A Living Tradition of the Americas

In 1965, a journalist, pulp fiction writer, and spiritual seeker named Paul Twitchell announced the founding of Eckankar — "The Ancient Science of Soul Travel," which he described as the oldest religion on earth, predating all known traditions by millions of years. The core teaching was simple and electrifying: the human soul is not confined to the body. Through specific spiritual exercises — above all, the chanting of the sacred name HU and the practice of "Soul Travel" — anyone could learn to shift their consciousness out of the physical body and into the higher spiritual planes, where they would encounter the Light and Sound of God directly. The guide on this journey was the Mahanta, the Living ECK Master — a God-realized being who served as both inner and outer teacher, capable of meeting students on the inner planes during contemplation or dreams.

Eckankar grew rapidly in the late 1960s and 1970s, attracting seekers who wanted direct spiritual experience without the institutional weight of traditional religion. It also attracted sustained scholarly scrutiny. Researchers demonstrated that Twitchell's claimed ancient lineage was historically unsupported, that significant portions of his published writings borrowed heavily from the Indian Sant Mat tradition and from the work of Julian Johnson, and that Twitchell had systematically obscured his own spiritual biography — including his discipleship under the Sant Mat master Kirpal Singh. The controversy has never fully subsided. Yet Eckankar persists, headquartered in Chanhassen, Minnesota, with an active membership on multiple continents and a Living ECK Master, Harold Klemp, who has led the movement since 1981. Its persistence suggests that whatever questions remain about its origins, the experience it offers — direct encounter with light and sound through contemplative practice — answers a need that the controversy has not erased.

I. The Founder — Paul Twitchell

Paul Twitchell's biography is itself a contested text. He was born around 1908 or 1909 in Paducah, Kentucky — even the birth year is uncertain, as Twitchell gave different dates at different times in his life. What is clear is that he was a man of restless spiritual ambition, broad reading, and considerable literary talent, who moved through multiple spiritual traditions before creating his own.

By the early 1950s, Twitchell was involved with the Self-Revelation Church of Absolute Monism in Washington, D.C., led by Swami Premananda, a disciple of the Bengali teacher Paramahansa Yogananda. He also spent time studying with L. Ron Hubbard and reportedly achieved the state of "Clear" in Scientology before moving on. Most significantly for what would follow, he became a student of Kirpal Singh (1894–1974), a Sant Mat master in the Radhasoami lineage who taught the ancient practice of Surat Shabd Yoga — meditation on the inner light and sound current as a path to God-realization. Twitchell was initiated by Kirpal Singh and studied with him through the early 1960s.

In 1965, Twitchell broke publicly from all previous affiliations and announced Eckankar as an independent spiritual teaching. He presented it not as something he had created but as something he had received — transmitted to him by two ECK Masters, Rebazar Tarzs (described as a Tibetan adept over five hundred years old) and Sudar Singh (described as an Indian master). These figures, Twitchell said, had passed to him the "Rod of ECK Power" — the spiritual authority of the Living ECK Master, a position he claimed was part of an unbroken lineage of masters stretching back through the Vairagi Order into the remote past.

The controversy over Twitchell's sources emerged almost immediately and has been documented most thoroughly by David Christopher Lane, a religious studies scholar whose book The Making of a Spiritual Movement (first published in 1983, expanded in 1993) presents detailed evidence that Twitchell borrowed extensively — in some cases word-for-word — from Julian Johnson's The Path of the Masters (1939), a classic English-language account of the Radhasoami tradition. Lane also demonstrated that Twitchell had, in later editions of his books, systematically replaced references to Kirpal Singh with references to Rebazar Tarzs and other ECK Masters — effectively rewriting his own spiritual biography to obscure the Sant Mat connection.

The evidence Lane presents is substantial and has never been convincingly refuted by Eckankar. Twitchell's response to early questions about his sources, before his death, was evasive. The organization's response, under subsequent leadership, has ranged from denial to acknowledgment that Twitchell's methods were imperfect while insisting that the spiritual experiences Eckankar offers are genuine regardless of the historical questions about its founding.

