Eckankar
Though first established as a distinctive religious community in 1965, Eckankar claims to be the most ancient of all faiths and, therefore, the spiritual “root” from which all later religious traditions have descended.
In his book Eckankar: The Key to Secret Worlds (1969), Eckankar’s founder, Paul Twitchell (19O8?-1971), endorses a belief in “astral voyages” (the projection of the mind or spirit onto higher levels of experience) and asserts that we can inhabit two different planes of reality at the same time. Through the exercise of ancient meditational techniques, Twitchell taught, it is possible for the soul to travel outside of the body and to free itself from both the prison world of ordinary perception and the cycle of reincarnations. These same spiritual exercises allow one to experience God’s voice as a form of light and sound and thereby draw closer to the source of all being. Only the chela, or student of Eckankar-based wisdom, can make this spiritual ascent, and a lengthy period of initiation is required before the movement of the mind to this astral plane can be accomplished successively.Because emanative forces from God flow through the consciousness of the living Eck Master, his influence is vital if one is to experience the divine reality. Twitchell believed himself to be such a Master—the 971st Eck Master—which placed him in a long line of spiritual guides going back to remote antiquity, one that included Jesus and St. Paul. Twitchell believed that they, too, had been influenced by Eck Masters and that Christianity could therefore be viewed as an offshoot of Eck teachings. Further, he believed that any living Eck Master can not only “channel” the thinking of deceased Masters but can also correct any mistaken notions proclaimed by his immediate predecessors. The words of the living Master, therefore, are determinative of whatever doctrines emerge, at any given time, from the Eckankar community —an assumption that has led to institutional instability.
Upon Twitchell’s death in 1971, leadership of the movement fell to Darwin Gross (1928- 2008), who, despite some opposition within the Eckankar community, immediately declared himself to be Living Master No. 972. That claim was later disputed by his successor, Harold Klemp (b. 1942), who, as Living Master No. 973, declared that Gross was no longer an Eck Master. This power struggle within the Eckankar leadership led to a splintering of the community and public attacks on Twitchell’s claims to credibility. Several critics of the movement have even demonstrated Twitchell’s literal indebtedness—often in the form of outright plagiarism—to earlier writers of the Sant Mat tradition (which combines elements of Hindu and Sikh mysticism). Today, Twitchell’s followers generally acknowledge similarities between his “revelations” and earlier religious texts and traditions, but they insist that he was merely echoing truths that have been revealed to all great religious teachers. Since the 1980s, the movement has been headquartered in Chanhassen, Minnesota, where the Temple of Eck was constructed in 1990. The number of “Eckists,” as members of this community are known, may be as high as 20,000.