Geraldo was in New York, and I was on satellite hookup at Universal Studios in the San Fernando Valley. At one Eckankar seminar in Florida, a panhandler happened to station himself outside the hotel where the seminar was held. Eckankar - Wikipedia Two years ago you were living at your girlfriends aunts house, not making much money on the pro-bowling scene, and now youre God., Lane rolls his eyes. Because that was my condition if I could just study in the closet, then I would join. After reading Eckankar books for a year and a half, Yelman went to a seminar in Las Vegas. Last year, former cult member Peter McWilliams published a scathing tell-all, Life 102: What to Do When Your Guru Sues You; Novembers Vanity Fair linked Arianna Huffingtons allegiance to MSIA to her husbands unsuccessful senate campaign; and the March issue of Playboy ran a detailed expose. He may like the trappings, but not the actual duty of it. What is Eckankar? Religious History & Beliefs - Study.com Lane says, He got them from his Indian books on Radhasoami, or Julian Johnsons The Path of the Masters, or from With a Great Master in India. Outsiders would think they had stumbled into a convention of traveling salesmen. David Lanes critiques of Eckankar may be well documented and rational, but religious devotion is not about rationality. Read full review of Eckankar Helpful? It wasnt just David Lanes personal opinion. They looked just like the Rod of Power! Lane drives me back to Hillcrest. Various Eckists say they witnessed the ceremony. The inner form of the Living Eck Master, known as the Mahanta, works with students in the dreamstate and during their spiritual exercises. 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. As the great Houdini wrote, The yellow thread of exposure seems to be inextricably woven into all fabrics whose strength is secrecy. Houdini, like Lane, was a man whose obsessions drove him to expose religious frauds. In the early 70s, when I joined, I was dysfunctionally shy, a borderline agoraphobic, afraid to talk to salesladies in department stores. But Eckankars attorneys mailed the package back to me. Lane and Walsh had put a circle with a slash through it over Eckankars logo, which is EK formed into a circle. Eckankar has members in over 120 countries around the world, and its teachings have been translated into more than twenty-five languages. For free downloadable books, check out our Web site at www.Eckankar.org. 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. Then his widow, Gail Atkinson, had a vision in the night in which Twitchell named Gross. That night in the dreamstate I had a meeting with a master. When she begins her next selection, My Funny Valentine, I lose all objectivity*. Grosss rise to power was steeped in controversy from the beginning. But the stuff that Lane goes after has nothing to do, for me, with the validity of the teachings., When I was in Eckankar, one of the things that I really liked about it was its respect for other faiths and that there was no pressure to get anybody to join., Richards responds, Sri Harold Klemp has taken a special effort to make it clear that we accept the value and the need for all different paths and religions, because people operate at different states of consciousness. Freeways knocked out Sorrento Rd., getting from the 5 to the 805, fitness fanatics head for Corner House, get those Mira Mesa signs out. Man, it was a nasty conversation. Eckankar -- Pre Philosophy, Planetary Philosophy Lanes green eyes turn serious.