Greetings,
Thanks for bringing up the Eckankar topic, Ralph and Tim.
Their paperbacks have long ago disintegrated from my collection, and I've often wondered how Eckankar compares with TMI and Bruce's methods. (I was never a member, only visited a meeting and carpooled with a friend who was.)
Especially, once they had become able to do soul travel, what did they do  'up there' ?

I took the liberty of borrowing your previous comments on Eckankar from another thread to give readers abit more background:   :)bets

Quote from Tim F. on Jul 21st, 2006, 1:05am:
Mike,
I don't know much about Eckankar (Paul Twitchell) Remember Eckankar? It was an O.B.E. based belief system. The one thing I remember (and really like) is that he said blues music is the highest form of etheral music! I relate to that, probably from past lives, but man! Someone in my living room right this moment is playing it live right now (Black Mattie in open G minor on the guitar) music is in my non-physical blood, blues especially. "

And then, Ralph Buskey:
 " I used to be a member of Eckankar back in 1983. As I recall, it was Darwin Gross (Paul Twitchell's temporary successor) who was a strong proponent of blues music. He even had his own band and published at least 2 albums. Paul Twitchell was more into the classical music, like Beethoven, Mozart, and Brahms. He said that any melodic music was good and spiritual, while discordant music was negative and destructive.
  I myself prefer non-discordant symphonic classical and instrumental new age, especially if nature sounds are included. Blues and other light jazz is good too.
  Paul Twitchell also taught about what sounds were associated with each plane. These are:

1. Physical          =  thunder
2. Astral              =  roar of the sea
3. Causal            =  tinkle of bells
4. Mental             =  running water
4.5 Etheric           =  buzzing of bees
5. Soul                =  single note of flute
6. Alakh Lok        =  heavy wind
7. Alaya Lok        =  deep humming
8. Hukikat Lok      =  thousand violins
9. Agam Lok        =  music of the woodwinds
10. Anami Lok       =  sound of a whirlpool
11. Sugmad World =  music of universe
12. Sugmad          =  music of God

  I later learned that Eckankar is mostly based upon the plagiarized teachings of Kirpal Singh, one of the master teachers of Sant Mat surat shabd yoga, who Paul Twitchell studied under before starting his own religion of light and sound. By the way, they both taught Soul travel, not out-of-body travel.

Ralph
end quote

Hi Betson,
I was an active member of eckankar for close to twenty years and personally worked with Paul Twitchell and Darwin Gross who followed him.     Saw a lot of problems developing as it started to turn into a more organized and stricter belief system.   Was too much of a free spirit to be forced into a mold so to speak.

Broke away and went out on my own to find out what was really going on out there.  This quest finally led me to the Monroe/Moen consciousness.  Been there ever since.          A lot of people put eckankar down because of the rampant plagiarism.      I agree with them.

However, eckankar came at a time when there were a lot of people stuck in some of  the other , and much stricter organized belief systems who were ready for the next step to break away from them.  Eckankar served that purpose very well for many of us.

For that, I am grateful.  For me, it was just a stepping stone  that helped me out in my spiritual quest.

I suspect that there are a lot of people on this forum who also former members of eckankar.  What they called soul travel was actually astral projection.    However, I did not know that at the time.      

It was a neat experienc that helped me make the transition to exploring the other spiritual worlds on my own.

Love Bob

its true every organization serves its purpose. I like being as independent as possible. I even dislike having a SS# but maybe I carry independence too far :-?

