The ego shouldn't be underestimated in its power to keep you in a state of inertia when it comes to eckankar. I speak from experience. If you can check your ego at the door you'll have a better chance at seeing eckankar for what it is and finding your way out.
The problem is that the longer you're in something, eckankar included, you start to form your identity around your belief system. Your ego can keep you from undoing this to the point wherein you can't divorce yourself even from something that is bad for you. It even becomes near impossible to think clearly enough to ask yourself "Am I still a truth seeker, or am I now just blinded by my own beliefs to the point wherein I can't be objective?" Which is it for you?
The hardest thing for most people is to question eckankar once they've committed to it, especially after a number of years. You've got too much invested — friendships, habits, ways of thinking, belief systems and even part of your personal lexicon. Your identity becomes attached to these ideas that are adopted as your own. Thus, you can be a part of a big lie and self deception because your ego just won't let go. You're too close to the problem to recognize it. You become entirely defensive. You defend the lies, the plagiarisms, the accusations, the contradictions and the injustices of eckanar as if they are all an attack on you personally. In the long run this is bad for you because you are being controlled by two forces: 1. the eckankar organization and 2. your own set of beliefs.
To see eckankar for what it is, you have to be open-minded. Maybe this was your state of mind before you entered into eckankar, but believe me when I say that if you're still in it, you're no longer open-minded. You may think you are, but you are not. You're brainwashed. I know I was and everyone I knew in eckankar was the same way. You believe that Paul Twitchell was a spiritual man and you overlooked his plagiarisms, contradictions and lies. Why would you surrender your common sense and critical thinking? When things got scary or went wrong, you would Hu inside your head. When you dreamed you thought it was "real." You believe the eck masters are real beings. You believe you are the cause of your own problems. It's all crazy and without foundation.
Unless you understand more about psychology, you are the victim of your own ego and abberations of your mind.
To look at the truth about eckankar, including the good and the bad, you have to check your ego at the door. This is way too much for many people to do. But if you're brave and open-minded and are really a truth seeker, you'll do it for your own good and the good of others. If not, you'll continue to be in denial and to live a lie. It's your own choice.
Monday, June 4, 2007
Saturday, June 2, 2007
If nothing else, just listen to the logic
A lot of people who have left Eckankar are just plain angry. They were taken for a ride. They spent their money with good intentions, but were given magic beans. Okay, I'll let them vent. But if you really want to get down to brass tacks, just try to see the logic:
- There is absolutely NO historical proof of Eckankar. If it really existed since the beginning of time there would be some traces somewhere. But there aren't.
- Paul Twitchell plagiarized his original books on Eckankar. This is easily provable. Just compare Twitchell's books against those he stole from which were published many years before his books were published. Do you really want to follow an organization and its leaders who base their entire work on a stack of lies and deceptions?
- Since when do you have to PAY to belong to a religion???
- Eckankar doesn't make any sense. It is a collection of ideas and teachings from numerous sources riddled with conflicting information. It's not cohesive. Eckankar's answer to this is that you're just not ready to understand. That's right, you are an idiot for using your common sense.
- Harold Klemp is a former mental patient. Come on! Think about this!
- Paul Twitchell was a known compulsive liar.
- You need to study the mind and its capabilities BEFORE you start believing in the Eckankar dogma. You owe it to yourself. The mind is capable of creating delusions that you will swear are real. Don't underestimate the creative power of your mind.
- Take a good, close look at Harold Klemp. He is NOT NORMAL. Look at his eyes and the way he speaks with pursed lips. His cadence is sickly. His demeanor is ill. He is a sick individual. Any normal person can see this quite clearly.
- Eckankar claims that all great people from the past were Eck masters or tutored by Eck masters. Isn't this a little suspicious. In many cases these claims are downright stupid and ludicrous because if you know anything about history you will know that those figures Eckankar lays claim to were horrible people, like Alexander the Great and Columbus. These people were butcherous.
- Eckankar's writings are full of contradictions, ranging from disputes on Paul Twitchell's birth date to where a Living Eck Master is supposed to be born. The teachings say that they are born from a virgin mother. Besides sounding tiresomely familar, the last three Living Eck Masters came from flesh and blood, with mothers who had real names and fathers who worked for a living.
- Secrecy. What can you say about secrecy. Secrecy is a sign that somebody's up to something that needs to be hidden.
