Eckankar

Xenu Xenu Xenu

Well-known member
The story of Eckankar and its founder is rather similar to Scientology and Hubbard in lots of ways. Paul Twitchell the founder, was actually a Scientology staff member for a while.

Eckankar is cult just like Scientology. Scientology is worse but that is a difference in degree and magnitude. The similarities are there because they are both cults. The treatment of critics, the phony official organizations that are merely cult front groups, and the lies are all the same. Scientology is more abusive and greedier and does the cult thing better and is wealthier. Eckankar members seem less abused and hassled for money but I could be wrong about that.

I set this thread up with the hopes of adding to it from time to time.

Former Eckankar re-visits the movement | San Diego Reader

There's the lying and posing as someone you are not. Sound familiar?

An Eckankar representative, claiming to be a member of the Berkeley-based anti-cult group Spiritual Counterfeits Project, asked Gruss for a copy of Peebles’s report. The report made claims of tax irregularities and personal misconduct by an Eckankar leader. Eckankar then threatened Gruss with a $2.5 million lawsuit for “publishing” Peebles’s paper, for making a photocopy of it.

David Lane, the main critic of the article then meets with reps from Eckankar and what he has to say reminds me of Gerry Armstrong when he first knew the truth about Hubbard.

We sat down, and they were really uptight, because they knew the impact of my research. So I said, 'You guys can get out of this simply, just explain that Twitchell plagiarized. And just explain that Twitchell covered up his life.’ The upshot of it was, they didn’t do anything.”

Again, it is just so familiar.

Lane’s green eyes turn serious. “Be very careful with Eckankar. When they find out you’re talking to me, I guarantee that their lawyers will write. I’m sure of it.” He taps his finger on the table. “Actually, Eckankar is the one who has kept me going because they keep [after] me every time I try to come out with something. They sent letters about me claiming I was the negative force, that I was predicted from the beginning of mankind.”
 

freethinker

Controversial
The story of Eckankar and its founder is rather similar to Scientology and Hubbard in lots of ways. Paul Twitchell the founder, was actually a Scientology staff member for a while.

Eckankar is cult just like Scientology. Scientology is worse but that is a difference in degree and magnitude. The similarities are there because they are both cults. The treatment of critics, the phony official organizations that are merely cult front groups, and the lies are all the same. Scientology is more abusive and greedier and does the cult thing better and is wealthier. Eckankar members seem less abused and hassled for money but I could be wrong about that.

I set this thread up with the hopes of adding to it from time to time.

Former Eckankar re-visits the movement | San Diego Reader

There's the lying and posing as someone you are not. Sound familiar?

An Eckankar representative, claiming to be a member of the Berkeley-based anti-cult group Spiritual Counterfeits Project, asked Gruss for a copy of Peebles’s report. The report made claims of tax irregularities and personal misconduct by an Eckankar leader. Eckankar then threatened Gruss with a $2.5 million lawsuit for “publishing” Peebles’s paper, for making a photocopy of it.

David Lane, the main critic of the article then meets with reps from Eckankar and what he has to say reminds me of Gerry Armstrong when he first knew the truth about Hubbard.

We sat down, and they were really uptight, because they knew the impact of my research. So I said, 'You guys can get out of this simply, just explain that Twitchell plagiarized. And just explain that Twitchell covered up his life.’ The upshot of it was, they didn’t do anything.”

Again, it is just so familiar.

Lane’s green eyes turn serious. “Be very careful with Eckankar. When they find out you’re talking to me, I guarantee that their lawyers will write. I’m sure of it.” He taps his finger on the table. “Actually, Eckankar is the one who has kept me going because they keep [after] me every time I try to come out with something. They sent letters about me claiming I was the negative force, that I was predicted from the beginning of mankind.”
Scientology is a proven money maker, so it wouldn't surprise me to see copycat offshoots that have the same goals, which is to make money.
 

Xenu Xenu Xenu

Well-known member
Scientology is a proven money maker, so it wouldn't surprise me to see copycat offshoots that have the same goals, which is to make money.
Eckankar, EST, and Idenics are offshoots and not surprisingly are listed on Scientology's Enemies List. Scientology even planted operatives such as Mike Simington into Idenics at one pont in time. Why they would even bother a small time group is beyond me. It is almost like a make work project or maybe even some sort amends project.
 

Karakorum

Ron is the source that will lead you to grief
They sent letters about me claiming I was the negative force, that I was predicted from the beginning of mankind.
The culties are saying this guy in the devil incarnate? I dare say, that's quite a badge of honor.
 

Dotey OT

Re-Membered
The story of Eckankar and its founder is rather similar to Scientology and Hubbard in lots of ways. Paul Twitchell the founder, was actually a Scientology staff member for a while.

Eckankar is cult just like Scientology. Scientology is worse but that is a difference in degree and magnitude. The similarities are there because they are both cults. The treatment of critics, the phony official organizations that are merely cult front groups, and the lies are all the same. Scientology is more abusive and greedier and does the cult thing better and is wealthier. Eckankar members seem less abused and hassled for money but I could be wrong about that.

