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What can you tell me about Eckankar?

DrZoidberg

DrZoidberg

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Nov 28, 2007
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So I'm out in the Swedish woods in a sports collective of sorts. There's a lady here who says she's a member of Eckankar. I had never heard of it before. She tries to sell it like Scientology without sending anybody money. To me that's like having an accident with or without a helmet on. Either way, pretty awful.

Has anybody heard of this or know what it's about? I've read about what there is on-line, ie dangerous cult, clone of Scientology etc. I was just wondering about personal experiences. Have any of you had any contact with this sect/cult? And could tell me more.

My interest is just pure curiosity. Religions, and especially cults fascinate me.
 
One of their temples was in the town next to mine growing up. It is a flashy, bronze-colored, step pyramid sort of affair. My father went to an open house out of a sort of morbid curiosity. He reported that their worship revolves around the reverent uttering of the holy syllable, "Hu." I believe it is true that it is an offshoot of scientology, but seems devoid of the pseudo-science shit, being more mystical. How you get something mystical out of scientology, and what remains of scientology in the practice, is a mystery to me.
 
What's the point of Scientology without getting money from their members? Isn't that kind of like breaking into a bank vault just to take a look around? The whole religion was started up as a money making scheme, so taking out the money making scheme part makes the whole thing fairly irrelevant.
 
Tom Sawyer said:
What's the point of Scientology without getting money from their members? Isn't that kind of like breaking into a bank vault just to take a look around? The whole religion was started up as a money making scheme, so taking out the money making scheme part makes the whole thing fairly irrelevant.
Click to expand...

Not only. I'd say there are two more components to scientology. The first is the idea of going clear. To become an "enlightened" being, and this can only be done through the church. That the church sits on some sort of unique knowledge that is being suppressed by the rest of society. This can also be found in Eckankar... sort of. They do say you can become enlightened via other means, but that Eckankar is the most powerful.

The second is the inflated ego. If you look at Scientology/Eckankar videos, where their spiritual leader talks, it's all a love bombing. Telling the follower how special they are and that without they the world would turn to chaos. Who wouldn't want to be part of a Hollywood film where you alone is crucial to saving the world! That's basically what it is. Since they are more special than non-scientologists/non-Eckankars they don't need to compare themselves to others. Even when they fail they can tell themselves, "but at least I am saving humanity and I failed because saving humanity is hard work". I think that is psychologically powerful. And is one of the reasons why people have such hard time leaving cults. Having an inflated ego is a direct obstacle to anybody working on themselves. So anybody a member of a cult like this stays, mentally, like children until they leave. It's a similar mechanic behind how we are psychologically affected by alcoholism, or any addiction.

And arguably, thirdly, they're both also cults. But I'm not sure either of them were designed as such from the beginning. I know Scientology only became such bit by bit, when the world failed to recognise Hubbards genius (when in 1950 it was beyond a doubt demonstrated that "going clear" was pseudo-scientific nonsense). The Eckankar couple where open about Eckankar being a brain-washing cult and explained how it had happened. Apparently the current spiritual leader had made it into it. But that didn't disuade them from staying members.
 
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