Paul Twitchell died on September 17, 1971, in Cincinnati, Ohio, at the age of approximately sixty-two. The cause of death was a heart attack. He left behind a young movement, a body of published works, and a set of unresolved questions about origins and methods that his successors would spend decades navigating.

II. Theology — The Light and Sound of God

Whatever the controversies about its historical origins, Eckankar's theology is coherent and internally consistent. Its central elements are drawn from the Sant Mat tradition but have been developed into a distinctive system.

ECK. The foundational concept is ECK (sometimes written as the ECK or the Holy Spirit of ECK) — the divine life force, the creative power of God, the current of spirit that sustains all existence. ECK is not an abstract principle but an experiential reality: it manifests as Light and Sound. The Light of God is perceived inwardly as radiance — sometimes as specific colors associated with specific spiritual planes. The Sound of God is perceived inwardly as vibration — sometimes as music, a rushing wind, a bell, a flute, or a humming. Together, the Light and Sound are the twin expressions of divine spirit flowing outward from the Source (which Eckankar calls the Sugmad) through all planes of existence and back again.

This teaching is essentially Surat Shabd Yoga — the yoga of the sound current — as taught in the Radhasoami and broader Sant Mat traditions. The practitioner learns to focus attention on the inner light and sound, which serve as a vehicle for the soul to travel inward and upward through progressively higher spiritual planes toward the Source. The terminology is different from Sant Mat (ECK for Shabd, Sugmad for the Absolute, Mahanta for Satguru), but the underlying practice and cosmology are recognizably the same.

The Spiritual Planes. Eckankar teaches that reality consists of multiple planes or worlds, arranged in a hierarchy from the densest (the Physical Plane) to the most refined (the Ocean of Love and Mercy, the Sugmad). The major planes include the Physical, Astral, Causal, Mental, Etheric, and Soul Plane, with additional higher planes beyond. Each plane has its own characteristics, its own ruler or guardian, and its own quality of light and sound. The soul, in its natural state, is not confined to the physical body — it has access to all planes. The purpose of spiritual practice is to restore conscious awareness of this access.

The hierarchy of planes mirrors the Radhasoami cosmology closely. In the Radhasoami system, the ascending planes are Pind (physical), Anda (astral), Brahmanda (causal/mental), and the regions beyond, culminating in Radhasoami Dham (the supreme region). Eckankar's terminology differs, but the structure — a series of inner worlds arranged hierarchically, each associated with specific perceptual qualities, through which the soul ascends toward the divine source — is essentially identical.

Soul Travel. The practice that gives Eckankar its distinctive character is Soul Travel — the deliberate shifting of consciousness from the physical body into the inner planes. Soul Travel is described not as an out-of-body experience in the parapsychological sense but as a spiritual exercise in which the practitioner, through contemplation and the chanting of HU, learns to perceive reality from the vantage point of Soul rather than from the vantage point of the physical mind. Beginners may experience this as vivid inner journeys through the Astral and Causal planes; advanced practitioners are said to operate increasingly from the Soul Plane and beyond, where perception is direct and unmediated.

HU. The central spiritual exercise of Eckankar is the singing or chanting of HU (pronounced "HYOO") — described as an ancient name of God, a love song to the divine, and a vibrational key that opens the practitioner to the flow of ECK. The HU is chanted in contemplation, typically for fifteen to twenty minutes, either alone or in groups. Eckankar presents HU as non-denominational — anyone can sing it, regardless of religious affiliation — and promotes HU chanting publicly as a spiritual resource. The HU has antecedents in Sufi practice (the Arabic pronoun Hu, meaning "He," used as a name of God in Sufi dhikr) and was used in some Sant Mat contexts, though Eckankar claims it as a universal sacred sound predating all traditions.

