Shortly afterward, Twitchell claimed, a 500-year-old Tibetan monk, Rebazar Tarzs, appeared to him and instructed him to move to San Diego. Lane and I drive to La Jolla for leaden upscale Mexican food. Im an extremely intuitive person, she says, so I feel things long before I understand them in my head. 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. But he was describing my experiences. Charan Singh forwarded it to Lane. It was exciting, someplace to go! Shes very clean and clear about her business acumen. On the desk behind him sits a teddy bear. When Yelman was six, her family moved to Texas. I was excited 20 years old, in the moment of discovering something new. I just arrived here because the cult Eckankar was mentioned by someone, along with a few other cults. Today it is perhaps the most successful religious movement to come out of the 60s, claiming a worldwide membership in the tens of thousands. A lot of people have. I know that here in San Diego, when we had our Eck center, elderly members of Eckankar who were sitting at the center got threatening telephone calls from Christian organizations., No, it had nothing to do with him. Lane asks me if I want to see Twitchells Del Mar home. Id really start believing Id had a spiritual experience, Id wake up feeling like, Wow! Eckankar works because it doesnt make you have experiences that are impossible to have., What about soul travel, visiting higher planes of existence? Lane swallows his pizza. But its just a few blocks off University.. Through a process that Lane himself does not completely understand, someone photocopied this manuscript and circulated it around the country. Twitchell died of a heart attack around one oclock in the morning on September 17, 1971, in Cincinnati, Ohio. Members are deluded into believing they make spiritual progress, while they are merely psychologically entrapped. So he puts up a thousand bucks and out comes this funky. So you were awake when you had this experience? I ask, intrigued. It seems to me Im doing a huge favor to the Eckists, because now they can know what theyre joining, and if theyve read my book, theyve done all the research, and if they still think this is for me, then fine. I open the door to a boyish 38-year-old with a full head of healthy brown hair. I had heard about this ability to get out of the body, where one can have an internal spiritual experience. I always have been. In October 1981, Eckists were again floored when Gross announced his resignation as the Living Eck Master, but not without first signing a contract that gave him a salary of $65,000 for life, full medical and dental coverage, use of a company car, and entertainment expenses. About four weeks later Lanes guru in India, Charan Singh, received a letter, supposedly from another follower in San Diego, criticizing Lane and quoting from his wifes stolen diaries. Very top secret, for they were really scared of upsetting John-Roger. Clearly Lane is not a blind follower. I came home around 12:30 in the afternoon, and the place was ransacked. The Courier-Journal magazine, to which he was a regular contributor, reported that he sold 1800 stories and articles in three years. He also gave full accounts to the San Diego Sheriff s Department and to numerous news agencies. I think it would be wrong of me to say that Eckankar is unique. He probably thought my recipe file was written in code and had secret information, or something like that. On October 22, 1965, Twitchell claimed to have received the Rod of Power from Rebazar Tarzs, becoming the 971st Living Eck Master. Hes a character who has seized the imaginations of Eckists as completely as Ahab or Falstaff has seized ours.) I didnt know why it happened. Weve had people who have recognized Harold Klemp prior to his becoming the Living Eck Master; he kept coming to them into their dreams. As he fetches me a glass of juice, I sit in his cozy living room, which is decorated with family photos, relics from Thailand, and McMahons own paintings, imaginary landscapes with lots of vivid blue. There was a lot going on. She speaks so softly, I move the microphone closer. The experiential aspect to Eckankar really interested me, and thats how it started.. Eckists left and right were smiling at the guy, stopping for long chats, and tossing money into his cup. He came up with the name Sudar Singh from the name Sudarshan Singh he just cut off the shan part of it and put Sudar. Usually he mixes Indian names with Chinese names [from] popular Tibetan or Taoist books, and hell conflate the two. He offshooted from Eckankar and founded this religion called the Divine Science of Light and Sound. Not the truth itself. box with John-Rogers own name signed to it., Four or five months later, on October 5, 1984, Lanes apartment in Del Mar was burglarized. This is not the type