I set this thread up with the hopes of adding to it from time to time.

Former Eckankar re-visits the movement | San Diego Reader

There's the lying and posing as someone you are not. Sound familiar?

An Eckankar representative, claiming to be a member of the Berkeley-based anti-cult group Spiritual Counterfeits Project, asked Gruss for a copy of Peebles’s report. The report made claims of tax irregularities and personal misconduct by an Eckankar leader. Eckankar then threatened Gruss with a $2.5 million lawsuit for “publishing” Peebles’s paper, for making a photocopy of it.

David Lane, the main critic of the article then meets with reps from Eckankar and what he has to say reminds me of Gerry Armstrong when he first knew the truth about Hubbard.

We sat down, and they were really uptight, because they knew the impact of my research. So I said, 'You guys can get out of this simply, just explain that Twitchell plagiarized. And just explain that Twitchell covered up his life.’ The upshot of it was, they didn’t do anything.”

Again, it is just so familiar.

Lane’s green eyes turn serious. “Be very careful with Eckankar. When they find out you’re talking to me, I guarantee that their lawyers will write. I’m sure of it.” He taps his finger on the table. “Actually, Eckankar is the one who has kept me going because they keep [after] me every time I try to come out with something. They sent letters about me claiming I was the negative force, that I was predicted from the beginning of mankind.”
Oddly enough yesterday I am using a parking lot to turn around in Marietta, Georgia and lo and behold, Eckankar! It wasn't open, or I would have walked in! I wonder if they are hiring???
 

Karakorum

Ron is the source that will lead you to grief
Eckankar, EST, and Idenics are offshoots and not surprisingly are listed on Scientology's Enemies List.
Didn't the EST guy get sued and fair gamed at some point?
 

Cat's Squirrel

Well-known member
I went to an Eckankar meeting once after my first year exams at university. I didn't get the impression that it had much or indeed anything in common with Scientology; it struck me more as "New Age".
 

Xenu Xenu Xenu

Well-known member
Yes, even though the founder of the cult was a Scientologist it appears that Eckankar has more to do with "astral travelling" or "soul travel".

Funny enough, Twitchell was close to the same age as L. Ron and was also a writer.

During the ’30s and ’40s, Twitchell was a prolific writer. He’s listed in Ripley's Believe It or Not as having sold an article every day. The Courier-Journal magazine, to which he was a regular contributor, reported that he sold 1800 stories and articles in three years.

He was also a Navy man.

In 1942, after a stint in the Navy, Twitchell moved to New York, where he continued his journalism career, attended many churches, and read extensively on spiritual subjects. A job as a correspondent for Our Navy took him to Washington, D.C. in 1945. There he and »his first wife, Camille, joined the Self-Revelation Church of Absolute Monism, a system of yoga founded by Swami Premananda.

He also "never had" a first wife.

Lane leans across the cafe table, excitedly tapping his straw. “I found all this fun, interesting stuff. I talked to Twitchell’s first wife. Nobody knew he’d been married before.

Its funny how the lives of cult leaders really are. You can look at them all and in the end you will find the lies.
 

Karakorum

Ron is the source that will lead you to grief
In 1942, after a stint in the Navy, Twitchell moved to New York, where he continued his journalism career, attended many churches, and read extensively on spiritual subjects. A job as a correspondent for Our Navy took him to Washington, D.C. in 1945. There he and »his first wife, Camille, joined the Self-Revelation Church of Absolute Monism, a system of yoga founded by Swami Premananda.
So he was himself an ex-cultie? Just like ol'Ronnie?
 

Xenu Xenu Xenu

Well-known member
I am not an expert on Eckankar but what I have found in just one article is quite enough to keep me occupied for now.

He seems to have picked and chosen from various sources.

Critic David Lane noticed something else as well.

At 17, Lane, who was raised Catholic in the San Fernando Valley, became interested in Radhasoami, a branch of surat shabd yoga founded in India in the 19th Century. In 1978, after five years of study, he was initiated into Radhasoami in India by the late Maharaj Charan Singh.

......... Lane discovered information that led him to believe that Twitchell copied “whole chapters from Radhasoami texts, lied about biographical details,” and misled people concerning the origin of Eckankar’s doctrines.

It seems Twitchell couldn't be bothered to use his skill as a writer to use his own words as well.

In just one of Paul Twitchell’s books. The Far Country, Lane claims to have found more than 400 “plagiarized” paragraphs. Lane smiles to himself as if he were envisioning Paul Twitchell hunched over some Radhasoami text, scribbling away. “I don’t mean just an idea or a thought, I’m talking about the reproduction of grammatical mistakes, semicolon misuse. I’m talking about the very form of that truth being copied. Not the truth itself. I don’t know what that is.”
 
D

Deleted member 51

Guest
The story of Eckankar and its founder is rather similar to Scientology and Hubbard in lots of ways. Paul Twitchell the founder, was actually a Scientology staff member for a while.