I studied a bit of Ekankar long time ago and thought it was going to be my path but then it started getting so complex I couldn't follow it, like Bob said, the belief system was too intricate and I like simple thought systems the best of all.

thanks for this chart Bets from Twitchell:

1. Physical          =  thunder  
2. Astral              =  roar of the sea  
3. Causal            =  tinkle of bells  
4. Mental             =  running water  
4.5 Etheric           =  buzzing of bees  
5. Soul                =  single note of flute  
6. Alakh Lok        =  heavy wind  
7. Alaya Lok        =  deep humming  
8. Hukikat Lok      =  thousand violins  
9. Agam Lok        =  music of the woodwinds  
10. Anami Lok       =  sound of a whirlpool  
11. Sugmad World =  music of universe  
12. Sugmad          =  music of God
____

I have a question for anybody: has anybody heard any of these sounds in their dreams or obes or altered states?  I will list my associations. I'm taking a survey, thanks!
____
One time I heard a certain flute note and part of me followed it somewhere and I blinked out momentarily, but it was the most sublime joy to feel a longing to ride on the note. probably was my base note, or tone. flute sound is still my favorite ride.
______
theres no rumbling of a train sound. some of us hear this in the head chakra. heard it only once. would like to figure this one out someday.
____

heard chime sounds a lot like the tinkling of bells as listed above. it was in association with the production of this book I'm working on! lol! loved it.
_____
the deep humming is associated with astral body vibrations for me. its very pleasurable lifting off sensation. yet I remembered nothing if I had sailed forth. working on it.
_____
wind currents all the time when in transport from one level to another. I sometimes blink in and out with the currents. I don't know what alakh loc  means though, please tell me if u can.
____

ok, anybody heard sounds? felt sounds? sensed sounds? I'm still waiting to go listen to an orchestra of ethereal quality. I did hear a faint choir at 9/11 while retrieving. it hurt too much to be there...lol...I wanted to join the choir... :'(

Bob McKelvy wrote on Jul 28^th, 2006 at 9:43pm:

[b]Hi Betson, I suspect that there are a lot of people on this forum who also former members of eckankar.  What they called soul travel was actually astral projection.    However, I did not know that at the time.

  Hello Bob,
  I first found out about Eckankar in the summer of 1981. I went to my first group meeting with them in January 1982. I became a member myself in the summer of 1982. I went to a World Wide Of Eck Conference in Washington D.C. in the spring of 1983, where I saw Harold Klemp give lectures. I enjoyed it very much, and even saw a glowing green aura between him and an older couple in the front row. I found that amazing, since I'm not very psychic. Anyway, several months later during a satsang class, I started to feel that this was all too ritualistic and reminded me of being part of just another form of religious dogma. So I dropped out and never went back. Since then, I've been a spiritual maverick; picking up knowledge wherever I could while meditating on what was more likely the way things were beyond the physical world. When I first read Robert Monroe's books around the year 1997, I felt that I was on to something that finally made sense. Then when Bruce's books came out, I was happy to learn that others felt the same way that I did about what the other side was all about. My limited personal excursions beyond the physical helped even more.
  As far as the quote, I think Paul Twitchell may have experienced the other side in a non-oobe fashion, like the way Bruce teaches, and called it Soul Travel. Just a theory. Since you actually knew him, do you think that could be the difference?

Sincerely,
Ralph

Hi Ralph,
I started working with Paul Twitchell shortly after  thier 1st office was opened in Las Vegas back in the 60's.   Went to all of the seminars taking a lot of photos and movies.     At the time,  the move to eckankar was a giant step for me in learning how to break away from the clutches of the Catholic faith because I knew that I was taking a chance on going to hell.   (  Been there a couple of times  as a tourist since then LOL    ;D   )

Paul Twitchell was the main man.   Saw a few areas that triggered a red flag every once in awhile.
Left them at that hoping that I would find out a little later.

It was a beautiful religion while in its early formative  stages. Watched it grow. It finally became more organized.  The rules followed later making it stricter.     There were a lot of issues that kept popping up that I started to challenge.  It was the same way with the Catholic religion too.     Something was not right.
Did not know what it was.  Just knew that it did not feel right.    Drifted away to start looking for new areas to explore.  Stayed in "free fall" for a very long time testing different belief systems along the way.  In a way, guess you could say that I was " homeless" in a religious sense because I did not have a belief system to use for a reference for day to day life.  Very much on my own so to speak.