of individual who was looking for riches he didnt dress well, he didnt have a lot of possessions or anything. The only. We take our seats among the 50 or so other seekers, many of whom have flown in for the event. I anticipate our talk with a mixture of excitement and anxiety. Eckankar is still very much open to and supportive of whatever religion a person belongs to. And who knows? He never had much money. Gross smiles to himself as he hits the vibes. The beggar you meet on the street may really be an Eck Master. It's. Lane can be such a card. Maybe it was just some neurons firing in the right part of your brain or maybe you had too much dopamine in the frontal lobes or maybe you took an Excedrin four hours ago. We dont want that kind of explanation., Its a beautiful, sunny day. I dont think so. I urge, Come on, Dave, its starting. I practically have to pull him into the concert. It may be a game for Lane, but believers are playing for high emotional and intellectual stakes. Eckankar is not for everybody. Geraldo was in New York, and I was on satellite hookup at Universal Studios in the San Fernando Valley. After a few more tunes. He was obsessed. Lane also appeared on Geraldo Riveras Now It Can Be Told. 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. by. The disciples felt used and manipulated for spiritual reasons., After the secret meeting. But Eckankars attorneys mailed the package back to me. Whereas Sudar Singh [another memorable character in Twitchells cosmology] isKirpal Singh. In The Making of a Spiritual Movement, Lane quotes many passages from Twitchells magazine articles written in the 60s in which Twitchell cites Swami Premananda, Kirpal Singh, Meher Baba, Guru Nanak, Kabir, and even Jesus. Again, I am reminded of Houdini, whose interest in spiritualism was awakened with his dearly loved mothers death. He publishes books through an organization called Be Good to Your Self, located in Las Vegas. For a hundred bucks per year he gives you the divine connection. Lane has countered with a point-by-point rebuttal, When God Responds: Sri Darwin Gross versus David Lane, which hes including in his new book, Gakko Came from Venus. Finally, in 1992, Garland, a publisher of hardback reference books, accepted Lanes manuscript for its library series. In The Life and Many Deaths of Harry Houdini, Ruth Brandon writes, He terribly wanted to be convinced. Lane shakes his head. Gross enters and takes his position behind the gold-toned vibes. In the past, we thought that this was our little private esoteric religion. I would just close my eyes and he would be there, and I would be there with him too. Though Eckankar does not try to coerce disillusioned members to remain on the path, Eckists are warned that when they drop out, their spiritual growth stops, and they are at the mercy of the Kal, the negative force of the universe. That night in the dreamstate I had a meeting with a master. He said, 'Some of us live the spiritual life, others intellectualize it. The 69-year-old joined the broadcaster in 2008 after 22 years in football management. Its membership today is primarily in North America, Europe, Asia and Africa. This was in 76 or 77, and I was 20 years old, so its like All the President's Men. Lifes kind of sad. Hes touring the Southwest, as we speak. I became a teenager and all this other stuff was grabbing my attention., I keep looking around at Yelmans office. Accompanied by keyboardist and devotee Ron Kurz, Gross begins with Blues in E Flat. The music is great, lethargic and soothing, the kind of music one should listen to in a cocktail lounge with an umbrellaed drink. One of the reasons he may have relinquished his spiritual role to Harold is that it didnt jibe with him. In the meantime, Lane graduated from Northridge, visited India, and enrolled at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, where in 1979 he met Brian Walsh. His books were suppressed, and he was forbidden to associate himself with Eckankar or Eckankar teaching in any way, including the use of trademark terms such as Eck, EK, Living Eck Master, and Eckankar. When Gross protested, he was slapped with a lawsuit for business impropriety and copyright infringement. We have a tendency to want to inflate our lives with spiritual meaning, and skepticism is not much fun. Lane drives me back to Hillcrest. The perplexed beggar was in hog heaven. Late one afternoon, I visit transpersonal psychologist Charles Richards at his office in Del Mar. The maker of Bud Light, Anheuser-Busch, said on Tuesday that two of its executives were taking a leave of absence after the beer was featured in a social media . His critique was instrumental in my dropping out of Eckankar in the early 80s. Before founding Eckankar, Twitchell was involved in yoga, self-realization groups, and Scientology. This feels