Eckankar is a religion that was founded in Las Vegas by Paul Twitchell in 1965.   Meaning “Co-Worker with God” Eckankar is described as the Religion of the Light and Sound of God and it’s Headquarters are now in Chanhassen, Minnesota that includes an outdoor chapel (rather chilly in the winter I imagine).  It’s leader is known as the Mahanta, the living ECK  Master, who is respected by followers but not to be worshiped. He is a spiritual guide for the ECK believers journey back to God.

One of Scientology’s first “clears,” Twitchell went on to study under the master teacher Kirpal Singh and those of Sant Mat surat shabd yoga, dropping the Indian cultural elements of the teachings when founding Eckankar.

Another word for Holy Spirit or Life Force, ECK teaches that the universe was created by the sound of the Divine. Humans are sparks of God trapped in a cycle of reincarnation but can return to the Divine by having the soul leave the body in full consciousness and travel freely to other planes of reality. Personal experience is emphasized and the use of mantras is integral to their journey.

Students or members of Eckankar are called Chelas’,  they practice spiritual exercises at their own pace.  Over one hundred different exercises are taught, all designed to give the Chelas’ a greater understanding of themselves and of God.  These Spiritual Exercises include meditation, prayer, concentration, mental exercises, mantras, past-life discovery, and conscious dreaming. A central ritual is the chanting of HU, which is viewed as a love song to God.

Dreams are considered an important teaching tool as well. Dream travel is said to serve as the gateway to Soul Travel, the shifting of consciousness to higher states of being.  Eckankar is about spiritual liberation, self-realization and God-realization in ones lifetime.

Currently Harold Klemp is the Mahanta and his spiritual name is Wah Z (sounds like a rap name to me) he is the 973^rd living ECK master.  I know, I know how can he be the 973^rd when the religion was founded in 1965?  ECKists claim that the foundation of it’s teachings reach back to the beginning of the human race and while Twitchell sourced many teachings both modern and ancient his main influence was Sufism.

Sounds interesting, right? While there are many intriguing things about the religion at the core it appears to be a compilation of other religions including Scientology and Occultism.  By the late 1990s 367 ECK centers existed worldwide, 164 in the United States, the estimated membership was around 50,000.

“Since the Living ECK Master is the avatar of the world who has been sent here to take all souls back to their heavenly home again, none can dispute this. Anyone else who makes such false claims is indeed a false prophet in sheep’s clothes. If anyone so makes claims that his teacher has gained the status of mastership that is likewise false.” – Eck Satsang Discourses – 3rd series – P. Twitchell

That is sobering. You’d think that if he is not to be worshiped the ECK master would be a bit more humble.

“The ECK enters into the womb of a virgin, the queen of heaven, who has submitted to the true spirit of the universe. The consciousness of the Mahanta state is planted as the seed, and carefully nurtured in the womb. When the embodiment of flesh is brought into this world, a man-child is born. It starts its unfoldment over a period of years until the state of perfection is reached, in adulthood. Then the chosen one learns that he is the Living ECK Master of his times.” – Shariyat ki Sugmad 1, pg. 111-112, 2nd edition, 10th printing, 1987

Now that sounds familiar, although it’s clear that all the “modern” Mahanta’s did not spring from the womb of a virgin.

One last quote.

” . . . each of those who are ECKists must come to the realization that they each, belong to the chosen race of the superior being. All others are aliens, that is those who have not yet voluntarily taken up the path of ECK. These aliens, as we speak of them, are, in a way, heathens or pagans who have not yet found truth. They are the agents of the Kal, and the enemy of those who are the followers of ECK.” – Paul Twitchell in Illuminated Way Letters-

I have always felt that it’s up to each individual to follow the religion of your choice and I honor everyone’s right to do so, but you don’t have to call me an alien.

“These Siths or Fairies they call Sleagh Maith or the Good People…are said to be of middle nature between Man and Angel, as were Daemons thought to be of old; of intelligent fluidous Spirits, and light changeable bodies (lyke those called Astral) somewhat of the nature of a condensed cloud, and best seen in twilight. These bodies be so pliable through the sublety of Spirits that agitate them, that they can make them appear or disappear at pleasure.” The Secret Commonwealth of Elves, Fauns and Fairies, Reverend Robert Kirk, minister of the Parish of Aberfoyle, Stirling, Scotland, 1691