The Mahanta, the Living ECK Master. Eckankar teaches that the spiritual path requires a living guide — the Mahanta, the Living ECK Master, who serves simultaneously as an outer teacher (giving talks, writing books, leading the organization) and as an inner guide (appearing to students in dreams, contemplation, and Soul Travel experiences). The Mahanta is described as the highest state of consciousness available in the lower worlds — a God-realized being who has been given the "Rod of ECK Power" by the Order of the Vairagi, the ancient brotherhood of ECK Masters. The position passes from one Living ECK Master to the next in an unbroken succession.

III. The Succession — From Twitchell to Klemp

The question of spiritual succession has been one of the most sensitive issues in Eckankar's history.

When Paul Twitchell died in 1971, the Rod of ECK Power passed to Darwin Gross (1928–2008), who became the 972nd Living ECK Master. Gross led Eckankar through a period of organizational growth, expanding its publishing program and establishing Eckankar as a more visible public presence. In 1981, Gross transferred the spiritual leadership to Harold Klemp (born 1942 in Wisconsin), who became the 973rd Living ECK Master and has held the position since.

The transition from Gross to Klemp was not smooth. In the years following the transfer of leadership, the relationship between Gross and Klemp deteriorated. Gross was eventually removed from all positions within Eckankar, stripped of the title of ECK Master, and declared to no longer be a member of the Order of the Vairagi. For a tradition that teaches these positions are divinely conferred and reflect permanent spiritual attainment, the expulsion of a former Living ECK Master was theologically extraordinary. The organization has offered limited public explanation; the most common framing is that Gross failed to maintain the spiritual discipline required of the position.

Harold Klemp has led Eckankar for over four decades — far longer than Twitchell. Under his leadership, the organization has become more institutionally stable, more transparent (to a degree), and more focused on the practical application of spiritual principles to everyday life. Klemp is a prolific author — over one hundred books — and his style is accessible, anecdotal, and psychologically grounded, in contrast to Twitchell's more esoteric and literary approach. The Temple of ECK in Chanhassen, Minnesota — a striking golden-domed structure dedicated in 1990 — was built under Klemp's leadership and serves as the spiritual and administrative center of the movement.

IV. The Sant Mat Question

The relationship between Eckankar and the Sant Mat tradition is the single most important scholarly question about the movement, and it cannot be honestly discussed without acknowledging what David Lane and other researchers have demonstrated.

The Sant Mat tradition — literally "the Path of the Saints" — is a devotional lineage that originated in the Punjab region of India, with roots in the teachings of Kabir (c. 1440–1518) and Guru Nanak (1469–1539). Its modern organizational form, Radhasoami, was established by Shiv Dayal Singh (1818–1878) in Agra in 1861. The tradition teaches that the soul can ascend through inner planes of light and sound, guided by a living master (Satguru), through the practice of Surat Shabd Yoga — meditation on the inner sound current. The parallels to Eckankar's teachings are not coincidental — they are genealogical.

Paul Twitchell studied with Kirpal Singh, one of the most prominent twentieth-century Sant Mat masters, and was initiated into the practice of Surat Shabd Yoga. The cosmology of inner planes, the practice of soul travel through light and sound, the emphasis on a living master, the concept of a lineage of masters stretching back into antiquity — all of these are standard Sant Mat teachings. What Twitchell did was to take these teachings, detach them from their Indian cultural context, present them in American English with new terminology and new claimed masters, and declare them to be an independent ancient tradition called Eckankar.

The question of whether this constitutes creative adaptation or intellectual dishonesty depends partly on one's model of how religious traditions work. Traditions borrow from each other constantly — Christianity borrowed from Judaism and Greek philosophy; Islam borrowed from both; Buddhism adapted to every culture it entered. The issue with Eckankar is not that it drew from Sant Mat — all traditions have sources — but that Twitchell actively denied the connection, fabricated an alternative lineage, and plagiarized specific texts. The dishonesty about sources is a separate issue from the validity of the practices, and fair treatment of Eckankar requires holding both observations simultaneously.