like all the atoms in the universe moving around, its like a rushing sound in the background. Spirit can express itself as sound or as bright or even colored lights. While Lane is in the bathroom, I try, to no avail, to get permission to photograph the event. Writing this summary of beliefs, I consulted Eckankar materials, but I didnt need to. Eckankar is one of the New Age religions, started in 1965 by journalist Paul Twitchell. (In one illustration, the Rod of Power is depicted as a glowing white wand. The two students shared notes. He used to send me Christmas cards, he gave me his personal phone number, and he offered me $5000 to help with my research on Eckankar.. Rebazar Tarzs, yeah, that Rebazar Tarzs. But this is not oppressive at all. But, while his friend Arthur Conan Doyle and other enthusiasts were impressed with the supernatural sideshows of mediums, Houdini, with his vast knowledge of magic techniques, could duplicate the effects. It doesnt make sense. And all the people kind of looked at me as if to say, Well, jeez, he doesnt look evil. Lane came up and he talked to me and thanked me for coming. If I had a really good arm, I could have thrown a baseball up the hill, without gravity, and maybe hit his house., Did you know this before you moved there?, We drive over and park a few blocks from the beach, in front of a posh, two-story wooden house with a cobblestone drive, surrounded by Torrey pines. The think any actual activ long time member of Eckankar is very happy with Eckankar. In 1978, after five years of study, he was initiated into Radhasoami in India by the late Maharaj Charan Singh. Same with Shamus-i-Tabriz. "There are three areas that cause people to leave ECK: First is discouragement. Lane imagines himself driving, Let me see, I turned left here, now right, then I drove straight for a bit. Using this gyroscopic homing pigeon technique, he leads me straight to his little white Nissan. Do you know what I mean?. There he and his first wife, Camille, joined the Self-Revelation Church of Absolute Monism, a system of yoga founded by Swami Premananda. I got sick a lot when I was a baby. and is being financed by them to do his dirty research. Once when I was driving down to Baja on one of my frequent surf trips, he continues, I noticed to my amazement a highway sign that said Rebasar. I dont know exactly what it means No Passing, or something like that. Theres certain things I left out of the book, and one of them is the night Twitchell died. In January, it rains for 26 days. I ask him how his research into cults has affected his own beliefs. Fie has a personal thing against Eckankar, he briskly replies. You can imagine how I felt, exclaims Lane. Founded in 1965 by Paul Twitchell, one-time disciple of Swami Premananda, Kirpal Singh, and L. Ron Hubbard, Eckankar owes much of its theology to Radhasoami. Eckankar set up a meeting with Lane at its international headquarters in Menlo Park. Wouldnt you want to know everything you possibly could about the history of this group and then make your choice? 2023 San Diego Reader. When I ask him what Eckankars position is on Lanes research, Richards, whos been in Eckankar for 20 years, says he doesnt know. People always say, Leave us alone; Eckankar works. I do leave those people alone. But Lane had the jump on all of them when back in 1984 he wrote The J.R. In many cases, even when they do ask, they face a stony silence from the org, or are told they are being "tested" spiritually, I feel like Ive stumbled into a New Age greeting card or a novel by Iris Murdoch, try to imagine experiencing this extravagance on a regular basis. He was advertising in Fate magazine, Orion magazine, Cosmic Star." April 25, 2023, 1:58 p.m. Im surprised to meet a casually dressed middle-aged man with graying hair, who seemed much younger on the phone. And in my unknowingness, I like to explore how much more I dont know., Talking to these Eckists, the conscious, rational, jaded Dodie faded out, and this other little Dodie inside me was starting to feel an incredible seduction. 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. I stood up and said, You know, Im a member of the community, Im a coach in the Little League, Im involved with the schools. I gave a list of my involvements with the community, and then I said, Im an Eckist and I believe in God. It went through the roof a lot quicker than he expected. Do you think it would be an easy thing to do?". The Rod of Power was passed on to Harold Klemp. Clearly he is more comfortable with the fluid topography of waves, of meditation, of philosophical inquiry. You are wondering about the question why i left eckankar but currently there is no answer, so let kienthuctudonghoa.com summarize and list the top articles with the question.

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