Eckankar and Soul Travel

[Synergy]

I was just wondering if anyone here has had any experience with the group Eckankar and their claims to be able to induce Soul Travel??  On their website, they claim that their methods are not just 'mere' (in their words) astral projection, but that they can project beyond etheric and astral levels, into the causal plane and even beyond.  They also claim that in order to be able to soul travel, one needs the help of the 'Mahanta' (sorry if I spelled that wrong)  Anyway I have read arguments that say that Eckankar is very cult-like (though I am only going by what I read online) and I by no means am interested in joining (as I am already Rosicrucian/Esoteric Christian) however I would like to learn more about their soul travel techniques and any similarities/differences to ap/ep etc.

Are they just renaming astral and etheric projection for their own purpose?

Why do they claim that you can only experience this soul travel by THEIR means?? That makes me leery... since OBEs are a natural (albeit dormant) process.

What exactly ARE their methods??

Can anyone provide some insight? Thanks!

[Tayesin]

Hi Synergy,

It is completely possible to journey in much higher awareness 'levels' than the astral, which after all is a very confined subtle body, and therefore is confined only to the astral realms. To me it is a waste of time to seek astral travel experience, as we can all very easily journey in awareness only, which has no boundaries to what you can experience.

But to say there is only one way to do it is highly egotistical and as you said, perhaps very cult-like too. From my experience of over 30 years, journeying in awareness layers beyond the astral and 'higher' is the simplest thing to do with a little practice. I tend to refer to these layers of awareness by different terms to try and avoid confusion, which is not always successful, lol. But this is also based on my intense dislike for Belief-system restrictions of all types, from all belief-systems too. So I talk about journeying in Soul level awareness, beyond the astral and mental awareness layers.

To me the only thing to prevent us from having these experiences is what we personally believe about it and ourselves, which is why detaching from beliefs is so important, as my teacher said way back when I was 17 years old, "Come to practice as if naked." She was right.

As to their methods I have no idea, and care nothing about it, because anything that says this is the only way rings alarm bells for me, as it obviously has for you too.

[Synergy]

Yes it has rang alarm bells...  because I know from my own experiences (19 + yrs) and those of many others who I have read over the years, that it is quite possible to attain higher levels through projection on your own.... and in some cases (like most of mine) spontaneously.. without any forethought or intent.  What struck me odd is that they claim THEIR path is the ONLY one that can attain these levels. That rings the alarm bells.... still, I would like to know more about what methods they are using as they claim a high success rate.  Maybe their methods are not any different than ours.... but like any group where you must pay for a membership... they guard their methods under secrecy. In fact you dont even get the discourses that explain soul travel until after the first year as a member.   

[Vitruvian]

Yikes,
So this is how mobs are formed . . . one person thinks they heard something and then everyone takes the misinformation at face value. Ya'll better go get a rope!

By definition they are a cult: "a system of religious beliefs and ritual".

From their pamphlet: "There are many routes we can take to heaven. God has established so many different paths and means for us that there is a way for everyone."

Wow - maybe you'd better burn them before you hang 'em.
Vitruvian   
Disclaimer: I am not an Eckist.

[Tayesin]

Yikes,
So this is how mobs are formed . . . one person thinks they heard something and then everyone takes the misinformation at face value. Ya'll better go get a rope!

By definition they are a cult: "a system of religious beliefs and ritual".

From their pamphlet: "There are many routes we can take to heaven. God has established so many different paths and means for us that there is a way for everyone."

Wow - maybe you'd better burn them before you hang 'em.
Vitruvian   
Disclaimer: I am not an Eckist.

Lol. now where's that rope??  Sorry no mob mentality here, do not wish them harm, do not care about them, as long as they are not misleading people with their own brand of dogma to be paid for.

[Vitruvian]

Tayesin,
Glad there's no mob. I just couldn't sit around and watch a lynching, that's all 

I believe the Eckankar people are relatively benevolent. You can of course find disgruntled ex-members grinding their axes at various web sites, making claims of false promises, etc. I feel sorry for people that join these groups looking for something that isn't there in the first place and then are disappointed when they figure it out.

Anyway, Eckankar seems to be at least partially derived from the following yogic tradition:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surat_Shabd_Yoga

Namaste!
Vitruvian

[Eliza]

funny you should mention that. when i first started reading about OBEs my first book was pitching a yarn about eckankar, too, so i was very curious about what and who they are.
 
I dont know if you read the Robert Monroe's stuff on his website, google "monroe institude". but it seems that OBE can happen on many planes of consciousness  - depending on the "frequency" that you can tune into. For example, they claim

higher energy planes - this is where the good stuff happens like god-like experiences and there apparently are many such planes with no causality
astral plane - that's subjective and within your conscious imagination, and where most astral projection happens for beginners
lucid dreaming  - well, we know what that is
physical plane - that ' s us right here   

some people have said 11 planes in total (if you kept up with physics that somehow coincides with the number of dimension we are supposed to have in our universe) but the new superstring theoris have said there are way more.

so i am sure ECKANKAR figured it out and is trying to milk some followers out of it.

hope this helps. when i read about it this cleared up alot of my misconception over the years about OBE. if you have had multiple experiences is it possible for you to describe if you can determine what "level" of OBE you were at for those events? is it even possible?

eliza

[catmeow]

Paul Twitchell has popularised eckankar.  Some people believe he has simply ripped off other people's ideas, but he has written many books:

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_b?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=paul+twitchell

From what I know about it their techniques are very similar to the techniques discussed on this forum, promoting dreams to lucid dreams to astral projection.

I don't believe there is anything harmful or sinister about their teachings.