Xeroxed, self-published book with a weird cover. Within three weeks of its publication, The Making of a Spiritual Movement sold out. My hobbit-like suburban existence was agitated by these chemicals of consciousness, and like any powerful initiatory . 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. Eckists left and right were smiling at the guy, stopping for long chats, and tossing money into his cup. Eckankar does not help people find God. Rather, hes tried to make the teachings more accessible to the average person whos interested in religion or spirituality but may not be familiar with a lot of the terms that weve used in the past., What alternative terms have been developed?, Instead of talking about contemplations or the nurat or the surat technique for the light and sound, we just say we do spiritual exercises. Im a mystical agnostic materialist. The perplexed beggar was in hog heaven. I ask, How do you account for Eckankars success? Eckankar uses two things that everybody has to have. Two years later I got a letter from a guy in Canada saying hed discovered a genuine guru. "There are three areas that cause people to leave ECK: First is discouragement. So he puts up a thousand bucks and out comes this funky. In the late 50s, Twitchell also became a staff member of L. Ron Hubbards Church of Scientology, another association that would later be denied. Curated stories, fun places to hang out and top events. I ask him how his research into cults has affected his own beliefs. I think it would be wrong of me to say that Eckankar is unique. When I called to sign up, they told me that I never had to go to a class if I didnt want to. I didnt know why it happened. Sure! But when we go to the Hillcrest Village parking garage to retrieve Lanes car he cant find it. He invited me to his house in Mandeville Canyon, a beautiful house, a mansion. On Saturday, I lunch with Lane at a restaurant in Del Mar. And the sex though Eckankar in no way encourages sexual contact among its members with that degree of trust and the sense of two souls meeting, the sex was great. The program Lane and I attend at the Best Western Hanalei is called The Universal Basics of Life Through Music. It costs $35 at the door. Victims and Survivors: Escapees from the Eckankar cult (The Library of Do people get mad at Ralph Nader for saying that a Pinto blows up? Del Mars beach is amazingly clean. And just explain that Twitchell covered up his life. The upshot of it was, they didnt do anything.. What I found was so obvious that anybody could have discovered it. My family is full of attorneys. I see Eck masters, I see Radhasoami masters, I see Rebazar Tarzs and Sudar Singh. Indeed, as Lane, Melton, and others have pointed out, most of Paul Twitchell's writings are derived from two Radhasoami publications, With a Great . Are your tax dollars being spent by this group? So they interviewed me, and I had this rainbow tie on, and Geraldo and I were going at each other. 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. Id be very careful where I go and what I do and who I talk to, you wouldn 7 want anyone to get hurt now, would you? Eckankar's stance on sexual relations, although overtly heteronormative, speaks to the religion's appreciation of the sex act as an important and meaningful experience in human life. The next day Channel 8 news came out and did as their lead story Cult Researcher Robbed. They took a copy of my article The J.R. Controversy. But they didnt name John-Roger.. I dont want to tweak his day. Operating, as I do now, in a professional arts world in which people want a rsum before deciding whether to talk to you, I miss the support of the Eckankar community. Eckankar - Wikipedia Eckankar - Hinduism - Oxford Bibliographies - obo Finally, as a last resort, Lane suggests we exit the parking garage and then walk down the ramp where we drove in. The story he tells me off-the-record, however, is filled with enough ardor and drama to qualify as an alternate ending to Citizen Kane. Shes very clean and clear about her business acumen. Why Harlan Crow Purchased Clarence Thomas's Mother's Home His disciples told me he would pick a guy every night out of the staff and claim that they needed to have sex with him in order to increase their aura or they needed, pardon my language, a rectal innerphase in order to burn off karma., He has thus thing called aura innerphasing, where you do aura balancing, soul balancing, etheric balancing. When he died in 1971, he was living in Del Mar. But Eckists are such sweet people, I insist. This most incredible feeling came over me, literally like light inside of me. Apparently, says Lane, Darwin took $2.5 million and put it into a front corporation in Oregon called Dharma Corporation. Actually in the moment it was okay, I hardly noticed it. A Violent Theory Explains Why Most Humans Are Right-Handed At this stage, Peter McWilliams, the guy who later wrote Life 102, was still pro-John-Roger, so he was putting his hands on the camera, that kind of scene, when they tried to interview John-Roger. The only. Lane discovered information that led him to believe that Twitchell copied whole chapters from Radhasoami texts, lied about biographical details.. 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. If theyre going to sue you about a 120-page term paper when youre 20 years old, you know somethings up. We dont rely on the written word. I called him my friend, she continues. Its going to be interesting to see how this information gets back to me. by. I dont know what that is..