"Every famous person who ever lived was secretly an Eckist"
source: http://www.iidb.org/vbb/showthread.php?t=57698
"...the Eckankar writings are riddled with fear tactics right out of Scientology and dire threats of what damnation awaits anyone foolish enough to quit. Without the Living Eck Master's guidance, all a person's karma is dumped onto his head and will likely crush the poor soul. Numerous threats promise countless rounds of more miserable lives spent in the astral hells and back here on earth. All is not lost, though, if the hapless student someday crawls back to the feet of the Living Eck Master and asks to be saved. As you may guess, these fear-laden admonitions against quitting are only available to the student after approximately 10 years of conditioning (er...study), so new members have absolutely no idea what less-than-pleasant surprises await them down the road."
When I first quit, I was a bit worried about what would happen next, but I was willing to take the chance because the whole movement seemed such utter bullshit. They claimed stuff like every famous person who ever lived was secretly an Eckist and/or an Eck Master.
From my experience, I think cults are most effective on the young, on persons who have recently been traumatized and need something to fill the void, or people who desperately need the approval of a group to belong to.
When I joined Eck, I guess it was a youthful indescretion and it seemed like a good idea at the time.
"...the Eckankar writings are riddled with fear tactics right out of Scientology and dire threats of what damnation awaits anyone foolish enough to quit. Without the Living Eck Master's guidance, all a person's karma is dumped onto his head and will likely crush the poor soul. Numerous threats promise countless rounds of more miserable lives spent in the astral hells and back here on earth. All is not lost, though, if the hapless student someday crawls back to the feet of the Living Eck Master and asks to be saved. As you may guess, these fear-laden admonitions against quitting are only available to the student after approximately 10 years of conditioning (er...study), so new members have absolutely no idea what less-than-pleasant surprises await them down the road."
When I first quit, I was a bit worried about what would happen next, but I was willing to take the chance because the whole movement seemed such utter bullshit. They claimed stuff like every famous person who ever lived was secretly an Eckist and/or an Eck Master.
From my experience, I think cults are most effective on the young, on persons who have recently been traumatized and need something to fill the void, or people who desperately need the approval of a group to belong to.
When I joined Eck, I guess it was a youthful indescretion and it seemed like a good idea at the time.
Eckankar: One in a Long List of Cults
Okay, so you're pissed off about Eckankar. You've found out that the group is just a cult. You're disheartened that the whole group is based upon a fundamental lie — a foundation of slippery soil because all the works of the founder are plagiarized. Maybe you've done a little homework and discovered that Harold Klemp is a liar, having covered up for Paul Twitchell and having promoted Twitchell's lies. You just want to pull your hair out. Well, if it makes you feel any better, Eckankar is in sorry company. The organization is one in a long list of cults — a string of other groups doing the same thing and making the same claims. The leader is a divine spark, there are secret words and secret this and that. There is a mysterious and fantastic beginning that "others" who are outsiders just wouldn't understand.
Take a look at the list of cults. Eckankar is just standing in line waiting for your money and your soul: http://www.freedomofmind.com/resourcecenter/groups/
Take a look at the list of cults. Eckankar is just standing in line waiting for your money and your soul: http://www.freedomofmind.com/resourcecenter/groups/
Eckankar: A Shameful Mix of Partial Truths & Lots of Lies
If you don't think eckankar is just as nasty as Scientology, then think again. It is all a lie, but the problem is that the members, like I used to be, don't do ANY homework before joining to know that it's a sham. We're ignorant and maybe that's our fault to a degree, but be assured that Harold Klemp, a known mental case, is pulling the wool over your eyes. Just go to the library and read for a whole year and then for certain you would never join this or any other group. Eckankar is a shameful mix of partial truths and lots of lies. In the upper eschelons, they are laughing all the way to the bank. I was in Eckankar for 12 years and know what went on at the top. It's pure junk invented by an ignorant country hick named Paul Twitchell; a guy whose own books contradict each other because he couldn't even remember well enough to promote his own lies successfully.
Friday, June 1, 2007
Would You Buy a Used Car from this Man??
from: http://www.stormpages.com/truthbeknown66/eckankar7.html
Twitchell was one of the greatest plagiarists of this (or any other) century, and much of what he "wrote" was actually material he blatantly copied word for word from the published works of legitimate authors. One of his more popular early books was The Far Country, which alone carried over 400 solidly-documented stolen paragraphs, complete with typos and syntax errors.
His other books all follow in the same pattern. He claims these ancient and most secret teachings were taught to him by a 500 year old Tibetan lama named Rebezar Tarzs, who would appear to him in his apartment each night and dictate the truths. The real truth is that he found his material at the local public library, in the metaphysical section.
His most important book, The Tiger's Fang, was a purported journey he took deep into the inner planes, escorted by Rebezar Tarzs, and was taken to meet God directly. Alas, like the rest of his works, much plagiarized material is to be found in this book, (Walter Russell's "The Secret of Light", as an example), as well as the standard cosmologies taught by Sant Mat and Radhasoami. There's serious doubt about his credibility, with so many stolen passages being claimed as his own experiences, when, in fact, they were the experiences of other authors.