The practices work — that is, practitioners report genuine spiritual experiences of light, sound, inner travel, and transformation. Whether these experiences validate Eckankar's specific theological claims, or whether they validate the underlying Sant Mat practice that Eckankar repackaged, is a question each seeker must answer for themselves.

V. Current Status

Eckankar today is a functioning global organization with an active membership, a publishing program, and a presence on multiple continents.

The Temple of ECK in Chanhassen, Minnesota, serves as the spiritual center. The organization holds an annual ECK Worldwide Seminar, typically attended by several thousand members, as well as regional and local events throughout the year. Harold Klemp continues to serve as the Living ECK Master, delivering annual talks and publishing regularly.

Membership figures are disputed. Eckankar has at various times claimed hundreds of thousands of members worldwide; independent scholars estimate a smaller number, perhaps in the range of fifty thousand to one hundred thousand active practitioners. The movement has a significant presence in several African countries, particularly Nigeria, where it has grown substantially since the 1980s. It maintains centers and study groups in the United States, Canada, Europe, Asia, and Africa.

The organization has become more institutionally mature over time. Under Klemp's long tenure, the apocalyptic and grandiose claims that characterized some of Twitchell's rhetoric have been moderated. The emphasis has shifted toward practical spirituality — using the teachings of ECK to navigate daily life, relationships, and personal growth. The HU chant has been promoted publicly as a non-denominational spiritual resource, sometimes in partnerships with interfaith organizations and hospital chaplaincy programs.

The scholarly controversies have not been resolved. Lane's research remains in print and online, and Eckankar has not produced a convincing response to the specific evidence of textual borrowing and biographical fabrication. The movement has chosen, in effect, to outlive the controversy rather than to address it directly — a strategy that has worked, in the sense that Eckankar continues to attract new members who find value in the practices regardless of the historical questions about the founder.

VI. Eckankar and the Aquarian Phenomenon

Eckankar is a distinctly Aquarian phenomenon in its method: it took an esoteric Indian practice, stripped it of its cultural clothing, and made it available to American seekers who wanted direct spiritual experience without joining an Indian ashram or adopting an Indian cultural identity.

This is the same transformation the I AM Activity performed on Theosophy, and the same transformation the Transcendental Meditation movement performed on Vedic practice. The pattern is recognizable: a Western seeker encounters an Eastern teaching, recognizes its power, and repackages it for a Western audience. The repackaging always involves some loss — in Eckankar's case, the loss was the honest acknowledgment of sources, which damaged the movement's credibility in ways that better choices would have avoided.

What Eckankar gets right — and what explains its persistence despite the controversies — is the directness of the practice. The HU chant is simple, powerful, and immediately accessible. The teaching that the soul can travel beyond the body, that light and sound are the twin expressions of divine presence, and that a human being in contemplation can experience these directly — this is a teaching that answers one of the deepest human desires: the desire to know, not just to believe. Eckankar promises gnosis — direct knowing — and many of its practitioners report receiving it.

The Sant Mat tradition from which Eckankar draws is itself one of the most experience-centered spiritual paths in the world. It teaches that the proof of God is not in scripture but in perception — that the light and sound of the divine can be directly experienced by any human being who learns the technique. Eckankar carried this teaching across the Pacific and planted it in the American Midwest. That the planting was dishonest about its seeds does not change the fact that the tree grew and bore fruit.

Colophon

This ethnographic profile was researched and composed for the Good Work Library's Living Traditions series in March 2026. Sources consulted include David Christopher Lane's The Making of a Spiritual Movement: The Untold Story of Paul Twitchell and Eckankar (Del Mar Press, 1983; expanded edition 1993), J. Gordon Melton's Encyclopedia of American Religions, Andrea Grace Diem's scholarly work on Eckankar and the Radhasoami tradition, Harold Klemp's published works (Eckankar, various dates), and publicly available organizational materials from Eckankar (eckankar.org). Julian Johnson's The Path of the Masters (Punjab: Radha Soami Satsang Beas, 1939) is cited as a key source text in the scholarly literature on Eckankar's origins.

Compiled and formatted for the Good Work Library by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026.

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