, made death threats, and generally harassed him. The lover has lied to you, but the lover is oh so seductive and satisfying, and submission is so thrilling. In her Golden-Tongued Wisdom, Rosanne continues to sing, A cold hard rain comes pouring down. Theres certain things I left out of the book, and one of them is the night Twitchell died. You only here it from those shills promoting the book or on Ford's sites. 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. Source: mallsofamerica.blogspot.com. If theyre going to sue you about a 120-page term paper when youre 20 years old, you know somethings up. This is not seen as coldness or indifference but as a precursor to unconditional love. I asked what happened to my friend, my childhood master. The Living Eck Master descends from an unbroken line of Vairagi Masters. T he attacks on Justice Thomas never stop. 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. ", 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. 1:08. Lane and Walsh had put a circle with a slash through it over Eckankars logo, which is EK formed into a circle. I dont go into Eck centers and walk around and say, Here, read my book. All Im saying is that Twitchell was lying to his constituency. Instead of asking people to be really skeptical of things, its asking them to believe almost anything. But, Dave, I counter, when you talk to Eckists they always tell you, Im a totally skeptical person. I met David Lane in San Diego. This must not be true. But its just a few blocks off University.. I hook my mike over the breadbasket and turn on the tape recorder. Toni Atkins wife Jennifer LeSar to bid on Todd Gloria's downtown project. He went nuts. Probably a composite cover name for three people: Guru Nanak, the founder of Sikhism, which was started 500 years ago; Sawan Singh, who was Kirpal Singhs guru; and Swami Premananda. It was like an outpost of spirituality. She agrees to provide us with an official photograph of Gross at the vibes, and I leave to find Lane. 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. The following evening, when the airport shuttle drops me off in front of my apartment, five guys are smoking crack beside a dumpster. Totally aware, she says seriously. When she begins her next selection, My Funny Valentine, I lose all objectivity*. I have nice feelings toward Eckankar. He took my wifes diaries and made hand-written notes in the margins. Cult Survivors: Victims of the Eckankar cult (The Library of Truth): Sykes, Joe: 9781659942743: Amazon.com: Books Books Religion & Spirituality Other Religions, Practices & Sacred Texts Try Prime and start saving today with Fast, FREE Delivery Buy new: $6.99 Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime FREE Returns . Members are deluded into believing they make spiritual progress, while they are merely psychologically entrapped. And Twitchell was also very sharp, but maybe not sharp business-wise. Eckists left and right were smiling at the guy, stopping for long chats, and tossing money into his cup. After Id talked to him for a couple of hours, Jerry said, Dave, why dont you start your own religion? What about Lanes plagiarism charges? I ask. Eckists have said that detractors (critics of Eckankar) are people who quit Eckankar because it didn't work for them, or because they failed at the path, and thus can't be taken seriously. McMahon generously drives me to my interview with holistic health practitioner Bettina Yelman, whose Del Mar office is just down the hall from Richardss. ET. He has no phone. And he didnt know anything about Eckankar., The guide was a bearded man in this maroon robe. Susan Rice, the director of the White House Domestic Policy Council, is stepping down from her post, President Biden announced Monday. We would like to show you a description here but the site won't allow us. We actually challenge our inner experiences in the name of God, to make sure that theyre not phony, not of the negative world of Kal. I wrote to him, and he wrote a real nice letter back, saying that we should get together and talk. That night in the dreamstate I had a meeting with a master. Since its early days Eckankar has always really been a religion. So I do. Much of Grosss current teachings center around the easy-listening jazz he performs on the vibes. But he refuses to reveal details for publication and will only repeat the facts as listed on the death certificate. As I stroll toward the ocean, through a lush, affluent neighborhood, disappointment creeps over me like the tide. He reminds me of the bloated, near-death Elvis, only fatter and older. I wonder how long it takes new Eckists to even learn of his existence. Some left the movement. Why do you make a point of fingering Eckankar?, I do think Christianity has fucked up more people in its history than Eckankar ever has. At the time I didnt know who he was. So I came upon this theory called genealogical dissociation. A left-handed grip will rotate the left side of the chest, and thus most of the heart, toward an enemy, while a right-handed grip will rotate it away. For years he came to me every single day and would teach me, but I never visually saw him except for once.. Understandably, he changed the names of his sources, because he didnt want people to know about his past. It got to the point that it became a mythology in which Twitchell couldnt remember all the names. When you look at what we do relative to other religions, it basically is no different, we just have a different doctrine and somewhat different beliefs. Richards flashes me his dimples. Collectively, this means that right-handed humans might be more protected from a deadly strike. The Rod of Power was passed on to Harold Klemp. I am skeptical of paranormal claims, because I believe we need to shave more with Occams Razor. Occams Razor?, The principle of competing theories, developed in the 14th Century by a guy named William of Occam, who said that if you have competing theories, go for the simplest theory first if it explains the issue fully. My personality is I want to do, ( not sit ) in a Satsang and discuss. Hired at the height of the Covid pandemic, Parkway softball coach Eva Burley has left her position to return to Texas to care for her father, who has been diagnosed with ALS. 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. Because Gross had been in Eckankar less than two years, his appointment shocked and disturbed many Eckists. I just arrived here because the cult Eckankar was mentioned by someone, along with a few other cults. Eckankar took off like wildfire, growing from three students to thousands in less than three years. Each year Eckankar holds three of these U.S. seminars, which can draw 6000-plus people. Remember, when Twitchell founded Eckankar in 1965, he was living in San Diego, at Point Loma.