Eckankar is cult just like Scientology. Scientology is worse but that is a difference in degree and magnitude. The similarities are there because they are both cults. The treatment of critics, the phony official organizations that are merely cult front groups, and the lies are all the same. Scientology is more abusive and greedier and does the cult thing better and is wealthier. Eckankar members seem less abused and hassled for money but I could be wrong about that.

I set this thread up with the hopes of adding to it from time to time.

Former Eckankar re-visits the movement | San Diego Reader

There's the lying and posing as someone you are not. Sound familiar?

An Eckankar representative, claiming to be a member of the Berkeley-based anti-cult group Spiritual Counterfeits Project, asked Gruss for a copy of Peebles’s report. The report made claims of tax irregularities and personal misconduct by an Eckankar leader. Eckankar then threatened Gruss with a $2.5 million lawsuit for “publishing” Peebles’s paper, for making a photocopy of it.

David Lane, the main critic of the article then meets with reps from Eckankar and what he has to say reminds me of Gerry Armstrong when he first knew the truth about Hubbard.

We sat down, and they were really uptight, because they knew the impact of my research. So I said, 'You guys can get out of this simply, just explain that Twitchell plagiarized. And just explain that Twitchell covered up his life.’ The upshot of it was, they didn’t do anything.”

Again, it is just so familiar.

Lane’s green eyes turn serious. “Be very careful with Eckankar. When they find out you’re talking to me, I guarantee that their lawyers will write. I’m sure of it.” He taps his finger on the table. “Actually, Eckankar is the one who has kept me going because they keep [after] me every time I try to come out with something. They sent letters about me claiming I was the negative force, that I was predicted from the beginning of mankind.”
I knew an exSO member named David Layne (Lane?). Though I suppose it’s a common enough name, still… what year was the article written? It could explain some things about David’s final years out of Scn and cults. He was once a good friend, if this is the same guy.
 

Xenu Xenu Xenu

Well-known member
I remember pre Scientology reading Lobsang Rampa, another liar who made a good living writing books that one would usually find in the psychic/spiritual section of your local bookstore. The difference being that he didn't even try to start a cult. He just wanted to be left alone. I remember him writing about astral travelling and how to do it. You are supposed to lie down and close you eyes and imagine leaving your body, connected only to your body by an astral cord.

According to Lobbie, imagination is the key to all of this. No shit. You are supposed to lie to yourself and even though you know you are lying to yourself, sooner or later something is going to happen. In the meantime, enjoy your time lying to yourself even if you do know you are lying to yourself.

Around that same time I did pick up a book on Eckankar by Paul Twitchell and read up on the many ways to astral travel. If one don't work, try this.

One method was exactly the same as Lobsang Rampa's. I don't even know where this astral travelling stuff comes from in the first place. Is this supposed to be common knowledge somewhere? I have no idea what the established religions such as Hinduism, or Buddhism has to say about this kind of thing. But the astral cord, sometimes golden, and sometimes silver, and sometimes astral coloured; seems to be a common thing.

Another method I read was to chant the name of some heavy duty semi-god over and over again. What should happen is that the super-spirits materialize in front of you and show you how to leave your body. And then you and those friendly ghosts take off for the cosmos and explore the coolness of the universe. This is all supposed to be a spiritual learning experience as well as "a real cool time", as Pop. aka Iggy Pop, aka Iggy Stooge might say.

I tried it. It didn't work. I could envision myself chanting over and over again for years until I actually do hallucinate though.

I even sold books door to door and encountered an Eck guy. I almost envied him. I tell you what I did envy in him though. I envied the fact that he wasn't a staff member for Scientology.

After I left the cult I met a young woman who told me she was an Eck person. She seemed nice enough but I just couldn't bring myself to say anything about it to her. I just let the whole thing pass. I wasn't interested in telling her that she was wasting her time. I don't know why. Maybe I think astral travelling still sounds like a real cool time.:geek:
 

Enthetan

Veteran of the Psychic Wars
Eckankar is cult just like Scientology. Scientology is worse but that is a difference in degree and magnitude. The similarities are there because they are both cults.
Scientology was able to be more totalitarian because it was big enough and old enough that you could have people in their whole lives, and have their employers, family, and whole circle of friends in.

Thus you could have people better monitored (through the ethics report system) and have a harder time getting disentangled.

When it's a group you only see on weekends, it's easier to just stop showing up.

That's what happened with me. I never worked for a Scn company, and I purposefully lived an hour away from the Org -- close enough that I could go there on weekends, but far enough that it would be a hassle for org staff to drive out to bother me.
 

Xenu Xenu Xenu

Well-known member
Scientology was able to be more totalitarian because it was big enough and old enough that you could have people in their whole lives, and have their employers, family, and whole circle of friends in.

Thus you could have people better monitored (through the ethics report system) and have a harder time getting disentangled.

When it's a group you only see on weekends, it's easier to just stop showing up.

That's what happened with me. I never worked for a Scn company, and I purposefully lived an hour away from the Org -- close enough that I could go there on weekends, but far enough that it would be a hassle for org staff to drive out to bother me.
Yeah, I was always connected to the cult right from the start. Early on I was even living in a sort of a communal living space with other Scientologists. I could never get enough miles away from Scientology people while I was in.
 
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