It's quite clear the real sources for his "secret" teachings were the published works of authors like Julian Johnson, Neville, L. Ron Hubbard, Lama Govinda, Walter Russell, Swami Premananda, Kirpal Singh, Annie Besant and many others. He worked for the notorious L. Ron Hubbard for a period of time in the 1950s and was instrumental in recruiting people into that questionable organization. What he learned in Scientology, he freely applied to his own invention Eckankar.
His official biography, In My Soul I Am Free, was written by Brad Steiger (the UFO chaser) and was sold by Eckankar for over 30 years and has been found to be an almost complete fabrication. Professor David Lane stripped away the facade of Eckankar with his writings and also interviewed scores of people who had known Twitchell. It was just about unanimous that Twitchell was a compulsive liar since childhood and is a highly unreliable source.
With so much evidence that Twitchell was a world-class liar, this presents the student of Eckankar with an uncomfortable issue to struggle with. If a teacher can't be trusted to tell the simple truths of his own life, what makes a student think he's telling the truth about the inner worlds of Spirit? Would you buy a used car from this man?
http://www.stormpages.com/truthbeknown66/eckankar7.html
Twitchell was one of the greatest plagiarists of this (or any other) century, and much of what he "wrote" was actually material he blatantly copied word for word from the published works of legitimate authors. One of his more popular early books was The Far Country, which alone carried over 400 solidly-documented stolen paragraphs, complete with typos and syntax errors.
His other books all follow in the same pattern. He claims these ancient and most secret teachings were taught to him by a 500 year old Tibetan lama named Rebezar Tarzs, who would appear to him in his apartment each night and dictate the truths. The real truth is that he found his material at the local public library, in the metaphysical section.His most important book, The Tiger's Fang, was a purported journey he took deep into the inner planes, escorted by Rebezar Tarzs, and was taken to meet God directly. Alas, like the rest of his works, much plagiarized material is to be found in this book, (Walter Russell's "The Secret of Light", as an example), as well as the standard cosmologies taught by Sant Mat and Radhasoami. There's serious doubt about his credibility, with so many stolen passages being claimed as his own experiences, when, in fact, they were the experiences of other authors.
It's quite clear the real sources for his "secret" teachings were the published works of authors like Julian Johnson, Neville, L. Ron Hubbard, Lama Govinda, Walter Russell, Swami Premananda, Kirpal Singh, Annie Besant and many others. He worked for the notorious L. Ron Hubbard for a period of time in the 1950s and was instrumental in recruiting people into that questionable organization. What he learned in Scientology, he freely applied to his own invention Eckankar.
His official biography, In My Soul I Am Free, was written by Brad Steiger (the UFO chaser) and was sold by Eckankar for over 30 years and has been found to be an almost complete fabrication. Professor David Lane stripped away the facade of Eckankar with his writings and also interviewed scores of people who had known Twitchell. It was just about unanimous that Twitchell was a compulsive liar since childhood and is a highly unreliable source.
With so much evidence that Twitchell was a world-class liar, this presents the student of Eckankar with an uncomfortable issue to struggle with. If a teacher can't be trusted to tell the simple truths of his own life, what makes a student think he's telling the truth about the inner worlds of Spirit? Would you buy a used car from this man?
http://www.stormpages.com/truthbeknown66/eckankar7.html
Paul Twitchell: Liar, Con Artist & Thief: Great Beginnings for Eckankar
verbatim from: http://www.stormpages.com/truthbeknown66/eckankar6.html
Eckankar was hastily cobbled together by a small-time newspaper and pulp science fiction writer named John Paul Twitchell in 1965. It's a mind-numbing hodgepodge of eastern thought, the Bible, Sufi teachings, mystery school practices and just about anything else you can think of. He used to claim he routinely read thousands of books per year, and it's certainly evident he took whatever interested him from them. Everything is jammed together in a confusing mishmash that's almost impossible to clearly understand. In many instances, the material flat out contradicts itself. In one book, the sky is blue; in the next book, the sky is green. Up becomes down and left becomes right. Such was the skewed world of Twitchell.
Twitchell was an ordinary man with an interest in religions and spirituality but possessed little in the way of talents or abilities. What he DID have though, was a fierce ambition to get somewhere and a tireless knack for promoting himself. In fact, anyone reading enough of his writings gets the clear impression that his very favorite topic was himself.
Of course, he was often lying.
