| Is it possible to travel thousands of miles without moving physically from your location? Members of the Eckankar group, believe it is. For more than 30 years, they have been teaching at seminars across the world about soul travel and its benefits.
They say that soul travel takes place through vivid dreams, but it can also be done voluntarily, while awake, through a variety of exercises documented by the ECK masters.
But they claim, soul travel is distinctly different from astral projection, which is where the spirit leaves the body for visitation purposes - an act normally practised by witches and those involved in satanic worship.
At the heart of Eckankar teachings is the view that human beings do not have souls, but are souls. The soul bridges the human and divine and exists on various planes. In travel, the body is motionless, what happens is the soul shifts its attention to some higher plane.
"I can go to somebody's house just by thinking about it," is one explanation given by ECK member, David Hylton, at a Eckankar seminar held last Saturday at the Liguanea Club. At times - during sleep - he says, the Mahanta or the ECK Master, Sri Harold Klemp, visits to impart spiritual teachings and ancient wisdom to him .
"It (soul travel) is the most direct way to see and experience the world within us," says Professor Chuks Uche, a Nigerian-born who chaired the seminar, which opened and closed with members closing their eyes and solemnly chanting an ancient name for God.
Paul Twitchell from Kentucky, USA, introduced Eckankar to the world in 1965. Twenty five years later a group moved to Jamaica and has had annual seminars ever since. Despite its years of existence in Jamaica and the diligent work of their leaders, local membership stands at approximately 30.
They say, however, that they have not had any problem blending into the predominantly Christian Jamaican populace.
"So far we have not encountered any outright resistance," says ECK member Vicki Chang. "We are not here to win souls or take away converts. Our teachings tell us to respect all religions. We are here for all."
Chang herself has moved through various denominations before settling into Eckankar. She was first a Baptist, then rechristened an Anglican. From there, she moved to the Unity faith and later became a foundation member of Temple of Light.
Several of the 10 persons present at the meeting recounted a similar search for God. Such search is okay, defends Pat Lopez, another ECK member. "When you move from one religion to another it is the Spirit guiding us."
Christians, however, frown at the Eckankar teachings, branding them as New Age.
"All New Age groups have the same fundamental principles or teachings and Eckankar is a New Age group," says Pastor of Covenant Community Church in Portmore, Dr Donald Stewart, who is also a noted researcher and lecturer on the subject of the occult.
New Age doctrines, he adds, "start on a premise that all of us are at one with the universe, (and) also that we are god, because god is not a personal entity but god is the very universe. It talks about going up into different conscious levels until you reach the oneness with god.
"Another New Age doctrine is that all religions are one and so Christianity will be accommodated to the extent that Christianity is seen as a spiritual grouping of people who have a Christ and who is one of the many ways of pointing them back to this big ocean of oneness."
But any reference by Christians to Jesus as the only way to God, would be seen as counter-productive, Dr Stewart said.
Stewart warns against taking part in any 'out of body' exercises.
There is also danger, he adds, in any doctrine which has the effect of "nulling your conscience to sleep," that "makes you feel that you're okay when you are not okay because it doesn't have any real moral focus. Right and wrong, good and evil are things that are relative and therefore there is no standard by which these things are tested and there's no judgement."
He believes there is "major deception" in the Eckankar movement, which embraces such practices as necromancy (speaking with the dead) and reincarnation.
"It's a deception and a major deception. It is utilising supernatural means of getting in touch with God. It's finding ways of accessing wisdom and so on, through out of body experience, soul travel etc which are occultic."
Source: Jamaica Observer | |