The origin of the name Fey, Faerie, etc. is convoluted at best, derived from Middle English, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and German with very diverse meanings attached, including “fated to die.” “Visionary,” “Spirit.” “destiny.” Their origins are also murky; generally described as human in appearance and having magical powers, they were considered forms of demons or the dead. Other folk beliefs include them as demoted angels, humans who became hidden people, babies laughs, pagan deities. A good deal of folklore revolves around protecting oneself from their malice by using cold iron (poison to faeries) charms made from rowan and herbs or even pieces of bread. Legend has it that fairies are prone to kidnapping humans, usually babies or young children, leaving changelings in their place. Common themes of “Faeire Tales” are the use of magic to disguise appearance, tricking humans to do things unaware, controlling the forces of nature, even drowning individuals who disturb their habitat. The thorn tree was reputed as faerie territory and death to anyone who chopped it down. One such tree in Scotland remained standing for seventy years despite it’s blocking a road from being widened. While there were claims by noted literary figures of actually seeing and or believing in faeries such as William Blake, C.S. Lewis, and most famously, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the accounts were generally received with skepticism, until actual photographs were revealed. The Cottingley Fairies appeared in five photographs taken by two young cousins in 1917. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, a spiritualist and photo enthusiast claimed them to be evidence of psychic phenomenon. Interest in the photographs waned after 1921. In the early 1980s the two cousins admitted that four of the five photographs were faked with cardboard cut-outs but that the fifth was genuine. Disney, more than any other institution, has given Faeries their modern charm, stripping them of their origins and creating fanciful creatures that appeal to their target audience of young girls. Just like so many other mythical creatures, the truth about faeries and their meaning is hidden in our past and what we are left with are our own beliefs and passions to guide us.

Derived from the Latin meaning “entering the flesh,” reincarnation dates back to the  Iron age, appearing in the traditions of India and Greece.  While the idea of reincarnation may have developed independently in different regions, contact with various cultures suggests that it was present in Proto-Indo-European religions.   Most notably, societies that were agricultural who recognized the cycles of birth, death and rebirth in the plants they harvested.

Religions latched on to reincarnation, most notably Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism. In the Hindu holy book, the Rigveda a passage goes:

“Burn him not up, nor quite consume him, Agni: let not his body or his skin be scattered. O Jatavedas, when thou hast matured him, then send him on his way unto the Fathers… let thy fierce flame, thy glowing splendour, burn him With thine auspicious forms, o Jatavedas, bear this man to the region of the pious… Again, O Agni, to the Fathers send him who, offered in thee, goes with our oblations. Wearing new life let him increase his offspring: let him rejoin a body, Jatavedas.”

A bit dramatic, but poetic and representative of how entwined the idea was to religious ideologies rather than the more modern notion that we came back to Earth after being Marilyn Monroe, or Julius Caesar, who, by the way, recorded that the Druids had Reincarnation as one of their core doctrines.

Attempts to obtain first hand knowledge of past lives has developed differently in different places. Buddhist texts discuss such techniques. Plato presented accounts of reincarnation in his works and attributed his teacher Socrates as saying;

“I am confident that there truly is such a thing as living again, and that the living spring from the dead.

Reincarnation was widely accepted throughout antiquity until, of course, Christianity came along.  Then the Roman Inquisition burned people at the stake for such beliefs, which would be ironic if the heretics were right.

Fast forward to today when 20 to 30 percent of people in Western countries, who may be Christians, believe in reincarnation and without the threat of death.  But whether we believe in it or not may be a moot point.  Some people claim to have proven that reincarnation is fact, including the late Dr. Ian Stevenson, who over 40 years and twelve books,  methodically documented young children who claimed to remember past lives.  His strict methods ruled out all possible alternative explanations for the children’s memories.

Naturally there are skeptics who say that there is no known mechanism in modern science that would allow someone to survive death and travel to another body. The key word is, “Known,” what about an unknown mechanism?  Our basic idea that the soul resides in the body and is released when the body dies is a notion based on our learned concepts; the physical body as part of a physical world. But what if it’s the other way around? What if the soul releases the body and is just another form of the energy that makes up all things?  Then it would be free to go and be what it wants.

Perhaps the biggest reason for believing in reincarnation is our abhorrence to the idea that when we die we cease to exist.  This seems incomprehensible, so we believe that we continue on and maybe in believing, we create it’s reality.  After all Life is just a dream.

Next, we’ll discuss some specific modern religions that have unique takes on the afterlife. As always, feel free to leave comments or submit suggestions for topics.

In order to pursue the question, I think it is important to define what death is because it gets to the heart of the matter – so to speak.  Once defined as the cessation of heartbeat and breathing, today with advances in medicine, these events can be overcome and humans can be kept alive with life-support.  So today, Coroners and doctors determine someone has died when their brain no longer functions, or more specifically, when the electrical activity in the brain ceases and therefor consciousness ends.

It is the very definition of consciousness, or souls, that is the key to life-after-death.

Near Death Experiences (NDE) have been reported for generations, but scientists are quick to point out that there could be a physical, logical reason for them. Researchers theorize that such experiences can be attributed to a sleep disorder, the intrusion of REM triggered by a traumatic event.  If we believe who we are exists in the neural pathways of our brain, then when those pathways are destroyed are we?

Perhaps, instead of science being the harbinger of doom to the idea of an after-life, maybe it can prove, at least, that we are more than just physical stuff.

We are certainly aware that our bodies definitely cease to exist when we die, they decay and get recycled by the earth, but are we our bodies?  As the Sean Penn movie 21 Grams says, the human body looses 21 grams of weight the moment it dies.  Is that the weight of our soul? The hypothesis had been around well before the 20^th century but claims that souls have measurable mass can be attributed to experiments that a Dr Duncan MacDougall conducted in 1907.