My search led me to the Monroe/Moen consciousness.   I know that most of the people that landed here and on Linns site probably went through a lot of trials that were similar to mine that led them here.

Eckankar lost a lot of people when they found out that a lot of the work was plagiarzed.  I was long gone by then.  Was not too concerned by the plagiarism, was just grateful that it helped me break away from  Catholicism.

I still have most of the books, all autographed by Paul Twitchell and a few by his successor, Darwin.    It served it's purpose well at the time  for helping us make the next step.   From a higher perspective, this was a classical example of spirit at work guiding us to the next phase of our collective Ascension.

Love Bob  :)

Hi Bob,

I feel the same way about Shirley McLaine, she gave me the permission to explore more freely non traditional belief systems.  It has never been, for me, about wanting to believe or follow everything she does it's rather that I am very grateful for the way she put herself "out on a limb" to explore and followed it up with sharing that experience publically realizing the risks. She's one of the reasons that I'm not afraid to share as honestly as I can, on this board and continue to explore in spite of family and friends not understanding or judging me as flaky.

I did hear music out of nowhere and in my head on my way to work this week and posted that experience on the recent music thread.  That music sounded exactly like concert music and I may have recognized it as such because of the violin music.  If you knew me, you'd appreciate how unsual this might be for a person who rarly listens to music.  Not that I don't enjoy it, but it's more that I would rather be sitting and thinking quietly.  I do know that I've never experienced that type of head performance before but it did help to set the tone for a difficult week.  As I drove, I sat back and really enjoyed it and look forward to it happening again because when it came from such deep recesses of my mind it provided deeper relaxation and joy.  Very different than hearing it through the ears.

Love, Jean  :-*

Hi Jean, the old time spiritualists would give your gift a name, that of clairaudience, the ability to hear sound from within one of the head chakras; we have the 3rd eye chakra in the forehead, when it's active, it spins with energy of consciousness. theres another chakra in the back of the head..I think, could be wrong, have to get my chart out and look. theres another chakra just on top of the head in close proximity. I study obe experiences, and noted in a few of my experiences I was aware of energy leaving the body through my forehead/3rd eye chakra, as my awareness shifted to this energy which projected outward from the body, my mind jumped on for a ride and thats the orb experience I've written about.

don't mean to ramble. I have clairaudience on occassion too. it is quite different than hearing the inner guiding voice we all know about. (I hope!) that occassion to hear the orchestra seems like a wonderful gift to you, that is so soothing.
sometimes it can be quite jarring to the nervous system if it is not music but just someone complaining about something they think you did do them, lol.... :-X but although shocking, there is usually a positive side once I think about it. and if not, I soon find out the problem to solve.

one time I asked my guides to let me hear celestial music. c'mon, I said, I know you can do this for me!  that night I was all ears while I slept. I really expected it. next thing I know 2 hillbillies showed up with banjos and did me some silly backwoods song. had to laugh as they were putting me on!! it was so twangy and nasel. you had to be there! my guides work a lot with my sense of humor, so that's why I got what I got. I must say it worked!

now I suspect you have guides too, I suspect we all do, but don't find out early in life that we do unless we are an advanced or consciously developing soul. so what I predict is that now you know you are gifted in this way with the clairaudience you are aware it could happen again. now your mind is more open to the possibility, so that makes it more than a possibility, it makes it a probability that you will engage this facet of yourself again. I'm thinking about Seth, and his possibility/probability philosophy here and how we create our reality.

hugs, alysia

Like you I was also a member of Eckankar for close to 20 years. I have had many profound experiences in different levels of heaven (spiritual planes). From my out of body experiences I feel that Paul Twitchell is a true God Realized being however much to my surprise I learned a hidden secret about Paul Twitchell and Eckankar that for me is liberating. For any one who is a free spirit here is a site called paul twitchell truth dot com. Many don't know what happened to the trail blazing spark and the independent spiritedness after Paul let alone the difficulty many had in feeling they would never reach God Realization. But there was a hidden reason why.

Going by what I read Eckankar is a cult. Buyer be aware.