His lies began back at an early age and he lied his way throughout adulthood. He lied to get into the book of Who's Who in America, lied about his military service, lied to his wives about his age, lied about his birth, lied about his family, lied about his "spiritual" teachers, lied to his biographer and lied to his students. Many people who knew him in those years agreed that the words braggart and pathological liar just about summed up his character.
And he wasn't any better in the ethics department. Fancying himself a writer, he's been proven to be a first class plagiarist and had no reservations about stealing the efforts and words of other writers and claiming them as his own. All in all, this isn't the kind of man anyone would want to see their daughter bring home to meet her parents!
Even Harold Klemp, the current leader, has grudgingly admitted as much about Twitchell's character, although, understandably, he uses milder words. Since he couldn't very well inform the flock that its founder was a pathological liar, in Eckankar, Twitchell becomes merely a lover of tall tales, a fellow who always enjoyed a good yarn. Spin, spin, spin. Notice in Twitchell's quote below, he freely admits being a lifelong layabout and conveniently forgets that he indeed DID have a wife to support - Camille.
"Y'know, the real reason why I was such a failure in the sense of being unable to make any sort of a living was because I was really not motivated. I had no motivation. If the motivation was only to make a salary, since I was the only one to keep up, I had no wife, no children or anything, then money meant nothing. It only meant clothes on my back and possibly an automobile and a few of the luxuries which weren't all that necessary. But as long as the motivation wasn't there, I didn't particularly care about a job; I didn't particularly care about an income, making somebody else a living off of my efforts as I was doing most of the time in growing up."
-Paul Twitchell in
Difficulties of Becoming the Living Eck Master-
"The Mahanta is always born on or near a large body of water. His birth is always mysterious and men of ordinary birth do not know his origin. Nor does any man know who his sires might be, their true names or their true origin."
-Shariyat Book 1-
(Twitchell was born in Paducah, Kentucky. Klemp was born in the midwest)
Eckankar was hastily cobbled together by a small-time newspaper and pulp science fiction writer named John Paul Twitchell in 1965. It's a mind-numbing hodgepodge of eastern thought, the Bible, Sufi teachings, mystery school practices and just about anything else you can think of. He used to claim he routinely read thousands of books per year, and it's certainly evident he took whatever interested him from them. Everything is jammed together in a confusing mishmash that's almost impossible to clearly understand. In many instances, the material flat out contradicts itself. In one book, the sky is blue; in the next book, the sky is green. Up becomes down and left becomes right. Such was the skewed world of Twitchell.
Twitchell was an ordinary man with an interest in religions and spirituality but possessed little in the way of talents or abilities. What he DID have though, was a fierce ambition to get somewhere and a tireless knack for promoting himself. In fact, anyone reading enough of his writings gets the clear impression that his very favorite topic was himself.
Of course, he was often lying.
His lies began back at an early age and he lied his way throughout adulthood. He lied to get into the book of Who's Who in America, lied about his military service, lied to his wives about his age, lied about his birth, lied about his family, lied about his "spiritual" teachers, lied to his biographer and lied to his students. Many people who knew him in those years agreed that the words braggart and pathological liar just about summed up his character.
And he wasn't any better in the ethics department. Fancying himself a writer, he's been proven to be a first class plagiarist and had no reservations about stealing the efforts and words of other writers and claiming them as his own. All in all, this isn't the kind of man anyone would want to see their daughter bring home to meet her parents!
Even Harold Klemp, the current leader, has grudgingly admitted as much about Twitchell's character, although, understandably, he uses milder words. Since he couldn't very well inform the flock that its founder was a pathological liar, in Eckankar, Twitchell becomes merely a lover of tall tales, a fellow who always enjoyed a good yarn. Spin, spin, spin. Notice in Twitchell's quote below, he freely admits being a lifelong layabout and conveniently forgets that he indeed DID have a wife to support - Camille.
"Y'know, the real reason why I was such a failure in the sense of being unable to make any sort of a living was because I was really not motivated. I had no motivation. If the motivation was only to make a salary, since I was the only one to keep up, I had no wife, no children or anything, then money meant nothing. It only meant clothes on my back and possibly an automobile and a few of the luxuries which weren't all that necessary. But as long as the motivation wasn't there, I didn't particularly care about a job; I didn't particularly care about an income, making somebody else a living off of my efforts as I was doing most of the time in growing up."
-Paul Twitchell in
Difficulties of Becoming the Living Eck Master-
"The Mahanta is always born on or near a large body of water. His birth is always mysterious and men of ordinary birth do not know his origin. Nor does any man know who his sires might be, their true names or their true origin."
-Shariyat Book 1-
(Twitchell was born in Paducah, Kentucky. Klemp was born in the midwest)
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