How I got into Eckankar
My husband (now my ex) and I had been for years examining all sorts of religions, paths, isms, trying to find the one that suited us best. We’d been to ashrams, yoga schools, meditation groups, even a couple of ‘charismatic’ churches. We’d studied A Course in Miracles, and had attended so very many personal or spiritual development workshops. Back in those days weekend workshops, including a Friday night, and sometimes a Thursday night as well, were quite the thing. These days people don’t have time for such long events. One of these very long workshops, while expensive, was excellent training in creative and positive thinking.
He wrote 'Eckankar' on a smidgeon of paper
A year or two after we’d completed those workshops, the organisers held a cocktail party for all previous participants in order to launch a new course. I don’t know about you, but I’m not much of a one for parties – even those with free canapés and drinks. I spied another guy who had been in my original course. He looked equally bored and awkward. So I sauntered over and he asked me what I was doing these days. I didn’t have much to report. What was he doing? He told me he’d joined an organisation called Eckankar. It was giving him lots of benefit, and was much much cheaper than the aforementioned course, and taught him how to get answers in his dreams. They also sent a monthly discourse for studying. I liked the sound of all this, and asked him to write the name down for me, as I’d never heard of it. Neither of us had a notebook… I tore a little strip off a receipt in my bag, and he wrote ‘ECKANKAR’.
Maybe it was a sign...?
I promptly forgot it as life got in the way. A few weeks later, I was meditating in the morning, as usual (well, often) and a funny word came into my head. I dismissed it. Next morning the same thing happened. After about three repetitions, I figured it might have been the word that was in my handbag. I rifled through it and found the scrap of paper. Sure enough, it was the name. So I told my husband what had happened and we decided it might be a sign to take it further. I rang a number from the White Pages and got a recording. They told me to leave my details and they’d post some information. I was not particularly struck with the book they sent and thought, ‘I’ve read stuff like this before’. So I more or less shelved it.
We were a bit 'high and mighty'
Some time later I had a repeat of the word coming into my head each time I meditated. It would not stop. I discussed it with my husband and we agreed to go to an introductory night that was advertised in one of the papers they’d posted to me. We went, and again were not very impressed. We were a bit high and mighty, if the truth be known, as we’d done so many workshops. However, we got the feeling to join this mob – so took away the forms to fill in and send to the U.S. headquarters. I popped them in the same black handbag – and forgot about them.
It would not stop until I sent off the forms
By now you are going to have more than an inkling of what came next. Yep! The word made an appearance in my morning meditations and would not stop until we sent off the forms, and that took ages because we had to go to the bank and get a banker’s draft (this was before we could access Visa or Mastercard in Australia, and we were not members of Diners or Amex).
What should have been a short story was long. We eventually became members, and you’ll access some of my personal stories of experiences with the ECK (AKA Spirit, Tao, Chi, Prana) in my courses.
How I was instructed in my dreams
I'd say that one of Eckankar's specialties is in dream help – for all sorts of things, including love, family, money, business, insight into past lives (so as to more easily understand 'stuff' that's going down now), and personal and spiritual development. In the next post you can read about a couple of my dreams and the advice that came while I was struggling to set up a business in 1988 — click this link.
POSTS
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Why I am NOT going to ask you to join my path
"People don’t realize that God has provided all these different religions for a specific purpose"
Post #1
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... and it could just as easily be called 'How I kept ignoring signs'
Post #2
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How I was instructed in my dreams—I got business help with these two dreams in particular
Post #3
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No magic, no spooky business —My hope for you is to discover the beauty and power of the meditative experience
Post #4
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My 80-word definition of spirituality—
Speaks for itself; no more to say
Post #5
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A spiritual understanding of some ‘hairy’ questions that might be bothering you—includes same-sex marriage, abortion, free will...
Post #6
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A New Year’s Eve that went in a different direction—an example of how Spirit works in our lives
Post #7
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The five 'baddies' in our lives—Could 'not-enoughness' be at the bottom of what many religions accept as obstacles?
Post #8
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How the Pooh Bear stories are sometimes similar to Eckankar’s teachings—a big dose of ‘is-ness’, and Spirit in Pooh stories
Post #9
If you’d like to, you can join up for 2 free modules (2 weeks, digital only) straight away.
However, FIRST UP you might like more info — and I'd certainly recommend that you start with the INTRO INFO at this link below. Then you can come back to the above.