The 1,345,776th Path To Spiritual Enlightenment

   For the past couple of decades I have driven east on Mississippi avenue about a mile or so at least four or five times a month on my way to the hardware store or some such eastbound destination, and during each trip I have driven past an unusual little temple which has never failed to catch my attention.

   Today I decided to stop and see what it was about.

   The unusual temple is home to a religion known as Eckankar, and it turns out that it and I have something in common, in that we were both birthed in San Diego.

   Eckankar was founded in San Diego by a man named Paul Twitchell in the year 1965, and 1965 was also the year Eckankar was registered as a company in California by Mr Twitchell and his wife.

   I did a little research on Mr Twitchell and his Eckankar company / religion and discovered that there are a whole lot of similarities between Eckankar and a number of other religious movements that sprung up in the 1960's, especially on the west coast of the United States, and especially among those who had gotten a taste of L. Ron's concoction and found it lacking (which Mr Twitchell did indeed do).

   I also was surprised to discover there are two other Eckankar temples in Colorado (known as "Golden Wisdom Temples"), and over 360 worldwide - all of them devoted to the promulgation promotion of Mr Twitchell's teachings.

   One of the main practices of Eckankar is the chanting of the word "Hu", in sessions lasting from 15 to 30 minutes. Chanting "Hu" is necessary in order to fully experience the Eckankar path to spiritual enlightenment.

   If you are interested in learning how to chant "Hu" for 15 to 30 minutes a day, there are sessions at the temple every Sunday at 10:30am. Newcomers are always welcome.

   Oh wait, this particular ECK temple is temporarily closed, so you'll have to resort to visiting the website for some self-directed "Hu-ing". 

    Alternative religions fascinate me to no end. There seems to be a never-ending supply of people who proclaim that traditional religions are corrupt or failures, and that the only true path to enlightenment is something they just discovered (or saw the light, was bequeathed, dreamt up, etc.)