posted March 05, 2007 12:03 AM
Does anyone have experience with the Eckankar religion? My Sagittarius pseudo-girlfriend is a devout member of this faith and has spent a large amount of time volunteering at their bi-annual seminars in Minnesota, as well as the local temples, as well as spending a ton of her money on literature, jewelry, and donations, all for the sake of furthering the cause.The more I read about this religion, the more it appears that it is fraudulent.
I've read everything on the official eckankar.org website, wikipedia's summation, as well as every book I can find on "Americanized religions".
The faith seems like nonsense. It is said by theologists that the spiritual teachings of Eckankar were actually lifted nearly word-for-word from the Indian "Sant Mat" teachings.
As the stories go, Eckankar's "resurrector" Paul Twitchell (proven to actually to be Eckankar's inventor, not resurrector) stole the Sant Mat and other snippets of Indian teachings and created Eckankar, proclaiming himself "Eckankar's 971st Mahanta"- God's personal messenger and the one true leader that any Eck member must pay allegiance to if they ever hope to cut many future lives of karmic servitude from their soul. The Mahanta position has been passed from Twitchell, to Darwin Gross, to the current leader, Harold Klemp, whose published writings have generated an enormous amount of money for what seems to be a multi-million dollar cult.
Many of the fundamentals of Eckankar seem like lies, and I'm concerned about my lady-friend's fanatical devotion.
Does anyone know anything about this religion? Any personal experience, or know anyone who is a member?
Lindaland
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posted March 05, 2007 12:03 AM
posted March 05, 2007 12:11 AM