never been there

A Sikh friend got pissed off when she heard about them. "Ek Onkar" is a popular mantra among Sikhs, and she looked into them and wasn't too impressed with who'd been borrowing bits of her religion to populate his little cult franchising operation.

PatrickHays

Thank you for the information. I have requested and received a free book from the organization titled "Ancient Wisdom for Today." Interesting little read; however, as some have stated it is quite obvious that they have stolen most of their beliefs from other religions.

Also, in the back of the little book is a listing of several other books available (for a cost of course) regarding their system. It is interesting to note that all the books were composed by the same author . . . The leader of the organization, Harold Klemp.

Thanks again.

wonkothesane

From the books and stuff I have read of my ex's...I find it (EK) not only derivative, but trite and simplistic.

It's alot of happy feel good new age stuff about how if you ask "Wah-Z" (the spiritual form of the human "Living Eck Master") for help or just hum "Hu" (there rip off of "Ohm") everything will be all right.

Also the art is bad, and the names of the "Eck Masters", the "Order of the Vairagi" ("Rebazar Tarzs", "Fubbi Quantz") are all a bit silly sounding.

dr_zukov

:Cheeky:

But seriously, this could perhaps be a good chance to see the formative days of a new religion. How many adherents (believers, followers?) does Eckankar currently have? Is it expanding as rapidly as Scientology (for example)?

You've mentioned that they take a lot of "New age" stuff. Do you think there is any reference to UFO cults? They are usually the ones that come up with silly names.

Are there any outside resources on them on the Internet?

Toto

Eck is well past its formative stage. It was started in 1965, has had schisms and heretics, and has probably already peaked.

It is my vague and unscientifically supported impression, living in Los Angeles, that the New Religious Movement phase has peaked. Christian sects are becoming more agressive and have a better marketing plan (and learned some things from how cults recruited people). More Jews are returning to their Jewish roots rather than searching out eastern religions. And more people are on anti-depression prescription drugs.

Astreja

Now there's a name I haven't heard for a few years... IIRC, John-Roger partnered for a while with the late Peter McWilliams. From a quick scan of the McWilliams web resources, it looks like Peter managed to detach John-Roger's name from his works. There was also a biographical account of the relationship, "Life 102: What to Do When Your Guru Sues You."

Toto

Long sad story.

Peter McWilliams was diagnosed with AIDS, and discovered medical marijuana, and became a medical marijuana activist. He was a little too open about it, and the feds indicted him, and as a condition of probation, he was not allowed to use marijuana. He died by choking on his own vomit after taking his AIDS medicine, a condition that the medical marijuana would have prevented.

McWilliams took John-Rogers' name off his works, and John-Rogers sued him. McWilliams said he wrote Life 102 to get the money to fund his defense, and the book contained a lot of unflattering material about Arianna Huffington, whose husband was then running as a Republican for governor of California.

The case was settled by McWilliams getting the rights to all of his prior work and giving MSIA the copyright to Life 102, and MSIA has used that copyright to suppress Life 102 completely. You cannot find a copy of that book for sale anywhere.

ekl

I was - ahem - lucky enough to live with a family (my family, unfortunately, uncle, aunt and cousins) of Eckists for a few months. I also know another member independently of them.

From the research I've done and what I noticed of their behaviour, I'd agree with the term 'cult' being used.

Some Eckists claim that it is an ancient religion that was forced underground a few hundred years ago, and was bought back out in the 60s. Seems unlikely. There's even evidence that it was set up as a money-making sceme, tho unfortunately I think I threw out that document last time I was packing to move house

The current (or current in '98 when I was living with said fam) leader - holder of the "Rod of Power" - was Sri Harold Klemp. He's published numerous books. The one I managed to wade part way thru was really for self-glorification. Some ego-stoking and 'look at our ancient wisdom' stuff. My uncle tried to talk it up once or twice, but unlike most people's religious rellies, who seem to want to convert, in my family we hoard secrets and things we can hold over others, so I didn't get it too bad. The other Eckist I know, tho, was tremendously excited when she found out I knew of Eckankar and did the old talk-up. I met several Eckists thru my rellies and a number of them were obviously wallowing in their perceived superiority, and wanted me to join.

My uncle actually used their (somewhat skew-wiff take on the) beilef in karma to excuse his abuse of one of his sisters - she must have done something to cause it in a past life, so it wasn't his fault. He and his wife also blamed my mother for her disablity due to illness - this new-agey idea that we create our own illnesses and if she really wanted to be well she would be.

No wonder I don't have contact with them anymore.