“At the end of three hours and forty minutes he expired and suddenly coincidence with his death the bean end dropped with an audible stroke hitting against the lower limiting bar and remaining there with no rebound. The loss was ascertained to be three-fourths of an ounce.”

Of course MacDougall’s results were immediately questioned and the science suspect, but what then is the explanation?

Science says that energy can be neither created nor destroyed, so if our soul is energy, or some kind of matter (matter is condensed energy) then it has to continue to exist.

This is a complex and controversial subject and we will continue to talk about it, so if you have any opinions or thoughts on the subject please feel free to write to us.

Consider if the laws of our universe were just the tiniest bit different.  If protons were just 0.2 percent more massive than they actually are, they would be unstable and would decay into simpler particles. Atoms wouldn’t exist; neither would we. If gravity were slightly more powerful, the consequences would be nearly as grave. A higher gravitational force would compress stars more tightly, making them smaller, hotter, and denser. Rather than surviving for billions of years, stars would burn through their fuel in a few million years, sputtering out long before life had a chance to evolve.  There are so many of these properties that there is no way physicists can dismiss them all.  So what are they to do, short of invoking a benevolent creator? Come up with the one possible explanation. The Multiverse.

Depicted in such shows as Fringe, Star Trek and even the Family Guy, multiple universes have caught our imagination.  We envision worlds that contain mirror copies of ourselves, ones that perhaps made better decisions or took another road in life.  Maybe life in another universe has a different meaning, but we know that our universe, at the very least is special in that it houses our kind of life.

While there are many skeptics to the theory, recent developments have proven significant enough to give the idea some legs.

In 1998 researchers observed that the universe was not slowing down as predicted but accelerating.  This baffling discovery made way for the idea that there is some unknown force or energy they called Dark Energy, which is pushing everything apart.  There is just enough of this energy to make the universe what it is.

Dark energy makes it impossible to ignore the Multiverse theory, yet another idea has gained popularity, which also supports it.  The String Theory is so complex that it requires 11 dimensions to explain it correctly.

These theories may make the Multiverse plausible, but they still are not testable and therefore as nebulous as the idea of a creator.  How then did our universe become so specific down to the very nature of the atoms that make up everything we know?

Enter Idealism: Neither hard science, nor religion, it is a philosophy, a family of views asserting that reality as we know it is a construct of our mind. That might explain things, although I prefer to use consciousness instead of mind.  Still not testable, but the esteemed British scientist Sir James Jeans wrote, “The Universe begins to look more like a great thought than like a great machine.” And what about all that unseen “dark energy?” Perhaps what is holding the Universe together and making it expand is pure conscious energy?  Then, perhaps, everyone is right.

1. Know what job you want? If you don’t know what you want, you can’t expect the people looking to hire you to decide.  The truth is it is just as easy to get a job you want as any job, even easier because you want it.
2. Once you know what you want, say that you have it. I know this sounds odd and defies the logic that we cling to so defiantly. But when you realize that you get what you say you have anyway, why not use it to your advantage. If, right now, you are saying that you want a job, or you want to get a job then you are getting exactly what you say you have, you are getting “want.” If you say you have a job then you get “have.”
3. Act to reinforce what you say you have. All religions utilize this philosophy to some extent or another. Tithing isn’t just about giving money to the church it is reinforcing the notion that you have it to give.  The best way to prove that you have something is to give it away. I know this isn’t really possible when we are talking about a job. However, the more you can act on what you say you have the quicker you will have it in front of you.
4. Keep moving forward and don’t look for results. If you set up expectations that things are going to happen in a certain time frame or a certain way, then you set yourself up for disappointment, frustration and desperation. It’s ok to have a goal and a deadline for yourself, but don’t be so attached to it that you get caught up in it and don’t allow the unexpected which could send you in an exciting new direction.  Just keep doing what you need to do and keep saying what you need to say.
5. Do what other people aren’t doing. Find some new and innovative ways of connecting with people, finding out about jobs and do them. If everyone is on-line, you hit the streets and go to places in person. The more you can stand out the more people will notice you.
6. Be excited.  Express passion for what you want and what you can do. It’s one thing to say you are passionate about something and it’s another to express that passion.  People are naturally drawn to others who are passionate. A lot of the time it’s because they have lost theirs and look to you to re-infuse their passion.
7. Everything has already worked out to your advantage.  Just knowing that things have already worked out reinforces all of the above. But this has to be a deep seated belief and not just something you say. In truth, things always work out, but it’s because they don’t always work out the way we expect them to that gives the impression they don’t.  If you do all the above and stay away from indulging in negative emotions and actions then you will get what you say you have.

The truth is that most people don’t need to get struck by lightening, they just need a chance and the opportunity to show an employer what they can do.  The above 7 points, followed diligently, will give you that chance.   This is nothing new, but I believe it is important to give people a reminder every now and then, of what can make a difference in their lives.

When I was reminded of these 7 points a few years ago; dissatisfied with where I was headed in my career and watching my passion dwindle, I made the decision to combine what I knew how to do and my ability to help people, with my love of movies, media and story telling.  What happened was that without realizing it, I found myself in the perfect environment, doing what I love in all areas of my life.  You can do it to.